Peter Barnes

While community groups in Spokane are eyeing the Mann Army Reserve Center for possible civilian use, East Valley School District officials are looking to do the same with the Walker Army Reserve Center in Spokane Valley. Debra Howard, the district's assistant superintendent of operations, said Tuesday that her preliminary discussions with military officials led her to believe the district could find a way to use the buildings at the 9-acre center.

In its latest foray into private contracts for public works, the Spokane Valley City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a $1.175 million deal with Poe Asphalt Paving to repair the city's streets this summer. Asphalt and storm sewer repair has been the purview of Spokane County under a contract with the city since it incorporated. After crews were unable to finish the summer work, though, the city and county agreed last year to transition much of the work to private firms or city departments.

This year, people in small cities and towns will be prohibited from burning their yard waste for the first time since Washington passed tougher air pollution laws in 1991. Waste burning in rural Spokane County started Friday and is allowed through Monday and again next weekend. But in addition to the larger cities where burning has been banned for several years, the no-burn area is now extended to all incorporated cities and towns and their corresponding urban growth areas.

Crews at Valley Fire went on 190 runs between March 27 and Monday, including a water rescue and a serious car accident at Valleyway and Sullivan. About 6:45 p.m. March 27, Valley Fire personnel and the sheriff's dive team rescued a woman clinging to a rock near Mirabeau Point Park, said Assistant Fire Chief Dave Lobdell. She was treated for hypothermia.

Another workshop has been scheduled on a new pathway in the Ponderosa neighborhood after the proposal got mixed reviews at a similar meeting several weeks ago. In addition to drawings for a 10-foot-wide path on the north side of 44th Avenue between Woodruff and Sands Roads, engineers now are drafting an alternative design to accommodate pedestrians along the road.

The way the neighbors gathered at Spokane Valley City Hall tell it, it's not just the kids in the Edgecliff neighborhood who need Pratt Elementary. "The impact to the community is greater than what's been given consideration" in a Spokane Public Schools proposal to shut down Pratt, said Sheriff's Community Oriented Policing Effort (SCOPE) volunteer Tammie Dahl.

After four years on the City Council and serving as Spokane Valley's first mayor, Mike DeVleming has said he will not seek re-election this fall. "Most all of what I've wanted to accomplish, I've been able to," DeVleming said Thursday.

Volunteers in Greenacres have drawn the attention of a regional neighborhood group and even the applause of the elected officials they often argue with from the other side of the podium at City Hall. At its meeting Tuesday, the Spokane Valley City Council recognized the work of the North Greenacres Neighborhood Association that earned them a 2006 Outstanding Neighborhood of the Year award from the Neighborhood Alliance of Spokane County.

If negotiations are successful, 8 acres in the north Greenacres neighborhood will become Spokane Valley's first major park purchase. The Spokane Valley City Council gave its blessing Tuesday to a proposal to pursue the purchase of two contiguous sites at 1405 N. Long Road and 17721 E. Boone Ave. The vote was unanimous.

It might get tougher to stop and smell the roses along Sprague Avenue and other parts of Spokane Valley under proposed development rules that limit where plant nurseries and numerous other businesses can be built. "I have some real concerns about the process, that building owners are not notified in writing that severe changes are going to take place," said Bill Coyle, who owns Plant Land Nursery.

The Spokane Valley City Council took a look at how it keeps track of the business it does on the public's behalf Tuesday, reviewing a new public records policy for the city as well as a concept for an electronic agenda that the council would view on laptop computers instead of on paper. Currently the City Council, various city employees and members of the press receive a packet containing all of the reports, ordinances, memos, minutes and other items the council will review on a given week.

For the computer-savvy in the Spokane County Library District, nearly 1,000 free digital audio books are now just a download away. Late last month, its libraries became the first in the region to offer audio books that patrons can play on their computer or MP3 player.

Several community members' vision for a farmers' market in Millwood is coming into focus as the town's Presbyterian church now plans to hold the market in its parking lot this summer. "Everyone is just real excited about it," said Millwood Presbyterian Church Pastor Craig Goodwin.

Spokane Valley has always prided itself on the efficiency of its barebones staff, holding down costs by employing fewer than 100 people and filling in the gaps with contractors. But as the city's planning department supervises an extensive redevelopment study for Sprague Avenue, plans for a city center and new shoreline regulations, evaluates its first round of comprehensive-plan amendments, handles day-to-day building permit traffic and rewrites its development code from scratch, that savings could come at a high price.

At its meeting Tuesday the Spokane Valley City Council awarded AAA Sweeping a $473,687 contract to handle the city's street sweeping this year, the latest step in a plan established last year that would transfer much of the street upkeep now handled by Spokane County to the city or private firms. The Spokane Valley company did $98,000 in sweeping for the city last fall and was the only company to submit a bid to handle the sweeping this year.

A well-meaning patron donated an antique hand grenade to the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum last week. So authentic was the device that a bomb squad feared it might be live and blew it up before fire officials and onlookers from an evacuated tavern next door.

This year, Spokane Valley residents are shouldering the largest increase in property tax collections in the city's short history. By leaving the tax rate about the same while property values rise, the city of Spokane Valley and the town of Millwood will both collect 19 percent more in property taxes this year than they did last year. And they took advantage of a loophole in state law to approve the record increase without first seeking a voter-approved levy lid lift.

Parking lots, light poles, horse boarding, lot sizes, earth moving, fire hazards, billboards, noise impacts and many other topics spread over three hours of public testimony Thursday, prompting the Spokane Valley Planning Commission to extend public hearings for three of the meatiest sections of the city's new development code. "We have a heck of a lot more questions than we have information on hand or answers," said Commissioner John Carroll. "We owe it to everyone to get more information and answers."

Only on the Internet could pregnant dairy goats connect two strangers looking to save gas money between Spokane and the West Side. Traditional hitchhiking may be all but illegal on Washington highways, but the Web now offers a fruitful meeting place for all sorts of travelers looking to make the most of empty car seats.