Growth survey results to be reported

Planning consultants have boiled down thousands of responses from Kootenai County residents and will give a summary report Dec. 14 highlighting how locals think the area should grow and what it should look like.

The county will use the results, which will identify consistent themes and conclusions, in the rewrite of the comprehensive plan – the blueprint for how the area will grow.

The Kootenai County commission hired the Colorado-based firm KezziahWatkins to help get every resident possible involved in the rewrite. The firm set up an online survey and encouraged locals and groups to have small meetings in living rooms, schools, coffee shops or wherever. Each group got a kit, known as a “meeting in a box,” which included discussion questions and worksheets. Hundreds of residents participated.

The responses from the surveys and meetings in the boxes are what KezziahWatkins will summarize for the Kootenai County commission.

The public can’t get copies of the report until the meeting.

The firm also is compiling a foundation report, which will contain all the verbatim responses from both the survey and the meeting-in-a-box sessions. That report will be available online Dec. 15 at www.kcgov.us or at the Kootenai County Planning Department.

The 6 p.m. meeting is at the Kootenai County Administration Building, 451 Government Way. For more information, call (208) 446-1070.

Hauser

Breakfast will benefit boy with lupus

This year’s Shalena’s Breakfast with Santa at the Hauser Lake Fire Station will benefit a Post Falls boy suffering from lupus, a disease in which the immune system attacks healthy tissues.

The all-you-can-eat breakfast – featuring sausage, eggs, pancakes, coffee, orange juice, and biscuits and gravy – goes from 7:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Suggested donations are $3 per person or $10 for a family.

The Hauser Lake Fire Department hosts the breakfast every year, with proceeds going to a different, seriously ill child in the area. The event is named after a volunteer firefighter’s daughter who died of cancer. The first breakfast, held in 1985, raised money for the girl.

The fire station is on Hauser Lake Road, a mile and a half from state Highway 53.

Spokane

Police say woman had chances to flee

The woman whom police thought was being held hostage Tuesday at a Ramada Inn had several opportunities to let her 6-year-old daughter and herself out of the room, authorities said Wednesday.

Courtney Baker, 28, was booked into Spokane County Jail for criminal mistreatment, said Spokane police Cpl. Tom Lee. The woman not only stopped her daughter from leaving the room where a man was armed with a gun, but she also used methamphetamine in front of the girl, detectives confirmed Wednesday.

Baker and Jeremy D. Hanson, 26, reportedly were unwelcome guests at the north Spokane motel. When they refused to leave, police were called. Hanson fired a shot when police approached the motel to get him, but no one was hit.

The standoff ended about 11:25 p.m. Tuesday. Hanson faces a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

3-year-old girl burned in fire dies

The 3-year-old burned in an apartment fire earlier this week died at Harborview Medical Center.

The youngster was taken off life support Tuesday night, fire officials said.

Taiylor Dawley suffered second- and third-degree burns to 35 percent of her body and stopped breathing for a short time before being rescued by firefighters, relatives and officials said. She was injured in a fire at 307 E. Nora Ave. on Sunday.

Bedding that fell near a baseboard heater is believed to be the cause of the blaze, officials said.

Cause of inmate’s death unknown

A Spokane County Jail inmate died Sunday of an undetermined medical problem, the Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

Sgt. Dave Reagan identified the inmate as Shariesa Rosetta Oneil, 39, who jail officials said also was known as Shariesa Brown.

Reagan said an autopsy Monday failed to determine the cause of death, but the detective assigned to the case expected pending laboratory tests to provide more information. Test results typically take several weeks.

Oneil was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of second-degree domestic assault for allegedly ransacking the home she shares with a roommate. Oneil and the roommate told deputies she had overdosed on diet pills, so Oneil was treated at a hospital before being booked early Friday morning, Reagan said.

Shortly after corrections officers began feeding inmates about 6 a.m. Sunday, Deputy Brad Dahlin noticed Oneil was moving slowly and had poor balance. Fearing a stroke, Dahlin summoned nurses and they called an ambulance about 7 a.m., Reagan said.

He said hospital emergency room doctors pronounced Oneil dead about 10 a.m.

A search of Oneil’s cell turned up nothing that could explain her death, Reagan said.

Compiled from staff reports