Sorted by date Results 1 - 24 of 24
CHENEY – The City Council has approved a contract with Shamrock Paving to begin work on one of the city’s larger street projects this summer. The Washington Street Preservation project will remove the old asphalt and repave Washington from Oakland to 6th Street along with sidewalk and stormwater system improvements. Shamrock was the lowest of three bidders at $752,515, not including taxes, with the engineer’s estimate at $905,000. “It’s right around where we want to be,” Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the council... Full story
CHENEY – Saying “It’s time to have the courage of our convictions,” members of the Eastern Washington University Faculty Organization are planning to hold a no confidence vote on university President Dr. Mary Cullinan. The vote is scheduled for Monday, June 22 at the Faculty Senate’s regular meeting. The move stems from evaluations of upper administrators conducted by faculty in February, the results of which were released by Faculty Organization President Julia Smith and former organization President Kelly Evans on June 2... Full story
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee announced today that residents statewide will be required to wear a face mask effective Friday in an effort to slow the coronavirus spread. “This is something we can get use to,” Inslee said, noting that a willful decision not to wear a face mask is “tantamount to a misdemeanor.” The governor balked, however, when questioned on how the state would enforce the requirement. “We just think people will respond,” he said. Inslee said the requirement stems from an order by non-elected state Secretary of He...
BASIN CITY -- Local cowboys are buckin' the state's rejection of reopening Franklin County as the Fourth of July approaches. Despite the state's rejection of Phase 2 reopening in the wake of the coronavirus, residents are planning to kick up their heels for Independence Day. Two rodeo performances, a street dance, parade and fireworks are on tap as part of the Basin City Fourth of July Parade and Freedom Rodeo. The fun gets underway at 8 a.m. Friday, July 3, with rodeo slack. The first of two rodeo performances is set for 6 p...
Medical Lake High School held its commencement exercise last Saturday night at Holladay Field – drive-in movie style. Vehicles were escorted into rows, maintaining the six-foot social distancing requirements between rows as part of COVID-19 measures. Valedictorian, salutatorian and class speaker messages were videotaped and shown on a big screen. Graduates were driven up to the stage in golf carts to receive their diplomas and then returned to the families....
CHENEY -- Members of Eastern Washington University overwhelmingly approved a vote of no confidence in President Dr. Mary Cullinan during a meeting today, June 22. In an news release, Faculty Organization President Julia Smith said the vote was 35-2 in favor, with four abstentions and one absence. The Senate is comprised of 40 voting members, with two additional officers also eligible to cast a vote. Smith may vote to break a tie. The move stems from evaluations of upper administrators conducted by faculty in February, the... Full story
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – A suspect is in custody Monday after Kalispell Tribal Police responded to a report of theft and trespassing at Northern Quest Resort and Casino in the parking lot behind the M&D Theater around 12:50 p.m., according to Erin Johnson and Chief Brad Richmond of the Airway Heights Police Department. Officers located the suspect, whose name was not released, within minutes and attempted to apprehend them. Instead of cooperating with the initial investigation, the su... Full story
CHENEY -- Roughly 30 people marched a loop through Cheney in support of Black Lives Matter and in protest to recent incidents of police brutality. The group started the march Friday afternoon, June 19, near Showalter Hall on the campus of Eastern Washington University and walked a loop that took them down 2nd Street to Washington and back up around the campus to Showalter. Two Cheney police patrol vehicles escorted the marchers, who were all wearing masks and demonstrating...
Dave and Rachel Ransier’s home at 415 N. Sherman Avenue has been named the Yard of the Month for June by the Kiwanis and Gardeners of Cheney clubs. Pictured above left to right are Dave and Rachael Ransier, Medical Lake Kiwanis member Dan Dorshorst, Kristin Rodney of the Medical Lake Pizza Factory and Gayle Hennings, Gardeners of Cheney. The Ransier’s also received a $25 gift certificate from the Pizza Factory....
CHENEY June 8 Third-degree theft was reported on the zero hundred block of North 9th Street. A bicycle was taken. June 9 Domestic violence/verbal abuse was reported on the 200 block of South Cheney-Spangle Road. Disorderly conduct was reported on the 1500 block of 1st Street. Trespassing was reported on the 2700 block of 1st Street. An individual displaying a folding pocket knife was reported on the 200 block of West 1st Street. A runaway juvenile was reported on the 1000 block of Betz Road. A 15-year-old female was reported...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – One person was killed in a single-vehicle rollover crash that occurred early Friday morning on West Trails Road near North Old Trails Road. Spokane County Sheriff’s Office deputies along with officers from the Kalispell Tribal Police and Airway Heights Police responded to a report of the crash at approximately 2:15 a.m. on June 12. In a news release from the county, an eyewitness and evidence at the scene indicated a Honda driven by a male was traveling east on West Trails Road when it left the roadway, drove...
CHENEY – St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has announced that it is resuming in-person services this Sunday, June 18, for the first time since closures and social distancing measures were enacted in late March to combat the spread of COVID-19. It is the first church in Cheney to resume some sort of regular service. According to information provided by church secretary Susan Durrie, the church has instituted measures following state guidelines for resuming services, along with other steps. St. Paul’s is requiring the use of masks...
WEST PLAINS – The Amazon Fulfillment Center on Geiger Boulevard officially opened last Sunday, almost two years after breaking ground on the West Plains. The 640,000-square-foot facility near the Interstate 90/Medical Lake exit is currently planning on bringing more than 2,000 full-time jobs to the area, with up to 3,000 planned during the holiday season. To commemorate the opening of its $181 million facility, the Seattle-based e-commerce company donated “in-kind” products and $25,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank. The company...
A celebration of life honoring Masami “Dick” Nagamitsu, will be held at the Lind Cemetery on June 20 at 3 p.m. Please join the family at Lind’s Lion club for refreshments and sharing of memories following the service....
Robert (Bob) John Abel, 81, of Medical Lake, Wash. passed away peacefully on June 9, 2020, surrounded in love by his children. Bob spent his formative years in Spokane and attended St. Patrick Catholic School, where he met several of his lifelong friends who still gather once a month. He was a proud member of the Coast Guard before marrying Dorothy O’Connor in 1971. He worked for Diamond Drilling, which took him all over the Pacific Northwest, the Bureau of Reclamation at G...
Kurt Sterzelbach ,Sr., age 79, passed away May 24, 2020 at his home in Cheney, Wash. Kurt is survived by his wife of 58 years, Nancy Sterzelbach, two children: Kurt (Carrie) Sterzelbach Jr., and Julie (Christian) Blaakman. He also leaves behind four grandchildren: Nathan (Tashina) Cooper, Brenon Mowreader, Gaven Mowreader and Maggie Mowreader and one great-grandson, Jordan. In addition he is also survived by his brother Hans Sterzelbach of Grand Island, N.Y. Kurt is preceded in death by his mother Liesel. Kurt is a veteran...
Cheney Congregational Church Greetings from Cheney Congregational Church. While we are still not yet meeting in person, we continue to offer at-home worship guides and sermons for you to watch or read from home. This Sunday we will host a live-stream worship service on Zoom at 10 a.m., followed by a virtual coffee hour. If you would like to join this live Zoom service or receive our weekly at-home worship guides/sermons, then email pastor Matt Goodale at [email protected]. This Sunday Goodale will preach on “The pract...
Renewed interest in Ulysses S. Grant’s entire career, as evidenced by the recent documentary “Grant” and books (e.g. “The Man Who Saved the Union” by H.W. Brands; “Grant” by Ron Chernow), adds perspective to the current protests. Grant’s primary purpose during his presidency — to save the Union and grant former slaves full citizenship — was to justify the terrible loss of lives he witnessed as Union general. He engineered passage of the 15th Amendment establishing African-American suffrage and sent troops to eradicate the Ku...
While the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest are front page news, China’s unrelenting push to leap over our country in critical technology and hoarding of strategic metals should alarm us. Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, there has been an unprecedented worldwide demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). Tensions between our countries fueled the widespread fear that Chinese imports would disappear. China provided 48 percent of our PPE imports in 2018, but C...
For the past several weeks, I have been watching the protests and subsequent riots hitting our urban areas throughout the county sparked by the senseless killing of George Floyd. Like you, when I viewed the video of the Minneapolis police officer atop Mr. Floyd’s neck, I found myself yelling at the TV screen – “let him up for heaven’s sake.” As a police chief with nearly four decades of experience in public safety, I condemn the force that was used to arrest Mr. Floyd in the strongest possible terms. More important...
WEST PLAINS – School districts in Washington finally received some guidance on resuming in-person operations this fall with the release of the state’s “Reopening Washington Schools 2020: District Planning Guide” on June 11. The guidelines are a mixture of rigidity and flexibility, but are focused on one single goal expressed by state K-12 Superintendent for Public Instruction Chris Reykdal in his letter at the beginning of the report. “To be very clear, it is my expectation that schools will open this fall for in-person instr...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The approval of recommendations presented by City Manager Albert Tripp that will deal with connecting recovering businesses to residents in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic was among the action items of Monday’s Airway Heights City Council meeting. The recommendations, originally presented at a previous council meeting, were updated to include a partnership with the Cheney School District that would prepare parents for use of online platforms due to the possibility of online classes continuing in the fall. The...
CHENEY – Spokane County is not going forward in its reopening from COVID-19 restrictions any time soon. That was the verdict delivered to the City Council last Tuesday night by City Administrator Mark Schuller. It’s also the verdict presented at a Monday morning, June 15, press conference by Spokane Regional Health Department Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz — verdicts reinforced over the weekend by a state Department of Health report showing COVID-19 transmission on the rise in Eastern Washington. Schuller told the council that...
PDF