Mike Prager

1. Water bubbles out of a sewer cover that was lifted off its seat at 57th and Sycamore. The flooded swales are designed to hold runoff from a 50-year storm. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Joel Lassman uses sandbags and sewer pipe to try and keep stormwater off of his lawn on Glennaire Drive. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Left: Gisela McMullin watches water run from Browne Mountain and the Glenrose area into the swale behind her at 57th and Sycamore. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 4. Runoff flowing down Glennaire Drive has weakened this curb and dropped it into a hole. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Sixteen acres of land along the Palouse Highway near Shopko could become the site of a new retirement center. The developer is Harry Green, who renovated the former Holy Names Academy on the North Side and the old Edgecliff Hospital in the Spokane Valley into retirement centers.

Karl Kiszely Jr., 80, displays a full-length ranch mink coat at Exclusifurs at 101 N. Argonna Road. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

A city Plan Commission meeting on the development of 7.7 acres on 29th Avenue east of Pittsburg Street has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m. The Plan Commission last week postponed its meeting on developer Glen Cloninger's Grapetree Park proposal. The commission did not have enough members available at that meeting to take action on the proposal.

Glenrose Prairie continues to be a battleground in the ongoing growth war, but Spokane County commissioners may have stopped the fighting on the western front. Last week, the commissioners voted unanimously not to include the west end of Glenrose Prairie within the county's new urban growth boundaries.

South Spokane residents who want to hone leadership skills can take a six-week course through the Institute for Neighborhood Leadership. A sign-up and informational meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the East Central Community Center, 500 S. Stone. The classes are free. Since it was founded two years ago, the institute has trained 108 neighborhood activists in Spokane, including Charlie Greenwood of Peaceful Valley.

A top college official Wednesday said enrollment drops this year at the two public universities in Eastern Washington should be short-lived. Marc Gaspard, executive director of the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, said Washington's colleges and universities need to prepare for at least 60,000 new students over the next 12 years.

John Zahner has a piano delivered to his Historic Cannon's Addition home. Randy White, center, and Bryan Osso, push the instrument up a ramp. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Housing sales on the South Side dropped in January from year-ago volume, along with the average sales price, according to figures from the Spokane Association of Realtors. Last month, 55 South Side homes sold for an average price of $119,041. That compares with the sale of 60 homes in January 1996 at an average price of $128,410.

Site preparation work started this week for a new headquarters station for Spokane County Fire Protection District No. 10 on the West Plains. The new $1.3 million station is scheduled to open by May 15, said district Chief Dick Gormley.

1. Richard Reeves sits in the living room of the historic home he restored in the East Central neighborhood. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Richard Reeves painstakingly restored the cherubs and other artwork on the ceiling of his East Pacific home. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Henry and Ida Klein pose outside their home in an early photograph, taken sometime after they had the house built in 1902. Historic photo 4. Richard Reeves' historic house at 1626 E. Pacific is up for sale. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Cheryl Gwinn and Gisela McMullin are neighbors in the Moran Gardens development near 57th and Freya. They are also partners in an ongoing battle to deal with excessive stormwater that's inundating their neighborhood.

1. Robin and Debbie Amend display several historic school band uniforms at their business, the Amend Music Center. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Robin Amend works on a soprano saxophone in his workshop at the Amend Music Center. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Want to find out more about the history of your house? It's easy to learn more about the original owner, the architect or the builder. Researching the history of a home can also tell you more about the customs and lifestyles of the people who first occupied it, experts say.

About 50 people turned out for the third of three Spokane County hearings in Cheney Monday on establishing interim urban growth boundaries as required by state law. John Mercer, long-range planning director for the county, said the attendance at Cheney High School was the smallest of the hearings so far.

A state audit report criticizes the town of Spangle for four financial irregularities in billing for water and sewer service. Town officials said they are working to resolve the problems.

Artist Steve Adams heats a piece of melted glass while forming a neon tube inside his Vinegar Flats studio. "It's really a magical process," he says. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Residents living in the Historic Cannon's Addition of southwest Spokane are thinking about inviting the people around them to join their neighborhood council organization. The Spokane City Council last fall established a new neighborhood council in Cannon's Addition to help guide delivery of city services there.

Developer Glen Cloninger envisions a small commercial park of pedestrian-friendly businesses, a restaurant, and apartments above the shops. He wants to put it on the last large undeveloped piece of land on 29th Avenue between Lincoln Heights and the Manito Shopping Center.

The owner of 1st Street Books in Cheney has found a niche selling textbooks to Eastern Washington University students. Bill Malley has competed with the University Bookstore on campus by offering 10 percent savings to students. Now he is hoping to expand his business by selling textbooks to students at other colleges and universities in the Inland Northwest.

1. Denise Fanazick leads a low-impact aerobics class for seniors at the Sans Souci recreation center. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Denise Fanazick leads a low-impact aerobics class for seniors at the Sans Souci recreation center. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

David Pitman and about 20 other high school students rushed from class during lunch hour Wednesday to practice their skateboarding under Spokane's freeway viaduct. It didn't matter that it was snowing. These youngsters love their boards, and show up just about every day. The noisy concrete courtyard under the Interstate 90 freeway doesn't usually attract adults in suits, too, so Pitman and the others might have been surprised by who else showed up Wednesday.

1. After nearly drowning at this spot in a flooded creek, Robin Branch, top center, is happy to be alive. So are her children, whom she was attempting to save: Back, from left, Vincent, 15, and Jake, 12; front, from left, Molly, 11; Casey. 10, and Jarrod, 5. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jake Branch, 12, relaxes with his mother, Robin Branch, whom he pulled from a swollen creek to safety on New Year's Day. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Reports of a prolonged slowdown in South Side real estate sales may be premature. Tom Crowley, outgoing president of the Spokane Association of Realtors, said buyers have been turning out in big numbers this month. "Right now, we are swamped," said Crowley, of Crowley Realty/ Better Homes & Gardens. "This should be a fabulous January."