The majority of the Spokane Valley City Council seemed in favor Tuesday of purchasing the former Crescent building in the old University City Mall and turning it into a combined city hall and police precinct.The option was one of six new city hall options presented to the council. All the other options called for the construction of a new city hall with the police precinct staying at its current location on East Sprague Avenue. The city’s consultants, MMEC Architecture, said they believe a new city hall should be 44,213 square feet on about two acres and a combined city hall and police precinct should be 71,500 square feet on 4.5 to 5.5 acres. The former Crescent building is 100,000 square feet and the site is a little more than six acres.

Just one year after relaxing the sign code in Spokane Valley, the City Council is looking at making further tweaks to address problems that have arisen for some businesses. The 2012 update included some provisions that probably shouldn’t have been included, said Community Development Director John Hohman, including that any banners had to be hung on the building. That created problems for buildings that were set back from the street. The new rules being considered by the council would allow banners anywhere on the property.

Firefighters battled two fires Monday, including a blaze at Liberty Park near the Ben Burr Trial.

A man was seriously injured in a tractor rollover in the 2400 block of North Sunrise Lane at 10:18 a.m. on July 1. “He was swatting at a bee and ended up putting his right front tire over an embankment, which rolled the tractor,” Assistant Fire Marshal Bill Clifford said.

There is good news and bad news in Spokane Valley: The city has 742 acres of vacant industrial land, but most of it is not connected to the sewer. The city’s Economic Development Committee sees adding sewer service to some of that land – particularly the swath between Trent Avenue and the Spokane River from Flora Road to the eastern city limits – as a way to attract businesses to the Spokane Valley.

The Spokane Valley City Council decided Tuesday to accept partial funding for the Appleway Trail that would run south of Sprague Avenue along the old Milwaukee Railroad right of way owned by Spokane County. The county has given the city permission to use the vacant land to build a trail. The city hopes to eventually have a trail that runs from University Road to the east city limits. The city requested $2.2 million in grant funding from the Spokane Regional Transportation Council for the section from University to Evergreen Road. The council’s Transportation Technical Committee has suggested funding of $642,000, said Public Works Director Eric Guth.

New software will allow Spokane County Fire Dispatch to track the location of every fire truck in the county in real time. The 20-year-old software currently being used needed to be replaced to accommodate a digital radio system coming online this fall.

Would you like directions to the nearest Spokane Valley pool, or a map showing nearby restaurants? There’s an app for that. This week the city of Spokane Valley is launching a free smartphone app it created to showcase the city and where to shop, eat, play and stay. It will appear in the Android Play Store first and then be offered in the iPhone app store in a couple of weeks.

AAA of Spokane is relocating its downtown Spokane office to the South Hill, taking the space of the former restaurant Savory, at 1314 S. Grand Blvd.

New software will allow Spokane County Fire Dispatch to track the location of every fire truck in the county in real time. The 20-year-old software currently being used needed to be replaced to accommodate a digital radio system coming online this fall.

Spokane Valley officials are looking at options for solid waste disposal before the city’s contract with Spokane expires in November 2014. Among the options: hauling trash by truck or train, purchasing the Spokane Valley transfer station or building a new one, and continuing the contract with Spokane.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department is investigating a suspicious fire that damaged a vacant duplex Monday night.