Echanove retires

Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove adjourned a city council meeting for the last time Dec. 10, after 18 years as mayor and eight as a city councilman.

He began as mayor in 2001, appointed to the office before he first won election in 2002. Echanove and wife Paula also marked their final year in 2019 of direct involvement in Haunted Palouse, the annual two-weekend fundraiser for which the couple was part of the the original incarnation and all 17 years since.

As the city council’s streets and sidewalks chair, Echanove worked on the reconstruction of Main Street following the flood of 1996 and later...