Sorted by date Results 1 - 21 of 21
SPOKANE – Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) officials have announced that a COVID-19 testing site has been established in Airway Heights. The site is in partnership with Multicare Rockwood Clinic and is located at the organization’s clinic at 10414 W. Highway 2, Suite 10. The Airway Heights testing location is open beginning Friday, June 19, and is available to residents from the city and the surrounding areas. The latter includes residents of the West Plains and even further, SRHD media coordinator Kelli Hawkins said....
CHENEY – Eastern Washington University police are asking the public’s help in locating a statue that was stolen from in front of the university’s one-room schoolhouse, formerly known as the Jore School. Police Deputy Chief Jay Day said they were notified by a campus grounds crew around 6:30 a.m. on June 16 that the statue of a young child working on a laptop had been taken from in front of the school. Not only was the statue taken, but the metal bench it was sitting on was also stolen. “It would take a concerted effort...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS -- One person was killed in a single-vehicle rollover crash that occurred early Friday morning on West Trails Road near North Old Trails Road. Spokane County Sheriff's Office deputies along with officers from the Kalispell Tribal Police and Airway Heights Police responded to a report of the crash at approximately 2:15 a.m. on June 12. In a news release from the county, an eyewitness and evidence at the scene indicated a Honda driven by a male was traveling east on West Trails Road when it left the roadway,...
MEDICAL LAKE – The state Department of Transportation is cautioning motorists traveling Interstate 90 near the State Route 902/Medical Lake interchange to expect closures that could impact their travel time. Crews working for DOT are resuming work on the SR 902 bridge deck that spans I-90 as part of interchange upgrades and modifications. Motorists using the westbound lanes of I-90 should expect nightly closures between 9 p.m. -- 5 a.m. beginning June 15 and running through June 19. During the nightly closures, drivers at t...
With Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" booming from an industrial-sized stereo system, Cheney High School's class of 2020 began a victory lap through the remodeled high school's bus loop and eventually the community last Friday night. While the title might seem an irreverent nod to moving on, the song's lyrics more than sum up what this year's seniors have been through. Titled "The Hour of Greatness," last Friday's graduation event seemed more a beginning than...
FOUR LAKES – Many churches across the region met in person on Sunday, including Four Lakes Community Church. FLCC gathered together for the first time since the mandated coronavirus shut downs began. Pastor Lucas Geiger and the church board formulated a written mitigation plan that complies with government guidelines, including facemasks for all, hand sanitizer. removal of half the seats for six-foot social distancing and limiting inside attendance to 25 people. Those who w...
TYLER – One person was injured in a single-vehicle rollover accident early this morning on Interstate 90 near its intersection with State Route 904 at milepost 257. According to a Washington State Patrol press memo, at approximately 1:15 a.m. June 3, 75-year-old Louis R. Walter of Olympia, Wash. was eastbound in a white Ford F-150 pickup truck when he drifted off the road to the right. His wheels went off the roadway and he overcorrected to the left, sending the vehicle across the lanes to the median. Walter than o...
CHENEY – Emmanuel Lutheran Church has been awarded $500 from the Lutheran Disaster Response program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ECLA). According to a June 8 news release, the church intends to apply the funding to its Free Community Pantry program to expand food purchases for residents in need. “The ELCA’s motto is ‘God’s Work, Our Hands,’ and we are happy to do as God calls us,” Emmanuel Lutheran pastor Arianna Arends said in a statement. “To provide a no-questions-asked, open 24-7 option for those needi...
CHENEY May 31 Police assisted Spokane County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a one-car injury collision near Fish Lake Park on Cheney-Spokane Road. June 1 Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the 200 block of South Cheney-Spangle Road. Third-degree theft was reported on the 2200 block of North 6th Street. Prescription medications were taken. Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the zero hundred block of West 5th Street. A 13-year-old female was reported as a runaway juvenile on the 1000 block of Betz R...
MEDICAL LAKE – While the bulk of this year’s Founder’s Day has been canceled due to ongoing concerns about the spread of COVID-19, at least one event has found a way to continue — albeit in a new format. Instead of pounding the streets and trails in and around Medical Lake, the annual Trailblazer Triathlon has moved to an online/virtual format that participants can compete in from the comfort of their neighborhood, favorite trail or park. Registration and competition began June 1, and runs through 11 p.m. June 30 — that’s wh...
ST. JOHN – Because of the restrictions placed on sporting events across the state of Washington due to COVID-19, the Webb’s Slough Jet Sprint race originally scheduled for Saturday, June 20 will move to Saturday, Sept. 26. “With the Washington State Governor’s announcement of the several phases before Washington businesses can reopen, we know it will be months before events of our size will be permitted and acceptable to take place. We know some of you will be disappointed and we know some of you will be relieved because...
I’m glad to see Paul Delaney is back at the Cheney Free Press after a year and a couple months hiatus. I hope his “failed retirement” wasn’t because of those “half-dozen citations” from me to which he’s laid claim (CFP, 5/21/20). Paul has decided that among the many and varied issues it’s important he address — the coronavirus pandemic, the exploding national debt, cancer causing chemicals in Airway Heights water, Eastern Washington rural hospitals nearing financial collapse — defending his publisher, Roger Harnack from...
Cheney Congregational Church This past Sunday we participated together (though in our own homes) in a service of lament and reflection following the tragic news of George Floyd’s death and all that is going on in our nation right now. We join with our brothers and sisters of color who have been demanding justice for far too long. We repent of the role that we have played in remaining silent. Let us lament together and pray for justice and change. This upcoming Sunday, pastor Matt Goodale will preach on the practice of p...
Scientists across America are working hard to develop treatments for and vaccines against COVID-19. Unfortunately, several activist groups are making their jobs harder. Doctors Without Borders is urging governments to seize the patents on any coronavirus therapies that benefited from taxpayer-funded research. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines is making a similar push. These groups claim that such steps are necessary to prevent industry price gouging. Their efforts are misguided. Confiscating patents would damage...
MEDICAL LAKE – The school district will be live streaming this year’s commencement exercises on its website. A YouTube link will be posted on the district’s website beginning Wednesday, June 10. The commencement exercises will take place Saturday, June 13, at the high school football field. The ceremony will be drive-in style to limit social distancing and other precautions necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus and the disease it carries, COVID-19....
In several past columns I’ve written about the need to preserve history. I’ve editorialized to preserve history, it’s often necessary to maintain that which we find offensive so we may remember and learn from the experience, hopefully not repeating the errors of our ancestors. As part of that, I’ve defended preserving symbols of the former Confederacy such as statues and flags. I’ve argued that, while painful, those elements remind us of periods of our national formation and psyche that we hope to not repeat. I’ve chan...
SPOKANE – The County Library District is offering curbside pickup for holds, available at most libraries, Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 6 p.m. on days when libraries would normally be open. Library customers can pick up holds at the library once notified by email, phone call, or postal mail that their holds are available. When coming to a branch, look for the curbside pickup signs in the parking lot. Curbside pickup of library holds is new to area libraries and customers, and according to a June 3 news release, will be an ongoing...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The City Council voted to advance approval of the final plat of the Arrowleaf Townhomes development out of their study session Monday night, June 8, for final consideration at the upcoming regular meeting June 15. In doing so, the council agreed the development had met all of the conditions set aside under law and in a proposed preliminary plat adopted via resolution on Feb. 4, 2019. Arrowleaf Townhouses is a single-family (R-1), duplex (R-2) subdivision east of Craig Road between Ketchum Drive and W...
CHENEY – Despite uncertainties with the economy, the Cheney School District’s ending fund balance has remained relatively stable. While tracking less than it did in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 beginning in February and running through April, the reserve cash fund needed to help pay operating costs is still above $3 million — a level it might approach at the end of this month. But after dipping to just over $4.5 million in March at the beginning of the COVID-19 school closures and economic shutdowns, the fund saw a resurgence in A...
WEST PLAINS – Construction is alive and well on the West Plains. That was the verdict at a May 28 West Plains Chamber of Commerce virtual meeting on the state of economic development — and continues to show evidence of validity in mid-June. Al French, Spokane County Commissioner and board chair of S3R3 Solutions, told the meeting that several developers filed plan reviews for projects, mostly Airway Heights and Spokane International Airport. That work has taken place even in the face of ongoing restrictions and lim...
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