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 United States Postal Service is on the brink of a self-induced collapse. The failed policies of the Delivering for America Plan have driven away customers through a combination of sky-high rate increases and degraded service. David Steiner, who will take over as Postmaster General on July 14, 2025, has a tough job to do and little time to do it, with some estimates indicating the USPS could be insolvent as soon as 2028. Congress has a key role to play in helping him right the ship but must get off the sidelines and act. A useful step...
Every time Larry Hernandez runs into a new obstacle, he seems to find a way around it. That's how it's been ever since he started working on reviving the Village Cinema in Coulee Dam, a place that has been largely vacant for a generation of movie-goers who missed out. Recently, it was something as mundane as a sewer plugged up. He got that fixed with the same plumber who showed up and did a lot of work for no charge just to help in the effort. That community effort is what makes it all worth it...
Coulee Dam is mulling an inquiry as to whether the city would allow a Level 3 electric vehicle charging station on its electric grid. Such a 180-kilowatt station would be capable of adding 100-250 miles of range in 30-45 minutes. That capability could be an added attraction for customers of the 12 Tribes Casino. Mayor Bob Poch told the city council last month that the Colville Tribes had approached the city on the question. The city owns its own electric utility, but Poch wants to be careful to not add something that would jeopardize a...
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...
Our local hot summers provide plenty of lessons we might also keep in mind for our politics. Most people who don’t fight fires on a regular basis may not appreciate the delicate relationship between fuel and energy, but it’s key to understanding ignition, the point at which flame erupts. The hotter the air is, the closer the energy level of everything is to its ignition point. The drier the fuel, likewise. So, when the wind blows in the heat, when “relative humidity” — that is the amount of moisture in the air — is low, a spark can light a fir...
Nearly four dozen young adults walked across the stage and out the door Saturday after graduating from Lake Roosevelt High School having already seen some hard reality and ready to take life on. "We are proof that hard times create strong people," is the official motto of the class of 2025. They started high school in 2021 in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic with all its health and cultural complications, steeped in a time that would teach them about the fragility of human life. In the middle...
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...
Lori Adkins is the longest tenured teacher and coach in the GCDSD’s history. Over 43 years she has helped thousands of students and hundreds of athletes. Her loyalty and longevity are unmatched. Over the decades I’ve seen her work 20-hour days and rarely miss a day of work. She’s about solutions not excuses. She’s a talented artist who rarely has time to create personally because she’s always creating with kids. Lori raised five Raiders and as the longtime cheer squad coach and leadership class instructor she’s brought more school spirit to o...
The strength of the United States’ economy is rooted in the power of our workforce. As Congress works to deliver policies that bring jobs back to our shores, the need for a strong, reliable workforce has never been greater. Nearly 20,000 young Americans utilize the U.S. Job Corps program, a proven initiative that helps equip our nation’s young, disadvantaged adults with the skills they need to succeed. Amidst the Trump administration’s plans to pause Job Corps operations at the end of June, I joined 200 of my colleagues in sending a lette...
by Scott Hunter It's been 69 years since Nespelem High School graduated a class of students, but that longed-for possibility finally became a reality last week. A class of nine students graduated May 29, 2025, in a commencement ceremony before a gym full of relatives and community members. Nespelem School Board Chair Jolene Marchand, in a commencement address, related the story of the dream now come true. In 1956 the state said it was consolidating schools. Nespelem's high school was closed,...
Matt Ponusky is no stranger to the city of Grand Coulee. He served it as a police officer for about seven years, then transferred to Coulee Dam's police department at the end of 2023. Now, he's back - as the chief of police. Hiring him ends a long slog for the city, which started looking for a new chief before longtime chief John Tufts retired in March, 2024. The post has been filled either by an interim chief or not at all since then. Turns out finding a chief of police is not too easy....
Parents will be able to track their kids as if they were being delivered by UPS. That’s because school bus drivers in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will log on and off each child who rides their bus, with new devices and software to help keep track of the students. And, of course, there’s an app for that. Parents can follow their kids’ buses on their phones and know what time the child will be dropped off, said Superintendent Rod Broadnax at his last “Coffee with the Superintendent” May 27 at Voltage Coffee House. “We’ve had a couple of...
Lake Roosevelt track and field athletes did themselves proud last week, setting personal records at the state meet and earning one big mention from the governing body of Washington state high school athletics. That would be for senior John Cooley, whom the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) named athlete of the week May 28, noting his achievements the week before: "John Cooley qualified for Districts in four events: 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles, long jump, and triple jump....
After a threat against the school was reported, Lake Roosevelt Schools canceled Tuesday classes Monday night before reconvening after the holiday weekend. The school posted a notice on its Facebook page about 9:45 Monday night. A Snapchat between students had been reported in which one student had made threats against the school, officials said. Superintendent Rod Broadnax said Tuesday morning the Snapchat had occurred with up to 30 students on it. He said the chat text had not been recovered yet, so police had not been able to get a warrant...
Nespelem School District directors Tuesday voted to reject a proposal for a combined sports program with the Grand Coulee Dam School District. Directors said it was too restrictive and unfair and reacted to it taking obvious offense. I clause outlining “participation restrictions” sparked resentment. Board Chair Jolene Marchand read it out loud: “Nespelem School District may not initiate, offer or support any independent high school sports program for the duration of this agreement. Should Nespelem launch or sanction any such program, the f...
Three local women with a history of getting things done spoke with Grand Coulee's city council May 20 to advocate a new approach to tackling an old problem that the city was just beginning to explore again. Earlier this year, Councilmember Tom Poplawski proposed a possible ordinance to encourage owners of vacant buildings to either actively use them or sell them so someone else can. The council set up a "Town Hall" meeting to discuss that possibility and encouraged business owners to attend it,...
Those wanting to clean up the mess we tend to get used to harken back to a time when this community had set its sights on self-improvement. That’s a good sign. Some people say such efforts didn’t make any difference. They misremember. Many improvements did come out of the discussions and initiatives to spruce up the place, even if some of it was cosmetic, like the awnings on buildings that were an inexpensive fix for flawed architecture. Even that helped. That was Project REV back in the 1990s. The new discussion goes deeper, though, and see...
The Raider track and field team at last week’s 2B District 5 meet qualified 11 athletes to continue on to the state championship in Yakima May 29-31. The boys’ team placed fourth out of 17 teams at the Central Washington University Recreational Sports Complex in Ellensburg Thursday, where the top six competitors qualified for state. “It’s been a number of years since we have qualified so many student athletes for state competition,” said Head Coach Lori Adkins. “Many of our athletes went into the district meet having already met steep state...
The Lady Raiders took their postseason softball play as far as they could Friday, ending their season after two games at the state tournament in Yakima. It's always a tough go for the team seeded 16th to go up against the number-one team in the state right off the bus. Lake Roosevelt lost to Freeman May 23 in the opening rounds of the 2025 2B State Fastpitch Softball Tournament at the Gateway Sports Complex, 11-0. The Raider girls gave the next team a good game, leading 1-0 for the better part...
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...
Michael Baumgartner is hostile to his constituents and generally all Washingtonians. He claims to be a “state’s rights guy,” as Republicans used to be until most congressional Republicans now cowardly won’t stand up against President Donald Trump’s wannabe all-powerful dictatorship. Accordingly, Baumgartner fell in line with House Republican colleagues by recently joining a letter from the House Judicial Committee to Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown (Spokesman-Review 3/31/25). The letter, in effect, claims that Trump’s extremely c...
by Scott Hunter Lake Roosevelt’s track and field team last Thursday in Brewster qualified 14 athletes for the District 5 meet May 22 in Ellensburg. They missed taking first place as a team by three points, 138-135, to take second to Brewster as Raiders earned championships and set several personal records that night. “It was a real team effort on a super exciting night where our athletes were scraping for every LR point they could earn,” said head coach Lori Adkins. “They performed PR after PR as many families and fans cheered them on.” Se...
A teacher at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School thought he was just attending a pep assembly Friday when his name was called to receive a statewide award as educator of the year. Derek Atkins, who graduated from Lake Roosevelt, teaches science there now and revived a club that was important to his own development and direction. The pep assembly turned out to be a well-kept secret to surprise him. Shawn Brehm, a Wellpinit teacher who serves as the chair of the Washington Education Association's Cau...
This year’s election season will focus on local positions: city councils, port districts, school boards and such. Last week was the week to file intentions to seek such an office. Here’s a look at who filed. Three candidates are seeking the mayor’s seat in Grand Coulee, including incumbent Ruth Dalton and challengers Micah Seekins and Chantel Crowe, who is currently a deputy clerk at city hall. Voters will pick two of those three in the Aug. 5 Primary Election to go on to the General Election on Nov. 4. Janet Christy filed to keep the counc...
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Seems pretty clear, practical, wise. Like they could see this coming. When the Framers wrote the Constitution, they didn’t want a grifter in chief ruling the nation for profit, but obviously they could foresee such a person coming along someday. So they told him i...