Dan Hansen

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.

After investing 13 years and $112 million with mixed results, Spokane County is launching a new sewer construction plan that should better protect drinking water. County officials plan to spend more money on sewer work in 1997 than in any recent year. Homeowners will pay a bigger share of the cost than they have in the past, though not as much as will be spent by those who get sewers in the future.

Some members of the Spokane Regional Health Board are balking at a plan to spend up to $10,000 of public money on a sex survey. Health District staff, working with social service agencies, want to mail the survey to 5,000 county homes selected at random.

Spokane County will spend $700,000 replacing two little-used bridges in rural corners of the county. County commissioners on Tuesday gave engineers approval to request bids for the work on bridges on Darknell and Scroggie roads. The two wooden bridges will be replaced with concrete.

Two associations that lobby the Legislature on behalf of counties will get only half the dues they requested from Spokane County this year, saving taxpayers nearly $52,000. And the county is dropping its membership in the National Association of Counties, saving $6,194. That association lobbies Congress and tracks federal regulations.

Eight months ago, the mysterious death of a lamb on a west Spokane farm fed worries that an African lion was on the loose. The lamb had been killed by an animal with "major jaw power," animal control officers said. But they couldn't confirm that it was the phantom lion.

A Spokane Interstate Fair manager who was reprimanded in 1994 and suspended for five days last year is in trouble again. This time, operations manager Jim Cotter may lose his job.

The Spokane County Jail will finish the year up to $1 million over budget unless arrests slow unexpectedly or the Sheriff's Department takes drastic measures to cut costs. Built in 1986 to handle up to 460 inmates, the jail housed a daily average of 600 people last year. So far this year, the average is 650, with 700 inmates on the busiest days, Capt. Jim Hill told county commissioners Thursday.

State parks officials have closed a pedestrian bridge over the Spokane River, blocking the most popular access to trails in Riverside State Park. The suspension bridge will be closed until at least September, the state Parks and Recreation Commission announced Thursday.

It was gut-wrenching for hundreds of landowners and the three politicians forced to make the decision. But setting limits on urban development, as Spokane County commissioners did Tuesday, doesn't end the debate over land-use restrictions.

Millwood residents, who rake their leaves into the streets, can walk to the Rocket bakery and pay lower taxes than their neighbors in the unincorporated Valley, are losing one perk of living in the tiny town. They'll soon have to license their cats.

The proposed city of Mead cannot be used to circumvent tough new land-use restrictions, a state authority said Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon, just before Spokane County commissioners set aside most of the North Side as rural, Realtor Jack Dein filed plans to form a city covering about 22 square miles north of Spokane. If the city formed, any land within its boundaries could be subdivided into small lots.

Carl Bernson's retirement plans counted heavily on the money he would make developing 18 acres he had bought in 1940. "This property was my ace in the hole," said Bernson, 77, a retired nurseryman who lives on Glenrose Prairie.

A Realtor from Mead filed a proposal Tuesday to form a city north of Spokane - hours before Spokane County set new rules that would have prevented such a move. Most of the city Jack Dein proposes would be outside the urban growth area county commissioners adopted. Under the state Growth Management Act, cities can only be formed in designated urban areas.