City Council Approves Expo Addition

The Post Falls City Council approved the first addition of Expo, listened to complaints about the draft city budget and voted to ignore their own fireworks law Tuesday night.

Expo, originally intended to be a 600-acre mega-mall and shopping center, lost a “hot and heavy foot race with the Spokane Valley Mall,” explained a spokesman for the developer Tuesday.

Instead, Expo will be a “power center,” with major retailers surrounded by smaller businesses. Fred Meyer is the first “power store” to purchase a lot and will be in the first addition.

The developer, Watson & Associates, agreed to pay for half the improvements to the intersection at Pleasantview and Fifth Avenue. A signal should be installed in the spring.

In other business, resident Don Morgan objected to several requests in the city budget, including $343,000 for parks and $20,000 for the city Arts Commission.

A budget hearing is scheduled for next week.

The council also voted to allow fireworks as part of “The Story of Q’Emiln” play planned for this weekend’s Festival of the Falls, even though their own ordinance prohibits the shooting of fireworks on public property.

, DataTimes