Week in Review
An accident at Spokane’s Wastewater Treatment Plant claimed the life of Mike Cmos Jr. on Monday, and injured three of his coworkers. Officials say a concrete roof collapsed into the 2-million-gallon “digester” tank it was covering. Workers initially thought Cmos, who had been on the roof with others, may have been washed into the adjacent Spokane River, and began a frantic search. It soon became obvious, however, that he was inside the tank itself. It was Wednesday before enough of the slurrylike waste had been removed from the tank that firefighters could locate and remove the body of the 24-year plant veteran _ a father and husband who friends say “was loved by everybody.” About 200,000 gallons of waste was displaced from the tank during the accident _ some of it into the river just as a group of college students and instructors were passing in rafts. Health officials warned people to avoid contact with the water. But tests later showed the contamination was well below levels considered safe.
MONDAY
Tara Rader, 13, was critically injured today when she was shot in the head by her 20-year-old boyfriend, who apparently thought the .22-caliber pistol was unloaded. Reza Abghari was charged with second-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm. “They were watching TV and acting like gangsters,” a police sergeant said.
• An international corporation has brought a ray of hope to one of Eastern Washington’s most economically depressed communities. RWE Schott Solar Inc. may open an assembly plant for solar-energy panels, bringing 15 living-wage jobs to Republic. Boosters contend that’s equivalent to 7,000 jobs in a city like Seattle. Bills giving the company tax breaks and other incentives died this year in the Legislature, but will be revived during the next session.
• The Idaho Transportation Department grossly inflated the economic benefits of the proposed U.S. Highway 95 bypass along Sand Creek while downplaying some of the project’s impacts, according to a $5,000 report released today by a Sandpoint opposition group. An Oregon economist and highway planning expert, paid to evaluate the project for the North Idaho Community Action Network, faults the state for not backing its decisions with enough evidence and providing too few alternative routes.
TUESDAY
Spokane Mayor Jim West is considering a proposal to sell off Albi Stadium and some of the city-owned property surrounding it. Under the plan, a softball sports complex proposed for the Albi grounds would instead be built at the city’s newly acquired land at the recently demolished Playfair Race Course. Plans might also include a smaller stadium for high-school football, perhaps funded by the schools themselves. “Everything we are doing is kicking the tires,” West said.
• Students from a Spokane alternative high school are painting a mural on one wall of a downtown underpass, while homeless people are painting on the opposite wall. It’s all part of the city’s mural project, which includes 15 works in various stages of completion. The program couples poor or troubled populations with community artists. The typical mural lasts about five years.
WEDNESDAY
National Guard Sgt. Jeff Shaver, a 1997 graduate of Newport, Wash., High School, was killed by an explosive device today near Baghdad. Details are sketchy. Shaver, 27, was working toward a helicopter aviation degree at Green River Community College in Western Washington when his unit was called to duty in Iraq. According to a family statement, he was engaged to be married.
Homeless people have been evicted from city-owned land near downtown where they’ve camped for months. Parks workers removed the tarps, tents and bedrolls after notifying the campers and telling them to remove their belongings in 24 hours. The action comes on the heels of a police proposal to expand the current ban on camping in parks to include all city land, including on sidewalks and under bridges.
• Nearly 60 years after he saved the crew of his crippled B-17 bomber, retired 1st Lt. Walter Mayer of Spokane is being presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross. Mayer’s plane lost two engines and began a rapid descent when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Germany in 1944. Flying with his head out the iced-up window, Mayer managed to land the plane, bouncing it over a steamroller on the runway, losing a wingtip to the propeller of a parked P-51 fighter and destroying a parked B-24. “The almighty had a lot to do with it,” say Mayer, 83, a veteran of three wars.
A proposed housing development at the base of Canfield Mountain is meeting opposition from 120 neighbors who have filed written statements against the 28-lot proposal. They say the Copper Ridge subdivision would put too many houses on the land and isn’t compatible with adjacent developments built at just one house per acre. Copper Ridge homes would be built three per acre.
THURSDAY
Many East Central residents oppose plans to build a new regional sewage treatment plant at one of two sites in their neighborhood. They say the plant would thwart efforts to bring new businesses and families into the neighborhood, and fear an accident like the one Monday at Spokane’s existing plant. About 50 people attended a public hearing on the matter.
• Even Pongo and Perdita, the stars of Disney’s “101 Dalmatians,” only had 15 puppies. Hanna, a Spokane Valley Rottweiler, labored 11 hours recently to deliver a litter of 19 puppies – four shy of the world record. Two of the pups died.
Spokane-based Courtesy Communications has until May 31 to tear down an antenna that’s been standing on Blossom Mountain since 1984. The Kootenai County Commission denied Courtesy’s request for a conditional-use permit and zoning variance that would have made the tower legal. A previous court decision said Courtesy must either obtain county approval or remove the tower south of Post Falls. Courtesy has been barred from using the tower since August.
• Katie Brodie has raised $24,500 for her bid to become a Kootenai County Commissioner. Brodie, a former county planning commissioner, is challenging county Commissioner Dick Panabaker in the Republican primary. She has spent $8,914 on radio and billboard advertising, along with campaign signs and fliers. Ten of her donations were for $1,000 each.
FRIDAY
State case workers are recommending that four children whose mother was crushed under a van be placed with the accused killer’s sister. Richard A. Atkinson, 32, is accused of killing his wife and endangering the lives of three of his four children. Although the decision will be left to a judge, social workers likely will recommend that the children go to Atkinson’s sister, a single mother of two, rather than their mother’s schoolteacher brother and his wife.
• A Stevens County man is charged with reckless endangerment for allegedly peppering his neighbor’s chimney with bullets. Roger W. Calvert denies the charge, although he does acknowledge that, “whatever I shoot at, I hit.” He also acknowledges being angry with the folks across the street, saying they’re taking too much water, leaving him with too little.
Marine Cpl. Michael Keith, a 1998 graduate of Lake City High School, has always been an animal lover. So his father, Eddie Keith of Coeur d’Alene, was not surprised when Michael was photographed in Iraq carrying a rescued puppy Keith’s unit calls “Killer.” The photograph has been distributed around the world by the Associated Press.
• Between 23 and 29 percent of North Idaho residents have no health insurance, compared to the national average of 16 percent. Charity care costs are soaring for hospitals, with Kootenai Medical Center giving away $3.9 million in charity care last year alone.
COMING UP
Spokane doctors have been trying to solve the mysterious medical ailments of two nuns brought from Ghana for treatment. Read about the effort Monday, in The Spokesman-Review.
A local golf course is being recognized by the Audubon Society as a wildlife sanctuary. Read about the Circling Raven Golf Course in The Idaho Spokesman-Review on Monday.