News Briefs

Pedestrian hit on Interstate 90

LIBERTY LAKE – A Cheney man struck a pedestrian on Interstate 90 on June 6

According to the Washington State Patrol, Marietta Portegai, 78, of Calgary, Canada was trying to walk across the eastbound lanes of I-90 when she was struck by a 2003 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Jeromy L. Riggs, 34, of Cheney.

Portegai was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital with serious injuries, the patrol reported.

Police provide third ‘YES’ officer

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – An additional youth engagement specialist to the school district during a June 5 City Council meeting.

The officer will not cost the city, officials said, prior to the council voting unanimously to approve the officer.

Police Chief Brad Richmond said the entire funding package for the YES officers will come from Cheney School District, including $22,000 for each officer vehicle.

One officer will be stationed at each the middle and high schools, and one will float to service other schools as needed.

“Generally speaking, I would be not in favor of sending our police officers to another city and having them patrol schools that aren’t in our city,” Councilman Kevin Richey said. “But we’ve established a lot of students from Airway Heights go to that city and could probably use the early intervention and I think it’s a great program.”

“I believe the odds are that the students and families interacting with our officers is only going to benefit us in the long run,” Mayor Larry Bowman said. “It’s often said that early engagement matters most.”

Spangle Avista customers to experience outage

SPANGLE — Approximately 245 Avista electric customers in the city will experience a planned power outage Thursday and Friday, June 15-16.

The planned outages will run from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. Affected customers will be notified.

During this time, Avista crews will be performing repair work on equipment in the area.

Avista customer service representatives have a variety of resources and information available to aid customers in need, officials said.

-- Cheney Free Press