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CHENEY April 11 A verbal dispute reported on Alki Street was reported. Cyberstalking reported In the 500 block of Fourth Street. A 56-year-old male suddenly died In the 800 block of West First Street. A local agency assisted with a possible indecent exposure investigation in Tukwila, Wash. April 12 An ATM on the Cheney-Spangle Road on the received significant damage. April 13 Grass and deck damaged was reported on Vine Street. A verbal dispute in the 1000 block of Betz Road was reported. April 14 An undetermined amount of...
CHENEY – The Cheney School District’s (CSD) superintendent position has been whittled down to three finalists. Those remaining in the hunt are Sean Dotson, superintendent of the Tumwater School District, Ben Ferney, superintendent of the Valley School District south of Chewelah, and Donald Vanderholm, superintendent of Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools. Each interviewee took questions from the Cheney school board in front of curious community members in the Cheney High School auditorium last week. After a short int...
CHENEY—The Washington State Board of Health (WSBOH) chose to align with the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on April 13, and voted to follow the suggestion to keep the COVID-19 vaccine off of Washington’s list of required immunizations for childcare and school entry this coming fall. The final TAG recommendation was inked in February and comes after the panel has convened and discussed the matter on several occasions. The vote tally had six advocating for adding the vaccine, seven votes against add...
CHENEY – On April 12, Derek Beziotis, owner of Bene’s, a breakfast spot located on West First Street, told the Cheney City Council he feels “left behind” with their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding allocation. Beziotis said the city should inject additional ARPA funds into the small business economy instead of using them on infrastructure projects like replacing water pipes and expanding its broadband systems. “Ninety-seven percent of Cheney’s ARPA funds are for infrastructure—only .004 percent of Cheney’s ARPA funds a...
WEST PLAINS – Hundreds of area residents hopped out in the colder temps over Easter weekend to take part in many of the community egg hunts on the West Plains. Airway Heights, Medical Lake, and Cheney all boasted big turnouts in their communities, and kids went home with smiles, candy and even some gift baskets. Deputy Director of the Airway Heights Parks and Recreation Andy Gardner explained this was the first official egg hunt the department was able to organize since 2...
FAIRCHILD AFB – The collaborative efforts of several parties converged on April 13 for the Air Force and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office small arms range and training facility groundbreaking ceremony. The facility, located at 13033 West Medical Lake Road, is just minutes from Fairchild Air Force Base. According to Chair of the Spokane County Board of Commissioners Mary Kuney, having a single facility for both parties to train at will help save taxpayer money because t...
CHENEY – The Cheney School District (CSD) is considering joining a nationwide mass tort lawsuit against Juul Labs. The company is a maker of e-cigarettes that accounts for approximately 40% of the e-cigarette market. The Juul brand is said to be more popular for teens and adults than other types of vaping because of flavor and easy access to products. Garret Williams spoke at the district’s April 13 meeting on behalf of the Stevens-Clay law firm to discuss the mass action lawsuit. Over 700 school districts from around the...
CHENEY – The Cheney School District (CSD) is preparing for a slew of renovations and repairs to schools all over the district. Board members met on April 13 to discuss the Information and Condition of Schools (ICOS) capital project with incoming maintenance and operations manager Rich Brown at the April 13 board meeting. Brown is replacing Jeff McClure who is retiring at the end of the month. His first day on the job is May 1. The ICOS reports are a series of reports that rates each school’s condition based on a 30-year lif...
Research Hedieh Hashemi Hosseinabad, an assistant professor of communication sciences and speech disorders, received an $85,000 grant from the Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County (HSSA). The funds help advance her innovative use of ultrasound biofeedback to treat children with speech disorders arising from cleft palate. Fundraiser Eastern’s seventh annual Giving Joy Day raised $338,649. The funds will go toward scholarships and other university programs and assist with books, tuition, and other e...
Correction In the cutline of the picture for the Forgotten Heroes remembered article on the front page of the April 14 edition of the Cheney Free Press the rank of the Air Force Sergeant was incorrectly identified. He is a Chief Master Sergeant, not a Senior Master Sergeant. Editor's Correction In the article Forgotten Heroes remembered the brothers and sisters of Frank Sterling with Post 23 were not POW’s. They were prisoners at Stafford Creek Correctional Center in Aberdeen. Sterling wasn’t a POW either....
This simulation on April 12 shows a firefighter from the 92nd Civil Engineer Squadron providing care for someone acting as an air show spectator that has simulated wounds. Airmen would step into character to role-play the scenarios so the responders could properly train....
MEDICAL LAKE – New laptops totaling close to $6,000 have been ordered for the city of Medical Lake to update some of its technology needs. The announcement was made during the April 19 city council meeting. According to Interim Deputy Administrator Katy Allen, price research and comparison enabled the city to find the laptops at a much lower cost than initially anticipated. “We had priced them through a couple of vendors and the total cost was upwards of $10,000,” Allen said. “So, we are happy to have found them for a lower...
MEDICAL LAKE – New laptops totaling close to $6,000 have been ordered for the city of Medical Lake to update some of its technology needs. The announcement was made during the April 19 city council meeting. According to Interim Deputy Administrator Katy Allen, price research and comparison enabled the city to find the laptops at a much lower cost than initially anticipated. “We had priced them through a couple of vendors and the total cost was upwards of $10,000,” Allen said. “So, we are happy to have found them for a lower...
The Washington State Board of Health unanimously passed a motion to accept the recommendation from a technical advisory group (TAG) against a COVID-19 immunization requirement for school entry. Board members did reiterate support for the COVID-19 vaccines and hoped for voluntary vaccination of school children. The vote against a vaccine mandate for school children came after an hour-and-a-half of public comment and thousands of emails over the past months opposing such a requirement. (My public comment is included below.) I...
The news that President Biden plans to resume leasing of federal land for oil exploration maybe good five years from now, but that action alone won’t bring down record gas prices at the pump in the months ahead. According to American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.07 on Good Friday (April 15); down from $4.31 a gallon a month ago. That’s still 70 percent higher than when he took office. The Interior Department ann...
Time. Time is movement. Movement is time. Time is change. Change is movement. Change, movement and time are all the same concept. What we consider as clock time is just our assigning measurement to the day’s rotation of the earth. A year is a measure of the orbit of earth around the sun. From the electrons moving around the nuclei of atoms that make up all substance, to the incomprehensible vastness of infinite space, movement/ change/ time never ceases. Our planet is 24,901.5 miles in circumference at the equator. The 24 h...
The Friends of the Library Book Club will meet on Tuesday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room at the Cheney Library. The Bi Necessity by Rose George will be the book discussed. Everyone is welcome to attend....
CHENEY – The city council is allocating $58,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to put fencing around wells No. 2 and 3. A unanimous vote sealed the council’s decision at their April 12 meeting. The $48,698 bid by Columbia General Contracting awarded the company the contract to perform the work. While the council debated the legitimacy of spending the money on fencing, councilman Paul Schmidt said, “It’s just a minimum-security issue.” According to council, the fencing will secure a 100-foot radius around th...
CHENEY — Cheney has hit its second rough patch of the season with three losses in the team’s last three games. The Blackhawks dropped two contests to Mt. Spokane by scores of 15-1 and 7-0 on April 12 and 14 and were blown out 17-2 by University on April 15. The stretch of losses results from the club’s health and the younger inexperienced talent called up to fill in while varsity personnel heals. “We have a lot of injuries to some key players and have brought up some freshma...
MEDICAL LAKE – Cardinal athletes showed great success in their first home meet on April 13, with both the boys and girls teams outscoring Riverside and Deer Park. Coach Gene Blankenship said the wins put both teams at 2-0 in league play and unofficially in first place. The boys beat Riverside 73.33 to 44.66 and also topped Deer Park 88 to 43. The girls team dominated Riverside 119 to 30, and thrashed Deer Park 111 to 33. Blankenship said there were several athletes with notabl...
MEDICAL LAKE – The Medical Lake boys tennis team had strong outings last week winning four of five matches against Newport on April 11, and winning by the same score against Deer Park on April 13. The girls' tennis team played three matchups last week and dropped each event, as they struggled through the week. In the first matchup of the week, Medical Lake's Josh Burt faced Bear Smith of Newport. Burt won the match in two sets, 6-4, 6-1. "I think Josh gained some confidence i...
CHENEY— The Blackhawks took one on the chin in a 5-0 loss to Gonzaga Prep on Tuesday, April 12, but came roaring back in dominating fashion, with a 15-1 win over North Central on April 15, to improve to 5-3 in league play. “We had some hitting problems against one of the better pitchers in the GSL—I think we had four hits so not much opportunity to manufacture anything,” Coach Gary Blake said. “We also committed three errors in the game which led to five unearned runs —three of them came on a bases loaded fly ball that our fi...
CHENEY—When Cheney head track coach Derek Slaughter began his day Friday morning, he thought the Van Kuren Invitational on Saturday was doomed after arriving at school to see at least three inches of snow on the track and temperatures hovering around 30 degrees. There were 41 schools planning to participate in the popular meet, coming from as far away as Yakima. Looking at the condition of the field, Slaughter’s first thought was canceling all field events. Marking the thr...
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