The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

Jan. 8

• Greg Wilder, the new mayor of Coulee Dam, asked the Douglas County Sheriff to investigate the possible theft of public property and destruction of public records, that of a missing computer used by the former mayor, and the computer’s hard drive.

Jan. 15

• A majority of hospital district commissioners voted to immediately hire new legal counsel. The move came as commissioners worked on a turnaround of the administration.

Jan. 22

• After receiving extensive burns last Nov. 18 from a fire started by the switch gear for Pump Generator 12 in the John W. Keys III Pump Generating Plant at Grand Coulee Dam, Dan McCulloch, 54, will be released today from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

• Commissioners for Grant County Port District 7 reviewed six ideas for improving the golf course, deciding to focus on $500,000 grant from the state’s Land and Water Conservation Fund for 2016 to fund an RV park project.

Jan. 29

• A $750 fine levied against Donovan Picard by the town of Grand Coulee for operating a mechanic repair shop in his home’s garage in a residential zone, and not having a business license, was upheld in the town’s municipal court by Judge Janis Whitener-Moberg.

• Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands said Mark Payne, a 17-year veteran of Electric City’s volunteer fire department, will keep his position as the town’s fire chief, despite two incidents of illegal burning in the front yard of his home on Electric Boulevard.

Feb. 12

• A year-old investigative report issued by the town of Grand Coulee’s risk management firm details infighting between Mayor Chris Christopherson and Police Chief Mel Hunt, plus charges and countercharges of nepotism and favoritism, micromanagement by the mayor and a breakdown in authority fueled by a lack of respect, personality conflicts, and an inability to work together for the good of the city.

• Hospital commissioners Monday directed CEO Scott Graham to make changes in two key hospital policies: the relaunch of a popular lab test discount program, halted last year on advice of the hospital district’s former attorney, and removal of a hospital resolution from last September concerning the structure of medical provider pay.

Feb. 19.

• Grand Coulee Mayor Chris Christopherson and Officer Sean Cook were at odds in the city council meeting over the “Key report,” which was leaked to The Star and parts of it published in the newspaper.

Feb. 26

• Dawn Lovelace, who has delivered about half of the babies born at Coulee Medical Center for two decades, resigned, citing adverse health affects from working with an incompetent and hostile administration.

• LRHS Associated Student Body President Brandin Smith and high school counselor Andrea Sperberg presented an idea for a new student body club, a gay/straight alliance club, to the Grand Coulee School District board of directors Monday night. The board approved this first step, asking for set of bylaws, a purpose statement and financial costs for its March meeting.

March 5

• Coulee Dam Mayor Greg Wilder, finding nothing but a brand new, unused computer in the mayor’s office on his first day on the job, asked Douglas County Sheriff Harvey Gjesdal for an investigation into the disappearance of the former mayor’s computer and all of the public records it contained, including emails.

March 12

• Hospital Commission President Jerry Kennedy asked Chief Executive Officer Scott Graham to report on the awarding of $180,000 in bonuses tied to performance goals. The commission voted to authorize CMC’s lawyer to hire an independent person to investigate if there were grounds to terminate the CEO.

March 19

• A former Spanish teacher at Lake Roosevelt High School was given a final separation payment of $20,000 by the school board, which advised the Okanogan County Prosecutor’s Office it had no interest in prosecuting him, accused last year of using a false Social Security number, not being a US citizen, and working without a valid permit.

• Grand Coulee police officers will be wearing cameras that record video and audio when you are stopped for a violation. The police department purchased eight battery-operated cameras with 12-hour memory cards.

March 26

• Hospital district commissioners accepted the resignation of Commissioner Greg Behrens, who had sought to quell the problems around Chief Operating Officer Scott Graham.

• Dr. Andrew Castrodale was recognized as the Outstanding Rural Health Practioner at the annual Washington Rural Health Association conference.

April 2

• The Colville Tribal Police Department was awarded a $697,000 contract on March 10 and began providing law enforcement coverage on the east side of the Columbia River for Bureau of Reclamation lands and facilities. Grand Coulee police provide security coverage on the west side of the river under a three-year contract for about $1.4 million.

• About a dozen people began working on the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District’s master plan for North Dam Park.

April 9

• The city of Grand Coulee held a public hearing on a zoning change that would affect the possibility of a daycare center in the central business district and a stand-alone garage to house two senior center buses.

April 16

• CMC’s chief executive tendered his resignation, offering to stay on for the required 90-day notice but also stating his intention to seek “liability claims.”

• The Grand Coulee City Council passed zoning changes that would permit seniors to build a garage for two buses and allow the development of a daycare center on Main Street.

April 23

• A fishing area below Grand Coulee Dam was opened to the public April 15 after being shut down for almost 13 years due to security issues after Sept. 11, 2001.

April 30

• Coulee Internet Services Company, run by a group of friends, had 76 customers signed up and more wanting their service in an area from Belvedere up the Columbia River to Plum Point and Grand Coulee.

• Shawn Derrick was elected to replace Bob Poch on Coulee Dam’s town council.

May 7

• About 45 people attended Electric City’s planning commission meeting, with many sharing their thoughts on enlarging the size of accessory buildings within city limits.

• Of 10 high school seniors in the state selected to receive this year’s Gates Millennium Scholarships, three are students at Lake Roosevelt High School: Chyenne Kelly-Marconi, 3.9 gap; Dan Campobasso,3.848; and Brandin Smith, 3.8; with each receiving a full ride at the university of their choice.

May 21

• The Washington State Department of Health inspected the ambulance belonging to the town of Coulee Dam at the invitation of Mayor Greg Wilder, and a dozen areas of non-compliance with state law and standards were found. The mayor ordered immediate changes in the town’s paid volunteer ambulance service, some of which have sparked threats of EMTs purposely not responding, and allegations of harassment, he said.

May 28

• Ken Berger, 60, of Monroe, Wash. was killed in an airplane accident on Banks Lake near Steamboat Rock when his seaplane flipped forward into about 50 feet of water after striking a wave.

June 4

• State inspector Michael Lopez reported that the town of Coulee Dam’s ambulance service lacked training records, and that non-certified people have responded on ambulance calls. The system was shut down while corrections were being made.

June 11

• The new price tag for law enforcement coverage of Electric City would triple in price, from $75,166 in final year of the current five-year contact with Grand Coulee to $209,982 for 2015, Grand Coulee’s mayor said.

June 18

• The Grand Coulee Dam school board approved plans to spend $1.3 million to fix the old gym, re-do the tennis courts and build a stairway from the high school down to the vocational buildings.

June 25

• Mayor Jerry Sands said Electric City will discuss creating its own police force and possibly a tax for it.

July 23

• Mayor Chris Christopherson wants the selection of Grand Coulee’s police chief on the Civil Service Commission agenda when it meets Aug. 4. Alan Cain, chairman of the Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission said last week that his agency and the city council should play a role in selecting the new police chief.

• Grand Coulee and Electric City committees agreed to recommend a one-year extension of their law enforcement contact with the price set at $115,000 for 2015. That gives the towns about 18 months to come up a plan for a joint police department.

July 30

• Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands asked the Grand Coulee Police Department to back off enforcing the city’s noise ordinance as it relates to music at the Electric City Bar and Grille and other spots around town. Sands said he’s allowing the bar’s music to continue with louder noise until 11 p.m. The issue will be on the city council agenda.

August 6

• Grand Coulee Police Chief Mel Hunt said that he and his officers have taken an oath to uphold the laws for policing Electric City, so nothing has changed, despite the mayors wishes that police just call a tavern about loud noise and not go into the place to warn the proprietor.

August 13

• After losses totaling more than $1 million in the two months prior, June’s loss of $48,000 was good news for hospital leaders. “The corner is turned,” said Commissioner Geary Oliver at the Hospital District 6 meeting of commissioners.

August 27

• Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent told school board members that the special ribbon cutting ceremony for the new school is a go, despite rumors going around that the new school wouldn’t make the start date of Sept. 15.

• Grant County Port District 7, in its third year of managing Banks Lake Golf Course, is looking good, said Port Chair James Keene.

September 3

• A burned-out house on Holly Street in Coulee Dam will soon be razed, after sitting unattended for two years, by city crews assigned to the cleanup task.

September 10

• The public is invited to the official ribbon cutting ceremony, opening the brand new K-12 school complex on Friday, Sept. 12, followed by walk-throughs and more tours between 6-8 p.m.

• Walker Construction, general contractor for the school complex, has donated $200,00 worth of playground equipment, in place and ready for students to enjoy and school in the $30 million facility will start next Monday.

September 17

• Since 2011, Grand Coulee hasn’t billed Electric City for its share of the cost of operating and maintaining the wastewater treatment plant the two cities jointly own. The total billing to bring Electric City’s wastewater billing up to date will be about $240,000. Billings haven’t been made out for over three years.

September 24

• Grand Coulee Police Chief Mel Hunt retires next week after 39 years of police service for the city. He started on the force as a reserve officer in 1975 and was named chief in 1979.

• Grand Coulee Dam School District had 719 students for its official start last Thursday, almost a full classroom more than the district had on its first day last September.

October 1

• The Grand Coulee Dam school board authorized negotiating a buyout of a reverter clause so it could keep the Center School property instead of turning it back to a land company. Money from an eventual sale could be used toward building a new Lake Roosevelt junior-senior gym.

October 8

• The $300,000-plus waterline project, originally schedule to start last April, got underway last month, and will provide Electric City water to the Sunbanks Lake Resort.

• Cleanup began of a burned-out house on Holly Street in Coulee Dam. The place burned on Sept. 12, 2012.

October15

• POWER (Promoter of Wildlife and Environmental Resources) was founded around 1987 and two local fishermen, Reg Morgan and Bill Brashears, now deceased, started a program that year that is still going today. The group receives two fish deliveries each year to stock Banks Lake, millions of fish over the past 27 years.

October 29

• The Grand Coulee Dam school board authorized the purchase of Center School and land next to it at a negotiated price of $155,000 for the school and 8.485 acres, 5.2 acres of which is usable.

November 5

• Coulee Medical Center is training three teams to handle highly infectious patients in the event Ebola hits the Grand Coulee Dam area.

• Electric City voters turned down a property tax levy that would have raised $55,000 to $60,000 for police protection.

November 12

• Hospital District 6 commissioners passed a $22.3 million budget that anticipates changes in fee structures, increased employment, new doctors and a razor-thin 0.1 percent net margin.

• The independence of the Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission is under fire, Chairman Alan Cain said this week. Attorney Scott Detro said he was advised by City Attorney Julie Norton not to do work for the CSC because the city would not pay him for it.

November 19

• Grand Coulee’s planning commission gave the Mike Horne proposal to the city council to deal with; Horne wants to move his MPH mechanic shop about a block north, into a zone that doesn’t permit his type of business.

November 26

• Grand Coulee’s city council voted two weeks ago, 4-1, to keep the police chief position under the protection of civil service and shield the job from political interference, but last week voted 3-1 to remove the chief from the safety. A new ordinance will allow the CSC to confirm any selection the mayor makes to the job but it doesn’t provide protection for a new chief, which was the reason for the first vote.

December 3

• Big Bend Community College will open a Community Knowledge Center in the former Grand Coulee Middle School’s annex building, starting in mid-January, 2015.

• Grand Coulee Dam School District officials opted for a new roof on the old school gym, but had to wait a long while to see if there was money left in the construction fund to do the job. Asbestos was found in the old roof’s material base and that cost more, with the price tag for the new roof and siding now at $921,509. And the old administrative roof is on hold until a couple years from now. The School District is still looking for about $9 million to build a new gym because a new gym was not included with the construction of the new K-12 school.

December 10

Mayor Chris Christopherson filed a public records request for all activity of the city’s Civil Service Commission from July through October. Last week the CSC took action against interference by locking applicant packets in a safe and having its mail delivered to a separate mailbox.

December 17

The Grand Coulee Dam school board approved a $1.1 million, four-year levy for maintenance and operations to go before district voters Feb. 10.The levy, if approved, will help pay for pre-school, coaching, basic education school lunches, drivers ed., special ed., and other programs. If the levy passes, it will qualify for an extra $535,000 from the state.

December 24

A new Grand Coulee police chief will have civil service protection after the city council re-reversed their decision. The CSC is checking out six applicants.

Three top Coulee Dam fire department and ambulance officials, including the chief, handed in their resignations. Mayor Greg Wilder said that, “in terms of providing protection, we’re safe,” but long-term issues are being addressed. Grand Coulee Fire Chief Richard Paris recently told the city council that his department is responding to Coulee Dam calls, especially ambulance calls.