Damages from WV fire estimated at $75,000
Spokane Valley Fire Marshal Kevin Miller estimates damage from a Thursday fire at West Valley High School, 8301 E. Buckeye Ave., at about $75,000.
No one was injured in the fire that damaged the press box and storage area below it in the school’s newly renovated grandstand area.
Sports equipment, including hurdles and six large pole vault mats, worth about $14,000 was destroyed, Miller said.
Everything should be repaired in time for West Valley’s first home football game scheduled in three weeks. None of the grandstand seats were damaged, but district officials said a safety inspection will be done.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
– Kandis Carper
Spokane
Federal grant to pay for sheriff’s copter
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will use a new federal award to take to the skies using a retrofitted military surplus helicopter.
The office received a $148,084 award from the U.S. Department of Justice to fund maintenance and operation of the Bell scout helicopter, obtained in 2004 from the U.S. Army, to patrol transportation routes and look for drug activity, among other missions.
The helicopter, stored at Spokane International Airport, should be ready for flight by the end of September, said Esther Larsen, grants/contracts coordinator for the Sheriff’s Office.
Volunteer reserve deputies and some Sheriff’s Office and Spokane Valley Police Department staff will pilot the helicopter.
Plans call for the helicopter to fly 524 hours at a cost of $250 per hour, Larsen said.
The Sheriff’s Office may also assist other agencies, including the Washington State Patrol, U.S. Secret Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency, Larsen said. The helicopter will help with fire prevention, looking for clandestine methamphetamine production and the cultivation of marijuana and will assist with border patrol.
– Parker Howell
All lanes, ramps open on I-90 downtown
After three months of construction, all lanes and ramps are open on the Interstate 90 viaduct in downtown Spokane.
The first phase of the project to repave the deeply rutted lanes was completed about three weeks earlier than expected.
And while construction inconvenienced drivers, it didn’t create many safety issues, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Baker.
During the project, there were 27 collisions reported within the four-mile construction area, and none within the one-mile narrow chutes. That’s fewer than the 40 collisions reported within the same area in 2005.
Now that the eastbound lanes are fixed, the Washington State Department of Transportation will move on next spring to repairing the westbound lanes of the viaduct.
–Amy Cannata
Coeur d’Alene
Federal prosecutors want death for Duncan
Federal prosecutors want to seek the death penalty for Joseph Duncan, the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed Friday.
The ultimate decision on whether Duncan could face death for alleged crimes against Dylan and Shasta Groene lies with the U.S. Attorney General, said Jean McNeil, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Idaho.McNeil said there is no timeline set for that decision.
Kootenai County prosecutors are already seeking death for Duncan for the May 2005 slayings of the children’s mother, their 13-year-old brother and their mother’s fiancé. He is set to be tried on those crimes Oct. 16.
Duncan has yet to be charged with the kidnappings of the children and 9-year-old Dylan’s subsequent death. Federal authorities have said he may also be charged with production of child pornography and related sex crimes against the children.
– Taryn Brodwater