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Medical Lake officials press Spokane County to prioritize local wildfire recovery in $44 million CDBG plan
Summary
Council members said Spokane County's draft disaster recovery action plan does not reflect public input from Medical Lake and urged residents and elected officials to push the county to limit Community Development Block Grant disaster-recovery spending to fire-impacted areas.
Medical Lake city officials and a council member who attended a Spokane County housing and community development meeting told the city council in June they are concerned the county's proposed plan for $44 million in CDBG disaster recovery funding could be used outside fire‑impacted areas.
Council member Pritchard, who attended the Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee meeting, said public comments from Medical Lake and Silver Lake were received during county outreach but were not reflected in the county's action plan. "At the very end of the report, it just goes to the action plan, which completely ignored everything that everybody talked about," Pritchard said.
Pritchard urged residents to review the county's materials and to contact HCD staff and elected officials. He urged the public to email hcdinfo@spokanecounty.org, and to contact Kyle Tuig, identified in the meeting as the county public works director involved in the recovery discussion.
Council members and staff said they will coordinate local talking points and encourage the community to comment before the county's July 14 comment deadline. City staff said they will prepare and share talking points and suggested residents also contact the city's federal delegation to emphasize that the CDBG disaster recovery appropriation was intended for communities directly impacted by the Grama Road and Oregon Road fires.
Mayor Terry Cooper and council members framed the issue as a question of intent for the federal award: staff cited the county award notification language and the county website, which the city said specifies that the CDBG disaster recovery funds may only be spent to meet recovery needs caused by the specific disasters named in the appropriation (the Grama Road and Oregon Road fires).
No formal city action was taken at the meeting; council members said they will prepare coordinated talking points and pursue outreach to county and federal officials to press for distribution focused on the affected communities.
Ending: The council asked staff to draft talking points and to keep the council and the public updated on the county process and any additional opportunities to comment.
