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

Star

closed

Friday

The Star will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and also on Friday.

Visitor

Center

to reopen

The Visitor Center at Grand Coulee Dam will reopen Friday. The Visitor Center was temporarily moved Oct. 1 to the John W. Keys III Pump Generating Plant during stringing of new 500 kilovolt overhead power lines across the Columbia River.

New

tabs

estimated

Electric City estimates that it will take in about $10,000 in license tab fees in 2013. The council last Tuesday designated that this money should be used to make improvements to parts of Lincoln Street and Washington Place, both on the city’s six-year street improvement plan.

The city has voted to create a Transportation Benefit District allowing it to collect $20 per vehicle tab.

New fishing

tournament

planned

A new event planned for early spring will take advantage of a little-known fact about lakes of the region: they’re open for fishing year-round.

The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce will sponsor the “Are You Tough Enough?” triple-species fishing tournament on Banks Lake at Coulee Playland at the end of March.

The chamber board of directors voted Wednesday to take on the sponsorship of the plan laid out by Lou Nevsimal, of Coulee Playland.

Budget

date set

Electric City has set Dec. 11, as the date for lawmakers to tackle the city’s 2013 budget. The council held a work session last Tuesday night after its regular meeting to review its preliminary budget, making some slight changes.

Healthier

contribution

Electric City will support the Grant County Health District with a $2,000 donation. In the past the highest the city has contributed was $1,000.

Back in

Coulee Dam Police Chief Pat Collins asked that his request for a new patrol car be put back in the budget. He said he was surprised that when he returned from vacation that it had been pulled. Collins told the council that the near $40,000 item will be paid for out of funds from the Criminal Justice Fund.

Fees

up

Revenues at the Delano Area Transfer Station are up just over $5,000 from receipts for the same period of time in 2011. A report given to the Regional Board of Mayors Monday showed that the transfer station has taken in $351,760 through October this year. The total receipts for all of 2011 were $411,755, records show.

County gets A+ in refi effort

Refinancing $2.2 million dollars worth of Limited Tax General Obligation Bonds issued in 2003 for constructing improvements to the County’s public facilities, Okanogan County will save money after getting its first bond rating grade from Standard and Poor’s last week. S&P gave the county an A+ rating.

The action, led by County Treasurer Leah Mc Cormack and approved by the Board of Commissioners, will save approximately $220,000 with lower interest payments; which is an annual savings of approximately $20,000 for the remaining 11 years. The county is timing the sale of the refunding bonds at a historic low in interest rates.

No name change for lake

The State Committee on Geographic Names Friday voted down a proposal to rename Soap Lake (the lake, not the town) to Lake Smokiam, the traditional Salish language name for the alkaline lake known for its sudsy water and purported healing properties.