News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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I am writing in response to John Adkins’ series of letters to the editor, the most recent being 2/17/21. As a Lake Roosevelt teacher of nearly 17 years, I have had the opportunity to experience the changing tides of many administrators, several superintendents, and more changes in education than I can honestly remember at times. As a parent of school-aged students for the last 21 years, I have navigated three school districts ranging in size from 250 students to 9,000. I have been trying to determine what point John Adkins’ series of letters is...
When I see Kenny Hoke he always waves and makes my day. Every time this happens, I think about the state championship basketball team he was on back in the days when the rim and net were real baskets. Since Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam combined into the Grand Coulee Dam School District there has only been one Raider team that has won a state championship. That championship was in Track & Field. Raider Track & Field has won multiple team state trophies. It also has had more individual state champions and medalists over time than any other Raider...
My wife, who knows me well after 47 years, says I’m the most patient person she has ever met. When you combine this patience with the actions of putting others first and practicing sound human dynamics, learned from Gonzaga’s leadership program, you’ll see why I’ve finally been speaking up about our local school district. The GCDSD means so much to me, but these important qualities are not practiced at the top level of this organization. When someone talks about my opinion, they need to realize I’m speaking for me and a lot of people who have...
School finance is becoming more and more challenging. When we keep losing ground we cannot continue to make up the deficit by asking our community members to fill the funding gaps. For factual information look into all Washington state school ballot measures. Most districts are asking for $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property values. One in our region is asking for $2.50 per $1,000 but not continuing with their capital projects measure to balance the costs for their voters. If the GCDSD would have kept their levy total at $1.50 it would still...
Our small community has many exceptional people. I want to take a moment to highlight just a few that have earned my admiration over decades, years or recently. Their messages during this extremely challenging, chaotic time are wonderful and heartwarming. Roger Lucas – I’ve known Roger for decades. Like fine wine, he just gets better over time. I look forward to his articles because he knows that simple things in life are by far the most rewarding, and his sense of humor always makes me smile. Almost 70 years ago, sneaking away with his gir...
Whether you’re a local CEO of an organization, business owner and/or a community member, I’m thankful for many of you who’ve been appreciative of the thoughts I’ve shared about our local school district. I’m especially thankful that most of you know me and realize how much I care and how hard it was for me to finally say something. School district officials are ignoring current reality when they keep informing people that issues can be resolved by following the chain of command. This has not been working for quite a while. Also, blaming f...
As Superintendent of the Wellpinit School District, I am very fortunate that all of my staff have been at work in person. This has taken extensive collaborative preventive preparation and is due in a large part, to the support and actions of the Spokane Tribe. The Spokane Tribe arranged for COVID-19 Vaccinations for my staff. This tremendous gesture has given assurance and confidence to everyone involved and we are extremely thankful and grateful. If possible, I would appreciate it if the Colville Tribes would help the Nespelem and Grand...
I wanted to share a few parting thoughts as I step down as the Okanogan County Health Officer. First and foremost, it has been a privilege to serve this community for the past 16 years. I am confident that my successor, Dr. James Wallace, will provide stellar leadership moving forward. Over the last 10 years, I have truly enjoyed working with “Jimmy”; he will be excellent in this role. Community Health Director, Lauri Jones, has been the backbone of our PH response to COVID-19 in Okanogan County. She has been stalwart in her work for us. Our...
Thanks, Donna DeWinkler, for the thoughts you shared in The Star Newspaper recently. Tolerance of a diversity of viewpoints is always healthy. Everyone needs to have a growth mindset and be open to learning from each other. We get better together when different perspectives are valued. Often times we listen to others but we don’t validate that they have been heard. It is time in our local school district, that we love, for a new progressive direction to be taken that has true collaboration from all stakeholders involved. Donna went old s...
Wow, it was great to hear from Ray Gilman in The Star newspaper last week. Ray served the Grand Coulee Dam School District as an administrator for decades. His loyalty and longevity were amazing. He is aware of what is going on with funding in our local school district, regionally and statewide. Our school district is in the “B” school classification. “B” schools are the smallest size-wise in Washington state. With our student population, we are grossly over-staffed with administrators. Ray is spot on about the district office, but there is ove...
Our local Star newspaper has always done a good job of sharing a diversity of viewpoints: It is extremely hard for me to share these thoughts. Numerous people over the last few years have shared frustrations with me about our local school district. Many have felt they were treated poorly or even ignored. Some have taken their students out of our district. I’ve listened and shared productive solutions. I have lived in Coulee Dam for almost 40 years and have always supported our school district no matter what. I also show up and cheer on our R...
During my college years I worked for the USDA Forest Service on fire crews and in the Red Zone at Mount St. Helens after the volcano erupted. These jobs were very time and labor intensive. I admire, appreciate and am extremely grateful for all of our firefighters during these unprecedented, challenging times. Your relentless, unwavering, courageous efforts to keep everyone safe are amazing. Many thanks, John M. Adkins...
Oscar Osborne had a pure-black, well-trained cattle horse he named Tommy. One hundred years ago Oscar ran the largest, arguably oldest, cattle ranches in the Grand Coulee, selling beef to far away places like Seattle and Spokane. His beef was featured at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, where a huge portrait of him herding cattle around the horn of Steamboat Rock hung. Word is that Texas Jack had stolen and attempted to sell his trained stallion Tommy, and the horse was nowhere to be found. Oscar gathered up a posse and waited for Texas Jack to...
Small businesses continue to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. While they are doing their best to keep the doors open, they are hurting. That is especially true in our rural towns. Congress has acted to provide businesses with loans through the Small Business Administration six months of payment forgiveness. This is a lifeline for big city enterprises, but it doesn’t help rural entrepreneurs. That is because many rural businesses do not have access to an SBA lender and must borrow from a USDA Rural Development program instead. On A...
The area around where Grand Coulee sits today was sparsely populated around the turn of the 20th Century, and the few settlers and ranchers all knew each other. They also knew Texas Jack, a loner who lived down in the bottom of Rattlesnake Canyon, in a cave. One day, Texas Jack returned home with a young mixed-race woman. He never called her by name in public and referred to her as 'Woman" as if that was her name. She dressed rugged and in men's clothes. Some people in the community took pity...
When the Million Dollar Mile outside of Coulee City was created it inadvertently ran through a field with a level area and a natural spring surrounded by trees. For uncounted years this was a camping spot for the original nomadic inhabitants of the Upper Grand Coulee. The spring was nestled up on the cliff wall just out of sight, and the trail up ran along a cut to the south east. Once there was a large stone table for preparing food and families gathered together at the spring for generations....
Rather than discussing the Governor’s egregious assaults on the 1st Amendment regarding churches and his dogmatic executive orders on what is “essential” and “non essential”, I feel that it would behoove all of us to look into what the Federal Government is up too. Growing up in the 1950’s, on of my Mom’s sayings was: “money doesn’t grow on trees”. Well, it looks like Congress, with the approval of the President, just planted a $2.2 trillion dollar tree. The tree planting took a short time and the tree will be ready to harvest fruit in th...
With the Second World War over, work started on the creation of a 27-mile-long reservoir from Electric City to Coulee City. The old highway ran down the Upper Coulee floor, and a new replacement route would have to be built. To avoid being flooded, the new highway would cling to the southern coulee wall. This road was named Secondary State Highway 2F and ran through several condemned farmyards as it made its way across the coulee. Just outside Coulee City, the ground at the base of the east wall was unstable due to a series of unpredictable...
I would like to congratulate the Grand Coulee City Council for their support for the Republic, Washington police chief’s stance on the Initiative 1639 gun law. I would also like to thank Councilmember Tom Poplawski for his succinct comments on the matter. It is my hope that more cities and counties join in on this. For too many times, the east side over here has been subjected to the political tyranny of the socialist/progressive/atheist agendas of King County and Olympia. Today, my “Liberty, founded in Truth” flag is flying. John Overb...
My wife and I appreciated the stewardship article written by Roger Lucas. We’ve traveled extensively throughout the USA with a special focus on small towns, and we have yet to find a place as amazing as our area. Long before the vehicle and property shows became the rage, we realized the intrinsic and environmental value of restoring and preserving vintage and historical things. Presently, we’re restoring two trucks from 1964 and ’70. When we moved here almost 40 years ago, my wife’s wish was to live in the Women’s Dormitory in Coulee Da...
Cindy Carter didn’t get an endorsement from the County Cool Kid Committee (Grant County GOP) for an unknown reason. Maybe she didn’t hold her pinky finger correctly at the soiree or some such. It’s probably because Cindy’s finger was broken from changing hand lines or fixing fence at the family farm in Royal City. Cindy and her parents have done five decades or more for the Republican Party and a huge amount for the community in general. This isn’t the first time Cindy ran against an anointed favorite son of the party hacks. The voters wi...
It isn’t that easy to drop everything in the middle of the week and fly to Washington. If you’re a community newspaper publisher, going anywhere in the middle of the week is a challenge. That is when the newspaper has to be edited, wrapped up in color, printed, labeled and distributed to readers. People in Mayville, WI, where I publish the Dodge County Pionier, count on my paper. It is how they find out what is happening in town. We don’t have a local TV station. Facebook and Google are here, but the internet has no journalists in my town. That...
1) It is incongruous that a semester of study in 8th grade on the Constitution would give anyone the knowledge and ability to make a learned opinion on the 1st and 2nd Amendments. 2) It is indeed chilling to hear a 9th grader claiming that when they are of voting age and in charge that they are going to “right the wrongs that past generations have made.” I recall such sentiments when I was young in the mid-sixties and that has not happened. We have only gotten worse. 3) The Bible is the only book that lays out God’s “plumb line” on the “cult...
Rural entrepreneurs are often important members of their communities. The upcoming farm bill offers a significant opportunity to support those entrepreneurs and their rural businesses through the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program. Created in the 2008 farm bill, the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program provides funds to third parties, such as nongovernmental organizations and community development financial institutions, to provide training, technical assistance, and loans to rural entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs served by this...
The Center for Rural Affairs has fought on behalf of rural communities for nearly 45 years. We are heartened by U.S. Department of Agriculture Sec. Perdue’s expressions of support for rural communities during his early days in office. However, we are concerned about his current path. On May 11, Purdue proposed eliminating the position of Undersecretary for Rural Development and moving oversight of Rural Development agencies to the Deputy Secretary, USDA’s second-in-command. If this change is made, we lose the most significant rural adv... Full story