Bert Caldwell

Homes sales in Spokane County fell significantly in September compared with August and the same month a year ago. But, according to the Multiple Listings Service of the Spokane Association of Realtors, prices managed to eke out a slight gain over year-earlier levels. That could be because the number of homes for sale continues to drop as construction subsides. The average home price was $111,052, down from $115,666 in August but above the August 1994 average of $110,171.

Inland Northwest Bank President Fred Schunter sees advantages to moving bank's charter to Idaho. File photo.

Price stability, not full employment, is the Federal Reserve Bank's primary responsibility, the president of the San Francisco Branch said Thursday. Robert Parry told Spokane-area bankers that steps taken to tighten the money supply between February 1994 and February 1995, while painful, had contained inflation before surging economic activity let prices get out of control. The central bank's success allowed officials to ease back somewhat in July, Parry said.

Regulators may approve the merger of U.S. Bancorp and West One Bancorp by year-end, but it will be mid-1996 before the two systems will be completely consolidated, U.S. Bancorp Chairman Gerry Cameron said Thursday. The merger, overwhelmingly endorsed by shareholders Tuesday, will create a $30 billion institution spanning six states and employing 14,000. But Cameron said employee numbers are likely to shrink as some of the more than 600 U.S. Bank branches are sold off to defuse antitrust concerns.

Northwest representatives who voted to sell a federal power-marketing agency serving the South could be haunted by their decision, the executive vice president of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said Wednesday. Glenn English said the sale of the Southeast Power Administration, if carried out, could trigger a series of auctions that might eventually include the Bonneville Power Administration. The sale of one agency, he said, eliminates support for the three others among representatives and senators who no longer have an interest in preserving the federal government's power generation and transmission facilities.

Nevada regulators have again thrown a resistor into the proposed circuitry of a merger between Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources. Although officials at Renobased Sierra Monday were downplaying a proposed opinion and order issued by Nevada regulators Friday, WWP spokesman Rob Strenge said executives in Spokane were wary. "We have some concerns," said Strenge, who declined to be more specific until officials had time to digest the 27-page document.

The Bonneville Power Administration and seven of its 15 industrial customers have agreed on new contracts after a day of confused negotiations on both ends of the country. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., which operates smelters in Spokane and Tacoma, was not among the companies whose contracts were acceptable to federal officials. Bonneville Administrator Randy Hardy said the companies that came to terms committed 95 percent of their load to the agency.

Portland and Seattle area residents who stand to pay higher electricity bills if a Bonneville Power Administration rate proposal is approved got little sympathy Wednesday from spokesmen for Eastern Washington and North Idaho utilities. One representative, Tom Richardson of the Cheney City Light Department, said privately owned utilities that may have to raise rates as much as 14 percent don't have to do business with the BPA. "If PacifiCorp doesn't like the conditions, they can go buy their power from someone else," he said.

A new Spokane com pany will be the first to break the Bonneville Power Administration's monopoly on supplying power to Northwest aluminum smelters. Associated Power Services Inc. announced Tuesday a one-year contract with Columbia Aluminum Corp. that calls for delivery of 15 megawatts of electricity to the Goldendale, Wash., facility starting Oct. 1. Although previous deals between other smelters and power suppliers have been announced, none kicks in before next spring.

Spokane-area business, commun ity and education leaders Thursday voted to form a steering committee that will explore ways of expanding international trade opportunities. The goal, participants of a daylong meeting said, is a public-private organization that can carry on the work now done by the city of Spokane's Department of International Development. The department will be eliminated at the end of the year.

Chris Schnug, in her office at McFarland & Alton, has risen to the top of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Contract decisions by Bonneville Power Administration industrial customers could have far-reaching effects on electricity consumers around the Northwest, officials said Wednesday. And a target rate announced earlier in the day by the federal power-marketing agency may not be enough to reverse a growing wave of defections by aluminum smelters and other large electricity users, they added. Bonneville said the 15 large commercial customers collectively known as the direct service industries can buy power at 2.26 cents per kilowatt-hour beginning Oct. 1, 1996. The contracts would last five years.

Did you cost your bank money today? According to Dain Bosworth bank analyst R. Jay Tejera, half of all bank customers do. The widespread restructuring of bank fees is just one way financial institutions are trying to sort customers they want to retain from those they hope never darken their lobbies again. The days of rewarding new customers with toasters are long gone, he said.

Homes sales in Spokane County reached their highest level this year last month, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors. The association's Multiple Listings Service monthly report shows closings on 544 homes, up by 82 over July. Average prices increased 7 percent. But sales still lagged behind August 1994, when 564 homes were sold.

Sterling Financial Corp. could learn today whether it will be allowed to pursue a bid for more than $30 million in damages from the federal government. The Office of Thrift Supervision and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have asked U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush to dismiss the five-year-old claim, and to block transfer of the case to the Federal Court of Claims. A hearing on the motions is scheduled this morning.

Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. has added workers in the potrooms of its Mead smelter, but company officials are noncommittal about the possibility two idle potlines will be restarted anytime soon. Spokeswoman Susan Ashe said Kaiser has rehired all former employees laid off during past production slowdowns. That has allowed the company to hire new workers for the potrooms in recent weeks, she said. The smelter employed 1,106 at the end of July, an increase of 77 in two months.

Engineers monitor activity at WPPSS's Plant No. 2 control room. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County Title Co. will request a hearing before Washington Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn to contest an order imposing a six-month suspension on the company's title business, owner John Schreiner said Monday. The request will stay the order, which is due to go into effect at the end of next week, he said, adding that the paperwork is still being prepared. An informal meeting with the commissioner's staff has already been set for August 29, Schreiner said.

Jeff Camp remembers sorting through his father's stuff a few weeks after his death last November and finding directions on how his funeral should be handled. Camp, who had been helping his father manage his affairs prior to his death, said arrangements had never been discussed. "I had no idea that existed," he said of the funeral directive.

The savings and loan industry will likely trade its identity for the solvency of its insurance fund, Sterling Financial Corp. Chairman Harold Gilkey said Wednesday. Last week, the Clinton administration proposed a one-time, $6 billion assessment on the nation's 2,100 thrifts. The funds would shore up the Savings Association Insurance Fund. With only $2.2 billion currently available, the fund could be exhausted by the failure of just one large thrift.

Anita Sather is burned up. So is her furnace, washer, dryer, stove, 27-inch Magnavox television and three hairdryers. Forget the light bulbs. All, says the Four Lakes woman, were fried over the last year by a faulty Washington Water Power Co. transformer that poured excessive voltage through her trailer home.

A Spokane importer of golf club components has filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of a lawsuit brought against the company by the second largest maker of premium golf clubs in the United States. But president Terry Gould said Bridgehouse International Inc. cannot operate, as would normally be the case as a company reorganizes, because there is confusion over which court has jurisdiction over the assets. Bridgehouse was sued last month in U.S. District Court in San Diego by Cobra Golf Inc., which claims the Spokane company imports golf club heads that infringe on its trademarks.

Itron Inc. Tuesday reported record sales and income for the second quarter, but advised investors that earnings for the second half of 1995 may fall below expectations. The stock market reacted harshly to the forecast, pushing the price of the company's shares down as much as $9.50 to $23 in early trading, but the stock rebounded to close at $24.875, down $8.375. Itron expects a slowdown in earnings because of increased competition, which is forcing the company to spend more on research and development, said President Johnny Humphreys.

Fred Jacot, the outspoken head of the Inland Northwest's dominant medical insurer for 13 years, will retire Sept. 30. Prior to his 28 years at Medical Service Corp. of Eastern Washington, he was an executive at Deaconess Medical Center. Jacot said a search for his successor is under way, and the new chief executive officer should be known by the time he vacates his office in the Medical Service Building on East Sprague.