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Thursday, 03 April 2025 A 19-year Grant PUD employee with ample insights into energy-trading markets and the changing utilitenvironment has been named to lead the team researching investments in new sources of energy to power Grant County into the future. Rich Flanigan will begin his new role as chief commercial officer on April 11, 2025, but is already serving as "interim" chief until his official start date. He replaces John Mertlich, whom commissioners recently chose to lead the utility as...
The nonprofit federal administration that provides one-third of the Northwest’s electricity is preparing to part ways with its current Western energy market and sell its excess energy to companies and electric cooperatives as far away as Louisiana. Bonneville Power Administration officials announced in a draft policy proposal released Wednesday that they intend to leave the California-controlled “real-time” market they’ve participated in since 2022 and join a new “day-ahead” energy market based out of Little Rock, Arkansas. The move sparke... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 1/13 - Police told a woman that a man she has a protection order against was not in violation for writing a social media post about her because of his first amendment rights. He didn’t tag her in the post, talk to her directly, nor direct someone else to give a message to her. The officer also recommended she extend the order which is soon to expire. 1/18 - A vehicle hit a light pole on Grand Coulee Avenue, breaking it in three pieces. A witness saw the driver get out and run into a nearby house. The vehicle was blocking a...
You may have likely heard that Grant, Chelan and Douglas PUDs jointly filed a lawsuit in June against the federal government over our collective contribution of hydroelectric energy and capacity we must send to Canada per the Columbia River Treaty. Implemented in 1964, the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada was established to facilitate the joint development of power generation and flood control in the Columbia River Basin. It has many elements and directly affects our ability to maximize the benefits of the...
Washington’s agriculture is a $12.8 billion business with 33,000 farms — and it runs on gasoline, diesel, and natural gas. The hundreds of big rigs hauling crops and food products are not electric. Even though new trucks have reduced CO2 and other pollutants, some politicians are hastily charging ahead to replace fossil-fueled trucks with unproven technology. According to 2021 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, transportation was responsible for 30 percent of greenhouse gases of which 80 percent comes from cars and trucks. A qua...
Newsbriefs Scouts help at senior center dinner The Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center held its member appreciation dinner recently, where steelhead trout was donated by Pacific Seafood, and the “Grand Coulee Boy Scout Troop were rock stars and served over 65 meals!” noted Edna Hauser on the Grand Coulee Area Community Announcement Board on Facebook. “We could not have done it without them and are GRATEFUL for their help.” She said the event was an enjoyable evening for all. PUD changing rate strategy Grant PUD commissioners gave their unoffic...
Around one in five Washington households qualify for a $200 credit toward their power bill–including residential customers in the Coulee area. It is fast and free to apply online, but applications must be in by September 15. The credit is available to customers served by Grant County PUD, the Town of Coulee Dam, Nespelem Valley Electric Co-Op, Ferry County PUD, Avista and some 40 other utilities across the state. More than 675,000 households in Washington will qualify, according to a press release from the Washington Department of Commerce. T...
Central Washington’s longtime man in Congress, Rep. Dan Newhouse managed a majority in Grant County in last night’s primary, but that was the only county he won of the eight that the 4th Congressional District reaches into. Newhouse was bested by challenger Jerrod Sessler, one of three fellow Republicans seeking to oust him from his seat following Newhouse’s vote in 2021 to impeach then-president Donald Trump. Newhouse was leading by a nose in Grant, according to unofficial results at the Secretary of State’s Office, but overall, the distric...
Triple-digit temperatures over several days can pose a challenge for almost anyone. For those living in homes with inadequate AC, and for people living outdoors, it can be deadly. “More people die from extreme heat than extreme cold,” said Molly Morris, team lead at Grand Coulee’s STAR Hub, a division of Rural Resources Community Action. “We are not strangers to this type of heat, but when it first occurs each year we have to reach back to our early training on how to cope.” With the current h...
A planned fiber outage will happen in Grant County late this week for line repair and replacement, temporarily cutting off internet for fiber customers, and disrupting major wireless carriers locally as well, according to local internet providers. Coulee Internet, iFIBER, and Fordair Wireless all sent notice that internet will be down for eight hours for fiber optic line repair, sometime within the window of 10 p.m. Thursday, May 16, and Friday at noon. “This will cause fiber hubs and cell phone services (Verizon & ATT/T-mobile) to be down f...
Rich Wallen, Grant PUD’s general manager/chief executive officer, has announced his resignation from the utility. The resignation, given to Grant PUD’s Board of Commissioners on May 7, is effective on June 14, the PUD announced the next day. With Grant PUD for seven years, Wallen has served the last two and a half as the general manager of the electricity and internet utility that serves all of Grant County. “During his time as CEO, Rich oversaw profound changes at Grant PUD,” stated Grant PUD Commission President Tom Flint on the PUD’s w...
Local firefighters fought a stubborn fire in a Delano home early Monday, with one person being taken from the scene by ambulance for treatment. At approximately 1:47 a.m. Grand Coulee and Electric City fire departments were dispatched for the fire at 57928 Yakima Street NE in Delano. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also responded for assistance and led fire ground operations, the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department, stated on its Facebook Monday. The Grand Coulee Ambulance took one patient from the scene to Coulee Medical Center for...
Affordable, plentiful energy is the root of a society that enables economic growth. It’s easy to forget our community’s biggest asset even though it affects everything we do. Now more than ever, our customers need to understand hydropower’s role in the rapidly changing energy landscape, and how we’re preparing for the future. It’s no secret that the public utility districts of Chelan, Douglas and Grant counties provide very low electric rates. Thanks to the vision of local citizens who voted to create public utility districts, and the commi...
Grand Coulee Police 12/27 -The city clerk told police that someone claiming they were a city official told Grant PUD that trees on Partello Parkway needed trimming or to be cut down for the beautification of Grand Coulee. Police spoke to a PUD employee who explained that the PUD does trim and cut trees that have been trimmed before and that these trees did need to be trimmed again. There was no monetary loss due to cutting the trees. The person that pointed the trees out to him had been running for mayor at the time. - Police checked the area...
If you live in Grant County and power your home with Grant PUD electricity, you pay below the utility’s cost to produce it, and discussions are underway now on how to gradually increase rates to get back on track toward “target goal posts” after a four-year hiatus. Grant PUD commissioners told an audience in their packed boardroom Oct. 24 that their ongoing “discussion over how to set electric rates and arrive at a rate increase for 2024 will take into account all the county’s economic sectors and ensure ‘core customers’ are protected,” a...
President Biden’s $65 billion infrastructure bill contains $8 billion for regional hubs to develop ways to produce and distribute hydrogen fuel. One is planned for the Pacific Northwest and should help haulers and truck manufacturers in Renton and Portland in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, long-distance haulers need a network of hydrogen fueling stations (like today’s truck stops) along with affordable trucks and fuel. Hub researchers’ added challenge is 95 pe...
Howard Andrew Mills passed away on September 26, 2023, in Grand Coulee, Washington. He was born on July 6, 1939, in Almira, Washington to Donald E. Mills and Rachel (Pierce) Mills. He had two older siblings: sister Julia (Mills) Munson, and Davis Mills. He had one younger brother, Norman who died of pneumonia at the age of 6 months in 1947. Howard grew up on a ranch just outside of Grand Coulee feeding chickens, goats, cows, picking and selling berries. Putting up miles of fence lines with his... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 9/5 - A citizen told police that an intoxicated man was walking in the road near Pole Park on SR-155. Police saw the man walking just off of the roadway on the other side of the fog line. He didn’t want to talk to police, and police told him to stay off the road. The man continued to walk and was near a restricted area owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. He insulted security personnel. Police told him to get off bureau property, he continued to walk. He also said that he had called for a ride. Police were relieved w...
Firefighters from at least 10 different agencies fought a "stubborn" fire on a windy Friday weather forecasters had predicted could be a bad one. It was. The fire dubbed the Plum Point Fire erupted the same afternoon fires near Coulee City, Quincy, Medical Lake, and Elk started amid a Red Flag warning by the National Weather Service that fires that starting in the windy, dry conditions could spread rapidly. Initially estimated at 60-80 acres about 1:15, the Plum Point Fire was finally kept down...
Update: 9:12 p.m. Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Dept Chief Ryan Fish said all Grand Coulee units were leaving Plum Point. Multiple fire departments were working the fire in Lincoln County. The fire began to grow again about 3 p.m. after it had looked like it was about under control until the wind kicked up. At 5 p.m. three Fireboss planes arrived, and worked for more than half an hour, repeatedly dousing the fire with water from Lake Roosevelt. By 6:30 p.m. flames were mostly knocked down but... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 7/15 - Police were told that a variety store had footage of a woman police had spoken to earlier outside the neighboring hardware store. The footage showed the woman leaving a package of ice cream outside in the parking lot. - Police were in possession of a lost cell phone when the owner called with a friend’s phone. The woman confirmed the phone was hers by knowing the PIN and she got her phone back. - Police spoke to a homeowner on Dill Avenue who explained she was having a branch cut down that hung over her roof, and not...
Grand Coulee Police 6/3 - Police received a report of a man taking $400 and a debit card off a woman’s bed before leaving an apartment. However, police were unable to contact the woman or the man. - A woman reported being harassed while at the ATM machine at The Star building on Midway Avenue. She reported a woman pulled up behind her vehicle, yelled at her, and she thought she was going to be hit. Police escorted her home as she feared for her safety and police told her how to get an anti-harassment order. Police then spoke to the woman d...
New rate will add approximately $3.24 to the monthly household bill In a measure to help Grant PUD withstand the impact of inflation, Grant PUD’s commissioners on Dec. 13 approved a plan for new electricity rates in 2023. The new rates take effect April 1. This is the first power rate increase for Grant PUD customers since 2018. The overall increase of 3% will be allocated partly on Grant PUD’s cost to serve each rate group. The 3% increase and careful financial planning will help the utility withstand the 8.7% impact of inflation to its 202...
Utility crews for Grant County PUD worked through the extreme weather last week as power outages affected their customers from Royal City to Grand Coulee. With temperatures plunging to the well-below-zero range, then frozen rain falling across the region, the National Weather Service warned people to prepare for power outages. One hit the Electric City-Grand Coulee area on Christmas night, apparently around 8 p.m. and took until morning to repair. Customers on the PUD Facebook page asked for...
It can be hard to imagine mastodons roaming around in Eastern Washington, but they did, and a Grant PUD pulled a bone from one out of a bag last week. Back in March, the jawbone of an estimated 6-million-year-old Ringhold mastodon was found on Carbody Beach in the upper Hanford Reach area of the Columbia River, north of the Tri-Cities. Brett Lenz is an archaeologist and manager of Grant PUD's Cultural Resources division. He came across a picture of the jawbone on Facebook. A "rockhound" had...