If you had any doubt that the fire season is near, that big plume of smoke all of Wenatchee could see on Sunday should have been a good reminder.
The fire burned scrub and wheat, and apparently not much else, between Quincy and Moses Coulee and had firefighters scrambling Sunday. Reporters will check for what’s new with the fire, which apparently is stalled on the south edge of Moses Coulee. The fire was 40 percent contained Monday morning.
Here’s another reminder: It’s been nearly a year since the Easy Street Fire, which started July 7, 2007, and threatened much of the foothills north of Wenatchee. This week, Reporter Rachel Schleif will cover a training session for firefighters at Entiat as we get ready for the fire season.

Reporter K.C. Mehaffey will be at the Chelan property tax assessment meeting tonight. The meeting was called because of big increases in property values around the lake.  GoLakeChelan.com is planning to provide streaming audio of the event, which it’s sponsoring along with the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce.

Reporter Rick Steigmeyer is gathering information for a report on Leavenworth’s streets, torn up for weeks as part of an improvement project. A report and photos is on the budget for Tuesday.

And Reporter Jay Patrick has a report on the sentence given the father of a toddler left alone for hours. Dad’s headed to jail. We’re checking on the status of the child.

Reporter Travis Hay will be leaving the city halls beat at the end of June and will spend most of his time as The Wenatchee World’s first Web reporter. We’ll miss Travis but, before he leaves, we’ll extract as many stories as labor law allows. His report on Wenatchee riverfront land ownership is scheduled to run this weekend.