Part of Farwell Road will be rebuilt with one of four road grants Spokane County commissioners accepted Tuesday – if another, larger grant is approved as officials hope. The section to be rebuilt next year if money is available is between the North Spokane Corridor and Market Street.
Last-minute pleas to preserve land on Beacon Hill failed to persuade county commissioners to shuffle a priority list for Conservation Futures property acquisitions. Eight people urged the commissioners to give a higher priority to a package of 11 parcels on Beacon Hill, a popular hiking and mountain-biking site overlooking Hillyard.
Developers may lock up subdivision rights longer under a temporary change in state law that took effect June 10. The amendment extends the “vesting” periods in which developers may press ahead with their projects regardless of changes in regulations.
Spokane County’s Conservation Futures program may get a new, narrower target for acquiring public open-space land. County commissioners received a staff and advisory committee recommendation to focus on the top 10 properties on a priority list of 36 offerings.
Next year’s Spokane County budget will dig deeper into county reserves, not taxpayers’ wallets. County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday not to impose legally permitted 1 percent increases in property tax levies for the general fund or the road fund.
City and county officials agree they want to retain a regional garbage-disposal system when expiring contracts begin dissolving the current arrangement next year. But Spokane County and other member governments are unwilling to let the city of Spokane maintain full control of the system, which determines garbage rates countywide.
A Spokane Valley car dealership said Friday that it will end a longstanding practice of dumping parking lot snow on nearby county park land. A contract crew working for Appleway Chevrolet and Toyota was confronted by a sheriff’s deputy Thursday night after dumping more than 100 cubic yards of snow on the grounds of Camp Caro. The park, near the corner of Appleway Boulevard and Sargent Road, is the gateway to the Dishman Hills Natural Area.
Budget-caused lack of irrigation at a north Spokane County park may have hastened the need to remove nearly 60 Ponderosa pine trees this week. But county Parks Director Doug Chase said shutting off the spigot didn’t cause the mountain pine beetle infestation that destroyed the trees at Northwood Park on Regina Avenue, next to Brentwood Elementary School.
Spokane County commissioners may dip into reserves to save jobs and offset some of the most painful cuts in their 2011 general fund budget. Commissioners Mark Richard and Bonnie Mager called for preserving safety-related programs by reducing reserves from 10 percent of the $136.8 million general fund to perhaps 8 percent.
Spokane County commissioners decided Tuesday evening to charge more for dog licenses and change the way building permit fees are calculated. No one objected. Almost no one was there.
Vicki Horton says she’ll reorganize the Spokane County Assessor’s Office when she takes charge in January, but only Chief Deputy Assessor Kevin Best will be dismissed. Best was recruited by Assessor Ralph Baker, whom Horton defeated with nearly 56.7 percent of the vote in the Nov. 2 general election.
Spokane County commissioners will take testimony later this month on several potentially controversial proposals. A request to create a 97-acre gravel pit in the Four Mounds area west of Riverside State Park will be heard in a special meeting Nov. 29.
A public relations contract to promote a Spokane County jail construction bond measure will be extended four months at a cost of $46,156. In other action Tuesday, county commissioners voted to increase golf fees and the charge for access to the county sewer system.
Spokane County Commissioner Bonnie Mager conceded defeat Wednesday in her bid for a second term. The election is to be certified Friday, and the latest results show challenger Al French with 50.8 percent of the vote to Mager’s 49.2 percent.
Spokane County Commissioner Bonnie Mager conceded defeat Wednesday in her bid for a second term. The election is to be certified Friday, and the latest results show challenger Al French with 50.8 percent of the vote to Mager’s 49.2 percent.
A criminal investigation is under way to determine who may have caused an elevator shutdown that injured a Spokane County Jail deputy. Evidence indicates someone pushed an emergency stop button in the jail control room during two recent incidents – one of which sent Deputy Janice Bauer to a hospital shortly after midnight on Oct. 24.
A criminal investigation is under way to determine who may have caused an elevator shutdown that injured a Spokane County Jail deputy.
Evidence indicates someone pushed an emergency stop button in the jail control room during two recent incidents – one of which sent Deputy Janice Bauer to a hospital shortly after midnight on Oct. 24.
A year from now, Spokane County residents may go online when snow falls to find out which roads have been plowed. Some road graders and plow trucks are being equipped this winter with global positioning system devices that show where road crews are and what they’re doing.
Although he once advocated a return to the gold standard, Spokane County Treasurer-elect Rob Chase plans nothing startling when he takes office. The Libertarian-turned-Republican said the only change he plans is to beef up the Treasurer’s Office website and make it easier for people to see where their money is going.
An overhaul of building-permit fees in unincorporated Spokane County could reduce costs for big projects and make small ones more expensive. County commissioners will take testimony Nov. 30 on a proposal to charge for building permits according to the time it takes to process them instead of the value of the project.
An overhaul of building permit fees in unincorporated Spokane County could reduce costs for big projects and make small ones more expensive. County commissioners will take testimony Nov. 30 on a proposal to charge for building permits according to the time it takes to process them instead of the value of the project.
Plans for a new regional animal-control shelter took a step forward this week when public officials warmed to a site near the county fairgrounds. County Commissioner Todd Mielke said city and county officials agreed Wednesday that converting a warehouse at 1001 N. Havana St. “makes sense.”
Spokane County will pay $60,000 to a 79-year-old robbery victim who says he was seriously injured when sheriff’s deputies manhandled him after he called them for help. Several deputies reported the home-invasion robbery victim, Terrance McDonald, shouted profanities at them and refused numerous orders to cooperate in the July 2006 incident.
