In brief: Valley woman, 64, dies after apartment fire

Authorities will wait until Monday to identify a 64-year-old Spokane Valley woman who died following a fire in her apartment early Saturday morning.

Spokane Valley Fire Department crews responded at 4:47 a.m. to a call for help at the Tschirley Crossing Apartments, 107 S. Tschirley Road.

Neighbors told the arriving fire crew that the woman was inside but apparently injured from a fall and unable to escape the blaze.

After fire crews entered the unit, the woman was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center, where she died, according to a news report.

Terri Martinson of the Spokane County medical examiner’s office said an autopsy Monday morning had to be performed before the victim’s name would be released.

Tom Sowa

Sewer rate increase proposed

Sewer rates for homes in Spokane County could go up $5 a month next year and $11.50 by 2012 under fee increases being studied by county commissioners.

Commissioners plan to hold a hearing Tuesday on proposed sewer rate increases, which they say are a result of the cost of building and operating a new sewage treatment facility, currently under construction in east Spokane. Along with monthly rate increases, the county is proposing increases to connection fees and general facilities charges. Commercial and industrial rates also would increase.

The hearing is set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the lower level of the Public Works Building, 1026 W. Broadway Ave.

Jim Camden

Free HIV testing offered

Panhandle Health District will offer free HIV tests by appointment at several offices over the next week, in conjunction with National HIV Testing Day on Saturday.

Tests are open to people ages 13 to 64; results come back in 15 minutes.

Testing will be offered Thursday in Hayden, 8500 N. Atlas Road; call (208) 415-5270 for an appointment. Testing in St. Maries will be Wednesday and Thursday at 137 N. Eighth St.; call (208) 245-4556. Testing will be Tuesday and June 29 in Bonners Ferry, at 7402 Caribou St.; call (208) 267-5558. Testing will be Monday and Thursday in Sandpoint, at 1020 Michigan St.; call (208) 263-5159. And tests will be done Monday in Kellogg, at 114 Riverside Ave.; call (208) 786-7474.

Alison Boggs

Plaque will mark temple site

A plaque commemorating the site of the first Jewish synagogue in Washington state will be reinstalled in downtown Spokane on Thursday after it was damaged by vandals earlier this year.

The plaque marks the location at Third Avenue and Madison Street where the Reform Jewish Temple Emanu-El was dedicated on Sept. 14, 1892, four days before Seattle’s Ohaveth Sholum.

Dignitaries, including Spokane Mayor Mary Verner and Hilary Bernstein of the Anti-Defamation League in Seattle, will attend the rededication of the restored plaque at 11 a.m.

Temple Emanu-El, which no longer stands, was used until a new Spokane temple was built at Eighth Avenue and Walnut Street in the 1920s, according to Spokesman-Review archives.

Kevin Graman