Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Tekoa City Council voted 3-2 Monday, April 17, to charge the Empire Theatre for sewer and water service. The city will now bill the theater $18 for water and $16 for sewer each month under a new policy that will apply to any Tekoa building used four days or less per month and does not irrigate.
“We’re doing this, unfortunately. It’s a city-owned building, it’s a non-profit,” said Mayor John Jaeger.
The rate is the same charged to Tekoa “snowbird” residents when away from Tekoa over winter months.
The rate includes up to 500 gallons. Additional water use is billed at $1 per 500 gallons.
An anonymous flyer sent to box holders at the Tekoa Post Office urged 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 city owns the theater building and previously did not charge for water or sewer services.
The flyers were marked with a return address of “Citizens for Honest Government” at P.O. Box 927, which is actually the post office 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 stated.
The identity of the sender remains unknown.
Earlier this year, as questions arose about what the theater was or was not paying for services, Tekoa Clerk/Treasurer Kynda Browning began work on a proposed rate for the building.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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