BRIEFLY

Get driver, boat, vehicle tasks done before temporary outage

NEWPORT – Driver and vehicle/boat services will be temporarily unavailable at the Pend Oreille County Auditor’s Office Feb. 14-17 and online services will be down Feb. 10-17 while computer systems are upgraded. The temporary shutdown includes the Feb. 14-17 closure of all driver licensing offices, as well as the call center. Vehicle and boat services will also be unavailable. Online services for driver and vehicle/boat licensing will be down even longer, Feb. 10-17. Business and professional licensing systems are not affected by the outage. Those who have a driver or vehicle/boat transaction to complete can get things done now by going to dol.wa.gov. After Feb. 9, people won’t be able to order car tabs or renew their driver license online until Feb. 18.

Airlifted inmate returned to jail

NEWPORT – Michele Leigh Springsteen, 57, of Newport, the inmate airlifted to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane following a fall at the Newport County Jail Monday, Jan. 27, was returned to jail, Wednesday, Jan. 29. She is being held on warrants.

According to Pend Oreille County Sheriff Glenn Blakeslee, Springsteen was discharged in order to not have to send a deputy with her to the hospital. She was then returned to jail, presumably by law enforcement.

According to a Facebook profile for a Krisstarah Tianna Bennett, the inmate who died in jail Jan. 27, Bennett attended Newport High School with the class of 2007, she was from Newport, lived in Spokane and worked at McDonald’s. Bennett’s cause of death has not been released. Another inmate, Natalie J. Lemery, 32, of Spokane was charged with introducing a controlled substance into a jail facility and controlled substance homicide in connection with the death, according to a news release from the Newport Police Department.

Bennett was the third inmate to die in the Pend Oreille County Jail since 2022. Franz Kroll hung himself in the jail in August 2022. Jacob Mitchell died April 5, 2023, from complications from diabetes, according to a $3 million tort claim for damages filed against the county by his father, Harry Joe Mitchell.