West Valley senior Corbin Smith, left, tapes the wrist of sophomore cheerleader Kensley Seacrest under the watchful eye of sports medicine instructor Keith Eggleston at West Valley High School on Tuesday. SR photo Jesse Tinsley

Good Monday morning, everyone. I hope everyone had a nice, restful holiday. I wonder how many people are having turkey sandwiches for lunch today? Anyway, on to some highlights from Saturday's Valley Voice. Reporter Lisa Leinberger has a story on the sports medicine program at the new Spokane Valley Tech. It joins other new programs for high school students that include aerospace and advanced manufacturing.

Spokane Valley city councilman Ben Wick is nearly fninished with his first year on the city council. He talks about his role on the council and how that fits in with his work and personal life. We also have some details on who has applied for open positions on the city's planning commission and Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.

Correspondent Steve Christilaw has a story on the coming basketball season at Central Valley High School and Freeman High School.

Central Valley defensive coordinator Steve Kent’s intense energy and enthusiasm has sparked his Bears in holding their opponents to just 12 points in their last three games, including two playoff wins. SR photo/J. Bart Rayniak

Saturday's Valley Voice is packed to the gills with news from the Spokane Valley area. Correspondent Steve Christilaw checked in with the Central Valley High School football team, which has had a successful season. Spokane Valley City Council candidate Ben Wick has clinched a win over competitor Marilyn Cline to take a seat on the council. Wick was ahead by only 20 votes on election night, but he drew further ahead as the vote counting continued.

Reporter Lisa Leinberger has a story on last week's Liberty Lake City Council meeting, which operated without a quorum for a while. The Spokane Valley City Council, after much discussion and a close vote, agreed to allow city staff to apply for a grant to build a decant facility to process the waste removed from the city's drywells. The council also unanimously approved the 2012 budget.

Fire District 8, Fire District 13 and the town of Rockford are regrouping after fire levies and bonds failed at the November polls. Each is considering how to move forward after voters rejected their request for money. Commissioners from the Spokane Valley Fire Department heard a presentation on their 2012 budget last week, which includes the construction of a new Station 6.  

The race between incumbent Councilman Richard Rush and former Councilman Mike Allen for Rush's south Spokane City Council seat was sent within recount margins by counting on Tuesday.

Only 92 votes now separate the two, and if the race remains within a half percentage point, it will be recounted by computer. If it gets within a quarter of a percentage point, it will be recounted by hand.

Currently, Allen leads Rush 50.22 percent to 49.78 percent.

There are 369 votes to count. Rush needs to capture about 63 percent of them to win.

Also in Spokane, Proposition 1, the Community Bill of Rights, finally went to defeat on Tuesday. It trails by a little over 1,000 votes. It captured 49.1 percent of the vote. The group that worked to place it on the ballot, Envision Spokane, might consider the neck-and-neck outcome a victory since its first attempt to pass a different Community Bill of Rights was defeated with only 24 percent support in 2009. 

The results for Spokane mayor haven't changed much from election night. David Condon had 52.4 percent of the vote to Mary Verner's 47.6 percent after Tuesday's count.

In Spokane Valley, Ben Wick definitively captured a seat on City Council in Tuesday's count. He leads Marilyn Cline by 360 votes. There are only 364 votes left to count in the race.

Countywide, there are about 2,600 votes left to count.

The Spokane County Elections Office just released another vote total, putting Ben Wick in the lead against challenger Marilyn Cline in the race for Spokane Valley City Council Position 6 by 360 votes. The County has 1,000 ballots left to count and about 400 of those are from Spokane Valley residents. It is statistically unlikely that Cline could collect enough of those votes to win the seat. Another vote count is scheduled to be released tomorrow at 5 p.m.

As the vote counting continues and Ben Wick keeps increasing his lead over fellow Spokane Valley City Council candidant Marilyn Cline, it now seems safe to say that Wick will replace retiring councilman Bill Gothmann. In the most recent vote count released Monday night, Wick now holds a 354 vote lead over Cline, who campaigned with the Positive Change candidates. On election night Wick's lead was only 20 votes and it has grown steadily since. Wick's election means he will be the only non-Positive Change council member for the city.

In the other city council races, the Postive Change candidates have maintained their election night leads. Dean Grafos, Arne Woodard and Chuck Hafner won new terms on the council. The closest race there was between Woodard and Dee Dee Loberg, who collected 47 percent of the vote.

Another ballot tally is scheduled to be released tonight at 5 p.m. Only 5,000 Spokane County ballots remain to be counted.  

A race for Spokane City Council inched closer to an automatic recount on Monday in the fourth day of ballot counting from the Nov. 8 election. Former Councilman Mike Allen’s lead over incumbent Richard Rush for a seat representing south Spokane fell by 17 votes to 135.

There are about 1,143 votes left to count in the contest, and if it tightens to within a half percentage point, an automatic computer recount will occur. Allen currently has 50.33 percent to Rush’s 49.67 percent.

Spokane Proposition 1, the Community Bill of Rights, appears to be headed to defeat after the fourth day of counting. It lost ground and is trailing by 1,013 votes with 2,777 left to count.

In Spokane Valley, Ben Wick’s lead over Marilyn Cline for City Council position 6 grew to 354 votes. There are 1,120 votes left count.

Most people have probably heard about the election results by now, but here's a look at today's story if you missed it. Voters in Spokane Valley had only one thing on the ballot - narrowing the field of candidates for Bill Gothmann's council seat from four to two. It's shaping up as a contest between the old council supporters and the new council supporters. Marilyn Cline, who has the support of the Mayor and most council members, got the most votes at 3,702 (41%). Ben Wick, who was endorsed by Gothmann and others who favored the previous council, came in a respectable second at 2,288 votes (25%).

Longtime SCOPE volunteer John Baldwin came in third with 1,507 votes (17%) despite not actively campaigning or raising any money. Retired mining executive Lewis Higgins, a relative newcomer to the Valley compared to the other candidates, picked up 1,392 votes (15%). The elections office also counted 113 write in ballots, but there's no way of telling who people were writing in. It's probably a safe bet that a few jokers wrote in Mickey Mouse.

There's still a few thousand votes to count, so the results aren't official yet. I wouldn't expect any large change in the percentage results, though.

Residents along Walnut Road are voicing their opposition to a rezone request by St. John Vianney to build low-income senior housing on its property. SR photo/J. Bart Rayniak

It's a fine and lovely Monday morning out there - at least until the clouds move in later - so let's take a look at a few highlights from Saturday's Valley Voice. St. John Vianney Church and its neighbors are no longer in discussions about a zoning request that would allow the construction of a low income senior housing complex, but the rezone is still moving through the process. Correspondent Mike Vlahovich has a story on retiring high school track and field coach Howard Dolphin. He worked at East Valley High School for many years, then moved on to West Valley High School.

Reporter Lisa Lienberger has a look at the huge new sign at Liberty High School in Spangle. It celebrates academic and musical achievements as well as sports awards. Those who follow the actions of the Spokane Valley City Council will recognize the names of the latest people to throw their hat in the ring for the November 2011 elections. DeeDee Loberg has filed to run against appointee Arne Woodard and Ben Wick has filed to run for the seat held by Bill Gothmann, who has said he will not run for re-election.

On a side note, this week is the official filing week for all positions that will be on the ballot. Candidates must file through the Spokane County Elections Office by the end of the day Friday. We have a list of all positions up for election this fall here.