Area flash-flood warnings in effect
Flood watches throughout areas of Eastern Washington and North Idaho will continue until 10 a.m. today.
Kitittas County in Central Washington was under a flash-flood warning. The National Weather Service, meanwhile, issued flood warnings and watches for parts of Okanogan, Douglas, Grant, Lincoln, Adams, Spokane, Whitman, Asotin and Garfield counties in Washington. In Idaho, warnings and watches were in effect from Kootenai County to well south of Lewiston.
As heavy rain fell Monday throughout the region, a trucker reported seeing a funnel cloud near Moses Lake, said Rocco Pelatti, a weather service forecaster in Spokane.
City honors late wastewater worker
Today is Mike Cmos Day in the city of Spokane, in honor of a wastewater plant worker killed in a massive tank failure at the city’s sewer treatment plant last May 10.
Cmos’ widow, Kathy, and daughter Jennifer, 13, appeared Monday before the Spokane City Council to receive the proclamation issued by Mayor Jim West.
Cmos was killed when the roof on a 2 million gallon digester was overfilled and separated from its walls.
Cmos was caught on the roof, where he had gone in an attempt to stop a leak of sewage sludge. His body was recovered from near the bottom of the tank two days later after much of its remaining contents were removed.
Two other workers suffered serious injuries, and investigations showed lapses in worker safety procedures and an unexplained malfunction of an automatic system used to read tank levels, among other problems.
Changes are being made to prevent another accident.
Chuck Meyers, a worker at the plant, said money is still being raised for a memorial artwork.
Contributions may be made at Spokane City Credit Union, 1930 N. Monroe.
A memorial bench has been placed along Northwest Boulevard overlooking the plant on Aubrey L. White Parkway.
Sasquatch reported missing from museum
Sedro-Woolley, Wash. A sasquatch known to exist is missing.
An 8-foot-tall wooden statue of a sasquatch was stolen from the front of the Sedro-Woolley town museum late Friday or early Saturday, Police Chief Doug Wood said.
“We’d like any information if anyone sees our sasquatch,” Wood said. “It’s kind of hard to miss.”
The sculpture, estimated to be worth $2,000, had been bolted to the sidewalk in front of the Sedro-Woolley History Museum, Wood said.
18 condominiums planned on tiny lot
Bellevue, Wash. A condominium development is being proposed for a lot smaller than most lots with single-family homes.
The 20-story building is proposed for a 5,682-square-foot lot – so small that there will be just one condo per floor and a total of 18 units.
Instead of an underground parking garage, plans call for an automated mechanical parking system, somewhat like an elevator, that can accommodate 32 cars.
Building designer Jeffrey Hummel said he has found only two such systems in the United States – none on the West Coast. He said the system is more common in Asia and Europe, where land for building is scarce.
“It’s a small site. To bring it to its highest and best use, we had to figure out how to get value out of it,” Hummel said.
The condo project is expected to cost $8.7 million, he said.
Manslaughter charges filed in fatal crash
Boise A Boise man was charged Monday with vehicular manslaughter and a college football player may also face charges in what police describe as a 100-mph highway showdown that ended with the deaths of a young couple and their 5-week-old baby.
Tony and Stephanie Perfect of Boise, both 23, and their daughter Zoe were killed instantly Saturday night when their car was struck by one of two vehicles police say were racing on Idaho state Highway 55.
The family was en route to a church camp in Horseshoe Bend, about 30 miles north of town.
Mark Lazinka, 45, whose truck struck the victims’ car, was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter and booked into Ada County jail on $1 million bond. Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney said alcohol was a factor in the crash, and Lazinka may also be charged with drunken driving. With a drunken-driving enhancement to the manslaughter charges, he would face up to 15 years and a $15,000 fine on each count.
Boise State University football starting strong safety Cam Hall, 22, of Kennewick, said by police to have been driving the vehicle racing Lazinka’s truck, has not yet been charged.
He likely will at least be charged with misdemeanor reckless driving, Raney said, but he did not rule out other charges after investigators have completed their work.
Woman awarded degree posthumously
A Montana woman got her degree posthumously from Lewis & Clark College in a weekend ceremony in which all graduates wore purple ribbons and the entire audience stood silently to honor Cody Dieruf of Bozeman.
Dieruf died of cystic fibrosis 11 days before graduation at the age of 23.
The posthumous bachelor of arts degree was conferred upon Dieruf in commencement ceremonies Sunday at the school in Portland, Ore.
About 370 graduating seniors and faculty wore purple ribbons of remembrance for her, and professor Linda Isako Angst read Dieruf’s final letter, sent by her older brother, Levi. It thanked the students and faculty for being her second family.
At the moment her name was read for conferral of her degree in sociology and anthropology, the entire audience stood for a moment of silence to honor the time it would have taken her to walk across the stage to get her degree, a school spokeswoman said.
INL contractor to file restructuring plans
Idaho Falls The contractor in charge of cleaning up the Idaho National Laboratory site will submit a workforce-restructuring plan to the U.S. Department of Energy this week.
The proposal from CH2M-WG Idaho is the first step toward layoffs of some of the roughly 2,600 cleanup workers at the site. Some layoffs could start in about six months, but company spokeswoman Amy Lientz said numbers would not be released until the overall plan was approved.