Parked cars block Browne’s sweeping

The Spokane Street Department couldn’t sweep the north-south streets in Browne’s Addition on Tuesday because there were too many cars parked there.

With cars parked along them, the streets are too narrow for the sweepers to do their job.

Residents had been warned with signs and public announcements to move their cars off the north-south streets or face towing, but the large number of vehicles prevented towing on Tuesday. The city gave out $30 tickets instead.

Street Department spokeswoman Staci Lehman said vehicles parked on the east-west streets today will be towed, no matter how many there are.

The city will then move on Thursday to the north-south streets that should have been swept Tuesday.

Browne’s Addition sweeping starts at 9 a.m. today and Thursday.

– Amy Cannata

AMR agrees to pay fine for overbilling

A private ambulance company currently under a five-year contract with the city of Spokane has agreed to pay an $80,172 fine levied by the mayor for overbilling patients.

American Medical Response, in a letter to Mayor Dennis Hession released Tuesday, said it would waive its right to a public hearing where it could oppose the amount of the fine.

Firefighters Local 29 officials have said the amount of the fine calculated by the mayor was far too little given the seriousness of the breach of contract.

The fine was levied under the contract that AMR admitted violating.

This year, the company said it had overbilled city customers, including insurance companies and Medicare, $320,689 in the past two years and was issuing refund checks.

A separate class-action civil suit against AMR for similar alleged overbilling, going back to 1998, is pending in Spokane County Superior Court.

– Bill Morlin

County commission approves dog park

After years of talk, Spokane County has its first dog park.

County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved an off-leash, 3-acre, fenced, canine play land at Gateway Park. The county opened Gateway last month on the grounds of a former state rest area off Interstate 90 near the Idaho border at exit 299.

A previous attempt by the county to create a dog park was halted after Spokane Valley incorporated. A city of Spokane proposal for a dog play area at High Bridge Park was scrapped in 2004 because it was below the nest of a peregrine falcon.

Officials said the dog park should be ready by early fall.

“Hopefully, it will be the first of many,” said Beth Tubbs, a dog owner who has volunteered to lead a group to support the dog park.

– Jonathan Brunt