An ordinance that will help certain health care providers remain in Bonney Lake, or relocate to the city, was approved April 14 by members of the City Council.
Specifically, council members agreed to waive traffic impact fees for those seeking to build or expand their facilities, providing that at least 51 percent of the patients served are covered by Medicare. The money that would have been collected from the healthcare provider will instead come from public funds.
Under the ordinance, a healthcare provider is a licensed physician, chiropractor, optometrist, dentist, dental hygienist or nurse practitioner. Also included is any clinic providing one or more of those services.
Councilman Mark Hamilton said it’s good public policy to attract healthcare providers because of the senior citizen population that requires medical services.
During the “citizen comment” portion of the agenda, Diana Ranger addressed the council regarding the city’s policy for charging for false alarms.
Ranger said she went to her mailbox April 11 and found bills for four false alarm responses ranging from $50 to $100 each. She said they dated back almost two years and she was unaware of any charges. The last bill was dated in February 2008.
Al Juarez, the city’s finance director, said for a period of time the false alarms were not billed and that the city and its police department have worked together to get the system working.
“We’re only going back to 2007 to recoup some of the cost,” Juarez said.
Police Chief Mike Mitchell said when an officer responds to a resident’s alarm and finds the home secure, it is logged as a false alarm.
Ranger, who has lived in Bonney Lake since 2002, said she installed an alarm system at her home for personal safety reasons.
Councilman Dave King proposed that Mitchell, Juarez, Mayor Neil Johnson and City Administrator Don Morrison meet and study the issue, then report to the Finance Committee.
King suggested the city suspend any efforts to collect charges for false alarms that are disputed.
Hamilton said the council imposed the fees because police officers were having to respond, but he had problems with the current situation.
“My concern is not responding with citations for almost two years,” Hamilton said.
In other action, the council:
• approved an amendment that redefines a night club. Under the old ordinance, a night club was an establishment which, in part, received more than 50 percent of its revenue through liquor sales. Because the Washington State Department of Revenue and the state Liquor Control Board no longer maintain statistics differentiating liquor sales from food sales, it’s difficult for a city to verify. The amended ordinance defines a night club as an establishment that sells liquor between 10 p.m. and midnight and has an assembly space or dance floor.
• authorized a contract with Doolittle Construction for chip seal application.
• awarded the contract for a sanitary sewer to Big Mountain Enterprises.
• awarded a contract to Modern Building Systems for a prefabricated modular building for the Public Works Department.
• tabled an ordinance that would grant temporary commercial building incentives. The ordinance would waive 50 percent of the city’s land use fees, along with building and plan review fees, and grant a rebate of 75 percent of construction sales tax up to $100,000. The proposed incentives would expire Dec. 31, 2011. The issue was to be discussed during Tuesday’s council workshop.
Reach Dannie Oliveaux at doliveaux@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald or 360-802-8209.
