May 31, 2006 in City

Vigil planned tonight for boating victims

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A candlelight vigil is planned tonight at the home of one of four Dayton residents who died over the holiday weekend of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning while boating on Dworshak Reservoir near Orofino, Idaho.

Kyle D. Hayes, one of the victims, would have turned 13 today.

Clearwater County sheriff’s deputies found Hayes and friend, Jon Smith, 12, dead in a pleasure boat that ran ashore about two miles northeast of Dworshak State Park. The boys and Smith’s stepfather and mother – Jeffery R. Meredith, 36, and Natalie A. Meredith, 34 – apparently were asphyxiated by exhaust fumes trapped under the motorboat’s canopy.

“People in the community are reacting with shock, sadness and empathy for the families,” Dayton Middle School Principal Katie Leid said. Leid said counselors, clergy and teachers were available to talk to students at the school where Hayes and Smith were seventh-graders.

The school has 92 students, 56 of whom are seventh-graders, Leid said.

She described Smith and Hayes as “wonderful kids, with great senses of humor – and so well-liked by all their classmates.”

Leid said both families are well known in Dayton, population 2,715. Hayes’ mother works at Dayton General Hospital; Jeffery Meredith worked for the Columbia Rural Electric Association.

– John Craig

OLYMPIA

Senate committee will meet in Spokane

After years of making Eastern Washingtonians brave wintry mountain passes or foggy airfields to make their voices heard in Olympia, the state Senate is coming to Spokane.

In a 4-3 vote, the Senate’s Facilities and Operations Committee decided Tuesday to hold its fall “committee days” hearings Sept. 25 and 26 at an as-yet undecided venue in Spokane.

Republicans objected, citing the $33,000 cost, but were outvoted by majority Democrats.

The meeting is expected to bring roughly 45 committee and caucus staff and dozens of senators and lobbyists.

During committee days, lawmakers meet and hear public comment regarding potential changes in state law for the coming legislative session, which starts in January.

– Rich Roesler

Spokane

41 drunken drivers nabbed over weekend

Washington State Patrol troopers took 41 drunken drivers off the roads in the Spokane area during the Memorial Day weekend – six more than last year.

Troopers also responded to 35 collisions between Saturday and Monday, but none involving serious injuries or fatalities, WSP spokesman Trooper Jeff Sevigney said. In 2005, troopers investigated two fatality collisions in north Spokane County.

The emphasis patrols this year focused on state highways that are primary routes to outdoor vacation destinations, Sevigney said.

– Jody Lawrence-Turner

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