Dan Hansen

More than 500 homes and 115 businesses many of them in one of Spokane's poorest and most ethnically diverse neighborhood would be razed or moved if engineers ever get the money to build the North Spokane Freeway. And quiet, rural areas in northeastern Washington would become more crowded as commuting to Spokane becomes easier. The economies of Pend Oreille, Ferry and Stevens counties would improve, as would trade with Canada. Those are some of the conclusions of a $3 million study of the freeway that has been discussed for 51 years.

Six-year-old Steven Bos is greeted by his family Tuesday as he gets off the school bus. Tom and Myrna Bos erected "Slow, Children at Play" signs in the Colbert neighborhood to warn drivers. However, the county says the signs are illegal. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Lael Weis, 17, cleans out a stall at the fairgrounds to raise money for her two clubs, the Bare Mountain Bandits 4-H and the Inland Empire Arabian Youth Club. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane businesses owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes that the county has done little to collect. The unpaid taxes on business equipment - computers, desks and other items - means there's less money for schools, library books and road repairs. Ultimately, other taxpayers must fork over more for those services. The county treasurer's office did not have anyone to track down scofflaws from 1991 until late last year. The assessor's office still has no one to hold businesses accountable, despite a 1996 state review that said audits are needed.

Helen and Mya Byers cool off with a refreshing spray from the Spokane Falls near the Monroe Street Bridge on Wednesday. The Spokane River flowed at 38,000 cubic feet per second Friday as near-record snow melted under unseasonable warmth. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Harley Douglass' Hunters Pointe subdivision got the approval it needed Tuesday, but opponents still may sue. After more than a year of hearings, appeals and other delays, county commissioners John Roskelley and Phil Harris on Tuesday signed the decision approving the controversial North Side project. Douglass plans to build 40 houses on 21 acres atop a ridge sandwiched between the Little Spokane River and Deadman Creek.

General Electric Co. is hauling 700 dump truck loads of contaminated soil from an east Spokane site where the company repaired transformers for 19 years. GE is spending "in excess of $10 million" cleaning up the 6-1/2-acre site at 4323 E. Mission, said Deborah Hankins, a company spokeswoman in San Francisco. The former service shop is on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund list.

Monthly sewer bills for 51 residents of a Veradale mobile home park will soar 262 percent as Spokane County adjusts the way it sets rates. "We're trying to provide affordable housing," said Leonard Bouge, owner of Birch Tree Manor mobile home park, who complained he'll have to pass the cost along to his residents.

Spokane County commissioners Tuesday approved construction of a road designed to ease traffic on main east-west routes through the Valley. Similar to the Ruby-Division couplet through north Spokane, the Valley couplet will run 2-1/2 miles, from University Road to a reconstructed Interstate 90 interchange at Sprague Avenue.

Concrete laid in the 1920s meets asphalt on a stretch of Appleway in the Spokane Valley. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane city crew applies a thin asphalt overlay on Freya near Longfellow. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Dick and Fe Taylor can never boast, as some innkeepers do, that the president slept in their Four Winds Guest House. Visited, yes. But slept? Not unless Franklin Roosevelt nodded off during a meeting in what was then a dormitory for bachelor engineers working on Grand Coulee Dam.

It will cost an adult 700 percent more to go swimming if the county helps build the YMCA's proposed new aquatic center instead of replacing its own outdoor pool. County commissioners planned to replace the crumbling pool at Valley Mission Park. Now, they say they may instead give $1.3 million to the YMCA of the Inland Northwest, which plans to build a center with three pools, a slide and a gymnasium at Mirabeau Point, about a mile from Mission Park.

Thirteen of the 95 Spokane County employees who have cars and trucks provided by taxpayers recently lost them because their bosses couldn't justify the expense. More employees could lose around-the-clock use of county rigs under a review ordered by county commissioners. The employees use the cars for commuting to and from work as well as for county business. The county pays all expenses, including insurance, gas and maintenance.

Spokane County commissioners want to use $1.3 million earmarked for replacing an outdoor swimming pool to help build a private indoor pool instead. If approved, the deal would mean the county won't replace its crumbling pool at Valley Mission Park. Instead, the money would go toward a $5.3 million aquatic center the YMCA of the Inland Empire plans to build at Mirabeau Point. Mirabeau, former home of the Walk in the Wild zoo, is about a mile from Valley Mission Park.

In a first for Eastern Washington, most voters will do their civic duty from their kitchen tables when the Seahawks stadium goes on the ballot next month. Spokane, Pend Oreille, Adams and Ferry counties are among 27 statewide that will not open polls for the single-issue election on June 17.

One of Spokane County's most contentious housing developments got the go-ahead Tuesday night, after both sides reached a compromise that seemed impossible three years ago. Approval of the Turtle Creek subdivision in Greenacres may be the first visible effect of the state's Growth Management Act in the Valley.

Spokane County employees will get some, but not all, of the new cars and trucks they say they need before summer. On Tuesday, county commissioners approved buying 11 of 20 vehicles on a list submitted by county department heads. They rejected the entire list in March, saying some of the cars and trucks were too luxurious.

1. It's lonely at the top. All alone for now, Billy Humberstone, 13, sits in the Tenderfoot General Store in Winthrop, Wash. He should have considerably more company once North Cascades passes are open. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jim Dahlquist and Howard Staford inspect a plow that has been working on unusually deep snow along the still-closed North Cascades Highway.

Patrick Tabak staked out a spot on Doomsday Hill Sunday to propose to Becky McKimmey. She stopped running long enough to say yes. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

The freewheeling days may be over for a chow named Mowgli. The Veradale dog, which was accused of biting a boy, snapping at animal control officers and regularly running loose, was declared "dangerous" Tuesday by Spokane County commissioners.

Spokane County commissioners have taken the unusual step of ordering a review of the county's human resources director. The action follows complaints from some of Ben Duncan's employees that he downplayed a sexual harassment charge against his deputy director and threatened employees, saying they could be "immediately fired" for releasing confidential information to the media. In October, Duncan wrote a letter of reprimand for Deputy Director Gary Carlsen for "inappropriate contact with another person in the Human Resources Department." The specific allegations are not outlined in the letter.

Spokane County commissioners agreed Tuesday to let Mead High School expand its sports fields onto 14 acres of future gravel pit. The deal, which was already approved by Mead's school board, will cost the district $10 a year.

Smokers who work for Spokane County may soon lose their last hazy hideout. Saying that the smell of stale cigarettes lowers the value of county-owned vehicles, county commissioners want to post no-smoking signs on the dashboards.