New Palouse mayor ready to roll up his sleeves

The new Palouse mayor said his city is full of people who work hard to better the place they live.

“Palouse is a town where everybody kind of rolls up their sleeves and does what’s best for the community, and I love that about this town,” Chris Cook said Monday.

Cook, 50, wanted to do his part, so he decided to take over the mayor position when Michael Echanove retired after 18 years.

“The city of Palouse has a number of interesting and challenging issues in front of it that I thought I could help with,” he said. “I have the right kind of skill set to help kind of address those.”

After running unopposed in the November election, Cook begins his four-year term today.

Cook has lived in Palouse for 14 years and has experience serving on the Palouse City Council, planning commission and Garfield-Palouse School Board. He also is director of University of Idaho Career Services.

Cook said a challenge for the city is finding solutions for the wastewater treatment facility. Cook said the city has been working with the state for years to figure out how to upgrade the facility so that it meets Washington State Department of Ecology requirements.

Some of those upgrades come with a hefty price tag of $12 million to $16 million.

“With a small tax base, you can imagine the type of negative impact that would have,” he said.

Cook said the city is working with state officials to improve the facility in a way that “won’t absolutely cripple this community.”

Another challenge he identified is retention of city staff and attracting talented individuals to unfilled staff positions, including on the police force. He mentioned strategies regarding compensation and benefits.

“I want to make sure that we’re trying to treat the people that take care of us extremely well,” he said.

He said Palouse is growing incrementally and the residents want to maintain a growth that is sustainable and doesn’t hurt the interests of Palouse, which embraces its small-town appeal.

He wants the same for Palouse’s business community, which Cook said has been an example of innovation and creative thinking.

This past fall, for example, the council accepted a bid and proposal from six Palouse residents to locate TLC Animal Care and Palouse Brewing Company on a downtown property next to Baggott Motors. That property, once a gas station, underwent years of cleanup so that it could be developed.

The new mayor also praised the local school system, and pointed out the small class sizes and extracurricular activities available to the students. He said students in Palouse are well prepared to enter any vocation they wish.

“We have an education system that’s equal to any in the region,” he said.

The education, the safety of the community and the natural beauty of the area help make Palouse a great place to raise a family, he said.

“Palouse is what I would call an ideal community,” Cook said.

Anthony Kuipers can be reached at (208) 883-4640, or by email to akuipers@dnews.com.