Dan Hansen

Sewers, sidewalks, swing sets and streets were among the federally funded projects approved Tuesday by Spokane County commissioners. Every year, the county gets more than $2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for projects to benefit low-income residents.

A Geiger Corrections Center officer is suing Spokane County and some of its top employees, claiming co-workers conspired to get her fired. Sunny Pilkington was fired in 1992 for alleged sexual contact with an inmate. She won an arbitration ruling and returned to work, with back wages, in 1994.

1. County official Fran Boxer delivers eviction notices to carny workers Thursday. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. Marge and her husband have been evicted from their fairgrounds home. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Labrador retrievers may be known for docility, but Brutus, a black lab from Otis Orchards, is dangerous, county commissioners ruled Tuesday. The dog, owned by Dawn Mason-Dunkle, was accused of biting one person, mauling a foal, and chasing or threatening several people on different occasions. The "dangerous" designation means Mason-Dunkle, 24119 E. Joseph, must meet stringent regulations if she wants to keep the dog. The requirements are so expensive, many owners have their pets euthanized rather than comply.

A levee damaged by the New Year's Day flood leaves the town of Rockford in danger should Rock Creek rise again, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps plans $45,000 in repairs beginning April 6. The work should take about two weeks, said Doug Weber, natural disaster manager from Seattle.

Saying his office is in "crisis" due to an increasing caseload, the Spokane County public defender is asking commissioners for a $445,000 budget boost. "We're getting pretty close to desperate," said Don Westerman. "I'm concerned that I'm going to have some attorneys either have nervous breakdowns or just plain walk out on me."

The common practice of golf professionals selling advertising space on golf balls won't be allowed on Spokane County courses, county commissioners said Tuesday. The decision nixes a potential deal between the pro at MeadowWood Golf Course and a Spokane car dealership.

The band will play on. In a reversal of an earlier decision, Spokane County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to give the Spokane Symphony $17,000 from a pot of money reserved for promoting tourism.

Ding-dong. Animal control calling. After a one-year hiatus, Spokane County animal control officers may rejoin Girl Scouts and Jehovah's Witnesses in the door-to-door parade. Residents in unincorporated areas of the county will be able to buy a pet license without leaving the porch, if county commissioners approve the one-year pilot program today. People who don't buy a license would have to look a uniformed officer in the eye when they claim they don't have a dog or cat.

Dr. Kim Thorburn is the new director of the Spokane Regional Health District. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Waverly residents who attended a county hearing Wednesday criticized as "ridiculous" one man's request that a crumbling bridge be saved as a historic landmark. The residents, including members of the town council, support the county's plan to tear down the 77-year-old concrete bridge when it is replaced with a new one.

Development regulations proposed by one Spokane County agency were criticized as costly and ineffective by the head of a closely related agency Thursday. The regulations, which are opposed by at least one major developers' group, would require plans for controlling runoff and erosion in new developments.

Forty-three Green Bluff residents showed up for a county hearing Wednesday only to learn it was canceled because of a technicality. Notice of the hearing on the county's plans to expand a pit where rock is mined and crushed into gravel was not mailed to neighbors in a broad enough area, explained Hearing Examiner Mike Dempsey.

After seven years of ripping up asphalt and lawns so pipes can be buried, sewer work in Millwood should be done by fall. "We're all done tearing up roads," said Eva Colomb, the town's clerk/ treasurer.

1. Some of the empty beds at Geiger Corrections Center may be filled by the overflow from the Spokane County Jail. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. Pannek

Saying they may not have met state notification laws, Spokane County officials have recommended postponing a hearing about expanding a gravel pit in Green Bluff. The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today as part of the county hearing examiner meeting.

Tim Volking and his companions parked their snowmobiles on a ridge along the Montana-Idaho line and tried to decide if conditions were too risky to continue. Then they saw something that made the discussion moot. Sticking up amidst the rubble of a fresh avalanche was a pair of legs, flailing wildly. The upside-down snowmobiler nearly suffocated by the time Volking and his friends could pull him out.

In a leap similar to switching from a manual typewriter to a word processor, the Spokane Transit Authority has replaced scraps of paper with a sophisticated computer as its primary tool for planning daily van routes. The route mapper is the first part of a $667,000 computer system STA officials hope to be using by the end of the year. When fully functioning, the system will help the agency pick the most efficient bus routes and keep customers apprised of delays caused by weather, traffic and other factors.

Already battered by Mother Nature, the Spokane Symphony has been hit with another unexpected blow, this one from county commissioners. Saying there are higher priorities than helping promote live music, commissioners Kate McCaslin and Phil Harris voted this week not to give $17,000 symphony officials were counting on.

Power boats would be banned from free-flowing stretches of the Spokane River under a proposed new Spokane County law. But two county commissioners said Tuesday that if a ban is imposed, they'd rather target just Jet Skis and other personal watercraft. When they get a complaint about boaters, commissioners John Roskelley and Kate McCaslin said, it's usually about those wave-jumping, quick-turning craft that some critics compare to mosquitoes.

Federal funds - for some 1. Pat Jacobs and her son, Hilkiah, 9, travel into Sprague over a railroad bridge just outside of Fishtrap. The Jacobs would have to travel farther if the $362,000 replacement isn't done. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. The Morrow Road bridge over Pine Creek will cost $420,000 to replace.

FOR THE RECORD: 2-28-97 Correction: Don Harmon is mayor of Airway Heights. A story in Thursday's newspaper about a plan to allow the Spokane Transit Authority to help pay for street repairs named the wrong city.

Spokane County spent so much money plowing roads in 1996 it may not have enough left for preventive maintenance in 1997. And while today's potholes will be filled, "we're sowing the fields for more potholes" in the future, said county engineer Bill Johns. Heavy snow early and late in 1996 forced Johns to overspend his road maintenance budget by $1.6 million. He has to pay that back from his $13.2 million budget for 1997.

A Spokane Interstate Fair manager will resign rather than answer a list of allegations against him. "Some opportunities came up that I can't turn down ... It has nothing to do with the county at all," said operations manager Jim Cotter.