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Cheney's newest residential development is also one of its oldest. City planners have issued a notice of application, along with a mitigated determination of non-significance (MDNS), for the View Acres 5th Addition project. The proposed project, located north of Salnave Road and west of Hillview Drive, marks a continuation of a trend in residential construction in the city's southern and western end, complementing developments that have been built over the past several years i...
When another site fell through just months before the 1996 state 1A, 1B and 2B track and field championships were to be held, a group from Eastern Washington University stepped up and rescued the event. That was in 1996 and EWU has been home to this event that features schools from the state's smallest classifications ever since and in 2016 mark the 20th year in Cheney. This year's event takes place May 26-28, and will also be 20 years under the direction of meet manager Jay...
I am from Tekoa, Washington (population 843). We are your neighbors to the south. Though we are a small farming community on the Washington-Idaho border we are connected to many bigger cities by the John Wayne Pioneer Trail. If you were to leave your house this summer and get on a bike, horse, or sturdy hiking boots, you could cross almost the entire state on a path with no cars and end up in our town. The trail is 285 miles long, a 100-foot wide ribbon of beauty extending through lush forests, dramatic scablands and the...
At its March 22 meeting, the Medical Lake School Board approved a 5 cent raise to school lunches for the 2016-17 school year. The price of lunch at the middle school and high school will increase from $2.80 to $2.85. Lunch at Hallett and Michael Anderson elementary schools will rise from $2.40 to $2.45. Business manager Chad Moss presented a report from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s ICOS (Information and Condition of Schools) Asset Preservation program. He and maintenance supervisor, Gary Hartman, c...
Inslee names former Cheney prosecutor to court bench Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed former Cheney Municipal Court contract prosecutor Julie McKay to the Spokane County Superior Court. McKay replaces retiring Judge Kathleen O’Connor, who has served on the Spokane County bench since 1979, making her the longest-serving justice in the state. A graduate of Eastern Washington University and Gonzaga University, McKay served as Cheney’s prosecutor from 1991 to 2014 when she was selected to serve as a Spokane County Sup...
The recent Republican Presidential Debate staged Oct. 29 in Boulder, Colo. and aired on CNBC rocketed the business news channel’s ratings — for several hours at least — into places they never have been, nor likely ever will again see. The utter shock of actually having one Republican, let alone a handful, take issue with, challenge, and kick sand back in the faces of a profession that lives to make them look bad, made America take notice to the tune of some 14 million viewe...
Fight fans are excited as one of the greatest mixed martial artists is returning to the octagon. The UFC announced it had reinstated former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Oct. 23, to its active roster. The organization suspended Jones in April, after his involvement in a hit-and-run accident in Albuquerque, N.M. At the time, Jones allegedly ran a red light and crashed his rental car in a collision involving two other vehicles before fleeing the scene on foot. After authorities issued an arrest warrant, he turned...
Anyone who drives on Electric Avenue to and from Spokane International Airport may notice the aging red brick building. The structure, which resembles a castle, has served many purposes over the years, including the longtime "Hagel's House of Horrors" haunted house. The building is scheduled to be demolished. According to Todd Woodard, SIA director of public/marketing affairs, the reason it is being torn down is because it did not fit into the airport's master plan. "It's...
The on-again-off-again discussions between Cheney and Eastern Washington University over renewal of a contract for the city’s Police Department dispatch services appears to be on again. Maybe. Contract negotiations, first brokered in 2006-2007, began in October 2014, with Cheney seeking an increase in what the university pays for services more in line with the amount Eastern uses the system, particularly dispatch call volumes. According to an Oct. 27 memo to Police Chief John Hensley from Cathy Munoz, Cheney Police Department...
The city of Airway Heights is seven months into its new agreement with Spokane County and the city of Spokane for solid waste disposal services and things seem to be going well. Back in November they entered into an agreement with Spokane County and Spokane for with gate fees of $70.50 per ton. The City Council passed a resolution that legally binds the agreement at its Monday meeting. According to the resolution, Spokane County must prepare a Solid Waste Management Plan for Airway Heights, as well as the other cities and...
The city of Airway Heights is quickly taking steps to address its public works director situation. Former director Kelly Williquette, who helmed the Public Works Department beginning in July 2010, left the position back in March after he found a new job. City Manager Albert Tripp currently acts as the interim-public works director. Tripp was Airway Heights’ public works director prior to becoming the city manager. Tripp explained that the city is taking a two-phase approach to fill the vacant public works director p...
The city of Cheney is inviting public comment on its notice of application making changes to the city’s municipal code chapter Title 21 — Zoning while also moving forward with the public hearing process. The comment period, which runs through Jan. 21, is required because the original draft that came back from the city’s third-party codifiers contained errors and inadvertent omissions, the result of boiling 156 pages of comments and changes into a 36-page document. “They just goofed up on some things,” city planner Brett Luc...
Several residents of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., gather in a public park to serve food to some hungry homeless individuals. Would this be considered an act of charity or a crime? Three of those residents — Arnold Abbott, and two south Florida ministers — are being charged with up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine in violation of a recent ordinance, according to the Associated Press article, “Feeding the homeless: Act of charity or a crime?” This Florida ordinance restricts public feeding of homeless people and was put into effect...
Airway Heights City Manager Albert Tripp presented the preliminary budget for 2015 to the City Council at its Nov. 3 meeting. One of the focuses for next year’s budget is maintaining and increasing city services. Tripp said the budget uses existing revenues and makes investments to several targeted areas to provide great service to the community. The budget also addresses financial planning for equipment needs for city departments by splitting $45,000 into two different reserve accounts to use for equipment replacement. ...
The Cheney School District is taking a new approach to replacing some of its vehicle fleet, one municipalities and other taxing jurisdictions have engaged in for several years. The school board of directors approved a five-year contract at their regular meeting, Oct. 22, to lease four vehicles from LeaseExperts.com. The $173,867.75 lease amount comes with a 3.47 percent annual interest rate, bringing the total lease cost to $189,937.50, with the district making annual payments of $37,987.52. Two vehicles and accessories, a...
The city of Airway Heights had its first of three public hearings for the 2015 budget and revenue sources at the Oct. 20 City Council meeting. Clerk-Treasurer Richard Cook explained that under Washington state law, the city has to hold public hearings if it is considering raising property taxes. Cook went through the major revenue sources, which include the current expense, water/sewer and street funds. He said the city will make adjustments to the beginning fund balance and the revenue expenditure. “What you’re going to see...
"1914: World War I begins, and the Panama Canal is officially opened after 10 years of construction. The world's first red and green traffic lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio and the first animated cartoon is released. 'Tarzan of the Apes' is published, U.S. Congress approves Mother's Day, Paramount Pictures is formed and the last known passenger pigeon dies in the Cincinnati Zoo." This is the year the first airline flight is scheduled and Henry Ford introduces the...
Airway Heights residents driving along Highway 2 might notice a new addition. The city of Airway Heights is almost finished with the shared use path on Highway 2, from Garfield Road to east of Hayford Road. Public Works director Kelly Williquette said the shared use path was paid for with Transportation Improvement Benefit funds. Williquette said the deadline for the project’s completion is mid-September. He added that the shared use path would be a part of a regional project of a shared use path for bicycles. The Hayford O...
The feeling of unease is still palpable. Last summer in Guatemala we were preparing to sit down for breakfast at the hotel we were staying at just outside the town of Purullha. We were preparing to make a second journey to visit the Pocomchi Mayan people in the Baja Vera Paz Mountains of north-central Guatemala. Sitting waiting for the plates of tortilla shells and bowls of refried beans — yes they serve those for breakfast and they’re the best in the world — I noticed a couple come into the dining area looking for a table...
At the April 8 Airway Heights City Council meeting, Clerk-Treasurer Richard Cook announced that the retail sales tax rate change went into effect at the beginning of the month. Back in November 2013, citizens voted to pass a sales tax increase from 8.7 to 8.9 percent to provide funding for a Transportation Benefit District (TBD) in the city. Cook said the city would start receiving the funds from the tax increase in June. The money will be deposited into a TBD fund and used for transportation projects. During the meeting,...
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is warning citizens once again about telephone scams circulating through the area. For the past several weeks, the Sheriff’s Office has received multiple complaints of individuals calling, identifying themselves as Sheriff’s Office employees and telling people they have missed jury duty and that if they don’t provide payment over the phone, they will have a warrant for their arrest issued. The latest angle of this scam deals with a person calling and saying they are from Spokane County...
Cheney Spokane Road residents about a half mile northeast of Cheney will once again find themselves making a case before a Spokane County hearing examiner in opposition to construction of a proposed airstrip north and northeast of their property. A hearing is scheduled for Monday, March 10, at 9 a.m. in the Spokane County Commissioners Hearing room in the lower level of the Public Works Building to take testimony on a conditional use permit filed by Silverbird, LLC and its...
Cheney’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to move the city’s interim marijuana facility zoning ordinance forward in the process that could result in it becoming law. The council approved Resolution E-196 that “adopts the legislative process” already established in the city’s municipal code for creating new regulations. In this case the new regulations are those developed in Ordinance W-18, put in place by the council in late November last year as emergency measures just in case the city should receive an applic...
Openness is important in maintaining public trust in our governmental organizations. Openness means access to what public officials do. It can be difficult, especially when it comes to obtaining records created by government. But openness also means notification, something a bill moving through the state House of Representatives would impede if it became law. The House Education Committee was scheduled to hear testimony today (Feb. 13) on HB 2319, a bill that would make it easier for school districts to publish notices of...
The public needs to be aware of a Public Hearing Notice that was in the Dec. 26 edition of the Cheney Free Press, in the legal section, page 7, section 2, regarding Cheney Hydroponics wanting to build a structure for the production and processing of recreational marijuana. The public is invited to attend this hearing, to call or to write to our city officials. This hearing will take place Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 2 p.m., at Cheney City Hall in the City Council Chambers at 609 Second St, Cheney, Wash. Cheney Hydroponics is interes...
