Consolidation effort rests with area mayors

A proposal to study whether consolidating two local cities makes sense now depends on the leadership of the mayors of Electric City and Grand Coulee.

The Electric City Council last week ducked the issue again and is leaving it up to the two mayors to come up with a joint resolution.

Consolidation, and the funding of any study, has been bounced around at several council meetings in both cities, with no resolution.

The chamber of commerce has offered to be the glue that holds the consolidation effort together, using a Wenatchee consulting firm, SCJ Alliance, to do the study at a cost of up to $30,000.

Electric City’s council has indicated an interest in moving forward with the study, but hasn’t had a formal vote on it, according to city officials.

Grand Coulee has bantered the idea around but still hasn’t voted the funds, although the city clerk has put $10,000 in the 2016 budget for the study.

The issue between the two cities has been a reluctance to get out in front on the issue because one city doesn’t know for sure what the other is going to do.

So that leads to a joint mayoral resolution.

The chamber has indicated that its membership and volunteers could do some of the field work to cut the cost down from $30,000. The chamber got involved because consolidation kept coming up and it was asked to facilitate getting a study going to see how much interest there would be.

At this time, Electric City doesn’t have funds in its 2016 budget for the study, but could do a budget amendment if a joint resolution is developed.

Grand Coulee, at its last council meeting, had some serious shortfall in its budget, and the council sent it back for more work. It isn’t known at this time whether the $10,000 will make it through the budget adjustments.

So now it’s up to the two mayors to come up with a joint resolution to clear the air, and let everyone know if the study will move forward.