This day in history: Seattle mayor spoke in favor of Spokane arts council. Retired judge killed when struck by bicyclist
From 1975: The idea of establishing a Spokane area arts council was overwhelmingly endorsed by “speaker after speaker’ at a town hall meeting at the Spokane Civic Theater.
They said it “may well become the most important ingredient in improving the cultural life of the area.”
One of the speakers was Seattle Mayor We Uhlman, who had been instrumental in forming the Seattle Arts Council a few years earlier.
He said that you can have the safest, cleanest and most efficient city, but “without the arts that city won’t have any spirit.”
One question was left unresolved: How to pay for it?
Spokane Mayor David H. Rodgers supported the formation of a Spokane arts council, but did not discuss funding, and “no one in the audience asked him about it.”
From 1925: Prosecutors earned a conviction in one of two sensational manslaughter trials in Spokane.
A jury found Bernard Newman, 21, guilty of the death of Joseph Kennedy, a pedestrian on Apple Way. Witnesses testified that Newman had been drinking and was driving recklessly. Newman’s first trial resulted in a hung jury, but one of the jurors in the retrial said “there was a preponderance of evidence for a conviction.”
The prosecutor said the conviction “will undoubtedly have a wholesome effect on reckless drivers.” A huge increase in auto traffic over the last decade had people increasingly concerned about drunk driving and reckless driving.
The other manslaughter trial – in which John Pavelich was accused of causing the car accident that killed Dr. George Green – had resulted in a hung jury a few days earlier. Prosecutors announced the next day that they would seek a new trial.
From the accident beat: Former Superior Court Judge George W. Belt, 71, was killed in front of his Spokane home, 1424 W. 10th Ave., when he was struck by a post office messenger boy riding his bicycle. The bicyclist, James Kiernan, 18, told police he was blinded by the rain.