Liberty lake blotter
Liberty Lake’s annual community yard sale added a feverish level of activity for the Liberty Lake Police Department last week, beginning with closing half of some streets to parking on June 13.
The move upset some homeowners, who had hoped to park on the street to open up their driveways and garages for their yard sale, said police Chief Brian Asmus.
Partially closing the streets, a first in the annual attempt to control traffic and allow emergency access, seemed to work well. “When it came down to the actual event, it was pretty positive,” Asmus said.
Officers issued only 15 parking violation tickets during the daylong event. That’s not to say everyone followed the rules. Asmus said tickets were only given out to deal with safety issues like parking in the bike lane or blocking access to a fire hydrant. “There were several hundred violations,” he said. “We were kind, though the ones who got the tickets didn’t think so.”
Also for the first time officers took a picture of the offending car when issuing a ticket, so drivers couldn’t argue about the circumstances. Many residents also used their golf carts to get around on city streets that day, which is illegal. Asmus said his officers didn’t enforce that particular ordinance that day or “we’d be out of tickets.”
The rest of the week, from June 9-16, was fairly quiet. Two Liberty Lake men were arrested on outstanding warrants, as was a juvenile wanted on a felony warrant for first-degree robbery. An arrest was made for possession of methamphetamine and a man was arrested for third-degree malicious mischief in the ORV Park. Samuel Gastelum, 32, of Liberty Lake, was arrested on two counts of felony domestic violence harassment. Construction equipment was reported stolen from the Hawkstone construction site on June 11.
During the week officers issued four citations for license and plates required, three for driving with a suspended license, four for failure to show liability insurance, five for speeding, 11 for prohibited parking and two for failure to wear a safety belt.
Other citations issued included operating violations (off road), driving without a license, expired license in possession/displayed, an ignition interlock violation, no stop light or turn signal, illegal use of studded tires, failure to drive on the right side of the road, failure to stop/yield at an intersection, failure to yield to pedestrian in a crosswalk, unlawful U-turn, failure to signal, reckless driving, parking in a fire zone, second-degree negligent driving and failure to use child restraint.
Officers also responded for calls about an animal problem, a commercial vehicle inspection, property theft and vagrancy.