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CHENEY – The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are hitting closer to home on the West Plains, and with more seriousness. According to the Spokane Regional Health Center and other media sources, the county’s first person under age 20 to die from complications stemming from the virus was a 15-year-old Cheney High School student. Abbi Watson-Freestad had dealt with asthma and allergies her entire life, her mother Stacy Watson-O’Leary told KHQ Tuesday night, Nov. 24, carrying breathing treatments and EpiPens with her at all times...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS - The Airway Heights Fire Department recently had to decide what to do with a 2001 Central States Fire Engine surplus. After presenting several options to council, council unanimously elected to donate the truck to Lincoln County Fire Protection District No. 7 in Wilbur at its study session Nov. 23. The Airway Heights council originally elected to surplus the truck in April 2019. It then went to state auction for nine months and didn't receive any bids, fire...
Editor’s note: This story is an update to an article titled “Airway Heights plans holiday events,” which was published in the Nov. 26 issue of the Cheney Free Press. AIRWAY HEIGHTS—The city confirmed previously reported plans for celebrating the holidays as a community while still following COVID-19 health protocols on the parks and recreation website this week, with some minor changes and updates to various details. The event, titled “Airway Heights Month-Long Winterfest,” features five activities throughout December fo...
PULLMAN - Had he touched the ball yet all game? WSU 7'1" center Volodymyr Markovetskyy, who went in during the second half - hand-raised, arm out - got no reply until Noah Williams fed him in the final minute for an emphatic dunk, giving the Cougars a game-breaking lead over Eastern Washington on a night WSU trailed for most of it, winning 71-68. Markovetskyy's score came just before EWU's Jacob Davison hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one and Eastern got the ball back to wo...
David Mack Perry (aged 69) left us on Friday, Nov. 20 in Spokane Valley. Once, way out west, there was this fella... A man by the name of David Perry... But he liked to be called... the Dude. You see, the Dude was a man of the people. Born in 1951 in Ithaca, N.Y. to John and Mary Perry as part of an Army family, they moved all over this great land of ours with stops in Germany, El Paso, Queens, Tacoma and finally settling down in Medical Lake, Wash. Medical Lake became his muc... Full story
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee unveiled a new cellphone-based coronavirus exposure notification system Monday. During an afternoon press conference, Inslee touted the new "WaNotify" application designed in corroboration with University of Washington, Google and Apple. The cellphone application is voluntary and uses Bluetooth technology to connect to other cellphones with the application. According to the governor, users who are within 6 feet of someone for 15 minutes who has the application and is reporting the viral infection v...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Two people were injured, including a 26-year-old Davenport, Wash. woman, in a two-car collision Wednesday evening, Nov. 25, on State Route 2. According to a Washington State Patrol press memo, a 2010 Subaru Forester driven by 43-year-old Lindsay G. Spotted Eagle of Airway Heights was northbound on Craig Road at approximately 6:51 p.m. Spotted Eagle made a right turn onto State Route 2 and was headed east when she then made a left turn across the double turn lane and struck a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe driven by 2...
CHENEY Nov. 23 Police confiscated an improperly displayed license plate on a vehicle on the 100 block of West 1st Street. A 1998 Subaru Legacy stolen out of Spokane was recovered on the 200 block of Vine Street. Police assisted Spokane County Sheriff’s Office deputies with an arrest of a suspect charged with fourth-degree assault/domestic violence on the 400 block of 1st Street. Possible internet hacking was reported on the 1600 block of 5th Street. Nov. 24 Taking motor vehicle without owner’s permission was reported on the 1...
Reginald "Reggie" Nichols went home to the Lord on November 18, 2 020 after a long, brave battle against pulmonary fibrosis. Reggie was born July 25, 1944 in Bloomfield, Mo. Upon graduation from Bloomfield High School, he attended Southeast Missouri University earning a bachelor of science degree in education. During his junior year of college, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was in the first class under Operation Bootstrap to receive his degree. After college graduation,... Full story
Linda J. Span, RN, passed on Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020. She was born the first child of E.C. Gresham and Jean V. Gresham in Colorado Springs, Colo. Since her father was a career officer in the Air Force, Linda traveled the world with her parents and siblings. She attended 22 different schools near Air Force bases by the time she was 18. After graduation from high school in Montgomery, AL, Linda pursued a career as a registered nurse. She graduated from Lutheran Medical Center Scho... Full story
CHENEY – Raphael Guillory, the starting free safety on the first Eastern Washington University team to win the Big Sky Conference football championship, passed away Sunday, Nov. 29, after a long battle with cancer. He was 49 and leaves behind his wife, Gloria, and five children. Guillory played for Eastern in 1992 and 1993, and went on to become an Eastern professor and earn his Ph.D. He played at Walla Walla Community College before he came to Eastern, where he was a teammate...
MEDICAL LAKE — The traditional festival hosted by Re*Imagine Medical Lake involving hundreds of children getting their face painted in-person, doing crafts at booths and residents gathering for a tree-lighting ceremony won’t be a go this year due to COVID-19-caused restrictions. However, the organization is still able to put on a modified event Saturday, Dec. 12. The event, titled Re*Imagine Christmas, begins with a Stocking Stuffer 5K at Coney Island Park from 1 p.m. to 3 p... Full story
CHENEY – This year’s annual festivities to kick off the holidays will be more about town than just downtown. Holiday Hoopla is happening this year, albeit taking place in a more spread out format due to COVID-19 restrictions. The celebration takes place Friday, Dec. 4, beginning at 5 p.m. in the parking lot of Jarms Ace Hardware where everyone will form up and follow a Cheney Fire Department engine carrying Santa down 1st Street to the Cheney Library where the virtual tre...
Are you not tired of elections? If not then here comes another new special election on Feb. 9, 2021. This one is to raise your taxes for the Cheney School District. The last year of collection for the 3 year O&M(EP&O) Levy and two-year capital projects levy is 2021. The authority to collect a new levy against our property in 2022, 2023 and 2024 is therefore requiring a new approval thru a vote. The existing capital projects levy was for specific projects which should be completed. This levy was not meant to be continual like...
One of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century is dealing with the progress of the 20th Century — especially old computers, monitors, cellular phones and televisions. These appliances depend on hazardous materials, such as mercury, to operate. After a five-to-eight year useful life, many are tossed into dumpsters and sent to landfills where those hazardous materials can leach into the soil, streams and groundwater. That was the opening paragraph of a column I wrote 20 y...
Imagine you’re traveling out of state to visit family. When you’re 15 minutes from grandma’s house, you decide to let her know you’ll be arriving soon. For some reason, your mobile phone doesn’t connect. So you stop at a payphone to call your phone provider. They tell you they shut off your service because you entered a new state. This scenario may seem absurd. But it’s an apt analogy for the regulatory regime governing many U.S. doctors. Telemedicine technology made it easier for physicians to provide care from afar. But t...
RITZVILLE — A local lawmaker is stepping down from his leadership position in the state Senate, but he is not retiring. Sen. Mark G. Schoesler, R-Ritzville, confirmed Tuesday morning, Dec. 1, that he won’t be seeking re-election as the Senate minority leader. “It’s real simple,” Schoesler said of his decision. “I’d like to turn my cellphone office and my email off for a bit of time.” With 65.34% of the vote, Schoesler won re-election to the Legislative District No. 9...
CHENEY – The City Council unanimously approved the first reading of the city’s nearly $32.74 million 2021 budget at its Nov. 24 meeting. The figure is roughly $560,000 less than 2020’s $33.3 million budget — partly a reflection of the recent loss of the city’s levy lid lift funding. In giving its initial approval of the budget, council also approved the city’s two levy ordinances – general fund and emergency medical services – both of which dropped, partly due to the increase in the city’s total assessed property value. T...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — The city’s plans to expand transportation options just received a boost. The West Plains Connection project has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Transportation Improvement Board. The money will be used for Phase One of the project, which will link Garfield Road and South Hayford Road via 10th Avenue, a street grid section that doesn’t presently connect. The continuation of 10th Avenue would connect with the current 12th Avenue behind Walmart off South Hayford Road. The new route will have two trave...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS - Each year as part of capping their year, the West Plains Chamber of Commerce celebrates achievement in various areas through its "Best of the West" Awards Gala. In normal circumstances the winners in a variety of personal and business categories would be celebrated live at a dinner event. But in 2020 due to constraints from COVID-19 - like many others - the Best of the West was held virtually on Friday, Nov. 6. Based on voting from chamber members, awards...
MEDICAL LAKE—The school board unanimously approved a new replacement levy at its Nov. 24 meeting with an assessed value of $1.50 per $1,000 assessed property value. The levy, which would replace the current levy that’s around $1.38 per $1,000 assessed property value, moves to a public vote on Feb. 9, 2021. The total levy collection is what Medical Lake taxpayers will be voting on, with the $1.50 figure being an educated guess based on local property value and projected growth, superintendent Tim Ames confirmed. “We...
CHENEY – Three Springs High School is a small, tight-knit community. It’s also a community without a lot of resources. Both of these can serve to amplify needs, particularly around the holidays. To address those needs, Three Springs staff are asking for the public’s help in providing a better Christmas for students and their families than those families might be capable of providing themselves. For the second year in a row, English and Language Arts teacher Lindsey Villeneuve is organizing an “Adopt a family in the West Pl...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS—Council and city manager Albert Tripp discussed tweaking the way the city chooses its mayor at council’s Nov. 23 study session before Mayor Kevin Richey and councilmembers unanimously agreed that the tweak should occur and a ballot resolution should be filed in hopes of bringing said resolution to public vote in February. The tweak, which was first brought up to council by Richey in 2015 to allow for flexibility in the case of circumstances causing a council and/or mayoral vacancy, would change the process for...
CHENEY – The city’s police and fire chiefs were asked by City Council at its Nov. 24 meeting to peer into their crystal balls and offer a view of what their departments might look like in the future should certain aspects of their operations change. For Fire Chief Tom Jenkins, that look involved the ongoing issue with emergency medical response in the community — specifically ambulance service. City officials have expressed past dissatisfaction with the performance of American Medical Response (AMR), particularly with respo...
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