Jan. 26 / City to cut jobs due to construction slowdown
The city of Spokane said it will eliminate eight full-time positions and one part-time position in its Building Enterprise Fund Feb. 15. The cuts, spurred by a record low number of new housing permits and steep declines in all other types of permits in the fourth quarter, are expected to save more than $500,000 a year. The fund charges fees to cover its costs.

Jan. 23 / Avista seeks electric, natural gas rate increases
Avista Corp., of Spokane, sought net increases in Washington of 8.6 percent and 2.4 percent in its electric and natural gas rates, respectively, and sought in Idaho increases of 7.8 percent in its electric rates and 3 percent in its natural gas rates. The company said it sought to recover rising power-generating and -purchasing costs, to pay for needed infrastructure upgrades, and to comply with environmental and legal requirements, but also said it was proposing to reduce power-cost surcharges in both states.

Jan. 21 / Employment here drops
Nonagricultural wage and salary employment in the Spokane area fell to 216,000 in December, a decrease of 4,300 jobs from the December 2007 level, according to preliminary state figures. Preliminary figures from another state survey put the unemployment rate at 7.6 percent in December, up from 5.1 percent in the year-earlier month.

Jan. 20 / Spokane, Airway Heights reach annexations pact
The Spokane and Airway Heights city councils agreed to cooperate with each other while seeking to annex portions of a designated West Plains joint planning area. The agreement calls for Spokane to annex the bulk of the targeted 6,400 acres, including the Spokane International Airport, and for Airway Heights to get a half-square mile of land that includes the West Plains Wal-Mart. The Spokane County Boundary Review Board would make the final decision on any proposed annexations.

Jan. 14 / 2008 home sales plummet
The Spokane Association of Realtors reported that 4,911 homes were sold in Spokane County in 2008, down 29 percent from 6,935 homes sold in 2007. The median home-sales price for 2008 was $184,000, down 0.8 percent from $185,400 a year earlier. The total sales volume was $1.01 billion, down 31 percent from $1.47 billion in 2007.

Jan. 13 / Retail sales here outperform state
Taxable retail sales in Spokane edged upward to $1.03 billion during the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 0.15 percent, compared with the year-earlier period. Spokane was alone among the five cities with the most sales that didn't have a significant decline in sales for the quarter, the Washington state Department of Revenue said. Retail sales in Spokane County fell to $1.94 billion in the quarter, a decrease of 4.19 percent, although that was the smallest rate of decline among the state's five most populous counties.

Jan. 13 / County signs contract for treatment plant
Spokane County commissioners signed a $254 million contract with Englewood, Colo.-based CH2M Hill Constructors Inc. that calls for the company to design and build an 8 million-gallon-a-day wastewater treatment plant at the old stockyards near Freya Street and Trent Avenue, and to operate the plant for 20 years. The project will be designed to accommodate regional growth over that period of time, the county said.

Corrections & Amplifications
Hill International Inc., of Marlton, N.J., is coordinating work on the Northern Quest Casino expansion project on the West Plains as the construction manager. That information was reported incorrectly in a photo caption in the Jan. 15 issue of the Journal.