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Pia Hallenberg

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All Stories

News >  Washington Voices

Valley big rig parking ordinances put aside

The majority of the people in the audience at the Spokane Valley City Council meeting Tuesday night sat through almost two hours of proceedings before they got to say something about the issue they were there for: potential parking restrictions for semi-trucks on streets in residential neighborhoods. On the agenda were two draft ordinances seeking to limit the parking of tractors and semitrailers. One draft stuck to street parking in residential neighborhoods, the other would also outlaw the parking of semitrucks and vehicles measuring more than 27 feet or weighing more than 15,000 pounds gross weight on private property in residential areas.
News >  Washington Voices

Valley Chamber of Commerce welcomes new leader

The blustery and gray weather was no match for Katherine Morgan’s enthusiasm last week. Morgan is the new president and CEO of the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce and on Oct. 23 the Chamber threw her a welcome reception at CenterPlace in Mirabeau Point Park. “There couldn’t be a more fitting place to have this reception than the center of this great community,” Morgan told the crowd of about 60 business owners and public officials. Barry Baker, chairman of the chamber’s board, introduced Morgan and thanked her predecessor, Eldonna Shaw, for her 13 years of hard work and dedication.
News >  Washington Voices

Lower gambling tax sought in Spokane Valley

Ian Riley, the owner of Black Pearl Casino and Poker Room on North Pines Road, asked the Spokane Valley City Council in late September to lower the gambling tax rate from 10 percent to 2 percent. “We will pay approximately $330,000 in gambling taxes this year alone and there are no deductions,” Riley told the council, adding that the number of card gaming rooms and smaller casinos has dropped by one-third over the past decade. “The industry is not getting any bigger, it’s getting smaller – and that’s due to taxation I believe.”
News >  Washington Voices

Marijuana DUIs on rise, report says

There’s a growing marijuana problem in Spokane Valley. City Council members listened intently to police Chief Rick VanLeuven’s drug enforcement report at the meeting Tuesday evening – the same day nearby Liberty Lake announced it has adopted an ordinance that allows police to ticket minors who are high in public, but not in possession of marijuana.
News >  Washington Voices

Students take art, emotions to the wall

When Max Sloan, 17, arrived at Barker High School last year, he was sad and angry. He was overwhelmed by grief because several people he knew had died, including University High School students McKenzie Mott and Josie Freier, who were killed in a car accident. He wasn’t close friends with the two young women, but they shared many mutual friends. “My friends were hurting so badly; it was really tough,” Sloan said.
News >  Features

Valley man tackles clutter, shares advice on blog

Hundreds of computer books. Piles of bicycle clothes and 38 plastic bicycle water bottles. Empty boxes full of foam panels that once protected appliances long dead and gone. Old bike tire tubes. A temporary license plate from 2002 and the manual to an old space heater, as well as a handful of remotes. These are just some of the things Spokane Valley resident Marc Mims has gotten rid of since he started what he calls “de-hoarding” at his home. Not that the home he shares with his wife, Jenny, was that bad.
News >  Spokane

Rebuttals lacking, sheriff’s candidates focus on staff, officer-involved shootings

If those attending a debate Friday morning between Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and his opponent Doug Orr expected fireworks, they were disappointed. The event hosted by the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce moved tepidly through campaign issues such as civilian oversight, staffing levels and officer-involved shootings, without a single rebuttal from either candidate.
News >  Washington Voices

Ormsby, Delaney campaign for 3rd Legislative District seat

To incumbent Timm Ormsby, a Democrat, there’s not a big difference between campaigning and fulfilling his legislative duties – his messages and methods don’t change much from one to the other, he said. At the top of his list right now is finalizing the state’s budget, which includes finding a way to dedicate more money to K-12 education.
News >  Washington Voices

Valley council considers historic register

The Spokane Valley City Council is considering adopting its own historic preservation ordinance so it can create a historic preservation program. At the City Council meeting Tuesday evening, deputy state historic preservation officer Greg Griffith and newly appointed Spokane historic preservation officer Megan Duvall gave a presentation about how and why Spokane Valley should consider its own historic preservation program.
News >  Washington Voices

SCOPE volunteers awarded for their service

Bob Grinnell has been a SCOPE volunteer since 2002, and he prides himself on keeping a pretty good eye on things at the Edgecliff SCOPE station on Thierman Road. Yet somehow the volunteers there were able to surprise him: Last week, Grinnell received a 2014 SCOPE Lifetime Achievement Award at a dinner hosted by SCOPE.
News >  Washington Voices

Valley council discusses range of options for truck parking

About a dozen people showed up Tuesday evening to hear the Spokane Valley City Council debate possible restrictions on parking of semitrucks, tractors and trailers in residential neighborhoods. City attorney Cary Driskell presented four options for reworking the parking code in the public right-of-way in residential areas:

Who makes Spokane Valley what it is?

A city is made up from the people who live there. It’s the sum of their experiences, trials, joys, victories and everyday life that makes a community what it is. One reason why I spend so much time driving around Spokane Valley and drink so...

The week of the Valley virus

The second week in Spokane Valley did not go quite as smoothly as the first one because the blog got a virus. Actually, I got a virus and was laid up for a day in the middle of the week, but hey, I still got...
News >  Spokane

Students meet farmer as CVSD promotes healthy foods

Students at Spokane Valley’s Broadway Elementary School got a surprise when Dan Jackson showed up in their lunch line with fresh heirloom tomatoes and steamed squash. “Call me farmer Dan,” Jackson told the hungry and slightly skeptical youngsters as they filed by. “Have some fresh tomatoes. Have you ever had squash? Try it.”
News >  Washington Voices

Valley council to consider parking ban for semis on residential streets

Taking some work home with you means different things depending on your job. For Rick Squibb it means parking his semitruck in the street in front of his house on East 30th Avenue in Spokane Valley. Not all his neighbors are happy with that, and a group of Spokane Valley residents has spurred the city to once again consider a ban on parking semitrucks on residential streets.