In brief: Council votes to raise trash rates 4.3 percent

Residential and commercial trash rates will increase 4.3 percent next year in the city of Spokane.

The Spokane City Council voted 4-3 to approve the new rates.

Administrators originally proposed a 5.5 percent increase, but that was before county commissioners balked at a plan to raise the per-ton fee for disposing trash at the Spokane Waste-to-Energy Plant from $98 to $108. Instead the fee was increased to $104.

That enabled the city to lower the increase needed to pick up trash at the curb from 5.5 to 4.3 percent, said Solid Waste Director Scott Windsor.

Council members Bob Apple, Steve Corker and Nancy McLaughlin opposed the increase.

Next year, monthly rates will change for:

• 32-gallon bin service from $14.21 to $14.82.

• 64-gallon bin service from $25.73 to $26.84.

• 95-gallon bin service from $37.56 to $39.18.

Driver in fatal crash sentenced to one year

A 20-year-old Spokane woman has been sentenced to a year in jail for a fatal 2010 crash that killed a Lewis and Clark High graduate and Eastern Washington University student.

Brooke A. Reese was booked into Spokane County Jail on Thursday. She’s eligible to serve about two-thirds of her sentence if credited for good behavior. She’s to be on probation for a year after her release.

Reese was charged in Spokane County Superior Court with vehicular homicide for a crash that killed Jacoby N. Bryant, 19, on Feb. 14, 2010. She pleaded guilty to the felony last week and was sentenced by Judge Linda Tompkins. A second suspect, Taylor D. Marean, is scheduled for trial Jan. 23.

Reese and Marean were said to be racing southbound on Hatch Road near 54th Avenue when their cars collided. Bryant was in the passenger seat of Reese’s 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, which struck a tree after colliding with Marean’s 2005 BMW, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

Reese reportedly admitted to drinking four shots of vodka at a party before the deadly crash.

According to court records, Reese’s blood-alcohol level was 0.06 and Marean’s was 0.12; detectives say they found methamphetamine in Reese’s purse.

Woman struck, killed by Sounder commuter train

SEATTLE – A young woman was struck and killed by a Sounder commuter train in south Seattle on Monday.

BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said the train’s crew members blew the whistle and applied the emergency brake Monday evening but were unable to stop before hitting the 21-year-old woman. She was not immediately identified.