The County Lines

WASHINGTON

ADAMS COUNTY

Ritzville

Local residents are keeping a watchful eye on outdoor Christmas lights and displays after a string of light thefts last week. Six residents called the Ritzville Police Department to report strings of lights and individual bulbs were disappearing from their yards.

FERRY COUNTY

Republic

Bobbi Weller, a county Public Utilities District employee for 16 years, was recently honored by the state PUD Association with its Public Service Award.

GRANT COUNTY

Ephrata

A mistrial in the Carl Ford murder trial was declared just minutes after a 14-member jury was selected last week. Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline, informed by a court reporter of jurors breaking the rule of not discussing the case, said the appearance of a fair trial was in jeopardy. “We’ll start over and chalk this experience up to experience,” Sperline said.

LINCOLN COUNTY

Creston

Members of the Town Council voted themselves a 30 percent raise at their most recent meeting. Since they were previously unpaid, however, their pay remains nothing. The action was taken to remind everyone that these people are truly public servants.

PEND OREILLE COUNTY

Newport

The Newport School District will ask voters to approve a $550,000, two-year maintenance and operations levy in February. The levy, which will cost taxpayers $1.87 per $1,000 of assessed value, asks for $115,000 for technology in 2000, as well as carpet, roof repairs, handicap accessibility and an irrigation well.

SPOKANE COUNTY

Deer Park

Former Springdale resident Josh Clemmer recently joined Deer Park’s Happy Home Church in the Williams Valley area as an associate pastor.

STEVENS COUNTY

Colville

Utility rates in Colville will increase just in time for the postholiday bill season. Hoping to help pay for $8 million in needed infrastructure repairs, the city upped water rates 10 percent, with sewer rates rising 33 percent. The base water rate will be $25.52 per month in 1999. Sewer rates will be $33.21 monthly.

WHITMAN COUNTY

Colfax

Snow-related Colfax school closure decisions will be announced by 6 a.m. on KCLX-Colfax 1450 and KRPL Pullman, 1400, as well as Spokane AM stations KGA 1510, KXLY 920, KMBI 1330 and KAQQ 590. All three network television stations in Spokane will also be notified.

IDAHO

BENEWAH COUNTY

St. Maries

The basement of Fred Savala’s home began to fill with water Dec. 2 after a culvert was backed up and the overflow cut a channel through his front yard. The city maintenance department used a front-end loader to cut a ditch to route the water away from Savala’s Main Street home.

BONNER COUNTY

Sandpoint

On Dec. 21, helicopter crews will begin work northeast of Clark Fork on the Middle Mountain timber sale. Crews will fly across Mosquito Creek Road to a landing site at the University of Idaho’s field campus southeast of Clark Fork. For safety reasons, flaggers will stop traffic when the choppers fly over the road.

BOUNDARY COUNTY

Bonners Ferry

The United Methodist Church is offering free lunch in Bonners Ferry today at noon. The lunch is available at the Boundary County Community Kitchen at the church. Evalie Sturman heads the free lunch program, which will continue through May.

KOOTENAI COUNTY

Coeur d’Alene

The First Judicial District Court Appointed Special Advocates Program will be conducting a 30-hour volunteer guardian ad litem training program for Kootenai County in January 1999. The class schedule will be set according to the needs of the students. CASA provides representation to abused, neglected and abandoned children in court and other proceedings. Volunteers must be at least 21 years old, have no criminal history and be willing to commit up to 10 or more hours per week.

LATAH COUNTY

Moscow

The University of Idaho College of Law was ranked the 17th most-wired law school in the nation in the December edition of The National Jurist, a magazine for law students and law school applicants. The school was one of 140 American Bar Association accredited law schools to be surveyed for electronic access and online services. The four categories in the survey included student computer access, online registration, computers in the classroom and electronic access to student services.

SHOSHONE COUNTY

Smelterville

The Smelterville City Council recently hired Brett Sauer as a part-time police officer. The city formed its own police department and hired police chief David Wuolle earlier this year. The city also applied for a COPS grant, and if approved, Sauer will become a full-time patrol officer.

MONTANA

LINCOLN COUNTY

Libby

After reviewing state law, Lincoln County commissioners decided a proposed freeze on the rate for mileage reimbursement appears to be beyond the scope of county government. A county employee suggested in a Dec. 2 memo that county commissioners freeze the reimbursement rate instead of accepting the new IRS rate of 32.5 cents per mile, a 1 cent per mile increase.

Some of the information in County Lines comes from readers’ tips and from community newspapers. For items outside Spokane County, send your tips by fax to County Lines, (509) 459-5482, by mail to County Lines, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-2160, or by e-mail to news@spokesman.com. For items in Spokane County, send tips to Voices, The Spokesman-Review, same fax number and mail or e-mail addresses.