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Feed Medical Lake is returning to a twice-a-month schedule. Inside dining is still not allowed, so the organization is offering grab-and-go meals on the second and fourth Monday of each month between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. at the ramp door behind St. John’s Lutheran Church, 223 S. Hallett St. Groceries, when in stock, will also be distributed at that time. Please note if the temperature is 32 degrees or lower and/or if there is two inches of snow or more on the Saturday prior to the meals, Feed Medical Lake will be closed and n...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Halloween is one of the more popular holiday’s of the year, partly because of all the variety of public events — from parties to haunted houses and the traditional trick-or-treat excursions about the neighborhood. But in the year of coronavirus, this high-level of social interaction outside the household could also be recipe for spreading Covid-19, the lower respiratory disease associated with coronavirus that, according to the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 Dashboard, has resulted in over 8.18 milli...
MEDICAL LAKE – Re*Imagine Medical Lake is hosting a Halloween Drive-Through Festival on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 2 – 4 p.m. at the high school bus loop. The event is drive-through/walk-in style, with masks and social distancing expected by participants. There will be music, a costume contest, trunk-or-treat, pumpkins, Kettle Korn, prizes such as Amazon gift cards and more, including the crowning of the 2020 King of Candy at 2 p.m. by 2019 King Wispies Salon for the business that collects the most candy. According to a new...
SPOKANE – The Spokane County Library District now has mobile hotspots, available for check out, that provide library customers with internet access. This service is made possible through a Washington State Library grant provided in response to expanding digital network access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Library customers who are 18 or older and who are in-district library card holders can check out a mobile hotspot for a 28-day borrowing period. These mobile hotspots are intended to help library customers with limited or n...
CHENEY – It’s no ordinary van. At its Oct. 13 meeting, the City Council approved a request by the Public Works Department to spend $172,530 on a 2018 Ford E450 14-foot box van from Solid Waste Systems in Spokane. While the van itself isn’t necessarily expensive, what comes inside is – a complete camera and recording system that will allow crews to peer inside the city’s solid waste system and determine its condition. The system includes not only monitors, recording devices and control panels but also a tractor-like camera un...
By DREW LAWSON Staff Reporter SPOKANE COUNTY — The Spokane County Sheriff’s office tends to receive more calls concerning gunshots being fired during hunting season. “I think as hunting season approaches, we start getting more people reporting sounds of gunshots out in the county, to where people are able to shoot and can do so safely,” Corporal Mark Gregory said. “As the hunting season starts, then people are obviously hearing shots due to people actually out hunting itself and we do tend to get calls at that time too.” Thr...
WEST PLAINS – Previous medication take back days have been so successful that organizers of the next event have doubled locations. National Medication Take Back Day is Oct. 24, and the annual day to get rid of unused and expired prescription drugs includes the Grocery Outlet in Cheney and Yoke’s Fresh Market Foods in Airway Heights — the second time for the latter. Drugs can be securely dropped off at both stores between 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. “In addition to collecting unused and expired medications we will also be handing o...
SPOKANE – The Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency has announced that the outdoor recreational fire restrictions imposed by local fire and county officials on July 20 has been lifted, effective Oct. 20. Restrictions were previously lifted by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for their permit and rule burns for silvicultural burning on state-protected lands. Area residents are asked to follow all rules regarding specific burning practices. According to the Regional Clean Air Agency, recreational fires i...
I have a couple basic rules regarding who I vote for. It has nothing to do with their political party. First rule: Never vote for a president who won’t show his tax returns, or who is secretly supported by our enemies (FYI: Russia is our enemy and has been so since WWII. I learned that in high school history class). Second rule: Never vote for a politician who didn’t graduate from high school. Trump and Culp are therefore eliminated as far as I’m concerned. Greg James Mercer Island...
The stock market has largely rebounded from COVID-19 and American retail sales are improving steadily. Even more encouraging is that the U.S. unemployment rate fell for the fifth consecutive month in September. Each of these gains are sure signs that the Trump administration’s economic response to the coronavirus crisis is working. But we are not out of the woods quite yet. Many factories and offices are still closed or operating at reduced capacity. Fortunately, the Trump administration is working to boost U.S. exports by h...
President Donald Trump just signed a new executive order to reform our healthcare system. While his desire to lower costs for patients is appropriate, the proposed changes would do more harm than good. The new “most-favored-nation” executive order would tie Medicare payments for certain medicines to the lowest price paid in other foreign nations. While this would result in some modest and short-term government savings, it would also have disastrous consequences for American patients and severely restrict the discovery of new...
I’ve lived in two exclusive vote-by-mail states during my time as an eligible voter. My first ballot ever cast was via the mailbox in Oregon. There the ballots are due in the hands of election officials by 8 p.m. on election night to be counted. Now living in Washington, I’ve trained myself not to worry about election results until the Friday following election day due to the state’s postmark deadline eligibility for ballots. I’ve often wondered how the country would react to the Washington experience of not knowing election...
CHENEY – A medical emergency sent a driver off the road and crashing into a downtown building early Saturday morning, Oct. 10. According to Cheney police Capt. Rick Beghtol, the male driver developed some sort of sudden back spasm that caused him to lose control of his vehicle, jump the curb and plow into the Clean-R-Up cleaning business at 211 1st Street around 7:17 a.m. The vehicle smashed through the front of the building into the office, coming to rest about three-quarters inside the structure. “It doesn’t look like...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — City planning’s industrial sub-area plan for a 300-acre area south of Highway 2, east of South Craig Road and along West McFarlane Road was approved by the Planning Commission after a public hearing Oct. 14 and will now move to City Council for another public hearing and final approval. The plan was funded by the Community Economic Revitalization Board through a $50,000 grant and produced targeted industries, marketing strategies and a phased development plan for the industrial area through data col...
COLFAX – Bill Stevenson feels at home behind the editor’s desk at the Whitman County Gazette. The “new” editor brings 27 years of journalism with him, most of it being while in Eastern Washington. Two years of reviewing software while living in Japan, and a year in Nevada running a national magazine for motorcycles. “Writing 24 stories about motor oil took the glamour out of writing about the motorcycle industry,” he said. “I went back to the wonderful diversity of community reporting.” Stevenson started his career at a weekl...
MEDICAL LAKE - The structure at Waterfront Park that was damaged after a tree fell on it during a windstorm in September will be removed and replaced, City Administrator Doug Ross informed the City Council at its Oct. 6 meeting. Ross didn't yet know costs of the replacement shelter, which is pictured above. The old and damaged shelter was removed Oct. 12. Mayor Shirley Maike reported that the city is working on the 2018-19 financial audit, risk management audit and getting...
SPOKANE COUNTY – The Library District’s Book-a-Librarian service is now offered remotely by phone and via online video sessions. This service helps library customers discover the tools, skills, and strategies they need to successfully do the things they want to do. Some examples of the services provided during a one-on-one Book-a-Librarian appointment include: Learning how to download the latest best-seller to your smartphone. Discovering strategies for finding the best educational content for at-home student learning. Get...
MEDICAL LAKE – First-graders will be returning to in-person learning five days a week at Hallett and Michael Anderson elementary schools, the district announced Oct. 19. Superintendent Tim Ames said in an online newsletter that the district had success with bringing back preschoolers and kindergartners in-person. These students returned in person Oct. 12. Kindergartners are in school all day, and first-graders will follow suit. Preschoolers are on half days at Michael Anderson, with some students learning Monday/Wednesday a...
CHENEY – Citing health and safety reasons, Eastern Washington University officials announced last week that they will continue with offering most classes online during winter quarter 2021. As with fall instruction, some in-person classes will be allowed for specific courses. Following the “online-first, maximum flexibility” approach used this term, all winter courses that can be taught online will be delivered through this platform. Eastern will identify classes that cannot be offered online, such as some labs, and appro...
WINDSOR – Fun runs play a huge part in funding local associated student body school events, but with Spokane County still not at a point where large gatherings of individuals are allowed under Covid-19 protocols, schools have looked to other means to fundraise. At Cheney School District’s Westwood Middle School, eight student leadership officers put their innovative heads together at the start of the school year and came up with an indoor version of the fun run that everyone could do. According to an Oct. 16 news rel...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS-The Planning Commission approved an ordinance for traffic impact fees (TIFs) assessed to city developers that are intended to help mitigate capital improvement costs within transportation that are correlated with development within city limits. The ordinance now moves to city council for final approval. According to an appendix written by T-O Engineers and presented at the planning commission's meeting by public works director Kevin Anderson, the base TIF rate...
CHENEY – The city’s proposed water reuse project (Purple Pipe Project) took another step towards realization last Tuesday when the City Council authorized officials to apply for a $22.8 million loan from the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the council design work on the project had been completed and submitted to the state Department of Ecology for their review. At full buildout, including engineering, and with a “healthy” 20 – 30 % contingency factored in, the project taps ou...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — Members of city staff and council met with lawyers and councilmembers of the Kalispel Tribe Oct. 1 to discuss perspectives regarding the city’s request for outstanding mitigation payments totaling $1,069,500 through a letter mailed by Mayor Kevin Richey Sept. 15. The Tribe responded with a letter written by Tribal Administrator Darren Holmes, within the city’s 15-day limit, but a check wasn’t included. Instead, the letter asked for further discussion of other payments made by the tribe to the city and cla...
Cheney High School student Madie Nicol reaches for a tossed candy as Morgan Hayes looks on during last Saturday night’s Homecoming car parade through the high school bus loop. With a traditional Homecoming denied due to Covid-19 restrictions and the move of football to a possible spring schedule, high school advisers Derek Slaughter and Jenna Tamura worked with student leaders to produce a week-long event that featured virtual activities culminating in a parade Saturday n...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The West Plains Chamber of Commerce has a new interim leader today. Deanna Williams took over the business organization this morning, Wednesday, Oct. 21, after former Executive Director Toby Broemmeling stepped down and the chamber's governing board accepted his resignation. Neither Williams nor Broemmeling could not be reached for comment by press time. Chamber board Chairman Erik Puthoff announced Broemmeling's departure in an email to members Tuesday, O...
