Region in brief: Power restored to most residents
Power was restored by Monday to most Inland Northwest residents left in the dark by Sunday’s storm.
Inland Power and Light, which had 1,200 customers in the Deer Park area without power Sunday evening, had everyone back on line before the end of the day, said Inland Power and Light spokesperson Catherine Parochetti Markson.
At one point Sunday, 3,100 Avista customers were without power. Avista spokeswoman Sandra Hoye said Monday evening that 552 customers remained without power. “The majority of them are north of Colville,” she said.
Nine Avista customers near Spokane Valley were still without power Monday evening. Hoye said Avista crews were working on getting everyone’s power back on by midnight.
Kootenai Electric reported more than 800 customers without power for about two hours Monday afternoon.
“It sounds like it was a lighting strike that affected the entire Plummer substation,” Kootenai Electric’s spokesperson Erika Neff said. “Everything is back to normal now.”
Pia Hallenberg Christensen
Partner benefits suit back in court
OLYMPIA – An attempt to block a statewide vote on expanded benefits for domestic partners is back in court today.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee will hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by a group called Washington Families Standing Together. The group claims that Secretary of State Sam Reed improperly accepted thousands of petition signatures.
The referendum’s sponsor, a group called Protect Marriage Washington, wants a public vote on the “everything but marriage” law.
Associated Press
Fire razes town’s namesake mill
WAITSBURG, Wash. – A fire has destroyed a mill that gave the Walla Walla County city of Waitsburg its name.
The fire Sunday burned the Preston- Shaffer Mill, also known as Wait’s Mill. The five-story building was built in 1865 by Sylvester Wait. It operated until 1957. In 2005 it was placed on the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of “most endangered historic properties.”
Associated Press