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CHENEY – Fire Department emergency personnel responded to five potential COVID-19 cases last week, according to Fire Chief Tom Jenkins. Additionally, Jenkins said that close to a dozen other calls paramedics responded to were individuals experiencing flu-like symptoms. “It’s unknown if they all were tested and the results of those tests,” Jenkins added. Responders take measures to protect themselves on all such calls, such as wearing protective eyewear, an N95 mask and gloves. Jenkins said if patients are coughing or produci...
CHENEY – Eastern Washington University is using its birthday to bring a little joy into the hearts and minds of students, faculty, staff and community. April 3 is the university’s 138th birthday and also the annual “Giving Joy Day,” the yearly event designed to raise funds for various campus needs and spread some happiness with neighbors and co-workers. This year, EWU President Dr. Mary Cullinan is urging participants and the community to take part in “Swoop’s Challenge” as the university transitions to all online instru...
CHENEY – Long-time Cheney All-State Insurance agent Kevin Ottosen is hanging up his policy-writing pen, selling his business to another long-time Cheney individual Jeff Heuschkel. Heuschkel said the sale, discussions of which began in September 2019, should be finalized by April 1, allowing Ottosen to culminate 23 years serving Cheney-area residents. What the lifelong Spokane-area resident plans to do with is time is another story. "I don't know," Ottosen said, citing the c...
OLYMPIA – A bill sponsored by 6th District Sen. Jeff Holy helping students seeking a vocational trade with the cost of their apprenticeship materials has been signed into law. Senate Bill 6374 allows the Dual Enrollment Scholarship pilot program – created in 2019 – to now cover apprenticeship materials for eligible Running Start students. Materials may include course-related costs and tools specific to an occupation being studied. Gov. Jay Inslee signed the measure March 31. "...
SPOKANE COUNTY -- Spokane Regional Health District officials reported that confirmed cases of the severe acute respiratory disease COVID-19 continues to rise even as state measures keeping many businesses closed and residents at home have been put in place. At a press conference this morning, health officials said the number of confirmed cases has risen to 133, up from 115 Sunday. Four individuals have died from the disease, one each Friday and Saturday and two on Sunday, March 29. Two of the deaths were men in their 80s whil...
SPOKANE -- Spokane County health and emergency management officials have announced a second death resulting from the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease it carries COVID-19. In a joint release this afternoon, Spokane Regional Health District and Spokane Emergency Management said a woman in her 50s died as a result of the disease. Yesterday, a man in his 80s became the first victim of the pandemic that resulted in 4,310 confirmed cases and 189 deaths in Washington, including 108 confirmed cases in Spokane County...
OLYMPIA -- In a televised address this evening, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he would be signing a statewide order requiring everyone to stay home in order to attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease it carries COVID-19. Inslee said the order would last for two weeks, but could be extended. As of today, the disease that has swept the world has resulted in 2,221 confirmed cases in Washington resulting in 111 deaths. "The less time we spend in public, the more lives we will save," Inslee said. The...
CHENEY -- Eastern Washington University officials have indicated there will be some layoffs in response to changes on campus resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The layoffs will take place in the housing and dining services due to a reduced number of students being on campus. The university went to all online instruction earlier this month as a measure to combat the spread of the disease sweeping world, and that instruction will remain online the rest of the 2019-2020 academic school year. Officials are still assessing the...
CHENEY – Citing unprecedented times, the Cheney School District board of directors unanimously approved a resolution at their March 25 meeting suspending “provisions of and/or entire board polices” and administrative procedures and allowing Superintendent Rob Roettger to implement mandates and directives from the state and federal government as needed to respond to the spread of COVID-19. The board further authorized Roettger, to the extension such authorization existed or did not exist “directly or by implica...
OLYMPIA – State officials said a proclamation announced by Gov. Jay Inslee Monday night requiring everyone to stay home in order to attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease it carries COVID-19 is legal and will be enforced. At a press conference after Inslee’s statewide address at 5:30 p.m., Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said the order is enforceable under the Revised Code of Washington (43.06.220 Section 5) as a gross misdemeanor onl...
WEST PLAINS – A $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed unanimously by the Senate late Wednesday night contains $377 billion in funding designed to help small businesses. “There is a lot of relief targeted at small businesses,” Washington 5th District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers told West Plains Chamber of Commerce members during a call Thursday morning. “There was a sense that we had to get relief to small businesses,” she added. “This is a backstop to help our economy.” The funding is federally guaranteed, Small Business Admin...
CHENEY – It was just a matter of time. Spokane County and the rest of Eastern Washington found itself finally caught up in the novel coronavirus/COVID-19 disease pandemic with a series of rapidly occurring events last week. Gov. Jay Inslee's declaration closing all K-12 public and private schools along with the restricting of public gatherings of no more than 250 people on Friday, March 13, was quickly followed by the announcement of the region's first three COVID-19 cases l...
Losing control can lead to a lot of things like fear, panic, suspicion, emotions of that nature. That’s one of the aspects of the spread of the coronavirus and the disease it carries, COVID-19. Despite our best efforts, there are things we can’t control about the disease. The things we can control, indeed are being asked to control, so disrupt the normalcy of our lives that they leave us feeling helpless and angry. But we can exert some control on this disease if we understand and accept that will mean sacrifice, at lea...
CHENEY – A city proposal to increase the water system development charge paid by developers ran into a bit of opposition at the March 10 meeting of the City Council. Developer Ryan Geschke took issue with the city’s plans — proposed after consultant’s study — to raise the amount developers pay as a one-time charge on a development as a condition of providing utility service. Geschke claimed the city was potentially following a “no-growth policy” by adopting rates that would put it above the city of Spokane when it came to ins...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS -- Fairchild Air Force Base has upgraded its health protection condition from Bravo to Charlie in response to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's proclamation issued Monday night, March 23, to residents to stay home. In a March 24 news release, officials said base access is now limited to Department of Defense identification card holders and those required to work on base, with few exceptions. The 92nd Medical Group main campus remains open from 7:30 -- 11:30 a.m. Monday -- Friday for COVID-19 testing and the...
CHENEY -- The City Council and Cheney School District board of directors will hold their regularly scheduled meetings this week, but will do so without public access due to directives from Gov. Jay Inslee prohibiting large gatherings and asking Washington residents to practice social distancing as a measure to hopefully slow the spread of COVID-19. Instead, to allow public access to the meetings, the council and school board will use online services to allow citizens to view and listen to the proceedings. The Cheney council...
OLYMPIA – While providing examples of success with the measures taken to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Gov. Jay Inslee said it was not enough, and that Washingtonians needed to do more on their own to begin to bend the curve of the outbreak. “We have got to be serious about this virus,” Inslee said in a Friday afternoon tele-press conference. Inslee said there were many examples and reports of people going about their daily business as if nothing had happened. Inslee said the orders he has issued so far, closing all...
CHENEY – When superintendents in Eastern Washington Educational Service District 101 met Friday morning, March 13, their intention was to provide direction for Gov. Jay Inslee to help with decisions needing to be made to combat the spread of coronavirus in the state. Cheney School District Superintendent Rob Roettger said most of the superintendents were on the same page and leaning towards some sort of shut down. But when officials at the Spokane Regional Health District a...
It’s times like these that bring out the best and worst in people. Unlike previous crisis, this one surrounding the spread of novel coronavirus and the disease it carries, COVID-19, has elements of politics mixed in. It also is fueled by the proliferation of social media avenues. Combine those two elements, and good information surrounding the disease is often drowned in a sea of at best misinformation and ignorance and at worse outright lies and deception. Who benefits from this will be up to history to judge. But there a...
CHENEY – Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge has announced that it will begin its program of prescribed burns in mid-March. The annual to bi-annual program will run through May. Refuge fire management specialist Ken Meinhart said weather and fuel conditions will dictate the size and location of the burns. Possible locations currently range in size from 20 acres to 300 acres. “There are three possible areas,” Meinhart said in an email. “One in the southwest corner of the Refuge, one near the northern portion and one in the easte...
CHENEY – With the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak growing, officials at Eastern Washington University have taken additional steps to safeguard students, faculty and staff from possible contact with the virus. While no cases have been reported on campus, university officials announced changes last week to winter quarter final exams, asking faculty to forego in-person finals during the scheduled exam week of March 17-20 and instead hold those finals online. If online finals...
CHENEY – Two Blackhawks boys basketball coaches placed on administrative leave in late January have resigned. According to a recent Cheney School District monthly personnel status form, boys’ basketball varsity head coach Frankie Keplinger resigned his position effective Jan. 31; with assistant varsity coach Chad Smith resigning effective Feb. 5. Keplinger had been placed on administrative leave Jan. 21 pending an investigation into his coaching style, with Smith suspended for a similar investigation on week later. While the...
CHENEY – The City Council authorized a nearly $60,000 contract at its Feb. 25 meeting to keep the city’s trees away from powerlines, but held off on approving a resolution to increase the amount charged to developers on new connections to the water system. Asplundh Tree Experts were the lowest of three bidders on the city’s line clearance contract, coming in with a weekly rate of $5,872.40, totaling $58,724 for the 10-week project scheduled to run May 1 – July 10. The work will be done on the city’s system only and in conjun...
CHENEY – School district officials are watching events in Olympia with an eye to how legislators make fixes to education funding as the state Legislature prepares to wrap up its 60-day short session — funding that currently has the district running a deficit with some of its programs. Of particular interest are hoped-for fixes to the School Employees Benefit Board (SEBB) program and the state funding for special education, both of which are using numbers lower than actual counts in the district. With regards to special edu...
SPOKANE – Presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders dueled to a virtual tie in Washington’s Democratic primary Tuesday night. At press time, Sanders held a slim 2,084 vote led over the former vice president, garnering 32.70 percent of the statewide vote to Biden’s 32.49 percent. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received 11.05 percent of the ballots cast, 126,093 even though he suspended his campaign last week. In Spokane County, the results were almost exactly the opposite, with Biden holding a 248 vote...
