June 2017 Newsletter
HEALTHY Tekoa News! A Brown Bag medicine review will be held at the Tekoa Good Neighbor Pharmacy on June 12 from 10 to noon. The Healthy Tekoa Coalition is giving away medication lock boxes to patrons who need to keep opioids or narcotics and/or marijuana locked up and safe from children’s reach. If you or someone in your care is taking a lot of medication, consider coming to this event. The Brown Bag event is a safety measure to ensure all the medications you are taking won't cause any potential problems and don't need to be adjusted to meet changing health needs. Here's how it works: Gather all prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, herbal or natural products and vitamins or minerals you use, place them in a bag and take them to your health care professional and your pharmacist. Your health care professional will review all of them to ensure they are the same as those listed on your medical record; your pharmacist will double-check them against your pharmacy profile. They will screen them for potential duplication of therapies, side effects or interactions. They will ask you how you take each medication to ensure you fully understand the instructions. Librarian Diane Harp will be on hand to show how to use the online pill identifier to discover the name of unidentified pills and give out a free medication lock box to up to 90 people.
The Healthy Tekoa Coalition will co-sponsor the annual teen lock-in Friday, June 16, from 8-11 p.m. at the Tekoa Grade School Gym. The night will be filled with games like glow stick tag, TP Fashion show, q-tip tag, 3-legged race, sack race, wheel barrel race, dodge ball, Limbo, cupcake eating race, dance off, impersonation competition, pass the apple, egg toss, and balloon stomp. What a great way to have fun and celebrate making healthy choices. Parents, remember to remain diligent in monitoring your alcohol and marijuana, especially with summer celebrations just around the corner. Talk to your teens about the risks of using both substances. For tips on how--and when--to begin the conversation, visit: www.starttakingnow.org.
TEKOA LIBRARY NEWS: Get ready to read during Tekoa Library's summer reading program starting June 1. This year's programs are as follows: Thursday, June 22, at noon-- making a Red Cross emergency pillow case; Monday, June 26, at 2 at the Empire Theatre is the Traveling Lantern show; Thursday, July 6, at noon-- making fashion vests; Thursday, July 13, at noon is Messy Science; Wednesday, July 19, at 2:30-- Ronald McDonald is at the Library; and Thursday, July 27, at noon is the final celebration and prize day. Reminder: Adults and teens can win prizes by reading 3 books. Sign up today. Tekoa Library will be open on Slippery Gulch Saturday, June 17, from 1-5 p.m. Play 80’s trivia at our soon-to-be community center that evening from 4-5 p.m. led by librarian Diane Harp.
The Slippery Gulch Show: The Slippery Gulch “Gong Show” is our revision of the national network show of the 1970’s and soon to be returning to ABC. The show combines talented performers and performers of often dubious talent. The show is a judged talent contest with outlandish acts competing for prizes. If any judge considers an act to be particularly bad (after 20 seconds), he or she can force it to stop by striking a large gong. Any act that survives without being gonged will be given a score by each of the three judges on a scale of 0 to 10, for a maximum possible score of 30. Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place talent as well as the Most Outrageous Act. The show will feature many characters who appeared as regular performers. They will include The Unknown Comic, a stand-up comedian who told intentionally corny jokes while wearing a paper bag over his head; Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, a heavy set middle-aged man wearing a warm-up suit and flat hat; and Chuckie's Fables. The box office opens at 1:30 and the show starts at 2:00. Adults: $7.00, children: $5.00. Profits go to the Empire Theatre and Dollars for Scholars. Come and enjoy an afternoon of entertainment and fun!!!
Council Comments –
Dear friends and neighbors: I just wanted to let you know we are doing all we can to make sure that the building at Main and Crosby with the collapsed walls is cleaned up at the owner’s expense, not the city’s. My main concern is that it is also a danger area, so please keep your children away from the building until this is resolved. Ted Blaszak, council member
Messages from the Mayor—
I’ve written before about the city’s battle with the Spokane River Keepers and the Department of Ecology concerning our discharge into Hangman Creek. Somewhere down the road we are going to be forced into using lagoons and land application as a means of disposing of our wastewater. In the very near future, the council will listen to representatives from the Department of Ecology explaining our options. This fall we plan to have a community meeting, so all interested patrons are informed of the predicament we are confronted with.
The new restrooms at the community center are progressing in a timely manner. Because of the continuous rain, our city guys have been able to spend some quality time framing the new bathrooms, putting in a new floor, and preparing for fixtures to be installed. Many thanks to several volunteers who disassembled the old restrooms and prepared the area for Duane and Kevin to do their thing!
The city council is working diligently with property owners whose buildings are in disrepair. The Andersson building and bowling alley are just two of several. In light of this, the city needs some volunteers to serve on our unfit/dangerous building committee and on a committee that would hear an appeal from a property owner whose property had been deemed dangerous or unfit for habitation. This also includes buildings that are in extreme disrepair, have critical structural defects and/or pose an undue risk of injury or additional property loss. Patrons may call city hall at 509-284-3861 if interested in being on either committee.
The council plans to submit applications for grants to (1) finish the Park Street road project, and (2) replace more sewer lines in Tekoa. I believe we have an excellent chance to receive both grants. There will be more on this topic when grants are awarded this fall.
We are “surplusing” both pellet stoves located in the community center. Call city hall if interested.
The council has requested that our attorney develop two new ordinances. One would deal with occupying a home without running water. The other would allow the city to forgive all or part of an excessive water bill due to an undetected water leak that would occur between meter readings.
The council reviewed the gravel roads that would be chip-sealed if our street levy were to pass. Next month I’ll list the streets.
Our Slippery Gulch Celebration will be on Saturday, June 17. There should be event posters around town. As usual our Slippery Gulch Committee has planned a full scale of activities that will entertain the entire family!
Enough is enough! Enjoy our Slippery Gulch Celebration weekend, and let’s hope for some warm weather. You snow-birds were supposed to bring nice weather with you. That’s what those of us who weather the cold weather expect!