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Multiple agencies responded to the scene of a fire on Wednesday, June 19, and preliminary investigation indicates it was started by a juvenile, according to the Airway Heights Fire Department. The fire began in a vacant house on 18th Avenue and Russell Street and was reported by a neighbor walking past the home. Airway Heights Fire Marshall Nate Whannell said there was significant structural damage to the house and the roof was “almost gone” by the time firefighters contained the blaze. The fire department was backed up by...
Retired Tech Sgt. Victor Klingler just loves aircrafts. That's why he traveled from Clarkston to attend Skyfest 2019 at Fairchild Air Force Base on Saturday, June 22. He wasn't alone - West Plains locals and visitors alike flocked to the base in droves, hoping to catch a glimpse of high-flying air performances and tour aircraft parked firmly on the ground. "I'm just an aircraft nut," Klingler said, sitting in the bleachers with a dead-ahead view of the airfield and a content...
On Saturday, June 22, eight members of an Army parachute team relaxed in a plane hovering at an altitude of 11,500 feet, its door wide open to catch the freezing 120 mile per hour winds and offer a stomach-churning view of sprawling farmland below reduced to the size of postage stamps. While prepping for their jump, they talked about "getting out" of the plane the way others would talk about getting out of a cab. But for them, it's just another day at the office. The U.S....
I am a gardener. It is the only way I’ve found to be partners with God. Women and God partner up to produce additional human beings. After a brief DNA donation, men only get involved when the offspring wants to know how to throw a curve ball or borrow the keys to the car. So I garden. God does the heavy lifting by producing sun and rain. I get to plant the seeds and keep out pests. Weeds are endemic. I get my daily exercise hoeing and pulling the leafy intruders that hide in my rows of beans and lettuce. Animal pests are a g...
The Spokane American Legion Cannons senior ball club took on Shadle Park before heading to the Yakima Tournament in non-league action in the past week, where they managed to squeak out a single win. Cannons vs. Shadle Park The Tuesday, June 18, league doubleheader was a double whammy for the Cannons in a seven-inning 5-4 loss, followed by a 19-2 whipping in five innings in Medical Lake. “We weren’t able to get runners in,” head coach Austin Sharp said. Shadle Park came out s...
HBO recently broadcast a dramatization of the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl accident — at the time, the highest severity nuclear accident in history — a 7 on the International Event Scale. Some 30 people died as a direct result of the accident, thousands more died or are dying as a result of Acute Radiation Syndrome and large swaths of the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were contaminated by radioactive fallout. According to the director of the Chernobyl Plant, the immediate area around Chernobyl will be uninhabitable for “at least...
More than half of Americans say they have a hard time affording their prescription drugs. Luckily for them, the Trump administration recently proposed a rule to criminalize the shady business practices that keep drug prices high for patients at the pharmacy counter. Lawmakers should support the proposal full stop. The president’s reform takes aim at middlemen in the drug supply chain known as “pharmacy benefit managers” or PBMs. Insurers hire PBMs to negotiate with drug manufacturers and help decide which drugs insur...
Are detention facilities along the U.S.’s southern border refugee camps or concentration camps? That seems to be the question in the minds of people, most recently Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The freshman Democrat from New York referred to these camps housing immigrants from Mexico and Central America as the latter over the weekend, prompting a reply from Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King. King pointed to a trip he took last year to Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp, and urged Ocasio-Cortez to accept an open invitatio...
One hundred twenty-five years ago tomorrow in 1894, Labor Day was established as a holiday for federal workers. Learn more about our area’s history at www.cheneymuseum.com....
Cheney Congregational Church We hope you’ll join us for our Sunday morning worship service at 10 a.m. Our church is located at 423 N. 6th St. This Sunday, Rev. Scott Kinder-Pyle will deliver the sermon, followed by coffee and refreshments in the fellowship hall. Women’s Fellowship will serve lunch to the kids at Crosswalk in Spokane at noon, Thursday, June 27. This program is an important part of our church’s outreach to the community. We are currently accepting applications for our church coordinator position, and an eight...
1 Years Ago June 24, 2009 Former Cheney police officer Mike Taylor filed a wrongful dismissal suit after he was let go. City officials said the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission Academy informed them that Taylor’s credentials were invalid. Cheney staff prepared a $6 million bond meant to pay for a new park facility along Betz Road. Police offered a reward for help in tracking down two fugitives with felony arrest warrants. 20 Years Ago June 24, 1999 A Cheney couple created a rideable mini railroad that t...
Boaters, check your watercraft registration for its expiration date. The deadline for renewing boat and watercraft registration decals is June 30, according to a Spokane County press release. Boat registrations can be renewed either online or in person at a local vehicle licensing office. If renewing at an office, make sure to note the registration number on the bow of your boat and bring that information with you. Some local offices are open on Saturday for quicker registration. A list of Spokane area licensing offices is...
The Medical Lake Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing today at 5 p.m., at the Medical Lake City Hall to review its proposed Comprehensive Plan update before making a final recommendation of approval to the City Council. Citizens have until 5 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, June 28, to review and comment on the new plan. The plan is the guiding document that will be used to drive Medical Lake’s growth and direction for the next decade. The state’s Growth Management Act (GMA) requires municipalities to update their com...
Ongoing construction on the West Plains will impact residents’ travel plans this week and into the near future. According to a June 21 news release from the Spokane County Road Department, crews are continuing work on construction near the Medical Lake-Interstate 90 interchange at exit 272. The south leg of a roundabout east of the interstate at Aero and Westbow roads is closed with detours in place. Both roads are also closed at that location and county officials said motorists should expect delays. On the other side of t...
A corrections officer at Airway Heights Corrections Center is following in his father’s footsteps, becoming the second in his family to be awarded the facility’s Correctional Officer of the Year award. Nathan Blum, who was presented with the 2019 honor this month, has been working for Airway Heights for more than a decade, according to a press release. Prior to working in corrections, he was struggling to find career stability, he said. “Before I started this I was piece-mealing stuff together trying to figure out what I was...
A fire that apparently started in an outbuilding between Cheney and Tyler destroyed three structures west of Cheney and spread to nearby grasslands before being contained Friday afternoon, June 21. Spokane County Fire District 3 Division Chief Dustin Flock said they received a call at 10:34 a.m. of a structure fire at a residence on State Route 904 near Koski Park Lane about four miles west/southwest of Cheney. The 10-foot-by10-foot structure was fully engulfed when crews arrived and had spread to another outbuilding and a...
Airway Heights Fire Department Emergency Medical Services 144 Fire 31 Total 175 Cheney Fire Department Structure fire 2 Emergency medical service 95 Dispatched/canceled en route 7 Wrong address/no emergency 2 System operation (no fire) 4 Person in distress 3 False alarms 1 System malfunction 2 Other 13 Number of incidents May 5-June 2 129 Medical Lake Fire Department EMS/Medical 46 Structure fire 5 Alarm 3 Illegal burn 1 Powerline problem 2 Motor vehicle collision 1 Total 58 Spokane County Fire District 3 Fire 17 EMS 97...
Zayas receives degree at Oregon State Cheney’s Minerva Zayas received a master’s of arts degree in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Oregon State University during its 150th commencement on Saturday, June 15. University of Washington releases Dean’s List Students from the Cheney/Medical Lake area have been named to the Dean’s List at the University of Washington for winter quarter 2019. Students named to the list are: Cheney David Michael Driscoll, junior Victoria Edelstein, junior Sonora M. Hetrick, senior Anna Pa...
The men and women of Crew 212, dressed in dirty yellow nomex shirts, heavy trousers, hardhats and boots, sat on the dirt road — a trail really — in the thick young pine forest behind the Riverside Middle School in Chatteroy taking a break. Nearby sat several chainsaws. The entire campus of the public school was taken over last week by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Eastern Washington Interagency Wildfire Training Academy (EWIWTA), where both new and sea...
If Medical Lake School District finance director Chad Moss had his way, school funding would be much simpler and less fluid. So much for wishful thinking. “There’s a lot of unknowns still,” Moss said of budgeting in general, a newly mandated state health benefits package that takes effect in 2020, and how it all will affect school district finances. The good news is the budget, which has yet to be completed for the next school year, appears to be well in the black with some...
Students named to Westwood Middle School’s term 4 honor roll are listed as follows: 4.0 Thayne E. Acedo, Elizabeth S. Bae, Lily J. Bare, Owen T. Barry, Elsa B. Bertelsen, Alyssa R. Brown, Kaitlyn M. Brown, Logan A. Burnett, Anathyn P. Burton, Grayson R. Burton, Addysen L. Butikofer, Leilani L. Cailing, Regina R. Camacho, Kitana-Jolie K. Cano, Xoie E. Carey, Bella L. Carter, Cameron L. Chain, Mika J. Corneil, Kacy M. Cowell, Anika M. Cox, Sage R. Cramer, Carolyn T. Currin, Isabella J. DiGioia, London O. Dudenhoefer, Kale A. D...
Sgt. 1st Class Ryan O’Rourke of the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team takes a flying leap from an airplane high above Fairchild Air Force Base for Skyfest 2019. See story on page 6....
Social media was set ablaze ahead of the Medical Lake City Council’s June 18 regular meeting when a discussion about a proposed fireworks ban within the city limits was placed on the agenda. The ban prompted a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 100 people to arrive ready to voice their opinion on the issue. It was enough to warrant the subtle presence of two Spokane County Sheriff deputies. But the first reading — a procedural precursor in which two readings are required to pa...
The Cheney Free Press will be closed Thursday, July 4, in observance of the Fourth of July holiday. To meet our postal requirements, the paper will be printed and mailed on Tuesday, July 2, instead of Wednesday, July 3. Therefore, deadlines for submittals for the July 4 issue have changed. Legals and classified ads must be submitted to the office by 11 a.m. Friday, June 28. All submitted editorial content — including churches, public service announcements and letters to the editor — must be submitted by noon on Fri...
With a new well scheduled to go online July 9, Cheney officials are looking at some options for servicing the city’s water supply system in the future. Barring unforeseen circumstances, a re-drilled Well No. 3 is set to go online at the end of this month, providing the potential for 1,200 — 1,500 gallons per minute of additional potable water. Because of its proximity to the city’s reservoirs, Well 3 could aid not only in providing more water during the irrigation season, but...
