Adam Lynn

It soon may cost more for Valley residents to throw away their garbage. Valley Garbage Service rates for both residential and commercial customers are scheduled to increase by more than 5 percent soon.

More patrol cars will be cruising Bieglow Gulch Road in an effort to reduce the number of accidents on the busy highway. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Jennifer Nixon helps launch a 14-foot kite in Franklin Park on Monday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

An arbitrator decided this week that Valley Herald publisher Clark Hager owes former owners John and Barbara Vlahovich more than $30,000. Arbitrator Greg Jalbert issued his decision Thursday. "Couldn't have happened to a meaner guy," John Vlahovich said in a telephone interview from his home in North Idaho.

1. Rep. Mark Sterk 2. Rep. Larry Crouse

The federal government is tired of messing around with Stan Sloan. For the past eight months, federal officials have tried to talk the Post Falls man into granting them an easement across a 30-foot wide strip of land he owns in the Valley. Sloan has been intransigent.

A group of Opportunity residents managed Thursday to stop a 48-lot subdivision proposed for their neighborhood. Developer Ken Tupper planned the development on about eight acres between Pierce and University, 10th and 12th. Tupper asked the county's hearing examiner committee to upgrade the residential zoning on the land from 3.5 houses per acre to as many as seven.

Marge and Tom Bester hoped to turn the back yard of their home in Ridgemont Estates into a little oasis. The couple planted fruit trees, a grape vine, berry bushes, flowers and grass, and Tom Bester erected a fine-looking wooden privacy fence. "We worked so hard to make it nice for us," said Marge Bester, who moved into the new home on South Sonora Drive last January.

1. A youthful Amanda Madson. Family photo 2. Amanda Madson on her 100th birthday, in 1992. Well into her 90s, she tended cattle on the family's Liberty Lake ranch. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The barrier now blocking Cataldo Road at Mission Avenue is coming down. Spokane County commissioners voted 3-0 this week to remove the concrete structure. The county put up the blockade in 1992 after residents complained that speeders were tearing up and down Cataldo and Ravalli.

Carlos H. Landa, at 84, is the senior member of Mexico's worldwide consular corps, serving here for more than 40 years. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

One large hole is forming in the middle of the proposed city of Lilac Valley, and another is likely to open up in a few weeks. While the voids may not sink the proposal to form a municipality of 75,000 in the Spokane Valley, they will definitely complicate it and may force drastic changes. Lilac Valley proponents learned at a public meeting Monday that a smaller incorporation effort underway in the Valley is headed to the polls.

An informal survey of Spokane Valley residents shows that many are eager to have sewer lines extended to their neighborhoods. They also want to pay for sewers differently, the survey reveals, and are curious about why it's taking so long for the county to expand the service.

Development The county's hearing examiner committee will consider two Valley development proposals at its meeting this month. Windermere Realty wants to turn eight acres on 12th Avenue into a 46-lot subdivision. And Steve Smart of Spokane wants to build a convenience store at the intersection of Bigelow Gulch and Argonne roads.

Delbert and LaVerne Foss outside their Northwood home, which they say has a poorly constructed roof. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County prosecutors are deciding whether to pursue criminal charges against the former office manager of the Irvin Water District. Deputy prosecutor Mark Lindsey said this week his office had been notified of a state audit that found Betty Skillingstad misappropriated more than $2,500 in district money. Prosecutors are reviewing the audit to decide if they will pursue the case, said Lindsey, who leads the prosecutor's fraud team.

Yet another effort is under way to form a large city in the urban area east of Spokane. It's the fourth such attempt since 1990.

1. Jack Cunningham says his World War II piloting adventures can't compare to the thrills of photography. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jack Cunningham at a table with aircraft photographs on the wall behind him. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County commissioners have approved a plan to pump aluminum sulfate into Newman Lake in a continuing effort to clean up the Valley lake. The chemical is known to attach itself to phosphorous molecules in water and make them sink to the bottom. Suspended phosphorous is thought to contribute to algae blooms, which can kill both plants and animals and dramatically quicken the natural decline of lakes.

Tony Lazanis has won his fight with the railroad over noisy, late-night whistles near his Trent Avenue motel. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The on-again off-again Flora Meadows development is off again after a Superior Court judge reversed himself. Judge Marcus Kelly decided this month he was wrong when he granted developer Wes Crosby permission to build the 31-home development earlier this year. Kelly withdrew a ruling he made in February that would have allowed Crosby to move forward with the subdivision. The reversal lets stand a county commissioners' decision to deny the development.

Seven of the eight developers who went before the county hearing examiner committee last week got their Spokane Valley subdivision proposals approved. John Stone Development Inc. was the odd one out. The company wants to build a 62-unit apartment complex on 7.4 acres near Nora and Wilbur roads, south of Interstate 90.

Residents of a Veradale neighborhood are divided about what to do with a traffic barrier currently blocking access to Cataldo Road from Mission Avenue. Many who live on Cataldo and Ravalli Drive want the concrete barrier to stay, saying it prevents people from using their residential streets as a high-speed shortcut between Sullivan and Broadway.

Annie Warner turned in a lost wallet with $50 that had actually been placed as part of a Reader's Digest survey on honesty. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review