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

by Roger S. Lucas A runaway truck early Monday morning almost made Jack’s 4-Corners Union 76 & Mini Mart a drive-in as it crashed its way through the southwest corner of the building. The driver,...

Center School could get a little crowded next fall. The district will have three first grades and three kindergarten classes as well as providing preschool for 3- to 5-year-olds, according to Superintendent Dennis Carlson. The district received word...

Candidates for upcoming elections are filing for positions on school boards, city councils, hospital boards and some junior taxing districts this week. In early filings, three have filed for positions in Hospital District 6. These include two...

A request from the town of Elmer City to get out of its wastewater plant joint operating agreement with Coulee Dam was turned down by that town council last Wednesday night. In a letter to Coulee Dam officials, Elmer City Mayor Mary Jo Carey...

Two Colville Business Council incumbents lost out in their bids for another term in the primary election certified last week. Losing in the primary were Brian Nissen, in position 1 in the Nespelem District and Darlene Zacherlie in the position 1...

Lake Roosevelt High School counselor Sue Hayes is one of this year’s senior class’s biggest boosters. Hayes spent 20-30 minutes with each senior available for an exit interview and was so impressed she made a report to the school board about this...

The Village Cinema in Coulee Dam is history. Its fate was settled last Wednesday night by mutual consent of the town council and the cinema operator, Lynette Zierden and her family. She asked for relief from her lease with the town and explained...

It’s a big week in the coulee. Local residents and visitors will be treated to the 56th Annual Colorama Festival celebration, beginning Thursday with the opening of the carnival and ending Saturday...

Thieves broke into Banks Lake Golf Course office sometime Sunday night and took the safe from the premises. It was the second time this year that the course’s safe has been taken. The first time...

A public art hunt is on for the new K-12 school project. Public buildings are required to set aside one-half of one percent of the cost of construction for art. The school board decided Monday night to seek art produced by local artists, that is...

A comment from a resident of Coulee Dam who asked why something isn’t being done to get people to clean up their properties, got a quick response from the police department. This past week police went on a real campaign to notify property owners...

The results of Saturday’s Colville Business Council primary election, minus absentee ballots, show that in two of the races, it appears incumbents are in for serious challenge. The Keller District position 1 incumbent, Darlene Zacherie got 23 votes...

The Grand Coulee/Coulee City meals program will not be affected by any cutbacks due to the sequestering of funds by Congress, Director Myrna Schryvers said Monday. While the Meals on Wheels program might feel some effect from federal cutbacks, the...

A fire in a service bay at Jack’s Four Corners Union 76 that could have been a disaster was quickly extinguished by a combination of firefighters mid-morning Monday. A vehicle in the service bay at...

A task that many thought would be difficult proved a piece of cake for th e school board Monday night. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson had asked the board to allow him to name a committee to come up with three possible...

It was an unlikely night, with community activist Greg Wilder, who has opposed just about everything about Coulee Dam’s proposed wastewater treatment plant, going to work for the town. He isn’t being hired by the town, but he volunteered to...

Elmer City has advised the town of Coulee Dam that their agreement on the wastewater treatment plant is over. A letter dated April 22, states that a 1976, 50-year agreement no longer controls the relationship between the towns, and after Elmer City...

The Coulee Dam branch of Bank of America will close its doors Aug. 23, corporate officials stated in notices distributed recently, Notices to business and regular customers started going out April 19, and customers have been referred to other BofA...

Fern Blaylock, a veteran volunteer at Center School, received an award April 25 from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The award, for outstanding volunteer service, was presented to her at the Governor’s...

Lake Roosevelt High School Principal Brad Wilson is taking a position as principal of the middle school in the Chelan School District. The school board accepted his resignation Monday night. Wilson has been in the Grand Coulee Dam School District 11...

A public art hunt is on for the new K-12 school project. Public buildings are required to set aside one-half of one percent of the cost of construction for art. The school board decided Monday night to seek art produced by local artists, that is...

A California woman arrested last Thursday who allegedly made a bomb threat while on a tour at Grand Coulee Dam, was booked into Okanogan County Jail and released the next day on her personal recognizance. Christina Frisvold, 33, was arrested by...

Grand Coulee is going to make an effort to get a daycare center in its Central Business District zone. The public interest in a daycare center has attracted the attention of city officials, and the ways and means of making a zoning change was...

The K-12 school project is underway. It started at 9 a.m. Tuesday with a formal groundbreaking, and immediately Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson met with builder represen...

Grand Coulee officials are trying to get a sidewalk project on Spokane Avenue changed to the same kind of improvement on Federal Avenue. A sidewalk on Spokane Way lost its main focus when city officials realized that Center School would no longer be...

The Chamber of Commerce will host a beer tent during the Colorama Festival celebration at North Dam Park. Chamber Manager Peggy Nevsimal said a 1500 square-foot tent will be located on the tennis court at North Dam Park and staffed by volunteers....

The Lower Crest Drive project in Coulee Dam will begin Monday, public works director Barry Peacock reported. The quarter-mile road project will go from River Drive to the city limits at the bottom of the hill. Granite Construction, from Wenatchee...

A Spanish teacher at Lake Roosevelt High School is in Okanogan County Jail this week, facing charges of forgery and identity theft, after being arrested last Thursday by Coulee Dam police. Guillermo...

The Bureau of Reclamation is having trouble attracting and retaining new skilled employees, Power Manager Mark Jenson told a number of local leaders Monday afternoon. Jenson said that often a combination of local factors creates a problem for...

The largest producer of hotel/motel taxes in the area proposed changes to the way the funds are used at a meeting of some 20 community people Monday. Pat Welton, managing partner of Sunbanks Lake Resort, stated that the three local municipalities...

A solution to the Coulee Dam wastewater treatment plant controversy that could satisfy a large number of the stakeholders could come next Wednesday night when the council meets. Councilmember Karl Hjo...

The Colville Tribes pitched the Elmer City council last Thursday to provide the town’s official police force. Appearing at the town council were Public Safety Director Bill Elliot and Tribal Police Chief Corey Orr. Elliot told the council that the...

The Spanish teacher at Lake Roosevelt High School, Guillermo Guzman, was arrested Thursday by U.S. Border Patrol agents and Coulee Dam Police on a number of federal charges, and is currently in...

Two local residents, Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley, who appeared a few weeks ago before Grand Coulee’s city council to look into starting a daycare service on Main Street, met the same results again last Tuesday night. They were informed that...

Remember the blood draw program at Coulee Medical Center every year during “National Hospital Week?” It’s history. Hospital officials said this week that the blood draw, which can give patients an indication of their health, actually runs...

by Roger S. Lucas Fishing for rainbow trout in Banks Lake is about to get a little bit better. The POWER organization (Promoters of Wildlife & Environmental Resources) plans to release 50,000 rainbow trout into Banks Lake April 20. Carl Russell,...

Officials at Banks Lake Golf Course reported that sometime between last Tuesday and Wednesday nights, someone had entered the course’s golf cart shed and made off with over 100 gallons of both diesel and gas fuel. Orville Scharbach, chairman of...

The Regional Board of Mayors met and dismissed their meeting for lack of a quorum Monday afternoon. Only two of the four mayors showed up, Electric City’s Jerry Sands and Elmer City’s Mary Jo Carey. Both Coulee Dam’s Mayor Quincy Snow and...

The Regional Board of Mayors met and dismissed their meeting for lack of a quorum Monday afternoon. Only two of the four mayors showed up, Electric City’s Jerry Sands and Elmer City’s Mary Jo Carey. Both Coulee Dam’s Mayor Quincy Snow and...

The Ridge Riders, in their second annual auction and banquet, raised nearly $25,000 to support the various activities planned by the group this year. The auction raised $10,500; contributions for...

Tours, visitor center hours and laser light show offerings might be curtailed because of budget cuts, officials confirmed this week, but they’re still hoping for a reprieve from the national budget cutback known as “sequestration.” Although...

There is good news and bad news for those who visit the area to see the laser light show. The new show won’t be ready until mid-July. However, the all-new laser equipment will be able to show the old laser show. Until recently that ability was an...

The chamber of commerce is sponsoring the “Are You Tough Enough” first annual Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge, this weekend, April 6 and 7, out of Coulee Playland in Electric City, a major...

Officials from Coulee Dam, Elmer City, Gray & Osborne, the Colville Tribes and Indian Health Services are meeting and moving toward some decisions on proposed wastewater treatment plant work that has been halted by controversy. Larry Holford, town...

Jim Keene, retired school administrator, was named to the Grant County Port District 7 board of commissioners last Thursday. Keene replaces Jerry Birdwell who resigned last month. Keene will take over his duties when the board meets the last...

Work on preparing the old Melody Restaurant for opening has been so extensive that the town of Coulee Dam has given the owner, Juan Moreno another month’s free rent in exchange for an extended contract. City officials pondered another problem at th...

Wooden sculptures in Mason City Park will get their final touches as a result of action of the Coulee Dam Town Council last Wednesday night. The sculptures were made from the trunks of two trees that blew over in a wild wind storm last year. The...

Coulee Dam may be in line for a grant that would replace all its street lights with energy saving systems. Public works director Barry Peacock told the town council last week that the town is entering phase two in a grant from the Transportation...

Two women proposing a licensed day care center on Grand Coulee’s Main Street found out why it is said “You can’t beat city hall,” but they’re not stopping their effort to start a daycare. Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley, who told council m...

The school board Monday night awarded its K-12 new school project to Walker Construction of Spokane. Walker’s bid of $22,765,200 bid was accepted over a second bid of $23,253,600, by Graham...