This news section of website is updated fairly regularly. Anyone who wishes to contribute a news item or announcement of event, please contact Athena Website News. We'll do our best to get the item on the site in a timely manner, but there are no guarantees.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The WM high school drama club will present Little Women April 28th - May 3rd. This promises to be a top production. Call Liz McIntyre at her school number, 566-3555, if you can help find costumes or want more info about the production.

JoAnn Huntsman and others are organizing a community-wide YARD SALE for May 30th and 31st. Get your name on the list to have a sale by phoning Jacky at 566-0307. The committee will do joint newspaper ads, highway signs, location map handouts, and radio announcements.

City-wide clean-up and Humbert's "free dump" days will be May 3rd and 4th.

Library construction photos, with a few of artists working on tile and stained glass projects, are now online; CLICK HERE! Do let friends, relatives, co-workers, classmates who have moved away from Athena know about these photo pages.

Hodaka Days 2008 will begin on Wednesday, June 18th, with a revisiting of the Bad Rock ride of 1972. Festivities will continue throughout the weekend, including parade, bike show, Observed Trials and Scrambles. The Hodaka committee has a superb bike to raffle, as long as several other items, with proceeds to benefit the Athena Library Friends Association (ALFA) library project and local history collection.

Interested in the progress being made at the Gem Theatre? Check out the new Gem Theatre website or phone 566-0117 for information about upcoming meetings. These are usually at Rob McIntyre's house at 7 pm on first Tuesdays.

So many changes on Main Street! The One-Stop Grocery building is looking great, as is the new library. With much sweat equity by owner, the old hotel environs are looking much improved. Traci Meek, the official new owner of the Athena Grocery (formerly Kirk's) has added a doorway directly into the Liquor Store and expanded hours there. Paint and repair jobs over the past year on PGG, NAPA, and the ambulance building have definitely helped, as did earlier projects of benches and lamp posts by PARTNERS group. Let's extend the cleanup throughout the town -- getting out of sight unused vehicles, building materials, broken playground structures, and other collections of "treasures" that create eyesores. The City Council is cracking down and issuing tickets for unkempt yards ... let's each do our part!

The CHAMBER OF COMMERCE will start its Yard-of-the-Month program soon ...

Inland Northwest Musicians will be performing at the park on Sunday June 22nd; keep eyes open for flyers announcing the program and time.

Do buy raffle tickets for the beautiful Caledonian quilt on display at the bank. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5 and the drawing for winner will be July 13 at the Tattoo.

Sign your youngsters up for the library's summer reading program soon! It will begin June 16th with the theme "Metamorphosis" and will be held at the Baptist Church. Sessions include reading, demonstrations, crafts, and lots more!

April 19th sees the opening of Little League season!

PARTNERS Promoting Athena continues but has folded itself into the Athena Chamber of Commerce--Chamber meetings are now third Thursdays at 11:30 am at the Doubletree. See Dennis Jones, Nancy Parker, or Ken Bjorklund about ways to become involved in the Chamber or in PARTNERS group. The two groups are now working on the idea of installing surveillance cameras on Main Street.

An assistant is needed to compile the 2009 Heritage Calendar. Please contact Sally Geissel if you are interested. The time commitment would be about 40 hours overall from August through October. The calendar always seems to generate surprises ... not long ago, a congratulatory note came in from Graham Watkins in New Mexico saying how much he enjoyed the memories of Athena in the calendar. It does make a great holiday gift; calendars must be pre-ordered by signing up at the library starting in August.

Ron Reinhart is taking on the groundskeeping duties at the cemetery this year.

ALFA's Fabric Arts Faire March 8th was a great success and a really fun community time. Go the the ALFA website for an earnings report. Volunteers and donors have been listed in press releases and will appear in the next issue of ALFA Connections newsletter (due out in early May). The goal of a fireplace in the front room of the new library has now been met.

If you have announcements of interest to the community, please drop off at City Hall to editor of city newsletter, Cyndi Calvert, and also send an email to Athena Website News

Of the many complaints about loose and barking dogs, most boil down to about 8 actual dogs. Owners of those animals need to ensure that the dogs are licensed and kept under control. City Council is putting more teeth and higher fines into the ordinance concerning dog problems in the city.

If you wish to be on an email notification list for library project updates, please send your email address to athena_alfa The list is not sold and is usually not used more than once or twice a month to send news items. Your privacy is not hurt, nor are you bombarded with emails! Items sent are guaranteed virus free by yahoo.

WEBSITE UPDATE and REDESIGN: Some progress, but it's slow! One thing being checked now are links; please communicate problems you've had to the email address on the "welcome" page of this site. If you have suggestions about content and direction that you'd like to see at this website, or new links to add, please send in your ideas. And keep checking back to see the changes as they unfold.

There's a new and talented entertainment team in town!