Bank robber says she needs cash for kids
Coeur d’Alene police briefly closed streets in the downtown area Monday afternoon to search for an apparently pregnant woman who held up a Bank of America branch.
Bank tellers told police the woman came into the branch at 401 Front Ave. about 1:30 p.m. and said she had “four kids to take care of and a fifth on the way.” They said she was holding a list of bills that she needed to pay and “appeared stressed.”
The woman told a teller she had a gun, but she didn’t brandish a weapon. She left on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, Sgt. Christie Wood said.
Witnesses last saw the woman in the 400 block of North Fourth Street.
Bank security cameras captured a crisp image of the alleged robber.
Police said the suspect appeared to be in her mid-30s and looked pregnant.
She was described as 5 feet 9 inches tall with “very blue eyes,” a fair complexion and dark hair pulled back in a bun.
She wore a teal maternity top with three-quarter-length sleeves and white pants.
Police are asking anyone with information to call the tip line at (208) 769-2296.
– Taryn Brodwater
Local donors give $200,000 to library
Several community donors have contributed gifts totaling nearly $200,000 toward construction and maintenance of a new $7.2 million public library in Coeur d’Alene.
Library foundation members this week announced a $15,000 donation from Janet and Les Atchley.
The couple moved to Coeur d’Alene from Pasadena, Calif., last fall.
Their gift will sponsor a “knowledge nook” on the library’s main floor and a display case in the children’s area.
Other recent donations included $75,000 contributed to the library fund by Northwest Specialty Hospital and its National Surgical Hospital corporate partners. Those funds will pay for the new “nonfiction zone” in the library, which will house technology, science and nature and reference materials, as well as true stories, biographies and how-to books.
Coeur d’Alene residents John and Ann Beutler also contributed $100,000 toward the library project.
John Beutler is owner of Century 21 Beutler and Associates.
Library organizers must raise about $1.4 million to finish and furnish the new building. So far, backers have raised just over half that amount.
– JoNel Aleccia
Funding pursued for trail property
The North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation needs cash to buy about 5.2 miles of railroad track for a public trail that would go past the proposed Kroc Community Center and link the town’s northwest neighborhoods and schools.
Foundation Vice Chairman Mike Gridley, who also is the Coeur d’Alene city attorney, will ask the City Council tonight for a letter of support for the Prairie Trail project.
He also seeks the city’s endorsement to put underpasses or overpasses where the trail would cross busy streets such as Atlas Road and Kathleen Avenue.
The foundation has the first-right of refusal to buy the nearly $4 million stretch of Union Pacific line that goes from the Riverstone Development north along Ramsey Road near the proposed site for the Kroc Community Center before veering across the Rathdrum Prairie to Meyer Road.
For more information, call Gridley at (208) 769-2330.
– Erica Curless