In brief: Priest sanctioned over abuse claim

A Catholic priest who served in Post Falls until this year has been sanctioned and stripped of his priestly duties.

The Rev. William R. Gould had been placed on administrative leave while church officials investigated allegations of sexual misconduct with a teen boy while he was serving in Idaho Falls 29 years ago.

Gould has denied the allegations. No criminal charges were ever filed, but a Vatican council reviewed an internal investigation submitted seven months ago. Its decision to sanction Gould was announced Monday after Pope Benedict XVI approved the decision.

Gould had worked as a pastor and administrator of St. George’s parish in Post Falls since 1990.

According to the Diocese of Boise, Gould was acting administrator of St. Catherine’s parish in Priest River in 1994, and from 2004 to 2008 he was administrator of St. Mary Immaculate in Saint Maries.

John Stucke

Bank sponsoring Labor Day concerts

The Spokane Symphony’s Comstock Park Concert on Labor Day will be revived next September, thanks to a three-year sponsorship from Sterling Savings Bank.

Sterling Savings President and Chief Operating Officer Ezra Eckhardt called it “an early holiday gift to the community.”

The free Comstock Park Concert had been a 25-year tradition in Spokane – until this year. The symphony was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds, so the 2010 concert was canceled.

The free concert costs the symphony about $36,000 to stage each year.

Jim Kershner

Planning department will open on Fridays

The Spokane County Department of Building and Planning will resume Friday hours in January.

The office was closed on Fridays this year as part of a one-day-a-week furlough to cut costs and preserve jobs in the face of declining revenue.

The department is required to support most of its activities with permit fees.

Planning Director John Pederson said business has picked up slightly this year, allowing the department to be open from 7:30 a.m. until noon on Fridays. The office will be open until 4 p.m., as usual, on other days.

Officials say the department no longer has enough employees for the office to be open all day on Fridays. Building and Planning employees work a 37  1/2-hour week.

John Craig