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

Coulee Dam’s town council voted to move ahead with an abbreviated wastewater treatment project at its meeting last Wednesday night. The decision didn’t make anyone completely happy, but the 4-1 vote will allow the immediate needs of the current w...

Dozens of local elected positions are among more than 3,000 in the state for which people interested in serving the public filed intentions to seek or keep office last week. Incumbents in Electric City fared best in primary election filings with no...

Ten Years Ago The public has the chance to help determine what proposed playground changes will look like in Coulee Dam. The town council last week approved spending approximately $25,000 to purchase new playground equipment. A donation by General...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

So you always wanted to hold public office. Here’s your opportunity, as a host of city council, school board, hospital and port district offices will be up for grabs this year. Four mayor positions are up for election this year. Those mayorships...

Gray & Osborne engineers outlined ways for Coulee Dam and Elmer City to get their monthly sewer rates down in a letter to Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow that was distributed after the last city council meeting. Coulee Dam residents currently pay $59 a...

A rehash of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant project dominated the town’s regular council meeting last Wednesday night. Gray & Osborne engineers Jeff Stevens and John Wilson took the council and about 15 people who attended the meeting dow...

Gray & Osborne engineers outlined ways for Coulee Dam and Elmer City to get their monthly sewer rates down in a letter to Coulee Dam mayor Quincy Snow that was distributed after last Wednesday’s city council meeting. Coulee Dam residents currently...

Mayor Quincy Snow assured those attending a town council meeting last Wednesday night that the town would follow through on a “value engineering” study of its $4.92 million wastewater treatment plant project. He made the announcement after a long...

Two days earlier, people on opposite sides of a contentious issue hadn’t gotten along so well, but the regular meeting of the Coulee Dam Town Council Wednesday progressed with civility remarkable by contrast. The town council accepted without...

• In a story last week, it was reported that Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow had requested that a meeting with the Colville Tribes Community Development Committee on Tuesday be changed from 9:30 a.m. to 9 am. An agenda from the committee emailed the...

Development of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant upgrade is on hold for three months. The council made the decision at a hastily called meeting Monday afternoon on Martin Luther King Day....

Greg Wilder, 69, a Coulee Dam activist, said last week that he plans to file for the office of mayor as an “agent of change” when the filing period opens in May. Wilder has been at odds with two-term Mayor Quincy Snow, and the town...

Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow, Greg Wilder and Elmer City Councilmember Larry Holford all met with the Colville Tribes Community Development Committee Tuesday to discuss the proposed wastewater treatment facility. The meeting, originally set for 9:30...

A petition asking Coulee Dam’s town council to reconsider it current course to upgrade the town’s wastewater treatment plant is being presented door to door by a half dozen people. Greg Wilder, a resident who has been skeptical of the proposed...

Ten Years Ago The city of Grand Coulee’s police department will return to policing Grand Coulee Dam next year under an agreement the city reached with the Bureau of Reclamation. A program started locally gives families unable to afford fishing gear...

A letter Coulee Dam prepared for interested parties in its wastewater treatment plant project drew reaction from the town of Elmer City last Wednesday night that would eventually lead to a decision to end a decades-long collaboration. The letter,...

The town of Elmer City has worked tirelessly to find financial assistance to help fund the improvements to the sewer treatment plant it jointly operates with Coulee Dam. And for good reason, they can’t afford what Coulee Dam is building! On the...

Sewer ratepayers in Coulee Dam and Elmer City won the day last Wednesday night when many of the major parties in the wastewater treatment plant were on hand and agreed to work together. The scene was Coulee Dam’s council meeting with a presentation...

Elmer City had stated that it wanted a seat at the table. Last Wednesday night, its town council met with Coulee Dam’s council, and it got a seat at the table, but significant questions remain. At...

The wind-damaged trees at Mason City Memorial Park have taken on a new life — with a wildlife look — through the skills of chainsaw artist Jacob Lucas. The west-sider completed the second tree...

Coulee Dam resident Greg Wilder, who has opposed the extent of Coulee Dam’s proposed wastewater treatment plant upgrades, has become an ardent advocate for ratepayers who would have to pay for the project. The $4.92 million project is bloated,...

The town councils of Coulee Dam and Elmer City and their attorneys may finally getting together to work through questions about their 50-year sewer service contract. Coulee Dam sent an invitation for Elmer City officials to join its council in a...

A giant Chinook salmon was forming from a tall blue spruce in Mason City Park over the weekend. It was being carved by Jacob Lucas, who carved the animal, bird and fish figures through the town of...

New ferry set to arrive in March A new ferry, the Sanpoil, which will replace the Martha S ferry at the Keller Ferry crossing, will be delivered to Grand Coulee in three pieces for assembly in March, 2013, Laura Johnson of the Washington State...

I would like to extend my sincere Appreciation and Thanks to all the following agencies who assisted in fighting the Elmer City-Coulee Dam Fire of August 14 & 15, 2012. Bureau of Indian Affairs Mt. Tolman Fire Center City of Electric City Fire...

Elmer City has advised the town of Coulee Dam that it will put in its own wastewater treatment plant, and leave the larger town to foot the entire bill for its planned sewer plant upgrade, already set to nearly double rates. In a letter to Coulee Dam...

Two tall stumps at Mason City Memorial Park in Coulee Dam may soon be sculpted into animals and bird images. One of the huge trees was blown over and the other damaged during the area’s rain and win...

Elmer City Mayor Mary Jo Carey told Coulee Dam’s town council last Wednesday night that high wastewater treatment rates could spell the end of Elmer City as a town. “We just can’t afford the high rates proposed and may have to go back into...

Wildfire burns to water tank A fire crew of about a dozen responded from Mt. Tolman Fire Center to a grass blaze at the northwest corner of the town of Nespelem late Monday afternoon. An official said that the cause of the fire is being...

Elmer City Mayor Mary Jo Carey told Coulee Dam’s town council last Wednesday night that high wastewater treatment rates could spell the end of Elmer City as a town. “We just can’t afford the high rates proposed and may have to go back into...

Ten Years Ago One of the final obstacles to the construction of the town of Coulee Dam’s filtration plant has now been removed. Fourth Congressional District Representative Richard “Doc” Hastings announced yesterday that Coulee Dam will receive...

Top of North Dam OK for fireworks Local residents can set their fireworks off July 4, at North Dam Park, a Bureau of Reclamation official said this week. Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said that the BOR is encouraging those who set their...

The Coulee Dam Town Council voted last Wednesday night to sign a loan agreement with the state Department of Ecology for a $4.992 million loan for its proposed wastewater treatment plant. In addition the council voted to move ahead and give the okay...

GCD Chamber to Meet at Hometown Pizza Grant Chamber will meet at Hometown Pizza in Grand Coulee this Thursday at noon. Quincy Snow, mayor of the Town of Coulee Dam, will give an update on the Fourth of July Festival in America.. Grant County Fire...

The Festival of America music program July 3 and July 5, needs some volunteers, Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow advised Tuesday. Coulee Dam has sponsored the music festival portion of the July 4 celebration in recent years and Snow promises a lively...

Elmer City is still trying to figure out if the town is a partner or a customer in its relationship with Coulee Dam and the wastewater treatment plant. And it will likely take the opinion of legal eagles to fully determine the issue. About 20 people...

Coulee Dam officials Wednesday night defended their decision to remodel the town’s wastewater treatment plant. “We’re not going to just patch it up and leave the problem for our kids to solve later,” Councilmember Bob Poch stated in response...

Discussions were polite but initially tense as Elmer City officials met with their Coulee Dam counterparts Friday at Elmer City Hall on proposed sewer plant upgrades that both towns would pay for....

A portion of the Coulee Dam and Elmer City councils will meet Friday, May 4, at 10 a.m. at Coulee Dam City Hall to discuss the new wastewater treatment plant project. Mayor Quincy Snow asked that two council members from his public works committee...

Recycling was again the main topic at the Regional Board of Mayors meeting on Monday. The mayors all paid lip service to the idea but by the end of the day nothing had changed. The recycling idea had come up at the mayors’ March meeting when...

My last letter to The Star editor helped define the reasons I am reviewing Coulee Dam town records … not a willy-nilly vendetta, as Mayor Snow has described it, but a real attempt to see how and why it is our cost for municipal services are among t...

Coulee Dam plans to submit an application for a 1.5-percent loan from the State Drinking Water Revolving Fund, which would enable the town to refinance a current U.S. Department of Agriculture loan on which it is paying 4.5 percent. Jeff Stevens of...