Moscow police station nearly in UI’s hands

The proposed sale of the Moscow police station to the University of Idaho cleared another hurdle Monday night after the Moscow City Council authorized conveyance of the East Fourth Street facility to the University of Idaho for the appraised value of $975,000. City staff will negotiate a sale agreement with the university for the council’s consideration.

The UI plans to convert the space into the new Prichard Art Gallery, VandalStore and community space.

Remodeling would be required if the UI does purchase the building. There is no target date set for moving into the space should the purchase be finalized.

The Moscow Police Department is expected to move into its new facility, under construction on the corner of South Main Street and Southview Avenue on the south end of town, in October.

Moscow residents passed a 10-year, $9.64 million general obligation bond in 2019 to fund the construction of a new police station, remodel the current police station for use as an office building and make minor improvements to the Paul Mann Building just east of City Hall. The actual cost will be about $10.6 million.

The city purchased the Sam Haddock Building, on the corner of Washington and Fifth streets, last year from Gritman Medical Park LLC for $875,000. The city deemed the Haddock Building to provide benefits the existing police station would not and will represent savings over the estimated remodel costs of the current police station.

With certain city departments expected to move into the Haddock Building instead of the police station as outlined in the original bond plans, the police station will no longer be needed and the City Council expressed interest in selling it.

The City Council voted in 2019 to prohibit new colleges and universities in the Central Business Zoning District and to disallow the expansion of existing ones in the district, which essentially encompasses downtown.

City Supervisor Gary Riedner said that the UI’s plans for the downtown facility would be allowable in the zoning district.

In other business, the council approved the fiscal year 2022 budget of $102.4 million — $6.3 million more than the current $96.1 million budget the council approved last August.

The budget, which starts Oct. 1, calls for a 3-percent property tax increase, a 5-percent water rate increase, a 2.25-percent sewer rate increase, no sanitation rate increase and a new $7.92 per equivalent service unit monthly stormwater user fee. About 90 percent of Moscow homes fall around one equivalent service unit, so each will pay $7.92 per month.

Although the council chose to increase property taxes by the maximum allowable 3 percent, the property tax levy is expected to be $5.08 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which would be 15 cents lower than fiscal 2020’s levy of $5.23. It was $3.95 this fiscal year because of a $1.5 million property tax break through Gov. Brad Little’s Public Safety Grant Initiative. The council chose not to increase property taxes in the current fiscal year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the fiscal 2022 budget, the council approved a drug detection dog that will be trained to detect heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl. The council also decided to dedicate $30,000 toward affordable housing and $20,000 toward climate change issues after spending some time Monday deciding how to divide the money between the two subjects.

Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.