Dan Hansen

In/Around Greenacres, Ponderosa, Otis Orchards, Orchard Avenue A developer must write an environmental impact statement before he can build a 101-home subdivision in the Valley. Concerned about the Turtle Creek development's impact on schools, roads and neighboring land, Spokane County commissioners in December ordered an environmental review for the project.

Commissioner Steve Hasson hangs the county's flag in his office. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Bence 2. Rochek

A pay-to-play sports complex that would ease overcrowding on public fields got the nod Thursday from Spokane County planning officials. Rob Lewis, a partner in Sports World, said he hopes to begin construction this summer on the 32-acre complex along Harvard Road in the Spokane Valley. A fitness center could be completed by fall and a sports bar and restaurant by spring, Lewis said. But the center's four soccer fields and four softball diamonds probably won't be done until the start of the 1977 softball season, said Lewis.

Incorporation isn't the only game in town. While Citizens for Valley Incorporation struggles to form a city, other Valley residents are helping design a proposed new regional government. They are the Spokane County freeholders, whom voters elected in November 1992. Seven of the 25 represent the 4th legislative district, which includes the Valley.

Spokane County freeholders say they need more money to finish their quest for more efficient local government. County commissioners reluctantly agreed Tuesday to give the group another $10,000. Freeholders, who work without pay, already have spent $200,000. "In my opinion, we ought to say, 'Here's this, but don't come back for more,"' said Commissioner Skip Chilberg, a supporter of the freeholder process.

Skip Chilberg

The ribbon hasn't been cut yet at ZooMontana. There are no lions, no tigers, no bears at the non-profit zoo on the outskirts of Billings.

Marsha Rooney, curator at the Cheney Cowles Museum, hands a flashlight to her colleague Larry Schoonover as they inspect a bomb shelter a Spokane woman hoped to donate to the museum. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane County panel last week gave the Hawthorne Manor Retirement Residence the OK to double its living quarters. Owners of the non-profit retirement home at 101 E. Hawthorne Road plan to add a three-story building with 93 units. Hawthorne Manor is home to about 100 seniors who live in retirement apartments or nursing units.

Vern Jarvis wants Spokane County taxpayers and his bosses in the courthouse to know he doesn't spend his days racking up massive cellular phone bills. Doesn't call his wife from the car. Doesn't chat with buddies.

Spokane County Commissioners eliminated 64 county positions Tuesday without firing a soul. The positions, which Commissioner Steve Hasson called "bogus," were approved by commissioners over the years but never filled by county departments. Another 83 unfilled positions remain; commissioners haven't decided whether some of them should be eliminated. Commissioners last week put a 30-day freeze on most hiring to get a handle on exactly how many workers the county has. They want to know why the number grows by an average of about one employee every five days.

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.

Property owners owe Spokane County nearly $1.2 million in overdue taxes to protect drinking water, according to a recent state audit. The county does little to collect the money as long as the delinquent taxpayer owns the land.

County commissioners held a Wednesday night meeting in the lunch room of Freeman High. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

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.

FOR THE RECORD CORRECTION: The publisher of the Spokane Valley News is not treasurer of the county's Republican party as reported in a story Friday. Also, Sandy Ogle is a Republican activist but does not hold a leadership position in the party. Correction published on Saturday, April 22, 1995. Sterk

Inmates at the Spokane County Jail can count on better dental care soon. But don't expect county commissioners to flash their pearly whites over the situation.

Spokane County commissioners will freeze most hiring for 30 days while they figure out why the number of county employees is growing three times faster than county population. It took nearly 100 years - from 1889 until the mid-1980s - for the county to reach 1,000 workers.

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.

Roosevelt

A generation from now, students of Spokane government will call the voters of 1995 visionaries. Or knuckleheads.

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

Volunteers collected 15 cans and two packages of tobacco at the show. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review