Kevin Blocker

Two hundred residents in the Mead School District gathered at Mead High School Tuesday night at a rally to support a March 10 bond and levy measure which would improve the school and many others in the district. The event rally was sponsored by the Citizens Planning Committee.

1. Corey Kanon celebrates his first year of the Deer Park Winter Festival by stretching his mouth around a jumbo dog. Photo by Julie Boehm/The Spokesman-Review 2. Donavon Hodgson runs to first base after hitting the ball Saturday during the Deer Park Winter Festival snowshoe-baseball tournament. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 3. Children wait in the snow for the bonfire to start. When it failed to get going, they improvised with a snowball fight. Photo by Julie Boehm/The Spokesman-Review

Jennifer Baldwin, left, is accompanied by student teacher Christy Kubista as she makes her way through the boys locker room at Rogers to get treatment in the training facility for an injured ankle. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Deer Park is celebrating its 14th annual Winter Fest, which starts Friday night and concludes on Sunday. The festival will feature winter games and activities. This year's festival will kick off with the opening ceremonies on Friday at 6 p.m. It includes an acknowledgment of Larry and Pat Barden, this year's "Honored Couple," for their civic service. The traditional bonfire will immediately follow the opening ceremonies. The bonfire is fueled by discarded Christmas trees. Friday night's festivities will conclude with a fireworks display at Perrins Field at 7:20 p.m.

If Mead school district voters approve a $25 million bond measure, the district would be eligible to receive $9.5 million in state matching funds. It also has $9 million to spend from its capital projects fund. Here is a breakdown of how the district would spend the $43.5 million if the March 10 measure passes. Modernize Mead High School; $31.5 million.

1. Mead High School seniors Brian Wolverton and Sara Clements spend lunch together in "The Mall," the dark hub of the school. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. From left: Christy Evenson, 18, and Brandi Curry, 17, work on their current issues assignments on Mead High School computers. All-new wiring had to be run and hangs down through the ceiling in the library to accommodate the computers. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Heather Lehman holds her daughter, Aimee Schne, who surprised everyone when she insisted on being born in a snow-covered parking lot of Fire Station No. 44. Her middle name appropriately means snow in German. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Storyteller and singer V. Ted Hutchinson will perform at Glover Middle School on Tuesday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Hutchinson will speak from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. at the school at 2404 W. Longfellow. The program is free and open to the public. Using folk tales and songs, Hutchinson leads his audience on a journey through African-American history from slave ships through the Civil Rights Era.

A man who threatened to commit suicide at an Indian Trail neighborhood home brought out members of the S.W.A.T. team Friday afternoon for nearly three hours. The man called the police department and threatened to kill himself, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. "The fact that he was armed and threatening created a situation where the S.W.A.T. team had to seal off the area so that no one else would get hurt," Cottam said.

Nine Mile Falls School District voters will be asked to approve a two-year $2.3 million maintenance and operating levy on Feb. 3. If approved, the levy would cost district property owners $3.64 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, said district superintendent Don Baumberger. The current levy, which will expire this year, costs property owners $3.55 per $1,000 assessed valuation, he said.

Police department drug investigators confiscated $35,000 worth of crack cocaine, $6,000 in cash and arrested three suspects on Dec. 30. Officers from the Special Investigations Unit and federal Drug Enforcement Agents used a search warrant at 2215 W. Boone and arrested Jesse L. Barker, who gave his address as 4666 W. Broadway, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. In a separate incident later that day, officers observed suspects entering and leaving 902 W. Maxwell, another apartment involved with drugs, Cottam said.

1. Merry Glen Home & School resident Michael Gibby reaches out to hug director Alma Cory after a brief time away. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Sheila Carroll, far left, and Georgia Jeremas, third from left, help Merry Glen residents Judy Folsom and Patti Seccor make cookies. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Mark Merritt plays "Silent Night" on a flute under a mounted fish in the Merry Glen recreation room. Merritt had caught the fish on a trip with his father. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Riverside School District voters will be asked to approve a $2.6 million modernization and technology bond measure on Feb. 3, in addition to a $4 million levy over four years. The 10-year bond will cost district property owners $2.78 per $1,000 of assessed valuation if approved. That amounts to $278 for a $100,000 house. That figure is the district's current assessment rate for bond measures, said Assistant Superintendent Terry Weinmann.

A district planning committee has recommended that the Mead School Board ask district voters to approve a $25 million bond issue in March. The bond would accompany a measure for the district's regular two-year replacement operating levy.

A 20-year-old Spokane man was down and apparently didn't want to get up. Nick E. Crammer was arrested by police for punching two Spokane firefighters in the face after they tried helping him. The firefighters responded to an emergency call of a fallen man at 1014 E. Dalton at 9 p.m. Christmas Eve , police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

Leslie Speck doesn't think about what she lost. She's grateful to have what's left. Her worldly possessions went up in flames early on the morning of Dec. 21. But with the help of her roommate, all of her children are still alive. The friend, whom Speck would only identify as "Dale," grabbed 6-year-old Angelique and 14-month-old Kaer from the burning house before firefighters arrived.

Though it's the time for sharing, Spokane police are encouraging holiday shoppers to frustrate thieves and burglars by being stingy during the holiday season. Crime Prevention Specialist Sandy Richards said half of all home burglaries are achieved through unlocked windows and doors. "This season is as busy for burglars and thieves as it is for shoppers," Richards said. "They know people have credit cards and cash with them, and purse snatchings and wallet thefts are easy when a shopper is burdened with packages."

More than 100 Rogers High School students shared a little goodwill with senior citizens and other Hillyard neighbors last week when they baked and distributed cookies. About 130 students enrolled in home economics and community service classes delivered the cookies to various nursing homes on the North Side and residents near the high school. "It was a great project, there was a lot of hands-on by the kids," said Rogers teacher Nancy Carlson.

1. Julio Gayton, left, wraps gifts for Charles Perry, who bumped into his friend, Theresa Lamarr, during a shopping trip to Franklin Park Mall. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. Don Warden makes a glass sculpture in his Frank Park Mall Kiosk while shoppers Valentina Zhukov, center, and Luba Filenko watch. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

More men shop at Franklin Park mall than women. It sounds about as believable as saying more women hang out in singles bars than men, but it's true. Angela Via, Franklin Park Mall's marketing director, said a mall survey showed that male shoppers outnumber women by 55 to 45 percent.

Mead firefighter Chris Hoagland helps Michelle Johnson, 4, center, and her sister, Christina, 5, down after their visit with the Station 92 Santa. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Voters in the Mead School District may be asked to approve a $15.9 million maintenance and operation levy for regular school business on March 10. Under the levy's proposal, $7.77 million would be collected in 1999 and $8.16 million collected in 2000. It will replace the current levy that expires in 1998. The school board was scheduled to vote on a final figure and date for the levy at its scheduled meeting late Wednesday after press time.

The Spokane parks department has helped NorthTown Mall free up 300 parking spaces for holiday shoppers by allowing mall workers to park in lots at Franklin Park. The city approved the agreement to help ease the problem of mall employees parking their cars and creating more congestion in neighborhoods near NorthTown. But Howard DuHaime, who lives across the street from the Franklin Park, said what the city has done is transfer traffic from one neighborhood to another.

Tire prints in fresh snow led Spokane police to a small methamphetamine lab on the North Side on Monday morning. Police were called to a residence on East Queen just before 5 a.m. A couple told officers that one of them had started her van in the driveway before going back into the house, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. The woman said someone jumped in the van and drove away. Her husband followed the tire tracks to an alley behind the 4800 block of North Martin, he said.