Voices

The Eastern Washington Music Educators Association held its Bi-Regional High School Solo and Ensemble Music Festival Feb. 9. Winners advance to the Washington State Music Educators Association State Finals on April 26 at Central Washington University.

"Am I beginning to show my age?" I fret. Heaven forbid, that we should actually look our age. Or, or worse yet, that we should look older. Is there a soul alive that would be thrilled about looking older than their years? It's doubtful, except maybe for 9-year-olds who want to look 10 or 12. This self-imposed personal crisis about looking "old" starts about age 40 and it dies hard, if ever. Do we eventually reach nirvana – where we finally don't give a rip how old we look? Or, does this egomaniacal obsession live on until our last gasp?

Kootenai County Brad and Julie Haug, Rathdrum, residence addition, valued at $107,859.

For 02-28-2008

CHENEY – Cheney residents decried a proposed increase in new sewer hook-up fees, with some saying raising the fee from around $800 to $4,830 per single-family home will keep developers away. "A jump of this magnitude – I feel it's imprudent at this time," one real estate agent told the City Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

Attendant Care Registry – Free service matching disabled adults and children with personal-care providers; sponsored by Coalition of Responsible Disabled; 326-6355. Change Point! program – Ideal for women who are separated, divorced, or widowed, have a disability, or who have been incarcerated; provides free training in computers, resume preparation, job interviewing, communication skills, and conflict resolution techniques; sponsored by the Washington State Displaced Homemaker Program; contact Denise McKinnon at 279-6065.

SPOKANE VALLEY – The Spokane County Sheriff's Office is offering a conference Wednesday in Spokane Valley for people who want to learn about crime prevention. For $12, participants in the Neighborhood Watch Crime Prevention Conference at the CenterPlace community center, 2426 N. Discovery Place, may attend classes on everything from sex crimes to boating safety. The fee includes a continental breakfast and a pasta lunch.

The Central Valley School District and Freeman School District have agreed to swap a small piece of land containing a handful of homes on a ridge at the end of Jackson Road. CV students who live in that area will join the Freeman School District. Palomino Estates resident Phyllis Harrington launched the petition drive to switch school districts even though her son graduated several years ago. "There's no Central Valley bus that comes up here," she said. "I don't know why it wasn't done a long, long time ago."

Two dead-on-arrival bills involving new fees on your car continue to live on in the Internet, where they're spurring get-a-load-of-this blog posts and angry calls to action. (And it's working. I get calls and e-mails about these proposals virtually every day.) SB 6900 would have charged vehicle owners a yearly fee based on engine size. It would charge nothing for displacement of 1.9 liters or less, $70 a year for up to 3 liters, on up to $600 a year for an 8-liter behemoth.

Jenny Rose, a Nez Perce tribal descendant, cried when she thought about nine new homes being built across from a park that was once a time-honored campsite for Spokane tribal members. A developer wants to take advantage of a 2-year-old change in the city zoning code that allows for clustered, cottage-style housing on single-family lots.

Welcome to the Citizen Journal, a forum in which Your Voice readers can publish their own feature stories and neighborhood news items and photographs. We hope to eventually expand this forum to the Internet to allow Voice readers to publish neighborhood news directly on The Spokesman-Review's Voices Web sites. Do you have a story to tell or neighborhood news to report? E-mail your submissions to voices editor Tad Brooks at voice@spokesman.com. Please try to limit submissions to 500 words or less. Be sure to include your name, phone number and e-mail address so we can verify authenticity.

It's leap year, and whether or not the unusual astronomical calculations that create the extra day in February are causing it, weird heavenly things have been happening. Within about a week's time, there was a sighting of something unusual that turned out to be a meteor, the U.S. Navy shot an old spy satellite out of the sky. Then there was a rather eerie-looking lunar eclipse. Coincidence or not, these strange happenings have occurred in the days leading up to Feb. 29, also known as Leap Year Day, a day that is meant to bring balance and harmony to our calendar and our universe. The day was created following hundreds of years of study by ancient astrologists and mathematicians who finally determined that adding an extra day once every four years would keep the calendar in alignment with the earth's motion around the sun.

Ongoing Banking for Books - Month-long book drive campaign to benefit Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program. Donate new children's books to Global Credit Union, Northland Credit Union, Spokane Safeway Employees Credit Union, Spokane City Credit Union, Spokane Federal Credit Union, Spokane Media Federal Credit Union, United Health Services Credit Union and Washington Trust Bank. Runs through March 31. 789-3548.

A rural Pend Oreille County Fire District is figuring out a new way of providing emergency services to its residents. After nearly 50 years of contracting with a neighboring county's fire district for protection, the ties will be severed. Fire commissioners for Spokane County Fire District No. 4 – which serves the northern portion of the county including the Mead area – decided they've grown to the point that all resources need to be focused on the constituents they serve.

Lest we forget, we would like to offer thanks on behalf of the entire community, for the unselfish toils that two outstanding individuals performed during our snow emergencies this winter. Bob Parsons with his truck and snowplow, and Cindy Garcia, equipped with a shovel, spent weeks helping older folks or people in poor health who could not keep their sidewalks clear, or their roofs and driveways safe. Between these two special people, many folks in Bayview were able to save their homes, or get in and out of their driveways.