Good evening and thank you for
joining us for cremation news.
At 5:00 tonight, I'm Mark Hanrahan.
Whitney is on assignment.
The future of Avista Stadium
includes major renovations and
that's because the facility needs
to comply with new Major League
Baseball requirements or the county
could lose its MLB affiliation.
Well, just hours ago we got a first
look at proposed designs for those
renovations during the Spokane County
Commissioners Strategic Planning meeting.
Graham 2.
Amanda Rowley joining us live from
a business stadium tonight with the
latest on this multi $1,000,000 project.
Amanda.
The 65 year old Avista Stadium
needs improvements to meet new
Major League Baseball requirements.
Now this project includes a
couple different things in a new structures,
a renovation and expansion of existing ones.
Now today we got a chance to listen
to what the project includes and
what those upgrades might look like
when they're completed. The most
expensive Major League Baseball
mandated changes for the Spokane
Indians affect the playing field,
clubhouses, dugouts and lighting.
This morning, Spokane County
commissioners got a look at designs
for some of these upgrades,
including a rendering for the expanded
clubhouse and workout facility.
The Avista Stadium project is going
to cost an estimated $22 million.
The county and Spokane Indians
are racing to get a move on this,
and that's because these upgrades
need to be completed.
By the start of March 2025 season.
If not, the county could
lose its MLB affiliation.
Commissioner Chris Jordan
mentioned this in today's meeting.
I think it'd be a shame to lose our team.
I know that the Indians were not
the ones that did this right.
That forced the changes.
It was Major League Baseball.
It's a competitive environment.
And I think it's a lot of benefit
for the Community to have this
high quality of a team with the
relationships you mentioned.
Now a new stadium means a new lease
that the county and the Indians are
still sorting out that arrangement.
The draft version says the county,
which owns the stadium,
will commit up to $8 million
towards stadium improvements.
Those funds would be provided on
a dollar for dollar match to what
the Indians raise themselves.
Now, there are a few upcoming deadlines
that the county needs to meet this
year in order to keep the project on
track for completion by March 2025,
we'll be keeping track of the
county's progress on this.
Amanda Roley from 2 news.
Amanda, thank you very much.
The meantime, let's check out the forecast
with Chief meteorologist Jeremy Good.
Jeremy and Amanda's live shot.
You could hear how windy it
is outside right now. Yeah,
that wind all just a sign of our changing.
Other pattern here in the
Inland Northwest right now,
watching some of those stronger gusts move
through and that's kind of the end of it.
We're going to hang on to those wind
gusts for the next couple of hours,
but notice they die down into the teens
and that's quite a bit lower than
where we are in the 5:00 o'clock hour.
I really think this kind of 20 mile per
hour range right now is the worst of it.
And then we watch it wind down.
That being said,
that's not enough to cause damage,
just enough to kind of usher in a new air
mass, temperatures falling into the 30s.
Just one hour ago we were four degrees.
Former here in Spokane,
down to just 36 in Coeur d'Alene,
35 in Pullman and 31 in Moscow,
40s out in central Washington.
And there comes some of that moisture.
Notice it's moving in.
We're seeing a little bit of
activity here in Spokane County,
but really not all that much.
The precipitation,
scattered and lightened nature, sure,
if you see it, you'll notice it,
but it's not much more than that.
We're going to continue to see
these kind of lighter showers.
Best shot at getting more widespread ones.
Early tomorrow morning looks like
heavier snow over the mountains.
And then a quick shot here in low
elevations before everything moves out
and we get a dry few days moving in.
Sounds good, Jeremy.
Thank you very much.
We'll check back in with you
later in the broadcast.
Well,
the city of Spokane is expected
to spend around $100 million on
construction projects this year.
KREM 2,
Shannon Moudy is live on Freya,
where yes,
more construction is coming this spring.
Shannon.
Probably not what people want to hear,
Mark, but there is a more road
work coming to the Thor Freya area
specifically right in this area,
but the city says this time around
it'll be less of a headache.
With warmer temperatures
comes another season,
spokanes preparing for construction season.
This year the city will invest in some new
and old projects,
though everything together is in the
$100 million range for the season,
so that includes some of the
stuff that was already started.
And that means
the return of road work,
including two busy streets
that were backed up last year.
You'll see things like the post St.
Bridge get finished
probably late in the year.
You'll see a continuation of some
work on the Thorofare corridor.
We're going to do those intersections
with Thor and Freya at second and third,
the intersections with second
and third or set for a full Rd.
reconstruction with curb,
water and sewer replacements
and ADA ramp upgrades.
That's expected to cost
around 1 1/2 million dollars.
It's going to be a much
smaller impact than previous.
We'll be able to maintain at
least one lane of traffic
on each of the roads, many
of the city's anticipated.
Projects revolve around pedestrian safety,
including adding hybrid crossing beacons
like these at more spots citywide.
That includes several spots along
Division Green and Carlisle and
the Nevada Joseph intersection.
We look, you know, throughout the city
to determine where we need to make
improvements to allow pedestrians to
move more freely through our community,
particularly around places like
schools or hospitals or places that
where pedestrians might collect,
if you will, like a grocery store.
More sidewalks
are also coming. Walkways will be
installed near Bemus Elementary,
Driscoll, Alberta Cochrane and
on the West side of Haven St.
I did speak with a coffee shop in this area,
and they told me that Thor Freya project last
year really slowed things down for them.
But the city tells me that they are
actually already going out to businesses
in the area and letting them know, just
warning them of what's to come in Spokane.
Shannon Moudy from 2 news.
All right, Shannon, thank you very much.
And other top stories.
Tonight, Washington State Department of
Commerce director Lisa Brown announced
that she'll be stepping down coming up.
On March 3rd. Previously,
Brown had been appointed to the position by
Governor Jay Inslee back in February of 2019.
During her time with the Commerce Department,
she worked toward a solution to close
the homeless encampment near I-90.
Brown also started a small
business resiliency network,
which uses public and philanthropic funding
to support small businesses that included
the Carl Maxey Center here in Spokane.
Well, drivers should be ready for
I-90 to be closed again this weekend
in Spokane as crews finish up their
work to remove the Magnolia St.
Pedestrian Bridge.
Crews removed the center part of
the bridge overnight on Saturday.
Originally washed out was going
to replace the bridge with the
north-south Freeway construction,
but they decided to take the bridge down
because of damage and structural problems.
Their freeway will close this
Saturday at 10:00 PM and stay closed
until 9:00 AM on Sunday.
In your national headlines now,
a US fighter jet shot down another
unmanned unidentified object yesterday,
this time over Northern
Michigan's Lake Huron.
This is the 4th object shot
down over the past week.
On Saturday,
NORAD took down a mystery object over
Canada's Yukon Territory and U.S.
forces downed an object near
Alaska's icy coast on Friday.
It's been more than a week since
a suspected Chinese spy balloon
was shot down off South Carolina
coast after it flew across the US,
while the Vince Lombardi Trophy is
headed back to Kansas City after
their victory over the Philadelphia
Eagles last night.
But even before kickoff, emotions were high.
The game started with a powerful
performance of the national anthem
by country artist Chris Stapleton.
Ohse.
Star spangled man.
For the first time in the game's history,
and all female team of U.S.
Navy pilots participated
in the pregame fly over,
and two of the pilots have Washington ties.
Peggy Denty and Lindsey Evans are
based at Naval Station Whidbey Island.
But then all eyes were,
of course on Rihanna,
who lit up the halftime show
with some of her greatest hits.
She performed We Found Love, rude boy,
only girl in the world, and umbrella.
And she closed out the show with diamonds.
As you just heard.
It was her first live
performance in seven years.
Spokane's black history was the
topic of celebration at the Downtown
Spokane Library over the weekend.
The library hosted a resource fair.
Live speakers and performances in
celebration of Black History Month
are very on Channing Curtis MC the
event and hosted a live let's talk
panel discussion about education.
A black-owned business Expo took place
before the event featuring vendors,
booths and resources,
and City Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson
says the event was really about
making sure the community knows
about the resources available to them.
I've already feel successful because
we have about 16 resources down
here where people can come and
look and can talk and find out more
what's going on in the community,
and people can get information
I hope they can use. But again,
we're getting to know each other, and
later this week there will be an event
featuring work from high school students
across the Spokane area celebrating
black voices and stories in our region.
That event starts at 7:00 PM this
Wednesday at the Downtown Spokane Library.