News Briefs

 

Last updated 5/12/2016 at 9:14am



Cheney Fire Department holds open house on Saturday

The Cheney Fire Department is inviting people coming downtown for Mayfest to take a short detour and visit its open house Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. The station is located on Fourth Street across from Veterans Memorial Park.

There will be continuous station tours, trucks and demonstrations and displays of fire and emergency medical equipment. Firefighters will be on hand to answer questions about the equipment, response techniques and capabilities along with specific programs such as the unique potential active shooter incident training.

Kids will have the opportunity to have fun dressing like firefighters and climbing on and through the fire trucks. There will also be free hot dogs, beverages and popcorn.

The Cheney Professional Firefighters Local 1919, the Cheney Volunteer Firefighters and the Cheney Fire Department are sponsoring the open house.

Spokane County changes divisions into departments

In a move designed to better reflect their operational nature, the Spokane County Divisions of Engineering and Roads and Utilities has changed its name. The Utilities portion is now known as the Environmental Services Department while Engineering and Roads has changed to the Public Works Department.

In a letter sent May 4, Director/County Engineer Public Works Department Mitchell S. Reister and Environment Services Director Kevin R. Cooke said the change was needed because “our division names no longer reflected the myriad of services we each provide.”

As an example, besides maintaining the county’s roads network, Engineering and Roads also was responsible for bridges, stormwater, flood control, regional commute trip reduction and short-line rail management as well as other services. Utilities encompasses areas of environmental protection services such as wastewater collection, water reclamation, aquifer and river duties and associated programs, as well as management of the regional solid waste system.

“The change in our department names more clearly communicates our vision, mission and values — and signals that we are ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow,” Reister and Cooke wrote.

Schoesler receives leadership honor from AgForestry

Ninth District Sen. Mark Schoesler received the Stu Bledsoe Memorial Award on May 6 from the Washington Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation. He was chosen by members of the AgForestry Leadership Class 37 and honored at their graduation ceremony. 

Schoesler, R-Ritzville, is in his second year as Senate majority leader. A full-time farmer in Adams and Lincoln counties, he was a member of the 10th class of graduates from AgForestry’s well-respected leadership-development program for Washington’s agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. 

“This recognition is as special as it gets, because I had the highest regard for Stu Bledsoe and can’t say enough good things about the AgForestry program,” Schoesler said. Schoesler served many years on legislative agricultural and natural resources committees before his election to the Senate’s top leadership position. 

Bledsoe, who died in 1988, was instrumental in founding AgForestry. He was a longtime Ellensburg cattle rancher and four-term state representative who left the Legislature to head the Washington State Department of Agriculture in 1973. He later became executive director of the Washington Forest Protection Association.

The award was established in his honor in 1991. The AgForestry Leadership program, based in Spokane Valley, graduates a new class of leaders annually and is one of only a few such leadership programs to have a first-year class and second-year class going at the same time.

 

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