Sorted by date Results 376 - 400 of 3077
CHENEY – U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials have announced they will be conducting prescribed burns on the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge from now through February, 2021. Inland Northwest Refuge Complex fire management specialist Ken Meinhart said the controlled burns will be taking place on a total of approximately 375 acres of Refuge land. Meinhart identified four major areas, a 185-acre section in the southwest corner of the Refuge, a 150-acre area along the northern boundary east of Cheney-Plaza Road, one in the c...
CHENEY – School district students and staff are planning a time-honored tradition of recognizing veterans on Nov. 11 — it’s just that they are planning on doing it a different way. With Covid-19 protocols keeping most schools shuttered to all but the youngest learners, students at Cheney and Westwood middle schools along with Cheney High School have been busy putting together virtual presentations for Veterans Day. The presentations will take the place of in-person assemblies — currently prohibited — but will have all of th...
WEST PLAINS – Prior to last March, Cheney School District Superintendent Rob Roettger didn’t even know who the Spokane County health officer was. That changed as the onset of COVID-19 prompted weekly meetings between area school superintendents and Spokane Regional Health District Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz. So, when Roettger heard last Friday that Lutz had been fired, he was surprised. “We work with him frequently in discussing plans and next steps,” Roettger said. “We had scheduled him to come to the school board this Wedn...
CHENEY – For the second time, the City Council has postponed the third reading and final passage of the city’s capital facilities plan — with both postponements stemming from council members’ desires to call for additional studies. The second postponement came after a proposal by Councilman Vince Barthels to conduct an “efficiency/effectiveness evaluation” of the city’s public safety, specifically police and fire departments. Barthels made the suggestion at the council’s Oct. 27 meeting, following a request by Councilman P...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Republicans have maintained their lock on the county commissioners board as both incumbents Josh Kerns and Mary Kuney won re-election tonight (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 o...
CHENEY – Sometimes the key to successful planning is hoping for the best, but anticipating the worst. Cheney and Eastern Washington University officials are following that guidance when it comes to tomorrow’s election – hoping for a quiet night despite the results but planning for possible protests should people wish to express their feelings, good or bad. Cheney Police Chief John Hensley said his department is in daily contact with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, who is listening to “chatter” by following social media p... Full story
CHENEY – Avast and beware, yea matties, the H.M.S Nemesis is about to sail and fear will be the wind that guides her. OK, that's corny, but somewhat fitting for the Golden Hills home of the Steve and Kym Grime family - a home that has helped transform the quiet, Steven Speilberg-esque (think the movie, "E.T.") Field of Dreams subdivision into a "Field of Screams." The Grimes' have been opening their home to a variety of ghouls, goblins, monsters and other horror features s...
CHENEY – For much of his adult life, Brian Dreis has held two occupations. His first is working as a machinist for Lyn Tron, Inc., a machine shop near the Caterpillar distribution center on West Hallett Road. It's a career field he has been in for over 27 years. Dreis has held his second career for nearly as long: providing bookkeeping and accounting services. It's a profession he's practiced for over 24 years on a contractual basis with a national tax preparation firm and s...
CHENEY – A City Council resolution passed at the Oct. 12 meeting will allow the Bonneville Power Administration to financially recoup some of the losses it sustains in physically transmitting power to Cheney — power the city is purchasing from another source. In signing the agreement with BPA, the city agrees to allow the power administration to bill it directly for electricity losses incurred in the transmission of power purchased through the Northwest Inter-government Energy Supply instead of billing NIES. According to the...
CHENEY – An extension of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer feeding program is allowing the district to provide students meals both at school and at home until at least late July, 2021. The Simplified Summer Food Program for Children offers meals at no charge for kids ages 18 and younger regardless of need. The program usually runs through summer, but was extended to the end of June 2021, and subsequently extended again in early October to allow for meals through the end of July, Cheney School District Director of...
CHENEY – While not as early as last year’s first snowfall, Friday’s snowstorm created about as much damage and confusion — especially when it comes to who does what when the white stuff falls. According to the National Weather Service, 6.2 inches of snow had accumulated at Spokane International Airport by 7 p.m. Oct. 23, easily surpassing the previous October record of 3.3 inches set last Oct. 8-9 last year. The early arrival of both storms caused numerous problems not usu...
CHENEY – Police are still looking for the individuals who caused over $3,000 of damage to sidewalks near Eastern Washington University's Visitor Center sometime Tuesday evening, Oct. 20. Cheney Capt. Rick Beghtol said city of Cheney crews discovered the vandalism around 8 a.m. Oct. 21 when they returned to the site at 6th and F streets to inspect their work. They found statements using derogatory and foul language gouged into several of the concrete panels - statements d...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Halloween is one of the more popular holiday’s of the year, partly because of all the variety of public events — from parties to haunted houses and the traditional trick-or-treat excursions about the neighborhood. But in the year of coronavirus, this high-level of social interaction outside the household could also be recipe for spreading Covid-19, the lower respiratory disease associated with coronavirus that, according to the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 Dashboard, has resulted in over 8.18 milli...
CHENEY – It’s no ordinary van. At its Oct. 13 meeting, the City Council approved a request by the Public Works Department to spend $172,530 on a 2018 Ford E450 14-foot box van from Solid Waste Systems in Spokane. While the van itself isn’t necessarily expensive, what comes inside is – a complete camera and recording system that will allow crews to peer inside the city’s solid waste system and determine its condition. The system includes not only monitors, recording devices and control panels but also a tractor-like camera un...
WEST PLAINS – Previous medication take back days have been so successful that organizers of the next event have doubled locations. National Medication Take Back Day is Oct. 24, and the annual day to get rid of unused and expired prescription drugs includes the Grocery Outlet in Cheney and Yoke’s Fresh Market Foods in Airway Heights — the second time for the latter. Drugs can be securely dropped off at both stores between 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. “In addition to collecting unused and expired medications we will also be handing o...
CHENEY – A medical emergency sent a driver off the road and crashing into a downtown building early Saturday morning, Oct. 10. According to Cheney police Capt. Rick Beghtol, the male driver developed some sort of sudden back spasm that caused him to lose control of his vehicle, jump the curb and plow into the Clean-R-Up cleaning business at 211 1st Street around 7:17 a.m. The vehicle smashed through the front of the building into the office, coming to rest about three-quarters inside the structure. “It doesn’t look like...
CHENEY – The city’s proposed water reuse project (Purple Pipe Project) took another step towards realization last Tuesday when the City Council authorized officials to apply for a $22.8 million loan from the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the council design work on the project had been completed and submitted to the state Department of Ecology for their review. At full buildout, including engineering, and with a “healthy” 20 – 30 % contingency factored in, the project taps ou...
Cheney High School student Madie Nicol reaches for a tossed candy as Morgan Hayes looks on during last Saturday night’s Homecoming car parade through the high school bus loop. With a traditional Homecoming denied due to Covid-19 restrictions and the move of football to a possible spring schedule, high school advisers Derek Slaughter and Jenna Tamura worked with student leaders to produce a week-long event that featured virtual activities culminating in a parade Saturday n...
CHENEY – Police are looking for the individuals who caused over $3,000 of damage to sidewalks near Eastern Washington University's Visitor Center sometime Tuesday evening, Oct. 20. Cheney Capt. Rick Beghtol said city of Cheney crews discovered the vandalism around 8 a.m. today (Oct. 21) when they returned to the site at 6th and F streets to inspect their work. They found statements using derogatory and foul language gouged into several of the concrete panels - statements d...
CHENEY – School board directors received some good news at their Sept. 30 meeting when it comes to the district's finances. The first came in the form of enrollment – which is showing a rebound from the first official count date figures from Sept. 11 that showed enrollment down almost 300 full-time equivalent students. That early number of 4,778.81 FTEs was 279.14 FTEs below the budgeted 5,053, with much of the decline came in lower grades At the Sept. 30 meeting, Finance Dir...
CHENEY – Eastern Washington University’s Fall Festival for kids is going to be taking a one-year hiatus – hopefully. University officials have canceled this year’s event that invites area youth to come to and tour specific buildings on the Cheney campus in Halloween costume, during which staff members also in costume greet them as they walk by and pass out candy. The festival usually attracts several hundred children and their parents, but due to COVID19 restrictions on gathering sizes and sanitary requirements, traditional e...
OLYMPIA — New guidance released Oct. 6 by Gov. Jay Inslee’s office and the state Department of Health could provide assistance for the return of both school and non-school sports and activities. The updates to Washington’s “Safe Start” reopening plan address not only youth and adult sports but also outdoor recreation such as running and bicycling and water recreation facilities. “We’re doing this now because we have had ongoing conversations with businesses about how to do these activities safely,” Inslee said at an Oct....
CHENEY – Do you have questions about voting and what will happen when you mail your ballot? What are the positions of some of the candidates? And just why do we have an Electoral College? Eastern Washington University’s College of Social Sciences hopes to provide some answers to those questions with “Your Future, Your Vote” — a week-long series of teach-ins and candidate town halls taking place next week. “It’s something we do each election cycle,” College of Social Sciences Associate Dean Vernon Loke said. “We want to help s...
CHENEY – Construction crews will be soon wrapping up a project that should make pedestrian and bicycle travel safer in the neighborhood around Cheney High and Betz Elementary schools. The work improving sidewalks, crosswalks, curbs and adding extra signage is being funded by a grant from the Safe Routes to Schools Program, part of a national program with grant funding awarded from the Washington State Department of Transportation. Earlier this year, the school district receive...
CHENEY – City officials are planning to hold off for now on making a specific application for Community Development Block Grant funding from Spokane County. Public Works Director told the Planning Commission during a public meeting on the program on Monday, Oct. 12, that the city didn’t apply for any money from the program last year out of concern for funding levels in the Water Department reserve accounts. That remains true this year, with Cheney taking steps to replenish those levels through rate increases and fee res...
