Sorted by date Results 351 - 375 of 3077
CHENEY – Aaliyah Alexander may just be the real deal. The freshman from basketball powerhouse Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way scored 18 points for Eastern Washington University in her first collegiate game Saturday, Dec. 5, against visiting Northern Arizona, then turned around 24 hours later to score 16 more on Sunday against the Lumberjacks. But it proved to be for naught as the Eagle women lost both contests, 89-60 on Saturday and 69-55 Sunday to open the 2020-2021 B...
OLYMPIA – Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has extended restrictions imposed earlier to combat the rapidly rising number of positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the state due to COVID-19. The restrictions previously announced on Nov. 15 were set to expire on Dec. 14, but have been subsequently extended through the holidays to Jan. 4, 2021. “What we do between now — when COVID activity is still at crisis levels — and the time when vaccines are widely available, is literally a matter of life and death,” Inslee said at a...
CHENEY – The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are hitting closer to home on the West Plains, and with more seriousness. According to the Spokane Regional Health Center and other media sources, the county’s first person under age 20 to die from complications stemming from the virus was a 15-year-old Cheney High School student. Abbi Watson-Freestad had dealt with asthma and allergies her entire life, her mother Stacy Watson-O’Leary told KHQ Tuesday night, Nov. 24, carrying breathing treatments and EpiPens with her at all times...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Local fire chiefs and officials with American Medical Response have reached an 11th-hour agreement keeping ambulance service in place for all jurisdictions except the city of Spokane. If an agreement had not been reached, AMR’s five-year contract would have terminated at midnight Nov. 13, meaning the ambulance service provider would have been operating “ungoverned” in the county, Cheney Fire Chief Tom Jenkins told the City Council at its Nov. 10 meeting. At the time, negotiations had ceased between the com... Full story
CHENEY – This year’s annual festivities to kick off the holidays will be more about town than just downtown. Holiday Hoopla is happening this year, albeit taking place in a more spread out format due to COVID-19 restrictions. The celebration takes place Friday, Dec. 4, beginning at 5 p.m. in the parking lot of Jarms Ace Hardware where everyone will form up and follow a Cheney Fire Department engine carrying Santa down 1st Street to the Cheney Library where the virtual tre...
CHENEY – The City Council unanimously approved the first reading of the city’s nearly $32.74 million 2021 budget at its Nov. 24 meeting. The figure is roughly $560,000 less than 2020’s $33.3 million budget — partly a reflection of the recent loss of the city’s levy lid lift funding. In giving its initial approval of the budget, council also approved the city’s two levy ordinances – general fund and emergency medical services – both of which dropped, partly due to the increase in the city’s total assessed property value. T...
CHENEY – Three Springs High School is a small, tight-knit community. It’s also a community without a lot of resources. Both of these can serve to amplify needs, particularly around the holidays. To address those needs, Three Springs staff are asking for the public’s help in providing a better Christmas for students and their families than those families might be capable of providing themselves. For the second year in a row, English and Language Arts teacher Lindsey Villeneuve is organizing an “Adopt a family in the West Pl...
CHENEY – The city’s police and fire chiefs were asked by City Council at its Nov. 24 meeting to peer into their crystal balls and offer a view of what their departments might look like in the future should certain aspects of their operations change. For Fire Chief Tom Jenkins, that look involved the ongoing issue with emergency medical response in the community — specifically ambulance service. City officials have expressed past dissatisfaction with the performance of American Medical Response (AMR), particularly with respo...
CHENEY — City Hall visitors may soon find themselves navigating some construction work at the city’s Finance Department. At their Nov. 10 meeting, the City Council approved a $75,500 request from the Light Department to pay Big Timber Contractors, LLC to build a new wall that includes three teller stations, along with new work stations and counters on either side of the windows. The work will replace the existing windows, door and conference room with a more secure structure that also includes two additional windows bet...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Many businesses have turned to an online format to keep their customers shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Spokane County Library District is following suit to keep an annual national tradition alive locally. The district is hosting the fifth-annual Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28 – 24 hours after Black Friday – to promote businesses that are the centerpiece of most communities. With coronavirus restrictions limiting the number of people who can safely enter a business, the district is promo...
OLYMPIA – Mike Volz has added his name to the growing list of people upset about new restrictions announced last Sunday, Nov. 15, by Gov. Jay Inslee. In a statement last Friday, Nov. 20, 6th District Representative and Spokane County Chief Deputy Treasurer Mike Volz called for a rollback of the four-week set of measures re-instituted by Inslee in response to a rapid rise in COVID-19 positive cases and hospitalizations in the state. Volz, who won re-election in November, also called for an immediate special session to a...
CHENEY — The school district board of directors could propose a regular operations and maintenance levy in February that would shift money collected from the capital facilities fund to the general fund. School district officials are saying that such a move is essentially revenue neutral, rather than leading to an increase in rates seen by taxpayers. Currently, the district’s Educational Programs & Operations (EP&O) levy is set to collect $7 million in 2021 while the Cap...
CHENEY – Fundraising during a pandemic has proven to be a challenge — but Eastern Washington University officials have met that challenge with some success. On Dec. 1, they are hoping the public will help them continue their efforts during the national #Giving Tuesday campaign. While participants are invited to donate to whatever university fund they feel called to, officials have named five scholarship funds they hope donors will consider that are within reach of being endowed — meaning they have attained a level that allow...
CHENEY – When it comes to coronavirus contact tracing at school, School District Assistant Superintendent Tom Arlt asked school board members to picture the number five on a dice. “Visualize that center dot on the number five as being a positive case,” Arlt said. “The Health Department requires tracing and quarantine of adjacent students. Each of those four dots around that student would be considered adjacent students, each of those would be subject to quarantine according to the (Spokane Regional) Health Distric...
SPOKANE VALLEY – The FBI and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office are asking for the public's assistance in identifying the individual or individuals responsible for nearly $20,000 in politically-oriented damage that took place in the southern portion of the city in September. Additionally, the FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information "leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible." Five properties were damaged in the incidents t... Full story
I’ve been reading my grandfather’s diary. For the year 1943. Grandpa McCallum was a chaplain with a U.S. Army unit in the South Pacific. It’s a role I have always found interesting — men and women of peace operating during a time of war. His diary is sparse, given it’s only 3.5 inches by 6 inches and limited to one page per day. Not a lot of room to elaborate on events. Or provide personal insights, editorialize fears, hopes. Still, what’s said is illuminating. Jan. 1 finds him in New Caledonia, waiting with other units...
SPOKANE VALLEY – Northwest Flight Services announced on Nov. 10 that it has entered into an agreement with a development group, CRISTALL Holdings LLC, to be the sole tenant of a new 15,000-square-foot hangar building at Felts Field. The site is east of the Federal Aviation Administration's control tower and was the previous location of the FFA Flight Standards District Office, which was demolished in January 2019. Northwest Flight currently operates out of three locations a...
OLYMPIA – In what was probably one of the worst kept secrets of 2020, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a new set of restrictions on Sunday, Nov. 15, that officials hope will lead to a reduction in the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the state. According to a Nov. 15 news release, the four-week restrictions, most amounting to rollbacks of ongoing restrictions and most of which went into effect Monday, Nov. 16, come as Washington is seeing “consistent increasing daily case counts” that have led to over 2,000 cases per day o...
CHENEY – Apparently, the city’s “permanent” general fund levy lid lift to help public safety needs wasn’t so permanent after all. Passed by 59.32 % of voters in 2015, the lift was to dedicate the difference between the then-current general fund levy amount of $2.40 per $1,000 of assessed valuation and the proposed increase to $3.10 / $1,000 to “provide for continual public safety (police, fire)” and other governmental services needs. Since then, $2,137,100 of the $2.207 million raised has gone to things such as new police of...
CHENEY – The Historic Preservation Commission took a major step last Thursday, Nov. 5, towards possibly creating a new icon for downtown Cheney. The commission gave its approval to inclusion of the recently relocated Northern Pacific Railroad Depot on the city’s historical registry along with its application for special valuation. The approval now moves to the City Council as a recommendation of passage from the commission, with the council having the final say. Including the...
CHENEY – City officials are predicting some revenue shortfalls in the Public Works Department in 2021, specifically in the building, planning and street departments. In a budget presentation at the City Council’s Oct. 27 meeting, Public Works Director Todd Ableman also said the system development charge normally instituted to support water and wastewater is low because of a decrease in construction this past year. “They’re not coming in as what we predicted in 2020, however that’s not part of O&M (operation and maintenan...
CHENEY – Impacts of Covid-19 played a part in the budget presentation made by the Light Department at the City Council’s Oct. 27 meeting. Light Department While noting the department’s fee structure was stable, Light Department Director Steve Marx acknowledged they are likely to see a 10 % reduction in revenues from reduced activity at Eastern Washington University. Usage charges from the university represent just short of 20 % — $1.98 million — of the department’s projected $9.99 million 2021 budget. Marxx said so far in 202...
CHENEY – As if dealing with Covid-19 isn’t bad enough, health officials are bracing for the coming impacts of another serious respiratory illness — the flu. The potential confluence of both illnesses has led to physicians with the Washington State Medical Association to unite in sending out a simple, but urgent message: Be safe, be smart, get your flu shot. In fact, the WSMA is urging residents do the latter as quickly as possible in order to take flu “off the table....
CHENEY – The school district has instituted a second phase of re-opening its facilities to students whose families are prepared to return to in-person instruction, bringing in first-grade students this week followed by second-grade students next week. First-graders returned to in-person classes on Monday, Nov. 2, with half the students appearing that day and the other half on Tuesday, Nov. 3. All first-grade students were onsite beginning Wednesday, Nov. 4. An asynchronous learning day for students was held Oct. 30, along w...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Republicans have maintained their lock on the county commissioners board as both incumbents Josh Kerns and Mary Kuney won re-election Nov. 3. Kerns won his second term with a 12-point win over Democratic challenger Ted Cummings in the Commissioner District 1 race representing the north county. Kerns notched 55.97% of the vote to Cummings 43.90, 136,293 votes to 106,896 votes. In the District 2 race, Kuney enjoyed a larger almost 17-point win over Democratic challenger David Green, 58.05 to 41.79 %. Kuney r...
