Mike Prager

The summer of street repairs and detours in northwest Spokane will continue in August and September under a $2.17 million paving contract for rebuilding and resurfacing Driscoll Boulevard, one of the most broken arterials in the city. The Spokane City Council had the contract up for approval on Monday. Spokane Rock Products was the apparent low bidder. The company's bid was $100,000 above an estimate from city engineers, but it beat out Inland Asphalt Co., Red Diamond Construction and Murphy Brothers, all of the Spokane area.

A local organization that has been promoting a compact fluorescent light bulb giveaway in Spokane neighborhoods this summer has just started its efforts to call attention to the need for wiser use of energy. The Northwest Climate Change Center in Spokane was formed a year ago to tackle the interrelated problems of excessive energy consumption and the buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels, which threatens to cause catastrophic global warming.

Eileen Murphy and a group of volunteers were surprised to find two old window openings that had been sealed off when they removed metal siding from her historic West Central neighborhood home earlier this month. In a project known as an "unveiling," Murphy and members of the Spokane Preservation Advocates organization stripped the prominent neoclassical home back to its original wooden siding in a June 14 work project.

Proposals to allow major retail development on about 45 undeveloped acres in the vicinity of Regal Street and Palouse Highway are scheduled for a vote before the Spokane City Council no later than June 30. In one of the longest-running council meetings in recent years, council members on June 9 took testimony throughout the night and did not adjourn until the early morning hours of July 10 on three proposed amendments to the city's comprehensive land-use plan.

A public meeting to consider the impacts on traffic of a new sports complex development on the Albi Stadium grounds is set for Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt St. The first phase of work there will include softball and soccer fields, a skateboard park, a BMX bike course, play equipment, trails and improved parking. A portion of the funding comes from a bond issue approved last fall for pools and park improvements. In addition, the parks department has $4 million set aside for an Albi sports complex. That money came from the sale of park property approved voters in 1999.

The Lands Council in Spokane is kicking off a giveaway of 17,500 compact fluorescent light bulbs starting today in northeast Spokane. The swirled tube bulbs will be available beginning tonight at 6:30 at Fire Station No. 15, 2120 E. Wellesley Ave., and at other locations throughout the city during the next several months, said Laurie Jackson of the Lands Council.

Proposals to convert about 45 acres of southeast Spokane into sites for major retail development could come to a vote before the City Council as early as Monday. But pressure from neighborhood activists to limit retail uses along South Regal Avenue and Palouse Highway has forced developers into a face-to-face workshop with neighborhood representatives.

More street work is about to get under way on the North Side after the council on Tuesday approved two contracts for West Broadway Avenue and for street repaving along North Belt Street and adjacent residential streets. Schimmels Construction of Spokane was the top bidder at $284,000 to install street enhancements along West Broadway Avenue east and west from its intersection with Ash Street as part of an effort to encourage redevelopment in the West Central Neighborhood business area.

Members of the Manito/Cannon Hill Neighborhood Council have taken a stand on the need to preserve trees and enhance sidewalk amenities when Lincoln Street is rebuilt next year. In a letter earlier this month to Mayor Mary Verner, the chairman of the neighborhood council outlined the position of residents living along the arterial route.

Spokane County has hired a nationally recognized land-use consultant to study how land-use laws can be used to ensure that Fairchild Air Force Base is not harmed by too much development or the wrong kind of development on civilian-owned land surrounding it. Matrix Design Group of Sacramento, Calif., will be used to identify significant land-use issues affecting Fairchild, such as construction within the flight path for the base.

HILLYARD – A nationally renowned expert in neighborhood planning and redevelopment said recently that Hillyard is the kind of urban environment that will likely see a revival in coming years, and that similar redevelopment could occur across older urban areas in the county and Spokane Valley. He said the key to renewal is involving members of the community, including schoolchildren, in planning and executing redevelopment initiatives.

After weeks of debate over the design of a new Comstock Pool, residents of the neighborhood last week agreed to support a design that offers space for lap swimmers as well as a recreational area for families and smaller children. More than 50 Comstock-area residents agreed to support the proposed pool design, which includes a beachlike "zero-depth entry" area, water slide and a diving board.