The Liberty Lake Deep Dive

Commemorating the city's 25th anniversary, original Liberty Lake mayor Steve Peterson joins us via Zoom to share what went on during the initial months of starting up the city's operations during 2000 and 2001. You'll hear about Steve's involvement in setting up an initial city hall (or two), how he decided to run to become the first mayor, and the hurdle involved in hiring city employees before having any city revenues!

In commemoration of the 50th running of the big Spokane Bloomsday race, meet the one resident of Liberty Lake who has done 'em all ... EVERY year! Brian Kenna shares his memories about being among the 1,200-plus people who were part of the first staging of Bloomsday, as well as a few of his favorite highlights from the event's past decades, a lot of insights about what it means to be one of the Bloomsday Perennials ... and what he's done with all of those finisher T-shirts!

Dan Maus, the city's urban forestry supervisor, re-emerges for the spring and provides another season's collection of tips for your outdoor plants and trees as the warmer weather begins. Plus, he dispels 5 misconceptions that people often have about trees. (And, yes, we play some of the Dan Maus theme song again!)

Ty Burns, the golf shop supervisor and one of the assistant pros at Trailhead Golf Course, fills you in on a trio of the special offerings at the local recreation site: The indoor game simulators, the men's and ladies' clubs, and ... glow golf! Plus, you'll learn a bit about Ty's background during our opening round of minutes in this installment's Q&A.

Shane Brickner served as Liberty Lake's mayor throughout 2020 -- which was his personal highlight among his community contributions that also involved several years as a volunteer officer with the LLPD as well as two full terms on the City Council. For this episode, retired chief Brian Asmus of the Liberty Lake Police Department sits at the microphone to share some of his professional and personal recollections of the city's former mayor, who passed away in November of 2025 at the age of 50. And, we close this show with Mayor Brickner's opening comments after being sworn in at the City Council meeting of Jan. 5, 2020.