This week, the Spokane Regional Transportation Council is continuing their workshops as part of the Transportation Vision Project in partnership with community partners and MIG Inc to develop a long term plan. The project will look at all modes of transportation –transit, bicycling, walking, personal vehicles, freight, etc. – within Spokane County. Here are the next dates and topics:

Tuesday, Aug. 3- Roundtable Meeting: Transit, 6-8 p.m., West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt
Wednesday, Aug. 4- Roundtable Meeting: Seniors, 1-3 p.m., Corbin Senior Center, 827 W. Cleveland
Wednesday, Aug. 4-Roundtable Meeting: Families/Children, 6-8 p.m., Corbin Senior Center, 827 W. Cleveland

Please let anyone you know who might be interested they should attend. You can also find more information on these meetings, and the Transportation Vision Project in general, at spokanetransportationvision.com.

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The Spokane Arts Commission has a cool mural project this summer. They’re working on Lincoln St. downtown this week with at-risk youth and have finished up at 4th and Sunset Avenue and 4th and Monroe Avenue. Thanks to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, Rotary 21, Inland Northwest Labor Council, the Downtown Spokane Partnership, the Police Department and from a large number of individuals who gave paint brushes, trash bags, and lots of time. Check out more photos after the jump.

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The severe winter storms a couple years ago caused severe erosion at the City Parks golf course The Creek at Qualchan. Last night Council approved using $300K from the golf fund reserves to repair storm damage, an amount that will be reimbursed by FEMA. This is in addition to $400k for previous restoration work on the stream that borders the golf course. The Council also approved a $125K settlement in lawsuit in which it was a co-defendant with Avista. Avista’s portion of the settlement was $375k and it is regarding claims from a gas line “rapid expansion event” or explosion by another name. Both these first two items passed 6-0 with Councilmember Rush absent. The Council deferred deliberations on putting the proposed charter amendments on the ballot until next week when the full council is present.

In other business the Council read two mayoral proclamations, one regarding “ADA Awareness Day” celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with DIsabilities Act, and “Recreation and Parks Week” celebrating the grand opening of the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex. Mayor Verner herself was in attendance to present the Washington Library Association Trustee Distinguished Service Award to Ned Barnes, whose extraordinary efforts for over two decades as a Spokane Public Library trustee is one of the reasons we have such a great library system.

On Thursday, the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) will hold a hearing in Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St., from 5 to 7pm, as part of an effort to help develop Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget proposal for 2011-13. The purpose of the hearing is to present information on the governor’s priorities and to solicit input from citizens. During the first hour committee and audience members will hear brief presentations from OFM budget analysts for each of the six value areas in the budget. The remaining time will be designated for citizen comment. Also, check out the site Governor Gregoire launched for online comments on the budget or review ideas posted by others. That tool can be found HERE.

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The Council voted 5-2 to raise elevator inspection fees such that another inspector could be hired so that the City can properly handle annually inspection of the over 1100 conveyances in the city. Elevator inspection is an enterprise fund so the money from the fees will go to support the inspection program not to the general fund. Adding an additional inspector was the right thing to do because it keeps the jobs here in Spokane and allows the City to maintain a one-stop-shop for users of our building services, but more importantly having two inspectors in Spokane lets us effectively address the backlog of inspections and gives us the best opportunity to have the safest inspection program possible for our citizens who ride elevators and escalators every day. Since state law requires annual public inspection our only other alternative would have been to turn the program over to State Labor and Industries, but concerns about L&I workload, budgets cuts, a 12-16 month lag in takeover, and response times for a program operated out of Olympia instead of Spokane made this alternative undesirable. The Council heard testimony both for and against the increased fees (which hadn’t been raised substantially in almost 20 years) from the business community. Read the rest of this entry »