News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Increased electricity use among industrial customers led to a new high-load record at Grant PUD during the first week of the heat wave this month. The public utility provided 1,107 megawatts of electricity to customers in the 98823 zip code on July 9. “Every day during that hot streak topped the old all-time record of just over 1,000 MW, set during the sub-zero cold snap in January 2024,” said Christine Pratt, Grant PUD public affairs officer. Energy use for Grant PUD typically peaks twice a year, she said, during the coldest days of win...
A fire that originated at a local resort spread rapidly over a hill separating the resort from the rest of Electric City, but ultimately required all local fire crews, federal wildland firefighters, and air support to suppress Tuesday. Fire calls went out between 2 and 3 p.m., drawing in local firefighters from all stations, and prompting fire chiefs to call for air support. The blaze, which got away from a Sunbanks Lake Resort fire, the origin of which was not clear at the time of this writing,...
If a Grand Coulee officer calls to request backup at the scene of a crime, they can’t count on Coulee Dam PD to respond, according to an email obtained by The Star. In the email from Grand Coulee Interim Police Chief Levi Johnson to Coulee Dam Police Chief Paul Bowden on July 8, Johnson wrote, “It was brought to my attention, you told your officers they are not to assist Grand Coulee Units. I heard this from a couple of our officers. If this is true, I would like to hear it from you.” The next day Bowden confirmed in his reply: “That is corr...
An improved park in Grand Coulee may need a couple more improvements because of increased usage, a city council member proposes. The chair of the city council’s safety committee wants the city to take another look at installing a few more parking spaces next to Grand Coulee City Park, perhaps in the adjacent alley running parallel to Grand Coulee Ave. and Roosevelt Drive. At the council’s June 25 meeting Councilmember Tom Poplawski also proposed petitioning the state Department of Transportation to install a crosswalk with button-activated fla...
Elevated levels of neurotoxin were detected in the middle section of Rufus Woods, according to a monitoring website that tracks toxic algae blooms. A sample pulled June 25 from the "Mid Lake" region of the reservoir showed 13.760 micrograms of anatoxin-a per liter of water–well over the state Department of Health's guidelines for anatoxin-a in "recreational water bodies," which is 1 microgram per liter of water. Anatoxin-a is a naturally-occurring substance produced by cyanobacteria, s...
We like to go about our business believing that things are working as they should — and they seem to, mostly. Until they don’t. That can be when we have to realize some foundation of stability in our experience just wasn’t so stable after all. Take our local police forces and the way our firefighting infrastructure is set up. Yesterday’s wildfire at Sunbanks in Electric City (actually outside town at the moment) was prolonged due to — well, that’s uncertain at this point. But a nearby firefighting helicopter sat on the ground at Grand Coule...
During my time in Congress representing Washington’s 4th Congressional District, addressing the fentanyl crisis has been one of my top priorities. I have introduced legislation such as the Stop Overdose in Schools Act, fought the policies of unelected federal bureaucrats including Department of Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas, and even established a Central Washington Fentanyl Task Force to find new solutions with members of our community. But most recently, I was appointed to lead the House Select Committee on the Chinese C...
There are a number of reasons why I am now afraid to fly. My first flight was with an Alaskan “bush” pilot who emphasized “local” conditions. He said conditions can change quickly and you have to be ready for change. He pointed this out as we approached the small airfield in Orofino, Idaho. The airfield is surrounded by high hills. He said many pilots go over the hills and try a direct line to the airfield. He said that you should come over the hills and circle the space before you line up to the single runway. So we did. He said that it puts...
KELLER – Those who use the Keller Ferry, M/V Sanpoil, across the Columbia River on State Route 21 will need to find alternate routes due to planned closure of the ferry. Planned Keller Ferry closure The closures will begin at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, July 16, and last until the afternoon of Saturday, July 20, in order to make repairs to a support beam on the vessels hull. The damage to the hull was located by marine inspectors with the United States Coast Guard who conducted a required five-year hull exam dive operation last month. Travele... Full story
Grand Coulee volunteer firefighters responded to 526 Wetzel Street for a fireworks-related blaze reported at 8:41 p.m. They were on scene by 8:46. Douglas County Fire Disrtrict 3 also responded. It was one of several fires that burned in region over the last several days. The fire was put out quickly and all crews left by 9:09 p.m., a department Facebook post said. Police at the scene said it was believed to have been started by people under the age of 18 and that no infraction would be issued s...
Triple-digit temperatures over several days can pose a challenge for almost anyone. For those living in homes with inadequate AC, and for people living outdoors, it can be deadly. “More people die from extreme heat than extreme cold,” said Molly Morris, team lead at Grand Coulee’s STAR Hub, a division of Rural Resources Community Action. “We are not strangers to this type of heat, but when it first occurs each year we have to reach back to our early training on how to cope.” With the current h...
Searchers on Tuesday recovered the body of a young man missing in Banks Lake since Thursday. From Tacoma, Daniel Ciobanu, 28, and his wife had been riding a paddleboard near Coulee City when a breeze came up and they fell into the water in a spot "filled with very thick aquatic vegetation," according to a Grant County Sheriff's Office Facebook post. "The woman made it to shore, but the man went under and didn't resurface. First responders were called right away." That was about 8:30 a.m. They se...
Later this month the Olympic Games will begin. We have been treated the last few weeks with the preliminary track and field events and swimming events. It is the beginning of the end for a lot of very skilled athletes who after years of effort will fail to make it onto the United States team. The preliminary trials for track and field events are being held at the University of Oregon in Eugene, no stranger to these events. While living in Boise some years ago on South Orchard our closest neighbor had a 17-year-old boy who ran the mile for...
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's Festival of America drew good crowds all day July 4 and filled the park below the Visitor Center at Grand Coulee Dam for the STCU-sponsored fireworks off the dam that night. Chamber Executive Director Nancy Zimmerman-Boord said more musical acts got people from all over interested in the festival as a music venue, and the addition of a beer garden kept people in the park. She said the plan will be considered and refined for next year. The second...
Seven years ago, Coulee Medical Center was in trouble. Financial challenges going back to 2012 combined with an administration publicly described by staff as "incompetent and hostile" had led to layoffs, unpaid bills, and high-profile provider resignations at the public hospital. In summer of 2017, the CEO hired to turn things around had resigned - after just one year on the job. To alarmed community members at the time, the hospital itself appeared to be in critical condition. It was then that...
The senior center lost approximately $70,000 this year to a contractor with a documented history of scamming clients in Washington, and it looks like the money is gone for good. The board president of the local 501(c)3 nonprofit organization reportedly wrote the check based on an unrealistic, unclear and over-valued contract with no specified end-date - an expense that, according to the senior center's own bylaws, should have gone before both the full board and the general membership for approva...
The Grand Coulee volunteer firefighters would like to remind everyone to be careful during the upcoming July 4th holiday and to be careful all summer during outside activities. Local firefighters are not alone in their concern. Agencies responsible for fighting fires statewide are issuing pleas for safety and advising people take in public displays instead of lighting off their own fireworks. "In 2023, fire incidents from fireworks resulted in more than $12 million of property damage in...
I’ve tried a number of times to milk cows. No luck. Rather, no milk. I was making my first trip down to southern Idaho to court my wife. It was a 550-mile overnight drive from Potlatch, Idaho, where I worked, to Buhl, Idaho, where my future wife Dorothy lived on a farm. I left at 5 p.m. and arrived at milking time. I was born on a farm and lived my first six years out in the country. Just one cow, and my dad did the milking. Anyhow, I was directed out to the barn where Dorothy and her brother Bob were in the process of milking 27 cows. I w...
Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu won’t let anything stop their abhorrent killing of innocent civilians. Putin justifies massacring Ukrainians by gross disinformation. Netanyahu justifies annihilating Palestinians by Hamas’s horrific October 7 attack which, of course, deserved strong response. Any chance of stopping the two will probably have to happen internally. Internal resistance to Adolf Hitler’s atrocities was exemplified by world-renown German Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who felt God’s calling to help assassinate Hitler. Author...
Oohs and aahs and lots of applause were audible at the end of last year's fireworks show put on by Rocketman Pyros, L.L.C. So the chamber of commerce brought them back again. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's main sponsor of the fireworks, STCU, merged in 2021 with the Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union and has been a reliable community partner ever since, helping the community to put on many events. It's hard to imagine a better, more iconic venue for the patriotic show than the top...
The Visitor Center Park in front of Grand Coulee Dam is a sprawling lawn just below an award-winning visitor information center that you can walk to learn more than you thought possible about the mile-wide concrete behemoth in front of you, but that might not mean much to your kids. That’s why the Festival of America organizers for the sponsoring Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce will have games and activities, including cool water features, literally, to keep kids entertained and not overheated. So, you might want your kids to go p...
A pillar of rock in front of Lake Roosevelt Schools memorializes the evolution of the community, now displaying plaques to recognize two more schools that went before. A dedication ceremony in front of Lake Roosevelt Schools June 22 unveiled plaques to memorialize the contributions and achievements of Mason City and Nespelem High Schools, which would later be consolidated into Coulee Dam High School. The first plaque on the basalt column, added in 2017, remembers the Grand Coulee Tigers, whose...
Grand Coulee officially has a new mayor. The council quickly voted Tuesday to install Ruth Dalton who, as the city's mayor pro tempore, had already assumed the duties of the office since Mike Eylar resigned in May. She was also the only candidate to apply. "I have lived and loved this community for the last 38 years and now I bring a special community interest to the table," Dalton wrote in the letter of interest she submitted earlier this month. She referenced a "varied career with experience...
It used to be that if you wanted to get the government’s help all you had to do was call U.S. Senators Warren Magnuson or Scoop Jackson. I did on numerous occasions, and they came through. A lawyer friend in Bothell had sponsored a Chinese couple and the man’s wife developed problems with her immigration status. She was born in Mainland China and fell under a different quota status. When my lawyer friend learned that I was going to be in Hong Kong, he asked me to check at the U.S. Consulate there and see what I could learn about her cur...
It was June 27, 1844, when a young man (aged 38) was running for president of the United States. His name was Joseph Smith, Jr. Many historians falsely attribute his slaying to his stance on plural marriage (polygamy). While that was a part of it, it was by no means the real causation. This was some 16 years before Abraham Lincoln’s platform. Smith had his own plan for buying the freedom of slaves. He advocated religious freedom, sound money in gold or silver, and the proper education of schoolchildren. Brigham Young and other apostles of t...