the november 2013 splash

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NOVEMBER 2013

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THEIR SPOT IN LOCAL HISTORY:

CEMENTED PAGE 34

VOLLEYBALL SUCCESS BUILT

ON YOUTHPAGE 38

Today, there is a shiny new road and a lot of in-ground infrastructure. Tomorrow … this?A glimpse at the plans — and the unique financing — behind the future of Liberty Lake’s River District PAGE 16

• NOVEMBER 20132 The SplashNEWS

Jim Frank looks back on 30 years of Greenstone HomesBy Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

When not immersed in his studies or working part-time to save money for col-lege, Jim Frank once bounded over hurdles as a letter-winner in track at Gonzaga Prep High School.

Years later, the same work ethic and te-nacity that carried Frank down the cinder straightaway would bode him well as one of the Spokane area’s most original and dy-namic developers.

The oldest of four kids, Frank was raised in a humble home where he learned the val-ue of a reliable work ethic — not shortcuts. His father supported the family as a brick-mason. In high school and college, Frank held a slew of part-time jobs at places like Kaiser Aluminum, a drive-in restaurant, a clothing store and the Lutz Bakery, where he was employed as a janitor and later a cook.

This year marks the 30-year anniversary of Greenstone Homes, the company Frank launched while still working as an attorney practicing land use and environmental law. The communities he has developed over the past three decades span from Spokane to North Idaho, but it is his wide-ranging influence on the Liberty Lake area that has emerged as Frank’s signature work.

In the early 1990s, a decade before Lib-erty Lake incorporation, Frank formed the groundwork for a community that would distinguish itself from surrounding areas by emphasizing traits like plentiful shade trees, pedestrian access, well-designed parks and grassy medians. The origins of the newly formed residential grid could be traced back to the time Frank spent growing up in the Emerson Garfield section of north cen-tral Spokane, where Corbin Park was the heart of the neighborhood and eclectic civic life emerged from real estate charted on a diverse scale of price points.

From the resident-generated impact fees that covered street upgrades on Harvard and Country Vista when Spokane County could not foot the bill to the summer con-cert series that draws thousands each year to Pavillion Park, Frank has been central to key initiatives that now define the character of Liberty Lake. The central Greenstone of-fice on Meadowwood Lane sits directly ad-jacent to the site of the Liberty Lake Farm-ers Market, another project championed by Frank over the years.

An avid cook, cyclist and baseball fan, Frank lives just outside municipal limits, south of Sprague Avenue near the shores of Liberty Lake. He has three kids and 10 grandchildren. When the idea of Liberty

Lake forming a city began to gain momen-tum in the late 1990s, Frank paid for the feasibility study. After the vote for incorpo-ration passed in 2000, he leased the ground floor of his office to the city at a bargain price.

Frank’s emergence as one of the region’s most successful developers involved a cir-cuitous route. The Spokane native earned a degree in chemical engineering from Gon-zaga University and signed on with Mon-santo after graduation, relocating to Idaho and addressing work in air and water pollu-tion control. While at Monsanto, Frank en-rolled in the MBA program at Idaho State but eventually found his way back to Spo-kane to attend Gonzaga Law School.

Law degree in hand, Frank found em-ployment at the Spokane County Air Pol-lution Control Authority, where he worked for four years before opening his own legal practice specializing in land use and en-vironmental law. In 1983, he established Greenstone Homes, juggling both law and real estate development for close to a de-cade before closing down the law office.

Over the years, Frank has never been the self-promoting type, opting instead for a quiet profile that steadily makes a dif-ference. He served for years on the board of Spokane Valley (now Greater Spokane County) Meals on Wheels and has provided technical and financial support to groups like Spokane Housing Ventures and Habitat for Humanity. He formed the Greenstone Foundation to assist a variety of community causes.

The Splash caught up with the Green-stone CEO recently to chat about 30 years of home and community building, Liberty Lake incorporation, urban vs. suburban liv-ing and more.

Q. Greenstone opened shop in 1983. What do you remember about that first year?

A. I was a lawyer at the time. I was practicing land use and environ-mental law. I was familiar with

the industry, having represented people from both sides of the issue. I represented some developers and business owners, but I also represented a lot of neighborhoods. So, I think I gained from that a really good

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• NOVEMBER 20134 The Splash

SPLASH PHOTO BY CRAIG HOWARD

perspective on what the issues were on both sides of the coin. I learned that those sides have a lot more in common than peo-ple generally give them credit for. Mostly people who are developing are trying to do the right thing, and they’re trying to follow regulations. And, very often, people who are in a community want to see economic development happen; they just want to have it happen the right way.

Q: Looking back on three decades of building homes and developing commu-nities, what are you most proud of?

A: I’m most proud that it’s here 30 years later. We’ve been able to build an organiza-tion that has some sustainability to it. That’s due to a lot of people. There aren’t a lot of businesses that last 30 years. Sometimes, (what I’m proud of is) something as simple as a tree. I look at a tree and say, ‘That’s a tree that’s worked out. It was put in the right place, and it’s been there now for 20 years and it looks nice there.’ It’s not just that we build nice houses; it’s caring about those types of things.

Q: With all your success, I’m guessing you’ve probably always been the ambi-tious type. What kind of kid were you in high school?

A: I was probably a nerd. I mean, it wasn’t that I was never involved in athletics. I did get a letter in track in high school, high and low hurdles. Mostly, I was probably nerdy and intellectual, pretty studious.

Q: You’ve talked in the past about grow-ing up in the north central part of Spo-kane where parks, sidewalks and housing diversity really created a strong sense of community. How do you think living in that neighborhood affected some of the priorities that you have instilled at Green-stone?

A: I think my experiences growing up in that neighborhood really formed the foun-dation for a lot of the thinking that we have as a company about what it takes to have a great neighborhood. Having grown up in a very strong and stable neighborhood and looking at the things that made it so and trying to take those factors and apply them in the context of a modern neighborhood. You can’t go back and redo the past, but you can take lessons from the past. There were things there that made that neighborhood work. Parks were kind of the focal point of that community. So, we’ve really looked at parks and open spaces at being critical cen-ter points for the communities we develop. The other part of it was just walkability. You walked to things, and those neighborhoods were a bit more mixed use so stores were close by.

Q: Do you think Liberty Lake has suc-ceeded in being the sort of walkable, mixed-use community with accessible open space that you’re talking about?

FRANKContinued from page 2

A: Liberty Lake has a really nice mix of uses in the community, so things are close by. I’ve asked people ‘Where would you live in Spokane County if you didn’t have a car?’ And honestly, Liberty Lake is one of the few places that you could live and not own a car. Liberty Lake has employment within walking distance, grocery stores and more. I grew up in an area where there was a strong sense of neighborhood where lower density and higher density housing could co-exist with commercial and of-fice uses. It really comes down to a design and the details of that. When you look at Liberty Lake, the details of that have been implemented pretty well, so you’ve got resi-dential , for example, across the street from the Meadowwood Technology Campus. That’s a very nice pedestrian corridor there, and I think the things that are happening on the commercial side of it actually sup-port and enhance what’s happening on the residential side of it.

Q: Where did the vision for the Liberty Lake community originate?

A: It started with a mixed use plan that Bill Main had conceived. It consisted of a retail center and a business district and the residential all merged together in a mixed-use community. HP (Hewlett Packard) was the first commercial tenant. That was the late ’70s. Then it was a decade before any-thing of any consequence came in because you just got caught in the very difficult times for real estate in the early ’80s, when interest rates were sky high. It wasn’t until 1990 when you saw more residential and the commercial, and they both developed side by side. From 1990 over basically the next 25 years, both of them grew at kind of an equal pace. Telect came in and Itron and lots of others at the same time the residen-tial was growing. We have an aerial picture of Liberty Lake in 1994, and there was vir-tually nothing here.

Q: What can you tell us about Bill Main and his role in believing what Liberty Lake could become?

A: I got to know Bill way back in the

days when I was doing land use and envi-ronmental work. He was a real estate devel-oper. He was a visionary. He had some great ideas about land use. The original concept of Meadowwood, which we eventually built out, was the concept that Bill initially had. He got derailed by the very difficult real estate times of the 1980s. He got Meadow-wood approved in 1975 but wasn’t really able to develop it until 1995. In the mean-time, Bill survived all of that. We had a good partnership for about 20 years until Bill re-tired. I think Bill is proud of the way Liberty Lake turned out.

Q: How did the incorporation of Lib-erty Lake in 2001 affect the course of de-velopment here?

A: Liberty Lake formed late so they were able to come in with a set of development regulations that had a real urban character to them. Most jurisdictions have suburban development regulations where these mixed uses don’t take place. They don’t encour-age parks and open space and bike trails or narrow streets and traffic calming. They really were designed for very low-density, automobile-oriented development. (Former Liberty Lake Community Development Di-rector) Doug Smith was instrumental in designing the original set of development regulations for Liberty Lake and I think, by and large, Liberty Lake has done a good job under Doug and other people with the city and the planning commissions we’ve had. We made a provision for a lot of these things we are talking about — narrower, more pedestrian-oriented public right-of-ways, higher density residential regulations that allow for townhouses. Even things like roads standards — you have cities that re-quire big, wide roads. You look at Molter, for example, it has a collector, arterial sta-tus but once the residential area begins, the road narrows and you have those center is-lands and it really slows the traffic down. It’s the same thing with Country Vista. It’s only 32 feet wide, and it’s tree-lined. You have is-lands. These things slow traffic down.

Q: Is it fair to say that the city of Liberty Lake essentially followed Greenstone’s

lead as far as establishing regulations that would determine how the city continued to develop?

A: I think they adopted the concept of mixed use, of walkability, of parks and open space. They saw that and said, ‘That’s the direction we want to go.’ They could have gone a different direction. They could have said we want to be more suburban — we don’t want this mixed-use stuff. I think they made a decision that this was the city we want to be. At the end of the day, the people that were involved in forming the city sup-ported that approach. We were all on the same page. I think that’s part of the reason that Liberty Lake is turning out the way it is. We’re all trying to accomplish the same thing.

Q: How do you think incorporation has worked out overall?

A: I think it’s been fantastic. First of all, you look at the level of service. It’s far supe-rior to what we would have with the county. We have our own library. We have a fantas-tic police department. We have a fantastic police chief. I think it has also strengthened our sense of community. I think we feel like we are a place, that we belong to something. I think that all of us recognize that we are Liberty Lakers. That sense of community has enabled us to move forward with things like Pavillion Park and Rocky Hill Park and the Farmers Market and all kinds of things. Just look at the roadwork that’s been done over the summer.

Q: The latest Greenstone project that we’re hearing a lot about is Kendall Yards, just outside downtown Spokane and actu-ally only about a mile south of where you grew up. Do you think Kendall Yards will have a galvanizing effect in that area in the way a development like Meadowwood did in Liberty Lake?

A: I think there are two or three levels at which Kendall Yards will have an enormous impact. One level is that it’s going to open up public resources that have never been open to the city before. The city has a lot of parkland in the Spokane River gorge. They had a plan and a vision for the river gorge but it was put away on a shelf for 100 years. It really goes back to the Olmsted brothers and the original vision for a parks and open space corridor through the gorge. What

See FRANK, page 7

“When I first moved to Liberty Lake, there were 3,000 people here. These were the people who built a sewer plant, who created trails, who built Pavillion Park, they got HP out here. I saw the power of people working together to make their community stronger.”

— JIM FRANK

Shown here on a bench overlooking Trailhead

Golf Course, Jim Frank is celebrating the 30-year anniversary this year of

the business he founded, Greenstone Homes.

NEWS


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Rate hikes among many items on table to pay for $12.5 million improvementBy Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

The past year has been a time of transi-tion for the Liberty Lake Sewer and Wa-ter District.

To begin with, the award-winning util-ity was faced with the task of replacing a pair of institutional pillars in longtime Commissioner Frank Boyle, who passed away last fall, and veteran General Man-ager Lee Mellish, who retired this spring.

While the successors for Boyle and Mellish — Commissioner Kottayam V. Natarajan Jr. and General Manager BiJay Adams — have continued the district’s tradition of reliable leadership, another significant shift is on the horizon for the organization known throughout the re-gion as a leader in environmental stew-ardship.

As usual, LLSWD is addressing the lat-est challenge with a proactive approach.

The Board of Commissioners meeting on Oct. 8 included a presentation by dis-trict engineer Dennis Fuller of Century West Engineering Corp. outlining the agenda for phase two of the district’s re-claimed water plant upgrade. Along with other wastewater dischargers through-out the state, LLSWD will be required to implement plant improvements to meet standards for reduced phosphorous, am-monia and biochemical oxygen demand in the Spokane River.

The upgrades must be completed by 2018 to meet increasingly stringent re-quirements for wastewater discharge outlined in LLSWD’s most recent operat-ing permit. The new guidelines are being established to safeguard water quality in both the Spokane River and Lake Spo-kane in response to high concentrations of phosphorous, ammonia, oxygen-re-liant pollutants and low river flows that wreak havoc on fish and the accompany-ing ecosystem.

“Basically, this is a compliance sched-ule with certain milestones along the way,” said Dan Grogg, chief operator at the LLSWD water reclamation facility.

The sewer plant first went online in 1982 and underwent a major expansion in 2006. The first phase of upgrades seven years ago ran just under $12 million with the purpose of achieving higher levels of phosphorous removal. The district paid for the project through cash reserves and a loan from the state public works trust fund.

Adams noted that LLSWD was ahead


Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District General Manager BiJay Adams (left) discusses a proposed reclaimed water plant upgrade with Dan Grogg, chief operator of the plant at LLSWD headquarters.

LLSWD evaluating funding for sewer plant upgrade

of the curve in 2006 when it came to meeting required standards.

“We could have waited; we just took the initiative to do it earlier,” he said.

The latest restrictions will set the al-lowable level of phosphorous at 50 mi-crograms per liter, a level Grogg says “our engineers are confident we can meet.”

The district received a $900,000 loan from the Washington State Water Pollu-tion Control Revolving Fund to address design work on phase two of the plant upgrade. The blueprint includes a new filtration building with submerged mem-brane filtration, ultraviolet disinfection system modifications and other minor improvements. The design is expected to be complete by this time next year.

“It’s pretty minimal compared to what was done in 2006,” Adams said.

The district is also monitoring the growth rate in the Liberty Lake area and its impact on reclaimed water treatment. Compared to Spokane County’s rate of 1.26 percent per year, Liberty Lake is growing at a pace of 6.23 percent each year. On the commercial side, the rate in the LLSWD service area is 6 percent.

LLSWD Commissioner Tom Agnew said “there have been no real surprises” thus far in reports pertaining to the im-pending upgrade.

“We’re pretty optimistic we’ll be able to treat our wastewater in a superior fash-

ion,” Agnew said. Cost for the latest plant upgrade has

been established at $12.54 million. Ad-ams said the district will first seek to cov-er the cost through a loan from the same revolving fund being accessed for the de-sign work. The second option would be to tap into the public works trust fund utilized for phase one upgrades. Rate in-creases and issuing bonds have also been mentioned as revenue sources.

“It will most likely be a mixed bag,” Ad-ams said.

Agnew said that while the public works trust fund has historically offered a more favorable interest rate than issuing bonds, a decline in that fund has meant many utilities throughout the state seeking sup-port elsewhere. He expressed hope that the fund might be bolstered during the next legislative session.

“We’re seeing more communities not as eligible for the public works trust fund,” Agnew said. “Everything is still on the table, though. I just know that the sooner we get this thing financed, the cheaper it’s going to be. Interest rates are not going down.”

The district does not qualify for hard-ship grants to pay for the project based on its current low rates and income levels of the area it serves. Adams added that rate hikes could be part of the overall funding scenario at some point.

“Rates are probably going to increase because we’ll have to pay the loan back,” he said. “We just don’t know when and how much.”

As for the three-year gap between the deadline for plant improvements and implementation of the restrictions, Ad-ams said regulators like the Department of Ecology understand the transition will take time.

“It will be the best available technology out there to remove phosphorous,” Ad-ams said. “We’re changing the dynamic of the plant. They’re giving us until 2021 to ramp up.”

Ultimately, filtration improvements at the plant will result in the discharge of Class A reclaimed water that could be utilized for irrigation purposes. Adams said areas that could benefit from such ir-rigation include local golf courses, parks and agricultural land near the treatment plant as well as Saltese Flats to the west. The district has already installed 4,500 feet of reclaimed water line, commonly referred to as “purple pipe.”

Adams said the transport of water to a site like Saltese Flats would be more cost-effective than delivery to a closer property such as the Meadowwood Golf Course.

“Saltese is twice as far away as Mead-owwood, but you’re not digging up roads,” he said.

NEWS


happened was the railroads were already on that property when the Olmsted broth-ers created that report. The railroads shut that property off. There were three major railroad lines through there, so it became a factory railroad yard. Now that area can be accessed. I think the second thing that Kendall Yards will do is demonstrate the vi-ability of urban neighborhoods, that they are wonderful places. We didn’t really have a strong urban neighborhood before Kend-all Yards. I think people will look at Kendall Yards and say, ‘These townhouses are work-ing. The concept of mixing residential and commercial is working.’ I think that will be transforming over the next 20 years. I think the final thing that Kendall Yards is doing is injecting an enormous amount of invest-ment into the West Central neighborhood. As a result, I think you’ll see some real changes in that neighborhood.

Q: Speaking of mixed use development and transforming a neighborhood, what is your opinion on the idea of a central business district in Liberty Lake? The idea was introduced a few years ago but we haven’t heard much about it for a while.

A: I think it’s still in the plan. You have to recognize that to make that change is going to take time. Once the new freeway inter-change is in, I think narrowing Liberty Lake Road to two or three lanes makes sense. There’s no reason for it to be five lanes. That’s going to open up an open space pe-destrian corridor there that makes it easier to get to the bridge over the freeway. I think it opens up the opportunity, as properties there are developed, to create street front-ing, retail uses. You have a lot of uses on that street already, so it’s really just a matter of how those uses are going to redevelop. It’s not that complicated. It would be a varia-tion of what’s already there, but by narrow-ing that street you can start to create a cen-ter for Liberty Lake, and that’s one thing we don’t have right now.

Q: The most talked about property in Liberty Lake — the 6.4 acres owned by the city — sits right outside your office. The city has revisited a plan for a townsquare park recently, but are you disappointed that nothing has been developed there yet?

A: I think over time, some things can hap-pen to an area that could be an urban core for the city. If some level of municipal ser-vices can happen there, it will probably be a good thing. It could probably be used for some kind of mixed-use development once the city decides what it’s going to do. I don’t think the city can use the entire 6.4 acres. Some of it they could use for city functions and the rest of it could go to urban infill kind of uses. There’s open space there that could allow the Farmers Market to expand and become more viable. There’s been talk that it would be a good place for a new post

office. I think it’s all part of an evolution there, but I don’t think it’s going to happen over a five-year period; it’s going to be 10 or 20 years. A big key to that is a new freeway interchange, because all the traffic will then not be on Liberty Lake Road. Some of it will be on a bridge that will be located to the west. When that happens, there’s no reason for Liberty Lake Road to be four lanes any-more. The city has to have a vision. I think they do have the right vision for what that downtown core will be over time.

Q: It’s clear your company is about more than just building homes. Themes like conservation, preservation and resto-ration seem to emerge often when Green-stone is involved in a development. Why is a priority placed on these pursuits?

A: There are assets that every community has that are irreplaceable. You want to make sure that the things that make you special and unique stay there. I think there are a lot of things we’ve done in Liberty Lake as a community that fall into that conser-vation category. Part of it is protecting the lake watershed. I think we’ve done a good job of that. The community as a whole, the sewer district, the city, the people who live around the lake, everyone has been a con-tributor to preserving that lake watershed. There are some important corridors from the lake to the freeway. That corridor along Liberty Lake Road that serves as outlet for the lake, stormwater control, open space and pedestrian space is another important corridor that’s been preserved. Then, along the Spokane River, just recognizing that the corridor and the habitat along the river are irreplaceable. All of those things have been a big part of Liberty Lake and a big part of our philosophy as a company. You have to recognize what’s important and try to main-tain that. When we developed Rocky Hill, we saw that rocky knoll and realized this could be a very special place. It’s been part of this land for a long time, so we wanted to protect that. At Rocky Hill Park, four acres of that park are that rocky knoll.

Q: What’s the best part about living in Liberty Lake?

A: We are all neighbors, we support each other, we work together to solve problems. When I first moved to Liberty Lake, there were 3,000 people here. These were the people who built a sewer plant, who created trails, who built Pavillion Park, they got HP out here. I saw the power of people working together to make their community stronger. Part of it is creating opportunities to gather. It’s really trying to understand what it takes to build community. You throw mud on the wall and some of it sticks and some of it doesn’t. I really think the Farmers Market is mud on the wall that stuck. It’s really been fantastic for building that sense of com-munity. It’s become an institution out here. People come to the market just to gather. It’s kind of having a vision and working to find an answer that works for everyone. We’ve been fortunate here in Liberty Lake — a lot of it’s worked.

FRANKContinued from page 4

[email protected]

E N D O R S E M E N T SNATIONAL LEGISLATORFormer Congressman George Nethercutt

STATE LEGISLATORSFormer Representative Lynn SchindlerFormer Representative David Buri

LIBERTY LAKE ELECTED OFFICIALSMayor Steve PetersonMayor Pro Tem Patrick Jenkins (Former)Council Member Dennis Paul (Former)Council Member Joanna Klegin (Former)Council Member Tim Shea (Former)

Friends of Liberty Lake:Duane and Andre AltonNancy and Matt AltonBarry and Sheri BakerBob and Christana BoylePat and Linda DockreyDick EdwardsElaine EdwardsMary EdwardsWadie ElaimyWayne FrostBob and Barbara GambleSilvia and David Gnotta

Harry and Joyce HansenBob and Melissa HaskinsBob and Vicki HaskinsRobin HendrickStan and Karina JochimKevin and Tracy KendrickBetty and Mike KennedyRoy KoegenDebbie LowthanMike and Pat LutzenbergerMary Kay MaceHolli ParkerRich and Cindy Perry

Marcus PolandLinda SchneiderJeff and Gaye SeversBailey ShepherdHalle ShepherdBen SmallBob VaudreySunil Wahdwani R. PhD.Tracy Wahdwani R. PhD.Don and Nancy WalkerNick and Leslie ZilkaCharmaine, “PECOS” and

“RICO” Peterson

Vote

Debbi Haskinsfor City Council

Position One

Investing in the Future of

Liberty Lake

COUNTY ELECTED OFFICIALSCounty Commissioner Shelly O’QuinnCounty Commissioner Todd MielkeCounty Commissioner Al French

COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS LEADERSBill and Judi Williams – Telect FoundersHarry Mielke – Arbor CrestDan Osborne – Premier ManufacturingBrian and Judy Jorgensen – Heartland MallBob Samuel – Samuel and CompanyBarry Baker – Baker ConstructionKoegen Edwards LLPBobby Brett – Brett Sports and Entertainment

NEWS


Calls for serviceReported by the Liberty Lake Police Department from Sept. 23 to Oct. 21Agency assist 1Alarm 2Burglary 7Business or license violation 1Child abuse or neglect 1Citizen assist 4Citizen dispute 3Deceased person 2Domestic violence 5Drug sale/manufacture 1DUI 5Fraud 1Fugitive 1Harassment 2Lost or found property 1Malicious mischief 3Property theft 3Recovered stolen vehicle 1Resisiting/interfering with police 1Suspicious person/circumstance 5Threatening 2Traffic accident 3Traffic offense 20Vehicle prowl 4Welfare check 4

CitationsReported by the Liberty Lake Police Department from Sept. 23 to Oct. 21Assault IV 4Defective muffler 2Driving without license/ID 1DUI 5DWLS 22Effective windshield wipers 1Expired registration 13 Failure to obey traffic control 1Failure to stop/yield 1Fugitive of the state 1Liability insurance 21Solicitor/peddler license 1Speeding 36Speeding in school zone 1Theft 1Use of cell phone 1

Police ReportNEWS

The following incidents, arrests, calls for service and citations were among those reported by the Liberty Lake Police Department between Sept. 23 and Oct. 21. The incident report is listed in chrono-logical order.

Incidents and arrest• Fraud — At 4:30 p.m. Sept. 23, LLPD

responded to the 1200 block of North Liberty Lake Road for a fraud complaint. The complainant called to report the manager of Safeway had contacted her regarding a man who came into the store and tried to pass a check in the amount of $208.69 under her name. The man had passed the check to the store clerk, who had called the manager over to approve the check after noticing that his name had been added on top of hers on the face of the check. The manager took a picture of the check and the man’s identification, and at that point he ran out of the store. Charges of identity theft and fraud were forwarded to the prosecutor for review.

• Family dispute over spanking — At 8:04 p.m. Sept. 23, LLPD was dispatched to the 25000 block of East Hawkstone Loop in regards to child abuse. The com-plainant reported an intoxicated male was hitting her grandchild. Upon arrival, of-ficers made contact with the male subject, who reported that he was babysitting for a neighbor and when the grandmother of the child arrived he started to act up and the male subject spanked him on the rear-end with an open hand. The grandmother reportedly did not like this and contacted police. The mother of the child reported that she did not believe the male subject had done anything wrong as her son becomes obstinate to not listen and becomes upset easily. The mother also reported that the grandmother dislikes anyone who is brought around the children. Officers also tried to speak with the child, who appeared extremely tired and would not talk with them. His mother asked him several times to go to bed, and he would not listen and remained on the sofa. An officer advised him to listen to his mother, and he went into his room. No crime committed, but the babysitter was advised it would be best if he did not physically punish the child.

• Assault — A 34-year-old Liberty Lake man was arrested at 6:26 p.m. Sept. 24 at the 23000 block of East Boone for assault. A witness reported the man threw his girlfriend off of the porch and onto the ground. The female got up but appeared to have hurt her ankle. Officers arrived and spoke to the female, who reported that she had been residing with the man and dating for the past seven months and started arguing when he requested she move out, as he intended to make amends with his ex-wife. The female victim then reported she became upset and threw water at the man and kicked

holes in the wall. The man reportedly hit and shoved the female but said he only did so to keep her away from him. He said he only threw her to the ground in order to keep her from damaging the walls. Officers arrested the man for assault, and he was booked into Spokane County Jail. Charges were also forwarded to the pros-ecutor for the female victim, who may be charged with malicious mischief depen-dant on the prosecutor’s decision.

• Assault — A 26-year-old Liberty Lake man was arrested at 5:40 p.m. Sept. 25 at the 22000 block of East Country Vista Drive for assault. LLPD was dispatched regarding a possible domestic violence in progress. Upon arrival, the victim reported she and her boyfriend had lived together for five years and an argument had started when she had asked him to stop playing video games and help her. He reportedly struck her in the back of the head with his arm. When the victim tried to contact 911, he attempted to remove the phone from her face by placing his hand inside her mouth causing a tear to the inside of her mouth. The victim reported the man had been violent in the past. Based on the evidence and injuries, the man was trans-ported to the Spokane County Jail, where he was booked for assault.

• Child luring — At 6:50 p.m. Sept. 25, LLPD responded to the 24000 block of East Desmet Road in response to a child luring incident. The complainant reported he and his brother were playing in the front yard of their neighbor’s residence when he heard the sound of a girl scream somewhere west of the location. A couple minutes later, he observed a white older model van parked approximately 100 feet away near the mailboxes. The complain-ant observed the male driver of the van exit the vehicle, then open and close the back doors before getting back into the van. When the complainant looked over at the male driver, the male would look away and act as though he was doing something. The two boys decided to go in-side their house and as they were approxi-mately 30 feet from the front door, the van started to drive towards them. As the male drove by them, he put his arm out the window and yelled, “Hey.” The boys went inside and heard tires “screech” before observing the van drive away westbound. The van is described as being an older model, white in color with tinted windows. Complainant reported that although the windows were tinted, you could still see inside them. There were no visible markings on the van, and the boys did not think the van had a front license plate. Neither of the two boys had seen the van in the area before. The driver is described as being a white male in his 40s with a skinny build, short hair and a black beard. If you see this van or the driver in the area, please contact law enforcement immediately given the recent luring inci-

dents reported in Spokane County.• Child luring follow-up — At 11:27

a.m. Sept. 26, LLPD initiated a traffic stop for a vehicle matching the descrip-tion of a vehicle implicated in the recent child luring incidents in Spokane County at Interstate 90 and North Liberty Lake Road. Upon contact, the officer observed all the seats had been taken out of the back. When asked about this, the driver claimed he didn’t have seats in the back due to his part-time job of moving elderly with wheelchairs. When asked why he didn’t have a ramp, the driver claimed the lift and ramp were currently out of the vehicle. An incident report was taken.

• Vehicle prowl — At 5:15 a.m. Sept. 27, LLPD responded to the 1800 block of North Caufield for a vehicle prowl. The complainant reported someone had entered his vehicle during the night and stole $10 in change. There were no signs of forced entry, and the complainant said the vehicle was unlocked. The complain-ant reported an incident of the same nature a few weeks prior where his wallet was taken from his vehicle and a gas card used at a local gas station. The complain-ant was advised to keep his vehicle locked.

• Theft — At 5:55 p.m. Sept. 29, LLPD responded to a theft at the 1900 block of North Aladdin Road. A victim reported his vehicle had been entered overnight and a 38-caliber black revolver had been stolen along with a $400 pair of prescription sun-glasses. The victim reportedly locked the vehicle so was unsure of how the person entered his vehicle. No serial number for the firearm could be located.

• Harassment — A 38-year-old Kent, Wash., woman was arrested at 11:13 a.m. Sept. 29 at the Spokane Airport for harassment that took place at the 25000 block of East Hawkstone Loop. The victim reported being in a current custody battle with his ex-girlfriend (the arrested woman), who threatened to have him killed and threatened to assault his current girlfriend. An LLPD officer arrived and spoke to the victim, who reported the woman has been telling drug dealers and gang members from the west side of the state that the victim is an informant and should be killed. A voicemail message was played for the officer where the woman made threatening remarks, but was not very clear as she was yelling loudly. The officer decided that based upon the in-formation provided, he would detain the woman at the airport for interview. Upon arrival at the airport, the woman was es-corted to an interview room and advised of her Miranda rights. After the interview, the officer placed the woman under ar-rest for domestic violence threats to kill, at which point she cursed and yelled at the officer. She was transported to the Spokane County Jail. Charges were also forwarded to the prosecutor for harass-ment in regards to threats to assault the

victim’s current girlfriend. • Burglary — At 5:01 a.m. Oct. 2, LLPD

responded to the 23000 block of East Valleyway for an occupied residential burglary. The complainant reported that during the night, the residence had been entered and an estimated $1,260 in items taken. The complainant’s family reported being asleep while the burglary was tak-ing place. No signs of forced entry were found, and it was determined the door may have been left unlocked. The incident was referred to the LLPD detective.

• Stolen vehicle — At 3:39 a.m. Oct. 3, LLPD recovered a stolen vehicle at the

See POLICE, page 9


For Balanced Growth And Economic DevelopmentRetain

Lori OLANDERLiberty Lake City Council, Position 1

If you are too busy with family and careers to follow or get involved in politics, let me be your spokesman.

I will continue to stand for the following:• A smaller government that lives within its means

• Maintaining funding for public safety, streets, parks and trails

• Encouraging economic growth by decreasing the utility tax and actively recruiting businesses

• Developing a plan for growth that maintains the community feel as the city doubles in size over the next several years

Endorsed by We Believe ~ We Vote

I would like to hear how you want your tax dollars spent … pool, parks, community center?

[email protected]

Winner of a $25 Toys R Us gift

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NEWS

2300 block of North Madson Road. An of-ficer driving through the parking lot of the Quality Inn and Suites noted the driver’s side door of the vehicle was open. After running the plate and coming back as sto-len, the registered owner was contacted. At the request of the owner, the vehicle was searched and an air soft pistol that had been painted black was taken into evidence. At 7:20 a.m., the owner of the vehicle called 911 to report the vehicle had been stolen again, but after making contact with an officer, it was discovered the owner had gone to the wrong motel to pick up the car. The officer waited on site with the car until the owner took possession of the vehicle. At 11:27 a.m., a female made contact with LLPD in regards to finding out if her vehicle had been towed. The female suspect stated she woke up and her vehicle was gone and wanted to know if it had been towed by an officer. After questioning, the subject became evasive and when asked for a lo-cation an officer could meet her and take a report, a male subject in the background could be heard saying, “hang up.” Both in-dividuals were identified and the incident was placed under further investigation.

• Golf cart dispute — At 7:28 p.m. Oct. 4, LLPD made contact with two subjects

in regards to a threat at East Country Vista Drive and North Legacy Ridge Drive. A complainant’s 13-year-old daughter was picking up school children from a bus stop in a golf cart, when a female subject stopped the girl and began yelling and threatening her. Both parties involved were given information on the rules and regulations to driving a golf cart.

• Garage burglary — At 10:04 a.m. Oct. 6, LLPD was dispatched to the 20000 block of East Deschutes Avenue in response to a residential burglary. Upon arrival, the complainant reported leaving the garage door open during the night and finding in the morning that a bike valued at $800 and a weed eater were missing.

• Unattended children — At 11:20 a.m. Oct. 6, LLPD received a call for a welfare check at the 25000 block of East Hawk-stone Loop. The complainant called and requested police check on his child, as he believed he and his siblings had been left alone overnight. Officers arrived and spoke to the 10-year-old, who reported his mother had gone to the grocery store and left him with his 7-year-old and 11-month-old siblings. He became con-cerned when she didn’t return home. He reportedly called his mother and texted her multiple times with no response. When he woke up in the morning, his mother was still not home. Officers made contact with the mother, who reported she had been to the casino and

had stayed there until 2 a.m., when she returned home and went to sleep. She reported waking up at 7 a.m. and going back to the casino. She reported she did not make contact with her children during that time. Officers advised the subject it was inappropriate to leave her children unattended overnight. This report will be forwarded to another agency for review.

• Stolen property — At 8 a.m. Oct. 8, LLPD was dispatched to the intersection of East Mission and North Molter in regards to a theft. A complainant reported that sometime during the night, a portable light stand that belonged to Wm. Winkler Co. was stolen from a worksite. Officers were provided with the VIN number and license plate information along with photographs of the trailer, which is valued at $9,000. The case was put under investigation.

• Drug arrest — A 32-year-old Otis Orchards woman was arrested at 12:46 p.m. Oct. 8 on eastbound Interstate 90 for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver — heroin, 100 grams. She was booked into Spokane County Jail.

• Golf cart accident — At 3:50 p.m. Oct. 11, LLPD responded to the 21000 block of East Country Vista Drive for a golf cart accident. Officers spoke to witnesses, who reported a boy sitting on the lap of another rider had fallen out of the cart and struck his head on the asphalt when the driver took a turn. The victim incurred a cut to the back of his head.

• Burglary — At 12:11 a.m. Oct. 13, LLPD responded to the 1600 block of North Cirque Lane for a burglary. The complainant reported going outside and noticing the garage door was open, her vehicle dome light was on and a purse was missing. Officers arrived, and the complainant reported a mountain bike, a pair of ski boots, a wine picnic backpack and a set of keys in her purse had also been taken, estimating the loss at $160.

• Shoplifting — A 47-year-old Spokane Valley woman was arrested at 1:06 p.m. Oct. 13 at the 1200 block of North Liberty Lake Road for theft. She reportedly tried to leave a local store with $44.76 in products but was caught and was being detained. An officer arrived and placed the woman under arrest for theft.

• Burglary — At 5:45 a.m. Oct. 16, LLPD responded to the 1600 block of North Holl Road when a complainant reported that someone had entered his garage over-night and stolen two mountain bikes, a wrench and socket kit, a reciprocating saw and ammunition. The items were valued at $1,100.

• Burglary — At 2:21 p.m. Oct. 16, LLPD took a report of a burglary at a home construction site at the 20000 block of East Glenbrook. The complainant report-ed that a $1,500 gas fireplace had been stolen sometime between Sept. 22-23, causing $200 in damage. The matter was placed under investigation.

POLICEContinued from page 8


Oct. 2 forum among few opportunities to deliver messageBy Josh JohnsonSPLASH STAFF WRITER

Of the six candidates vying for the three contested Liberty Lake City Council seats in the Nov. 5 election, four are new faces to city government. Outside of old-fashioned door-belling and sign-waving, an Oct. 2 fo-rum organized by the Greater Spokane Val-ley Chamber of Commerce presented one of the few opportunities to visit with voters.

A crowd of about 50 people attended to hear from five of the candidates — Position 1 challenger Debbi Haskins missed after an unexpected four-day stay in the hospital, for which she has recovered.

With ballots already mailed to vot-ers and the election less than a week after publication date, The Splash pulled from comments at the forum as well as separate interviews with each of the candidates to shed light on the topics being discussed in each race as the finish line approaches.

While many topics were covered, this article will specifically highlight three: 1. What uniquely qualifies the candidate; 2. The candidate’s view of the utility tax; and 3. One person or thing the candidate ad-mired from recent City Council history.

Candidate qualificationsPosition 1

Lori Olander, 50, a nurse anesthetist who is retired from serving in the U.S. Navy, may not have had her opponent at the forum, but she worked hard to distinguish herself nonetheless with a mantra of “small govern-ment, low taxes and balanced growth.”

Appointed as a Council member is June 2012, she has been one of the most consis-tent critics of the utility tax, stating at the forum that “all of services we want to pro-vide need to be paid for with the sales tax.”

She said she is nervous about rapid growth — especially residential growth that

is outpacing the capacity of local schools — and said the city’s “biggest challenge is retaining that feel as a small city as we surge ahead anticipating a doubling of our size.”

Haskins, 51, works as a paralegal for Koe-gen Edwards LLP, a job she said has pro-vided a wealth of experience in the world of municipal finance. The law firm represents Spokane County and many cities and towns — although, she made clear, Liberty Lake was not among them — all experience she believes would suit her well for a role on the finance committee.

“I’ve been to numerous (meetings of) county commissioner, City Council, school board, library board, fire district — a lot of work with government,” she said. “We are doing bond issues so we’re doing things and we’re helping people, so I get to see the good side of what can happen.”

Haskins, who was born and raised in Spokane Valley and moved to Liberty Lake three years ago, met Mayor Steve Peterson through her job. She talked to Peterson be-fore deciding to interview for a vacancy on the Council last year, and when she decided to run for election this time, Peterson en-dorsed her candidacy.

Position 2The only position without an incumbent

— Council Member Josh Beckett chose not to seek another term — this will be the first political office for either Hugh Severs, 27, or Jeff Sitton, 36.

Severs runs a financial strategies group with Northwestern Mutual and has a de-gree in landscape architecture. As a resi-dent of the River District, he said he wants to be a part of maintaining the traits that caused he and his wife to choose Liberty Lake to raise their two sons, ages 6 and 3.

“(They) are the inspiration for my desire to make our community as awesome for them as it is for us,” he said.

Sitton owns Spokane Roofing Co. and is also the father of two young children, ages 5 and 3. He emphasized his experience making difficult decisions and abilities as a communicator as reasons he would do a good job.

“I feel that as a City Council member,

I will bring forth a common-sense ap-proach, a positive, proactive attitude and a willingness to get the job done,” he said.

Position 4Incumbent Odin Langford, 61, has served

as a Council member since 2007. His chal-lenger, Mike Tedesco, 35, has a master’s de-gree in urban planning and has held various jobs focusing on economic development.

The age disparity between the two led to one of the lighter moments at the candidate forum, when Tedesco joked that “part of my (campaign) approach is bringing a fresh perspective — because I’m really trying to accentuate the age difference between us.”

Langford responded by recalling a quote by Ronald Reagan: “I will not use (age) to my advantage, nor will I ever declare that his youth and inability and inexperience is an issue.”

Both men emphasized public safety. Langford has a master’s degree in criminal justice, and Tedesco said his urban planning expertise is also useful in this area, citing the example of how planning for mixed-income housing correlates with lower crime. Like Severs, Tedesco is seeking to be the first Council member from the River District.

Langford also distinguished himself from other candidates by making a point to talk about paying off all long-term debts.

Utility taxPosition 1

Olander said at the forum that while she hadn’t though much about the utility tax when she first joined the Council, it “has kind of become a topic I’ve championed.” She called the link between the tax and the street maintenance program it is now linked to “a little bit artificial.”

“We never had it for our street fund before; it’s just that amount of money has freed up the general fund to build up a fairly large amount of money that’s not reserves and that’s available for spending on projects,” she said, adding that growth should provide an influx of sales and prop-erty tax to pay for these needs.

She added that the tax hurts business recruitment, using Spokane Valley as an example of a city that only taxes telephone.

Haskins said that in her view, the city is running really well at present, “and if something’s going well, don’t try to change something.”

“I know the big taboo word right now is the utility tax, but I think that’s what’s helping this community,” Haskins said. “It doesn’t mean we need to keep it at what it is right now.”

She said that as far as the argument that a prior Council planned for the utility tax to be phased out, “it’s pretty difficult in this environment to ever know what’s going to happen in this economy.”

She said she would want to study more to know what rate she thinks the tax should be charged at, but that she is “defi-nitely opposed to raising it.”

Position 2Sitton and Severs both expressed an in-

terest in maintaining the tax at its current 3 percent rate — at least for now.

Sitton did say he would be open to “tweaking” the tax to make it more busi-ness friendly.

“We want to attract businesses,” he said. “In regards to the utility tax, I believe it brings in about $660,000 per year ... and $40,000 of that is paid by Huntwood, I understand. You know, that’s a chunk of change for any business.”

Severs praised city staff and the research and expertise that went into recommend-ing the continued need for the tax in con-junction with street maintenance.

“Maybe (in the future) we are able to lower it, I don’t know. That will be a topic I’m sure we’ll be looking at maybe 5, 10, 15 years from now,” he said, emphasizing that the need to keep the city on track with great infrastructure was paramount for the time being.

Position 4Tedesco’s approach to the utility tax was

unique from other candidates in that he

Candidates work to make case to votersHaskins Olander Severs Sitton Langford TedescoPOSITION 1 POSITION 2 POSITION 4

See ELECTION, page 21


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Elect a City Council (Pos 2.) member with common sense, ethics and real world experience who will fight for: • Family-Oriented, Safe, Clean Community• Strategic & Efficient use of Government Resources• Business Friendly, Economically Stimulating Environment

Endorsements Individuals:Fmr. Congressman

George NethercuttMayor Steve Peterson Barry BakerWayne FrostMike & Pat LutzenbergerAndy OlsonCharmaine PetersonBob WieseBill & Judi Williams

Organizations:We Believe We Vote

“ I love raising my young children in Liberty Lake, but I’m concerned about where improperly planned growth can take a city. As your Council member, I’ll strive to make Liberty Lake even better than today for our children and grandchildren.”

— Hugh


IN THE BOOKS, ON THE DOCKETA look back and ahead at business conducted by the Liberty Lake City Council

By Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

In the Books (October)• Council heard a report from Kevin

Wallace, executive director of the Spo-kane Regional Transportation Council, on the agency’s 20-year transportation plan known as “Horizon 2040.” Wal-lace said the document would address the diverse transportation needs of the community while placing a priority on economic vitality and job growth. Pub-lic comment on the plan began Oct. 18, with the SRTC board expected to grant its approval by Dec. 12. Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson is currently serv-ing as chair of the board.

• Bob Wiese and fellow members of the Fallen Heroes Circuit Course com-mittee gave a report of the ribbon cut-ting ceremony at the first installment in Rocky Hill Park on Sept. 21, thanking the mayor, council and city staff for their support of the project. The course will eventually consist of five install-ments honoring each branch of the military with the next feature planned for Pavillion Park.

• Council unanimously approved the second reading of Ordinance No. 207, amending the city development code and the River District Specific Area Plan Overlay. The list of 14 amend-ments had been recommended by the Planning Commission.

• Bob Schneidmiller, president of Friends of Pavillion Park, announced the ticket price for the FOPP Holiday Ball in December will be reduced from $100 to $75. The event serves as the organization’s main fundraiser for the park’s summer concert series. Schnei-dmiller also said that FOPP has begun seeking sponsorship support from lo-cal businesses for specific events during the summer. Schneidmiller called 2013 at the park, “the best year ever.”

• Council unanimously approved an interfund loan for the Harvard Road Mitigation Fund. Finance Director R.J. Stevenson said the loan will be utilized for two objectives — to fund the Har-vard Road roundabout project and as a match for the Local Infrastructure Fi-nancing Tool.

• Council unanimously approved the second reading of Ordinance No. 208, establishing Aquifer Protection Fund 411. The fund will include the city’s portion of revenue from a $15 fee per household earmarked for protection of the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

• City Administrator Katy Allen passed along the recommendation of the city’s salary commission regarding compensation for elected officials. The pay for mayor has been advised to in-crease from $750 to $1,250 per month, with council salaries going from $250 to $400 per month. There is a 30-day window for public feedback on the rec-ommendations, expected to be includ-ed as part of the 2014 budget. The sal-ary commission will provide a detailed report at the Nov. 5 council meeting.

• Council Member Shane Brickner applauded city staff at the Oct. 1 coun-cil meeting and, in particular, Plan-ning and Building Services Manager Amanda Tainio, for quick reaction to a business that was going door-to-door throughout the city on Sept. 27. The company had not received permission from the city and was told to refrain from further canvassing.

On the docket (November)• A full report from the salary com-

mission regarding the recommenda-tion of pay raises for the mayor and City Council.

• A presentation from the Liberty Lake Rotary Club.

• Public hearings on the 2014 budget (Nov. 5 and 19 City Council meetings).

• A possible second read ordinance for a budget amendment regarding the Liberty Lake Ball Fields.

• Based on budget discussions, the possible awarding of a contract for pub-lic art at the Harvard Road roundabout.

• A resolution levying property taxes.


Mayor Steve Peterson and representa-tives of the Liberty Lake City Council sported new lapel-pin microphones at their meeting on Oct. 15.

While the enhanced sound system may have magnified the conversation around the dais, it was Peterson’s introduction of the 2014 municipal budget from the po-dium that stole the show.

With a priority on “staying ahead of the curve,” the mayor told the governing board that the financial game plan for next year would “focus on transportation and retail sales development” while also addressing improve-ments at city-owned prop-erties like Pavillion Park and the Liberty Lake Police precinct.

“In 2012, I came into of-fice and set about to imple-ment a plan,” Peterson said. “We’ve listened to citizens and tried to respond.”

The mayor’s overview of the budget for next year began with a list of municipal highlights from 2013, including the installation of the Fallen Heroes Circuit Course at Rocky Hill Park, construction of the Harvard Road roundabout and the arrival of Vivint Inc.

“Vivint chose Liberty Lake because of the people here, because they like the community,” Peterson said.

Spending priorities for 2014 will address “the issues of today,” Peterson told the council. Expenditures for next year will include upgrades to lighting, landscaping and drainage at Pavillion Park ($265,000) as well as the first phase of the Liberty Lake Sports Fields ($885,000). Consisting of 19 total funds, the 2014 budget tops out at nearly $10.8 million.

City Administrator Katy Allen described how the city plans to move ahead with the development of a townsquare park at the center of the city in 2014. The $655,000 project would cover two of the 6.4 acres along Meadowwood Lane and include a 39-space parking lot, amphitheater, land-scaping and stormwater improvements and walking trails. Greenstone Inc., whose main office sits adjacent to the property, would cover street upgrades.

The bulk of the city’s portion for the

project — $450,000 — would be covered by allocations from the real estate excise tax. The Spokane Transit Authority — which operates a bus park-and-ride lot on the site — would cover $80,000 of the cost.

“We do have a plan,” Allen said. “This shows you what the project would look like and how we would pay for it.”

While controversy over the utility tax swirled throughout 2013, the 3 percent toll on cable, phone, gas, electric and waste management is slated to continue as a cen-tral revenue source for 2014. Funds from

the tax are now dedicated to road preservation such as the kind seen on Valley-way and Mission this year. While no street capital proj-ects are scheduled for 2014, Allen said the city would like to address renovation designs for Appleway and Liberty Lake Road next year while aiming for construc-tion in 2015.

Next year’s budget will also allot funds to driv-ing range improvements at the Trailhead at Liberty

Lake Golf Course as well as the purchase of maintenance equipment and golf carts. The city will continue to pay down the debt on the golf course in 2014 but see the debt retired on City Hall in June of next year. Through three quarters of this year, Trailhead revenue is exceeding expendi-tures by $120,000.

Parks and open space will also benefit from the addition of half-a-dozen season-al workers in 2014, bolstering the main-tenance crew to 20. At Rocky Hill Park, money has been set aside for the reno-vation of an historic barn for equipment storage.

On the public safety side, $130,000 is earmarked in the police capital fund for a records management system and a poten-tial replacement of the roof at the precinct building.

Along with a banner year in permit rev-enue — the total for 2013 is projected at $450,000 — new construction in Liberty Lake will translate to good news on the property tax front. The city added roughly $32 million in assessed valuation this year. The influx of permitting work will also mean moving a part-time building inspec-tor to full-time status with benefits in 2014.

Council Member Cris Kaminskas raised

Mayor presents council with balanced, diverse budget for 2014

one of the few concerns about the budget at the Oct. 15 meeting when she ques-tioned the amount of $100,000 set aside for public art at the Harvard Road round-about. Council will continue to funnel their inquiries to city staff through a pro-gram called “Mayor’s Budget Questions” introduced last year. Prior to the passage of the 2013 budget, the governing board generated a total of 53 MBQs.

“Send us your questions,” Peterson im-

plored at the end of the budget overview. Allen added that the unveiling of finan-

cial strategies for next year sets the stage for feedback and discussion from council members.

“We have a lot of time to answer your questions and go over what’s in the bud-get,” she said.

Council is required to pass the 2014 bud-

See COUNCIL, page 13

ONLINE ONLYThe Liberty Lake City Council met Oct. 29

(after the press deadline for this month’s Splash) for a special budget meeting. Read about it online today at www.libertylakesplash.com.

NEWS



Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson introduces the municipal budget for 2014 at the Oct. 15 meeting of the City Council.

get by Dec. 31. A special budget meeting was held Oct. 29 at City Hall, while the first public hearing on the document is set for Nov. 5. Citizens will have another chance on Nov. 19 to provide feedback on the budget.

Sports field project re-bidMeanwhile, the starting date for the first

phase of the Liberty Lake Sports Fields landed just outside the foul line last month.

At the Oct. 1 City Council meeting, City Administrator Katy Allen told the govern-ing board that construction of the much-anticipated site would need to be re-bid due to a protest by one of three companies vy-ing for the project.

“The third lowest bidder has protested the bid and in reviewing the RCW (state law), if the protest is legitimate, we cannot award the bid,” Allen said.

Allen explained that the snag occurred when a separate line item for excavation work was left out of the original bid. While AM Landshaper Inc. came in with the low-est bid at a sum within the city’s budget, the entire process would reconvene at the start-ing line later in October.

Welch Comer Engineers, the Coeur d’Alene firm involved in the design of the project, will absorb the rebidding cost. Meanwhile, awarding of the design and construction of the second phase of the Sports Fields to Welch Comer was also ta-bled for consideration at a later date.

In June, council voted to move ahead with development of the western portion of a 20-acre lot purchased from the Cen-tral Valley School District last year. The plan calls for a pair of baseball diamonds, a picnic shelter, concrete walking paths and 79 parking spaces with a total price tag of $800,000. At the same meeting, council checked off on Welch Comer to design the first phase of the work at a cost of $44,000.

On Oct. 1, Allen said numbers are still being crunched on the second phase of the project — to include flexible sports fields — with a goal of including cost estimates in the 2014 budget process. Council has identified the development of the eastern plot as one of three municipal priorities for next year. The second phase hinges on plans Central Valley School District has for a potential school on the site.

While Allen shed light on the status of future sports fields, another topic on the city administrator’s agenda required some illumination of the solar variety.

Since mid-August, the city has been talk-ing with a company called Western Renew-able Energy about a project that would add solar panels to the building that houses the Liberty Lake Municipal Library and the Liberty Lake Police Department. Al-len told council on Oct. 1 that a feasibility study and design work would cost the city

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$4,000, followed by another $11,000 if the project moved forward.

All of the expenditures on the city’s side would eventually be reimbursed following installation of the panels. The overall cost of the project has been estimated at $750,000.

Investors in renewable energy projects involving public buildings like a library, City Hall or police station are able to earn tax credits while the municipal entity real-izes significant savings in utility charges. Allen said the police/library project “could take the building off the grid.”

Allen noted that Western Renewable En-ergy had recently completed installation of solar panels on the campus of Whitworth University and cities like Spokane and Spo-kane Valley are currently looking into simi-lar projects.

In addition to a scenario that “would mean no power bill at the end of the day,”

according to Allen, the Liberty Lake Li-brary Foundation, a certified 501c3 orga-nization, would benefit from the arrange-ment by collecting funds from investors in the project, loaning it back to them and collecting the interest.

“This is a $750,000 project and you’re getting it for free,” said Pat Dockrey, a member of the library foundation board who spoke in support of the installation at the Oct. 1 meeting. “I think it’s worth spending the $4,000.”

Reservations were expressed by some council members hesitant about the city potentially being stuck with a $4,000 bill if the work did not transpire.

“Maybe they (Western) should pay the $4,000, and we can reimburse them,” Council Member Keith Kopelson said.

Kopelson — who was joined by fellow council members Cris Kaminskas and

Josh Beckett in expressing concern about the delay in council being informed about the project as well as the upfront cost — also questioned Allen about whether or not the city had negotiated the price for the feasibility study and design. Allen acknowledged that Western had first dis-cussed a cost of $6,250.

Last year, City Council members agreed to grant Mayor Steve Peterson authority to approve any expenditure of $5,000 or less without a council vote.

“We feel we’ve done our due diligence on this,” Allen said. “We wanted to have our ducks in a row before we came to council.”

With no council approval required for the $4,000 expenditure, the governing board backed off from its opposition. Allen said she would provide council members with a letter and an analysis report from Western the following day.

“At the end of the day, there is no specific ask of the council,” Beckett said. “Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that this doesn’t fall through.”

Council Member Shane Brickner thanked Allen, the mayor and staff for bringing forward the issue even when Pe-terson could have signed off on the expense without discussion.

“This shows the transparency we’re try-ing to move forward with,” Brickner said.

COUNCILContinued from page 12

NEWS


Story and photos by Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

Liberty Lake’s plans to create a pedes-trian-friendly, tree-lined Country Vista Drive are causing the Spokane Valley Fire Department to rethink building a fire sta-tion on a long-proposed site.

The department owns a vacant parcel at 22010 E. Country Vista that is now little more than brush and weeds. It has planned to build a new station there to better serve the north and south sides of the freeway for improved fire protection in the fast-growing community, Deputy Chief Larry Rider said.

The city’s capital facilities plan for 2013-18, however, has put a kink in that pro-posal.

The capital facilities plan calls for bou-levards, curbs, landscaping and other pedestrian-friendly amenities on Country Vista and Appleway. But a tree-centered turn lane on Country Vista near a fire sta-tion could present issues for emergency ve-hicles headed to and from calls. The city’s development code also dictates a building’s width, which could be problematic for the proposed station.

“We still think this is the right area for us,” said Rider, adding that he respects the city’s desire for a “walkable” community. “We’re not trying to interfere with the city’s development concepts; we just know that would be trouble if we were trying to get on and off the street.”

Both city and fire officials emphasized the need to work together to either make the Country Vista site amenable to a fire station — or to find an alternate location. SVFD is discussing backup plans on half-a-dozen sites in case the current parcel does not pan out.

Rider speculates that the department will emerge with a final decision on the site by the end of the year.

Liberty Lake City Administrator Katy Allen expressed confidence that the two sides could work together on a compro-mise that puts safety first.

“I can tell you that we’re more than will-ing to work with them,” she said. “I think their concern is to have full access at that property. Whatever changes we design on Country Vista will incorporate the fire dis-trict’s needs.”

Rider said the new Liberty Lake station would require an apparatus bay at least 54 feet long. The city’s development code specifies that 25 percent of a building’s width must be within 25 feet of the street.

Rider said the department has identified six alternative sites in Liberty Lake where they could build, including four plots along Country Vista not far from the cur-rent property. The remaining two are lo-cated along Appleway, one in an industrial area and another on the 6.4 acres owned by the city that could become the future home of a town square park.

The existing SVFD station in Liberty Lake was built in 1997 and is located at

Since 1997, the fire station in Liberty Lake has been located at 2218 N. Harvard Road.

SVFD examines site options for new LL fire stationThis vacant parcel at 22010 E. Country Vista Drive is owned by the Spokane Valley Fire Department, which has long planned to build a new fire station on the site. However, city develop-ment regulations in effect on that stretch of Country Vista are causing SVFD to consider other options.

2218 N. Harvard Road, a half mile away from the Country Vista site. The depart-ment is planning to move that station to the Country Vista property in combination with the construction of another station at Barker and Euclid. The Barker station and the Country Vista site would be three miles apart, providing balanced coverage for a growing community. Rider said the emer-gence of an area like the River District is the primary reason the department is ex-panding its current cadre of 10 stations.

SVFD purchased the Country Vista land, which encompasses 58,370 square feet, for $317,862. Rider said SVFD began taking a proactive approach to acquiring land for facilities in 2003. The three-acre

site at Barker and Euclid was purchased from Avista for $230,000 in 2007.

“You have to be ready with the land,” Rider said. “It takes a year to build a sta-tion.”

Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson, who recently attended a three-day strategic conference sponsored by SVFD, says he has been impressed with the department’s “strategy in moving forward to respond to the needs of the community.”

When it comes to the prospect of a new station, Peterson said the city will listen to SVFD.

“We’ll work with them to make sure they have the access they need,” he said.

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Infrastructure forms foundation for emerging River DistrictBy Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

There were no bells and whistles to cel-ebrate the debut of Harvest Parkway this fall.

Unlike the well-publicized Harvard Road roundabout to the east, the recently completed road off Mission Avenue was not the project of honor at a ribbon-cutting ceremony nor at the center of a clamor for funds regarding complimentary public art.

Instead, road crews quietly went about the task of polishing up the first lanes of access into an area that will become the commercial heart of Liberty Lake’s emerg-ing north side. Situated on prime retail real estate fronting Interstate 90, Telido Station is slated to become “a major retail center,” according to Jim Frank, CEO of Green-stone Homes, the company developing the land owned by Centennial Properties. The project is a subsection of the River Dis-trict, a 650-acre mixed use development spearheaded by Greenstone.

“It would help establish Liberty Lake as what I call ‘a surburban town center’ so it brings an urbanness here,” said Frank. “We have a lot of jobs being created here; we have a lot of houses. The next key is to be able to get those services here to support all that employment and houses. We want to reduce the need for people to be travel-ing in cars for those services.”

Back in August 2009, Drew Benado of Greenstone led a group of representatives from the Liberty Lake City Council and municipal staff on a motorized tour of the River District. The excursion featured resi-dential elements of the project, including the Bitterroot Lodge apartment complex as well as a description of plans for Telido Station. In October of that year, council approved the River District specific area plan, a road map for the community over the next 20 to 25 years.

Amanda Tainio, Liberty Lake Planning and Building Services manager, said the SAP has been established as “a mini-devel-opment code for the River District.” Along with plans for parks, trails and open space, See PART II page 17

Liberty Lake, Part II

ON THE COVERSUBMITTED RENDERING

Greenstone promotes Telido Station, a commercial development planned in Liberty Lake’s River District, with this artwork imagining what the de-velopment could one day look like.

COVER STORY

the agenda calls for 2,700 dwelling units. “The key is to make sure the community

stays connected,” Tainio said. True to its history of championing

greenspace, Greenstone included provi-sions for the River District that emphasize increased space in front of commercial areas, a buffer between the community and the freeway and treating landscape as anything but an afterthought. Section 3 of the SAP describes how the development “is designed as a compact, complete com-munity” with a priority on mixed use, pe-destrian access and “greenway corridors” that connect to parks, open spaces and the Spokane River.

Liberty Lake City Administrator Katy Allen said the addition of infrastructure such as water and sewer lines as well as streets represents the ground floor for the River District.

“I think we’ve all driven by that field for decades where Harvest Parkway is now,” Allen said. “The land can’t develop un-til there’s infrastructure like utilities and streets. This is the first step of that land

development. Now you can market it. We hope that it’s going to grow and be suc-cessful and be a contributing part of our community. It’s very, very positive to see the infrastructure going in after so many years of no activity.”

Frank says the River District’s com-mercial land could be broken down into a hodgepodge of uses, starting with “a strong retail element.”

“The piece we’ve developed (Harvest Parkway) wouldn’t be the heart of the shopping area, it would be more of the pe-ripheral area that could go to offices, light manufacturing and warehousing activity,” Frank said. “Harvest Parkway is the first phase. It’s going to be a little of what you see out there with the car dealerships and RV dealerships. It’s the first step in that re-tail center. The market is not ready right now for a major retail center. We just have to wait for the right time for that to hap-pen.”

Upgrades along IndianaWhile the emergence of Telido Station

might be a few years down the line, the River District is far from a ghost town. The Courtyard development —featuring 15 townhomes and 32 apartment com-plexes — cropped up earlier this year next to Bitterroot.

Part of the Courtyard project involved extending Indiana Avenue in front of a row of stately townhomes. Frank pointed to the further expansion of Indiana, both east and west of Harvard Road, as well as an upgrade of Mission Avenue as the two main road projects remaining in the River District.

“Indiana at Harvard Road will eventu-ally become a signalized intersection and become the major access point into the River District,” Frank said. “The other piece of it is improving Mission. Mission has been improved to a little bit past Bit-terroot Road. We’re looking at making those same improvements from Bitter-root all the way down to basically Harvest Parkway, so you’ve got the major road in-frastructure that’s necessary to service not

SPLASH PHOTOS BY CRAIG HOWARD

Harvest Parkway was put in this year in Liberty Lake’s River District. The project, funded with special financing tools intended to promote economic development, provides infrastructure to recruit businesses to what the area’s developer, Greenstone, refers to as the Telido Station commerical development.


only the residential side, but the commer-cial side.”

Allen said the River District adds a wel-come dimension to Liberty Lake, one that features riverside development, housing diversity and another layer of greenspace.

“The River District is unique in many ways,” said Allen. “You look at its proxim-ity to the river obviously, and when you start putting people over there whether they’re working, living, walking on trails, enjoying a park — it’s part of our commu-nity.”

Funding the infrastructureAccording to Kevin Schneidmiller of

Greenstone, completion of Harvest Park-way will mean “more aggressive market-ing” of the area to potential business ten-ants.

“We’ve had some interest, but nothing concrete,” said Schneidmiller. “We’re try-ing to generate more serious interest.”

Infrastructure such as roads and utilities in the River District and throughout Lib-erty Lake benefit from a pair of funding mechanisms known as Tax Increment Fi-nancing (TIF) and Local Infrastructure Fi-nancing Tool or LIFT (see sidebar). Funds from TIF finance public infrastructure based on increases in property tax valu-ation and revenue, while LIFT provides reimbursements for the city and develop-ers like Greenstone for water and sewer facilities and roads like Harvest Parkway. Mayor Steve Peterson has described LIFT — which includes a generous state match of up to $1 million a year — as “the city’s capital account.”

“It’s a tool to create retail development,” Peterson said. “If Greenstone puts in infra-structure like Harvest Parkway, then you can develop buildings and lots along that road that create jobs, increase property tax valuation and generate retail development and sales tax.”

Earlier this year, representatives from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee visited Liberty Lake and the other two communities — Bellingham and Vancouver — that instigated the first LIFT programs in Washington.

“The feedback we got was that our pro-gram was the most successful, the furthest along,” Allen said. “I think it has to do with some of these jurisdictions tying their de-velopment into public projects, and the projects have not moved forward. Ours is all tied to public infrastructure and private development.”

Frank estimates that approximately one-third of the River District’s infrastructure has been built to this point.

“We’ve built a lot already, and there will be more coming in the next couple of

PART IIContinued from page 16

Infrastructure Funding 101 A TIF/LIFT tutorial By Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

They are two of the most commonly uttered acronyms in the Liberty Lake lexicon, but to the average citizen on the street, TIF and LIFT might as well be a set of head-scratching hieroglyphics.

Despite their relative obscurity, Tax Increment Financing and Local Infra-structure Financing Tool have been catalysts in the development of Liberty Lake over the past several years, fund-ing widespread infrastructure improve-ments that serve as the foundation for current and future growth.

TIFCalifornia was the first state to imple-

ment TIF back in 1952 as a subsidy to pay for community improvement proj-ects. Since then, every state but Wyo-ming and Arizona has installed some form of TIF as a mechanism for devel-opment.

The TIF functions when increases in property value and private investment generate a boost in property tax revenue. Surplus proceeds beyond the established

rate are then channeled to public and private redevelopment projects intended to add another layer of value within an established TIF district.

The city of Liberty Lake joined Spo-kane County, the Spokane Valley Fire Department and the Spokane County Library District in creating a local TIF district in 2006.

The TIF will generate an estimated $365,000 in 2013 and be in place for 15 years or up to a total of $15 million, whichever arrives first.

LIFTLIFT was established in Washington

as part of the 2006 legislative session and was put in place to support public infra-structure projects, create jobs and spur economic growth. In contrast to the state’s frequently criticized business and occupation tax, the introduction of LIFT was seen as a boon to towns and cities hoping to draw private development and new business into their communities.

“It’s the state of Washington creating incentives you might find in states like Idaho and Oregon,” said R.J. Stevenson, finance director for the city of Liberty Lake.

Finally implemented in 2008, LIFT began with three cities — Bellingham, Vancouver and Liberty Lake — select-ed as trial jurisdictions. The program will run through 2034 and includes a match of up to $1 million a year by the

state. Cities and private developers like Greenstone Homes are eligible to re-ceive reimbursements through LIFT for infrastructure projects such as roads and utilities in designated locations called Revenue Development Areas.

Following the moneySpokane County remains the entity

that oversees and distributes both TIF and LIFT dollars. Each fund is admin-istered separately under the county um-brella.

For a time during the thick of the re-cession, TIF funds were used as the lo-cal match for LIFT due to lagging sales tax. The last two years, Liberty Lake has been able to generate enough of its own money to achieve the $1 million match. While TIF is connected strictly to prop-erty tax revenue, LIFT draws from a variety of areas, including sales tax, the city’s general fund and other sources. The Liberty Lake Sewer and Water Dis-trict contributed to LIFT last year from a looping fund.

“Infrastructure development drives retail development, economic growth, sales tax and jobs,” said Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson. “This is a finan-cial vehicle that helps us pay for infra-structure. So far, to date, Liberty Lake has been the most successful of the LIFT demo projects. We’re moving in the right direction.”

COVER STORY

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This map shows the placement of the Telido Station commercial development. Work was also completed this year along Indiana Avenue near Harvard Road. According to plans, Indiana will eventually connect Harvard west through the Half Moon Park roundabout and beyond.

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years,” Frank said. “We’re dealing with two water districts there (Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District and Consolidated Wa-ter District). We’ve got a major connection line we’ve put in, so there are two water sources there. On the sewer side, we’ve got one pump station done, but we’ve got two sewer basins there. Part of the project will go to the county system, the other part will go to the Liberty Lake system.”

Frank said there are plans to construct another pump station in the eastern part of the River District “in the next year or so.”

Interchange will eventually feed into River District

While utilities continue to crop up in the River District, interest continues to build for another project that will impact the community down the road.

In a Sept. 10 letter to Darryl McCal-lum of the Washington State Department of Transportation, Peterson described the “collective support for a new interchange east of I-90 on Barker Road.” The letter referenced a meeting on June 13 attended by property owners in the area who stand

behind the idea. The guest list included representatives from Centennial Proper-ties, the Department of Natural Resources, the Liberty Lake Land Co. and the city of Liberty Lake.

“Though there are already interchanges at Harvard and Greenacres roads, we sup-port a full interchange at Henry Road to the west of Harvard Road,” Peterson wrote. “We understand that this project will take a number of years to develop, and we are willing to work with you and DOT during those years.”

The letter was signed by Betsy Cowles (Centennial Properties), Rod Rennie (DNR), David Fluke (Liberty Lake Land Co.) and Peterson.

“Building the interchange keeps us ahead of the curve,” Peterson said. “Miss-ing an opportunity to build this infrastruc-ture will cost all of us in the long run. Put-ting it in as soon as possible creates jobs, minimizes congestion, prepares us for retail growth and thereby helps the city fi-nancially in providing necessary services.”

While Frank supports the concept of an interchange that would provide better access to the River District, he says actual construction of such a project is “probably about 10 years away.”

“I think there’s a good concept for the

COVER STORYPART IIContinued from page 17

design of that interchange, but we’re some time away from it still, just because of all the logistics involved,” he said. “You start with just getting the design done, then the design has to be approved by the Federal Highway Administration, then it’s got to get put into the funding cycles of the Washington State Department of Transportation. At the same time, the im-provements that we’re putting in and the work that’s being done — incrementally improving the transportation system — I believe is going to be adequate to handle the growth that’s going to take place in the next 10 years.”

Whatever developments occur over the next decade, Allen and others seem to concur that the River District — with its well-funded foundation of infrastructure — will have a transformative effect on the Liberty Lake community.

“I think that’s what we all are striving for right now,” she said. “It has to do with jobs and a lot of amenities. The nice thing about the River District is that there is potential for growth and development of services over there, from retail to restau-rants, and then there’s the proximity to the Centennial Trail and I-90. It’s got a lot of things going for it.”


The massive River District cur-rently stretches from Indiana near

Harvard Road and Bitterroot Lodge (above) west to the city limits with

Spokane Valley. Below, Planning and Building Services Manager

Amanda Tainio points out areas of planned development.


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Vehicles moved efficiently in the back-ground as Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Pe-terson stepped to the microphone to reflect on the most talked about transpor-tation project in the city’s history.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the Har-vard Road roundabout took place Oct. 25, drawing around 50 people on a brisk mid-morning in the parking lot of True Leg-ends, adjacent to the circular intersection.

“The project was a partnership,” Peter-son told the crowd. “We’re going to con-tinue to move forward and invest in infra-structure.”

Keith Metcalf, WSDOT administrator for the Eastern Region, said the ribbon cutting event was about “celebrating the completion of a successful project.”

“This new roundabout is really going to smooth out traffic,” Metcalf said.

Work on the project began Aug. 16 and was operationally complete by Oct. 11. Traffic flowed through the busy juncture over the entire two-month span, an aver-age of 18,000 vehicles a day.

“There’s going to be an impact to the traveling public with a project like this, but traffic never stopped,” said Darrel Mc-Callum, project engineer with the Wash-ington Department of Transportation. “I thought it went well.”

George Gee, namesake of three auto dealerships just west of Harvard Road, admitted he “wasn’t so sure about the roundabout” when the city first brought up the idea. Gee was one of several busi-ness owners who showed up at a round-about open house at City Hall last spring to provide feedback and gather more in-formation.

Dignitaries turn out for roundabout ribbon cutting

“We really didn’t see much impact,” Gee said after the ribbon cutting. “I thought they did a very good job. It’s handling traf-fic well.”

Daryl Hagseth, manager of Storage So-lutions, had concerns prior to the project about “traffic flow and the roundabout getting people across the bridge and onto

Harvard Road.” Hagseth manages two sites near the roundabout, one on Har-vard and another on Mission.

“We heard the occasional comment from customers who said they’d be glad when it was done,” Hagseth said. “But we didn’t have anyone say they wouldn’t come see us because it wasn’t done.”

Hagseth said the roundabout has made the busy intersection a lot safer.

The list of attendees on Oct. 25 fea-tured a number of local luminaries, in-cluding Spokane County Commissioner Al French, Cheney Mayor Tom Trulove, Cheney City Manager (and former Liber-ty Lake Finance Director and City Clerk) Arlene Fisher, Spokane Valley Fire Chief Bryan Collins and Liberty Lake Police Chief Brian Asmus.

WSDOT was part of an expansive con-struction team that included Wm. Win-kler Co. as the primary contractor. North Star Enterprises was responsible for navi-gating traffic while Anderson Masonry installed the 360-degree brick wall that serves as the centerpiece of the round-about. Mike Terrell — Landscape Archi-tect provided the design for the structure and landscaping.

“I thought the Winkler people and WS-DOT did an incredible job,” Hagseth said.

Other subcontractors on the project in-cluded Inland Asphalt, Central Pre-Mix, Spokane Rock Products, Eller Corp., Por-ter Yett, Road Products Inc., Trecon, Col-bico Electric and Ace Landscaping.

Overall cost of the project was $1,624,159, with the bulk ($953,000) cov-ered through the Federal Surface Trans-portation Program. The city of Liberty Lake contributed $671,159 from the Har-vard Road Mitigation Fund while WS-DOT pitched in $192,629.

NEWS


Above, Washington State Department of Transportation Eastern Region Administrator Keith Metcalf addresses the crowd alongside Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson Oct. 25. The event was dubbed a “Celebration of Prorgress” regarding the recently completed roundabout, and it drew many local leaders.

called for it to go to a public vote. He said this would allow for both accountability for what the funds are used for as well as security for the funding source.

“The unpredictable nature of the tax has got to be tough on businesses,” he said. “It goes to Council for renewal once a year.”

Langford said the use of the utility tax as a funding source for street maintenance was important for everything from the eco-nomic development gained from a well-kept infrastructure — to vehicle alignment.

“The city has 90 miles of road lanes, and they don’t take care of themselves,” he said. “... If you get off on (Spokane exits) Lincoln, Division, any of those, you better stop and get a realignment. That doesn’t come free.”

City action admiredPosition 1

The Splash asked the candidates if there was a moment from recent City Council business or a Council member’s individual actions that they particularly admired.

“Hands down, it’s Josh Beckett,” Olander said of the outgoing Council member. “I’m impressed by his willingness to speak his mind, get the conversation going, and he stands up for a different opinion. I’m not saying I agreed with everything he always said, but I really think his tactics for conver-sation were useful, and I’m going to miss it.”

Haskins expressed admiration for proj-ects the city has taken on, singling out the Fallen Heroes Circuit Course installation.

“I think it shows how Liberty Lake feels about their citizens and what’s important to them, and that makes me proud to be

part of the city,” she said.

Position 2Severs brought up a meeting he attended

over the summer when a heated discussion broke out over the content on a sign regard-ing the city’s 6.4-acre parcel. He said he ad-mired the passion of the discussion and the checks and balances of the system. Severs also expressed his admiration for Council Member Dan Dunne’s approach to debates.

“I don’t know Dan personally, but when he speaks, I always go, ‘Gosh, I think he’s trying to get a solution,’” Severs said.

Sitton, who was on the tail end of a busy summer roofing season for his business when asked the question, said he couldn’t think of a past city action or a person he admired. Later, at the candidate forum, he was asked about his shortage of prior at-tendance at City Council meetings.

“My commitment to Liberty Lake is that, if elected, I will be one of the most active Council members around,” he said. “I will dedicate myself to Council just as I do to my business.”

Position 4Tedesco said the project that will im-

prove the long-vacant field next to Liberty Lake Elementary School — working with the Central Valley School District to build ball fields on a site that wasn’t slated in the near term for development — receives his nod as most-admired city action.

Langford didn’t hesitate with his re-sponse.

“Without a doubt, the hiring of a city manager has made and will continue to make this city more professional, and I think that’s what we all ultimately want is a professionally run city,” he said.

ELECTIONContinued from page 10


COMMUNITY EVENTSOct. 31 | Harvest Party 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Word of Life Community Church, 6703 N. Idaho Road, Newman Lake. The public is invited to this free event with games and goodies in a safe, fun environment. For more: 226-5148

Oct. 31 | Corn Maze 6 to 10 p.m., HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. Three sports-theme mazes plus a haunted trail of fear are available across 10 acres. For ticket prices and more: www.hubsportscenter.org/CornMaze

Nov. 1 & 2 | Leap Motion classes 4 p.m. (Fridays for kids) and 2:30 p.m. (Saturdays for adults), Liberty Lake Municipal Library, 23123 E. Mission Ave. Leap Motion is a new way of interacting with computers that uses a device which translates hand motion in the air into activity on the computer screen. Classes will be held on Fridays and Saturdays throughout November, and sign-up is required by calling or stopping by the library. For more: 232-2510

Nov. 1 | Great Candy Buy Back 4 to 8 p.m., KiDDS Dental, 1327 N. Stanford Lane, suite B, Liberty Lake. A local dental office buys unopened Halloween candy for $1 per pound and sends it to troops overseas during this sixth annual event. Goodie bags, prizes and letter writing to troops are also part of the event. For more: 891-7070 or www.growupsmiling.com

Nov. 2 | Used Book Sale 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Liberty Lake Municipal Library, 23123 E. Mission Ave. Books, movies and CDs will be available during the Friends’ largest book sale of the year. Donations of books published no later than 2000 can be dropped off at the library desk prior to the sale.

Nov. 8 | Veterans Day program 10:30 a.m., New Life Assembly of God, 109 E. Sprague Ave. Valley Christian School students will perform patriotic music and drama, and all veterans will be honored. The public is invited to attend. For more: 924-9131

Nov. 8 | Veterans Day assembly 1:30 p.m., Liberty Lake Elementary School, 23606 E. Boone Ave., Spokane Valley. All veterans and their families are invited to the school assembly.

Nov. 11 | Veterans Day Liberty Lake Municipal Library will be closed.

Nov. 13 | Meadowwood Homeowners Association annual meeting 7 p.m., City Hall, 22710 E. Country Vista Dr. There will be a drawing for gift certificates for those in attendance. For more: www.meadowwodohoa.com

Nov. 16 | Beach and Leaf Pick-up Employees from Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District and the city will pick up bagged leaves set out on the curb. For more: 922-5443 or www.libertylake.org

Nov. 16 | Heritage Program luncheon, fundraiser and silent auction 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Opportunity Presbyterian Church, 202 N. Pines Road, Spokane Valley. Join the museum to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with a luncheon, period music and living history presentation by Civil Ware re-enactors. Cost is $20, and RSVP is required as seating is limited. For more: 922-4570

Calendar of Events Community Briefs

Nov. 16 | Spaghetti Feed & Silent Auction 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., Newman Lake Grange Hall, 25025 E. Heather, Newman Lake. This fundraiser benefiting the Liberty Lake Lions Mitey Mite Team will include dinner, drinks and live music by The Buck Lopez Band. Tickets for this 21 and older event are available for $20 and can be purchased at the door or at libertylakelions.blogspot.com. For more: 869-6981

Nov. 24 | Free Thanksgiving meal 1 p.m., Otis Orchards Food Bank, 4308 N. Harvard Road, Otis Orchards.

Nov. 28 | Thanksgiving Liberty Lake Municipal Library will be closed Nov. 28-29.

Nov. 28 | Free Thanksgiving dinner 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Otis Grill, 21902 E. Wellesley Ave., Otis Orchards. The restaurant will be accepting donations to help local families who are in need. For more: 922-9136

Dec. 6 | Winter Festival 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., City Hall, 22710 E. Country Vista Dr. Mark your calendars for the city’s annual tree lighting ceremony and other festivities including hayrides, live music, pictures with Santa and more. For more: 755-6726 or www.libertylakewa.gov/winterfest

Dec. 7 | FOPP Holiday Ball Davenport Hotel, Spokane. Tickets are now on sale for this sole fundraiser for summer concerts, movies and events hosted by Friends of Pavillion Park. Reservations are limited and will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis. Cost is $75 per person and can be purchased online. For more: www.pavillionpark.org

RecurringFriends of the Liberty Lake Municipal Library 4 p.m. the last Tuesday of every month, Library, 23123 E. Mission Ave.

Kiwanis Club of Liberty Lake 6:45 a.m. Wednesdays, Liberty Lake City Hall, 22510 E. Country Vista Drive. For more: www.libertylakekiwanis.org

Liberty Lake Centennial Rotary Club Noon Thursdays, Meadowwood Technology Campus Liberty Room, 2100 N. Molter Road.

Liberty Lake Lions Club Noon on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, Barlow’s Restaurant, 1400 N. Meadowwood Lane. For more: 869-7657

Liberty Lake Municipal Library 23123 E. Mission Avenue. 4 p.m. Mondays, Lego club; 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, toddler/preschool story time; 10:15 a.m. Fridays, baby lapsit story time; 11 a.m. Friday, toddler/preschool story time and songs; 1 p.m. Fridays, story time and crafts for preschoolers; 10:30 a.m. Saturdays, Knitting Club; 10:30 a.m. Saturdays, computer classes; 2 p.m. Saturdays, kids craft. For more: 232-2510

Liberty Lake Toastmasters 5:45 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District building, 22510 E. Mission Ave. For more: 208-765-8657

Senior Lunch programs 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, Talon Hills Senior

Complex, 24950 E. Hawkstone Loop. Seniors age 60 and older invited; recommended donation $3.50.

Spokane Valley Writer’s Group 6 p.m. the first and third Thursdays of every month, Liberty Lake Municipal Library, 23123 E. Mission Ave. This supportive critique group welcomes adult writers. For more: 570-4440

MUSIC & THE ARTSNov. 2 | Let’s Hear It Spokane competition 6:30 p.m., Liberty Lake Portal, 23403 E. Mission Ave. A few lucky high school students will be selected as the opening act for Brigham Young University’s Vocal Point concert Nov. 16 and North Idaho College. Admission is free, but tickets must be reserved to attend the competition at www.marriottschool.byu.edu/mgtsoc. For more: 343-0103

Nov. 2-3 | Giant Fall Arts & Crafts Fair 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Central Valley High School, 821 S. Sullivan Road. Admission is $2, and proceeds benefit the CV band programs. For more: www.cvsd.org

Nov. 16 | Holiday craft show 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Meadowwood Golf Course Clubhouse, 24501 E. Valleyway Ave. Crafty gift ideas will be for sale including Christmas comforter sets, barbed wire crosses, homemade breads, jellies and soaps and more. Proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. For more: [email protected]

RecurringLiberty Lake Art Society Third Wednesday of the month, various times and locations. Create, learn and explore new art avenues, as well as display, sell and network your art. No jurying board, no bylaws, no pressure. Work on projects to benefit Liberty Lake and surround communities. Dues are $10 per year, and you do not need to be a local resident to join. For more: 255-9600

Mirabeau Blues 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Max at Mirabeau Restaurant and Lounge, 1100 N. Sullivan Road, Spokane Valley. Fall into the House of Blues during the month of November with Bobby Bremmer (Nov. 1-2), Martini Brothers (8-9), Usual Suspects (15-16) and Laffin Bones (22-23 and 29-30). For more: www.maxatmirabeau.com

CIVIC & BUSINESSNov. 8 | Women Executives of Liberty Lake (WELL) 12:45 to 2 p.m., Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District, 22510 E. Mission Ave. Guest speaker Cheloye Penwell, owner/agent with Lakeshore Insurance, will discuss the ins and outs of Obamacare. Arrive early to “shop” the table displays. For more: www.womenexecutivesoflibertylake.com

Nov. 9 | Library Board of Trustees planning retreat 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Liberty Lake Portal, 23403 E. Mission Ave. The public is welcome to attend. For more: 232-2510

Nov. 15 | Greater Spokane Valley Chamber Annual Meeting Luncheon 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Mirabeau Park Hotel, 1100 N. Sullivan. Tony Bonanzino will be the featured speaker, and new board members will

be installed. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.; program is at noon. Cost is $40 for members and guests; $50 for non-members. For more: www.spokanevalleychamber.org

RecurringCentral Valley School board meeting 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, CVSD administration building, 19307 E. Cataldo, Spokane Valley.

Liberty Lake City Council 7 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, City Hall, 22710 E. Country Vista Drive.

Liberty Lake Merchants Association 7 a.m. Tuesdays, Liberty Lake Portal, 23403 E. Mission Ave., Suite 120. Open to business professionals interested in promoting business in the Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley areas. Networking begins at 6:45 a.m. For more: 230-5152

Liberty Lake Municipal Library board meeting 10:30 a.m. the first Thursday of each month, 23123 E. Mission Ave.

Liberty Lake Library Foundation meeting Noon the first Wednesday of each month, 23123 E. Mission Ave.

Liberty Lake Planning Commission 4 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month, City Hall, 22710 E. Country Vista Drive.

Liberty Lake SCOPE 6:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month, City Hall, 22710 E. Country Vista Drive

Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District board meeting 4 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month, 22510 E. Mission Ave.

HEALTH & RECREATIONOct. 31 | Life Line Screening Services 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Lakeside Church, 23129 E. Mission. For more: 210-9779

Nov. 2 | Basketball Clinic Noon to 1 p.m. (3rd-5th grades) and 3 to 4 p.m. (6th-8th grades), Total Sports, 25023 E. Appleway Ave. Cost is $25. For more: 922-1330

Nov. 2 | Spokane Chiefs Washington

See CALENDAR, page 46

Enroll in IT Academy at libraryThe Liberty Lake Municipal Library is

among a number of public libraries in Washington state that will offer patrons the opportunity to enroll in the Microsoft IT Academy.

The program, which provides free ac-cess to Microsoft information technol-ogy training courses, begins Nov. 13. The courses can be taken at one’s own pace and can result in certification as a Microsoft Office specialist, technology associate or certified professional.

Thursday skiing group formingA Liberty Lake group is forming for the

purpose of hitting the slopes on Thursdays this winter.

For more information, call 928-0919.

COMMUNITY


Find out about all of our events and

contests on Facebook!1327 N. Stanford Lane, Suite B, Liberty Lake509.891.7070 www.GrowUpSmiling.com

Grow Up Smil ing!

Congratulations to Conner!

He’s the latest KiDDS Dental

No Cavity Club winner!

Conner won a $25 gift card and

a photo session with

Call our office to schedule an appointment

to see if your child is cavity-free!

891-7070

509-242-7752 www.valleycurrent.com

The November Current is on newsstands

“Informing , connecting and inspiring communities”

HEART OF THE VALLEYA trio of stories on breast cancer awareness month, a Thanksgiving meal for strangers and the response to a tragic accident all spotlight the spirit of the community.

CHOO CHOO PIZZANew restaurant opens in restored train alongside Sprague Avenue.

ELECTION COVERAGEWith five days to go before votes are tallied, a check-in on local races, including the race for Spokane Valley Fire Department commissioner

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATIONThe Wave, sponsored in the Valley by KiDDS Dental, peeks in at one school’s mission to be the “greenest in the state.”

MILLWOOD MAINSTAY RETIRESThe Valley edition of The Fountain, sponsored by Evergreen Fountains, tells the story of Cleve McCoul, who is retiring after spending more than half his life working for the city of Millwood

Anticipated ‘Bone Season’ ambitious, but won me over

In the year 2059, it has been 200 years since Victorian London became Scion Lon-don, a society organized around rooting out clairvoyants—or “unnaturals”—who

threaten civilization by communing with spirits to commit all manner of crimes, from petty thievery to assassination. The persecution of this enemy class of voyants has created an underground of those with special powers, who cannot live in mainstream

society in their true forms. It has also cre-ated a police state run by a secretive power that harvests voyants captured in “bone sea-sons” every 10 years and uses them in a war against the netherworld.

Paige Mahoney is one of these voyants captured after she loses control of her pow-erful gift and kills two police as they attempt to apprehend her. She is taken to a hidden penal colony, where she discovers the truth about Scion and the fate of the voyants who have been disappearing without a trace for two centuries.

Mixing fantasy with noir and dystopias like “1984” and “The Hunger Games,” young author Samantha Shannon’s “The Bone Sea-son” is the first in an already highly-antic-ipated series that has drawn comparisons to “The Hunger Games” and Harry Potter. With a nine-page glossary and a two-page chart showing the many orders of clair-voyance, she faces a daunting task estab-lishing her world while telling an exciting story. Apart from an overwhelming array of characters going by several nicknames and numbers, all with different varieties of powers, and some slow patches explaining the historical path leading to Scion, she suc-ceeded in drawing me into a classic struggle of a band of rebels fighting for freedom from their rulers and an exploration of con-formity and prejudice in an unjust world.

Daniel Pringle is adult services and refer-ence librarian at the Liberty Lake Municipal Library.

By Daniel PringleLIBERTY LAKE MUNICIPAL LIBRARY

Book ReviewCOMMUNITY


A 12-part series from the Liberty Lake Historical Society, appearing in The Splash each month in 2013.

Relocation of the Coeur d’AlenesFormation of the Coeur d’Alene Indian ReservationTransportation OverviewRailroadsHomesteadersHomesteaders in the hillsUtilitiesChurchSchoolCommerceGovernmentMedical

JANUARY:

FEBRUARY:

MARCH:

APRIL:

MAY:

JUNE:

JULY:

AUGUST:

SEPTEMBER:

OCTOBER:

NOVEMBER:

DECEMBER:

HISTORYBy Ross SchneidmillerLIBERTY LAKE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Congress passed the bill creating Wash-ington Territory on March 2, 1853. The original boundaries of the territory includ-ed all of the present-day state of Washing-ton, as well as northern Idaho and Montana west of the continental divide. The name for the territory was going to be Columbia; however, in the U.S. Congress it was argued that it might be confused with the District of Columbia. Ironically, they chose the name Washington in honor of the first pres-ident, which, as any Washingtonian knows, is often confused with Washington, D.C.

Spokane County was created by an act of the Territorial Assembly in 1858, the same year as the Indian wars in the Inland Empire. In 1864, Spokane County was ab-sorbed into Stevens County with the county seat at Colville. The reason for retaining the name Stevens and not Spokane was due in part to the sentiment of honoring Isaac Ste-vens. Stevens, the first Territorial Governor of Washington, had volunteered his servic-es to the Union cause in the Civil War, and was killed in action in 1862 at the Battle of Chantilly.

Spokane County was reestablished in 1879 under the influence of the man known as the “Father of Spokane,” James Glover, with Spokane Falls being named the tem-porary county seat. When Stephen Liberty, the lake’s namesake, filed his naturalization papers for U.S. Citizenship in 1886, he did so at Cheney and not Spokane Falls. The reason for this was Cheney was the county seat—or so its residents contended. In 1880, an election was held to determine the per-manent location of the county seat. Both Spokane and Cheney claimed to be victo-rious. Late one night when the majority of Spokane Falls was celebrating at a wedding dance, some of Cheney’s prominent citi-zens snuck into town and took the county records, along with the county auditor who had been working late. Armed with six shooters, they stood guard over the records for six weeks until Cheney’s claim was con-ceded. Later in 1886, after Steven Liberty had filed his papers, another election was held, and the county seat returned to Spo-kane Falls. This time there was no dispute as Spokane Falls had substantially outgrown Cheney.

The earliest settlers in the region had to fend for themselves because they had little in the way of law enforcement. This was demonstrated through encounters between Joseph Herring and Isaac Kellogg. Herring, along with Timothy Lee and Ned Jordan, built the first bridge across the Spokane River at what would become the town of Spokane Bridge. Timothy Lee, soon to be named postmaster of Spokane Bridge, stat-ed the following in the Walla Walla States-man in April of 1866:

“Kellogg came on the Spokane (River)

with the intention of building a bridge one mile below ours. He built a house and commenced selling whiskey to the Indians with impunity. The Indians were drunk all the time and made it dangerous for quiet residents of the prairie. Herring, at the re-quest of the Indian Chiefs, wrote to the (In-dian) Agent at Colville about the matter. The Agent answered Herring’s letter telling him to warn Kellogg, which he did.”Kellogg did not care and continued his

practices. This was the beginning of bad blood between the two men, which cul-minated in Herring and one of his hired men killing Kellogg in a gun battle. Her-ring claimed self-defense, while Kellogg’s men said it was murder. It would be several months before a deputy sheriff would travel nearly 200 miles on horseback from Walla Walla to Spokane Bridge to arrest Herring and his hired hand for the killing of Kellogg and take them back to Walla Walla’s district court to stand trial.

When the Territory was created in 1853, a judicial system was also established. It con-sisted of the territorial Supreme Court, dis-trict court, probate court and justice court. There were three judicial districts, with Eastern Washington being one of them. Walla Walla was the only town of this dis-trict where district court cases were heard. Because of the hardship of traveling there,

many defendants were absent from trial. This was a significant problem because this court had original jurisdiction in all cases arising under the U.S. Constitution and the laws of Washington Territory. This burden was lessened some by the justice courts. The justice court heard petty criminal and civil cases, where less than $100 in debt or damages was involved. Justices of the peace often heard the original complaint in a case and then referred the case to the district court due to lack of jurisdiction.

Some of the motivation for statehood was a need for a judicial system that was more convenient and representative. Statehood was achieved in 1889 and with it the benefit of court cases being held in Spokane Falls. Since the town had won back the county seat from Cheney three years before, the county sheriff, his deputies and the county jail moved back too.

The Liberty Lake area stayed under Spo-kane County control until 2001, when a portion of the community was incorpo-rated into the city of Liberty Lake. The city is now protected by an entire police depart-ment — a big improvement from what our early settlers had!

Ross Schneidmiller is president of the Lib-erty Lake Historical Society and a lifelong resident of the community.

DID YOU KNOW?• The first Post Office established in present day Spokane County was at Spokane Bridge in 1867. The first Post Office established at Liberty Lake was in 1901 in Willis Kisinger’s General Store. The store burned down a few days after it opened; Kisinger claimed he would rebuild at once, but it appears he never did. Rural delivery to settlers in our area began in 1902 and ran out of the Moab (near Newman Lake) Post Office. In 1909, the Liberty Lake Post Office was reestablished in the Liberty Lake Train Station. It moved to Liberty Lake Grocery on Melkapsi in 1912 and remained on that street housed in dif-ferent buildings for more than 70 years.

• Liberty Lake precinct was formed in 1902 by Spokane County after resi-dents of Spokane Bridge and Saltese precincts asked that part of each of these be taken to form a new voting district.

• Rasmus and Anna Madsen, home-steaders at Liberty Lake, sued the Spokane Valley Land & Water Co. after the extension of the lake they used to water their cattle was drained during the formation of the Corbin irrigation ditch that ran out of the northwest end of the lake. The case, which dealt with riparian (water) rights, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, reversing the decision of the court of origin and deciding in favor of the water company.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE FAMILY OF ERNEST WRIGHT

This certificate names Ernest Wright as the postmaster of the Liberty Lake Post Office in 1912. It was located in-

side Liberty Lake Grocery on Melkapsi Street; Wright was the proprietor.

Wright was also a Spokane County Justice of the Peace. So you could

get your groceries, mail a letter and resolve a dispute with your neighbor all in one place. Now that is the true

definition of a convenience store.

Government of region has amended over time


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Kids, color and cut out this picture and bring

your artwork to Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza in Liberty Lake to

receive a free Mini Murph one-topping pizza!

1318 N. Liberty Lake Rd. 509-926-7272

Brought to you by

By Brenna HollandWAVE CONTRIBUTOR

The Liberty Lake Mitey Mite Lions football players like to tackle. They enjoy scoring touchdowns and celebrating their friends’ touchdowns.

And they love to win.The Liberty Lake Mitey Mite Lions are

currently undefeated and enjoying a shut-out season (meaning no opponent has scored against the team).

Due to this incredible season, the team has been invited to play in the Mitey Mite Bowl, held in conjunction with the Pop Warner Super Bowl, this December in Or-lando, Fla.

“It’s just humbling,” L.T. Young said. “Out of all the teams, we’re the ones going.”

The excitement among the players was evident as they enthusiastically talked about their upcoming trip to not only play foot-ball but enjoy the area.

“I’m looking forward to going to Harry Potter Land and staying in the same suite as my best friend Connor,” Colby Hair said.

Other players are enthralled by the op-portunity to play in a unique location.

“(We get to) Play in Disney World!” Jack Rogers said.

Some of the boys have played together since the Mitey Mite League began in the area. Ben Abshire, who coaches the Liberty Lake Mitey Mite Lions, has loved every mo-ment coaching the boys.

Although the boys on the team are only eight or nine years old, Abshire said they are learning skills that will last them a lifetime.

“Coaching is an opportunity to affect lives,” Abshire said. “Football can change kids. The number one job more important than football is to mold young men.”

The Mitey Mite Program provides inter-ested boys and girls with the fundamental skills of playing football. The program spon-sors good sportsmanship and the chance to play against other boys and girls who are the same age.

Lorie Bucher, who serves as team manag-er and travel coordinator, is pleased with the coaching and guidance her son and peers have received at such a young age. Bucher and her husband donated pink laces to the team for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. All the boys have threaded the vibrant pink shoelaces through their shoes to honor the month.

“The team builds men, not just players,” Bucher said.

TEAM HIGHLIGHTS Liberty Lake Lions Mitey Mite team members shared some of their best memories from the season so far:

“That time when I almost made the interception.” Connor Echelberger

“Having fun and spending time with friends.” Aaden ‘Taz’ Anderson

“Watching my friends get touchdowns.” Andrew Sprackman

“Beating the G-Men.” Wyatt Curl

“Being with the team and growing.” Gage Bucher

“Winning.” Connor Andreas

“Making my first touchdown.” Garrett Santoro

FOR MORE…To follow the Liberty Lake Mitey Mite Lions, go to www.facebook.com/Liber-tyLakeLions.

For parents interested in supporting the team, check out the Nov. 16 Spaghetti Feed & Silent Auction (more information on page 22).

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

The Liberty Lake Mitey Mite Lions football team has enjoyed an undefeated season and is currently preparing to play in the Mitey Mite Bowl in December.


COMMUNITY

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Brenna Holland WAVE CONTRIBUTOR

Upcycling is the act of using old or discarded materials to create objects of higher quality or useful-ness. Upcycling can also mean us-ing common objects to create new items with a different purpose. It’s reducing, reusing and recycling with a fun twist!

Old mason jars is one example of how an item can be upcycled and repurposed. Here are a few ideas:

• Paint the jars to store crayons in a new creative way. Match cer-tain hues with the correctly paint-ed jar—you’ll never have to worry about losing an essential crayon color again!

• Print letters of different fonts or select some cool images to in-sert into upside down jars to cre-ate a lovely message for all to see.

• Create your own terrarium and bring the outdoors indoors for colder months.

• Store your Legos in decorated

America Recycles Day, celebrated on Nov. 15, is the only nationally-recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to recycle and buy recycled goods.

Spokane Regional Solid Waste System will host a variety of activities, including the America Recycles Day annual student poster contest and a recycling day at Mo-bius Kids. The top 30 finalists of the poster contest will be featured in Riverfront Park Square in downtown Spokane Oct. 28 through Nov. 15.

On Nov. 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mo-bius Kids Museum will offer fun recycling activities. With paid museum admission, kids can make recycled paper, explore the world of compost and worms, play “Trash Grabbers” by sorting recyclables and non-recyclables, use magnets to test metals and more. For details, go to www.mobiusspo-kane.org.

You could consider adding to the festivi-ties by hosting a recycling lesson or special assembly at your school. If you would like to join the 42,000 Americans who have taken the pledge to recycle more, go to www.americarecyclesday.org. And be sure to not just celebrate on Nov. 15, but do your part to help the earth for the rest of the year as well!

The art of upcycling

America Recycles DayDID YOU KNOW? Check out these fun facts about recycling:

• A variety of different materials can be recycled including paper, plastic, glass, metal, textiles and even electronics.

• Powerful magnets sort through metals at the recycling plant.

• Glass recycling is usually separated into colors because glass keeps its color after recycling.

• A glass bottle can take 40 centuries to be broken down if not recycled.

• When a tree is cut down, only a quar-ter of it will actually be turned into paper.

• The first year that more paper was recycled in the U.S. than dumped into landfills was 1993.

• If Americans recycled all their newspa-per, that would translate into 250 million trees a year.

Sources: www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/recycling.html and www.greenenergysavingtips.com/recycling-facts-for-kids/

mason jars, and there will be no more stepping on painful Lego pieces! You can even paint the jars to resemble a Lego man’s yellow head.

Here is some further inspiration for creative crafts involving upcy-cling:

• The simplest craft that incor-porates upcycling is some old-fashioned finger painting. Use an old cardboard box as a canvas, and have fun getting messy!

• Create fun insect friends with recyclable egg cartons. Use paint, googly eyes, glitter, pom poms and other decorations to create a variety of bugs bud-dies! Follow the instructions at http://www.firefliesandmudpies.com/2013/04/12/recycled-egg-carton-insects/

• Make shorts out of worn pants (maybe add a little bling?) by fol-lowing these instructions: http://www.sewsnbows.com/summer-denim-refashion-for-girls/

WAVE PHOTOS BY SARAH BURK

Ordinary household items such as egg cartons, mason jars and soup cans can easily be upcycled. Decorate them with ribbons, papers or other craft items, and then use them to store buttons, beads, pencils or paintbrushes.


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About and for Liberty Lake seniors

By Jocelyn StottSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

Ray and Karen Ruef have built their own local legacy with a tip of the cap to their past. The Ruefs — he is 80, she is 75 and they celebrated 50 years of marriage this year — both have grandparents who came to the country from Europe.

The Ruef name is Swiss. Ray said his fam-ily immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. Ruef ’s grandfather and his two sis-ters knew their family farm near Bern, Swit-zerland, would not be able to support them all, so they sold it and bought first-class tickets to New York City to start anew. From there, Ray’s relatives began the business of farming again near Silverdale, Wash., rais-ing produce to be hauled into farmers mar-kets like Pike’s Place Market in downtown Seattle.

“Where the real farmers sold — not just the touristy ones you see now,” said Ray with a chuckle.

Ray didn’t inherit the farming business, however. His father worked in the shipyards of Bremerton, and Ray eventually gradu-ated from University of Washington with a degree in business administration and for-eign trade.

“I wanted to get into countries that were closed to missionaries, like Afghanistan and the Middle Eastern countries for some rea-son, and I thought this would get me there,” he said.

Instead, Ray was drafted into the mili-tary in 1956 and served in Germany in the finance corps despite applying for stints as an Army chaplain, for which he had also trained. As his tour of duty was finishing, Ray said he felt a “burden and a call on my heart to pursue ministry — that’s what those earlier tugs were about — slowly building.”

So at 24 years old, he began the four-year process of becoming a pastor at Dallas Theological Seminary. After a pastoral in-ternship near Seattle, Ray’s first assignment was Liberty Lake Community Church, a journey, he was advised, “would probably only last about three years.”

Karen’s grandparents were also immi-grants, traveling from Norway to North Da-kota, whether they began farming near Mi-not for many of the same reasons: economic opportunity and diminishing prospects for

FAST FACTS RAY AND KAREN RUEF

Married 50 years

Family Three adult children (Marilyn, Steve and Janice), 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren

One thing that has changed for the better during your lifetime Karen: Children are learning to socialize at a younger age through preschool programs.

Ray: Liberty Lake has developed into a vibrant, flourishing community over the years.

One thing you wish hadn’t changed Neighbors need to connect and take care of each other, rather than living in isolation.

Secret to 50 years of marriage Karen: Compromise. Care about the other person as much as yourself.

Ray: It’s wise to know when to keep your mouth shut!

Ruefs’ passion fueled in part by their appreciation of past

Karen added her respect for their grand-parents’ generation: “Imagine what that must have been like to leave everything be-hind that you know and move somewhere where you don’t even know the language.”

A passion for history and heritage is part of what has driven Ray and Karen to travel extensively, including trips to re-discover family in Europe. Ray has also organized four trips to Israel and Egypt as well as numerous bus trips for seniors to national parks and monuments in the U. S.

Ray and Karen have visited the Ruef homestead in Switzerland. It’s now a du-plex, and the land has been divided and de-veloped. Several years ago, Ray, Karen and their three children traveled to Norway to meet distant relatives there.

The history they have witnessed as part of their local community is also a passion. Ray is a founding board member of the Liberty Lake Historical Society.

After nearly 50 years in Liberty Lake, building a church into a community center where children are nurtured and neighbors brought together, the Ruef family legacy may also be looked upon by their grand-children’s children — an example of mar-riage, community and family that is one for the history books.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Ray and Karen Ruef were married in 1963. This summer, friends and family gathered for a celebration of the couple’s 50th anniversary.

the family farm at home. Karen grew up in Butte and, later, Polson, Mont., the daugh-ter of a small businessman. She attended Seattle Pacific College (now University) and began teaching fourth grade in the Shore-line School District.

Karen met Ray while he was doing an internship at her community church. They soon married. Shortly thereafter, in Octo-ber 1965, Ray was hired as pastor at Liberty Lake Community Church. The couple made the move east when their oldest daughter, Marilyn, was 6 months old.

Around 1979, Karen began a 24-year career of teaching and developing the Lib-erty Lake Community Church preschool, the first childcare/early education center in town. Karen said she is particularly blessed to have taught children who are now grown and have their own.

In addition to teaching, she also worked with the Beachcomber Garden Club, which,

she says with a laugh, “was started by young women who wanted to beautify public fa-cilities. Now we’re all old and we raise funds and support our community in other ways.”

After retiring as pastor of Liberty Lake Community Church, Ray later ministered at Deer Park Community Church for five years and spent another 12 at Valley Fourth Memorial Church in Spokane Valley.

Why is all this family history important? Karen says as a young person, she didn’t care much about her heritage, but as she grew older she felt that learning where they came from helped her understand her par-ents and how their values had been shaped by their experiences.

“There was hard work, love of a country that lets you start fresh,” Ray said. “They didn’t expect anything to be provided, and if they didn’t have enough, they just went without.”

Ray and Karen Ruef’s many trav-els have included Norway, the backdrop here, where Karen’s family heritage can be traced. Similarly, Ray’s grandparents were immigrants from Switzerland.


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TRIVIA TEST1. GEOGRAPHY: Where is the Levantine

Basin found?2. ART: Who created the work titled “Twit-

tering Machine”?3. LANGUAGE: What does the Greek word

“dactyl” mean?4. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: How long is

a giraffe’s tongue, on average?5. THEATER: Actor Richard Burbage was

closely associated with which famous playwright?

6. LITERATURE: Who wrote the book “Where the Wild Things Are”?

7. TELEVISION: Who played the lead fe-male character in “The Bionic Woman”?

8. MEDICAL: What is the common name for “tinea pedis”?

9. ANIMAL KINGDOM: What does a lepi-dopterist study?

10. MEASUREMENTS: How much cham-pagne does a magnum hold?

© 2013 King Features Synd., Inc.

Answers to Trivia Test1. Mediterranean Sea; 2. Paul Klee; 3. Finger; 4. 18 inches; 5. Shakespeare; 6. Maurice Sendak; 7. Lind-

say Wagner; 8. Athlete’s foot; 9. Butterflies or moths; 10. Two standard bottles

Value of Civil War letters debatable‘Collecting’ column by Larry CoxKING FEATURES SYNDICATE

Q: I have copies of a series of letters writ-ten by my fifth-generation grandfather in Washington County, Ky., to his son in Rushville, Ind. The letters were sent over a period of time from 1851 to 1874 and cover such topics as crop problems and the impact of the Civil War. I am wondering if they have any monetary value or what sig-nificance they would be to 19th-century American histories. — Bob, Rancho Cu-camonga, Calif.

A: I spoke to several document dealers, who seem to agree that while your letters sound interesting, they would not be worth a great deal of money. For example, one told me that he had just sold a packet of two dozen letters from a Confederate soldier to his family in Mississippi, covering 1862

through the war’s end. The collection sold for $750, and I suspect your letters might be worth about that amount.

The significance to the history of Wash-ington County, Ky., however, is another matter. Two sources that might be helpful are the Historical Societies of Kentucky, P.O. Box H, Frankfort, KY 40602; and the Washington County Historical Society, 107 Carolyn Court, Springfield, KY 40069.

Q: I have a six-pack of J.R. Ewing private stock premium beer, which was brewed in San Antonio by the Pearl Brewing Compa-ny in 1980. What is the value? — Mary Lou, Albuquerque, N.M.

A: Not much. Both the J.R. Ewing and the Billy Beer from the Jimmy Carter era sell for less than $20 for an unopened six-pack. Both are curiosities, but not very valuable ones.

Write to Larry Cox in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected]. Due to the large volume of mail he receives, Mr. Cox is unable to person-ally answer all reader questions. Do not send any materials requiring return mail.

• NOVEMBER 201332 The SplashLOCAL LENS

Local Lens Share your snapshots for The Splash’s photo page. Email [email protected] with scenes from around town, community events and Splash Travels.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Children from the Matsiko World Orphan Choir dance and sing at Lakeside Church on Sept. 29. The choir made a stop at the church on Mission Avenue near the end of their national tour.

An international service

Shutterbug snapshots

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Above: Michael Hassett captured this Downy Woodpeck-er while mountain biking above Liberty Lake.

At left: Jim Klosterman shared this photo he took of the fall foliage along Country Vista outside of Liberty Lake City Hall.

‘Heart for the Arts’

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Liberty Lake Community Theatre director Jennifer Ophardt cuts the ribbon flanked by Greenstone CEO Jim Frank and Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson during the “Heart for the Arts” gala event on Sept. 28. The night included the one-act play “Well Written,” music, hors d’oeuvres and auction.

Family thanks LLCTA

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The Ham family recently showed appreciation to Liberty Lake Com-munity Tennis As-sociation leaders by treating them to dinner.


SUBMITTED PHOTO

Friends of Josie Freier and McKenzie Mott stopped by Simonds Dental Group to pick up toys for a memorial service for the girls. Dr. Simonds wrote that in only four hours their office collected over 30 toys to honor the U-Hi girls who were killed in a tragic car crash in early October.

A troop tribute

Outpouring of love

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Boy Scout Pack 413 recently honored David Merriman for his dedication as troop committee chairman with a framed copy of this photo.

Curtain call

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The cast of “Death by Chocolate” recently put on two weekends of shows at Liberty Lake Community Theatre.

Teaching technology

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

The Liberty Lake Munici-pal Library recently pur-

chased three iPads for the children’s area that are loaded with educa-tional apps. According

to library staff, the iPads are available anytime

the library is open and have been very popular. The library would like to

expand the availability and would gladly accept any eReaders or tablets

that are in excellent working order.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Students thank Itron

Pioneer School, led by Liberty Lake resident Betty Burley-Wolf, would like to recognize Itron for sponsoring the school’s Math is Cool team. Their generous donation supports students including Liberty Lake resi-dents Austin and Olivia Christensen, San Jana Sharma, Cameron and Connor Simonds and Neha Kid.

LOCAL LENS


Roundabout contractor’s work spans nearly a century of concrete By Craig HowardSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

If you have walked, cycled or jogged along a sidewalk in Spokane County, chances are you’ve traversed a surface in-stalled by the Wm. Winkler Co.

Nestled in a bucolic section of Newman Lake known more for horse pastures and rustic farms, the concrete contractor has been a mainstay in the local construction scene since 1919. The company’s founder and namesake, William Vincent Win-kler, got his start by replacing the wooden planks in Spokane with concrete sidewalks at a time when the city was transitioning from mining boomtown to industrial hub and challenging Seattle as the urban epi-center of the Northwest.

“He really saw an opportunity,” said Bri-an Winkler, company president and third generation Winkler to lead the business.

Sidewalks, gutters and curbs served as staples for Wm. Winkler up until about 2000 when the company’s portfolio began to include paving for more commercial, public works, government and industrial projects. From data centers to bridges to airfield pavements, if a job requires con-crete, chances are there is a red and white Winkler truck on the scene.

“We think we deliver quality and value and keep a lot of people working,” Brian Winkler said. “If it wasn’t for our people, we wouldn’t have success.”

During the seasonal peak, Winkler employs around 150 people. The 14-acre

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home base on Starr Road in Newman Lake became the company’s headquarters two years ago after the consolidation of sites in Spokane and in Coeur d’Alene. Prior to Winkler, the Newman Lake property was home to the S.A. Gonzales construction company. Winkler also maintains a small office in the Tri-Cities.

Beyond traditional work like pouring the foundation for the new Central Valley High School over a decade ago, Winkler tackles unique challenges like the ground floor of an ice rink and an original grout for a roller coaster track. Outside of Wash-ington, Winkler has been the concrete catalyst for projects in states including Alaska, North Dakota, Illinois, Montana and Oregon.

Chris Winkler, Brian’s brother, works as project engineer for Wm. Winkler and brings a wealth of experience from the Washington State Department of Trans-portation, where he worked for 15 years. Since mid-August, Chris has overseen the company’s work on the Harvard Road roundabout project in Liberty Lake, an ef-fort coordinated by his previous employer.

“The great thing about working here is the commitment to integrity,” said Chris, who has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho. “We’re not afraid to put our name on our work.”

Winkler began work on the Harvard Road roundabout on Aug. 16. The proj-ect — which included the rigors of dealing

Winkler brothers Brian (left) and Chris are the major cogs in the current Wm. Winkler wheel. Brian serves as president and Chris is project engineer.


Sidewalks embossed with the Wm. Winkler logo can be found throughout the Greater Spokane area, including this one outside Banner Bank in Rockford. The concrete con-tractor got its start in 1919, when wooden pedestrian planks were being replaced by concrete surfaces.See PAVING page 36

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Peterson tabbed to lead Liberty Lake Tire Rama

Josh Peterson took over as manager of the Liberty Lake Tire Rama, 22117 E. Country Vista Drive, in early September.

“It has been my privilege to meet the people of Liberty Lake and the sur-rounding area,” Peter-son said. “As the new manager of the store, I want to inform the people of Liberty Lake that along with new management, there is also a more

honest, loyal, local business in your area.”Peterson moved to the store from Great

Falls, Mont. Based in Montana, Tire Rama has expanded in the past few years, includ-ing purchasing Alton’s Tire locations in 2008, including the Liberty Lake location.

Twisp announces staff promotions, winter hours

Alex Triplett was recently promoted to head barista at Twisp Cafe and Coffee House, 23505 E. Appleway Ave. Triplett has worked for the cafe since April.

In addition, Ian R. Nelson joined the Twisp crew as a barista Sept. 30. While at a previous job in 2012, Nelson won the Thursday Night Throwdown Inland Northwest contest for latte art.

Twisp recently changed to winter hours, open Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed Sundays.

Jorgensen joins FarmersBill Jorgensen became a Liberty Lake-

based independent contractor with Farmers Insurance Group office Sept. 1.

His office is housed at the Liberty Lake Portal location of Farmers Insurance District Manager Tracy Niles, 23403 E. Mission Ave., Suite 225.

Jorgensen can be reached at 924-1860 or 991-2396.

Itron unveils new smart gas meter

Itron Inc. of Liberty Lake unveiled its new smart gas meter at the European Util-ity Week in Amsterdam Oct. 15-17.

Featuring plug-and-play installation, the “Ecora” gas meter is an “all-in-one device with embedded communications and sensors to help utilities streamline op-erations and reduce costs,” according to a company news release.

John L. Scott offices welcome Montgomery

Mark Montgomery , who has more than 12 years real estate experience, joined John L. Scott Real Estate recently, working from the Liberty Lake and Coeur d'Alene offices.

Licensed in Wash-ington and Idaho, he will focus on resale. He previously worked in Coeur d'Alene for Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty and Blackrock Real Estate, as well as Sul-livan Homes in Spo-kane.

Gingras promoted at firmScott A. Gingras of Liberty Lake was

one of two associates recently promoted to principal by the multidisciplinary regional law firm Winston and Cashatt.

Gingras joined the firm in 2011. His practice focuses on civil litigation, with an emphasis on em-ployment and labor law, personal injury, products liability, medical negligence, insurance law and insurance defense. Gingras is vice presi-

dent of the employment and labor law sec-tion of the Idaho State Bar.

Along with Collette C. Leland, Gingras was recently elected by the firm’s board of directors to become principals effective Oct. 1. Winston & Cashatt has offices in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.

Splash staffers honoredLiberty Lake Splash Graphics Editor

Sarah Burk and Editor and Publisher Josh Johnson both won first-place awards in the annual Washington Better Newspaper

Contest organized by the Washington Newspaper Publish-ers Association.

Burk was honored for the best large ad promoting a sale or event among the community newspa-pers in WNPA’s larg-est two circulation categories (Group

III and IV); Johnson’s award was for the best business feature story among WNPA newspapers in circulation Group III, those which distribute 5,001 to 12,750 copies.

In Biz features Liberty Lake-connected business items. Contact The Splash with busi-ness news at [email protected].

In Biz

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with 18,000 vehicles a day through the in-tersection — was wrapped up by Oct. 11.

Liberty Lake City Administrator Katy Allen said Winkler “brought the resourc-es and experience to the project.”

“They work very efficiently,” Allen said. “It was good to see a Newman Lake company get awarded the project here in town. They are a company that hit the ground running. They put a great deal of resources into the project and that made a difference. The project moved quickly.”

When representatives from surround-ing businesses stopped by Liberty Lake City Hall to discuss access to commercial sites during the roundabout’s construc-tion, Allen said Winkler handled the in-quiries promptly.

“Winkler was very responsive and ap-proachable. Business owners had some logistical questions, some schedule ques-tions and wanted some information about detours,” Allen said. “Chris was able to answer all their questions. Then he gave them his card and so if they had any other issues, they could call him di-rectly.”

Coping with the continuous flow of traffic descending on a construction site

is nothing new to Winkler. Last year, the company was awarded the “Concrete Community Award” by the Washington Aggregates and Concrete Association for its work in removing and replacing an antiquated street in Asotin situated in the heart of the city’s commercial dis-trict. Winkler’s award portfolio includes recognition from WACA for “Pavement Project of the Year” and the Associated General Contractors of America for “Project of the Year” and “Special Project of the Year.”

The roundabout in Liberty Lake now joins a list of signature Winkler projects in the Greater Spokane area including intersections on Sullivan Road in Spo-kane Valley, pedestrian upgrades along Argonne Road in Millwood and smaller roundabouts at intersections like Flora and Broadway and Flora and Mission.

While the company now handles com-plex projects in fields like transportation, energy production, wastewater treatment and industrial manufacturing, the curb and sidewalk work still encompasses around half of the company’s workload.

“Concrete has changed a lot over the years,” Chris Winkler said. “But it’s still a job for a skilled craftsman. We still do a lot of hand-forming and hand-setting. You look at a cement mason or a laborer and it’s a great skillset.”

PAVINGContinued from page 34


Wm. Winkler headquar-ters are located on Starr Road in Newman Lake on a site once occupied by the S.A. Gonzales construction company. Winkler’s fleet includes more than 50 vehicles.

One of Winkler’s main projects this year in-volved construction of a roundabout on Harvard Road in Liberty Lake (pictured at left).

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By Mike VlahovichSPLASH CONTRIBUTOR

Youth will be served. Or in the case of Central Valley High School’s volleyball team, it is youth doing the serving.

The Bears’ roster only has two senior players, and the coach, Amanda Bailey, also is in her first year. While experi-encing some growing pains in the vaunted Greater Spokane League, the team also has shown promise — and a few surprises, including an early-season up-set over Mead, a perennial GSL powerhouse.

Sitting in fourth with one game remaining, the Bears could go into the Class 4A post-season as a second seed.

“I keep telling the girls I want to win at the end of the season so it’s OK to struggle early,” Bailey said. “They are hustling and trying hard. We have made some mistakes that are indica-tive of our youth.”

The team began the league play with three wins before los-ing to rival and then-unbeaten University in the annual Flying Cow spirit match last month. CV went 5-2 at the Linda Sheri-dan Classic, finishing 18th out of 64 teams.

The Bears were part of a four-way, first-place tie until Mead returned the favor, winning in four games during their GSL showdown two weeks ago.

“I’ve been a little naïve,” Bailey said. “I didn’t know the history or that Mead was supposed to be creaming everybody. When people were shocked we beat Mead I didn’t think anything of it.”

Young CV volleyball team looks to net experience

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The Central Valley High School volleyball team only has two seniors, but the Bears have put together an impressive season, including a win over peren-nial powerhouse Mead.

This has been a good year for a young team to gain experi-ence; half the GSL schools have new coaches.

Bailey arrived with an open mind, having moved here last summer from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. Her hus-band took a civil service posi-tion at Fairchild AFB.

Bailey was hired at CV with-out an available teaching posi-tion, and then later she took an opening at North Pines Middle School.

“I think they must have thought I was the right person-ality for what they were looking

for,” she said. Her coaching phi-losophy derives from a negative high school experience.

“I didn’t want to be that kind of coach,” Bailey said. “I want to be good, want to win and have the kids succeed. But I also want to go about it in the right way. I think the girls are going to take my demeanor on the court. I’d rather them being relaxed and comfortable and have a good time with them.”

Central Valley still struggles to find its identity, Bailey said. And there hasn’t been that “go-to” player to carry the Bears at crunch time.

Still, CV’s lone seniors have been key contributors. Natalie Ford is the libero, setting the tone from the back row. Alaina Gentili, though limited with a balky knee, has been a force in the middle.

Juniors Kazlyn Roullier and Kara Nitteberg, Bailey said, pro-vide power up front, and four talented sophomores are the fu-ture.

“I would like her to be a big strong power hitter,” Bailey said of Roullier. “She can really put the ball away and wants to play in college. Kazlyn will develop into a great player.”

Roullier has led the team in kills several times, including 17 in the win over Mead.

See VOLLEYBALL page 39

“I’ve been a little naïve. I didn’t know the history or that Mead was supposed

to be creaming everybody. When people were shocked

we beat Mead I didn’t think anything of it.”

— FIRST-YEAR CV COACH AMANDA BAILEY

SPORTS


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SPLASH PHOTOS BY MIKE VLAHOVICH

At left: Kazlyn Roullier (6) has led the team in kills during many of the season’s matches. Here, she puts the ball away against Univer-sity.

Above: New Central Valley volleyball coach Amanda Bailey jumped right into the spirit for the annual Flying Cow rivalry match against U-Hi in October.

Nitteberg does everything well, Bailey said.

“I’ve been pushing certain shots. She’s really taken to that and made it part of her arsenal,” Bailey said.

Another junior who impressed at U-Hi is RaShasa Montgomery, a leaper with a powerful swing.

Meghan and Jade Rockwood are soph-omore setters. Meghan Rockwood leads the team in assists.

“She’s been working really hard making good decisions to keep her hitters happy,” Bailey said.

Sophomore Keann White is a diamond in the rough in the middle, said her coach.

“She has a goofy arm swing, but jumps out of the gym and can put the ball inside the 10-foot line or take somebody’s head off,” Bailey said.

VOLLEYBALLContinued from page 38

SPORTS



Memories of high school basketball can be fleeting, but what Paul Fletcher recalls clearly is the person: longtime East Valley teacher and basketball coach Bill Ferger.

“I will always re-member Bill Fer-ger for emphasizing teamwork and the team aspect of it,” said Fletcher, now a re-tired Air Force major general. “What a posi-tive guy he was. He always had a smile on his face. Even when he was mad at us, it

wasn’t going to last long. He was a very, very good mathematics teacher. I remember him being excited about life.”

Ferger, 78, died Oct. 6. The Liberty Lake resident had a 37-year career as a teacher, coach and administrator in the East Valley School District.

Ferger graduated from Post Falls High School and then went on to earn bachelor and master of education degrees. After tak-ing the East Valley High basketball team to state in 1968, he moved on to work in ad-ministration at the elementary school level.

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Lila, his son, Bill Ferger Jr., and daughter, Nikki Holbert.

Ferger took the Knights basketball team to state in 1968; it was the second — and

last — time in their history.At state in Tacoma the Knights went two-

and-out, losing to Prosser 81-66 and Eaton-ville 84-68. The Knights’ other appearance came three years prior.

They were playing in the Northeast A League at the time and as a few of Ferger’s players recalled, he taught three up-tempo offenses — Tom, Dick and Harry — geared to get the ball to an open player, usually Fletcher, a leading scorer.

“He was not much of a defensive coach, but he understood offense really, really well,” Fletcher said. “We ran relentlessly.”

John Clift, a member of the 1968 state qualifying team, said Ferger made practices and school enjoyable.

“He always jumped in and played and kids would be wrestling with him on the floor. He was a big kid himself,” said Clift, who taught Ferger’s son, Bill Jr., at Central Valley.

Fletcher wrote a note to Lila Ferger upon learning of Bill Ferger’s passing: “I have many fond memories of Bill from the class-room to the basketball court and baseball diamond. I learned a lot from him, not just academically, but for lasting and impor-tant lessons about leadership and tenacity, working hard and the value of teamwork. I remember about him being excited about life, living in the moment, being positive and setting the example about how to lead. I will forever be fortunate to have learned from him and known him.”

Longtime educator Ferger leaves legacy

FERGER

LOCAL LENS

SPORTS

Fastpitch champs The U16 Liberty

Lake Lightning won the Pumpkin

Classic Fastpitch Tournament

championship in Selah, Wash.,

in early October. Pitcher Kelsey Gumm had 54 strikeouts, and

the team hit over .400 for the

entire tourna-ment, led by Alex Surby with a .555

average.SUBMITTED PHOTO

Pictured are (back row) head coach Dan Harder, Kelsey Gumm, Han-nah Conant, Aubrey West, Riley Barnes, Shayden Clark, coach Lynette Harder, coach Chris Gumm; (front row) Sydney Jones, Jordan Schnei-dmiller, Alex Surby, Haley Proper, and (seated) Ashley Hoover. (Liberty Lake residents are highlighted in bold.)

Crazy-haired winners

SUBMITTED PHOTO

A local team won the Crazy Hair Tournament for the U9 division (and also tied as win-ners for the crazy hair contest) put on re-cently by the Spokane Foxes FC. Pictured are (front row) McKinley Ullman, Makayla Beckett, Josie Miller; (back row) coach Will Miller, Libby Awbery, Kylee German, Jersey Measel, Lucy Lynn, Teagan Colvin and Corinne Westby.

Boys celebrate season

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Boys U-7 Team U.S.A. recently wrapped up their fall soccer season. Pic-tured are (back row) Kel-len Hossack, Kellan Long, coach Dan Duer, Daimon Duran, Preston Rothrock; (front row) Damian Drew, Brock Duer, Connor Simonds and Joshua Parker. (Liberty Lake residents are highlighted in bold.)

Running into the fall

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Local residents earned shirts and enjoyed gather-ing together during the last month of runs for the Liberty Lake Running Club.

At left: Windemere Mara-thon race director Elaine Koga-Kennelly poses with her shirt.

At right: Liberty Lake Run-ning Club member Cory Ed-wards finished the Spokane Marathon in October.


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As the calendar turns to November, many of us become like Pavlov’s dog as we start salivating at the idea of a Thanksgiving holi-day filled with our favorite foods and family, but we would all be remiss to not pause and give thanks as the calendar first reads Veter-ans Day before it reaches Thanksgiving Day.

So on a cold and foggy Sunday morning, my family and I headed to Rocky Hill Park to both remember and work out.

As a history teacher, I couldn’t help but think of the many battle scenes through time painted on a similar backdrop. But instead of it being the fog burning off the ground, it was the smoke from cannons and muskets being fired or the ground literally shaking, rattling and spewing dust from our modern methods of warfare.

The pages of American history include a continual thread of battle after battle, from the Revolutionary War continuing to this day, while our nation and armed forces bat-tle the war on terrorism.

I was trying to convey this reality to my kids as we arrived at the park and took time to reflect on the young man, Marine Cor-poral Joshua R. Dumaw, who lost his life in Afghanistan. I explained how a group of folks from our community are creating this Fallen Heroes circuit of remembrance and exercise to honor those who have served and given their life for the freedoms we en-joy in this country.

So with a small lesson on American his-tory in their minds, we set out to get a little sweat going in the morning as we tried out this circuit of events.

I immediately was reminded of the upper body weakness I have spent years trying to hide. The past few months have been widely used to get into a regular running regiment, which culminated in the completion of my first half-marathon. But all of this came at the expense of doing any upper body work-outs, and boy could I tell it right off the bat.

Now I have never been one who has en-joyed doing pull-ups. In fact, all the way back to my junior high years I was that kid who just hung off the bar while throwing my legs up into the air repeatedly in hopes that it would spur my arms to actually pull my chin over the bar. It never worked, and I

Giving thanks … and being sore for it eventually chose the inglorious path of the failed trapeze artists by falling to the ground in a mix of shame and ineptitude.

This unremarkable feeling came back to me as I hung on the bar for a few seconds before quickly realizing it was time to move onto other parts of the circuit. The kids and I enjoyed several aspects of the circuit, but a few of them stood out for various reasons.

“Stand and spin,” as it became known to us (more properly referred to as “step and twist”), reminded me of those old exercise machines that you stood on, wrapped a thick belt around your waist and then al-lowed the equipment to “jiggle” the weight off while you stood there. In essence, it didn’t do anything for me. I am sure this was supposed to build my core muscles, but I believe the problem was that I do not have a core — or at least an athletic core.

We moved onto the seated lat pull, which has always been a favorite exercise of mine as it allows me to work on my lack of upper body strength while sitting, which tradi-tionally has been the most common exer-cise I have done. The kids equally enjoyed the machine as they would take turns plac-ing one of their siblings in the seat while the other two took the outside positions to raise their brother or sister up and down. Hey, whatever works.

Over the course of my adult life, I have gone through periodic times of lower back pain (this could be from the equally peri-odic front stomach gains), so I truly en-joyed the back extension, which allowed me to stretch out my back while also trying to shrink down my front. I admit I probably looked more like a fish flopping on the bot-tom of a boat as I went through several rep-etitions, but that was a burn that felt great.

One of the final stations we covered was the one in which my lack of strength mani-fested itself to the highest degree — the parallel bars. The kids at first enjoy using the parallel bars as a tumbling and flipping device until I explained to them the goal is to support yourself using your arms and to slowly “walk” down the bars using your arms.

My collective family was not strong at this — not even remotely close. We may have to start a push up regiment as part of the going-to-bed routine. I figure if we use the distance that each individual member of the family made it across the bars as a col-lective whole, we would have made it about … halfway across.

With a sufficient amount of sweat ex-pended and the kids having moved onto the park and the basketball court, it was time to head home. But on our way to the parking lot, I stopped by and reread the quote that is

on the memorial for Corporal Dumaw. “Some people spend an entire lifetime

wondering if they made a difference in the world. The Marines don’t have that prob-lem.”

This November, make sure you thank not only the Marines but also all the men and women serving in different military branches for making a difference in our world. And if you get a chance, also say a word of thanks to those who have begun the work on this Fallen Heroes Circuit Course

for helping to make a difference through re-membrance and exercise in our community.

So let me start off by saying thank you to all my friends, neighbors and those I may never meet who have served and are cur-rently serving our country. And most im-portantly, thank you Corporal Dumaw.

Splash columnist Chad Kimberley is a resident of Liberty Lake, teacher at Valley Christian School and girls basketball coach at Freeman High School.

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SPORTS

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The revelation wasn’t quite a lightning bolt from on high when Central Valley girls track and cross country coach Dennis Mc-Guire welcomed then-freshman Briegan Bester into the fold, but it could have been.

Early in this cross country season, he re-flected on how when Bester arrived to his track team last spring he had no idea who she was or where she came from. He knows now.

“She didn’t run (cross country) for me last year,” he said. “No one knew about her. Do you think I was excited to have her in track? She’s a phenomenon.”

All Bester did in her freshman debut was place twice in the State 4A middle distances, so he was all smiles when Bester joined the cross country team. The defending Greater Spokane League champion Bears became even stronger.

Bester won the season opener in 19:44 during a sweep of Mead. The next week, ad-versity struck when, at Liberty Lake County Park, she failed to finish the race and was later diagnosed with mononucleosis.

Bester returned to action in the season-ending GSL race for a league champion-ship repeat. They compete in the regional state qualifying meet at Wandermere Golf Course Nov. 2.

But Bester isn’t the only newcomer on the team that led CV to another title.

“Three girls on junior varsity were on varsity last year,” McGuire said at the CV-University meet that September afternoon. “And we were pretty good last year.”

Junior Sarah White and sophomore Kay-la Boyer took turns as CV’s No. 1 runner in Bester’s absence. And in CV’s next-to-last GSL race there were four freshmen in the lineup.

With Bester’s return, the Bears are a good bet to earn the state trip that eluded them last year.

Playoffs aboundCentral Valley’s volleyball (see story, page

38) and girls cross country teams aren’t the only ones seeking a regional playoff berth. It’s been a good fall all around for the Bears.

CROSS COUNTRY — The defending state champion boys cross country team is after a return state trip. Their glitches this year came in mid-October.

The Bears were stung by Mt. Spokane at home, losing 27-28 and beaten by multi-league champion North Central. Both are

Cross country among many CV teams eyeing state

3A teams going their separate ways during state qualifying.

Corey Hunter has been healthy and CV’s No. 1 runner all season. Spencer Jensen and Briton Demars have been right behind on a team that has as many as five runners returned.

FOOTBALL — The Bears got off to a sluggish 1-2 start, before winning four straight to put them back in the chase for a postseason playoff spot.

They play at Gonzaga Prep Nov. 1 for the second 4A postseason berth.

Coach Rick Giampietri lamented the fact the Bears let the Mt. Spokane game get away.

But there have been bright spots.Junior running back Spencer Miller de-

veloped into the workhorse. He had gained 795 yards rushing and scored 10 touch-downs before suffering a concussion in a loss to Shadle Park. The engine that drives the bus, Adam Chamberlain has added 597 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns and thrown for 1,299 yards and five more scores, with Hayden Wolrehammer a main target.

GIRLS SOCCER — The Bears ran afoul of Mead, losing 3-2 for the only blemish on the season. The team is readying for the playoffs.

They had a couple of close matches, in-cluding a shootout win over last year’s 3A state finalist, Mt. Spokane, but shared the GSL title with the Panthers.

With district concluded Nov. 1 and re-gional tournament Nov. 5 and 9, the Bears seek a return to the 4A state tournament in which they reached the quarterfinals last year.

Freshman standout Kelsey Turnbow led CV in scoring heading into the season finale, and had two hat tricks. Savannah Hoekstra (see article in October issue of The Splash) was right behind and the team assists leader.

Hoekstra is one of just four seniors on the team, including Sara Grozdanich, who had a five-goal match this year.

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• NOVEMBER 201344 The SplashOPINION

Clarifying the utility tax debate Overall, I enjoyed reading the articles in

The Splash. However, I think you got the utility tax debate wrong. The discussion on Sept. 10 was only about changing the amounts for each utility, cafeteria style, but the total amount of utility tax to be collected was decided in a vote of the en-tire council at the retreat in August.

At the retreat, the Council voted four in favor of remaining at the $660,000 collec-tion mark, two opposed (Beckett, Olan-der) and one abstained (Kaminskas). If the opposition vote had carried, the discus-sion would have been open to decreasing the amount of tax collected — or increas-ing it, for that matter, but I have never heard anyone suggest that.

I have been consistently opposed to the utility tax and have lobbied, unsuccess-fully, to get it reduced or eliminated. My argument has been that we are charging a rate that is twice that of our neighbor Spokane Valley (they charge 6 percent on phone service only), and that is not good for economic development here. Our fi-nance director says he would not have recommended the tax if he had been in his current position then; Mayor Peterson openly opposed it at the time but now has a number of ways to spend it.

We are just entering into the budget dis-cussion, and I am hopeful we will be able to bring down the utility tax in a way that benefits both residents and businesses. Personally, I would like to see a drop in electricity and gas rates to 1 percent or 1.5 percent so that everyone benefits. The decrease in revenue can come from the general fund or REET over the next few years to maintain the street maintenance program. As the city grows, there will be

an increase in the number of households and businesses paying the lower rate, and we will surpass the $660,000 goal in a very short time to free up the general fund.

My two cents.

Lori OlanderMember, Liberty Lake City Council

Langford worthy of voteIn any election, it can be challenging

to know the candidates and where they stand on the issues. I have reached my de-cision for Liberty Lake City Council Posi-tion No. 4.

Having had the opportunity to serve with Odin Langford on the City Council, I know the value he brings our city. He has three qualities that make him the obvious choice.

1. Morals: He cares about the families of Liberty Lake and doesn’t shy away from is-sues that challenge our public conscience, and he does so without concern for him-self. He has a moral compass!

2. Experience: For the past six years, he has demonstrated a deep understanding of the issues that our city faces. He knows how we feel about our libraries, parks and city planning. I have watched him balance the demands of homeowners and develop-ers to ensure that both parties were given fair treatment. He understands how the city operates and which direction it ought to be headed.

3. Fiscal Responsibility: I trust Odin with my pocketbook. We don’t have to look far to see the toll that fiscal irrespon-sibility has taken on our state, country and the world at large. Odin isn’t out to need-lessly increase revenues or find “special”

Citizenship education is the responsi-bility of all Americans. It binds our nation, helping us understand the concepts that made the United States unique through-out history.

For at least a generation, Americans have been undereducated about civic learning and engagement, routinely fail-ing standardized surveys testing their civic knowledge. Citizens with a basic knowledge of America, and the active cit-izenship it produces, are essential to our democracy’s prosperity, particularly when multiculturalism and globalism have complicated what it means to be Ameri-can.

To most Americans — today, and in decades past — to be a good citizen has meant to take pride in being an American, a patriot, to love our country, to know its history, its state capitals, what the branch-es of government are and how they work together, to vote in elections, to work hard at our job, to pay our share of taxes and to volunteer and participate in our com-munity.

To be patriotic and a good citizen should not mean saber-rattling or chest-pounding, but rather a willingness to sac-rifice, in battle or at home, to support de-cisions of our government leaders or take issue without rancor. It also means to take pride in the American story and its ever-evolving culture, and to participate in civ-ic affairs, whether that means attending town meetings, marching on Washington,

Citizenship education — the responsibility of all Americans

By George Nethercutt Jr.SPLASH GUEST COLUMN

D.C., writing your congressman or simply voting in elections.

Citizenship and patriotism create a sense of unity, of belonging to something bigger than us, of accepting all-for-one and one-for-all, while at the same time celebrating, and respecting, our differ-ences. The argument could be made that too many Americans, particularly among the young, are citizens of no country, no continent and no world — except per-haps the United Friends of Facebook. Too many can’t identify Arizona or Nebraska, Iraq or Brazil, on a map. They can’t state who was president during World War I or II, or what the Battles of Bunker Hill or Antietam were about. Even current elected officials seem clueless about the precise amount of our national debt, how taxpayer dollars are really spent and how federal policies affect domestic and inter-national economics. Clearly, there’s a mas-sive disconnect between Americans’ love of country and what they know about it.

Studies show that citizens with a work-able understanding of the American sys-tem are more likely to vote, become ac-tive in community affairs, have stronger families and engage in the discussion and debate of political issues.

They are more patriotic. The fabric of American society — an

enlightened society — can be enhanced by a civically knowledgeable younger gen-eration. As the next generation of leaders, young people particularly are charged with perpetuating the American system, for the best kind of patriotism is that which embraces national values and lives them through citizen actions.

Attend a naturalization ceremony cel-ebrating new American citizens. Ask them what American citizenship means to them. Their answers will help all of us ap-preciate our citizenship and rich heritage even more.

George R. Nethercutt Jr. is a former member of Congress from Eastern Wash-ington. His nonprofit foundation, The George Nethercutt Foundation, is sponsor-ing a Citizenship Tournament this fall for 4th-, 8th- and 12th-graders to win up to $10,000 scholarships and a trip to Wash-ington, D.C. Visit www.nethercuttfounda-tion.org for more information. He wrote this column as part of a series highlighting the Partners Advancing Character Educa-tion (PACE) trait of the month. The trait for November is “citizenship.”

The Splash opinion page is intended to be a community forum for discussing local issues. Please interact with us by sending a le�er to the editor or Liberty Lake Voices guest column for considera�on.Le�ers to the editor of no more than 350 words or guest columns of about 700 words should be emailed to [email protected]. Views expressed in signed columns or le�ers do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper or its staff. Editorials, which appear under the heading "Splash Editorial," represent the voice of The Splash and are wri�en by Editor/Publisher Josh Johnson.

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On the cover: Submitted rendering; page design by Sarah Burk

AboutThe Liberty Lake Splash

2310 N. Molter Road, Suite 305Liberty Lake, WA 99019

Phone: 242-7752; Fax: 927-2190www.libertylakesplash.com

The Splash is published monthly by or before the first of each month. It is distributed free of charge to every business and home in the greater Liberty Lake area. Additional copies are located at drop-off locations in Liberty Lake and Otis Orchards.

Submitted materialsAnnouncements, obituaries, letters to the editor and story ideas are encouraged. Submit them in writing to [email protected] or bring them by The Splash office. Submissions should be received by the 15th of the month for best chance of publication in the following month’s Splash.

SubscriptionsLiberty Lake residents receive a complimentary copy each month. Subscriptions for U.S. postal addresses outside of the 99019 ZIP code cost $12 for 12 issues. Send a check and subscription address to P.O. Box 363, Liberty Lake, WA 99019. Subscriptions must be received by the 15th of the month in order for the subscription to begin with the issue printed the end of that month.

Correction policyThe Splash strives for accuracy in all content. Errors should be reported immediately to 242-7752 or by email to [email protected]. Confirmed factual errors will be corrected on this page in the issue following their discovery.

Advertising informationDisplay ad copy and camera-ready ads are due by 5 p.m. on the 15th of the month for the following month’s issue. Call 242-7752 for more information.

Advertising integrityInaccurate or deceptive advertising is never knowingly accepted. Complaints about advertisers should be made in writing to the Better Business Bureau and to [email protected]. The Splash is not responsible for the content of or claims made in ads.

Copyright © 2013All rights reserved. All contents of The Splash may not be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

Volume 15, Issue 14

CONTRIBUTORSHope Brumbach (editing), Brenna Holland,

Craig Howard, Chad Kimberley, Daniel Pringle, Valerie Putnam, Ross Schneidmiller,

Jocelyn Stott, Mike Vlahovich

Our sincere appreciation to the following businesses for their foundational partnerships with The Splash and its partner publications:

Love The Splash? Support our partners.

The Splash is committed to “informing, connecting and inspiring” Liberty Lake through excellent community journalism. We can’t do it at all without you, our readers, and we can’t do it for long

without support from our advertisers. Please thank our business partners and look to them when offering your patronage.

Barlows Family Restaurant • City of Liberty Lake • Clark’s Tire and Automotive Family Medicine Liberty Lake • George Gee • John L. Scott Real Estate

KiDDS Dental Liberty Lake • Liberty Lake EyeCare Center Liberty Lake Orthodontics • STCU • Sunshine Gardens

PORTALat Miss ion & Mol ter

LibertyLake

Of note: This thank you message was produced by The Splash’s advertising team, which works its tail off on behalf of partner businesses, helping them share their messages through advertisements. This is an inde-pendent function from The Splash’s editorial team, which has its own evaluation process to determine the community news stories and features it pursues. For more information about a win-win partnership that expertly markets your business to thousands of readers (while making this home-grown community newspa-per possible), email [email protected]. With story ideas, contact [email protected].

Index of advertisersFollowing are the local advertisers in this issue of The Splash.

Amaculate Housekeeping 36Avista Utilities 19Banner Furnace & Fuel 11Barlows Restaurant 25Bestway Lawn & Tree Care 20Black Jack Limousine 37Broadway Court Estates 25Casey Family Dental 15City of Spokane Valley 35Clark’s Tire & Automotive 18Cornerstone Pentecostal Church 34Crown Media & Printing 5Cullings Family Dentistry 3Edward Jones Liberty Lake 2Evergreen Fountains 31Family Medicine Liberty Lake 39Friends of Pavillion Park 39Garden Plaza of Post Falls 36Healthy Living Liberty Lake 37Hong Kong Buffet 5Inland Imaging 25

John L Scott - Marilyn Dhaenens 41John L Scott - Pam Fredrick 37Karen Does My Hair 2Kathrine Olson DDS 13KIDDS Dental 23Lakeshore Insurance 3Lakeside Vision PLLC 11Liberty Lake Athletic Club 15Liberty Lake EyeCare Center 3Liberty Lake Family Dentistry 5Liberty Lake Orthodontics 3Liberty Lake Pet Sitters 36Liberty Lake Portal 42Liberty Lake Sewer & Water District 43Liberty Lube 37Live Real Estate - Sandra Bartel 43MAX at Mirabeau Restaurant & Lounge 23MeadowWood HOA 11North Idaho Dermatology - Stephen Craig MD 26Northern Quest Resort & Casino 48Northwest Insurance Brokers 34

Papa Murphy’s 27PEMCO Insurance - Bryan Jarrett 11Sayre and Sayre 43Simonds Dental Group 48Simonds Dental Group - No Cavity Club 9Spokane Chiefs 38SportClips Haircuts 43Sterling Bank 35STCU 29Summerfield Salon 5Therapeutic Associates 2Total Sports 41Vote Debbi Haskins 7Vote Hugh Severs 11Vote Lori Olander 9Windermere Real Estate - Bill White 25Wounded Warriors Project Fundraiser 13Zephyr Lodge & Conference Grounds 2 Service Directory 46

COMMUNITY

projects. He understands the city’s purse is financed from our pockets. He monitors very closely what our money is spent on. He ensures that we don’t throw money at every project proposed. He knows that priorities must be set and choices made. When the city does engage with a devel-oper, he fights to make sure that the city is supplied the most competitive bids pos-sible so that we aren’t paying a premium for the services we receive. He is focused on paying off all of the city’s debts, not in-curring new ones.

For these three reasons, I trust this man. When it comes to my ballot, I won’t hesitate to cast it for Odin Langford.

Ryan RomneyFormer member, Liberty Lake City Council

Applause for roundabout The new roundabout is looking great

and fits nicely within the Liberty Lake landscape with the added brick work and landscaping.

I wanted to take the time and congratu-late Mayor Peterson and Council members as well as the city staff for making this sec-tion of road much safer for the commut-ers. Kudos and keep up the good work!

Wendy Van OrmanLiberty Lake

Gift of trip inspires pride

On Oct. 5, Bill and I attended the "Hoe-down for HOPE.” This is the major fund-raiser for Spokane HOPE School.

This school teaches listening and spo-ken language to children with hear-ing loss (birth to 5 years old). It is the only one of its kind in the Inland Northwest. The school is located in the University District of Spokane. It is a 501c3 non-profit serving children. The grand prize of the evening was a Ha-waiian vacation. This included a one-week stay at a condo and $1,000 toward airfare. Mary Anne Frank won the trip. Now here is the best part: Mary Anne and Jim Frank gave the prize to a local family that has three children (ages 2, 4 and 6) that were born with hearing loss. Now that was real class! Just one more reason my husband and I are glad we purchased our home from Greenstone Corporation, a Liberty Lake-based company founded by Jim Frank. We are grateful to live in a commu-nity where the right thing happens without even a second thought. Thank you, Mary Anne and Jim Frank, for again caring about those around you. Your support makes Liberty Lake THE place to live!

Jan KroghLiberty Lake

HOPE School Board Member

LETTERSContinued from page 44


SERVICE DIRECTORY

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LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE• Weekly/Bi-weekly Lawn Care• Fall/Winter fertilization & Weed Control• Fall pest control/Spider Barriers• Sprinkler blowouts/Adjustments/Repairs• Fall cleanups/Raking/Leaf Removal• Fully licensed/Insured — Satisfaction guaranteed!

509-218-1775Pacific-Lawn.com

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HANDY MANNY ...... is your neighbor and is ready to complete your

home project (big or small) with skilled craftsmanship at an affordable price. Winterize and organize. Who

needs shelves? Call Manny at Pop’s Dream Creations, 499-4845, or Phil 280-9912. Licensed, bonded, insured.

POPSDDC873L8 • popsdreamcreations.com

HANDYMAN SERVICESART INSTRUCTION

Veteran’s Day & Holiday Gift Workshops

(ages 5+) $28.00 www.theartchalet.com

509-255-9600

924-LAWN

GRASSMASTERS LAWN & SPRINKLER

Please call to set up an appointment

Licensed & Bonded • 20+ years experience

Mention this ad and get $5 OFF

SPRINKLER BLOWOUT

1 40+ years experience, 20+ years in business1 Reasonable labor rate

J.M. Garden RestorationsAward-winning partial and complete restoration and refinishing services

for Vintage • Classic • Customs

509-257-2881

AUTO RESTORATION

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J.M. Garden’s body and refinishing work awarded “Best in Class” at the prestigious Pebble Beach

Concours d’Elegance event

HOUSE CLEANING SERVICES

Need help with cleaning?

HELP IS ON THE WAY!Affordable professional & personalized cleaning

Eco friendly cleaning suppliesOur goal is to make you proud of your home again

CONTACT:Julia at (503)309-5759 or [email protected]

Free estimatesResidential Houses • Offices • Auto Interior

Pre and post party clean up

The Clean Up Bros!Zach (age 15) and Isaiah (age 12)

are two hard working young men looking for odd jobs to earn extra money.

Our Rate: Pay us what you think the job is worth. How cool is that? To hire us please call 255-9194

or email: [email protected]

Odd jObs

AIRPORT TRANSPORTATION

New 2013 non-smoking van. Liberty Lake area to (GEG) Spokane International Airport, $45 one way or

$80 roundtrip (up to 5 people), 7 days a week. Reservations recommended.

TAXI SERVICE

TOM’S AIRPORT TAXI (509) 270-3115Taxi service also available to Spokane.

CHILDCARE

EXPLORERS DAYCAREBefore and After School Care available with Licensed In Home Daycare. Snack,

reading time and homework time provided. Plenty of references available. Care provided for

Winter and Spring Break as well. Contact Jamie 499-9141

FALL GOLF CART SELLDOWN---- Will Finance Till May Of 2014 With No Interest ------- 13 Carts under $2400 with guarantee thru 2014 ---

22 rental returns from Spokane Business — From $995’03 Yamaha 4 pass with new 48V batteries — $2495Older E-Z-Go gas•top• lites•w/s•runs perfect — $995Gas E-Z-Go•4stroke•top•w/s•rear flip seat — $2595’04 E-Z-Go•new Trojan batt. •w/s•auto chgr. — $2295’09 E-Z-Go•auto fill batt. system•48V•Guar. — $29953 - ’08 E-Z-Go gas•4stroke•split w/s•choice — $3295’06 E-Z-Go•bag cvr•split w/s•Trojan batt. •chgr. — $2650Very Hot ‘06 E-Z-Go• lifted•fancy wheels •cool — ?????4 Used tilt trailers •good tires•all sizes — From $750

Will trade — all financing in-house — no credit check!!4508 E. Sprague (2 Blocks east of Havana on Sprague)Open 7 Days a Week • 999-8989 any time of day or nite

GOLF CARTS

Heinz Painting & HandymanBBB accredited, hardworking, honest,

and on time. Free estimates! I have the time and tools to get the job done right.

Call today! Dave Heinz, 509-953-8093. Licensed, bonded & insured, HeInzpH924Bw.

Many satisfied Liberty Lake customers.

Handyman services

Heinz Painting & HandymanBBB accredited, hardworking, honest, and on time. Free estimates! Now is the time to get your house

painted. Call today! Dave Heinz, 509-953-8093. Licensed, bonded & insured, HeiNzpH924Bw.

Many satisfied Liberty Lake customers.

Painting

LESSONS IN YOUR HOME! Music To Go! — Beginner through intermediate

piano and guitar lessons available for Liberty Lake, Newman Lake, Otis Orchards and Spokane Valley. Since 1994. Recently relocated from SF Bay area. Please call Bobbie Marie Smith for more info at

509.474.9432 or email [email protected].

Music instruction

Advertise in the Service Directory — This is your place to connect with potential clients! Priced affordably, as little as $10 gets a business into 7,000 copies of The Splash that is delivered into every Liberty Lake home and business. Call or email to learn more: 242-7752 or [email protected]

A breakout box description of Bomb-shell Boutique was incorrect in the story “Boutique blooms out of personal chal-lenges” on page 39 of the October Splash. Located at 21950 E. Country Vista Drive, Suite 500, Bombshell Boutique sells cloth-ing, hand-crafted accessories, organic skin care items and home décor.

An additional step for vehicles using roundabouts was left out in “Rules of the roundabout” (page 10, October Splash). The Washington State Department of Transportation also urges drivers to use a turn signal when exiting the roundabout.

Correction

Clarification

Army National Guard Buck Night & Cheerstix Giveaway Join other hockey fans for $1 hot dogs, Coca Cola and popcorn. The first 5,000 fans will receive a set of cheerstix. For more: www.spokanechiefs.com

Nov. 2-3 | Boo Ball Fall Classic Basketball Tournament HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. For more: www.spokaneaau.com/fall-classic

Nov. 7 | Liberty Lake Running Club final season run The run will start and end at the Whybrew’s house with an end-of-the-year party. For more: 954-9806 or [email protected]

Nov. 16 | Complete Woman’s Wellness Super Saturday This all-day workshop is sponsored by Healthy Living Liberty Lake. For more: 924-6199

Nov. 28 | 2nd annual Turkey Trot 8 a.m., Trailhead Golf Course parking lot. Join the Liberty Lake Running Club for a 3-mile walk/run. Runners are asked to bring donations for Blessings Under the Bridge. Items needed are socks, mittens, gloves, hand warmers, toiletries and cocoa mix. For more: 954-9806 or [email protected]

Nov. 30-Dec. 1 | Turkey Shoot-Out Futsal Tournament HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. Boys and girls teams U7 through U14 are invited for some indoor futsal action. Registration is $250 per team (if registered by Nov. 5). For more: www.hubsportscenter.org

RecurringLiberty Lake Athletic Club During the month of November, donate to the 2nd Harvest food drive and receive half off the club’s enrollment fee. For more: 891-2582 or www.libertylakeathleticclub.com

HUB Sports Center 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. Various classes, activities and events occur throughout the week. For more: 927-0602 or www.hubsportscenter.org.

All calendar listings were provided to or gathered by Splash staff. If you would like your event considered for the community calendar, please submit information by the 15th of the month to [email protected].

CALENDARContinued from page 22


SUBMITTED PHOTOS

After a tragic accident claimed the life of two University High School students on Oct. 5, the entire Central Valley School District responded. A week normally reserved for a football rivalry game instead saw CV students uniting to wear Titan colors (above) on Oct. 7, and an outpouring of support in honor of Josie Freier and McKenzie Mott. After Freier’s family asked that toys be donated to Toys for Tots in her honor, “Toys for Titans” drives through-out the greater Spokane area eventually filled the University High School gym for a special assembly Oct. 11. Among the drives were those organized at Central Valley High School (left) and Greenacres Middle School (below).

CVSD community unites, responds

McKenzie Mott was LL residentFROM STAFF REPORTS

A tragic Spokane Valley car accident Oct. 5 claimed the life of two University High School sophomores, Josie Freier and McKenzie Mott. Mott was a resident of Liberty Lake.

A third student, 16-year-old driver and friend Preston Maher, was injured when the vehicle lost control and hit a tree on a residential road.

The accident led to an outpouring of unity and support in the Central Val-ley School District and beyond. CVSD Public Information Officer Melanie Rose said the response of the community was overwhelming, listing several responses just within the CVSD community. Among them:

• Hundreds of Central Valley High School students wore Titan colors on Oct. 7.

• Throughout the district, students pro-moted and collected donations for the Toys For Titans drive, delivering them to U-Hi for an Oct. 11 assembly.

• The CVHS community designed and produced crimson stickers for football players to wear on their helmets for the annual Greasy Pig rivalry game Oct. 11. U-Hi players also wore the stickers on their helmets for the game. CVHS leader-ship students also cut and assembled indi-

vidual crimson and gold ribbons on safety pins for CV students to wear at the game.

• CVHS leadership students helped U-Hi students decorate their gym for U-Hi’s Oct. 12 homecoming dance.

• CVHS Principal Mike Hittle and Assis-tant Principal Brandon Deyarmin helped organize a district-wide toy drive and of-fered to collect donations to deliver to U-Hi Friday morning. The drive became so large that CVSD trucks were brought in to collect the toys. Hittle and Deyarmin at-tended the assembly and helped move toys in and out of the gym.

• Proceeds from CV’s October blood drive were earmarked for Maher.

• Toys From Titans donations flooded in from schools across the district, including a drive at Greenacres Middle School that covered an entire stage.

Mott, a varsity soccer player at U-Hi, is survived by her parents Larry and Con-nie Mott; siblings Joshua (Jessica) Mott, Jeremy (Felicia Gumm) Mott and Mallory (Sean Lanphere) Mott; her grandmother, Lucille Mott; and many extended family members.

Funeral services were held Oct. 12 at Redeemer Lutheran Church, and memo-rial contributions are suggested to the Re-deemer Lutheran VBS.

COMMUNITY


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the november 2013 splash

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