City hall vandalism repairs add up

After a vandal hit Grand Coulee City Hall Jan. 4, the city was left with cleanup and repairs.

Those are coming in at about $74,000 to fix broken windows, damaged floors and walls, office equipment and police cars parked outside.

The city council Tuesday night OK’d spending $13,450 on new windows, including a couple not damaged in the incident but old enough to be replaced with more energy-efficient windows.

The council also voted to declare surplus five of those now-unused police vehicles outside, which had served the police department when it was providing services to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The city dropped that contract when it ran into difficulty retaining enough officers in the department to fulfill the obligation.

Mayor Ruth Dalton said last night that a new chief of police has not yet been hired but, “It’s in the works.”

In other business, the council also

• decided to turn back the city laptop computers the council has been using for four years and go back to a paper-based system of handling city documents.

• authorized the mayor to sign an agreement with SCJ Alliance for city planning services.

• were alerted by City Clerk Lorna Pearce that three council seats, plus the mayor’s position, will be up for election this year. So seek re-election Councilmembers Tom Poplawski and Tim Snead will need to file their intention run, as will Mayor Dalton.