Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 3077
CHENEY – "Why do you need donations, you're a state-assisted school." It's a statement Eastern Washington University Vice President for University Advancement and Executive Director of the EWU Foundation Barb Richey said she sometimes receives when making a pitch to a hoped-for donor. But in reality, the university wouldn't be where it is today without private donations - specifically one donation. In 1882, Northern Pacific Railroad CEO Benjamin P. Cheney was so touched by a...
CHENEY – Eastern Washington University is facing an outbreak of COVID-19 barely two weeks into fall quarter and the implementation of measures it and the city hoped would prevent large outbreaks from occurring. University officials said they have placed 130 people in quarantine or isolation the past week alone, with periods ranging from 1-2 days while awaiting test results to up to 24 days. They also confirmed that Spokane Regional Health District officials have notified them that two of the outbreaks involve fraternities l...
CHENEY – The City Council concurred with a recommendation from the Planning Commission and unanimously approved a preliminary plat for a 46-unit residential development at their Sept. 22 meeting that could bring higher-end homes to the city. Parkside 2nd Addition would plat 31 single-family lots and 15 duplexes on 16.98 acres of property near the corner of Simpson Parkway and North 6th Street. The property, owned by Gordon Finch Homes, is currently zoned for R-1 (single family) and R-2 (two-family) development. The d...
CHENEY – The Historic Preservation Commission approved an application for repair work on one of the city’s original homes that served as the residence for an early area pioneer and mayor. New owners of the I.J. Ballinger House — sometimes referred to as the Heyer Apartments — Cleveland Blaine, LLC filed an application for a certificate of appropriateness on Sept. 8. Cleveland Blaine, LLC owners Melissa and Matt Blaine listed four areas of work they were proposing for the structure: roofing, painting, decking and foundat...
CHENEY – By a unanimous 5-0 vote, the board of directors approved the Cheney School District's partial reopening plan at their Sept. 30 meeting. The plan, laid out for the directors at a Sept. 24 work session with few changes by last Wednesday, will allow kindergarten, special education and ECEAP (Early Childhood and Education Assistance Program) pre-school students - whose parents elected to do so - to return to onsite instruction. ECEAP pre-school students began returning t...
CHENEY – By a unanimous 5-0 vote, the board of directors approved the Cheney School District’s partial reopening plan at their Sept. 30 meeting. The plan, laid out for the directors at a Sept. 24 work session with few changes by last Wednesday, will allow kindergarten, special education and ECEAP (Early Childhood and Education Assistance Program) pre-school students — whose parents elected to do so — to return to onsite instruction. ECEAP pre-school students began returning to two, half days on-site instruction and two-hal...
CHENEY – The August fire that roared through the Williams and Badger lakes area left a scorched wasteland in its wake, consuming about 90 percent of the vegetation in its path including a large number of trees. That number was added to by a Spokane County decision to take advantage of a recent clearing operation and remove additional apparently healthy trees - a decision leaving at least one Badger Lake family perplexed and a bit frustrated. Paul and Jennifer Mitchell - who l...
CHENEY -- Eastern Washington University officials are reporting an uptick in cases of COVID-19 since instruction resumed in an online format Sept. 23. According to the university's Risk Management website, 64 students living off-campus in Cheney have tested positive for the disease since Sept. 6, with 41 testing positive the week of Sept. 20-26 and 13 testing positive the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 3. Additionally over the Sept. 27-Oct.3 timeframe, one student living in campus housing tested positive, five were positive who do...
CHENEY – School district administrators laid out a phased return to in-person instruction to school board members at a special workshop last Thursday, Sept. 24, that if approved in a special meeting, Sept. 30, could have some students back in classrooms on a limited basis as early as Oct. 5. According to information presented at the workshop, special education students with disabilities and preschool for students in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) could begin in-person instruction on Monday, O...
COLVILLE – Statistical fire starts in the Department of Natural Resources Northeast Region this year have exceeded a five-year average so far, according to a report from the DNR. On the flip side, acreage burned is below the five-year average, a figure skewed somewhat by the fact that almost 650,000 acres was burned in 2015 from Jan. 1 – Aug. 31. In the period ending Aug. 31, the four units that compose the Northeast Region have seen 494 statistical fires — 474 caused by human activity. The five-year average is almost 481.6...
CHENEY – While education is their preferred first choice, Cheney and Eastern Washington University law enforcement are prepared to take sterner measures with students who continue to violate safety protocols spelled out by the state and/or Spokane County Health District to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It's an effort, Cheney City Administrator Mark Schuller said, to avoid having happen to Cheney and EWU what occurred in Pullman when Washington State University students r...
CHENEY –Planning Commission members approved a preliminary plat application for a 46-unit residential development at their Sept. 14 meeting that could open the way for construction of more high-dollar value homes in the city. Parkside 2nd Addition would plat 31 single-family lots and 15 duplexes on 16.98 acres of property near the corner of Simpson Parkway and North 6th Street. The property, owned by Gordon Finch Homes, is currently zoned for R-1 (single family) and R-2 (...
CHENEY – The 13th annual city-wide beautification program, Cheney Clean Sweep, is just around the corner and it will look quite a bit different than the previous 12 events. The first difference is obvious — it’s being held in October rather than the traditional beginning of spring in April. The reason behind that is also obvious — restrictions enacted to slow the spread of the coronavirus. In April, strict lockdown measures had been enacted by the state, closing businesses not deemed essential, limiting most people to work...
CHENEY – Early enrollment numbers show the school district has experienced a drop of almost 300 full-time equivalent students to begin the 2020-2021 academic year. The result could translate into a loss of $2.1 million in state revenue. According to a presentation at the Sept. 16 school board meeting, the district’s first week enrollment totaled 4,778.81 FTEs, 279.14 FTEs below the budgeted 5,053. Much of the decline came in lower grades, Finance Director Jamie Weingart said, with grades K-2 showing a total drop of 136...
WEST PLAINS – October is when members of the international education sorority Alpha Delta Kappa honor their founders by providing service to the community. The local ADK chapter, Alpha Nu, is continuing this tradition even in the face of the coronavirus pandemic that has changed the look of instruction — which in Cheney, Medical Lake and many other school districts is now mostly online line rather than in person. Alpha Nu member Bonnie Sullivan said the chapter, which is comprised of 50 current and former educators from Che...
CHENEY – Despite winds, fires, smoke and a pandemic, work on relocating Cheney’s Northern Pacific Railroad Depot continues. The heavy lifting part of the project, which began in 2014, took place June 18 when crews from Mt. Vernon, Wash.-based movers DB Davis transported the structure from its former location along the railroad tracks near ADM Mills to its present and permanent home along 1st Street. Since then, the Cheney Depot Society’s project general contractor, Walker Construction, has been busy building the found...
NASHVILLE, TENN. – Born in Brazzaville, Congo to a white father and black mother, Karen McCormick has often found herself facing a decision when filing out employment forms. Particularly the part that asks about race. "OK, I don't fit in all the way here and I don't fit in all the way here," McCormick said of the selection boxes. "Where is the box for me?" The 2013 Cheney High School and 2018 Eastern Washington University graduate and aspiring country music artist has r...
SPOKANE COUNTY – Consider it two records we would just as soon have not set. Due to smoke from fires in California, Oregon and Washington that blew in beginning late Friday night, Spokane County set back-to-back records for the highest air quality contamination in record keeping going back at least to 1999, according to information from the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency. On Sunday, Sept. 13, a one-hour reading at the agency's reporting station on Monroe and Wellesley r...
CHENEY – While education is their preferred first choice of enforcement, Cheney and Eastern Washington University law enforcement are prepared to take sterner measures with students who continue to violation safety protocols spelled out by the state and/or Spokane County Health District to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In a joint statement today, police officials with both agencies said – while not anticipating arrests, issuing citations or taking individual to jail – officers “will intervene with more punitive actions...
CHENEY – The only warning Malden residents John and Carolyn Bliesner had of the coming disaster was the urgent pounding on their door and yelled instructions to leave - now. The couple's daughter, Connie Marsh, said they only had time to grab a few things before they bolted from their home on West Moreland and fled to nearby Rosalia to seek shelter along with other residents from the firestorm that consumed 70-80 percent of the small Whitman County town. "It's hard to u...
CHENEY – Almost 64,000 Inland Northwest residents were without power late Monday, Sept. 7, after a Canadian cold front whipped through the region bringing strong sustained winds and even stronger wind gusts — knocking down trees, branches and power lines and igniting a number of wildfires. Cheney outages began about 9 a.m. with the report of a faulty switch at the city’s main substation on Cheney-Plaza Road. Light Department Director Steve Marxx said crews responded quick...
CHENEY – The city’s proposed upgrade of its reclamation plant enabling it to produce irrigation-suitable water is on holding pending the outcome of a bid protest by a manufacturer of one of the main components. Nexom, Inc. is protesting the city’s award of the bid to Aqua Aerobic Systems, Inc. for manufacture and installation of a pile-cloth disk filtration system. Nexom, based in Post Falls, Idaho, was the lowest of the two bidders at $349,569, with Aqua Aerobics well above this at $686,031. Nexom’s bid was disallowed after...
CHENEY – Jamie DeAndre says she has a desire to heal things. The 1994 Cheney High School graduate also says she’s always had a desire to own her own business. Both of those desires have come together in Enlightened Hands Massage, DeAndre’s business located inside Diamond Beauty and Boutique, 1322 1st St. DeAndre has worked for years in the physical therapy field, including seven years at Lakeland Village in Medical Lake. It was that experience that led her to get into massage...
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – It takes a lot to succeed in the movie business — time, skill, patience, hard work and a little luck. Cheney High School alums Andrew and Gina DeCesare have been practicing all of those — and it’s beginning to pay off. For writer and producer Andrew DeCesare, that came with recent high ratings for a project he has been involved in through the company he works for, 5150 Action Productions. DeCesare, 5150 owner and president Mike Gunther and vice preside...
SPOKANE – County election officials made the outcome of the Aug. 4 primary official by certifying the election results last Tuesday, Aug. 18. The simplest explanation of what that means was given in an email last week from Spokane County Elections manager Mike McLaughlin. “The Spokane County Canvassing Board (county auditor, chair of the county commissioners and the county prosecuting attorney) go over the results and ‘Certify’ that they are complete and accurate,” McLaughlin wrote. In actuality, it’s a bit more involved, a...
