News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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After a long process of crossing the t's and dotting i's, the sale of Center School has finally closed and its new owners are developing plans. The former school on Spokane Way in Grand Coulee was sold by the Grand Coulee Dam School District to Centerline Development, a company co-founded by local men Nic Alexander and Ian Turner, for $155,000. The 8.3-acre property has a lot of potential, Alexander told The Star. He and Turner are envisioning various kinds of quality housing. "We're super...
The Colville Tribes released 30 Chinook salmon at the Keller boat launch, just north of the Keller Ferry, on Aug.16, the first time salmon have been above the Grand Coulee Dam in nearly 80 years. Roughly 300 people attended the event in which people formed two parallel, single-file lines stretching from a Colville Tribes Fish and Wildlife truck containing the salmon, to the shore. The large fish were scooped out of the truck one at a time, placed into a rubber bag that was then passed along the...
Fireworks won’t be banned from Electric City, the result of a discussion last week considering such an action by the city council. Citizen and firefighter Ken Dexter told the city council Aug. 13 that he was speaking for himself and Electric City Fire Chief Mark Payne when he made a few points against a possible ordinance outright banning fireworks within city limits. “The main reason we are against this fireworks ordinance is we don’t want to drive people outside the city,” Dexter said. “My main concern is we don’t want to drive people out...
If culinary cred, zeal and creative thinking have anything to do with it, Patty Davis is about to make a mark on her home turf. Davis has studied and worked in the culinary arts from coast to coast in the United States, and in Hawaii, especially, before coming back to the coulee area, where she's starting a business to share her gift with her fellow community members. A Lake Roosevelt graduate, Davis left the state of Washington for Hawaii at the age of 21 to pursue her culinary dreams. There...
Oh, the joys of being a homeowner. Aiden Picard was surprised to learn on Aug. 7, the day before his fifth birthday, that he'd be getting his dream home. That dream home, a playhouse, was made by DWK Fowler Construction to be raffled off to raise money for the Ridge Riders Junior Rodeo. Young Picard had wanted allowance, or any other money he would have received, to go toward raffle tickets with his grandmother, Reyne Finley. "He was just determined to buy that house," his mother, Meghan...
Brian Warnecke has been appointed as a new commissioner for the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District following the resignation of longtime member Bob Valen. Valen still intends to be available to consult with other members of the group. Commission President Kevin Portch praised Valen’s wealth of knowledge on topics related to the district. Warnecke spoke about his family’s long history in the area, his love of baseball and softball, being born in the local hospital, and other community involvement such as working for UPS for 19 years and...
It's hard to go to school without school supplies. The Public School Employees union from Lake Roosevelt, joined this year by the teachers union, worked on Monday to "Stuff The Bus" with school supplies for students ranging from preschoolers to seniors in high school. PSE members stationed themselves along Midway Avenue with a school bus in Grand Coulee to collect supplies and cash donations towards supplies, while Grand Coulee Dam Education Association members stationed near Harvest Foods in...
The Bowman Electric softball team Saturday emerged the champions from this year's Grand Coulee Dam Area Adult Summer Softball League's 2019 Kenny Hearne Summer Classic Softball Tournament, following the season that spanned the summer. Bowman Electric went undefeated in the three-day tournament held at North Dam Park Aug. 15-17. They faced off against the ECT team, who, after losing in the first round, won the loser's bracket to make it to the championship. Bowman Electric won the championship...
Animal control, a common need among local towns, is being addressed by the Regional Board of Mayors, who are looking into contracting with the Colville Confederated Tribes to address the issue. The RBOM met on Monday, when animal control was discussed by Elmer City Mayor Jesse Tillman, Electric City Mayor John Nordine, Coulee Dam Mayor Bob Poch, Grand Coulee Mayor Pro Tempore Tom Poplawski, and Marica Sample, the sole employee of Colville Tribal Animal Control. “It’s a need throughout all of our towns,” Tillman said. Sample said the tribe...
The Coulee Dam Police Department last week took part in National Night Out, a sort of meet and greet event that takes place each August nationwide at thousands of police departments who interact with their communities in a casual way. Coulee Dam Police Chief Paul Bowden said that in 15 years in law enforcement, he had not yet taken part in National Night Out and decided it was time to do so. He plans to do so again next year. "It's just for people to come out and meet us, know where we're...
The Grant County Health District is looking for a representative for their Board of Health from the northern part of the county, which includes Electric City and Grand Coulee in addition to the Coulee City and Hartline area. The position is for a two-year term. The board meets for a couple hours each month on the second Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Ephrata. Board members are compensated for their mileage at 70 cents a mile. Theresa Adkinson, an administrator for GCHD, met with the Regional Board of Mayors Monday to encourage the group to find someone...
It's smoky outside, not as smoky as last year, but health experts advise being mindful of the amount of smoke in the air and how it affects you. Here are some tools to help with that. On the Air Quality Index on purpleair.com, which uses a color-coded gradient that measures air pollution on a scale from 0-500, the Grand Coulee Dam area ranged from 139-153 as of 11:30 a.m. on August 6. AQIs of less than 100 are generally considered to be healthy. The Environmental Protection Agency's Particulate...
Is technology bringing us closer together, tearing us apart, or just sucking up our time in general? A recent poll shared to The Star’s Facebook page just scratched the surface of the complex issue of smartphones, tablets, and their roles in our lives, gathering responses from 23 people on the topic. Respondents were evenly spread out between ages 25 and 65-plus, with no one 24 or younger responding. Four people claimed to look at their phone immediately after waking up, while the majority, 14, said they first looked at their phone from half a...
Two fires were started early Tuesday by suspected arson in the Osborne Bay area near the gravel pit on the east side of SR-155 on July 30. Electric City Fire Chief Mark Payne said there were two fires started about a quarter mile apart in the area. Outbuildings and recreational vehicles in the area were threatened, he said. A man camping there told police he smelled smoke half an hour after a vehicle, possibly a Jeep, had driven through his camp early in the morning, according to Officer Adam Florenzen of the Grand Coulee Police Department....
The school district will draw on reserves to run Lake Roosevelt Schools for the next couple years, a budget approved last week shows, but financial losses are projected in later years, an issue the superintendent hopes to solve. Grand Coulee Dam School District directors at a July 22 meeting approved a 2019-20 school year budget of approximately $12.9 million in expenditures, up from $12 million last year. With an anticipated enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grades of 701 students, that makes for an average of $18,400 per student. Much...
Planning the future of the Grand Coulee Dam Airport was the topic of discussion at a July 29 Grant County Port District 7 meeting, where commissioners were joined by citizens, the airport manager and members of J-U-B Engineers, the consultants working on the airport master plan. The master plan is in the works, and members of J-U-B explained where they were in the process, what the next steps are, and took comments from those present. Ideas discussed for the future of the airport include making fuel available at the airport, installing...
Coulee Dam's wastewater customers will shoulder an additional $2 a month on their sewer bills after the city council solved two big problems with one vote last Wednesday. The council voted 3-1 to accept an additional $1.2 million in loan and grant money to pay for two new lift stations for pumping sewage to the new wastewater treatment facility. The additional $304,000 in a 40-year loan and $909,000 in grant money, with an additional $39,000 from the town budget, brings the total project cost to...
Grant Coulee turned down the idea of turning over a stretch of B Street to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation near where USBR’s new fire station is being built. The idea came up in May at the city’s council meeting with possible benefits including not having to maintain the road and putting the dollar savings towards other streets. B Street is currently closed from where it intersects Division Street to SR-155 because of construction on the USBR fire station being built along SR-155. The street is also used as an alternative route through and aro...
Lake Roosevelt Schools' SHARP Kids program, which includes academic as well as hands-on activities, will continue for another five years after receiving a grant that will fund the program with approximately $270,000 a year via the 21st Century grant. "Through the efforts of a substantial number of people in our school and community, and outside of our community (including grant writer Joyce Garrett out of Wenatchee), we were awarded the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant," said Nancy...
It's not easy swimming to the ocean and back. The Grand Coulee Library hosted a presentation titled "Swimming with the Salmon: The Epic Survival Game" June 17, in which children learned "about the life cycle of salmon, as well as efforts river partners throughout the region take to help salmon overcome the obstacles they encounter on their epic journey," according to a press release from Grant PUD which presented the program. "Everyone will get a better appreciation of salmon and their...
Working with lavender is some of the most pleasant smelling work a person can do. Mary Jo Monteith, who lives on 38 acres out along SR-174 in the general area of Spring Canyon, grows about 1,400 lavender plants on her property that looks like a big patch of purple from the highway. She's grown lavender there for a dozen years or so, originally to just help suppress the weeds, and has made soap and sold a few lavender plants over the years. This year, a new and different opportunity arrived....
Citizens in Electric City could find their future July 4 plans for explosives thwarted if the city council adopts a new law banning fireworks. The Electric City council discussed adopting such an ordinance at their July 9 council meeting. Councilmember Rich McGuire brought the idea up, citing Coulee Dam’s similar code banning fireworks in that city. Councilmember Lonna Bussert described fireworks debris being left behind in the triangle-shaped parking area outside city hall. A man in the audience added that the fireworks went on for over t...
There's nothing like a relaxing day of golf. Or a week. My uncle John Fox, who works in North Dakota and lives in Baja, Mexico, golfed five rounds of 18 holes, or 90 holes total, at the Banks Lake Golf Course while on vacation in the area recently. I golfed 18 holes with him on June 21 and had a great time, and he was very patient with my, let's say, "sub-par" (over-par?) golf skills. Uncle Johnny, as I know him, was so taken by the course that he wrote down some of his thoughts and...
The Banks Lake Golf Course is in the process of being sold by the port district to Rattlesnake Ridge. At Grant County Port District 7's June 27 meeting, commissioners passed a resolution authorizing commissioners to go through with the sale, then signed a purchase and sale agreement on the terms of selling the golf course and some surrounding land for $1.8 million. Scott Garrits, president, and Dennis Lohrman, secretary/treasurer of Rattlesnake Ridge were present at the meeting. Garrits is also...
The Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department this week stressed the importance of fire safety on the Fourth of July and reiterated that fireworks won’t be allowed at North Dam this year, but a federal agency doesn’t consider the ban temporary. “Fireworks will not be legal to use anywhere in the city limits of Grand Coulee in July 2019 per ordinance 1036,” a press release states. “When the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Land Management declared fireworks banned on their property, including the North Dam Area, because of extreme d...
