Contract OK’d for Bernard work
Spokane City Council on Thursday gave a go-ahead to rebuild Bernard Street between 14th and 29th avenues in a job that could claim about 18 mature shade trees along the sidewalks.
Council members voted 6-1 in favor of a $1.8 million contract with Eller Corp., of Newman Lake.
A separate contract for tree removal has already been executed and awaits a go-ahead from the mayor’s office, said Tom Arnold, engineering services director. That contract is less than the $39,400 amount required for council approval, he said.
Councilwoman Mary Verner, one of two council members representing the South Side and the Bernard Street area, opposed the contract because appeals by residents to block logging have not been exhausted, she said.
Richard Rush, a leader in the group to save the trees, said opponents of tree removal lack enough money to seek a temporary restraining order in Superior Court while they pursue an administrative appeal to stop the logging with the city hearing examiner.
“I think it’s short-sighted of the city to go into a contract when an appeal is pending,” Rush said after the vote.
City officials said they will save as many as six of the mature trees and make more than two dozen other trees available for planting on public and private land adjacent to Bernard.
Patrol car crashes during pursuit
A possible theft suspect in a van led a sheriff’s deputy on a pursuit Thursday afternoon, which ended with the patrol unit crashing into a pickup.
The deputy and the pickup driver, 70-year-old Muriel Oberg, were not hurt, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan. The man the deputy was pursuing got away.
About 1:50 p.m., the deputy was patrolling near Market and Freya when he spotted the van, which had no license plates and was in an area restricted for trains, Reagan said. The area also has been the scene of several metal thefts. The deputy pulled over the van, the driver said he was only picking up scrap metal. However, he later sped off.
The van driver ran a stop sign at Freya and Market, nearly hitting the pickup truck, Reagan said. The deputy then collided with the pickup.
The van’s driver was described as white, 6 feet tall and 140 pounds, with a full mustache and was “generally unshaven and scruffy-looking,” Reagan said. The van was possibly a Chevrolet with a faded orange paint and a very faded logo on its side that read “Snow’s Cleaning.”
Anyone with information is asked to call (509) 242-8477.