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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Dan Hansen

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

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News >  Spokane

County Ringing Up Larger Cellular Phone Bill Commissioners Question The Need For High Number Of Phones

Two years after an audit raised concerns about cellular phone use by Spokane County employees, the number of phones and the cost of using them is up significantly. The county operated without portable phones until seven years ago. Now it has 199 of them, up from 122 in 1992. The county's cellular phone bill was $94,000 last year. It will be about $107,000 this year if use continues at its current pace, according to the county auditor's office.

News >  Washington Voices

There’ll Be More Space To Put Things With Approval Of Mini-Storage Plan

Development It's safe for Valley residents to buy more stuff. The Spokane County Hearing Examiner Committee is making sure there's a place to put it all. The committee on Thursday granted a zone change so Peter and Connie Bascetta can build 635 storage units near Interstate 90. Called the I-90 Valley Express Mini Storage, the Bascettas' self-service business will cover nearly four acres. It is north of the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks, about a quarter mile west of Pines Road.
News >  Nation/World

Dam Couldn’t Be Built Today

Historians say the biggest project in Northwest history couldn't be built today - even if Franklin D. Roosevelt were president. "Absolutely not," said historian and author Robert Ficken. "Nobody could afford it." Building Grand Coulee Dam cost the federal government about $240 million at a time when seeing a movie cost 20 cents. Another $660 million was spent on a third power plant in the late '60s and early '70s.
News >  Spokane

Old-Timers Remember The Man Behind New Deal

FOR THE RECORD: (April 11, 1995): Rod Hartman is mayor of Coulee Dam. A Sunday story named another city. Also, four counties meet near the dam. The number was reported incorrectly in the same story. Bill Thurston, who worked on the Grand Coulee Dam, attends a ceremony for FDR on Saturday. Photo by Molly O'Hara/The Spokesman-Review
News >  Spokane

Valley Herald Awarded Legal Notices Contract

Don't look in The Spokesman-Review for formal notices about Spokane County meetings, land-use decisions and calls for bids. County commissioners on Tuesday awarded the contract for legal notices to the Valley Herald, a weekly newspaper with 2,500 subscribers, including seven each in Deer Park and Cheney. The Spokesman-Review has a daily circulation of about 86,000 in Spokane County.
News >  Washington Voices

Brighton Place Denied

Spokane County commissioners denied a developer's plans for a 166-lot subdivision on Colbert land zoned for a quarter that many houses. "While I like the layout and I certainly don't have any qualms putting houses in that area, I think it (the development) is just too dense," said Commissioner Steve Hasson. In other action Tuesday, the commissioners changed the name of Green Bluff Road - actually just one short stretch of one of many roads with that moniker.
News >  Spokane

Woman Living In Filth Gets A Reprieve But If Cleanup Isn’t Completed, The City Will Demolish The House

A Spokane woman whose house is so filthy it makes garbage workers sick will get more time to clean up the place. Spokane housing officials have tried since 1976 to get Kathleen Henry to clean up the house at 1111 W. Augusta, where garbage is stacked from floor to ceiling and animal feces coat the floors in some rooms. Earlier this month, two garbage collectors became ill while loading garbage from the house. Two other men who say they tried to help clean the place say the house made them ill as well.
News >  Nation/World

Counselors: We Could Have Been At Shooting Mental Health Center Chief Says His Staff Wasn’t Called Before Spokane Incident

Counselors say they could have been at the scene of a police shooting within minutes, not hours, as police Chief Terry Mangan said the day his officers killed a mentally ill man. "We could have responded very quickly," said David Panken, chief executive of Spokane Community Mental Health Center. "We were not tied up on any cases right then."
News >  Spokane

County Skeptical Of Closure Plan To Find Homes For Zoo Animals

Walk in the Wild's manager says she'll find homes for all its animals if the zoo must close, as now appears likely. "I just can't picture any animals dying," said Frances Drake, who recently wrote a plan that calls for selling exotic animals to raise money so other species could be shipped to new owners. County officials are skeptical the plan will work.
News >  Spokane

Walk In The Wild Officials Concede Future Looks Grim But Zoo Given More Time To Relocate If It Can Find Another Site

After 23 years of hard luck, the people who run Walk in the Wild conceded Wednesday they'll have to move the zoo or shut it down. The second option appears more likely than the first. The zoo's manager said she hopes a wealthy supporter, whom she won't name, may be willing to purchase land for a new site. But the Inland Northwest Zoological Society still would need hundreds of thousands of dollars for exhibits, buildings and other necessities.
News >  Spokane

Downtown Library Improves Access

The disabled are getting better access to Spokane's Main Library. Workers for the Spokane Public Library are adding a handicapped parking space along Lincoln Street. Soon, they'll lower the library's outside book drop, so people in wheelchairs can reach it.
News >  Spokane

Autopsy Released On Man Killed By Police

A mentally ill man swallowed several razor blades and cut his wrists before three Spokane police officers shot him to death last week, according to autopsy results. Blaine Dalrymple was hit by five bullets, including two that severed arteries, said Dr. Dexter Amend, Spokane County coroner. Either of the two was enough to kill the 38-year-old man, Amend said.
News >  Spokane

Freeholders Split On Options Half Want To Offer Three Choices For City-County Consolidation

A narrow majority of freeholders believes voters either won't or shouldn't support the group's plan to merge Spokane city and county governments. But those dissident freeholders failed this week in an effort to give voters additional choices. In voting that started Tuesday and continued Thursday, the Board of Freeholders split 12-12 on a proposal to send voters three options: full consolidation or two less-sweeping alternatives. The 25th freeholder, Betty Nunnery, failed to attend either meeting. Nunnery said Friday she stayed home because she doesn't support either faction and didn't want to offend anyone. But in a letter recently published in The Spokesman-Review, Nunnery wrote that voters "will have to reject the whole charter" unless given other alternatives. The different alternatives can't be reconsidered until the next freeholder meeting April 6, which is one of the group's last before a proposal is sent to voters. If dissidents can't pass the changes then, they say they'll submit it as a minority report to county commissioners. Whether commissioners could put the minority proposal on the ballot is debated among the freeholders. Voters elected the freeholders in November 1992 to study local government and suggest changes. In February 1994, the group decided that consolidating the two governments would end turf battles and be more efficient. A recent study concluded that a consolidated government would also be more expensive, about $20 million more each year than the two governments spend separately. That money would pay for better services in suburban areas. Most freeholders say they believe consolidation would lead to long-term savings. Some supporters of the three-tiered proposal said hopes for a consolidated government died when taxpayers learned the results of the financial study. "It killed us. It put the last nail in the coffin," said Bill Anderson. The three-tiered proposal would offer varying degrees of the charter freeholders have written.