Valley leader Flanigan dies
Mike Flanigan, a founding member of the Spokane Valley City Council, died Sunday of a suspected heart attack.
Family members said Flanigan, 53, had heart disease that required quadruple bypass surgery when he was 47.
“His thumbprint is on the future of Spokane Valley,” Mayor Diana Wilhite said. “Mike was a strong, outspoken advocate for the community. We will miss him.”
In addition to his work on the City Council, Flanigan volunteered for numerous civic projects.
“He had a Valley heart,” and was a “major supporter” of the 2 ½-year-old Spokane Valley Heritage Museum, director Jayne Singleton said.
Flanigan stepped down last year after finishing a four-year term on the newly incorporated city’s first council. A single father, he wanted to spend more time with his two teenage sons.
“He enjoyed the challenge of setting it up and bringing it to fruition,” sister Kelly Duncan said of his pioneering role. “But it did take a lot of time away from the kids.”
Flanigan’s funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Thornhill Valley Chapel. A memorial service will follow at University High School.
Spokane
County to hear Regal proposals
Developer proposals to open South Regal Avenue at Palouse Highway to big-box retail stores will go before the Spokane Plan Commission Wednesday afternoon.
The commission has scheduled deliberations on a series of land-use plan amendments at 5 p.m. in Council Chambers in the lower level of City Hall, including three separate proposals for big-box retail uses at Regal and Palouse.
Residents of the South Side packed into a hearing room last month when the commission took public testimony on the proposals by Home Depot and Black Development of Spokane. Neighbors are fighting the developers because of concerns over traffic and environmental impacts.
The developers have said that putting more retail on the South Side will reduce the amount of traffic leaving the neighborhood for shopping elsewhere and retaining the shopping dollar on the South Side will benefit the city’s tax collections.
They also said they have plans for improving storm water handling and trails in the neighborhood, and that the developments will contribute to traffic improvements.
Shooting suspect called dangerous
Spokane police want the public’s help finding the suspect in a shooting that left a man injured Sunday.
Justin Mullenix should be considered armed and dangerous, police said.
The incident occurred at 7 a.m. Sunday near Regal Street and Everett Avenue, in what police originally believed was a drug deal gone bad. Investigators now believe the shooting was retaliation.”The victim was known to the suspects from past encounters,” said Officer Jennifer DeRuwe, a police spokeswoman.
Officers responding to the Tesoro Gas Station at 1001 E. Wellesley Ave. found a 40-year-old man who had been shot in the chest. He was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
Police tracked footprints in the snow to an apartment in the 3100 block of East Everett, where they arrested Todd Sawyer, 22, on the charge of attempted first-degree murder. Two other people were arrested on previous warrants.
However, detectives believe that Mullenix was the shooter and he remains at large, DeRuwe said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
Spokane County
Suspects arrested in home robbery
Spokane County sheriff’s deputies apprehended four home-invasion robbery suspects Monday morning after a four-hour search with dogs and a helicopter.
The victims were not injured. The suspects are believed to have taken a firearm, cash and other items.
The call came at 3:16 a.m. from the 28700 block of North Jackson Road, Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Beeman said.
One of the deputies responding to the scene actually passed the suspect’s green van. He returned, arresting two suspects; the other two had run.
Beeman said he found the two at 7:05 a.m. walking down Dunn Road, south of Day-Mount Spokane Road.
Sheriff’s detectives were interviewing the suspects and had not yet confirmed their identities, Beeman said.
“We are not yet sure if this was a random act or if there was a history with everybody,” he said.
Kootenai County
Pickup slides into Fernan Lake
A pickup truck slipped off an icy road and partially into Fernan Lake on Monday afternoon, but the driver and two passengers escaped without serious injury.
Timothy Lacy, of Post Falls, was towing a utility trailer carrying four-wheelers when it slid off Fernan Lake Road about a mile and a half east of Fernan Village near Coeur d’Alene.
The trailer hit a tree, which stopped the truck from going completely into the lake, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.
BOISE
Backcountry rule draft released
The Bush administration has released its draft rule for managing the more than 9.3 million acres of Idaho’s roadless backcountry.
The final proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on Monday, setting in motion a comment period that expires April 7. The U.S. Forest Service will also hold a series of public hearings across the state on the rule starting later this month.
It’s the latest step in what’s been a lengthy and difficult process for deciding how roadless backcountry and other untouched lands will be managed, preserved or opened to logging and other uses. The agency’s rule is based on a state blueprint submitted last year.
Environmentalists are criticizing the rule, saying it opens the door too far to log or mine in some of the state’s most pristine forests.