Public Periscope
A pet project
Don’t plan on any late night petting of little critters at the Interstate Fair. Spokane County commissioners proved to be the watchdogs of rights of baby animals last week … In discussing an otherwise routine contract, Commissioner John Roskelley balked at the provision to keep the petting zoo open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., like the rest of the fair. That could be too much stress for the animals, he said. “How many kids are going to be up at 10 p.m.?” … Concern for the animals’ well-being seemed to surprise County Administrator Fran Boxer, who noted there was time set aside for the animals to rest. “How hard is it to get petted?” she asked. Replied Roskelley: “I’ve been around 3-year-olds. I know how hard they can be” … The board voted unanimously to change the contract to close the petting zoo at 8 p.m.
Lean and mean cuisine
Attendees of the recent seminar on terrorism put on by the Federal Emergency Management Agency remain eager to dispel any suspicions they were on some cushy junket. Roskelley managed to work a reference to the seminar into a discussion of jail food … The board was approving contracts for food to the Geiger Corrections Center when Commissioner Phil Harris wondered what the prisoners would be eating. How about feeding them C-rations, the old military food for troops in the field, he suggested. … “We can go back to FEMA and get the stuff they were feeding us last week,” countered Roskelley.
To err is human; to really goof takes computer
Careful readers of last week’s Spokane Official Gazette - both of them - may have noticed something a bit unusual about the right-hand column of page 373. It’s backwards … All the words are there as it records the very end of the June 15 City Council meeting and the beginning of the June 16 Civil Service Commission meeting. They’re just flipped 180 degrees, creating a stream of type that looks like it was printed in some other language … We’re aficionados of printing mistakes, many of them self-inflicted, but had never seen a perfect column of flipped type. Neither had a representative of the firm that prints the Gazette for the city. That veteran employee, who’d like her name left out of this, suspects that late in the proofreading, a button was clicked that flips anything on the screen 180 degrees.
It’s a feature that’s handy for a photo or drawing, but not for letters. “That’s never happened before,” she said. “It should’ve been published on Friday the 13th.”
A sign you’re in trouble
Must be getting close to campaign season. The state Department of Transportation is issuing its yearly warning to candidates about campaign signs: Keep them out of the right-of-way of state highways … State laws prohibit such postings, and the department will remove them as soon as crews are available. It’s OK to put them on private property next to the right-of-way - but only with the property owner’s permission … Putting them up without the owner’s approval is a good way to lose a sign, and a vote.
Getting involved
Pam Praeger of the Institute for Extended Learning was reappointed last week to the state Asian-Pacific American Affairs Commission, and Charlotte Coker, parliamentarian for the City Council, was appointed to the state Human Rights Commission.
This sidebar appeared with the story: HOT TOPICS Friday: Plug parking meters. City Hall will be closed, city road projects will be on hiatus, but parking meter attendants will not be among the city workers who have this day as a holiday.