Chief Bob Anderson of Spokane County Fire District 9 has retired after more than 25 years with Spokane County Fire. He’s shown at District 9's Station 92 on Friday. SR photo/Jesse Tinsley

We've got some great stuff in today's Valley Voice to go over while to wait to see if we ever get any snow that sticks around longer than required to make the streets slippery. Spokane County Fire District 9 Chief Bob Anderson has retired. In fact, he's probably sipping coffee in his retirement home in Boise as I type this. He's had a very long career that is very unusual for its tenure (26 years as chief) and his expertise in incident management that has helped make the whole state safer.

The Spokane Valley City Council came through for Valleyfest again, voting to give the organization $35,200 in lodging tax funds after the majority of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee did not recommend funding the organization. At the end of this week's meeting, council woman Brenda Grassel made a surprise announcement that she is resigning her position because she is moving outside the city limits.

Reporter Lisa Leinberger has a story on the annual foreign exchange student mixer hosted by West Valley High School for the last 20 years. Students representing 19 countries attended the recently event.  

Tonight we'll get our first look at election results. The actual counting will last a week or more, but the first batch of votes counted on election day usually gives a good indication if something is passing. Click here after 8 p.m. tonight to find out if the replacement maintenance and operations levies of the Spokane Valley Fire Department and Spokane County Fire District 9 are passing. You can also check our main page for election results for those issues as well other state and local races.

Skyway Cafe owner Sandy Melter, left, talks with Jerry Martin, center, and Ron Webber, right, at the “pilots table,” Tuesday. Located at Felts Field, the Skyway is 63 years old and filled with aviation memorabilia. SR photo/Jesse Tinsley

Welcome to another hot and sunny day in Spokane. To celebrate we have a tour of today's Valley Voice. Reporter Lisa Leinberger is continuing her tour of places to see in the Spokane Valley area and this week she visited the Skyway Cafe at Felts Field. The cafe is known for its good food and prime location that allows diners to watch planes taking off and landing at the airport.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department and Spokane County Fire District 9, both of which serve residents in the Spokane Valley area, have replacement maintenance and operations levies on the August ballot. Both districts get a significant amount of their annual budget from the levies. The ballots should begin arriving in the mail this week and must be returned by Aug. 7.

The Spokane Valley City Council got its first look this week at draft goals and policies for the shoreline plan that have been recommended for approval by the city's planning commission. There will be a lot more dicussion on this at future meetings.

Lisa also wrote about new West Valley School District assistant superintendent Jean Marczynski, who most recently worked for the Central Valley School District for many years.