This day in history: Spokane leaders debated how to relieve snarled traffic on Division Street. Bank official’s condition improved

From 1976: A group of local and state leaders gathered to address an urgent Spokane problem: snarled traffic on North Division Street.

The city was expecting $2 million from the state Legislature and “it was time to sit down and rationally discuss” how to use that money.

One option: eliminate left turns on Division and use the turn-lane space to create a new lane of traffic. Some “had doubts” about that plan.

Another option: make Division Street one-way and funnel traffic in the other direction “along a separate arterial developed one block east or west of Division.”

That plan was “dropped,” although obviously not permanently, as everybody who drives the Division-Ruby corridor today is aware.

From 1926: The fate of R. Lewis Rutter was hanging in the balance and would be “determined in the next 24 hours.”

He was in the hospital with two gunshot wounds, after being shot in the back by Phineus Saffron on a downtown street.

Doctors said their main concern was infection, not “from the bullet lodged in Mr. Rutter’s body, but from the shreds of clothing carried in by the bullet.”

Rutter was conscious, but “desires to see no one.” He was said to be “taking the situation calmly.”

The Spokane County prosecutor was waiting on Rutter’s condition before filing charges against Saffron. Saffron said he held a grudge against Rutter, whose bank had foreclosed on his pawnshop.