News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Electric City's leaders are wondering if residents want to keep using cameras at the end of town that snap photos of every car passing by, then stores the photos, records its license plate, time, and other information in a sharable online database. The city council on Tuesday postponed a decision on the city's Flock Safety license-plate reading cameras until October, pending information on the cost and filing deadlines for a possible special election to let voters decide. The council took no...
With attendance sharply up and the principals assurance of seeing progress, the school board approved this school year’s School Improvement Plan Monday. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors approved the district’s 2026-27 school improvement plan Sept. 14 after hearing from Elementary Principal Lisa Lakin that chronic absenteeism at the elementary school has fallen from 233 students to 61 in a single year. Lakin presented a one-page summary of goals the district set last spring rather than the full 67-page document, tel...
It’s about what kind of a country we want. Which helps determine what kind of world we want. After WWII, following much heartbreak and destruction, our government used the Marshall Plan to help rebuild not only bricks and mortar, but also human relationships. What we did engendered good feeling and kindness in response from many. This is distinctly missing under our current President and reigning Congress. It can be demonstrated by the early take-down of USAID letters and mission. Wednesday night Spokane heard Rep. Baumgartner and opposing c...
My neighbor, Denise Anderson, is The Dahlia Lady. Each fall my house is filled with dahlias. She has raised the most beautiful dahlias. And lucky me. I get most of them. I have three bouquets right now. I get them because her husband Howard is allergic to them. Sorry Howard, but you are missing out. Denise raises a wide variety of dahlias. Some are gigantic. If you remember the late Dick Taylor, he was a cross-stitch champion if there was such a thing. He learned that I liked dahlias and did a cross-stitch dahlia for me. For many years, I hung...
Elmer City officials signaled more utility rate hikes may be unavoidable as they wrestle with mounting attorney fees from the town’s ongoing sewer dispute with Coulee Dam, council members said at Monday night’s meeting. Mayor Jesse Tillman told the council the town is currently covering its basic sewer costs but is falling short once legal bills tied to the court case are added. He estimated Elmer City would need about $30 more per sewer customer per month just to keep up with attorney fees if the legal fight continues through next year. A jud...
COLVILLE – Fire investigators with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are seeking the public's help in locating several vehicles seen near the Cumbo fire in Okanogan County. The fire was first reported on September 11 at 2:00 pm on Burma Road, approximately two miles northwest of Methow. The fire spread to 51 acres and required multiple firefighters and aircraft to control. Witnesses reported seeing and hearing motorcycles operating off-road near the fire origin. At approximately 2:30 p... Full story
She graduated at the top of her class from Lake Roosevelt High four years ago, then earned her bachelor's degree at Western Washington University in Bellingham last spring where she was named an "Outstanding Graduate." "During her time at WWU, Piturachsatit completed a 360-hour internship with Bellingham Public Schools shadowing the International Baccalaureate coordinator at Happy Valley Elementary and Alderwood Elementary," wrote Mary Lane Gallagher of WWU's communications department....
It’s normal that hundreds of tons of trash to be hauled from Grand Coulee to Ephrata in a typical month. Manager Randy Gumm moved roughly 420 tons of solid waste last month on 19 trailer loads from the Delano Regional Transfer Station, according to his report to the Regional Board of Mayors Sept. 2. Asked about how much solid waste he typically hauls to the landfill in Ephrata, Gumm also noted holiday use at Steamboat Rock State Park had pushed volumes sharply higher over the Fourth of July weekend, with park users generating nearly 9 tons o...
America’s collective understanding of itself was mortally injured 25 years ago. What we feel about our nation now, what we live every day breathing about it, is not what it was before September 11, 2001. In the long run, that’s at least as tragic as the thousands of Americans killed when two airliners were turned into giant, flying weapons aimed at the edifices that housed the literal and figurative powers of capitalism and U.S. military might — the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Much more than physical structures started careening downw... Full story
Not that Don McLean asked me, but I was born too late to “recall what was revealed the day the music died.” The terrorist plane crashes of September 11, 2001, though? Those I remember. And how they revealed the paired vulnerability and tenacity of a nation. In fact, on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, I shared personal details of that day with my readers. And just like that, another five years’ worth of survivors, first responders and witnesses have passed away. Since the 20th anniv...
September 8, 2026 Five races for seats on Washington's state Supreme Court are set to get much more attention over the next two months. These races typically pass by without much notice as incumbent justices often sail to reelection to the nine-member court that decides appeals from lower courts, including on the legality of controversial state laws. It also guides the work of lower courts. For example, the justices last year slashed caseload limits for public defenders, and will soon consider... Full story
by Scott Hunter The Coulee Dam Town Council Wednesday night declined to move forward with a request to loosen the town's fence regulations, opting instead to keep its long-standing prohibition on front-yard fencing. Council members considered a request from Michael Dennis to amend Municipal Code 17.85.040 to allow six-foot, open-style fences to extend all the way to the front property line. Dennis, however, after reading The Star's story about the council meeting online, posted his letter, on...
Coulee Medical Center recorded a strong surplus in July, helped by a major estate gift and several one-time payments, the hospital’s chief financial officer told commissioners Monday. Chief Financial Officer Natalie Dennis reported a July gain of $1,457,710, bringing the year-to-date surplus to $2,227,577. She said total cash and investments climbed to $7,040,947 by the end of the month. That monthly gain handily beat CMC’s simple monthly goal of a $50,000 increase. Much of the cash boost came from a $1,385,463 endowment from the estate of a fo...
If you’re like me, the larger-than-life Dolly Parton has intersected numerous phases of your story. My awareness of Dolly goes back nearly 60 years. Nashville’s WSM-TV (now WSMV-TV) carried “The Porter Wagoner Show” (on which Dolly performed from 1967-1974) as part of its Saturday afternoon lineup of syndicated country music shows. (I was born a wee bit too late and too far to the west to see Dolly’s debut at age 10 on grocer Cas Walker’s Knoxville-area “Farm and Home Hour,” but I did shop at a...
SPOKANE, WA (August 26, 2026) — Sept. 1-7 is National Blood Donation Week, and Vitalant joins the call to encourage people to donate blood and save lives this month. As part of the awareness efforts, Governor Bob Ferguson has proclaimed Washington Blood Donation Day on Sept. 4 Donors of all blood types are vital to helping patients, and maintaining a diverse blood supply is an important part of being prepared for emergencies. Type O blood is especially important because it is among the most-transfused blood types. In an emergency, O-negative b... Full story
Residents pressed Grand Coulee city leaders last week to crack down on long-running nuisance and drug problems they say are driving away tenants, scaring off potential homebuyers and damaging the town's reputation. During a council meeting Thursday night, multiple speakers focused on a cluster of problem properties - especially on Dill Street - where people are living in RVs and tents without utilities, dumping waste outdoors and attracting steady drug activity. "I have numerous rentals in...
The Coulee Dam Town Council Wednesday night declined to move forward with a request to loosen the town's fence regulations, opting instead to keep its long-standing prohibition on front-yard fencing. Council members considered a request from Michael Dennis to amend Municipal Code 17.85.040 to allow six-foot, open-style fences to extend all the way to the front property line. Clerk/Treasurer Stefani Bowden reminded the council of the current code. "The fencing can't come beyond ... the front...
Lake Roosevelt’s alternative education program has a new name and, soon, a new home. The district is moving ahead with a disputed plan to relocate the ALE program from the old middle school campus miles away to a controlled classroom in the CTE building on the main Lake Roosevelt campus, even as staff raise safety and supervision concerns. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board on Aug. 24 unanimously approved renaming the district’s ALE program the Lake Roosevelt Alternative Learning and Online Alternative Learning Experience, a change req...
We don’t have all the comforts of city life in this community, but we don’t always realize what we do love about life here. When we lose one little aspect of it, even temporarily, we can get cranky. That’s been the experience of many since the emergency repair work began on the SR-155 bridge over the Columbia River as our little region has suffered the absolute injustice of the addition of traffic lights. The horror! Probably, when engineers were faced with an emergent need to specify the deck repairs on the bouncy, clanking bridge surfa...
Why do people vote against their best interests? This age-old question is relevant for many Michael Baumgartner voters. My father many years ago opined that people so dreamt of joining the rich that they closely related to them and voted with them. But economic mobility has greatly diminished, including by the billionaire-friendly “One Big Beautiful Bill” championed by Baumgartner, so those dreams should be rudely awakened by reality. Hard work now may not ensure economic security. Vowing to make Democrat Barack Obama a one-term president, lon...
The recent news that our national debt has swollen to $40 trillion should be the “bucket of ice water” America needs to finally address our financial woes. Our nation is on an unsustainable borrowing trajectory, and it is getting much worse! If left unattended, we will drown in red ink. The federal debt is larger than the entire value of the goods and services produced in our country. Our economy, as measured by gross domestic product, was valued at over $32 trillion in the second quarter of this year, according to the Bureau of Economic Ana...
On August 17, 2026, at approximately 12:51 a.m., Douglas County Deputies were dispatched to a reported stabbing at the Bridgeport Quik E Mart, located at 2606 Foster Creek Avenue in Bridgeport, Sheriff Tyler I. Caille reported in a news release. Deputies later contacted the victim at his residence—a 35-year-old Bridgeport male—who had an apparent stab wound. The victim was unable to provide many details about the assault and stated he had walked home before reporting the incident. He was transported by EMS to a local hospital with non-life-thre... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board on Tuesday approved a one-season agreement allowing Nespelem high school students to join Lake Roosevelt High School’s football and girls’ volleyball teams this fall. Nespelem’s board had yet to vote on it. GCD board members voted unanimously to adopt the Interdistrict Athletic Combine Agreement with the Nespelem School District for the Fall 2026 season. The agreement covers only high school football and high school girls’ volleyball, and will expire at the end of the season unless the distric...
Ben Dupris outlined an ambitious vision last week for transforming the former theater space into the Coulee Art House, telling the Coulee Dam Town Council that renovations are underway and aimed at creating a year-round community hub for youth, families and elders. Dupris, who is renting the former Village Cinema space from the city, said they have been addressing long-standing maintenance issues in the building, including holes in upstairs drywall and areas in the lobby that appeared to have mold or water damage. They have stripped problem...
Elmer City council members tightened local parking rules and updated rental and utility service fees Thursday night, then heard from an Okanogan County District Court judge making a rare outreach visit to the small town. Parking overhaul replaces 1950 ordinance The council unanimously adopted Ordinance 394, a major update to the town’s parking regulations for vehicles, on city streets, sidewalks and alleys. The new law repeals a 1950 parking ordinance and largely brings Elmer City in line with state standards. It: • bars parking within 30 feet...
