It was a busy year in Cheney news in many ways. Besides water, fires and construction, a number of other events came and went on the local radar.
Grover takes over
After winning an uncontested election in November 2017, local businessman and Cheney High School alum Chris Grover began his first year as mayor. In a Jan. 11 Cheney Free Press article, Grover cited water supply needs, economic development through business recruitment, public safety and cultivating the relationship with Eastern Washington University as area in which he wanted to focus.
Law enforcement in the spotlight
Cheney’s police department found itself in the spotlight in several incidents.
Local education facilities were placed in temporary lockdown on May 3 as law enforcement searched the area for a man reportedly armed with two handguns. Later, the man walked into the Cheney police station and told officers he was an open-carry advocate who intended to keep practicing his right to bear arms.
On Sept. 3, police responded to a call of a man with a knife in Mitchell’s Harvest Foods’ parking lot. Upon arrival, the individual was reportedly charged officers, resulting in their opening fire and killing him. It was later determined he had planned the event as a suicide.
Two Cheney officers were forced to shoot a 31-year-old developmentally challenged man on Oct. 17 with several beanbag rounds when the man refused to drop a pair of knives he was displaying on North Third Street near Elm. The knives turned out to be plastic.
Ten days later officers responded to Zip’s Restaurant on First Street around 3 a.m. to a report of multiple shots fired. Three people were hit with gunfire and taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
After Spokane County Sheriff’s Office investigation, 21-year-old Kevin D. Clay was arrested outside his Kent, Wash. residence on multiple attempted murder charges stemming from the incident.
We’re pretty safe
Results from a national study of college campuses and associated cities ranked Cheney and Eastern Washington University among the 100 safest in the country.
The results, released Feb. 13, by the National Council for Home Safety and Security listed EWU/Cheney as the 73rd safest campus among universities with enrollment of 10,000 students or more. Eastern and Washington State University were the only two Washington schools to crack the top 100.
100 and counting
Cheney’s Nazarene Church celebrated its 100th anniversary with three community events between April and September. At one, a time capsule placed at the church’s 50th anniversary was opened and another one with updated items put in its place.
Depot funding
possible
The Cheney Depot Society received good news in late August from the Washington State Historical Society that their project to purchase and relocate the historic former Northern Pacific station was one of 36 projects begin recommended to the state Legislature for funding in the next biennium.
The state informed the society that the Heritage Capital Projects Advisory Panel had approved a $366,600 grant in the 2019-2021 funding cycle. The money is contingent upon the Legislature approving the over $9.98 million request for the program.
On to other things
The city of Cheney had two upper level managers leave in 2018, both in September. Parks and recreation manager Kim Best decided to step down after almost 15 years with the department in order to devote more time to her family, while Light Department Director Steve Boorman left after three years for an assistant general manager position with Idaho Falls Power in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Stop that — for now
The city of Cheney enacted two moratoriums in 2018.
The first six-month stop in development came in late April over uneasiness by city officials with the possibility of Cheney becoming a destination for power-hungry cryptocurrency mining businesses. The council already approved permits for two such businesses — who could use up to 6 megawatts of city power each — earlier, one at the former location of AMX/Harman on Cheney-Spokane Road and the other at the former location of the Pure Joy marijuana production facility on Fred Johns Way.
The council eventually adopted new regulations imposing development requirements on such companies.
The second moratorium was enacted by the council at its Dec. 11 meeting, and put a temporary stop to the issuance of building permits for construction at the Terra Vista subdivision east of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroad tracks. The moratorium will be in place until June 2019 and a work plan for handling traffic concerns can be worked out between the city and the developer.
Hoop, hoop!
Cheney began the holiday season with a new twist on an old tradition with the Cheney Merchants Association’s “Holiday Hoopla.” The two-day celebration in early December blended the city’s tree lighting tradition with new activities and features downtown.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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