SNOQUALMIE – Snoqualmie officials have found a cheap supply of labor to help keep the city clean: state Department of Corrections (DOC) inmates.
On Monday, the Snoqualmie City Council approved a contract with the Monroe Correctional Complex, which will provide work crews made up of inmates to perform such jobs as picking up litter, clearing brush and mowing.
Director of Public Safety Don Isley said he borrowed the idea of using prison labor from the Northwest Railway Museum, which uses DOC crews on its property. He added the Parks Department in particular could use the help, as Snoqualmie has seen the number of its parks almost double from 14 in 2001 to 27 in 2002.
“The reason I wanted to do it was to help the Parks Department out because they have plenty to do during the growing season,” Isley said.
He added that the inmates are first screened by a counselor, who then determines whether to recommend them to a work crew. A corrections board ultimately decides if they will be allowed outside the prison to work.
Each work crew is supervised by a DOC officer. Capt. Jim Schaffer of the Department of Public Safety-Police Division said of the inmates, “There are no violent offenders. They are very near the end of their term,” which, he added, reduces the possibility that they would attempt to escape.
“We’ve had absolutely no problems in this city,” Schaffer said of the Northwest Railway Museum’s inmate work crews.
Isley said the city should realize a substantial cost savings by using prison labor. Under the contract, inmates would make up to $1.10 an hour, so two days’ work, including vehicle mileage, would only equal a few hundred dollars.
“There is a taxpayer value to expending money here,” Mayor Fuzzy Fletcher said of the contract.
The work crews would perform jobs on an as-needed basis, with Isley guessing they would be in Snoqualmie about once a month.
Under the contract, work crews could provide trail maintenance, which Councilman Matt Larson said might be cause for concern for residents walking along the trails. Isley said that most likely wouldn’t be an issue.
“I think we’re going to find a lot for them to do without worrying about trail clearing,” he said.
Monday’s meeting was the first for three city council members, Larson, Jay Rodne and Greg Fullington, who won their respective seats in the November general election. They, along with Fletcher, who was re-elected to his second term last year, were sworn in at the start of the meeting.
Councilman Dick Kirby and Larson were nominated to serve as mayor pro-tem. Kirby was chosen by a 3-2 vote. Committee assignments were: Finance and Administrative Services, Marcia Korich (chair), Rodne; Planning and Parks, Kirby (chair), Fullington; Public Works, Larson (chair), Korich; and Community Relations, Fullington (chair), Larson.
In other business the council:
* Selected Bola Architecture and Planning of Seattle to provide architectural and design services for repairing damage to City Hall caused by the Nisqually Earthquake.
* Approved an amendment to the city’s contract with Rabanco Connections International Inc., allowing residents to co-mingle recyclable items in one container, which eliminates the need for multiple recycling bins. Rabanco would also be responsible for customer billing instead of the city.
* Approved an agreement with Adolfson and Associates of Seattle to create a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for Puget Sound Energy’s Snoqualmie Falls relicensing project. The SEIS would be used by the city for its Snoqualmie Falls Hydro Project Relicensing Permit and the state Department of Ecology’s Water Quality Certification.
