Public Periscope

There’s got to be a better standard

A telecommunications company from Vancouver, Wash., plans to rip up some of Spokane’s downtown streets this summer to lay fiber-optic cable … Mayor Jack Geraghty recently gave representatives of Electric Lightwave Inc., an edict: “Put our streets back the way you found them.” Considering the sorry state of the city’s roads, we here at Periscope would like to amend that statement to read: “Put our streets back better than you found them.”

One toke over the line

City Councilwoman Roberta Greene passed around a rather incriminating photo of colleague Jeff Colliton during a recent council meeting that shows the stunned-looking councilman surrounded by dozens of huge marijuana plants … “Isn’t that something?” said Colliton when confronted about the photo, which, by the way, was taken in January when he rode with Spokane police officers … The house near 37th and Regal, where the photo was taken, had the “second-largest marijuana grow” ever found inside city limits, Colliton said.

Next week: city librarians teach “letter arrangement” for poor spellers

The Spokane County assessor’s office is offering a class to help other county employees “improve their accuracy and speed when using numbers.” Arithmetic? Nope. “Number skills.”

Getting on and off the list

The state is trying to decide whether to make revisions to its Endangered Species list. Should the Oregon spotted frog be added? Should the gray whale and the Aleutian Canada goose be downgraded? … Before those decisions are made, the state Fish and Wildlife Department must publish a report in July - and before that happens, it must hold hearings around the state in June. Thursday is Spokane’s turn, 7 p.m., the County Health Building, 1101 W. College.

Honk if you’re registered to vote

The Secretary of State’s office is proud to announce that more than 1 million people have registered to vote while obtaining or renewing their driver’s license. In Spokane County, more than 66,000 have registered that way. “The public clearly likes the convenience of motor voter,” says Secretary Ralph Munro … What Munro’s press release doesn’t say is that some elections officials believe the new registration laws artificially inflate the voter rolls. When the state and federal government made it easier to register, it also made it harder to cleanse the rolls of people who have moved and died. If you receive a stadium ballot addressed to someone who used to live in your residence, that could be the reason why. … The jury’s still out on whether easier registration leads to more active voting.

Getting involved

Spokane School District 81 is looking for three people on its Citizens Advisory Committee for Human Growth and Development, which helps decide how to teach students about sex and other aspects of growth and development. There are three-year terms for two members-at-large and one alternate … The group reviews teaching materials on such varied subjects as physical disabilities, reproduction and sexually transmitted disease, meeting downtown once a month from September through May. Info available by calling 353-3679.

, DataTimes MEMO: Public Periscope, which is published Mondays, is compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports. You can write us at The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, 99210; or send e-mail to jimc@spokesman.com; or fax to (509) 459-5482.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Hot Topics Downtown revitalization: KPBX and the Citizens League launch a series of discussions on growth and development with a panel discussion at 6 p.m. Monday on the radio. They’ll follow it up with a 7:30 a.m. breakfast question and answer session at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute. Call 326-1129 for more information.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports