City seeks extension on development rules

The city of Spokane Valley will ask for six more months to complete development regulations.

During a packed Planning Commission meeting last week, developers and neighborhood groups asked for more time to review chapters of the new uniform development code.

“We’ve got to ask for an extension” to the state deadline, said Mayor Diana Wilhite.

The code puts into law the policies of the Spokane Valley Comprehensive Plan, adopted last year. It covers all aspects of development, including design standards, zoning and rules intended to make infrastructure keep up with development.

The Planning Commission extended public hearings on three sections of the code Thursday.

Hearings on title 24, building codes, and title 19, zoning, will be March 8. The hearing on title 22, design and development standards, will be March 22.

– Peter Barnes

COLFAX

14-year-old rescued after falling into well

A 14-year-old boy was rescued about 90 minutes after falling into an abandoned well.

The teen, whose name was not released, was playing with friends near the old Colfax Hospital when he stepped on some old wood covering the well opening, Colfax Fire Department Chief Jim Krouse said.

He fell 30 to 40 feet down the brick-lined shaft, which is three feet in diameter.

“He tried to slow his fall by bracing against the wall and that broke his fall” about 15 feet above the water, Krouse said.

The boy’s companions called for help.

Firefighters lowered a sling to keep the boy from falling farther. Then a firefighter went into the well to secure the boy and both were pulled to safety.

The teen was treated at Whitman Hospital on Sunday, officials said.

– Associated Press

Coeur d’Alene

Ex-congressional aide asks college for refund

A former congressional aide is asking that North Idaho College refund her class fees, saying her English 102 instructor never missed a chance to bash Republicans.

Linda Cook, a former aide to late Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth, withdrew last week from the class taught by part-time instructor Jessica Bryan. She wants her $379 back.

NIC spokesman Kent Propst said the college will determine if a refund is warranted.

Among other things, Cook wrote in a letter to NIC officials, Bryan told the class that the death penalty should be used on anyone who votes Republican.

Bryan doesn’t deny making such statements facetiously, to make students think critically.

Bryan said Cook always made her opinions clear during class discussions. In fact, Bryan said, she read to the class part of an essay Cook wrote supporting a plan to boost the number of troops in Iraq.

“I didn’t agree with it, but it was so well-written,” Bryan said.

– Meghann M. Cuniff