Voices

Monday Valley Fire – 4 p.m. at Station 8, 2110 N. Wilbur.

Special foods and beverages in a special place should be the key to success for 315 Martini and Tapas. This new restaurant will open June 24 in the Greenbriar Inn at 315 Wallace Ave., Coeur d'Alene. The specialties will be a variety of martinis and tapas, described as "small, savory dishes often served as a snack or with other tapas as a meal." The menu will also include wines, beers, plated dinners, salads, soups and desserts.

In his excellent new history booklet, "The Treasure Called Tubbs Hill," CDA attorney Scott Reed recounts the story to preserve 34 acres at the hill's top that applies today. Seems German investors were negotiating with a local group to develop the crown of Tubbs Hill. Their plan was to obtain crucial water and sewer service through a building lot developed on the north side of the hill under questionable circumstances by former city building inspector Ozzie Walch. Reed tells of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering involving a list of leading citizens that was necessary to block the development threat and to set the stage for the public to obtain title to the property for $250,000 (half of which was paid by Land and Water Conservation funds). Undeterred, Walch, who'd been fired from his city job for beginning to build a house on Tubbs Hill without a permit, lobbied in letters to the editor and newspaper ads against preserving the hill top for public use. In doing so, he offered the same lame argument that those opposed to the Education Corridor are using today – local governments would lose property tax if the top of Tubbs Hill was public. Some $135,000 per year. Remember this when some 21st century Ozzie Walch bellows that the proposed Education Corridor should be private rather than public to expand the tax base. River side bargain

The amount of weather that has made news in the past week has been unbelievable. There has been sweltering heat in the East, 500-year floods are menacing the Midwest, the threat of dangerous wildfires continues in the Southwest, tornadoes are ravaging the central plains, and locally we lament over an unseasonably cool June.

If not a hunter, Shields would have built home I just moved here and I have never met or even heard of Steve Shirley, so imagine my surprise to read his letter (June 7, Valley Voice) saying that I have "once again skewed the facts to serve my personal agenda." What facts have I skewed? What personal agenda is he talking about?

One of the best little museums in the state is located on the shores of Priest Lake. On West Lakeshore Road, approximately half a mile south of Luby Bay Campground and North of Hill's Resort, you will find an intriguing package of the lake history, relics and even recordings of "old-timers" talking about the area.

Today ADDICTED MISS/ANOTHER AUG./SIDE EYED COMA (HARD ROCK) – 9 p.m., The Grail, 4720 W. Seltice Way, Coeur d'Alene, 665-5882.

Work is under way on a new bike and pedestrian trail that will link Huetter Road to downtown Coeur d'Alene. The Prairie Trail is being paved along an abandoned Union Pacific rail line owned by the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation. It is expected to be complete by July 1.

To celebrate Father's Day, dads get a free breakfast on Sunday at the Athol American Legion Auxiliary, served from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Moms, kids and wives, can eat for $5 each. On June 28, a charity poker run for motorcycles and ATV's will be held to benefit the Legion's veterans and youth programs. The ride will begin at the Pastime Club in Athol, continue to the American Legion Post No. 55 in Bonners Ferry, past Popeye's Lounge in Priest River, onto Curley's in Hauser, past The Captain's Wheel in Bayview, and finish at the Legion in Athol.

Pool season opens today in Spokane Valley. That's when all three public pools open their doors for the summer. According to Spokane Valley Parks and Recreation coordinator Jennifer Papich, the pools are open seven days a week except for holidays. "We've got swim times available that will work into just about everyone's summer schedule."

Seventeen years' worth of dust seems to powder much of the Old West themed bric-a-brac that decorates the lofty wooden crannies and cluttered corners of the Rustler's Roost. The exterior's once-bright red paint job is washed out and the building itself seems slightly gimpy, causing the place to take on the appearance of a well-weathered barn rather than that of one of North Idaho's proudest, most famous eateries.

Rockford All Class Reunion – June 21, Rockford City Park. For more information, call Bev at (509) 291-4921, Donna at (509) 291-3261, Evelyn at (509) 291-4250 or e-mail osborneoffspring@yahoo.com. Central Valley High School Class of 1953 – July 11-12, Liberty Lake Park. Contact Dorothy Burns at (509) 487-2484 or Helen Toothaker at (509) 928-5363 for more information.

For 06-14-2008

For the week of June 16-20 Monday – Cornflake chicken, baked beans, julienne beets, dinner roll, apricots.