Tom Lutey

Some birthdays you just don't celebrate with candles. Sixteen years ago this coming Tuesday, in the middle of the afternoon, residents of Spokane Valley's Ponderosa neighborhood heard the roar of a late-season forest fire torching the trees for which their neighborhood is named. Before long, 14 houses were burning and Ponderosa neighbors were driving down the only two roads out of the neighborhood.

Just a few weeks ago, Spokane Valley seemed like it was going to sleep through the 2007 election. Campaign signs were scarce. Candidates stumping door to door were even more so. The only two incumbents running for the re-election to Spokane Valley City Council were headed back to office by virtue of being unchallenged. The city's only contested race, one to replace a council member uninterested in running again, featured one candidate with no intention of waiting up on the night of the primary to see if he'd won and another unwilling to shelve her personal life to meet with voters.

An early morning Sept. 28 bust outside a sheet metal shop in Liberty Lake yielded two alleged metal theft suspects with apparent drug ties. The suspects, 41-year-old Diane M. Putnam and 44-year-old Felix R. Colon, both of Spokane, were arrested behind Acrifab Display Products, which works with sheet metal. Police say they found the two pulling metal from a bin behind the store and loading it into a blue, 1984 Chevy truck.

Developers of a high-end housing project along the Spokane River near Arbor Crest were granted a significant step forward last week when Spokane Valley rezoned 37 acres on the river's south bank to allow up to 22 housing units per acre. The gravel-rich land just off of Cement Road had been zoned for mining, but the change approved Tuesday by Spokane Valley Interim Hearing Examiner Michael Dempsey would open the land to a mix of 285 homes and condominiums planned by Neighborhood Inc. of Coeur d'Alene. The project is being called Coyote Rock.

Edgecliff officials are wasting no time transforming recently vacated Pratt School into a community center. The building, shuttered last spring as a cost-cutting move, opened part time this month as a hub for children's programs, including a computer study center. Spokane Valley food bank will begin using the building soon to distribute food. And more programs could be on the way.

Is any city's future brighter than Liberty Lake's? Its property values are on a meteoric rise. Its weekly police reports won't fill a single page. Its oldest houses are less than 30 years old and its business district is swelling with good paying, light manufacturing jobs.

Dragontail Peak, which took the lives of a Spokane father and son last week, is known for giving climbers more mountain than they anticipated. Climbers attempting to summit the 8,800-foot peak in a single weekend regularly find themselves still on the mountainside come Monday. Named for the "rock needles" on the crest southwest of its summit, the peak is located near Colchuck Lake in the popular Alpine Lakes Wilderness, about 10 miles southwest of Leavenworth.

Just when car thieves seemed to be passing Spokane Valley by, a rash of stolen vehicles in August tied a four-year record, crime statistics show. Last month, criminals stole 71 vehicles in Spokane Valley, which not only tied a four-year August record, but also ranked the month as the fifth worst for car thefts since 2004. The worst months for car theft tend to be November and December, when parking lots congested with holiday shoppers make vehicle theft easier.

Valleyfest, the largest all-community celebration in Spokane Valley, will last three days this year, its longest run ever. Event organizers released the entertainment schedule for the free festival, which occurs Sept 21 through Sept.23 at Mirabeau Point Park.

Citing an inability to evacuate more Ponderosa neighbors during a wildfire or other disasters, Spokane Valley's hearing examiner has rejected plans for 45 more homes there. "The sole basis for denial was basically an inadequate public access during wildfire or other disasters," said Michael Dempsey, city hearing examiner pro tem.

By now a warm shade of embarrassing red has replaced the pale look so many people wore last week after receiving e-mail warnings about bloody gang violence in Spokane Valley. The report of gang inductees bent on killing innocent motorists was bogus, though it seemed believable to many in part because it was disseminated by friends or friends of friends, many of whom claimed to know someone who knew someone who knew for sure the story was true.

Fire insurance rates for large businesses in Liberty Lake should dip slightly after recent changes in emergency service. The change stems from more firefighters and equipment being dedicated to the Liberty Lake area by the Spokane Valley Fire Department. Department officials petitioned two years ago for a lower insurance rating after drafting plans to locate a new ladder truck in the area.

Sewer bills in Liberty Lake will be $9 more when they arrive in mailboxes next month. The increase is what the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District commissioners concluded Aug. 15 that they'd need to cover the sewer costs through 2008 with more increases to follow as needed.