By Brenda Starkey
Chronicle correspondent

     “It is far past time that the City of Republic has an administrator,” mayor Shirley Couse told city council June 2.
      “There’s just too much stuff that gets heaped on us,” she said.
     Couse said she will go through the budget with the city clerk to see if money can be found for such a position.
     The mayor said she called Omak city administrator Ralph Malone, who sent her the job description used there.
     Council member DiAnne Hewitt asked if Couse thought the city could to hire an administrator.
     “The next question is can we afford not to do it,” Couse answered.
     “It’s time to decide if you’re just going to sit here and pay bills and hope for the best,” she said. “We need to find someone.”
     The position would be an appointed position answerable to the mayor, Couse said.
     “That person’s job could go 30 years,” Hewitt said.
     The mayor has the authority to change all the city employees, Couse said, adding that she would have to have good cause.
     Couse said she had visited with councilman Alex Wirt, who was acting as police administrator until an interim chief was appointed, about the position and said council member Linda Hall, the city’s grant administrator had no problem with the concept. Hall was not present at the meeting
     “It’s worth looking into,” Hewitt said.
     In other business, the council:
     * Heard a plan from officer Bret Roberts for not billing the county for his time so the sheriff’s office will not bill the city for sheriff’s deputies who assist with things such as Prospectors Days.
     “It’s not really an issue, but you have an opportunity” to show the county the city is willing to cooperate, he said. “They back us up and we have to start working together.”
     The city will go ahead and bill the county for the officer’s time since that is what the county prosecutor asked for, it was decided.
     * Learned from Roberts that as the end of the first year of the meth grant approaches, local law enforcement agencies had seized what would have been about $3.5 million worth of drugs if they’d been sold on the street.
     * Learned from Wirt the department’s Ford Explorer is badly in need of repair and not in service. He also said he has discovered he is not the only civilian police administrator in the state.
     * Heard a request from Randy Cooper, representing the Husky Car and Truck Museum, to consider giving two old fire trucks to the museum so they can be maintained.
     A contract could be written so that if anything happened to the museum, the trucks would revert to the city, he said.
     Councilman Jim Burnside said he would have to do some research to determine if the city is the legal owner of the trucks.
     * Tabled the possible solid waste management plan.