First Night street closures start early Thursday

Spokane’s First Night celebration will bring a series of street closures to downtown starting at 7 a.m. Thursday to make room for the huge community event.

More than 30,000 people are expected to take in the mix of arts, music and exhibits.

This is the 15th year for First Night, which will have 150 performances at 40 locations in the all-ages celebration downtown.

Howard Street from Main Avenue to Spokane Falls Boulevard must be cleared of vehicles from parking spaces marked by red bags starting at 7 a.m.

Then at 3 p.m., Howard will close from Main to Spokane Falls.

Also, Spokane Falls will close from Stevens to Post streets. The closures last until 1 a.m.

For the 6 p.m. parade, Spokane Falls will be closed from Bernard to Stevens Street while Washington and Stevens streets will be closed from North River Drive to Main.

The parade closures last about 30 minutes.

For the first time this year, STA is bringing in a knit and crochet bus that will be wrapped in hand-made fabric through the work of volunteer crafts persons.

The knitters and crocheters will be the hosts inside the bus. They will give away their warm items such as hats, mittens, scarves and blankets. The bus will be at the STA Plaza, which will have other entertainment for the event.

STA is again offering shuttles to and from First Night for persons wearing their First Night admission buttons.

The shuttles will run from the yellow parking lot at the Riverpoint Campus at 412 E. Spokane Falls Boulevard from 2 p.m. until 1 a.m.

Spokane suspends leaf pickup

All of the snowfall in the second half of December has caused the city to suspend what’s left of its annual leaf pickup.

Many neighborhoods have already seen the service. The remaining neighborhoods will have to wait until the snow melts.

$50 million spending ideas sought

Spokane-area residents have a few more days to participate in an online survey about how they would like to see transportation dollars spent.

The Spokane Regional Transportation Council is offering the tool through its Horizon 2040 planning initiative.

SRTC officials said their web tool “will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets.”

The web tool ask participants how they would spend $50 million for transportation.

The answers will figure into plans and priorities for transportation spending.

The tool is available through the end of the year.

A link to the tool can be found at www.srtc.org.

Camera added at cellphone lot

Spokane International Airport has new security for those using the cellphone waiting lot on the inbound leg for Airport Drive.

The lot provides free short-term parking. Users can pull into the convenient lot and wait to hear from the travelers they are picking up. That allows users to avoid having to park or circle around the airport.

The lot makes curbside pickups fast and easy.

The new security involves a closed-circuit camera to monitor what’s going on in the lot so users are safer, airport officials said.

Also at the airport, officials are working on a realignment of Flint Road to make it safer and more efficient.

In another improvement, the area just outside the A and B terminals has a new taxi pickup and drop-off zone that is monitored by staff.

The taxi area is just outside the Delta Air Lines ticket counter. It has overhead radiant heaters to help passengers stay warm during their transfers in or out of the terminal.

A total of 88 cabs are participating in the new system.