The Spokane County Raceway will receive $250,000 more in tax-funded safety and accessibility improvements. County commissioners voted Tuesday to add that amount to $200,000 authorized in April for similar work.
An informal study shows consolidation of the Spokane and Spokane County library systems would face big financial, logistical and political obstacles. That may explain why no one so far is proposing a merger.
This year’s Spokane County Interstate Fair will be an “ag-venture,” but it won’t be dangerous. No criminally committed mental patients will be allowed to attend, Director Rich Hartzell said Friday as he revealed this year’s fair theme: “It’s an ag-venture.”
Stray animals will benefit from a “Scraps for SCRAPS” event Saturday in Liberty Lake. A Liberty Lake company, Mario & Son, will use scraps from its stone fabrication business to raise money for SCRAPS, the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service shelter.
Spokane County Library District patrons are being asked to preserve service by increasing property taxes through a levy lid lift. Director Michael Wirt likens the Aug. 17 primary election measure to preventive maintenance on a dike before a finger is needed to stop a flood.
A proposed new regional animal shelter got a scratch behind the ears and a pat on the shoulders Friday. Elected officials from Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and Spokane County toured the maxed-out county shelter and agreed a new one is needed.
A Spokane County Jail corrections deputy is challenging his dismissal in March for alleged failure to discover an inmate’s death and then lying about it. The deputy, Kenneth Downey, is one of four who were implicated in the Nov. 11 incident, in which an inmate lay dead in his cell for eight hours before his death from natural causes was discovered.
A Spokane County Jail corrections deputy is challenging his dismissal in March for alleged failure to discover an inmate’s death and then lying about it.
Divided Spokane County commissioners Tuesday chose a site near Medical Lake for a second jail and the courthouse campus as a place to rehabilitate criminals. The vote was unanimous to locate a treatment-oriented “community corrections center” near the existing jail, behind the courthouse and Public Safety Building.
The Geiger Corrections Center will soon become an interim version of the treatment-focused “community corrections center” that is to be part of a jail-construction bond measure next April. Although Geiger will be available for overflow from the Spokane County Jail, its new mission will be to provide 144 beds for offenders who are nearing release. Jail officials already have started rearranging inmate populations to conform to Geiger’s revised role.
The Geiger Corrections Center will soon become an interim version of the treatment-focused “community corrections center” that is to be part of a jail-construction bond measure next April.
As Spokane County commissioners prepare to choose a location for a new jail Tuesday, two of them seem to be leaning toward a site near Medical Lake. In discussions this week, Commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richard found fault with a proposed Airway Heights location and potential advantages to a site near the Medical Lake interchange on Interstate 90.
Nearly 70 percent of the houses in Spokane County have declined in value, according to notices that homeowners began receiving Wednesday. Chief Deputy Assessor Kevin Best said he and Assessor Ralph Baker believe the county’s overall tax base will shrink this year for the first time since 1974.
Spokane County commissioners patched a zoning blunder in time to prevent part of a 280-unit apartment complex that a court says jeopardizes Spokane International Airport. In a ruling released Thursday, the Washington Court of Appeals says county Hearing Examiner Michael Dempsey and Superior Court Judge Michael Price properly blocked completion of the Deer Creek Apartments.
Nearly 5,000 cubic yards of concrete and 15,500 feet of underground pipe have gone into Spokane County’s single-largest construction project, which is a quarter complete. The $167 million sewage treatment plant at 1004 N. Freya St. will serve most of the Spokane Valley and could go online in 17 months.
Residents of two suburban neighborhoods north of Spokane are rescuing their local park from Spokane County budget cuts. Spokane County commissioners commended the neighborhood volunteers for stepping forward to maintain Camelot Park – at 910 W. Percival Ave., north of the North Division Y – with their own labor and coin.
A decorative metal finial – sort of a giant hood ornament – was blown off the roof of the Spokane County courthouse last Wednesday night. A nearly 5-foot chunk of turret-topping curlicues broke away from the 7-foot finial and landed on a sidewalk at the southwest corner of the historic landmark courthouse sometime between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday.
Spokane County commissioners moved Tuesday to ensure that 243 nonunion employees’ pensions won’t be diminished because of bad advice from state officials. Commissioners voted unanimously to restore a canceled 2 1/2 percent cost-of-living raise. They had withheld the raise to help balance this year’s budget with the mistaken understanding that the action wouldn’t affect pensions.
Two dozen people urged the Spokane City Council to let the city police ombudsman listen to someone other than police about police misconduct, but a confidential legal memo stood in the way Monday. Councilman Bob Apple was the lone opponent of an effort to delay for a month any decision on his proposal to let ombudsman Tim Burns conduct his own investigations into complaints of police misconduct.
A plan to remove oxygen-robbing contaminants from the Spokane River received final approval Friday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added its blessing to the plan to remove 87,000 pounds a year of algae-feeding phosphorus from the river.
Spokane County commissioners gave their insolvent law library a cash infusion this week and held out the possibility of a larger bailout. The library has $75,129 in past-due bills on a contract for legal research materials that officials say is too expensive and unpredictable – and can’t be canceled.
Spokane County commissioners gave their insolvent law library a cash infusion this week and held out the possibility of a larger bailout. The library has $75,129 in past-due bills on a contract for legal research materials that officials say is too expensive and unpredictable – and can’t be canceled.
