News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Residents along McNett Avenue could have a Mammoth in their backyard, and residents along Grand Avenue could have a Mastodon in theirs. Those are among the names suggested for two proposed parks in Electric City. Residents in the city will get a chance to name their parks in a citywide vote sometime in 2018. The city’s parks advisory committee, made up of Cindy Greely, Clark Perman, Lonna Bussert, Ben Palma and Brad Parrish, have come up with three name choices for each park. For the McNett Avenue park, they narrowed the names to Fossil River,...
Several doors need to be replaced in the old portion of Lake Roosevelt High School, Superintendent Paul Turner told the Grand Coulee Dam School District board Monday night. The board finally agreed to replace three double doors and one single door, at a cost of about $12,000. That still leaves seven more doors on the old high school wing that need to be replaced, Turner said. “Those doors have served our school since the late 1940s,” Turner said. The district had sought a bid to replace all the doors that needed to be replaced, but it came in...
School buses passed a surprise state inspection recently, school mechanic Levi Seylor advised the school board Monday night. Normally, Seylor told the board, inspections are made in the summer months. This time the district buses got a surprise inspection and passed it with only some minor problems, Seylor stated in his report to the board. The surprise inspection was of 25 percent of the district’s bus fleet. If a bus fails to pass inspection it is immediately taken out of commission. Seylor went on to report that he has passed his G1 c...
The city of Grand Coulee passed an “emergency” moratorium on the location of mini-storage units at a specially called meeting last Thursday night. The special city council meeting was triggered by a person from out of town who wanted to pursue the establishment of mini-storage units in the building that was occupied by the Variety Store until it closed this fall. The ordinance stated that to allow storage units in the Variety Store building would “hinder the location of other revenue generating commercial businesses and be detrimental to the a...
Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School is one of seven schools in Educational Service District 171 to be named a “School of Distinction.” The 2017 award was posted in November, and high school Principal Mark Herndon outlined the award at the school district’s last board meeting. The other schools from ESD 171 are Brewster High School, Brewster Middle School, Grant Elementary from East Wenatchee, Moses Lake High School, Oroville Middle School, and Valley Academy of Learning in Wenatchee. “We are so proud of our schools and their comprehensive...
There was some good news and “black ink” noted as Grant County Port District 7 commissioners reviewed the past season’s activity at Banks Lake Golf Course. The port district operates the 18-hole golf course and this is the second year in a row that the course has operated “in the black.” Commission President James Keene was quick to point out that the successful operation of the golf course still hinges on the amount of volunteer help provided. Off and on, the three commissioners have had regular duties at the course to avoid paid help and to m...
A proposed sale of Center School fell through Monday night. The school district had prepared a sales contract, and just after Superintendent Paul Turner explained the details of the sales agreement to the Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors, the prospective buyer backed out. Elijah Kleimenov, owner of Kleim Construction in Moses Lake, Wash., had expressed reservations to The Star earlier in the day. He told the board that he wasn’t ready to commit to the sale. Kleimenov stated that his numbers showed that it would cost him a...
The school board Monday night appeared surprised that many of the school staff and the general public see discipline, or the lack of it, as the number-one issue in the district. The near six-hour meeting, which ended just short of midnight, had barely begun when Chair Joette Barry opened it up for the traditional time when individuals can address the board. And did they ever. For the next two hours, members of the Grand Coulee Dam School District staff and general public told story after story...
About 40 members of the Public Service Employees union attended Monday night’s Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting to support its officers as they expressed concerns with discipline problems within the district. Many wore specially produced T-shirts signifying support of efforts to get the board’s attention. Addressing the board were union President Aaron Derr and Vice-President Jesse Utz. Derr, in a prepared statement, said union members were coming to the board “as a last hope.” “The union is not happy with the direction that we s...
Electric City has moved into “phase 2” of its new parks program. This phase centers on the McNett Avenue park behind the city’s fire hall. Robert S. Droll, landscape architect who won the bid to do the work, will assist City Clerk Russell Powers in developing a grant application to the Washington State Recreation Conservation Office (RCO) to seek funding for half the cost of the McNett project. The projected cost of developing the McNett park is $731,300. The city will seek half of this cost, then would add its 50-percent match by reaching into...
An Electric City woman was ordered by Grant County Superior Court Monday to repay nearly $139,000, for unauthorized personal payments to herself while a clerk for Grant County Mosquito Control District 2. The repayment is to be made to Enduris Insurance, which had already repaid the Mosquito District for its losses. Karyn M. Byam, 42, entered an Alford plea to theft in the first degree in March 2017, with a restitution hearing scheduled within six months. That hearing was held Monday, and the court ordered full restitution of $138,810,...
Electric City has received word that it was awarded a $735,000 grant for major street repair. The grant requires a 5-percent match of nearly $37,000. City Clerk Russell Powers said the state Transportation Improvement Board grant will enable the city to put in new streets, curbs and sidewalks that will connect the city’s two new proposed park sites. The work “is planned for 2018,” Powers stated, as soon as bid specifications and engineering can be finished. The grant will provide funds for curbs, sidewalks and new streets on Grand Avenu...
Larry Price, in the process of planning his term as mayor of Coulee Dam, emphasizes the need to bring people together. “People in the town have been battling each other, and we need to come together,” Price stated in an interview last week. Not only that, but people see two separate towns: one, the engineers town, and the other, the part that is on the reservation. “After all, it’s just a bridge,” Price said. Instead of the bridge separating the two distinct parts of town, he says, “the bridge also brings us together.” He sees shorter counc...
Classes will be held soon to develop badly needed emergency medical responders to bolster ambulance services. The Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department has scheduled an informational meeting for 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 4, at the fire station on Spokane Way. Fire Chief Rick Paris stated, "We are looking for individuals from the area to become Washington State-certified Emergency Medical Responders by completing 60 hours of special training." Interested parties should attend the Dec. 4 meeting to...
There is a facility in Moses Lake that receives dogs, cats and other animals, as well as non-game birds, when people don’t know what to do with them. Camron Derting, administrator for Grant County Animal Outreach, appeared before the Grand Coulee City Council last month to let people on this end of Grant County know of their services and willingness to help people who have animal problems. If you have an animal (pretty much any animal) that you want to get help for, the Moses Lake facility is there to help, Derting pointed out. “We would lik...
The Regional Board of Mayors will purchase its new transfer trailer next year through BuyBoard, a national purchasing cooperative, officials stated Nov. 13. The 2018 budget, that has been approved by all four towns and cities in consortium headed by the RBOM, had set aside $90,000 for the purchase of the new transfer trailer, making the trailer the third at the transfer site. Electric City Clerk Russell Powers, who does the financial reports for the four mayors, said Monday afternoon that the difference between the $90,000 budget projection...
There has been a rash of car prowls in the Grand Coulee area. In a three-day period, Nov. 7-10, nine prowls were reported and investigated by police. In every incident, owners of the vehicles had left them unlocked; one had even left the keys in the ignition. All reported that someone had ransacked their vehicles, going through whatever was inside and leaving things in a mess. On Nov. 7, two prowls were reported on Banks Avenue. In each case the guilty party got some loose change and a few odds and ends. Also on Nov. 7, prowls were reported on...
Better get your rakes out, pick up your leaves and other garden waste, and bag them; you only have through Saturday to take advantage of free dumping privileges at the Delano Regional Transfer Station. You must reside within areas served by Sunrise Disposal to get the free dumping privilege. Remember to bag your garden materials (nothing else) and tie your loads down. Limbs must the cut to under six feet to be accepted. The Transfer Station will be open this week during the following hours: Thursday and Friday, 10-2, and Saturday,...
Politics in Coulee Dam have changed dramatically as a result of the Nov. 7 election. Town residents elected a newcomer in politics as its mayor, and also two newcomers to the council. According to results updated since the election, Larry Price garnered 73.56 percent of the votes in his bid for mayor, defeating Gayle Swagerty, who received 26.44 percent, 192-69. Swagerty gave up her council seat to run for the mayor’s seat being vacated by Greg Wilder, who chose not to run again. In council races, incumbent David Schmidt lost his Position 1 sea...
The Electric City council declared a dog owned by Krayton Duclos as “potentially dangerous” at its meeting Tuesday night. The complaint was filed by a neighbor, Gary Martin, who resides next to Duclos on Gerard Street. Martin told police that Duclos’ dog, named “Volt,” had repeatedly tried to attack and bite him while he was riding his bike. He stated that he had to get off his bike and put it between himself and the dog to avoid getting bit. Both Duclos and Martin attended the meeting, and the Volt also was present. Martin stated that this...
The free Thanksgiving dinner tonight (Wednesday, Nov. 15) at the Senior Center filled up quickly to its capacity of 110 guests, officials said Tuesday. Counting guests who pick up their meals and those that are delivered, the total being fed at 5 p.m. tonight could run as high as 135. The Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center was still taking calls for people to put their names on a reserve list in case people canceled. That number is 633-2321. The Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union has been paying the expenses of the free Thanksgiving dinner for the...
Now, 95 years young, World War II veteran Fred Long walks with a slight stoop and uses a cane, but his health is fine and his power of recollection is keen. Long, who has lived in the Grand Coulee Dam area for 25 years, was born in Oroville, and moved to the Renton area when very young. He joined the National Guard in 1940, before the war broke out, was assigned to the quartermaster corps and learned how to drive truck (they were 1936 Chevys), Fred said. After a number of stateside postings, he...
Upsets in the town of Coulee Dam were the order of the day as ballots were counted Tuesday for mayor and three council positions. Newcomer Larry Price won decisively over Councilmember Gayle Swagerty in the town’s mayoral race. Price collected 116 votes to Swagerty’s 34 as of 9:20 p.m. Another upset at Coulee Dam saw newcomer Fred Netzel defeating incumbent Councilmember David Schmidt, who was running for another Position-1 four-year term. Netzel received 101 votes to Schmidt’s 50. In the council race for the Position 3, another new face won a...
Grand Coulee council gave Dorothy Harris another 90 days to get the number of dogs she has down to two. Harris and her sister-in-law, Doneen Harris, had been operating a dog rescue on Young Street and had worn out their options before both the city’s planning commission and the council. The council gave Harris 90 days to find homes for her dogs. That 90 days would have expired in mid-November. She had been told by council that if she needed more time she would have to come to the council and ask for it. She did last Tuesday night, and her r...
Is Grand Coulee goat friendly? We may find out. Officials in Grand Coulee may have to look at their animal ordinance and add goats. Councilmember Tammara Byers told her colleagues that she had been approached several times by people who would like to have one of those pet pygmy goats. Actually, goat people say that you need to have two since goats are herd animals and need the company. The little goats, pets in many cities, are playful, can also be destructive and at times can be very loud, according to information on pet goats on the...