In brief: City to take testimony on Kendall Yards tax plan
City residents will get another chance to give input into a proposed tax district in and around the Kendall Yards project.
The city hopes to use tax-increment financing to help pay for infrastructure improvements to the Kendall Yards, a 78-acre development north of the Maple Street Bridge.
Under the tax plan, property values would rise or fall based, as they are now, on market forces. But property taxes the city and county collect would be frozen at current levels. When values rise from new construction or assessment changes, 75 percent of the extra amount that normally would have gone to the city and county would be diverted to pay for improvements like sewers and streets. Taxes collected for schools would not be affected.
City officials say they’ve drawn the proposed tax-increment district larger than Kendall Yards’ boundaries so money collected can also be used in older neighborhood like West Central, Emerson-Garfield and Riverside.
The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Chase Gallery at City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Event will honor victims of crime
A ceremony in remembrance of all crime victims will be held Thursday as part of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.
The 5:30 p.m. event, titled: “Victims’ Rights: Every Victim, Every Time,” will be in the Spokane County Courthouse courtyard.
Top law enforcement officials, a Spokane city councilman and a police chaplain are among the scheduled speakers for the ceremony. Music and memories provided by victims’ families and friends are also featured.
For more information call (509) 477-3640.
Spokane Valley
Carwash gunfire closes schools
A Spokane Valley carwash saw gunfire Tuesday afternoon as a drug deal went wrong, and one man took out his anger by shooting a truck, police said.
Around noon two suspects exchanged angry words and one approached the other making threatening gestures, said Detective Dave Thornburg, Spokane Valley police spokesman.
The man who was approached pulled out a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and shot one round into the front of the other man’s Toyota Tundra pickup, Thornburg said.
The man who fired the shot remained in the parking lot until police arrived, but the other man fled the area, prompting officers to tell two nearby schools to go into lockdown until the suspect was caught.
About 14 minutes later, the man was apprehended less than a block from the carwash.
Names of the suspects were not released due to ongoing drug investigations. Thornburg said investigators ask that witnesses call Detective Rob Shearer at (509) 477-3191.
Three suspected of robbery attempt
Three people were in jail Tuesday after Spokane County sheriff’s deputies said the trio tried to rob a Spokane Valley convenience store with a fake gun.
About 4 a.m. Tuesday, a man later identified as William B. Barkley, 38, walked into the Hico Village at 9219 E. Sprague and wandered around the store, making the cashier nervous, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
The cashier told investigators she saw a gun in Barkley’s pocket, and he looked straight at her without saying anything and paced back and forth in the beer aisle.
Finally, Barkley told the cashier, “I can’t do it to you,” and walked out of the store, where Kimberly A. Allen, 34, and Steven T. LeBlanc, 37, were waiting in a car, according to court documents.
Sheriff’s deputies later found the vehicle about three miles away, where Barkley admitted to investigators he had tried to rob the store.
Deputies arrested all three and found a semiautomatic handgun replica in the back seat where Barkley had been sitting.
Washington, D.C.
Spokane, Colvilles to get BIA grants
The Spokane and Colville Confederated tribes are among 13 tribal groups selected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to receive $1.5 million in energy and mineral development grants, the bureau announced on Tuesday.
“The grants will allow these tribes to evaluate, develop and manage their energy and mineral resources to benefit their communities,” said Carl J. Artman, assistant secretary for Indian affairs.
The grants are intended to promote development of tribal oil, gas and coal resources and markets as well as renewable energy projects, the bureau said in a statement.
The bureau estimates that underdeveloped tribal lands are capable of producing nearly 5.5 billion barrels of oil, 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 53 billion tons of coal in addition to harnessing renewable resources such as wind and biomass.
Pend Oreille County, Wash.
Commissioner loses recall vote
A Ponderay Shores Water & Sewer District commissioner appeared to have lost his elected position Tuesday evening after 16 voters recalled him from office.
Eugene M. Nelson was up for recall as critics said he bought land for a drain field before the district had completed a comprehensive plan as required by law.
Out of 32 ballots mailed out in the tiny district, 24 came back and 16 voted to remove the commissioner from office while eight voted to retain him. Two challenged ballots were being held, and three additional ballots were “held for secrecy,” Liz Krizenesky, election administrator for Pend Oreille County, wrote in an e-mail.
In response to the charge printed on the recall ballot, Nelson wrote that the mistake was a “minor omission,” caused mostly by a procedural error.
“I find it no worse an offense than the inability of the recall petitioners to correctly spell the name of the county in which we live,” he wrote in his ballot statement. “It is Pend Oreille not Pondoray!”
Nelson said he had given more than a decade of service to the community.
Two other commissioners have already resigned over the issue.