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It was a fierce fight to the finish for Medical Lake’s boys soccer team in its March 28 league game against the visiting Indians, with Colville (3-0, 3-0) taking the win in a shootout after neither team scored all game. The back and forth battle saw the Cardinals (0-6, 0-3) taking nine shots to Colville’s 15, but neither team made it past the goalkeepers during regulation or overtime play. The Indian’s Eduardo Zarate delivered the decisive shootout goal that secured Colville the win, despite the strong effort by Medic...
The Cheney High School varsity soccer team’s season is off to a strong start, with the Blackhawks winning three of their first four games. In a non-conference game against Lewis and Clark on March 15 the team struggled to find its footing, losing 4-0 and making just four shots to LC’s 14. “One of the things we’re trying to work on are those mental lapses,” head coach René Caro said. “We know that we won’t be on top all the time and there will be hills and valleys in the game s...
The new Airway Heights recreation center will soon be open for business, with city workers gearing up for its official grand opening in May. A tentative date of May 1 has been set for a ceremonial ribbon cutting at the new facility, which has been under construction since November 2017, according to guest services and operations supervisor Addam Janke. The long-awaited recreation complex, which cost around $17.26 million to complete, was originally slated to open at the end of 2018, but due to construction delays that...
After a slight hiccup as city leaders focused on local public art projects, Airway Heights’ downtown study is getting back underway, with officials planning to approach property owners within the next three months. The city’s downtown study began in the spring of 2018 and has been slowly ongoing for the better part of a year. The purpose of the study is to identify ways to improve Airway Heights’ “downtown” area — a four-block zone that runs from Yokes on Sunset Highway to the west near the post office on Mullen Street. The...
The Cheney High School jazz band had two successful trips to local jazz festivals in two weeks, one at the University of Montana and the second at Mead High School in Spokane. At the University of Montana’s Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival on March 15, the band brought home the Larry Gookin Outstanding Trombone Section Award thanks to trombone players Sara Nanny, Peter Hampson, Paige King and Colton Foster. Eleven Cheney students received “outstanding musician” recognition, inclu...
In November 2018, nearly 60 percent of Washington voters approved Initiative-1639, one of the strictest pieces of gun safety legislation in the country. Since then, sheriffs and police chiefs across the state have said they will not enforce the new law. Not so in Airway Heights. Airway Heights Police Chief Lee Bennett said he’s “a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,” but those feelings will not influence how he tackles the added gun control rules when they kick in later this year. “I believe that if the voters voted it...
When writing this column, I generally try to think about what’s happening on a local, regional or national scale. I like to talk about topics with far-reaching consequences that require diverse perspectives and affect a variety of people. But not today. Today, perhaps selfishly, I can only think about yesterday morning — when I discovered yet another mistreated dog on my front porch. My husband and I have made an accidental habit of being “rescuers.” We keep a bag with treats and a leash in the car for the stray dogs we inev...
At the Cheney School Board’s March 13 meeting, Superintendent Rob Roettger announced the departure of Assistant Superintendent Sean Dotson, who has accepted a superintendent position with the Tumwater district on the west side of the state. Roettger said that on Feb. 28 the Tumwater School District board of directors unanimously selected Dotson for the position. He will officially begin his duties July 1, but may spend some time in the district prior to that start date. “It so...
The Cheney School Board covered a variety of topics at its March 13 meeting, recognizing the classified employee of the year and discussing the pressing need for additional school site property. The board first recognized Windsor Elementary paraeducator Kathy Larson as the district’s classified employee of the year. Superintendent Rob Roettger called Larson “very, very deserving” and shared a note from her colleagues who said they “would fall apart without her.” Teachers from Three Springs High School also shared a video wit...
Last week, the family of U.S. women’s pursuit team cyclist and 2016 Olympic Games silver medalist Kelly Catlin announced that she had passed away at age 23. The cause of death? Suicide. Unfortunately, Catlin’s situation is not unique. British snowboarder Ellie Soutter committed suicide last year, while a 16-year-old competitive athlete at Newport Harbor High School in California killed himself in February 2018. Earlier this year, a former Washington and Lee University student athlete sued the university and one of its cou...
Spokane County Fire District 10 (SCFD10) hosted a live fire demonstration on March 2 when a West Plains community member donated their property for firefighter training. The owner of the property on Flint Road needed an old house on the land removed, with parts of the home dating back 110 years, Deputy Fire Chief of Safety & Logistics Jack Krill said. The 1,572-square-foot structure was originally built in 1912 and was added onto in the 1950s. “The demo very successful — it...
The recently-formed West Plains Support Network (WPSN) met last week to set 2019 goals and discuss how those goals may be accomplished. The WPSN was created in February 2017 to address issues facing the West Plains community. Several members work within local school districts or represent businesses in Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights. It’s most recent gathering included analysis of a community needs assessment survey sent out to former WPSN meeting attendees, asking them to gauge and rank the problems facing the W...
The Cheney High School Jazz Band took top honors on Saturday, Feb. 23, at the University of Idaho’s 2019 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, taking the runner-up spot in the 3A Instrumental Ensembles Division at the Young Artist’s Concert. More than 4,000 students of all ages competed, coming from as far as Minnesota, Montana and Canada to participate. “The competition featured about 150 schools and about 24 in their division,” band director Joshua Wisswell said. “The kids were pretty satisfied.” The last time Cheney attended th...
“Show me your friends, and I will show you your future.” Last week, Eastern Washington University’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion launched its first ever Self-Esteem and Higher Education (SHE) Leadership Academy designed to empower female high school students and give them tools for future growth and career success. And keynote speaker Tish Norman had some advice to impart. “You’ve got to be strategic with your friends,” Norman told the 55 high school students in...
Last month, a familiar battle raged on at the United Methodist Church General Conference in St. Louis, Mo., one concerning human sexuality and its place in the church. After several days of discussion, United Methodist leaders passed “The Traditional Plan” by a tight margin of 53 percent, re-affirming the church’s stance against homosexuality, marriage equality and LGBTQ clergy. But according to local religious officials, many churches in the Pacific Northwest and in Cheney specifically are not planning to adhere to those gui...
Cheney residents driving down 1st Street might have noticed a slight change in the landscape this month, with local business Clean-R-Up moving into its first brick-and-mortar location since its creation nearly five years ago. Clean-R-Up is a professional cleaning company that has been operating on the West Plains for several years, but until recently has functioned out of owners Slade and Star Seehawer’s home. Now, the company has moved into a crisp gray and blue office — one...
The Cheney School Board checked one major item off the district’s to-do list at its Feb. 27 meeting, unanimously approving new attendance boundaries for local elementary and middle schools in a move that puts an end to a months-long attempt by the district to even out student body populations throughout the West Plains. The new boundaries will go into effect at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year. With the shift, Snowdon Elementary on Hallet Road has space for p...
Moving around Airway Heights may soon be a lot easier, according to a Spokane Transit Authority (STA) presentation at the Airway Heights City Council’s March 4 meeting. STA announced the introduction of Route 63 in September, which will connect Airway Heights to the recently-completed West Plains Transit Center. The addition means two full-time routes will run seven days a week within the city. The new route was originally planned for 2020 but was accelerated due to the arrival of Amazon and other large businesses on the W...
At Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ Feb. 21 town hall in Medical Lake, no topic was off the table, with attendee questions ranging from her stance on deportation and the national debt to her own recent campaign contributions. Republican McMorris Rodgers, U.S. Representative for Washington’s 5th Congressional District, kicked off the meeting by highlighting her political record, referencing several bills she sponsored that have passed into law before taking constituent que...
Spokane County Fire District 10 (SCFD10) officially kicked off new efforts to recruit volunteer firefighters this month with the hiring of its first-ever division chief of recruitment and retention, largely paid for by a highly competitive Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. The four-year grant awarded in September 2018 funds two-thirds of the new position, which will focus on building up the pool of volunteer members for SCFD10. Former Spokane County Fire District 3 division chief Debby Dodson accepted the position...
The Cheney Blackhawk boys swim team, just off of one of its largest districts showings in recent years, sent two individual qualifiers to state competition at the King County Aquatic Center on Feb. 15. The team took 22 of 33 swimmers to districts, where they moved up one spot from last year and captured third place. Several of those swimmers placed, while Trae Babcock and Jared Jeschke qualified for state. Babcock dropped two full seconds off his 100-yard freestyle time to take third place in 50.48 seconds. He also was third...
Cheney gymnast Lauren O'Callaghan made her hometown proud at the 2019 Washington state championships last weekend in Sammamish on Feb. 21-22. On beam, O'Callaghan tied for 45th place out of more than 100 competitors with a score of 8.550, sharing the spot with Ava Motroni of Mercer Island and Maddi Bughi and Kate Roth from Mt. Spokane. "She did great," head coach Jamie Frucci said. "She got her highest beam score of the season." The four-day state meet dedicated two straight...
On Feb. 1, inmates at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Franklin County, Wash. began a hunger strike over a multitude of issues, including the state of their breakfasts. But what West Plains locals might not know is that those breakfasts are made close to home at a prison in Airway Heights. There, thousands of prepacked meals are made every day and shipped out across the state to other facilities. Inmates at the Airway Heights Correctional Center (AHCC) are the primary force behind the “breakfast boats,” what prisoners and...
Spokane County Fire District 10 is revitalizing its Sunset Volunteer Firefighters Association and celebrated with its largest event in recent memory early this month — the SCFD10 Awards Banquet, honoring several firefighters for outstanding achievements over the course of 2018. The event, hosted at Northern Quest Resort and Casino on Feb. 2, drew volunteers, fulltime staff and their families together and to recognize firefighters in several categories, including Resident of th...
The Cheney School Board had a lot on its plate at its Feb. 13 meeting, hearing essential updates on upcoming sports classification changes and the ongoing attendance boundary review. By all accounts, Cheney may soon see a league change in its future following the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) vote to drop its current system of classifications based on percentage and return to basing classifications on a ladder set by fixed enrollment numbers. That means that Cheney High School will almost certainly...
