Voices

For anyone who likes to dig through a good mystery, Gene Williams would like a word with you. Williams, a certified genealogist, will present an introductory program at the Post Falls Library to help people investigate their family histories. The free program, “Genealogy with Gene,” will be tonight at 7 p.m.

Pickers and grinners gathered for the 13th annual Fall Folk Festival, sponsored by the Spokane Folklore Society, last weekend at Spokane Community College. The free community event “celebrates our area’s cultural diversity,” according to organizers. “The festival goal is to present the diversity of our community through traditional music, dance and arts.” Eight stages featured 100 performing groups ranging from traditional bluegrass, blues, Japanese dance and drumming, storytelling, Middle Eastern dance and music, tango, Irish jigs and harmonies, Native American music and drumming, as well as jam sessions, arts and crafts, children’s activities and a bake sale. A New England contra dance was held Saturday evening. Contact the Spokane Folklore Society at www.SpokaneFolklore.org to volunteer or participate in next year’s event.  

The deadline for the Spokane County Park and Recreation’s fifth annual Turkeybowl Dodgeball Tournament is Tuesday. The adult, six-on-six coed (four men and two women) tournament is Nov. 26.

Plans for a professional/technical and vocational school campus to be built on Rathdrum Prairie were outlined during a recent ceremony hosted by the Kootenai County Professional/Technical Campus Committee, a coalition of local business, industry and educational leaders. That’s great news for local residents, according to Mary Ann Ranells, superintendent of Lakeland School District. “The vision of this association is amazing. The project is right where it needs to be in terms of providing assistance to students and young adults.”

For 11-13-2008

Ongoing After School Camp – Hosted by the Northeast Youth Center. For children age 5-12. Children will be transported from school to the Northeast Youth Center II for a snack, games, computer play, arts and weekly field trips. Schools serviced include: Arlington, Bemiss, Cooper, Lidgerwood, Linwood, Logan, Longfellow, Ridgeview, Regal, Stevens, Whitman and Willard. Held Mondays-Fridays. Runs through June 20. 3-6 p.m., Northeast Youth Center II, 2121 E. Wabash Ave. $53/week. State pay accepted. Scholarships available. 482-0708.

The Medical Lake High School FFA Team (formerly the Future Farmers of America) came in sixth place out of 45 states at the 81st National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 22 and 23. The group, Brett Moriarty, Kayla Tisdall, Anna Snyder, Ashley Holznagel and alternate Ben Brown competed in the National FFA Career Development Event that tested students’ abilities to evaluate livestock. The components of this event included seven evaluation classes of beef, sheep and swine, and the competitors had to complete an oral exam, a written exam and quality grading of slaughter cattle.

There’s an open invitation to all downtown Cheney businesses or homeowners to bring their ideas to next Thursday’s public forum, to discuss the possibility of uniting to form a business improvement district. Three speakers – Marty Dickinson, from the Downtown Spokane Partnership, Ron Wells with Wells and Co., and Stanley Schwartz, a municipal attorney for Airway Heights – have been invited to speak and will answer questions at the forum.

Freeman school directors decided Monday to ask for a three-year tax levy similar to what they’re already paying. The new levy, to be on the Feb. 3 ballot, would combine the current operating and technology levies and increase the total about 5 percent.

Several Inland Northwest organizations offer free Thanksgiving meals for low-income residents, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, or before. If you know of other meal sites, especially in Spokane Valley and North Idaho, please contact Rebecca Nappi at rebeccan@spokesman.com or 459-5496. •Our Place Ministries, 1509 W. College, 326-7267. Thanksgiving baskets for those residing in Our Place service area. Sign-up is required at Our Place by next Thursday.

The Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, 1404 N. Ash St., Spokane, will host a winter sale Dec. 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Businesses including Discovery Toys, Jewels by Park Lane, Pampered Chef, The Body Shop and Tomboy Toolswill have products available to purchase on the day of the sale or products can be ordered and delivered in time for Christmas.

The Spokane hearing examiner today is taking testimony on a proposal to replace the old YWCA building at 803 W. Broadway Ave., with two new 14-floor towers for condominiums and street-level retail shops. The hearing at 9 a.m. is set for City Council Chambers in the lower level of Spokane City Hall. SRM Development is seeking a shoreline permit to build the towers in two phases on the north bank of the Spokane River overlooking the upper falls and Riverfront Park. The property is within the shoreline boundary that is regulated by the city under state law.

The Spokane hearing examiner is taking testimony today on a proposal to replace the old YWCA building at 803 W. Broadway Ave. with two new 14-story towers for condominiums and street-level retail shops. The hearing at 9 a.m. is set for City Council Chambers in the lower level of Spokane City Hall. SRM Development is seeking a shoreline permit to build the towers in two phases on the north bank of the Spokane River overlooking the upper falls and Riverfront Park. The property is within the shoreline boundary that is regulated by the city under state law.

“Another jury summons,” I groaned. “Not again!” It seems, somehow, that I got on the revolving door list at the courthouse. Calls to duty show up in my mailbox way too often. I could give them the names of several relatives and friends who have never been called to serve in my place.

Spokane Valley police arrested a 19-year-old burglary suspect early Tuesday after he allegedly attempted to steal a $40 bag of coffee from a Dishman espresso stand, said spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan. Jonathan D. Shepard was taken into custody inside Wake Up Call Coffee, 1703 S. Dishman-Mica Road. He was booked into the Spokane County Jail on felony counts of second-degree burglary and second-degree malicious mischief.