FILE PHOTO — 2017 Southwest Washington Fair
Lewis County is asking Centralia to annex the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, a proposal city councilors will consider during their meeting Tuesday evening.
“It’s purely financial,” said Steve Walton, Lewis County’s central services director.
The move would allow the county, which buys water for the fairgrounds from the city of Centralia, to pay the lower rate designated for customers within city limits. Walton estimated the county would save about 30 percent on its water bill for the fairgrounds. That savings would be the only practical effect of the redrawn boundary.
“The county still owns the buildings, runs the fairgrounds, manages the fairgrounds,” he said. “It’s no significant difference at all, other than to us it’s a cost savings.”
In a letter dated Feb. 27, all three Lewis County commissioners submitted a petition for the city to annex the site, which is currently designated as part of the City of Centralia Urban Growth Area. Commission Chairwoman Edna Fund signed the document as the property owner, as the officer of the corporation owning the land.
City of Centralia Community Development Director Emil Pierson, in a report adding the proposal to the council agenda, said the petition was submitted to the city March 5. According to the memo, the council has 60 days from that date to meet with the county. That meeting will determine whether the proposal is accepted, rejected or modified. The city will also need to determine if the annexation will require it to assume any debt connected with the property or adopt a related zoning regulation.
Walton said Centralia was on board with the plan, though both entities will need to complete the necessary bureaucratic steps to make it official.
“Both parties are in mutual agreement on this,” he said.
Fund, a former Centralia city councilor, said annexations are evaluated based on the additional services that would need to be provided by the city. The fairgrounds, she said, would not be particularly burdensome. As part of the Urban Growth Area, the site already comes with the expectation that it will eventually be annexed.
“This one particularly makes sense,” she said.
