Briefly

Liberty Lake council says it will annex land

The Liberty Lake City Council took a step Tuesday toward annexing 650 acres that includes a Greenacres neighborhood.

The council unanimously passed a resolution saying it intends to annex the property, which is west of Liberty Lake and east of Spokane Valley and has 400 residents.

Officials will forward the petition for annexation, along with a request to invoke jurisdiction, to the Boundary Review Board.

The move of invoking jurisdiction – which requests that the Boundary Review Board hold a public hearing to examine details of the annexation – was taken because the city expects that Spokane Valley would invoke jurisdiction sometime within the 45-day waiting period, said Doug Smith, planning director for the Liberty Lake. By doing so itself now, the smaller city hopes to save time.

Smith said Spokane Valley has issues with the annexation because it involves a key slice of commercially developable property, near Interstate 90.

Sponsors gathered signatures of support from landowners who hold more than 60 percent of the land’s total assessed value, which exceeds $15 million. Petition sponsors included Greenstone Corp. and Centennial Properties, and a subsidiary of Inland Empire Paper Co., which is owned by Cowles Publishing Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

“The city did not request annexation, the property owners did. This is the point the Valley has yet to digest,” Smith said.

Teen beats counselor at youth home, police say

A 17-year-old resident at a home for troubled youths in southeast Spokane beat a counselor Monday night and stole cash before fleeing the facility, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Deputies were called to the Morning Star Boy’s Ranch at 4511 S. Glenrose just after midnight. A 41-year-old counselor was being treated by paramedics for head and facial injuries, said Cpl. Dave Reagan, sheriff’s spokesman.

The counselor told authorities the teen had come into his office and demanded his own cash from the resident accounts lock boxes. The counselor told the boy he was not authorized to release those funds, and the teen left, Reagan said.

A short while later, the teen allegedly sprayed the counselor in the face with a fire extinguisher as the man left a laundry room. The teen struck the counselor in the back of the head with the fire extinguisher, and he fell to the floor, where the teen punched and kicked him, Reagan said. The boy then placed the counselor in a headlock and began to choke him while demanding keys to the cash boxes, Reagan said.

The counselor said he began to black out and gave the teen the keys. When he returned to the office, he found the cash boxes empty and called police. The counselor was transported to the hospital, where he was treated for a possible ruptured blood vessel in his eyes and scalp lacerations. He was released from the hospital.

Deputies were looking for the teen Tuesday, Reagan said. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Police find pedestrian bleeding from stomach

Officers found a 37-year-old man walking down a Spokane Valley street bleeding from his stomach Monday.

The incident was reported about 7 p.m. in the 8800 block of East Broadway Avenue in Spokane Valley. The wounded man had been drinking at the time of the incident, said Spokane Valley Police Department spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan.

The injury consisted of a puncture wound to the stomach and was not thought to be life-threatening, Reagan said. It’s unclear whether the man was stabbed. The investigation will continue.