News Briefs

Cheney Light Department scheduling outages

The city of Cheney Light Department is doing system improvement work requiring power disruptions for switching purposes in neighborhoods surrounding Garden Manor Apartments. The area of outages runs from Eplin Street to Washington Street, and Salnave Road to State Route 904.

According to a news release, the disruptions will take place during normal work hours, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., beginning Monday, Feb. 22 and concluding Friday, March 11. The approximate times of the outages should be short, but may happen to individual customers more than once during the dates in the prescribed area.

The work allows the department to alter its source of power to different points to enable upgrades to the power line on Buena Vista. Light Department Director Steve Boorman said crews will disconnect power at normal sources and reconnect at other points on the system, de-energizing most of Buena Vista.

That will allow crews to perform work such as running 500 – 600 feet of new connector and replacing old power poles with new ones in several locations. Boorman said the work would result in 10-minute power outages now that should prevent hours-long outages in the future.

“It’s bread and butter system work,” he added. “When it’s done, it will be a better system.”

Spokane County Library District expands seed program

The Spokane County Library District is expanding the seed library program to the Medical Lake and Deer Park locations this spring. In 2015, the district opened its first seed library at the Otis Orchards branch.

At the seed library locations, community members can borrow from a selection of vegetable and flower seeds at any time during the year. To help replenish the seed library, members are asked to collect seeds at harvest and bring them to the library for other gardeners to enjoy.

“Over 1,000 seed packets were checked out at the Otis Orchards library during its first year of operation,” Otis Orchards’ library supervisor, Kathy Allen, said in a news release.” We also saw an increase in library cards issued so that new members could use the seed library.

The district is offering a series of free gardening classes featuring local Master Gardeners at all three seed libraries as part of the opening of the two new locations and to get ready for spring. Topics include container vegetable gardening, best strategies for dealing with deer and growing tomatoes from seed to harvest.

A fruit tree pruning seminar is scheduled for March 12, from 1 – 4 p.m. at the Otis Orchards library. The cost is $25 and pre-registration is required.

Ninth District lawmakers hold telephone town hall

OLYMPIA – Legislators serving the 9th District will hold a town hall meeting by telephone on Monday, Feb. 22. The conversation will begin at 6:30 p.m. and last approximately an hour with all three district legislators taking part from the state Capitol. 

Many residents will receive invitations by phone just before the meeting begins. Those wishing to call in simply need to dial 1-800-269-1146. To participate online, go to listen.townhallinteractive.com and use 742951 as the PIN.

“These events have been very successful in the past and serve as a convenient way to reach a large number of 9th District residents,” Rep. Joe Schmick (R-Colfax) said in a news release.

“This will be a great time for us to visit because budget proposals should be on the table by then, and we will have a good idea about which bills are likely to reach the governor’s desk,” Sen. Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) said. “We can also talk about some of the state-agency issues that have cropped up and how we have stepped in to bring more accountability to Olympia.”

“With Olympia being so far away from our district, I’m looking forward to answering questions people have as well as getting to hear straight from them about legislation that impacts their daily lives,” Rep. Mary Dye (R-Pomeroy) added.

The 2016 legislative session is scheduled to end March 10.