Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 302
Cheney residents could see an increase in their utility rates in 2018, should the city's Public Works Department budget proposal receive council approval. The increase is one of two proposed to deal with infrastructure needs, with the other being from the Light Department. At a budget public hearing held at the City Council's Oct. 24 meeting, Public Works Director Todd Ableman said the proposal bumps the residential water usage base rate from its current $8.26 to $10. The...
Gainer wants to bring a different direction to city Cheney City Council Position 1 candidate Tim Gainer is a long-time resident of the community, having graduated from Cheney High School in 1981. Gainer attended Eastern Washington University, and has worked as an engineer at Davis Communications, Inc. since 1982. In his 35 years of business experience, he has worked with entities such as EWU, the city of Cheney, CenturyTel, Avista and Inland Power and Light and has served as...
Cheney’s Planning Commission unanimously approved a modification to an existing preliminary plat application for construction of phases 5 and 6 in the Golden Hills subdivision at its Oct. 9 meeting — but not before several familiar subjects raised their heads again. One change proposed by phase 5 owner Jamm Development, LLC of Spokane and phase 6 owner JD Cheney, LLC decreases the number of lots from 68 to 66, thereby offering larger lots for residential construction. Current codes limit maximum R-1 lot size to 9,000 squ...
Ice Age Floods hikes offered The Ice Age Floods Institute, Cheney-Spokane Chapter is sponsoring a pair of hikes Oct. 7 and 8 to look at the geology of the upper Grand Coulee. Saturday, Oct. 7, is a hike to the Castle Lake Basin, located near the east end of the massive Great Cataract Group. The hike is about 3.5 miles round trip, and features a plunge pool lake and the potholed bench above Deep Lake reached by an overland walk and descent across the Castle Lake cataract via two, sturdy iron ladders built during the Columbia...
The seasons are changing. Summer becomes fall. Baseball winds down, football ramps up. It's also time for a season most people seldom paid attention to until its impacts are felt later. Yes, it's budget season, and it begins with Cheney department heads scrambling to collect yearly numbers, gather input from staff and council members and assemble it into a form painting a picture of what the city needs, wants and most importantly, can afford. City Administrator Mark Schuller...
By PAUL DELANEY Staff Reporter The 30-year anniversary for The Fairways Golf Course will certainly be memorable. It will go down as the time the West Plains’ links had to put up a fight for its life. In a season that opened with a celebration with birthday cake and rolling back greens fees three decades, the course enters its final four months scratching and clawing for its survival. But there’s no quit evident when you talk to general manager and head professional Kris Kallem who is busy trying to make up for lost time, ina...
So far this year, a trio of unexpected deaths has shocked Washington business and agriculture. Melanie Dressel, Ron Reimann and Jeff Brotman leave behind large shoes to fill. They came from vastly different backgrounds and political perspectives, yet it was their diversity, ingenuity and drive which makes our state and nation great. Last February, Melanie Dressel, president and CEO of Tacoma-based Columbia Bank, suddenly died of heart disease. She was 64. She was born and...
Welcome to the new normal. It’s one of those phrases that’s beginning to annoy me, partly because it gets used a lot lately. It’s right up there with “What is it about (insert object here) that we don’t understand?” Or, “How’s that working for you?” The “new normal” is, unfortunately in many cases, becoming a valid description of changing conditions associated with our environment. Our current smoky skies and deteriorating air quality might be a new normal for this time of year as climate changes extend and intensify the wil...
The Cheney City Council unanimously approved final adoption of an ordinance at its July 25 meeting changing the zoning of a 3.6-acre parcel of land bordered by North Eighth, Cedar, Erie and Oak streets — clearing the way for development of a proposed student-housing complex on the property. The ordinance changes the property zoning from R-3 multifamily to R-3H, high-density multifamily, allowing more units per acre. By approving the ordinance, the council also adopted as part of it the terms and conditions of a agreement b...
By PAUL DELANEY Staff Reporter It's survived decades of issues with water. Then a change in ownership at the outset of the recent "Great Recession," served up yet more challenges for The Fairways Golf Course. And one person, Kris Kallem, probably knows, and has seen more than anyone when it comes to the former farm and site of birddog trials, which celebrated its 30th birthday back in May. Such as, interestingly enough, "Some of the water hazards that are still here today...
Cheney’s City Council unanimously approved the second reading at its July 11 meeting of an ordinance rezoning a 3.6-acre parcel of land at the corner of Cedar and North Eighth streets from multifamily residential (R-3) to high-density multifamily residential (R-3H). The difference between this and the first reading’s approval June 27 is the inclusion of a development agreement between the city and the developers of Parkside Commons LLC — Greenstone Development and Eastmark Capital Group. Both are seeking the rezone to build...
City of Cheney officials have relaxed water restrictions imposed on June 30 after one of its deepest and largest producing wells went down with a mechanical failure. The failure, coupled with very hot weather conditions, sent water levels at the city's five reservoirs plummeting from a normal 25–28 feet to 11.7 feet on July 7. Those levels have been slowly climbing, thanks to residents efforts in adhering to restrictions, and had reached 20.23 feet around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, J...
City of Cheney officials have relaxed water restrictions imposed on June 30 after one of its deepest and largest producing wells went down with a mechanical failure. The failure, coupled with very hot weather conditions, sent water levels at the city's five reservoirs plummeting from a normal 25-28 feet to 11.7 feet on July 7. Those levels had been slowly climbing, thanks to residents efforts in adhering to restrictions, and had reached 20.23 feet around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. In a notification on its website, the city said it wa...
Once the dust from other issues has settled, Cheney officials will revisit a water conservation plan for the city. Municipalities are required to produce and implement water conservation measures under the Water Use Efficiency (WUE) rule, which was part of the Municipal Water Law passed in 2003. Under the WUE, Cheney must establish a water use plan and savings goals for customers, evaluate and implement specific measures to achieve these goals and report annual progress. The city held a public hearing May 2 on proposed...
The City of Cheney has enacted a mandatory lawn irrigation water shutdown for residents and businesses. The shutdown went into effect late Thursday afternoon, July 6. City water resource manager Dan Ferguson said the bearings in Well No. 5’s pump column seized up on June 29. Initially thought to be a quick fix at the top by replacing motor bearings, when the contractor pulled the column apart on July 6 at the Presley Drive well, they found lower bearings along the pump shaft had also seized up. “This will require removing as...
The City of Cheney has enacted a mandatory lawn irrigation water shutdown for residents and businesses. The shutdown went into effect late Thursday afternoon, July 6. City water resource manager Dan Ferguson said the bearings in Well No. 5's pump column seized up on June 29. Initially thought to be a quick fix at the top of the well head, when the contractor pulled the column apart on July 6 at the Presley Drive well, they found some of the lower bearings had seized as well. "This will require removing as much pump piping...
Cheney’s City Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance changing the zoning of a 3.6-acre parcel of land at the corner of Cedar and North Eighth streets from multifamily residential (R-3) to high-density multifamily residential (R-3H). The increased density will allow the Parkside Commons student-housing project to move forward once the other two readings and final passage are held. Parkside Commons’ request for the zoning changes have been the subject of several well-attended council and planning com...
It's survived decades of issues with water. Then a change in ownership at the outset of the recent "Great Recession," served up yet more challenges for The Fairways Golf Course. And one person, Kris Kallem, probably knows, and has seen more than anyone when it comes to the former farm and site of birddog trials, which celebrated its 30th birthday back in May. Such as, interestingly enough, "Some of the water hazards that are still here today were here then as well; No. 12 was...
Medical Lake continues to make some progress in reducing the water it produces and consumes. According to the most recent water efficiency report, Medical Lake produced and purchased 279.2 million gallons of water in 2016. This is about a 3 percent decrease from 2015 when the city pumped and bought about 286.7 million gallons, which was lower than the year before. Water consumption declined as well. Last year, the city consumed a little over 254.2 million gallons a 4 percent drop from 2015. The year before consumption...
From its earliest days The Fairways Golf Course has been saddled with issues related to water usage and the cost to keep it green and playable. And now, a decades-old dispute threatens the existence of the facility following the city of Spokane's decision to cut off irrigation water May 23. However, a ruling by Superior Court Judge Michael Price, who issued a restraining order at 11 a.m. ended the shutoff June 6. Price's ruling came as result of a motion filed this past...
Although the West Plains — and most of Washington state — experienced a wet winter and spring, the city of Medical Lake will still ask its residents to adhere to water restrictions during the summer. During the summer, irrigation in Medical Lake is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., with an exception made for newly-planted lawns. The water restriction was set by an ordinance the city adopted in November 2007. The resolution came in response to a critical water situation the city experienced in 2006. The ordinance inc...
Although the West Plains — and most of Washington state — experienced a wet winter and spring, the city of Medical Lake will still ask its residents to adhere to water restrictions during the summer. During the summer, irrigation in Medical Lake is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., with an exception made for newly-planted lawns. The water restriction was set by an ordinance the city adopted in November 2007. The resolution came in response to a critical water situation the city experienced in 2006. The ordinance inc...
Overall tonnage for this year’s Cheney Clean Sweep was the lowest it has been since records have been available. Information presented by Cheney Public Works Director Todd Ableman to the City Council at its May 23 meeting indicated 10.15 tons of material was collected at the annual citywide event held April 22. It’s the lowest in seven years of data, and has been dropping each year since a high point of 21.92 tons in 2014. Broken down, volunteers collected 2.29 tons of garbage, dramatically lower than the previous yea...
After the first round of flushing its water system, six of Airway Heights' wells are still over the Environmental Protection Agenciy's perfluoro chemicals advisory levels of 70 parts per trillion. The good news is flushing the system, which used over 15 million gallons of water, seems to be working. In a May 26 news release, the city announced it had received test results from Anatek Labs that afternoon. Of the 17 samples that were taken from different sources throughout the...
Airway Heights continues to make progress on reducing its recent water contamination issues. On May 16, the city announced that two of its wells tested over 70 parts per trillion for contamination by two perfluoro chemicals. In 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency updated its health advisory levels for the chemical concentration to 70 parts per trillion. That day, staff immediately deactivated the wells and recommended residents not drink the water, though it is safe for...
