Voices

A musical featuring turn-of-the-century America opens this week to audiences at Central Valley High School. The play, called "Tintypes," chronicles the growing pains of those bygone times in our nation, exploring when slower-paced days gave way to a bustling world of automobiles, electricity and the telephone. It touches on the economic and social disparities of the era, which also was filled with innovation and patriotism.

Valentine's Day has come and gone and for most, love was in the air. For Michael McKay, however, love was nestled in a snow bank on Spokane's North Side. "I was walking toward my lady friend who was a couple of blocks in front of me," McKay said. "I was looking at the ground and saw an object in the snow. It was in the road, a little ways from the curb. I thought it was a piece of plastic."

Jeff Rose decided to give the East Valley High School boys soccer program one more year. The Greater Spokane League Coach of the Year the past two seasons indicated at the end of last year that he would step down to pursue a full-time teaching position at an area elementary school.

One of the reasons I always go to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle is to see what's hot in gardening for the year. This year I also visited Portland's Yard, Garden and Patio Show and at both shows, the strongest trend I saw was the idea that your outdoor spaces, whether it's a patio or an acre, are really just extensions and re-creations of your indoor living spaces. For Jamie Durie, that's the way it should be. Durie is an internationally recognized landscape designer best known in his home country of Australia for creating the concept of the "outdoor room." Americans know him as one of the hosts of the PBS series "Victory Garden."

Staff members at Spokane Valley Partners are bracing themselves for what could be a huge increase in families seeking help now that the St. Vincent de Paul food bank has closed its doors. "They were doing 27 percent of all the food bank business in Spokane County," said development director Don Kaufman. The food bank run by Spokane Valley Partners just got a list of 153 families living in the area they serve that used to get their food from St. Vincent. If 100 of those families visit the food bank once a month, it will be a 12 to 15 percent increase in the number of households served, he said.

Monday Fire District 2 (Fairfield) – 7 p.m. at 17815 E. Truax Road.

Customer treated as friends at Spokane Art Supply When my husband, Richard, went to Spokane Art Supply in Spokane Valley to purchase a mat-cutter, framer Laura Nuchols didn't merely explain the difference between two cutters by listing features and benefits. She unboxed both and helped him test-drive each, giving pointers along the way.

Eating out on Thursday could raise money for Spokane Valley Meals on Wheels. Thursday is "Dine Out … So No Senior Goes Hungry" day at several local restaurants. Each location has agreed to donate a portion of each person's bill to Meals on Wheels, which brings warm meals to seniors and the disabled each day.

Respect the flag The symbol of honor, the red, white and blue. Those of us who still remember so well the very heroic men that planted a flag – one very fine flag – called America's Stars and Stripes, the red, white and blue. I am 87 years of age (not old) and my view of them on the top of Iwo Jima is still in my heart quite clearly.

Lottery winners in the Spokane region for the week of Feb. 25-March 2 include: $1 million – Wayne Leyde, Mead

Zion Lutheran Church will offer "The Prayer Path: A Christ-Centered Labyrinth Experience" on Thursday and Friday as the end of Lent approaches. The labyrinth will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The church will have a labyrinth marked out on the floor and participants will stop at various stations to read devotional narratives or listen to worship music. Those interested in more information or signing up for a certain time may call Linda at 928-6327 or Debra at 926-5407.

Spokane Valley Mayor Rich Munson delivered good news in his State of the City address this week: There's money to maintain streets. The bad news, he said, adapting a joke about a minister and his congregation, "is that it's still in your pocket."

For the week of March 10-14 Monday – Veal with sour cream sauce over pasta, vegetables, sliced summer squash, sourdough bread, tapioca pudding with Mandarin oranges.

Central Valley Coach: Andres Monrroy

The Spokane Valley Fire Department responded to 209 calls in the seven days that ended Wednesday. Nine of those involved relatively minor fires, including a chimney fire, a fire in an electrical outlet and a robe that was ignited by a baseboard heater.

Painter Irene Dahl calls her work "my own special language." She grew up in West Germany where, on her seventh birthday, her father, an anti-fascist, was killed. "I went into shock. I didn't speak for a year. I used art. I painted myself back to sanity," she said, and she has painted ever since. In Germany, she studied under German, Polish and English painters and would take excursions to Denmark to paint. She became a psychotherapist and often used art in her work to help patients. She also did it to relax.

Ryan Gienapp plays the tuba. So well in fact, that he was chosen to perform with the Blue Devils, a brass ensemble from Concord, Calif., for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Because of a scheduling mix-up, the Blue Devils won't be performing but he was selected just the same. "I still feel honored to have been selected, even if I'm not going," Gienapp said. Gienapp began playing instruments in the sixth grade. "My mom kind of made me, but I fell in love with it," he said. He has played the trombone, the euphonium and the saxophone. He started playing the tuba in his freshman year. He has won awards, participated in a state competition last year and will be going to state again next month.

Some Spokane Valley-area students will have to make up time missed from school during the snowstorm earlier this year, while others will not. Schools have the option to apply for a waiver for the missed days as long as they provide 1,000 hours of instructional time by the end of the school year.

Fairfield City Council – The town has received a $5,392 grant for bleachers for the skate park and ball park from the Spokane County Capital Park Project program. Council members voted to collaborate with the towns of Tekoa, Waverly, Latah and Rosalia, Wash., to purchase a mosquito fogger. Candidates for the town clerk position are being interviewed. (Source: Deputy Town Clerk Donna McLean)