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The Cheney High School girls' swimming team placed 13th out of 35 teams at the state swimming competition this past weekend at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. Four swimmers made it to the competition, with three qualifying for races. The 200 medley relay team, consisting of Kaylie Watters, Alexis Schmidt, Brittany Meyer and Makenzie Norman, placed 13th with a time of 2 minutes, 4.23 seconds. That team also placed in the 200 free relay, coming...
Colville eliminated Cheney from the District 7 2A volleyball tournament with a 3-0 shutout, putting to rest a strong year for the Blackhawks team. Cheney faced Deer Park and Pullman in two separate games Nov. 6 in the first round of district matches, narrowly defeating Deer Park 3-0 but then being shut out by Pullman. Senior Ashley Seiler had 19 kills in the first match, but fell to 10 in the second, limited by the Pullman defense. Senior Kinsey Pease had a strong performance against Deer Park, turning in 32 assists, but...
Nathan Harries found out about NCAA rules the hard way this summer as he was about to start his freshman year at Colgate University in New York. Instead of getting ready for the upcoming basketball season, he found himself with one year of his NCAA eligibility removed. The decision was reversed a week ago after numerous media outlets began sharing the story. This summer, Harries participated in the Dunwoody Baptist Church’s basketball league after returning from serving his mission with the LDS Church. According to NCAA r...
MacKenna Jones' Fallen Soldier memorial statue at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake was unveiled in a big way this month. "I grew up around veterans and my dad is one, too. He served in the Navy for 27 years. We also recently lost a friend of ours from church who was a Pearl Harbor survivor," she said in a June 2013 Cheney Free Press interview. The memorial statue was unveiled Saturday, Nov. 2 at the veterans cemetery, featuring numerous community groups...
The U.S. Air Force has scheduled numerous public hearings across the country for the public to comment on a draft Environmental Impact Statement regarding the rollout of its new KC-46A fleet. One of those is coming to Spokane, due to Fairchild Air Force Base being chosen as an alternative location for the main operating base. Earlier this year, McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas narrowly beat the West Plains base in the running to station the first set of new aircraft....
Airway Heights is in the middle of another budgeting season, working to create a balanced budget for 2014. The budget still has a $126,000 gap in the current expense fund, which the city is working to close. Also still hanging in the balance are contract negotiations for public safety guild employees. As a result, cost of living adjustments and medical coverage adjustments aren’t factored in at the moment. This marked the second public hearing regarding the budget, following the first Oct. 21 to discuss revenue sources. A p...
Cheney High School’s girls’ swimming team placed fourth overall at districts, with numerous swimmers advancing to the state competition later this month. The district championships where held in Ellensburg, Wash. at Central Washington University Nov. 1 and 2. The state championships are set to take place in Federal Way, Wash. Nov. 15-16. “This year was really, really good,” head coach Jennifer Hochwalt said. The team started with a number of novice swimmers, who either had no experience or just under a month from the previou...
Standardized test scores at Medical Lake High School remained steady in recent years, including the latest numbers for the class of 2013, which were recently released. Director of Teaching and Learning Kim Headrick gave a brief report on SAT and ACT scores from the 2012-2013 school year at the Oct. 22 school board meeting. Approximately 45 percent of seniors at Medical Lake High School took the SAT. Reading scores were at 497, writing scores at 464 and math scores at 491 for the school year. Those taking the ACT were much few...
Last Tuesday, Oct. 29, representatives from Horizon 2040 held an open house at the Cheney Library for the public to comment on the future of transportation in the Spokane region. The event was to gauge public opinions on the regional transportation plan, which sets in motion goals to have a well-maintained, integrated, accessible and multi-modal transportation system by 2040. Among the transportation issues affecting West Plains residents is improving SR 904 from Cheney to Fou...
A second public hearing at the Monday, Nov. 4 Airway Heights City Council meeting regarding the 2014 budget covered a summary of projected expenses next year. Continuing the beginning stages of the city’s budgeting season, City Treasurer Richard Cook went through a summary of the expenses listed in the current draft form of the 2014 budget. Largely, next year’s budget retains the same levels as this years, changing very little. Among the transfers of money include $125,000 from the current expense fund to the street fun...
Spokane County Fire District 10, the Airway Heights Fire Department and the Medical Lake Fire Department are looking to perform a cooperative services assessment to find better ways of working together. The three agencies are hoping to consolidate their resources, continuing to build on an already strong relationship that has been forged over the last couple of years. Currently all three fire departments train new recruits together and help with special events. They also have an automatic aid agreement, which means if Airway...
Brace yourselves, the deer apocalypse has struck! Protect your petunias, fence up your ferns and for heaven’s sake, lock up your lavender, the deer are coming! Well, at least that’s the way it seems to be in Medical Lake. A new ordinance that nearly made it before the Medical Lake City Council would prohibit feeding of deer while in the city limits and set up violation penalties for those committing such a heinous act. The first reading of the ordinance was tabled at the last meeting, but you can almost guarantee that it wil...
Medical Lake’s biannual Healthy Youth Survey yielded mixed results during a report at the Medical Lake School District board of directors meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 22. The anonymous survey is administered to students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12, and is conducted throughout the region. Medical Lake Middle School assistant principal Scott Blasingame said one test goal was to ensure that harassment, intimidation and bullying weren’t occurring in the buildings. As usually goes with bullying the middle school had the larger num...
It’s October, and that means it’s time for the greatest spectacle in the history of sports: the end of another Seattle Mariners season. On “The X-Files,” FBI agent Fox Mulder said “I want to believe” regarding the existence of extra-terrestrial life. Mariners fans across the Northwest, including myself, have adopted the saying for the team, wanting to believe that one day the team will manage to have a stretch of success. The organization is arguably in deeper despair than it was at its last major crisis, around 2008 when i...
Since 1989, Peggy Schweikhardt has served on the Medical Lake School District board of directors, and is running unopposed for another four-year term on the board in the Nov. 5 election. At the time, she worked in the Spokane School District, but was actively looking for a way to spend more time helping families in Medical Lake. “I wanted to give back to the community,” she said. Some of the challenges she sees in the upcoming years are what the district has been working through for quite some time now. Chief among those is...
A public hearing at the Airway Heights Planning Commission’s meeting last week offered in-depth details into a proposed multifamily housing project on South Craig Road near Highway 2. After missing the last two meetings due to a lack of a quorum, the commission heard the plans from Defender Development’s Steve Emtman, who wants to provide an affordable housing option for people living in the Accident Potential Zone leading to Fairchild Air Force Base’s runway. The property is currently zoned as R-2, and could handle seven...
In addition to hearing from Spokane County and its pursuit of approving Proposition 1 in the November election, at its Oct. 17 meeting the Medical Lake City Council heard from the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS) on its plans for 2014. Under the interlocal agreement, Medical Lake and other cities across Spokane County would be united in their animal control laws. For some jurisdictions, like Medical Lake, it would mean being charged just once for a three-year contract instead of facing a charge each...
The annual budget season started up in Airway Heights at the Monday, Oct. 21 City Council meeting with a public hearing that outlined the budget presentation schedule over the next couple of months. Airway Heights has a reported assessed valuation of $460.6 million, aided by its annexation to the east. The population increased by over 25 percent in the annexation. Final numbers are expected toward the end of the year in order to aid with the budget’s formation, which will roll out to the public in November and December. T...
The Cheney High School girls swimming team took down Selah High School in a meet last Thursday. The team’s 200 medley squad took first place, consisting of Makenzie Norman, Kaylie Watters, Alexis Schmidt and Brittany Meyer, winning with a time of 2 minutes, 5.31. Continuing the winning was Kaylie Geschke in the 200 freestyle with 2:21.83. Among the other highlights included Schmidt winning the 100 fly in 1:05.29, Norman winning the 50 free in a time of 57.73. Cheney’s 200 freestyle relay team also won their race, con...
Concerned ranchers gathered at the Jensen Memorial Youth Ranch last Friday, Oct. 11 to discuss stringent new Department of Ecology rules that could impact their business. Around 60 to 80 met at the youth ranch just outside of Medical Lake to hear what other communities were doing in regard to providing support for what they view as intrusive tactics by Ecology. “It’s amazing how many people don’t realize what’s going on,” Spokane County Cattlemen president Jim Wentland said. A...
Jack Collins is looking to continue giving back to the Airway Heights community by serving on Position 2 of the Airway Heights City Council. Collins, a volunteer firefighter in the city’s Fire Department for nearly two years, said he wants to help ensure that citizens are covered and represented during the city’s growth and expansion. “I feel the next way to give back to the community is representing them on the City Council,” he said. One of the things he’d like to see in th...
Business has been good in the opening weeks for Chibu Estate Exchange in Airway Heights. Opening the store wasn’t an easy decision, but it proved to be the right move for the Okemgbo family, who have lived in the U.S. for the past eight years. Last August, they moved to Airway Heights due to a job relocation, but they couldn’t be happier. After moving to the city, Marcelina Okemgbo was searching for a way to help support her family while still being near her children dur...
Skepticism was out and about at the Medical Lake City Council meeting during a presentation on Spokane County’s Proposition 1, a levy to protect Fairchild Air Force Base. Spokane County Commissioner Al French was at the meeting, seeking support for the ballot measure, which appears on the Tuesday, Nov. 5 ballot across the county. The item would buy out mobile home parks in Airway Heights encroaching on Fairchild’s runway and turn it into developable industrial land. The City Council specifically took issue with the fact that...
Shirley Maike is the incumbent in Medical Lake’s race for Position 2 on the City Council. For her, the current city council, mayor and administration at City Hall have done a good job of maintaining the city’s finances. She’s running to keep that in place. “The city is in a good position both fiscally and from a public safety standpoint,” she said. Maike cited maintaining the city’s infrastructure as something on her list for the next term, as well as finding resources to be able to have that level of upkeep continue. ...
The Airway Heights City Council once again tackled the issue of marijuana storefronts at its meeting Monday, Oct. 7, approving an extension of a moratorium that was enacted earlier this year. The City Council approved the extension on medical cannabis storefronts within Airway Heights, pushing the expiration date into April 2014. The moratorium would have expired Oct. 15. Airway Heights is still forming its marijuana ordinance, waiting for a final document from the state to emerge. Development Services Director Derrick Braate...
