News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 2681 - 2705 of 7269
After nearly two years, 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, and 500 witness interviews, we now know that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation “did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” The Department of Justice made clear that the special counsel’s report includes no new indictments or sealed indictments. After this thorough investigation, President Trump has been cleared of a charge that has divided the nat...
Raider tennis players had their first week of play, during a week in which the last of four courts were finally cleared of the last of the snow by the Coulee Dam Volunteer Fire Department that Thursday. Two days before that, using only three of the four courts, the Lake Roosevelt girls won two out of their three games, but the boys lost all three. The Raiders hosted the Oroville Hornets in Coulee Dam March 19, when the girls' team won 5-0. "Our girls' team pretty much dominated the young...
Evelyn Russell doesn't know how many people are involved in an annual effort to put together dozens of quilts for the benefit of people in need, around the world and at a nearby crisis shelter. "We've got a box in the back," Russell said, standing inside the sanctuary of Zion Lutheran Church in Grand Coulee Saturday, with 91 colorful quilts covering every available surface, anointed by sunlight coming through the colored glass. The box collects pieces that quilters finish at home. The tops and...
A $13.6 million fire station being built for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation along SR-155 has faced numerous delays, and a bigger delay now with the termination of the contract between the bureau and the construction company. The contract for the project was awarded to Post Falls, Idaho-based Innovative Construction & Design Ltd. in 2016, with construction beginning in April of 2017. The building was originally scheduled to be complete in April 2018, according to a bureau press release issued in...
Those who drive around Electric City regularly may be surprised this summer to find that the Y-shaped intersection near city hall will be losing the Western Avenue branch off that intersection that currently forks into Western and Stevens Avenue. Electric City is building some sidewalks along Coulee Boulevard, which is also highway 155, as well as along Grand Avenue this summer. Included in these projects is a sidewalk that will wrap around the front of city hall and eliminate the portion of...
One has devoted her career to the success of a local institution, the other just started a new business last year to fill a local need and fulfill a longtime ambition. Solveig Chaffee's Voltage Coffee House was named business of the year, and hospital CEO Ramona Hicks was honored as achiever of the year at the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce annual awards banquet Thursday at Pepper Jack's Bar and Grille. "Thank you for bringing a new business to the community ... putting in your own...
Electric City needs to upgrade a critical piece of infrastructure that every person in the city depends on, and for which the city will need to arrange several hundred thousand dollars in financing. Electric City’s 1960s-era sewage lift station, which pumps sewage to the wastewater treatment facility in Grand Coulee, needs to be upgraded soon. The facility at the southern end of Grand Avenue has two pumps, one that is about 60 years old and no longer works, the other just a few years old. The Electric City council discussed the issue at t...
The Keller Ferry, which connects SR-21 from the Wilbur area to the Keller area, will be out of service from April 1 to April 7 for a permanent repair to be done on a weld crack that had closed the ferry from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2. A temporary repair had been done to reopen the ferry, and when the weather warms up a permanent repair can be made, explained Ryan Overton, who works for the Eastern Region Communications of the Washington State Department of Transportation. Overton said the repair may actually take less time, but they are giving the...
The Native American Voting Rights act was signed by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee at a widely attended ceremony, Thursday. “We believe these three steps will allow tribal members to help us form a more perfect union and make good decisions about our destiny,” said Inslee of the changes the bill makes. The state House of Representatives passed an amended version of the bill with a 95-3 vote on March 5. House members voting against were Reps. Bob McCaslin, R- Spokane Valley, Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, and Matt Shea. R-Spokane Valley. The bill passed the...
Before it’s too late, a word of thanks needs to be said for those who plow snow. This was a tough winter, but local roads remained remarkably open after initial attacks were completed, allowing drivers to travel intact. That’s no small thing, and we should be thankful in the coulee for roads well plowed by folks who most of the time got up early to get ready for our morning commutes. Scott Hunter editor and publisher...
This is such good news. In the past I shopped at the Variety Store regularly. I was usually able to find what I needed, whether it be underwear, socks, belts, T-shirts, kids’ toys, candles, postcards, spices, snacks, pet toys, rugs, kitchen gadgets, etc. So this is wonderful, and I look forward to the opening. Thank you, Launi Ritter! Valerie Keck...
This is about two politicians, both in their 90s, one who passed away last week and the other still going strong. Former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh, 91, passed away last Thursday. He served Indiana and the nation well during his time in the Senate, and is perhaps best known for shepherding Title IX to its success; anyway, that’s what he has said was his greatest achievement. I first met Sen. Bayh at the annual Democratic dinner in Seattle. Senators Henry Jackson and Warren Magnuson had sent me tickets to the dinner, and a host of Democrats from a...
The long-running winter has made it hard to play spring sports, meant to be played on grass and dirt, not ice and snow. "We've had volunteers helping, doing whatever they can, like snow blowing fields," said Lake Roosevelt Athletic Director Tim Rasmussen. The snow has canceled several of the first events scheduled for each of the five spring sports: tennis, golf, baseball, softball, and track & field. "We working as a league and as a district to see what we can do towards the end of the...
People who felt the loss of convenience when The Variety Store in Grand Coulee closed down will welcome the news that a new proprietor will open a new store by the same name in the same building. Launi Ritter, who had attempted to come to rental terms with former owners of the building between Safeway and Coulee Hardware over a year ago. She and her parents, Doug and Mary Lou Lockard, had researched the business and were ready to start it up, but could not find a location with the right terms. That changed Feb. 27, Ritter said, when A. J. Gerar...
Darnell Sam has been appointed to the Nespelem District Position #2 on the Colville Business Council, following the expulsion of Andrea George, who had filled that position. The CBC named Sam to the council seat following a 94-53 vote by tribal members held at a March 5 Nespelem District meeting, according to a March 6 press release from the Colville Tribes. The council had expelled George Feb. 21 on ethics charges including improper influence, gross misconduct and malfeasance. George’s supporters insisted she was being expelled for calling int...
Discipline issues at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School are going down, and students are performing better in English Language Arts and math, according to the principal. Principal Lisa Lakin spoke to the Grand Coulee Dam Area School District board of directors March 11 about the elementary school, and presented a draft of an “Elementary School Improvement Plan.” Lakin discussed the need to improve students scores in English Language Arts and math, but said that scores are going up. “We have students that have already made, this year, two or th...
Out of five candidates, Kirk Marshlain has been chosen as the new Lake Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School principal. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved giving Superintendent Paul Turner the go-ahead to hire Marshlain at their March 11 meeting. “I think he’ll be a great addition to our team,” Turner said about Marshlain. Marshlain currently works as a special education teacher in the Wenatchee School District and has worked at a home for troubled youth, Turner said. He’s currently finishing an administrative internship in Wena...
After a delivery last week had added to the meager stores at the Care and Share Food Bank a couple weeks ago, volunteers came once again to unload another truck on Thursday, this time stuffing shelves with the proceeds made possible by local donations last fall. If you wondered exactly when that donation you made at Safeway to the local food bank last November or December would actually arrive, the answer is last week. "This is the time of year we really need that," said Carol Nordine, the...
Not only did dozens of gigantic floods shape the local landscape thousands of years ago, they raced across the solid-rock remains of hundreds of layers of lava flows that built the local bedrock millions of years earlier. So said Geologist Nick Zentner to roughly 130 people at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center on Saturday, brought to town by the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club. Zentner, who hosts the video series "Nick on the Rocks," spoke for over an hour in the upstairs theater in the Visitor...
We would like to thank all the volunteers who have helped with all our projects over the past 32 years; you are the ones that made the projects a success. Thank you. Due to the lack of someone to manage the fish pens, the board of directors has decided to disband POWER. February 28 was the last day to apply for an ALEA (Aquatic Land Enhancement Account) grant to fund the fish pens. The fish pens will be removed from Banks Lake this spring, along with the log boom and the docks. WDFW (Washington State Dept. of Fish & Wildlife) will remove the...
Term limits, change, whatever you want! Now is the time. Every day, I hear people want term limits. If you read last week’s Star, you see many, many open volunteer vacancies in local organizations, cities, boards, etc. Now is the time for you, or your friends, or your family to step up and volunteer for one of these positions; now is the time to help enforce time limits by voting. Only you can make a change. If no one is willing to step into one of these volunteer roles, then please don’t ask for something you are not willing to help with. It...
The fight goes on… the debate is vitiated by empty minds and thoughtless reason(s). Elmer City argues that Coulee has taken advantage by over-charges/invoicing by violating the 1975 agreement. On the other hand, Coulee Dam has lost some of the design and operational paradigms. Both agencies have lost their compasses. “IF” Coulee Dam has taken invoicing advantages, so too is that Elmer City’s ignorance of the quarterly reviews! Both agencies have made errors. As to Coulee Dam, by its own volition in 2014, they self-audited the “agreement,” the p...
An era of Raider wrestling is ending with the coming retirement of Coach Steve Hood, whose professional and personal life was shaped by the sport he viewed as a means to help shape young lives. "It's been a great ride, a great experience," Hood told The Star recently. "A lot of really good experiences. Athletics gives you an ability to work with kids on a different level than in the classroom. It's an opportunity to help them learn so many life lessons about hard work, and dealing with adversity...
Are you interested in helping make a difference in the local cities, parks, schools, hospital, or elsewhere? There are 28 local offices up for election this fall, including positions on city councils, school boards, and various districts in the area. Those interested in running need to file their candidacy with their county elections office between May 13 and 17. Cities Electric City has four city council positions, as well as the mayor’s office, up for election this fall. Three of the four council positions are for four-year terms; the fourth...
Nearly new sidewalks that Grand Coulee had installed in 2015 are already cracking and crumbling, a situation that could require time in court to work out. Grand Coulee's city council voted at their Feb. 19 meeting to have their lawyer send a letter to Travellers Insurance, which insures Davenport-based Halme Builders, who installed the sidewalks. The 2015 project to install new sidewalks and gutters on Federal Avenue and Main Street cost $407,816.53, paid for with money from a state...