Eagle Pass program branches out
The Eagle Pass program was a victim of its own success last year.
So many Eastern Washington University students, staff and faculty wanted to take advantage of free rides on Spokane Transit Authority buses that many buses filled up, as did the park-and-ride lot under the freeway at Jefferson.
Add not finding a parking space to that final exam nightmare.
This coming school year, though, the STA will be ready for the increased demand, launching buses to the Cheney campus from several other park-and-ride lots to alleviate the congestion at the Jefferson park-and-ride.
Once Eastern classes start back up, buses at peak times will leave directly from park-and-ride lots at Hastings and Mayfair, Five Mile and the Valley Transit Center, as well as the Jefferson lot, says STA Planner Ryan Stewart.
There should be plenty of room at those lots.
While business has been booming at Jefferson and the park-and-ride lot at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena (not really much of a ride, more like a way to avoid paying higher downtown parking costs), it’s been pretty stagnant at the other lots around town.
In fact, the total number of boardings at the STA’s park-and-rides has dropped over the last three years when you take the Eagle Pass out of the equation.
And that Jefferson lot?
The STA is negotiating with the city of Spokane for additional space at that location.
Please, butt in
Don’t throw that cigarette butt out your car window, or you could pay dearly – a $1,025 fine.
Burning cigarettes can cause brush fires, and it’s pretty dry out there right now.
If you see someone throwing a cigarette out their car window, the Washington State Patrol is asking you to report that vehicle’s make, model, license number and location.
But get this. What the owner of that car will get for potentially causing a fire isn’t a ticket, it’s just a letter, litterbag and ashtray.
I guess crime does pay.
Costly mistake
Truck owners who paid the Washington State Department of Licensing an extra gross weight fee will be getting refunds in the mail within the next three months.
The state issued the fees for a nine-month period while Initiative 776, which banned those fees, was tied up in the courts.
Now it’s going to cost the state almost $600,000 in administrative fees alone to issue refunds.
According to Licensing spokeswoman Gigi Zenk, Spokane County truck owners will be getting more than $912,000 in refunds.
The breakdown is $7 for a 4,000-pound truck, $14 for a 6,000-pound truck and $25 for an 8,000-pound truck if you had to pay the fee, which was only assessed between Feb. 24, 2003 and Dec. 1, 2003.
Mini travels
Southwest Airlines has launched a new feature on its Web site ( www.southwest.com) focused on traveling with children.
Its annoyingly misspelled name aside (Kids Korner), the offering does give parents a few good tips for flying with the kids.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, the advice centers on ways to entertain, diaper and otherwise care for offspring in the air, rather than advising parents about how they can keep their kids from driving everyone else on the flight insane.
By and large, most kids behave well on the plane, but the few who don’t sure make you wish you had a parachute.
Slow going
Division Street will probably get pretty ugly today near Hastings Road. Crews working on a traffic signal at Farwell Road will be reducing southbound traffic to one lane from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. and northbound traffic to one lane from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Highway 291 may be repaired this week near Suncrest, necessitating single-lane traffic at times.
South of Spokane, Highway 195 traffic will be slowed to a single lane from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday near Steptoe as crews repair a bridge there.
Oops, Stevens Street repaving between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Third Avenue was canceled at the last minute last week. It’s now scheduled to be closed Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning.
Grand Boulevard will be bumpy and lanes may be closed intermittently as crews repair it between 29th and 38th avenues.