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Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | 75 cents
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Urban Growth Area expansion denied
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By Kevin Hanson Senior Writer
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Weather The forecast for today, Wednesday, calls for mostly cloudy skies and showers with a high to 45 and overnight lows to 36. Rain is expected Thursday with a high to 49 and low to 39. Friday and Saturday looks like showers with a high to 45. Sunday expect cloudy skies and rain with a high to 49.
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Santa, Please
Jack Lawrence discusses his Christmas wish list with Santa at the Bonney Lake fire station. Santa will continue to travel to several fire stations over the next few weeks. Photo by Ray Still
Cities looking to expand their influence were met with unanimous rejection last week. Buckley, Carbonado and Bonney Lake had asked the Pierce County Planning Commission to expand their Urban Growth Areas – in some cases adding small parcels and minimal acreage, in other cases taking in large and valuable chunks of real estate. While Buckley and Carbonado had filed just one request each with Pierce County, Bonney Lake was much more ambitious, putting eight requests into the hopper. While county planners had recommended that nine of the 10 be denied, the Planning Commission went one step further and turned thumbs
down on all. Each of the 10 requests had been debated during a Dec. 9 public hearing in Tacoma. Members of the Planning Commission deliberated during evening sessions Dec. 10 and 11 before rendering their decisions. The UGA process is now three-quarters complete. Cities made their proposal, county staff offered recommendations and the Planning Commission has issued its verdict. All that remains is a vote by the Pierce County Council, which is not bound to follow recommendations by staff or the commission. Action by the council isn’t expected to until midFebruary, at least. Cities ask for their Urban Growth Areas to be expanded for a variety of
SEE EXPANSION, PAGE 11
East Pierce, union, still negotiating $1 million deficit Layoff options still on the table By Ray Still Staff Writer
D
espite East Pierce Fire and Rescue successfully submitting their budget to the Pierce County Council on Dec. 5, the fire department and its labor union remain locked in discus-
sion over how to mitigate a $1 million shortfall in the budget. The deficit is currently covered by East Pierce’s ending net cash from the general funds, but both organizations are looking at concessions to lessen the damage. “We’ve been trying to negotiate concessions as a result of the levy failure,” said Fire Chief Jerry Thorson. “We are trying real hard to make sure the long-term financial pic-
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ture of the organization is strong, even with all of these cuts.” While East Pierce and the union did not discuss current negotiations with the Courier Herald, both Thorson and union President Mike Westland said layoffs are still on the table as a solution, though both parties have said they are doing their best to avoid them. Westland has that the financial need to lay off personnel is not present,
because the union has offered several concession packages to East Pierce that would get the department where they need to be financially. “It should also be noted that we gave them concessions just a couple of months ago to help out, as well as significant concessions several other times in the past few years,” Westland said. “It is not as if we do not want to help, we do and always have in the past.”
The money East Pierce will use to cover the deficit in the budget comes from its ending net cash, which rolls over from year to year. The ending net cash is a buffer of money to help the department cover costs from the first quarter of the year, because the department doesn’t receive tax money until near the second quarter, according to Thorson. “Without the ending fund
SEE DEFICIT, PAGE 10
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