Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, unanimously approved a lease between the city and Sound Rivers.

The lease is for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The current lease between the city and Sound Rivers expires June 30. The new lease has Sound Rivers paying a $10 fee and utilities costs. It also requires Sound Rivers to share utilities costs with the Washington Tourism Development Authority, which also uses space at the former railroad depot that now houses Sound Rivers and the authority.

The approval came after Susan Zachary renewed her opposition to the lease. As she did at the council’s April 25 meeting, Zachary said she considers Sound Rivers, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to protecting water quality of area waterways, as an outside agency in that it receives support from the city. That support, she said, comes in the form of cheap rent for offices on the second floor of the building that houses the city’s tourism office, which is adjacent to the Civic Center. The $10 annual fee Sound Rivers pays the city for using the office space equates to unfair, special treatment of the nonprofit, she contends.

Zachary suggested the city give Sound Rivers three months to begin paying “reasonable rent” to the city or relocate.

Harrison Marks, executive director of Sound Rivers, said during its time in the office space provided by the city, Sound Rivers has made significant improvements to that space. During the past 30 years, the city has benefitted from Sound Rivers’ work to improve and protect the water quality of the Pamlico River, one of the city’s most important assets, Marks said. The city derives benefits from Sound Rivers, he said.

Marks said it makes sense for Sound Rivers to stay at its current location. “We haven’t looked … seriously at any other options,” he said.

Marks said Sound Rivers is not trying to hide its arrangement with the city, noting the lease is a public record and available for review by the public.

Councilman Doug Mercer noted that several organizations house in the city-owned Peterson Building receiving rent-free space. “I really think that if we’re going to allow people to use our facilities rent free, then that should show as a contribution … the same way we do all the other outside agencies,” he said

Mercer suggested delaying approval of the lease to allow City Manager Bobby Roberson time to talk with the organizations (Pamlico Pals, Special Olympics and the like) that receive rent-free use of the Peterson Building to determine if they would be willing to pay rent (about $1.74 per square foot) to the city in the future. Roberson said listing rent-free use of city facilities as contributions to the organizations could be accomplished easily.

Mayor Mac Hodges said the city should revisit the rent-free use of city facilities later this year (late summer or early fall). Mercer said any type contribution (in-kind services, in-kind use of city facilities) by the city should “show on a list somewhere so that we know what we gave to people.”