In brief: Former police spokesman dies

Richard M. “Dick” Cottam, a former Spokane Police Department spokesman and television journalist, died Friday. He was 81.

Cottam served with the Marine Corps in Korea, where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart. He then attended the University of Missouri, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He taught there and worked at a local radio station, then took a job with NBC in Chicago and New York.

He left NBC and moved to Wichita, Kan., where he taught journalism at Wichita State University and worked at KAKE-TV.

He and his wife, JoyLyn, moved to Spokane, where Cottam worked as an assignment editor and newscast producer for KHQ-TV. Then he went to work for the city of Spokane as a spokesman for the Police Department. He retired when police Chief Roger Bragdon retired in December 2005.

Cottam and his wife returned to Wichita. She and a daughter, Christine Susan Cottam, survive him.

A memorial service will be held Tuesday morning at Cochran Mortuary in Wichita.

Many offices closed today

Here’s how the Christmas holiday will affect local services today:

• Federal, state, county and city offices are closed.

• Federal and state courts are closed.

• Parking meters in Spokane do not have to be plugged.

• Spokane Transit Authority will operate on its holiday service. Details: www.spokanetransit.com.

• Spokane Public Library’s downtown, Shadle and South Hill branches are closed. The East Side, Hillyard and Indian Trail branches will be closed Tuesday.

• Curbside residential trash and recycling collection will be delayed one day this week. If your trash is normally collected Friday, it will be collected Saturday. The Spokane County Waste-to-Energy facility and the transfer stations are open today.

• Mail will not be delivered.

• Riverfront Park attractions, including the Looff Carrousel and Spokane Falls Skyride, are open.

Heating assistance exceeds estimates

Low-income residents who need help paying heating bills may schedule an appointment beginning Jan. 6 to apply.

SNAP, the private, nonprofit social services agency, said it will be able to help about 3,000 more households because federal energy assistance cuts were not as deep as previously believed.

In the first round of appointments that began in the fall, heads of about 6,500 households scheduled appointments, and about half of those have been seen, according to SNAP spokeswoman Tricia Ovnicek.

The agency recommends appointments be made by visiting snapwa.org, but people without Internet access also may call (509) 242-2376 between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, or from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 7.

Windstorm causes West Side outages

SEATTLE — Seattle City Light said a windstorm caused scattered power outages as it moved through the Seattle area on Sunday.

More than 18,000 customers were without power for at least part of the day, in both the north and sound ends of Seattle City Light’s service territory.

The National Weather Service in Seattle issued a wind advisory Sunday from Bellingham to south of Olympia, while a gale advisory was issued for coastal communities.