*** Challenger says council out of touch ***

Grand Coulee, Washington -- 10/23/2003
To Kenneth Newkirk, the town council of Electric City
has lost touch with what's going on in their town.

"Right now this town is going nowhere fast," Newkirk says.
He says something needs to be done before it becomes a
ghost town.

Half of the town council is not from Electric City
and they are trying to run it like a big city, he says.

Newkirk is running against incumbent Don Daniels, a retired sheriff's
deputy from Snohomish County, a county of more than 500,000 people.

The town council has made it more difficult to start and keep
businesses going, he says. No one has a reason to bring
businesses into town.

Newkirk says he would like to see a lowering of restrictions on
business licenses and permits. He says the town should lower the
taxes on the licenses and permits below the state level to entice
businesses to the area.

The town needs a gas service station, a sports shop, a bait and tackle
shop, a tavern and a health club, which have all gone out of business,
he says because the town council did not do enough to keep them here.

And many children of the business owners are choosing to
leave town rather than taking over when their parents retire.

He disagrees with the need for the town's "beautification" project.
The project paved several streets, widened Electric Boulevard,
installed a water line along the road, which is also highway 155.
The project, which will also plant approximately 196 moonlight
junipers along the road, was a mistake, he says.

The project cost approximately $194,000 and Newkirk says that
money should have been used to pave Stevens Street, where he lives
with his parents Allyn and Marie Newkirk, part of Grand Avenue and
another street. They sued the town unsuccessfully after Marie fell on
the street in front of their house.

He says the kids in the town need to have something to do and
the town should support a skateboard park at the ice rink at
North Dam Park in Grand Coulee, as long as it could be easily
dismantled.

The part-time musician says there needs to be an opportunity to
bring talent from Electric City to perform at the North Dam Park gazebo.

Newkirk says the he does not know much of the plan to share
water between Electric City and Grand Coulee, but he says he
is not for it.

He says the two wells that will not be used need cleaning and the
three wells that will supply the water are not enough to support any
growth.

Another town law he disagrees with is the nuisance ordinance.
Newkirk says it discriminates and is unconstitutional.

Allyn and Marie Newkirk and neighbors I.W. and
Earla Parks have both been cited for violating the ordinance.

Kenneth Newkirk says the town needs to be in
compliance before making residents' compliant.

He says the $500 fines are unreasonable, and the way they
are implemented is unconstitutional because the accuser's
name is not revealed, even in court.

"Every person has the right to face their accuser in a court of law,"
Newkirk says.

He says he would push for lowering fines, fixing the ordinance to
make it constitutional and legal, and for more compliance on the
part of the town with its own law.

Newkirk says he also wants a stricter police enforcement of the
noise and speed ordinances. He says people are always speeding
by his home and playing their music too loudly when driving by in cars.

The 1975 Lake Roosevelt High School graduate is a maintenance
worker for the Coulee Dam Casino. He also works with the Grand
Gallery Theater, Them Dam Writers and the honor and color guard
for the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

CC - The Star of Grand Coulee
AC - http://www.genesbmx.com/GrandCoulee.html

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