Stories by Tom Lutey for the Spokesman-Review

News > Spokane

Pride takes center stage

Mon., June 14, 2004

Months ago, when the Rev. Mark Pridmore offered to conduct a mass wedding for gays and lesbians in Riverfront Park, he was thinking half a dozen couples might be interested. But Sunday, standing beneath the arch of a gigantic cloth rainbow with a handful of couples before him and several hundred witnesses on hand, Pridmore sensed more people were willing. He opened the ceremony to the audience and wound up with about 24 would-be couples.

News > Spokane

Ponderosa development proposal upsets neighbors

Fri., June 11, 2004

A packed, 179-home development is in the works for the Ponderosa neighborhood just one week after residents pleaded with Spokane Valley's City Council for the right to preserve acre lots. The homes, proposed by developer Lanzce Douglass, would be built along a steep draw in the southwestern corner of the Ponderosa neighborhood, which is now a popular hiking spot with neighbors.

News > Spokane

Local car buffs to get air time

Thu., June 10, 2004

The motor in Mike Bond's hot-rod yellow '55 Chevy is so large that, to the untrained eye, it looks like two engines riding piggyback. And when Tim Stromberger fired it up Wednesday for a film crew shooting for the Discovery Channel, the noise was enough to make their eardrums bleed.

News > Spokane

Woman says house built by strangers ‘a God thing’

Mon., June 7, 2004

The sun slides westward at the end of the day. Its white-hot face has cooled to a brilliant orange, washing everything at Sherrie McGowan's place in golden light. On days like this, the 50-year-old Spokane Valley woman can stand for eternity in her front yard, marveling at the new ranch-style home that sits where McGowan lived in a hovel six weeks ago.

Time slipping for watchmaker

Mon., May 31, 2004

For watchmakers like Larry Verhaag, time is running out. He sits behind a glass display counter just inside the door of Halpin's Pharmacy and Treasure Room on Sprague Avenue, a graying gentleman with an agate bolo tie around his neck and a tiny magnifying lens – a loupe – protruding from the rim of his eyeglasses.

News > Voices

Preserving neighborhoods

Sat., May 29, 2004

The man on Deloris Davis' doorstep wanted her land. He had plans to replace her chicken coop with duplexes, her tall grass with trimmed sod, her 46,560 square feet of elbow room with apartment dwellers spaced less than 50 feet apart. "They had my land all platted out, a road in here and everything," Davis said. "I said no to them. They talked to my neighbor. He jumped on the chance and then found out later what he'd done."

News > Spokane

Pasadena Park faces prospect of business, again

Mon., May 24, 2004

"All of Argonne is going to be commercial," Ron Armacost said. It was 1988. He was battling the neighbors of Pasadena Park for the chance to build a Zip Trip gas and grocery at the crossroads of Upriver Drive and Argonne Road.

News > Nation/World

‘The city that Jim Frank built’

Mon., May 24, 2004

Everyone has a shade tree. Everyone is five minutes from a public park. The power lines are underground. Property values are rising meteorically. This is Jim Frank's town. Few communities reflect the influence of a single developer the way Liberty Lake reflects Jim Frank's. He didn't invent the town, says Tom Agnew, a Frank admirer and commissioner of the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District, but Frank's brush strokes are on everything from parks and trails to the town's municipal government.

News > Spokane

Prom special for these teenagers

Mon., May 17, 2004

Jamie Stone loves high school dances. She shows up early. She stays as long as she can. She never sits down and, usually, she dances alone. But not last Friday night at the prom organized by Central Valley School District's special education services. Nineteen, charming and blessed with the gift of gab, Stone twisted and sambaed with everybody.

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