Washington Voices

The Browne’s Addition Neighborhood Council special meeting on Feb. 13 at the Museum of Arts and Culture was much more calm and organized than the group’s meeting on Feb. 6. When the previous meeting’s vote against allocating $37,000 in community development funds to help the Peaceful Valley Community Center Youth Program move to All Saints Lutheran Church was called into question, chairwoman Katherine Fritchie said the special meeting was solely about allocating and preserving the neighborhood’s community development funds.

Soon, it will be April and with April comes the annual Our Kids, Our Business campaign focused on child abuse prevention. Next week, the campaign is holding open houses on Tuesday and next Thursday.

The Logan neighborhood and the city of Spokane are working on a new model for planning and zoning. At an open house earlier this month, the neighborhood stakeholder group and the city’s Planning Department presented its form-based zoning code ideas to the neighborhood, including the North Foothills employment center and the Hamilton Street corridor.

East Valley High School in the East Valley School District recently announced its first semester honor roll for the 2012-’13 school year. Seniors

East Valley’s school board is juggling ideas for the district’s financial future, but members do not expect a bond redux anytime soon. They have until March 8 to file for a slot on the April ballot, but board chairwoman Kerri Lunstroth said they’ll likely focus on education and the students instead of putting together another bond request.

Lewis and Clark High School Tiger Drama is staging “In the Heights” beginning next Thursday in LC’s auditorium. Shows continue March 1-2 and March 7-9. All performances are at 7 p.m. The musical is about life in a tight-knit community in Washington Heights, where the coffee is sweet and the windows are always open. The town is on the brink of change and full of hopes and dreams. The community shares tradition, is family-focused and full of self-discovery.

East Valley School District is waiting on the deed for the Walker Army Reserve Center after signing transition papers last week, school board chairwoman Kerri Lundstroth said. No capital funds were used to acquire the property near Sullivan Road and B Street, Lundstroth said. The building was surplus and was transferred from the Department of Defense. Besides, Lundstroth added, the district doesn’t have the capital funds to purchase it outright.

GREENACRES – The Spokane Valley hearing examiner has ruled that slightly more than nine acres on the west side of Flora Road north of Mission Avenue can be rezoned single-family residential-urban and divided into 48 lots for homes. The proposal meets the city’s requirements for minimum lot size, said hearing examiner Mike Dempsey, but another hearing must be held if the applicant makes substantial changes to the plan, such as increasing the number of lots.

East Valley maintenance, custodial workers shine After reading the article about the East Valley School District in the Feb. 14 Valley Voice, I felt that I needed to write a positive response. 

Lottery winners in Spokane County for the week of Feb. 18-22. $10,000

There were plenty of arrests for everything from warrants to driving with suspended licenses in Liberty Lake the week of Feb. 11 to 18. Officers were following up on a case in the 500 block of North Hodges Road when they discovered a man wanted on a warrant for second-degree burglary and a woman wanted on warrants for possession of a controlled substance and driving with a suspended license. Both were booked into the Spokane County Jail, said police Chief Brian Asmus.

Any of us who have gardened for a while are familiar with the wild creatures that also enjoy our well-stocked gardens. OK, I know there are deer that drive us nuts, but what about developing a more wildlife-friendly garden and in the process reducing water use and plant maintenance? Maybe even finding a way to keep the deer at bay? The Spokane Conservation District is offering a series of workshops in March on how to make your garden more wildlife friendly by using native plants, building habitats that draw in animals, birds, bugs and pollinators and reducing water and pesticide use. The workshops will be Wednesday evenings in March at the Spokane Conservation District’s office, 210 N. Havana St.