Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The matter of Tekoa's proposed work at the community center and Empire Theatre took a turn this week with an anonymous mailing and plans solidified to adjust the billing of water and sewer rates for the theater.
A flyer sent to box holders at the Tekoa Post Office April 12 called for residents to “save your money and let the City pay your bill this month just like they have been doing for the Association for years.”
The “Association” is believed to be a reference to Friends of the Empire Theatre, which formed in 2003 to manage the 1940 theater.
The flyer also includes blanks to mark “yes” or “no” to whether the city should spend public money to build an entryway between the Tekoa Community Center and the theater building.
Last year, the city received a $34,000 Whitman County .09 grant slated for work this spring which would, in part, create a walkway between the foyer of the theater and the adjoining community center – former Jaycees hall – for access to its revamped ADA-restrooms, which are also part of the .09 project.
The flyers are marked with a return address of “Citizens for Honest Government” with a P.O. Box 927. That is the box for the City of Tekoa.
“Taxpayer dollars should be spent on government activity to benefit the citizens as a whole, not a non-profit,” it states.
No public claim has been made for the identity of the sender.
“We can narrow it down to someone devious, unprofessional and mean-spirited,” said Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger. “But we could crawl down in the gutter and play ball, or we can take the high road. I think most people in Tekoa want the high road.”
The city owns the theater and does not charge for water or sewer.
This year, as questions rose about this, the city has worked on a proposal for an abbreviated rate for the building which is used about once per month.
Petition
On March 20, the Tekoa City Council considered a petition at its regular meeting about the proposed work at the former Jaycees building and theater and took no action.
The council, which had already voted to go ahead with plans to open a walkway between the two buildings and install handicapped accessible bathrooms in the community center, made no motion to change course.
Tekoa resident Wendy Sienknecht presented the petition, signed by 138 people. It questioned the structural integrity of the historic theater to be able to handle an added doorway/walkway, and whether the city should spend money on the community center – as it competes with other private rental halls in town.
Since then, the theater has been deemed structurally sound and, if an entry way is built to the community center, it would still be eligible for listing on the Register of National Historic Places.
The city has owned the community center since 2011. The cost to operate it can be deciphered in different ways.
“Our insurance has not broken down our liability based on each structure,” Jaeger said. “I just feel like the city has a financial responsibility to maintain the community center and theater, within the limits of an audit. The theater is a landmark. It makes us different from almost all the towns in Whitman County. But we'll have to figure out a way to do this that makes a little more sense.”
Reasons
The issue of the theater's water and sewer bills is likely to change.
“We felt like this is an attraction to the community,” Jaeger said. “They're not using much water, but we are probably going to have to do something in the future. It's too bad that we have to.”
On Monday night, April 17, City Clerk/Treasurer Kynda Browning will present options for the city council to consider for an abbreviated water and sewer rate that Friends of the Theatre would be responsible for.
The rate would be similar to the $35.91 per month that “snowbird” homeowners pay in winter months that they do not live in their Tekoa houses.
When a rate is decided, the Theatre will be billed.
“They're gonna have to go back the years they haven't paid this, otherwise it's a gift of public funds,” said Browning, who also volunteers as treasurer for Friends of the Theatre.
The city has charged the theater for only garbage service since at least 2008.
As far as retroactive billing, a statute of limitations may apply.
Identification
The anonymous letters were postmarked in Airway Heights, arriving last week, addressed to the nearly 300 box holders at the Tekoa Post Office.
Sienknecht denies involvement. Debbie Groom, another Tekoa resident, presented a letter March 20 to the city council calling for community center work to come first.
“The grant was supposed to go to the community center, not the theater,” Groom said.
Groom, a post office box holder in Tekoa and former city council member, opened her box last Thursday to see the flyer.
“The first time I saw it was then,” she said. “I did not do the letter. I did not send the letter.”
Proposal
“I don't want somebody to think that I wrote this,” said Sienknecht. “Come out and say who you are. I would never tell somebody not to pay their city bill. That's not right, that's not going to solve any of our problems.”
Sienknecht's issue, she says, is in the common interest.
“Nobody wants the theater to fail. In fact, we're trying to make sure it doesn't fail,” Sienknecht said.
At the core of her signature petition was whether connecting the community center and the theater is right for the long term.
“Is the community center going to make it? They just don't make any money,” she said. “In five years, are we better off selling two separate places than one giant one?”
If the building was ever sold, Jaeger suggests a first order of business would occur.
“We've used .09 money on the roof of the theater, restrooms. If we ever sold the building, I would think we'd have to give back to the .09 fund, to give the people their money back.”
For the community center, Jaeger forecasts a certain consistency in ownership.
“That community center is not gonna sell for anything but a storage space,” he said.
The $34,000 in .09 funds is slated now to cover the cost of the community center restroom work, the walkway to the theater, heating, lighting and electrical.
Jaeger said no further city money should need to be used, aside from wages for city workers on some aspects.
“We're counting on some volunteer help, which I have no doubt we'll have,” he said. “I think we can do it all with the grant. Even pay wages to our guys with grant money.”
With a city council meeting set for this coming Monday night, Jaeger plans to propose an order to the project: first the community center restrooms, then heating, lighting and electrical.
“Then we can let people know the money is there,” he said.
The source of the .09 money itself he noted is distinct.
“It is taxpayer's money, but it's not like its property tax, it's sales tax or state taxes that we all pay,” Jaeger said. “Sort of like TIB money (Transportation Improvement Board) coming from gas tax.”
Work approved
For the approved .09 work set for this spring or summer, the City of Tekoa has accepted a bid from Mangum Construction of Clarkston.
If the community center and theater are ultimately linked, the remodeled, handicapped-accessible restrooms in the community hall would be usable directly from the theater.
The current theater restrooms are down a narrow staircase to the basement floor.
As of now, the nearest handicapped-accessible restrooms for the theater are across the street at the public rest stop.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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