Washington Voices

SPOKANE VALLEY – Spokane Valley residents are invited to attend a community meeting on the design and construction of a new park in Greenacres. There will be discussions on the community’s vision for the park, determining a planning process and brainstorming ideas for the funding and construction of the park. The City of Spokane Valley owns eight acres of land northwest of the intersection of Long Road and Boone Avenue. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Greenacres Christian Church, 18010 E. Mission Ave. Residents also can complete an online survey to give their opinion about the park. It is available at www.neighborhoodlink.com/N_Greenacres/home.

CHENEY – If you are looking for a good book or DVD or CD or sheet music or puzzle, there will be thousands of them – all at bargain prices – at the Eastern Washington University Friends of the Library used books and recordings sale April 9 and 10. The sale will take place in the lobby of the JFK Library on EWU’s campus in Cheney from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 9, and from noon to 4 p.m. on April 10.

SPOKANE – Registration starts today to schedule a free eye exam for qualifying guide dogs, handicapped assistance dogs, detection dogs, and search and rescue dogs. The exams, from May 1 through 16, are sponsored by the Animal Eye Clinic of Spokane and American College of Veterinary Opthalmologists.

WHITWORTH – Whitworth University will offer a Great Decisions Lecture, “Iceland in the Global Financial Crisis,” by Hjalmar W. Hannesson, next Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhaeuser Hall. Icelandic banks were hit the hardest by the global financial crisis. When all of the major banks collapsed, it posed significant challenges for the government and society in Iceland.

SPOKANE – The City of Spokane has scheduled community meetings to present information about upcoming construction projects. City engineers plan to discuss design and construction schedules and answer questions. . All meetings will be held from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. There will be a meeting on Tuesday, at the West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt St., focusing on projects in Council District 3; a meeting on Wednesday, at the Northeast Youth Center, 2121 E. Wabash Ave., focusing on projects in Council District 1; and a meeting on Thursday, at the East Central Community Center, 500 S. Stone St., focusing on projects in Council District 2.

An active tropical storm and hurricane season may be just around the meteorological corner, especially when compared to last season. Many forecasters believe this upcoming season, which lasts from June 1 to November 30, has the potential to be very active. I agree with the initial forecasts. The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season was below average with nine named tropical storms. That was the fewest since the 1997 season, which had only seven named storms. One of the reasons for the low number of tropical storms was the formation of El Niño, the abnormal warming of ocean waters near the west coast of South America. During an El Niño event, upper-level weather patterns change, resulting in the “shearing” of tropical storms and hurricanes.

•The Community Assembly Committee meeting will be Friday at 4 p.m. in the Council Briefing Center at City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. •The Rockwood Neighborhood Council meeting will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Hutton Elementary School, 908 E. 24th Ave.

The Central Valley School District is mulling options for cuts to help make up a possible shortfall in state funds in the 2010-’11 school year. To help the school board decide what to cut, the district recently held three community workshops to prioritize 28 options into categories — minor impact on students, moderate impact, major impact and critical impact. The options list represents approximately $3.7 million in programs.

The days feel like spring is here, but the nights are still a little frigid. That scenario makes it a little tough to get the garden and plants under way. My seed plantings are doing well inside, as there has been adequate sunshine for them. Around our place, we have been pruning and getting rid of some of last year’s leftovers. The bulb plants are popping up all over Elk and Chattaroy. It’s time to get out the liquid fence so our deer friends don’t munch the buds before we get a chance to enjoy them.

The law enforcement contract between the city of Spokane Valley and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office got some attention from Spokane Valley City Council members uesday as acting City Manager Mike Jackson asked for direction on some negotiating items. The contract has been in place since 2003 and has been renewed annually since then. Some Council members were concerned about the ever increasing cost of the contract, which started at $11.5 million in 2003 and reached $15.2 million in 2009. The contract includes both employee salaries and indirect costs such as benefits, equipment, special task forces and other items. “As the county reduces the number of unincorporated officers, we pay a larger and larger share of the indirect costs,” Jackson said.

The goal of Somebody Needs You is to match donors with the specific requests of needy Spokane residents. If someone you know needs help, contact a local social service agency provider. • Single mom of two needs television antenna and DVD player. Single mom needs coffee pot, toaster and highchair.Contact Jan at Transitional Living Center, (509) 325-2959.

Story ideas We want to expand our coverage of South and West Plains neighborhoods and we need your help. All you have to do is let us know when something is happening that affects your neighborhood. We’ll take it from there.

For 04-01-2010