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News >  Voices

Six vying for 4th District positions

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.
News >  Voices

Pastor joins Valley Fire

When fire destroyed 11 homes in this summer’s Valley View fire, Spokane Valley firefighters had little time to console the victims. That might have been a job for the Rev. Craig Goodwin, pastor of Millwood Presbyterian, who will soon join the Spokane Valley Fire Department as a volunteer chaplain.
News >  Voices

Police arrest suspect in brush fires

Spokane Valley firefighters caught an arson suspect Wednesday in a series of grass fires along the Centennial Trail. Firefighters were on the lookout for a bicycle-riding man who’d been seen watching some of three previous fires.
News >  Voices

Pool projects moving along

A $2.75 million project to add pizzazz to Spokane Valley’s pools is going swimmingly, according to Parks Director Mike Stone. “I couldn’t be happier,” Stone told the City Council Tuesday.
News >  Voices

License tax gets tepid support

A countywide vehicle license tax for road work might be OK if local needs came first, Spokane Valley City Council members said Tuesday. The council also heard staff proposals to raise municipal fees, to revise and introduce a variety of regulations, to develop a neighborhood park next to the Park Road swimming pool and to ban parking on part of Shannon Avenue.
News >  Voices

Man suffers snakebite

A Spokane Valley man was bitten by a rattlesnake near his apartment Monday. The 31-year-old victim said he was walking past a bush about 200 yards from his apartment building at 12423 E. Mansfield Ave. when the snake bit him.
News >  Voices

Exploring alternative energies

Gonzaga Prep’s debate team may have a slender advantage in competitions this year based on a theme of “alternative energy incentives.” The Gonzaga debaters got some firsthand information last week from the Spokane Valley designer of an electric car so slim it can slip between lanes of stalled traffic like a motorcycle.
News >  Voices

Renovation requirements revisited

The Spokane Valley City Council agreed Tuesday to pursue more restrictions on panhandlers and fewer on Sprague-Appleway business owners. Council members took no formal action, but directed the city staff to prepare proposals for future consideration.
News >  Voices

18 accidents, 15 structure fires among week’s worth of calls

Spokane Valley firefighters had only to walk behind their main station for one of 228 calls in the seven days that ended Wednesday. Firefighters went to Balfour Park, behind Station 1 at 10319 E. Sprague Ave., about 7 p.m. last Saturday when someone walked into the station to report transients were harassing children in the park.
News >  Voices

Council discusses how far revitalization plan should go

City Councilman Bill Gothmann called for a “linear” approach to Tuesday’s discussion of the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan. But the discussion had a decidedly circular feel even though the Spokane Valley officials dealt with items in the order in which they appeared in the document.
News >  Spokane

Elvis Pigsley, at your service

All you pedigreed pooches on a mission for mankind better watch out. Elvis Pigsley’s in town, and you ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.
News >  Voices

Several fires among 280 emergency calls

A house was destroyed and a big pile of railroad ties burned for two days in what was a busy week for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. The department had 280 calls in the seven days that ended Wednesday, “Which is pretty darn busy for us,” Fire Marshal Kevin Miller said.
News >  Voices

Sheriff Knezovich proposes Valley Mall substation

A proposal for Spokane Valley to support a sheriff’s substation at the Spokane Valley Mall provoked a sharp rebuke Tuesday from a City Councilman. City Councilman Steve Taylor wanted no part of a proposal to embrace Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich’s unilateral decision to open an office at the mall.
News >  Voices

Fire station honors victims

A new fire station was dedicated Thursday in memory of those who died seven years ago when terrorists crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Spokane Valley Fire Department’s new Station 9, under construction at 12121 E. 32nd Ave., didn’t yet have a flag pole.
News >  Voices

Brutal act remembered

A half-dozen people gathered Monday near the place where, exactly 150 years earlier, Army Col. George Wright ordered the slaughter of 800 Indian horses. There was no ceremony for what is regarded as one of the most brutal acts of the Eastern Washington Indian wars. Just a question.
News >  Voices

Council postpones couplet vote

The Spokane Valley City Council punted Tuesday on an unpopular proposal to convert part of the Sprague-Appleway couplet to two-way traffic. Council members agreed to postpone action on the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan’s proposal to restore two-way traffic on Sprague Avenue and introduce it on Appleway Boulevard.
News >  Voices

Miracle makers

Miracles can be expensive, so Army Spc. Wes Hixon’s friends want to pitch in. They’re planning a benefit auction and dinner Oct. 3 for the 23-year-old Spokane Valley resident, who was paralyzed by a 500-pound roadside bomb Feb. 8 near Baghdad.
News >  Spokane

Olympic Boat Centers to close

Olympic Boat Centers in Spokane Valley will close Friday, the victim of a bad economy and bad weather. “It was kind of the perfect storm for us this year with the economy and fuel prices and bad weather and flooding lakes,” General Manager Doug Stephens said.
News >  Spokane

Spokane Army specialist mourned

Two days after he would have turned 24, Carlo E. Alfonso was buried Saturday in Spokane as a fallen hero. The Army specialist was killed and two other soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb Aug. 26 in Sadr City, Iraq, a suburb of Baghdad.
News >  Voices

Neighbor douses apparent arson attempt

Spokane Valley firefighters are seeking information about an apparent arson that was foiled by a neighbor. Fire Marshal Kevin Miller said someone piled wood outside a house 10505 E. 14th Ave. Monday night and ignited it.
News >  Voices

Spokane County develops wildfire protection plan

A plan for reducing wildfire danger in Spokane County calls for restrictions on building materials and a requirement for sprinklers in houses among other far-reaching goals. “We’re thinking big here,” said plan coordinator Janean Creighton, of the WSU Extension’s Spokane County office. “Some of these things may never come to pass, but that’s what we came up with.”
News >  Voices

County develops wildfire protection plan

A plan for reducing wildfire danger in Spokane County calls for restrictions on building materials and a requirement for sprinklers in houses among other far-reaching goals. “We’re thinking big here,” said plan coordinator Janean Creighton, of the WSU Extension’s Spokane County office. “Some of these things may never come to pass, but that’s what we came up with.”
News >  Voices

CV board adopts budget

The Central Valley school board Monday adopted a 2008-09 budget that calls for fewer teachers to serve about the same number of students. The $111.4 million general fund budget is up about 4.7 percent from 2007-08, mainly because of a 4.4 percent cost-of-living increase awarded by the Legislature.
News >  Voices

Dishman Hills House raises concerns

Putting eight recovering alcoholics and drug addicts into a house without a supervisor doesn’t sound like a formula for success to residents of a small Spokane Valley enclave. In fact, that’s exactly what works, according to veterans of the Oxford House program that’s come to the 200 block of South Sargent Road.