Mike Prager

Another Spokane street will have traffic restrictions this year. Lane reductions will be imposed on Monroe Street just north of the Monroe Street Bridge in September and October while Avista Corp. utility crews relocate a major transmission line.

A spring chinook salmon tagged with a University of Idaho radio-tracking device was caught earlier this month at Cedar Creek Hole on the Lewis River in southwest Washington. The 10-pound salmon with a clipped adipose fin was taken with a combination salmon egg-shrimp bait on July 4 by Vancouver fisherman Terry Prager just below Washington state's sprawling salmon hatchery in Cowlitz County about eight miles upstream from the Columbia River. Based on the darkened color of the fish's skin, it was clear that the salmon had been swimming in fresh water for weeks. The clipped fin showed it was a hatchery fish, and thus, legal to harvest.

The state Department of Transportation has started making offers on residential property along Interstate 90 as part of a long-range plan to widen the freeway through the East Central neighborhood and connect it to a new north-south freeway. At least 150 parcels are being sought in the initial round of purchases.

Spokane city officials said last week that garbage pickups in some South Side neighborhoods soon may be converted from alleys to streets. Last week, garbage pickups in several North Side areas were converted from alley to street pickups.

The Spokane City Council voted Monday to end an emergency ordinance that required lots to be at least 7,200 square feet in five developing neighborhoods on the outer edges of the city. A residential zoning code enacted last year set minimum lot sizes at 4,350 square feet in an attempt to increase density within the urban area.

The owners of a historic home on the North Side are planning to tear down the 1904 house and replace it with a larger home. Members of the Spokane City-County Landmarks Commission have asked the couple to try to find someone who will take the house and move it to a new location.

In an effort to reduce water consumption in Spokane, the City Council has adopted a new ordinance that will give golf courses on the city water system reduced rates if they cut their use below 40 million gallons a year. Brad Blegen, director of the water department, said

Three triangular islands on Garfield Street between 24th and 28th avenues have been named in honor of the renowned Olmsted brothers, who helped design Spokane's park system 100 years ago. Last Thursday, the Spokane Park Board approved naming the three islands as Olmsted Triangle Parks in recognition of the Brookline, Mass., park and residential designers.

Officials at Spokane City Hall have come up with a proposal to pay for an update of downtown's comprehensive land-use plan, but the proposal involves increases in parking meter rates for at least two years. Mayor Dennis Hession last week made the proposal in conjunction with the Downtown Spokane Partnership and Business Improvement District.

A small warehouse building on the east side of downtown Spokane was voted onto the Spokane Register of Historic Places on Monday by the City Council. The Dowling & Cattle Warehouse, 117 W. Pacific Ave., was placed on the register because it is part of a larger group of aging commercial warehouses downtown.

Restoration of the Fox Theater in downtown Spokane has entered a crucial phase. Workers late last week began assembling a steel support structure to keep the auditorium's ornate ceiling suspended. At the same time, craftspeople were reinstalling sections of a large etched-glass light fixture above the main lobby. Masonry experts continued patching and prepping exterior walls for new paint.

A 39-lot clustered housing development is being proposed along Newman Lake and Lakeview Road. It is one of three large-acreage developments recently proposed across the county.

At least eight Spokane city parks – from a small river overlook to three midsized neighborhood parks – have been built across the city over the past two decades through the initiative of citizen activists. Meanwhile, larger park projects have languished at City Hall. The initiatives for the parks came from dozens of people who saw a need for playgrounds and open spaces and pushed their dreams to completion.

In an effort to reduce water consumption in Spokane, the City Council has adopted a new ordinance that will give golf courses on the city water system reduced rates if they cut their use below 40 million gallons a year. Brad Blegen, director of the water department, said that city-owned courses may eventually use reclaimed "class-A" water from wastewater treatment plants. An experimental pilot program is starting this year at Downriver Golf Course.

An ad hoc mayoral committee studying the use of federal community development block grants in Spokane has concluded that City Hall could do a better job of planning the spending of that money. But it says the current system of using citizen input for a portion of the grant allocation has been working well. About $1 million in community development block grants is divvied up through recommendations of neighborhood steering committees, which have requested money for park development, sidewalk repair, street trees and projects at nonprofit agencies. Kehoe Park in Hillyard and Polly Judd Park on the South Side are examples of projects that have benefited from community development grants.