Washington Voices

The Liberty Lake City Council continued to hear ideas to help solve an impending budget crisis expected to hit the city sometime next year, including closing the library. During the council’s discussion Tuesday about the city’s budget woes, Mayor Wendy Van Orman explained the results of an online survey filled out by 150 citizens. Van Orman said that number represents 5 percent of the 2,500 households in the city.

Spokane area lottery winners from Aug. 28-Sept. 3 Michael Westerfield, Teresa Wright, both of Spokane.

The Spokane County Library District’s North Spokane Branch, 44 E. Hawthorne Road, will start a book club for children in grades 4 through 6, beginning Sept. 21. The club will meet the third Tuesday of each month at 4 p.m. to talk about, swap or recommend books, and enjoy games and snacks.

Several churches will present fun, family-oriented community events this weekend. • Messiah Lutheran Church, 4202 N. Belt St., will present a Grandparents Day rally Sunday.

For 09-09-2010

For the week of Sept. 13-17 Monday – Option 1: Orange chicken, vegetable chow mein, steamed rice, dinner roll, Mandarin oranges. Option 2: Bean soup, vegetable chow mein, steamed rice, dinner roll, Mandarin oranges.

Some members of the Spokane Valley City Council started to pick apart acting City Manager Mike Jackson’s proposed 2011 budget Tuesday, but at least one was using outdated numbers to do it. “In 2014 there’s a deficit of $6 million,” said Councilman Bob McCaslin.

Local contests open to all snowboarders have been added to the Downtown Throwdown urban snowboarding event, Snowboy Productions and Lib Tech announced. The first of three “Feeders!” will take place on Sept. 11 at Zumiez in the Spokane Valley Mall, from 1 to 3 p.m. The winner of each event will get an invite to Lib Tech’s fifth annual Downtown Throwdown in Seattle on Oct. 9.

My husband wants us to purchase a snowblower. Normally, one wouldn’t be thinking about such purchases during the last month of summer, but a few events have pushed the idea to the forefront.

I love this time of year. All of you are out there playing in the dirt, or trying to, and end up e-mailing lots of great questions that everyone is interested in. The first question has to do with when is a good time to cut back watering on tomatoes. With the wacky summer we’ve been having, that is a little complicated. If you have lots of red tomatoes, you want to back off on the water so they don’t get too much and split. Conversely, if there are still a lot of green ones mixed in, consider watering them by hand. Whatever you do, be consistent with the water. Tomatoes that have a feast or famine of water tend to get blossom end rot and/or crack around the top.

Seven Spokane Valley Fire Department trucks responded to a house fire in the 14400 block of East Olive Avenue just before 10 a.m. on Aug. 27. The homeowner saw smoke and was able to safely get herself and her pets out of the house. The fire started in a pile of leaves and debris outside the home, said administrative Capt. Jeff Bordwell. There were letters being burned in the fireplace and some hot embers blew across the roof and into the pile of leaves. The home did not have a spark arrester, a wire mesh that keeps embers from leaving the chimney. “When we arrived pretty much one whole side of the house was in flames,” Bordwell said.

SPOKANE VALLEY – The Valley Assembly of God Church will host its annual Veradale Neighborhood Street Fair Wednesday to celebrate the beginning of fall. The fair will be from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the church parking lot, 15618 E. Broadway Ave. There will be free samples from local restaurants, bounce houses, classic cars, antique bicycles and other activities for all ages. There will also be numerous booths and displays, live entertainment and a back-to-school style show.

Removing pingpong from CenterPlace does disservice to lovers of the game During recent months you have printed letters from senior members of Spokane Valley Senior Center Association protesting the transfer of table tennis (pingpong) from CenterPlace to Hepton Point. The senior board president has always commented about a lady breaking her arm playing at CenterPlace as a reason for the move. I am that lady!