Dan Hansen

A plan to use taxpayers' money to build a YMCA swimming pool is dead. Spokane County commissioners decided Tuesday to offer $700,000 to build a third pool at an indoor aquatic center the YMCA plans to build in the Valley. YMCA officials rejected that offer Wednesday. The failed deal means the county will spend about $1.1 million replacing its crumbling outdoor pool at Valley Mission Park. Under the partnership, that pool would have been closed but not replaced.

Cancel the moving vans. Spokane County commissioners are scaling back - and may ax - plans to move some courthouse offices into a former warehouse. The project, which commissioners unanimously approved earlier this month, would cost about $1.7 million and allow the county to ease security on the main floor of the courthouse, the destination of most visitors.

"Oh, I'm so mad. I'm going to be stuck in the boondocks," says Virginia Lake, whose home no longer would be on a bus route under proposed STA changes. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Relief is coming for victims of repeated floods along Dishman-Mica Road. Spokane County commissioners last week approved a $269,000 contract to remove sediment, brush and other debris from about a mile of Chester Creek. The small stream starts near the town of Mica and seeps into the ground east of the Dishman-Hills Natural Area. TLJ Construction of Nine Mile Falls will dredge the creek between Thorpe and Schafer roads.

The owner of a golf course driving rapid development in Deer Park wants a tax break under a state law meant to preserve undeveloped land. Spokane County commissioners will decide tonight whether to include 148 acres of the Deer Park Golf & Country Club in the open spaces program, which normally applies to farms and forests. The move would save course owner W.R. Warren more than $2,000 a year, and probably would lead to classifying other golf courses as open spaces in Spokane County.

After arguing for years that there is no need to cap the former Greenacres Landfill, Spokane County is poised to do just that. The Spokane Valley project will cost $5 million, with much of the money coming from state taxpayers. That doesn't include the county's cost of monitoring the landfill for up to 20 years. The landfill, south of Interstate 90 near the Liberty Lake exit, closed 25 years ago.

Most people wouldn't greet a 100 percent increase in sewer bills with relief. Leonard Bouge did. Bouge, the owner of Birch Tree Mobile Home Park in the Valley, was informed by an April letter from county officials that the park's sewer bills would increase 262 percent starting the following month.

A study by the YMCA shows it would be cheaper to send a school full of kids to Maui than to build a wave pool at Mirabeau Point. County commissioners had asked YMCA officials to visit indoor wave pools in Oregon and British Columbia to see whether one could be added to a proposed aquatic center at Mirabeau Point. Based on information from three pools, the attraction would add at least $2.8 million to the cost of the YMCA's proposed center, Executive Director Richard Wallis said Thursday. None of the three wave pools is self-supporting, he added.

CORRECTION: 9-11-97; V6 A story in Saturday's Valley Voice about Bear, an akita-mastif mix that has been declared "dangerous" by county officials was accompanied by a photo of another dog, not related to the story. Bear is an akita/mastif mix. File photo

Spokane County commissioners have delayed until October a decision on whether to close an off-road vehicle park at Liberty Lake. Responding to complaints about vandalism, erosion, litter and trespassing, commissioners in April banned four-wheel-drive vehicles from the park in the hills east of the lake. Motorcyclists continue using the park. But that will end if they don't begin policing themselves and write a management plan that solves the problems, commissioners said.

A government agency that helps private landowners with conservation projects may see its rent increase 179-fold. Its landlord is Spokane County. County commissioners say they're just trying to get a fair return for taxpayers by ending a sweet deal for the Spokane County Conservation District, an independent district that's funded by state money.

Concerned about public transportation in Spokane? Then hop on a bus and come to any of a number of meetings this month to get answers about route changes proposed by Spokane Transit Authority. STA hopes the proposed changes, recommended by a Portland consultant who was paid $125,000, will make service more convenient and increase bus ridership. They would be the first major change in routes in 16 years, STA officials say. Many of the changes would put more buses on the busiest routes - those to colleges and shopping centers, for instance.

An activist who earlier this year called for repealing the state's Growth Management Act now is responsible for helping Spokane County comply with the law. On the recommendation of Commissioner Phil Harris, an outspoken GMA critic, commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint Curt Messex to the county planning commission. The planning commission hears from people who want to subdivide their land or change a zoning designation for more, less or different types of development.

Six months ago, Spokane County started shifting some inmates from the county jail to Geiger Corrections Center as a money-saving measure. About 150 inmates who used to live at the downtown jail now stay at the lower-security, lower-cost West Plains center. But the expected $500,000 annual windfall hasn't materialized. Instead, the county Corrections Department faces a "financial crisis," said Jim Lindow, the county's chief administrative officer.

Anyone with a desk knows that vacations are a mixed blessing: The days off are blissful, but the return can be brutal, as the accumulated work demands attention NOW. It's no different for Spokane County commissioners. For three weeks, they held no meetings, as one, two - at times even all three - vacationed.

Thomas Gilmore

Acting Gonzaga University President Harry Sladich touts the school's standing in the U.S. News and World Report best colleges issue. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

During 11 years in the business, Spokane County Animal Control Director Nancy Sattin has seen pot-bellied pigs, pygmy goats, albino snakes and boa constrictors carried through the doors of the shelter. But the 3-1/2-foot lizard one of her officers captured recently in Greenacres was the first iguana to come to the shelter. Animal control officer Becky Nelson took the call last Friday, when the male iguana was reported in a yard near the corner of Mission and Aladdin.

Workers install a silt containment barrier Tuesday before starting bank repair on Dragoon Creek. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

The whine of Jet-Skis and squeals of swimmers accompany the August sun at most lakes near Spokane. But Wednesday morning, George Butrick shared 650-acre Eloika Lake with just one other fisherman, assorted waterfowl and fish that hid in an underwater forest of weeds. The fish were mostly safe. Between daylight and 10 a.m., Butrick caught one keeper - a bass weighing a little more than a pound.

Three auto dealers want the county to reimburse the $11,000 they paid to rent the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds for a July sale. The dealers, who also want $6,000 in attorneys fees, contend the county hurt their businesses by leasing the fairgrounds to used-car dealers the weekend before the sale of new cars.

Originally intended to provide bus-friendly shopping, the Spokane Valley Mall is on only two bus routes. At least until late 1998, most shoppers who rely on the Spokane Transit Authority will have to change buses at least once, and many of them twice, to get to the mall. There are no buses between the mall and the Sullivan park-and-ride lot, a distance of about a half-mile. And there is no direct route from the Valley Transfer Station.

Suburban Spokane residents who want to shoot BB guns at home had better move to the country. Or into the city of Spokane. By a 2-1 vote Tuesday, county commissioners decided not to change the law that forbids the use of air guns in areas where firearms can't be discharged. That no-shooting zone includes most suburban neighborhoods and some semirural areas.

Already banned in government buildings, smoking will be limited outside as well during next month's Spokane Interstate Fair. Smokers will be asked to use one of three designated smoking areas, including the beer gardens, during the 10-day fair. The Interstate Fair Board's decision to limit smoking follows complaints from people who bumped into the hot end of cigarettes or were tired of breathing smoke as they ate corn dogs and elephant ears, said Fran Boxer, assistant county administrator.