Gray Fire puts bad planning on display

A quip on a social media post said it all: “Harrington has never been so busy.”

That tongue-in-cheek post was in reference to a decision to divert Interstate 90 traffic between Spokane and Sprague through Airway Heights, Reardan, Davenport and Harrington as the Gray Fire encroached on the highway over the weekend.

The fire broke out Friday afternoon near Eastern State Hospital and Medical Lake. As it grew toward Four Lakes and Cheney, authorities decided to detour traffic at different times through those communities, as well as Edwall and Cheney until Monday afternoon.

Apparently, they had nev...