Spokane County commissioners will get two proposals instead of one when freeholders finish their review of local government.
The majority of the 25 freeholders will send commissioners a charter that would consolidate Spokane city and county government under one county council and an elected executive.
That's the proposal commissioners most likely will put on the ballot.
Once again this year, 4-H crafts will be exhibited in a massive tent at the Spokane Interstate Fair because a proposed exhibit hall is over budget and behind schedule.
Interstate Fair board members thought they could build the hall - a replacement for three cramped and leaky annexes - for about $1.35 million. They thought the work would be done in time for this year's fair.
(For the record, Friday, February 17, 1995):
Spokane County commissioners are considering an offer of 81 acres, site of Walk in the Wild zoo, from Inland Empire Paper Co. The size of the parcel was wrong in recent stories about the offer.
The turf battle between Spokane city and county libraries is hurting kids on both sides of the city limits, teachers say.
"One of our goals as educators is ... to generate a love of reading," staff from Moran Prairie Elementary wrote in a letter to the Spokane Public Library. "Without the ability to use the city library, our students will be deprived of a means of enhancing their education."
(For the record, Friday, February 17, 1995):
Spokane County commissioners are considering an offer of 81 acres, site of Walk in the Wild zoo, from Inland Empire Paper Co. The size of the parcel was wrong in recent stories about the offer.
State health care reform may doom the board that started Spokane's needle exchange program and banned certain types of laundry detergents.
Decisions on issues as diverse as cigarette advertising, sewer regulations and beer bans at public facilities could be affected.
1. Dennis Hanson checks the engine on his biplane before takeoff Friday.
2. The Antonov An-2 biplane, buzzing Lake Coeur d'Alene, can land on runways as short as 600 feet. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review
Spokane County health officials want to know what chemicals are stored above ground so they know how to protect the drinking water underground.
The county health district plans to spend $60,000 in federal money this year to start a list of businesses storing chemicals that could damage the Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer. Eventually, those 4,000 to 7,000 businesses will be inspected every three years to make sure the chemicals are handled properly.
The businesses themselves may have to pay for the inspections.
Recent rain and warm weather caused some slopes in the Inland Northwest to shed snow.
But the highest peaks still are buried under enough snow to provide plenty of water this summer, forecasters say. And area rivers are not expected to flood despite this week's unseasonably warm weather.
Eastern Washington and North Idaho rivers "are showing some pretty good increases, but most of them are well within their banks," said Dave Westnedge, a hydrologist at the River Forecast Center in Portland.
Spokane County commissioner Phil Harris says he won't agree to repeal the county's storm-water utility district or ask voters whether to continue the surcharge that goes with it.
"The storm-water tax is a musthave. I'm not willing to put that on the ballot," said Harris. "People have ... sanctioned the tax by nonprotest."
Harris' decision assures the surcharge will remain on the books, because Commissioner Skip Chilberg also favors it. Commissioner Steve Hasson calls the tax "a public scam" and wants to put it to a vote.
Washington Water Power Co. hopes woofers and tweeters will prevent screamers when dams are opened on the Spokane River.
The power company has asked permission from the city of Spokane to install six sets of speakers between the Division Street and Monroe Street bridges. They'll be used to warn people when WWP plans to flood the spillways at its dams, said Dana Anderson, company spokeswoman.
The price Spokane County charges new sewer customers may double as county commissioners search for ways to speed up sewer work.
City residents probably will face higher sewer rates as well. That's because the regional sewage treatment plant needs expensive improvements.
Spokane County freeholders, the people elected to solve the problems of local government, are no better than politicians, according to some disgruntled members.
"I'm used to manipulators. In fact, I'm considered pretty good at it," said freeholder Kathy Reid, a Democratic Party leader.
Some freeholders want the Valley incorporation vote delayed until voters get a look at their own proposal to consolidate Spokane city and county government.
Freeholders, who were elected in November 1992, haven't completed their work. The best guess is they'll finish writing their proposal in time for a fall vote.
Valley residents could decide on May 16 whether to form their own city. That vote may be delayed because Spokane is requesting changes in the boundaries for the proposed city.
The Spokane City Council is laying claim to "a lucrative area" inside a proposed city in the Spokane Valley, a move that could delay the incorporation vote and fan resentment toward Spokane among Valley residents.
It is the first time the city has intervened in Valley residents' attempts to form their own city. The move signifies that city officials are taking the current incorporation drive more seriously than the previous two.
"We've always ... shied away from making any statements about Valley incorporation because people were concerned that, 'Well, if you say anything, it might encourage the incorporation,"' Mayor Jack Geraghty said during a recent briefing.
Two Spokane men suspected of raping and kidnapping one woman and later shooting at another during a robbery were arrested Monday after a high-speed chase in Idaho.
Johnas Bower and William Caietti, both 18, were caught after they ran a roadblock and led police on a 10-mile chase near Grangeville, said Idaho County Sheriff R.E. "Gene" Meinen.
A man accused of raping a 73-yearold Spokane woman and slashing her throat failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to Spokane, prosecutors charged Monday.
Paul Eugene Brown, W1802 Gardner, was charged with rape, firstdegree burglary and failing to register after he moved from Tacoma in April.
A 16-year-old Deer Park girl did not want to have sex with a sheriff's deputy but was too intimidated to say no, the girl's attorney said Friday.
The girl, who has not been identified, accuses Gary Alvarado of having sex with her in the front seat of his patrol car on Nov. 16.
Alvarado, who has been on paid administrative leave since midDecember, denies the allegations.
Optimistic that new leadership will reverse fortunes at Walk in the Wild, board members have hired the zoo's fourth manager in three years.
Frances Drake won't last any longer than her predecessors if the zoo's landlord sticks to its plan. Inland Empire Paper Co., which since 1972 has given the zoo free use of the 65-acre site, announced last fall that the lease won't be renewed in July.
"At this point, there has been no change in the decision," Wayne Andresen, general manager of the paper company, said Friday.
Willie Willey, the Spokane folk hero who spurned convention and clothes, was honored Thursday in the most conventional of ceremonies.
Civic leaders unveiled a plaque for Willey on Riverfront Park's Canada Island.
Those who gathered were a respectable and fully clothed group of Spokane boosters. In other words, they represented everything Willey shunned.
A Spokane County sheriff's deputy accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl in his patrol car will not face criminal charges.
But Gary Alvarado, who has been on paid administrative leave since midDecember, still may face discipline from his superiors.
