News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The Bureau of Reclamation's new fire station has won a national award for design, taking the gold in Firehouse Magazine's annual contest. The Magazine announced the winners of its 12th annual Station Design Awards program Nov. 9. The program recognizes outstanding architecture and design from fire departments and emergency facilities nationwide. Gold, Silver and Bronze awards were issued across eight categories of facilities: Career 1, Career 2, Co-Located, Combination, Renovations, Satellite,...
December 9, 2015, article by Roger Lucas addressed the Bureau of Reclamation’s new EUV’s (electric utility vehicles). “The vehicles are supposed to have a battery capacity of 50 hours and are now running out of power after only 15. It had been estimated that the battery-powered vehicles would save the government about $110,000 in fuel costs alone, as they would be recharged with electricity produced at Grand Coulee Dam. “The contract for the 27 EUV’s was for $900,000 including maintenance. The fleet of the white mini-vehicles have been acti...
Bureau of Reclamation workers on Monday morning inspect and repair links between the floats that form a barrier for boats on Lake Roosevelt to keep them away from Grand Coulee Dam. That float line, which stretches all the way across the lake, has broken several times this year. - Scott Hunter photo...
Betty Rae Black, 99, of Elmer City, Washington, entered into rest with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on November 22, 2025. Betty Rae (Zorn) Black was born on November 21, 1926, in Greenwood, Louisiana, to Franklin Raymond Zorn and Alice Beatrice (Stafford) Zorn. At a young age, she traveled the country with her family as her father worked construction, including on the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. At just 15 years old, Betty was ready to settle in one place, and on May 6, 1942, she... Full story
In a land of high voltage lines, firefighters fight a wildfire that probably started about 6 a.m. Thursday in a field of sagebrush along SR-174. But they had to wait to fight the flames directly under the wires until the Bonneville Power Administration could shut down the lines. The fire, on Bureau of Reclamation land just north of Grand Coulee near the 230 Kv Switchyard (at right), drew mutual aid support from several local departments. Firefighters walking the ground during mop-up discovered...
As we barrel towards a government shutdown due to Senate Democrats’ refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), essential programs and services here in Central Washington are now at risk. Congress has the responsibility under our Constitution to fund the federal government, and allowing a shutdown is a disservice to the American people. If the government shuts down, farmers and ranchers in the Methow and Yakima Valleys will lose access to Farm Service Agency employees due to furlough. Farm operating loans, conservation and crop d...
by Scott Hunter The driver of a late model car left Spring Canyon Road after apparently losing control Saturday afternoon about 3, landing in dry brush and starting a fire. The crash happened right in front of a home at 4550 Spring Canyon Road. Firefighters got there quickly, according to Coulee Dam Police Officer Josh Watkins, who was at the scene for traffic control. No injuries were reported, other than financial. Only a metal hulk was left of the apparently late model car. Firefighters...
A wildland fire put Electric City on evacuation alerts Aug. 6 as firefighters from many agencies helped local firefighters in the steep terrain. The Silver Fire ignited in the rocky, wooded hillsides outside the southeast corner of the city where a small forest rises on cliffs overlooking houses and pastures Wednesday afternoon. By 2:30 a large, blackened area dwarfed firefighters with brush trucks hosing the perimeter closest to homes just off the corner of Sunset Drive and Electric Boulevard....
Fire took away a family's home Monday morning in Coulee Dam. Randy Adolph's home at 1004 Camas Street, where he lived with his two grandchildren and a great grandchild, went up in flames about 10 a.m. when, a neighbor the next street over said, a very loud boom was heard. Casey Brewster was behind Lake Roosevelt Schools just down the street, taking a photo of his daughter, he said. He got in his truck and drove to the house on fire. Brewster couldn't open the front door but went around to the...
Grand Coulee’s city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct the city government to write to others who might wish to be part of a new “fire authority” that could combine the efforts of local volunteer fire departments. The idea was the subject of a community meeting in November 2024, when the Regional Board of Mayors sponsored a community town hall meeting to talk about options for either an emergency medical services district or a broader regional fire protection authority, which could start out initially as an EMS provider, proba...
The biggest local festival of the year drew thousands to Grand Coulee Dam to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, live music and even the original laser show on the dam. What they couldn't see were the unusual challenges that started the week for Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce officials. With the festival looming on Friday, Krystal and Jillian Fillis, executive directors in training, knew they had a lot of organizational boxes to tick off by Thursday. But Monday morning they...
Firefighters kept at least two smaller blazes from turning into bigger ones this week as wildland fuels turned tinder dry. One blaze took off quickly about 11 p.m. July 5, right after a loud bang at the south edge of the town of Coulee Dam, setting the hillside near the Visitor Center ablaze. Several agencies responded quickly, including the Bureau of Reclamation whose land was burning near the Columbia River Inn. Coulee Dam Volunteer Fire Department requested mutual aid, bringing in Grand...
The Bureau of Reclamation will put on a special showing of the original Laser Light Show on Grand Coulee Dam on this Independence Day. The original light show was commissioned to launch in 1989 in celebration of the centennial anniversary of Washington's statehood. At that time, a laser show was relatively unusual and a sophisticated technology for this rural community, even though the guts of the original show's computer was basically an Atari video game board. That show ran nightly through sum...
Grand Coulee Police 6/6 - Dogs were deemed not dangerous after chasing after a man on a bike near North Dam Park and barking but making no attempt to bite. The owner had leash laws explained to him and said he’d keep the dogs on a leash. - A landlord was upset that police couldn’t do anything about two males staying in an apartment on Grand Coulee Avenue they aren’t on the lease for. The lessor hasn’t paid rent in 10 months and the landlord is going through the eviction process. Police explained that the eviction process had to complet...
The use of fire is restricted in 20 Eastern Washington counties by one federal agency, and along Lake Roosevelt by the National Park Service, even after two local counties started their annual fire restrictions earlier than normal. Federal Bureau of Land Management officials have restricted activities on public lands to reduce the risk of human-caused wildfires in Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Walla Walla, Whitman, and...
Two people trekked across the country last week to understand a piece of their Kentucky company's history, with a major claim to fame being the Grand Coulee Dam. Now called Mason & Hanger, theirs was the lead company in the consortium of companies that built the original dam. They're the M in MWAK, the initials for Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier. On Wednesday, Ben Lilly, the president of Mason & Hanger, and Holly Holt, its vice president in charge of marketing, came to town to fill in the blanks in...
Fears over Columbia Basin dams, hydroelectricity grow as agencies lose hundreds of employees by Alex Baumhardt, Washington State Standard May 20, 2025 Grand Coulee Dam is among the most powerful energy-generating dams on earth. It's the bedrock of the federal Columbia River Power System - a network of 31 dams supplying more than half of the hydropower in the Northwest. Grand Coulee alone, overseen by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, generates one-quarter of that. But critical operations at...
Virginia Berthron passed away early Easter morning, April 20, 2025, in Billings, Montana with her family by her side. Virginia was born on May 14, 1927, in Hamtramck, MI to Nick and Gertrude Kruk. The family moved to the Grand Coulee Dam area when she was a young girl and she resided there until 2021 when she moved to Billings, MT to be closer to family. Virginia graduated from Grand Coulee High School and later attended Kinman Business School in Spokane, WA. She then was employed by the Bureau of Reclamation as a telephone operator where she m... Full story
Thomas (Tom) M. Nieberding of Westlake, OH passed away on Friday, March 7, 2025 at the age of 78. He was born on August 26, 1946 in Cleveland, OH. He grew up on West 187th Street in Cleveland, OH and Usher Road in Olmsted Falls, OH. In his adult life he lived in Texas, Wisconsin, Washington and Ohio. Tom was and always will be a proud Marine who served as a Corporal in Vietnam. He graduated from Cleveland State University in 1977 with a degree in Engineering. He worked for the Bureau of... Full story
Bureau of Reclamation employees at Grand Coulee Dam who had accepted the “fork in the road” offer of deferred retirement, expecting to stop working on March 7, instead got a memo Monday morning telling them to clear out by the end of the day, March 3. No reason was given for the rush, but the emailed instructions from Boise, the Columbia Pacific Northwest Region headquarters, had an air of resignation about it: “Big change in the DRP rules as of 10:37am this morning,” the email began, explaining that all Deferred Resignation Program participant...
Everyone can agree that the country should reign in the debt. But then why is the Trump Administration pushing a budget that extends tax cuts for the extremely wealthy and raises the debt ceiling to four trillion dollars? Lost in all the nonsense circulating about supposed “waste, fraud and abuse” is the fact that the Trump Administration fired many of the Inspectors General (the people responsible for investigating actual waste, fraud, and abuse). All of these seemingly random cuts potentially have disastrous consequences for our com...
Coulee Dam Police 2/24-2/26 - Numerous reports were filed without further information describing the situations including: a traffic offense on Camas Street; a “suspicious death” in Electric City; a “suspicious or wanted” case at or near the movie theater; a citizen assist on Jackson Avenue in Electric City; a citizen assist on Tulip Street; a disturbance on Mead Way; a family fight on Center Street in Grand Coulee; and a family fight at the Grand Coulee Dam. 2/26 - An 18-year-old man reported that he fell for a trick on social media app Sna...
An ice fisher plies his pastime Friday evening on Banks Lake ice near the feeder canal through which the Bureau of Reclamation planned to pump water into the lake beginning at 10 p.m. Saturday. That could make the ice unstable, and Reclamation urged people to stay off the ice. But late Saturday afternoon, ice fisher's tents were lined up at the edge of the ice. - Scott Hunter photo...
After a vandal hit Grand Coulee City Hall Jan. 4, the city was left with cleanup and repairs. Those are coming in at about $74,000 to fix broken windows, damaged floors and walls, office equipment and police cars parked outside. The city council Tuesday night OK’d spending $13,450 on new windows, including a couple not damaged in the incident but old enough to be replaced with more energy-efficient windows. The council also voted to declare surplus five of those now-unused police vehicles outside, which had served the police department when it...
Ice fishers and other recreators are urged to stay off the ice on Banks Lake, which will soon become unstable if it isn't already. The Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam will begin pumping water into Banks Lake, beginning Saturday, Feb. 22, at 10 p.m. This influx of water may result in unstable ice conditions that present serious safety risks to all ice fishers and recreationists, Reclamation announced this week. The change in operation will conclude on Monday, Feb. 24, at 6 a.m.... Full story