Police departments in Airway Heights, Medical Lake and Liberty Lake will begin paying next year for dispatching service that previously has been free. Undersheriff Jeff Tower said the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said the change, effective Jan. 1, eliminates an unfair subsidy by taxpayers in unincorporated parts of the county.
Skepticism washed through the Spokane Valley City Hall last week when about 60 people turned out to learn how new flood plain maps may affect them. The maps determine how and where structures may be built, as well as who needs federal flood insurance and how much it costs.
Spokane Valley police have started writing tickets to motorists who violate a new left-turn ban on Argonne Road at Indiana Avenue. The City Council imposed the 7 a.m.-to-6 p.m., Monday-through-Friday ban in mid-October as an alternative to the concrete island city staff members recommended.
West Valley school directors drew up a pair of three-year property tax levies Wednesday for presentation to voters on Feb. 3. The levies, one for maintenance and operation and one for technology, would replace similar levies that expire at the end of next year.
Spokane County residents who live in mobile home parks don’t have to pay sewer construction costs when their neighbors do, a court has ruled. The decision shifts hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs to other Spokane County residents until failing septic systems force mobile home parks to connect to the county sewer system.
Freeman school directors decided Monday to ask for a three-year tax levy similar to what they’re already paying. The new levy, to be on the Feb. 3 ballot, would combine the current operating and technology levies and increase the total about 5 percent.
Spokane County residents who live in mobile home parks don’t have to pay sewer construction costs when their neighbors do, a court has ruled. The decision shifts hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs to other Spokane County residents until failing septic systems force mobile home parks to connect to the county sewer system.
State officials have dropped a lawsuit against a controversial janitorial company, the Spokane County Library District and a bewildered Spokane Valley janitor. State officials now say the Russian-speaking janitor, Vyacheslav Annenkov, simply got caught up in an action aimed partly at preventing exploitation of immigrants.
The Spokane Valley City Council voted Tuesday to get political about sewage treatment in less time than it takes to flush a toilet. Officially, City Councilman Steve Taylor’s motion was to “add consideration of methods to advance the Spokane County wastewater treatment plant to the city of Spokane Valley’s legislative agenda.”
The Spokane Valley Fire Department helped a man move out of his boarding house this week, but not to the destination he had in mind. Deputy Fire Marshal Bill Clifford said the 32-year-old man set fire to his bedding Sunday in hope of being moved to another special-needs care facility.
There was one smoky disaster after another last week at Seth Woodard Elementary, but nothing fire-conscious third-graders couldn’t handle. Spokane Valley firefighters didn’t have to rescue any of the dozens of children who got “trapped” in a smoke-filled bedroom. They all got out on their own.
Spokane Valley residents may pay dearly for a federal mistake and stringent Washington water quality standards, city officials were told Tuesday. An economy-wrenching moratorium on new construction is a possibility, but larger-than-expected sewer rate increases are a certainty.
The Spokane Valley City Council struck a compromise Tuesday on a controversial proposal to restore two-way traffic on Sprague Avenue. Two-way traffic will be restored only between Dishman-Mica and University roads under a “hybrid” approach adopted by the council. Two-way traffic will be introduced to Appleway Boulevard in the same section.
Busy mothers aren’t the only ones who get distracted and burn up pots of food. Spokane Valley firefighters responded at 2:46 a.m. Oct. 16 to Fusion Teriyaki at 5815 E. Sprague Ave., where a pan of food was left cooking when the restaurant closed.
To paraphrase the trailer for the 1943 movie “Lassie Come Home,” this isn’t a pretentious story or an epic. It is “too real, too human, too beautiful for high-sounding adjectives.”
To paraphrase the trailer for the 1943 movie “Lassie Come Home,” this isn’t a pretentious story or an epic. It is “too real, too human, too beautiful for high-sounding adjectives.”
Spokane Valley residents who don’t like the city’s proposed Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan have talked about a referendum. But talk is all they can do.
The Spokane Valley City Council has approved a scaled-down version of a police study it scrapped in July. Councilwoman Diana Wilhite, who opposed a $126,500 version of the study in September, came out in support Tuesday of a $52,500 study.
The only contested race in Washington’s largest legislative district pits a Lincoln County architect against a Stevens County political aide with credit problems. The political aide, Shelly Short, has the endorsement of retiring 7th District state Rep. Bob Sump, whose position she and Sue Lani Madsen are seeking.
To paraphrase the trailer for the 1943 movie “Lassie Come Home,” this isn’t a pretentious story or an epic. It is “too real, too human, too beautiful for high-sounding adjectives.”
A sign of the season, Spokane Valley firefighters responded to two chimney-related fires in the seven days that ended Wednesday. One of them caused an estimated $40,000 in damage.
Spokane Valley’s 2009 sales tax receipts are likely to be down twice as much as previously predicted, Finance Director Ken Thompson told the City Council Tuesday. Thompson had been expecting a $300,000 decrease, but said he now thinks the shortfall will be “closer to $600,000 and it could very well be down even more than that by the time we get to the end of the year.”
Spokane Valley businessman Dick Behm is on the verge of a second improbable victory against the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s always nice to win,” said Behm, who’s been battling the agency’s flood plain designations for more than a decade.
Voters in the 4th Legislative District must decide whether to keep all their eggs in a Republican basket in next month’s general election. Even if they do, they’ll get some fresh blood because state Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-Otis Orchards, is stepping down.
