Spokane County commissioners gave Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich $128,223 from reserves Tuesday – about one-third of the amount he requested for equipment and software. Knezovich requested $372,631 last week, but commissioners balked. This week, he pared the total to $257,121, but commissioners lopped off a couple of items they didn’t consider essential for officer safety.
Commissioner Mark Richard planned to confer with Fairchild Air Force Base officials today about efforts to sell Spokane County land at the end of the base’s main runway. “We’re in a bit of a pickle here,” Richard said.
The silver lining in newly released Spokane County property values is that they didn’t decline as much as last year’s. The county’s overall assessed value fell for the second year in a row, but only about half as much as last year’s $794.9 million drop.
Spokane County officials can take no credit for the lake that has risen on Saltese Flats south of Spokane Valley. The county’s ratepayer-funded Utilities Division has purchased about 500 acres of Saltese Flats for future disposal of treated wastewater, but the water that has pooled there this spring is all natural.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich gave county commissioners a $372,631 list of equipment and software Tuesday that he’d like to buy with county reserves. Commissioners took no action, but agreed to discuss the request further.
The Ferry County courthouse is accessible to people with disabilities thanks to the tenacity of a St. Maries couple. Les and Mary Burton’s complaint last August to the Washington State Human Rights Commission spurred county officials to fix and maintain a long-broken chairlift.
Proposed regulation of private motor tracks in rural residential areas was wildly unpopular among more than 100 people at a public hearing Thursday. The 30 who spoke against restrictions on motorcycles and off-road vehicles got Harley-caliber applause from almost everyone in the audience, especially when one of them declared a consensus: “We want to ride.”
The sun was shining Tuesday on Spokane County’s Conservation Futures program if nowhere else. County commissioners learned that a grant will reduce the cost of the YMCA site in Riverfront Park and that a family will provide a free trailhead parking lot for the Antoine Peak Conservation Area for at least two years.
The Spokane County Jail will quit housing state prisoners next month in a dispute over payment. State officials refuse to pay the new $125-a-day rate the county charges Spokane and other cities to jail a prisoner – or even the $120.95 deal they were offered.
The Spokane County Jail will quit housing state prisoners next month in a dispute over payment. State officials refuse to pay the new $125-a-day rate the county charges Spokane and other cities to jail a prisoner – or even the $120.95 deal they were offered.
People who want to replace the Geiger Corrections Center will have to quit referring to it as “old World War II Army barracks.” Actually, the buildings are old Cold War-era Air Force barracks.
Call it the Dueling PowerPoints. Spokane’s downtown Rotary 21 club got the opening salvo April 29 when Robert Boruchowitz, a Seattle University law professor, made the case for diversion programs instead of another county jail.
New restrictions could be coming on the use of motorcycles, ATVs and other off-road vehicles on private property. The Spokane County Planning Commission will take testimony next Thursday, May 26, on a proposal to regulate private “motor tracks” in unincorporated areas after complaints about several personal dirt tracks, some of which reportedly include elaborate off-road designs.
A 4-year-old Spokane boy's disappearance nearly 48 years ago is laser-etched in three brothers' memories.
Spokane County Fire District 9 Capt. Jim Panknin was 6 at the time, but he remembers the tragic Saturday afternoon of Aug. 3, 1963, "almost like it was yesterday."
Paula Holter-Mehren was just two years older than Bobby Panknin when the 4-year-old Spokane boy disappeared in 1963. She still remembers how frustrated her father, the late Stevens County Sheriff Albert “Dutch” Holter, was that he couldn’t find the child despite what may have been the largest search in the county’s history.
Spokane County parks officials are preparing for summer with the assumption that last year’s budget crunch is the new normal. Parks Director Doug Chase is planning a more sustainable austerity plan that increasingly relies on volunteers.
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner gave a preview Wednesday of a 2012 budget she says would be painless for residents who obey the law. Verner proposed to close a tentative $6.6 million revenue shortfall with a combination of administrative actions and $1.4 million in new revenue that would require council approval.
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner gave a preview Wednesday of a 2012 budget she says would be painless for residents who obey the law.
Verner proposed to close a tentative $6.6 million revenue shortfall with a combination of administrative actions and $1.4 million in new revenue that would require council approval.
Spokane County commissioners balked Tuesday at applying for a federal grant that would provide 11 officers for three years and then a big bill. The grant would provide $2.9 million to cover salaries for three years, but the county would be required to retain the deputies for a fourth year.
Sunshine Disposal wants to introduce curbside recycling service in a large portion of its West Plains territory. Spokane County commissioners were briefed this week on the proposal, which calls for them to designate the area “urban” for garbage purposes.
County commissioners quickly adopted a building-height increase Tuesday that they hope will bring a large distribution center to the West Plains. Later in the day, commissioners received an unrelated offer for 23.9 acres of county-owned light industrial land near the corner of McFarlane and Craig roads.
Fairchild Air Force Base has raised its security level a notch as part of a worldwide alert for U.S. military and diplomatic bases. Base representatives said there is no specific threat to Fairchild as a result of Sunday’s fatal assault on Osama bin Laden. As a precaution, though, the base’s “force protection condition” went from Alpha to Bravo.
Proclamations are the Cocoa Puffs of government pronouncements. They mainly nourish the imagination. A Spokane blogger acknowledged that, but still complained that county commissioners failed to deliver meat and potatoes for Earth Day, April 22.
The Spokane County Planning Commission did all it could Thursday to help the county land a yet-unnamed big distribution center on the West Plains. They and county commissioners are rushing to increase building height limits before a May 23 cutoff date to satisfy requirements for the potential new center.
All six Spokane County right-of-way agents will be laid off today. The dismissals resulted from a state Department of Transportation decision to strip the county of independent authority to acquire land for state or federally supported road projects.
