Kathy Mulady

Long-awaited Indian Trail Road improvements scheduled to start this spring will dramatically change the appearance of the two-lane route.

Auctioneer Gene Kellogg holds up a deep-dish pie glistening with cherry topping.

1. Colin and Elissa Schaefer watch their mother Martha go over paperwork regarding a development she is watching. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. The kids, pictured below with Martha at the county Public Works building, are accustomed to going with Mom on research missions. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

A Mead School District bus driver, suspended from her job with pay two weeks ago, has been allowed to return to her route. Monica Taylor, 50, has been a bus driver for 25 years, the past 12 years with the Mead School District. She was involved in a head-on collision with a pickup truck while driving children home from school Jan. 6.

Ken Yuhasz is among six Northwest artists whose work currently is on display at the Northwest Neon exhibit at the Cheney Cowles Museum. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

While developers, the city and county all have staffs of lawyers and experts to research and plan and defend developments, neighbors have usually been on their own. Until now. Scott M. Brown, a former planner for Kootenai County, has started a Spokane business helping neighborhood groups navigate sticky city and county regulations.

A pie auction this Friday at the Wayside Community Center will help raise money to replace furniture and dishes and repair the piano damaged in a series of burglaries just before Christmas. Some of the stolen items have been recovered. The burglaries threatened to stop the annual Christmas program presented by the Half Moon Women's Club, but the determined group pulled together, buying and borrowing to replace the stolen items in time for the show.

Tom Hargreaves addresses a community meeting at Covenant United Methodist Church. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Gleneden homeowners are going to court to challenge a decision by Spokane County commissioners to rezone a parcel of land north of Timberwood Circle, allowing 55 homes to be built on 11 acres. The case will be heard in Spokane County Superior Court, with an initial hearing set Feb. 7.

A Mead school bus driver was taken off her route nine days after an accident that damaged a school bus and bruised some children. Monica Taylor was suspended with pay Jan. 15, two days after school district officials met with parents concerned about the safety of their children.

The state Boundary Review Board is considering an application to annex 125 acres in Hillyard into Fire District 6. The land, east of Market Street between Wellesley Avenue and Lincoln Road, is owned by Burlington Northern.

North Side home buyers wanted it all in 1996: big houses, spacious back yards, good schools. And for the most part, they got it. Throughout the north end there was a generous selection of houses and steady prices.

Mavis Wendt looks out her window at her neighbor who she claims disrupted her TV and intruded on her peace and quiet with his CB radio. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Tables, chairs, a punch bowl and other dishes and furniture stolen from the Wayside Community Center on the eve of their annual Christmas program, have been recovered by the Spokane County Sheriff's deputy. The community center property was found Jan. 3 at the home of a Deer Park man. No charges have been filed.

Duane Alton's request to rezone about eight acres along the Newport Highway for a new tire store has been denied by the Spokane County hearing examiner. The decision was cheered by neighbors who say the noise and traffic from the tire store is inappropriate for the neighborhood. "We are absolutely thrilled," said Claudia Couch, a College Place resident. "It is a real victory for our neighborhood."

Debbie Mumm started her quilting business in her basement 10 years ago. Now she and husband Steve are building a $1 million headquarters behind Northpointe Plaza that employs 16 people. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane Kiwanis clubs are sponsoring a bike helmet safety program and contest for first through eighth graders. For $10, students receive a white helmet and are invited to decorate it with markers. Judges will select the best decorating job in each age group. Eight bikes will be awarded as first prizes, along with "hundreds" of other prizes, said Dan St. John, Kiwanis club member. Helmet decorating sessions are planned at Franklin Park Mall on Saturday, Jan. 25 and Feb. 8, and Sunday, Feb. 23. There will be two sessions each day, 10 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m.

The hottest business and professional address on the North Side sounds a little like it's hiding: "behind NorthPointe Plaza." But it won't be long before the North Nevada Street niche boasts its own identity. In seven years, the area has exploded from a ShopKo store and a cluster of houses to the massive NorthPointe Plaza, and hundreds of apartments.

Experience and reputation followed Melanie Rodd when her family recently moved from Bremerton to Spokane. For five years Rodd ran a bustling art gallery in Bremerton, featuring work of top artists. Now she's opened Twin Totems Gallery, an elegant new gallery next door to her Green Bluff home.

So long, lagoons. Whitworth College is ready to connect to the Spokane County sewer system. After three years of negotiations, the college and county have reached an agreement that will connect the 82-year-old campus to the central sewer system this month. The college dumps about 80,000 gallons of sewage daily into antiquated, unlined lagoons the size of a football field, and up to 10-feet deep.

Susan Renz holds a photocopy of the original stocking she created to hang on the White House tree. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Larry Groshoff turned the debris created by last month's ice storm into holiday sculptures that decorate his neighborhood. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

1. Timmy Wood waits for the arrival of his Christmas gifts. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Timmy Wood has presents for under the tree thanks to the caring of Artye Lee School and the Indian Trail Community Center. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 3. Timmy Wood takes his Christmas present to the tree. 4. Timmy Wood welcomes Tom Giannou to his home. Judith Giannou, Artye Lee Scott and Candice Tisor, Timmy's mother, enjoy his antics. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

It's a food fight! Students at Brentwood and Midway elementary schools are locked in fierce-but-friendly competition to see which school can collect the most canned food before Dec. 19. The prize? School pride, of course, and possession of the coveted trophy. It's the fifth year the two schools have competed in the food drive. Brentwood has the trophy now. Midway is bent on taking it back. "Brentwood was generous enough to let us borrow it to show the students here what it looks like," said Taylor Kieburtz, a sixth-grader at Midway who is helping organize the drive.