Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 43
CHENEY – The City Council took steps at its Dec. 10 meeting to close out 2019 by passing the city’s 2020 budget. The council held its second, third and final passage of next year’s $33.3 million revenue and expenses budget — an amount that was almost $600,000 larger than previously discussed during budget meetings due to several late additions. One of those was the decision by the City Council to put $100,000 from the city’s public safety levy lid lift tax revenue towards a down payment on another replacement fire truck, wh...
FOUR LAKES -- A single-vehicle collision on Interstate 90 claimed the life of an Albany, Ore. man early Friday morning, Dec. 27. According to a Washington State Patrol press memo, at approximately 5:42 a.m. 57-year--old Mykola Tretyak was eastbound on I-90 in a 1999 Ford F250 pickup towing a utility trailer when he lost control of the vehicle and struck the guardrail in the median. The trailer detached from the pickup and also struck the guardrail, with the pickup striking the guardrail a second time, traveling through the...
MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinal girls came away from their first two Northeast A League games of the season last week with back-to-back wins going into their brief holiday break. Medical Lake vs. Lakeside Knowing the Eagles struggle with ball pressure, the plan, according to head coach Kyle Lundberg, was to generate defensive turnovers, then get out and run. “The girls did that,” Lundberg said. “They did a good job.” More than a good job in the lopsided 52-23 Tuesday, Dec. 17,...
MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinal cross-country team had to settle for third place at the state 1A cross country championship meet at Pasco’s Sun Willow Golf Course in November. “I was really pleased with our kids,” head coach Gene Blankenship said. “They competed really well.” He was quick to point out that, as a team, “Finishing third is respectable.” Team leaders included Victor Long, Quintin Collins, Reid Headrick, Angel Mendez, Jeremiah Windle with “one of his best races of...
Cheney High School 2019 senior Camden Verstrate entered the 2A state meet at Mt. Tahoma High School last May with the state’s second-best times in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. He left the school in Lakewood south of Tacoma still with the second-best times – but times good enough to beat former No. 1 Deven Brown of Lindbergh High and earn the former Blackhawk a pair of state titles. Helping Verstrate with Cheney’s eighth-place team finish with podium appearances were University of Montana-bound senior Jacob McGou...
Veteran Cheney High School swimming head coach Jennifer Hochwalt knew she had some special girls at the beginning of the 2019 fall season. “The amazing thing was everybody came in this season and everybody can swim so we’re really coming in from more of a training standpoint,” Hochwalt said in September. “The nice thing is that our new kids are really already at where (last year’s) team was at mid-season.” The Blackhawks proved the accuracy of that statement and then some....
MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinals are playing it tight and getting in some extra quarters as the season moves ahead in their first two Northeast A league games that together took four overtime quarters to win. Medical Lake vs. Lakeside It was deja vu all over again in Medical Lake on Tuesday, Dec. 12 when the 4-1 Cardinals took on the 3-4 Lakeside Eagles to win in another Ashton Hamilton-Becker last second 3-point clutch shot to seal a drawn out 62-59 win in a white-knuckle t...
MEDICAL LAKE — The City Council approved an update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan that will help guide its direction for the next decade in October, while also approving a 5 percent property tax increase. The first, a 4 percent tax increase, tapped into the city’s available 8.04 percent “banked levy capacity” — tax increases the city had opted not to use since 1985 that allows it to raise taxes beyond the state’s 1 percent per-year levy cap limit. The increase will add an a...
CHENEY — Eastern Washington University’s Board of Trustees unanimously took a step to upgrade the university’s aging and out of date Roos Field football stadium by approving a $25 million package at a special meeting Sept. 6 that relies solely on private funding. Vice President for University Advancement Barb Richey told the board that the funding level could be reached within 24 months. One part of that package, a $1.3 million replacement of the iconic Red Turf, could begin...
CHENEY — One of the last acts of 2018 by Cheney’s City Council was the imposition of a six-month construction moratorium on developer Steve Emtman’s Terra Vista project located east of the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks. Over Emtman’s objections and vague references to taking legal actions, the city imposed the moratorium – which temporarily stopped construction of a 224-unit apartment complex that would have added to the 258 existing units. The city’s reasoning for the moratorium was the rat...
MEDICAL LAKE —Medical Lake experienced a big spike vehicle prowls in late 2019, Spokane County Undersheriff Dave Ellis told the Medical Lake City Council in December. While the three-year average is six, by that point in 2019 there had been 21 vehicle prowls, according to Sheriff’s Department data. He noted that the perpetrators could be arrested, but not necessarily held — one person who was arrested and booked at 5:45 a.m. was released by the court by 7:15 a.m. Worki...
CHENEY — The excitement began almost before Emeryville California-based Grocery Outlet filed paperwork to build a 16,456-square foot new store in Cheney. In late March, Grocery Outlet proposed combining two separate parcels along North 1st Street as the site for the store. The proposal received the City Council’s blessing, and after awarding an easement along North 1st Street for utilities, work began on the new grocery store in the summer. That work went fast, with site pre...
MEDICAL LAKE - There was no shortage of visitors to Medical Lake in June along the reflective black wall engraved with the names of the 58,318 Americans who didn't make it home alive from the Vietnam War. Brought to the city in conjunction with the annual Founders Day celebration by Re*Imagine Medical Lake, The Moving Wall, a half-scale model of the actual monument in Washington D.C., brought thousands to the city under the hot June sun. Volunteers spent the morning of the...
CHENEY — It was a busy year for the Cheney School District, especially during the fall. The district was forced to adopt a policy allowing authorized students to be administered medical marijuana while on school grounds, and a threat of violence evacuated students at Cheney Middle School. On the other side of the coin, a pair of teachers were honored regionally as teachers of the month, one at Salnave and the other the following month at Betz elementary schools. But for most of the year, enrollment growth in the district w...
WINDSOR - Students in Judy Ableman's Windsor Elementary School kindergarten class received an unexpected surprise last Thursday, Dec. 19, in the form of some wooden toys and a visit by the students who made them. Seventh and eighth-grade students from Westwood Middle School next door stopped by to watch the reactions to what they had spent several weeks making in CTE teacher Marty Sexton's wood shop class, and to meet the students who until then had only been a name, and an an...
SPOKANE COUNTY — The Spokane County Commissioners issued a news release on Dec. 19 highlighting the county’s major road construction and maintenance projects of 2019 and 2020. Several notable projects were completed during the 2019 construction season, including the Glenrose-Carnahan roundabout and safety improvements on 57th Avenue in Spokane. Work also continued on a three-mile stretch of Bigelow Gulch Road that was straightened, leveled, widened, and included storm water improvements. The project took four months to com...
By LEE HUGHES Staff reporter MEDICAL LAKE — About 131 Medical Lake residents received disturbing news in late July when city maintenance crews went door-to-door distributing notices that routine water samples had tested positive for the presence of E.coli bacteria. The notice advised residents to use bottled water or boil tap water for one minute until further notice. While additional samples were drawn and submitted for testing the same day and came back without any signs of E.coli, it gave city officials a scare. “It was...
Cheney wrestlers Christmas tree fundraiser Cheney’s Little Guy Wrestling Club is holding a Christmas tree recycling fundraiser on Jan. 4-5 and Jan. 11-12 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day. You may drop off your Christmas tree at Yoke’s Fresh Market parking lot or arrange for curbside pickup by texting 509-420-0951 or send a message on the Cheney Hawks Wrestling’s Facebook page. Donations of $5 for dropping off at Yoke’s or $10-$20 for curbside pickup are suggested. The club is not able to recycle artificial or flocked trees or...
CHENEY — Whether it was e coli in Medical Lake, dealing with the consequences of contamination from firefighting chemicals in Airway Heights or supply in Cheney, water issues generated a number of stories in 2019. Cheney led the way, and comes in No. 2 on the year’s top-10 story list, beginning with dealing with leaks that resulted in the city’s two main pumps producing over 350 gallons per minute more than average through the winter before the leaks — in eight different locations within the system — were found and repaired...
MEDICAL LAKE — The organization that has served the citizens of Medical Lake for 115 years was dissolved this year after the overwhelming passage of Proposition 1 in August and was annexed by Spokane County Fire District 3. “The facts really spoke for themselves,” Medical Lake Fire Chief Jason Mayfield said. “I am super proud of our citizens for recognizing the need and taking this step.” His priority when he became chief six years ago was to guarantee every citizen would get...
1 Years Ago Dec. 24, 2009 The Medical Lake School Board voted to place a 20-year. $15.6 million bond measure before voters in February that would replace the elementary school and fund additions to the middle school. It was the third ballot measure in five years. Cheney High School was recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s best. It was the second time in three years the school was ranked by the magazine. 20 Years Ago Dec. 23, 1999 Cheney city officials established Y2K Central at the fire station as par...
Cheney Congregational Church Welcome to Cheney Congregational Church. You are invited to join us in worship Sunday, Dec. 29, at 10 a.m. Our speaker will be Grant Smith, giving a sermon titled “Love and Duty.” Children’s Church is available during services for those who would like to attend. There is also a children’s area in the Sanctuary. After the services are over, please join us for fellowship, discussion, coffee and cookies. Choir rehearsal is Sunday at 9 a.m. Youth group for those in grades 6 to 12 will be held Sunday...
Cheney High School students of the month for November are pictured above as follows: Front row left to right are Jackson Rowley, Harlie Conley, Madison McKerracher, Katelyn Verstrate and Carter Lincoln. Back row left to right are Tiana Taylor, Shalla Treffry, Madison Duilio, Seth Wilcox, Brandon Shaffer and Jed Draper. Not picture: Emily Clausen....
MEDICAL LAKE - Students at Medical Lake Endeavors spent the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 17 in the classroom. But they weren't there to study. Endeavors teacher Char Edwards, dressed to the holiday nines in a red tutu, red and green stockings and festive fuzzy slippers, explained the event that evening was part of the alternative high leadership class that was launched at the beginning of the year. The class involves, among other things, planning the schools four annual family nig...
Windsor Elementary School Principal Vince Songaylo checks out the fit of a new Santa hat given to him by kindergarten teacher Judy Ableman last Thursday. Songaylo received a new Santa hat everyday the week prior to the start of the Cheney School District’s holiday break on Dec. 20....
