Mayor-elect David Condon will take the oath of office in front of the Riverfront Park clocktower at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 30, the city announced this morning in a news release.

A reception will follow in the Carrousel.

Council President-elect Ben Stuckart will take his oath on Dec. 28 at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, where he serves on the board.

Council members-elect Mike Allen, Mike Fagan and Steve Salvatori will take their oaths at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 29 in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

None of the new city officials will officially take office until midnight on Jan. 1, but under state law they must take the oath of office within 10 days prior to that time.

In honor of King Cole, whose memorial service is Thursday morning, I present what may be my favorite photo in The Spokesman-Review's great photo archives. It's from the grand opening of Riverfront Park.

Here's the caption:

President Jimmy Carter momentarily looks the wrong way as the flag is raised during his May 1978 visit to Spokane's Riverfront Park. King Cole, a major influence in bringing Expo '74 to Spokane points the direction to president should be facing. Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus (left) and former Spokane Mayor David Rodgers (2nd from left) watch the ceremony. File/The Spokesman-Review

Also to commemorate Cole, Spokane Mayor Mary Verner has ordered flags at city-owned properties to fly at half-mast on Thursday and is encouraging others to also fly flags at half-mast.

Spokane's CityCable 5 announced this week that it will replay chats between Mayor Mary Verner and King Cole. The programs originally aired in 2008.

They will be shown at:

• 6:30 p.m. Friday.
• 9 p.m. Sunday.
• 6 p.m. Monday.

The Spokane version of Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” will feature comedian Paula Poundstone Saturday, organizers said.

Poundstone is in Spokane for a couple of shows. Organizers asked her to come by Riverfront Park for the event. She said yes.

The rally is Stewart’s send-up of the Glenn Beck gathering at the Lincoln Memorial last August. Groups around the country (including Spokane Democrats) are sponsoring their local versions.

The Spokane rally is at noon, apparently designed to give participants a chance to watch the D.C. version (which starts at 9 a.m. Pacific) on the tube before heading downtown.

Still unclear: Just when did we have this sanity folks are talking about restoring?

Jon Stewart’s mock protest gathering, the Rally to Restore Sanity, will have a Spokane version on Oct. 30 in Riverfront Park.

As seen below, Stewart announced a send-up earlier this month of the Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Whether intended or not, it struck a nerve and people started making plans to go to the National Mall and setting up satellite rallies around the country. Local organizers have set their gathering at Riverfront from 9 a.m. to noon.

Possible discussion topic: Would it take more work to restore sanity to Spokane than elsewhere? Would we be a better location for a satellite version of Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive?

Spokane park leaders figured in November that the debate about the vacant downtown YMCA was about to end.

After all, the financial analysis demanded by City Council had just been released. It recommended accepting Spokane County’s offer to use Conservation Futures property taxes to pay off the city’s debt on the building. Councilman Mike Allen said the analysis had persuaded him to support the Park Board’s request to use the money, and Councilman Al French even sponsored the proposal for a council vote.

But opponents of spending Conservation Futures money on the Y successfully delayed action until Allen was replaced on the council by Jon Snyder, and French ended up siding against the resolution he sponsored.

That vote in late November sent the decision into extra innings, and city leaders decided to solicit bids on the property.

Park Board members never expressed much worry about the process. They said their work on the building over the years pointed to a bid process that would result in no proposals that would guarantee full repayment of the city’s debt. That guess turned out to be correct.

The question for supporters of securing the YMCA was finding a fourth vote.

(First, because it’s not from our newspaper archives, I should start with information about the photo: It shows the Howard Street bridge and Havermale and Canada islands, sometime before 1927. There is vacant land southwest of the bridge where the downtown YMCA would be built in the mid-1960s. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture/Eastern Washington State Historical Society, Spokane.)

It looks like March 22 will be the date the public will get to weigh in on the future of the Riverfront Park YMCA.

City Council President Joe Shogan announced that a public hearing will be scheduled for that date, though he added it could be delayed until March 29.

Councilman Steve Corker, who said earlier this week that it appeared that a majority of the council did not support the acceptance of Spokane County’s offer to use Conservation Futures property taxes to acquire the Riverfront Park YMCA, now says an outcome is unclear.

First the Spokane City Council supported Conservation Futures, then it didn’t.

At the start of Monday, a majority of the Spokane City Council leaned in favor of accepting Spokane County’s offer to purchase the Riverfront Park YMCA, according to an e-mail Councilman Steve Corker sent to a constituent.

By the end of the day, however, the majority was lost.

So what happened?

It appears Chief Financial Officer Gavin Cooley successfully convinced at least one council member at a Monday meeting about the Y that a “third option” for paying off the city’s $4.4 million debt was better than using county Conservation Futures property taxes or development proposals that the city received late last month.

That third option isn’t yet defined, but, Cooley said, it could include higher hotel taxes, selling off park land or asking voters for more property taxes. He also reminded council members that the city once had a business and occupation tax to help pay for Expo ’74 improvements.

Responding to an e-mail from constituent Dawn Holladay, Councilman Steve Corker wrote on Monday afternoon: “I am in favor of using Conservation Futures monies for this site. I plan on voting the same this evening.”

(Not that the City Council could have voted for anything at the YMCA meeting because it was scheduled only for discussion.)

After Cooley’s presentation at the meeting, Corker appeared to have changed his mind.

Spokane residents should not get too jumpy in the coming weeks as a couple of different groups run a couple of exercises here abouts.

Later this week, the U.S. Army Rangers will be conducting night time exercises at Fairchild Air Force Base. West Plains residents living nearby, and motorists driving by on Highway 2 or other byways, are likely to hear lots of low-flying aircraft — airplanes and helicopters — as well as gunfire. The ammunition isn’t live.

There won’t be anything to see, off-base, but it will be kind of noisy, from Thursday night through Monday night.

Then on Aug. 4, the Spokane Police Department will be holding a SWAT team demonstration involving a school bus, in a Riverfront Park parking lot north of the river off Washington Street. They’re hoping folks in the park and downtown workers don’t mistake it for the real thing.

The Spokane Park Board has banned smoking in city parks.. Sort of.

It might change its mind next Thursday after a public hearing on whether to ban smoking in city parks…But don’t count on it.

If the ban holds, a person who lights up in a city park might get the evil eye, or maybe a good talking to from someone who disapproves… But there won’t be any tickets or fines.

Here’s what’s going on, as best as anyone can tell…