News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The Grand Coulee Dam School District has two new bus drivers. And they need more. Joining the drivers recently were Joan Gross and Chris Wonch. They had completed a comprehensive training schedule and were both on routes last Tuesday. Gross had a route in Electric City and Wonch was subbing for another driver. Both were trained by Transportation Supervisor Stephanie Duclos. "We need more drivers," Duclos said last week. She would welcome anyone interested to get in touch with her at the...
Lake Roosevelt High School seniors are planning on a little salt water fun when they take their annual trip, June 1-3. Advisors Tammy Norris and Aaron Derr, and seniors Aidan Derr, Bradley Wilder and Rylee Pitner, presented their plan to the school board Monday night. So far, some 20 seniors, out of a class of 43, have signed up for the trip that will take them by train from Spokane to Portland, then by bus to Astoria, where they will prowl the Oregon Coast for a couple of days before their return, using both the bus and train back to Spokane....
A Lakeview Avenue couple in Electric City attended the council meeting last Tuesday to protest the proposed establishment of a short-term vacation rental area. David and Nancy Brown, who live at 19 Lakeview Avenue, responded to a neighbor who has been renting out his home next to them for periods ranging in length from one day to longer terms. Speaking to the council, Nancy Brown said the experience has been a nightmare with a number of issues, including unruly behavior, excessive noise, unsafe activity, traffic problems, trespassing, and fear...
Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner had an opportunity to give state Senate lawmakers a touch of reality Jan. 9, after being invited to talk about discipline in schools. He was one of three superintendents that the Senate Education Committee invited to Olympia to tell what was going on in their school districts. Spokane and Battleground school districts were also invited. The invitation from the senators said not to bring up funding because that was not the purpose of the meeting. Turner was quick to challenge this....
Elmer City has a new town council member. Jesus Lopez was sworn in at the town’s last council meeting, Jan. 11, after telling the council that he would like to make a contribution to the town and see it grow. He came to the area from California about a dozen years ago and started up his construction business at that time. He told the council that he was interested in serving on the town’s governing body. Lopez is a general contractor and now serves on the town’s volunteer fire department. He replaces Larry Holford, who decided to retire from...
Residents of Electric City have let it be known how they wanted two proposed city parks to be named. City dwellers who came into the office to pay their utility bill were given an opportunity to cast their vote for the naming of the two parks last month. They voted for “Ice Age Park” for the development on McNett Avenue and for “Talus Park” at the Grand Avenue site. The names and votes received for the McNett park were: Ice Age, 26 votes; Fossil River, 22; and Mammoth, 18 votes. Votes for the Grand Avenue site names were: Talus, 28; Mammoth...
Superintendent Paul Turner was in Olympia Tuesday to address the Washington State Senate Education Committee on discipline in the Lake Roosevelt School District. Turner was one of several superintendents in the state invited to address the senate members. It was a unique opportunity for Turner to tell the district’s story and concerns that have dominated the local school scene in recent months. The senate committee was quick to point out that they were seeking information only, and that the appearance of the superintendents was not to be t...
The mayors of Coulee Dam and Elmer City plan to meet next Tuesday to discuss the eventual hookup of the Elmer City sewer system to Coulee Dam’s new plant and the discrepancy in several billing invoices. Elmer City has outlined how it can solve the need to pump sewage some 20-feet higher than it currently does, as a short term solution to the problem. The town indicated recently that it could put in two new pumps as a temporary step in meeting the date of the opening of the new Coulee Dam plant, now estimated at late summer. The cost of the two...
Those of you who are still wondering where the big sculpted wood fish has gone, just be patient, it might soon be back. You will recall the big blow back in July 2012, when one of the region’s fiercest wind storms toppled a couple of evergreen trees in Mason City Park. The freak storm became an opportunity to create artwork for the town (now a city) as then-mayor Quincy Snow, himself an artist, convinced the council it would be a great idea to use some hotel/motel money and have someone carve figures on the two remaining stumps. Snow had s...
A turkey problem in Electric City is more complicated that it seems. The council had invited wildlife agent Eric Braaten to its meeting Tuesday night to talk about wild turkeys and what the city could do about their ever-expanding numbers. If council members expected that Braaten represented some kind of Pied Piper that would lead the turkeys out of town, they were disappointed. Braaten lives in the city, on acreage, and often has them on his property. He explained that there was little the city can do about the growing number of turkeys, a...
A Sammamish couple, and their daughter from Electric City, continue to face barriers as they try to locate a new variety store in the area. Doug and Mary Lou Lockard, and daughter, Launi Ritter, have a variety store on the ready, but no location. The Lockards have tried to lease the building the Variety Store occupied before it closed out late last fall. However, according to Lockard, owners Bill and Stacia Mattson only want to sell the building, at $349,000, not lease it. A realtor handling the property, Chad Blevins, confirmed this Tuesday....
A search for a location for a new variety store is currently underway, and with everything else in place, principals in the business are hopeful for an opening sometime in February. Negotiations are currently stalled on a lease of the Midway Avenue building that until last fall housed The Variety Store, but Launi Ritter said she is also looking for another suitable location for the business. The principal investors would be her parents, Douglas and Mary Lou Lockard, of Sammamish, Washington. Ritter said they are interested in leasing space are...
The city of Grand Coulee may soon destroy an old museum on Spokane Way that once displayed the remnants of its owner's most radical invention - a car powered with a different kind of propulsion. The colorful old Constantinos Vlachos building has been declared a "dangerous" building by city building inspector Gary Lampella, and the matter is slowly working its way through the council. There are a lot of memories from the 1930s, '40s and '50s in regard to the old building. It housed a collection...
A Grand Coulee man ended up in Grant County jail after a police search for missing Christmas cookies and other items led them to him Saturday. Arrested and jailed was Jeffrey Muellner, 56. The cookies, various decoration and more had been put in the kitchen area of St. Henry's Catholic Church, where the Coulee Community Choir was set to hold its annual concert on Sunday. Choir practice ended about 9 p.m. the previous evening and everything was OK at that time, but when volunteers came to the chu...
Electric City is considering changing its Comprehensive Plan to allow “vacation rentals.” Terry and Debra Ann Jensen, who own a residence at 9 Lakeview Avenue, requested the change. The city council indicated the city would move forward on the request to amend the Comprehensive Plan, plus a rezone, to accomplish the change. City Clerk Russell Powers stated that the city might be able to accomplish the change by as early as February next year. The city would have to hold two public hearings on the change before it could be adopted. Powers sta...
School board member Richard Black responded at the last school board meeting, Dec. 11, to discipline issues within the school district. Black had held several positions within the Grand Coulee Dam School District prior to taking a seat on the board, including acting assistant principal and athletic director, and feels he knows the dynamic of the schools from being an active participant for a number of years. He addressed about 30 people in the audience, visitors, and staff members. “You are being heard,” Black assured the audience. He said it i...
Electric City and the chamber of commerce are still at odds over $2,700 worth of invoices that remain unpaid. The city and the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce had signed an agreement early this year wherein the city would provide money from its hotel/motel fund to support certain functions the chamber agreed upon. At its last meeting, Ben Hughes, from the chamber’s board of directors, sought a reason from the city council as to why $700 worth of invoices for advertisements and a $2,000 invoice for the “fun zone” support, relating to C...
Elmer City’s proposed trail system will go out for bid Jan. 10, public works director “Jimmer” Tillman advised the town council last Thursday night. The 2,100-foot trail, financed by a grant from the state Transportation Improvement Board, will connect Elmer City residents to the Downriver Trail system at two locations. Tillman stated that bids will be opened Jan. 24, with the work done sometime in the spring. The TIB grant of $250,000 will pay for engineer work and the actual construction of an 8-foot-wide paved trail from Third Street to tw...
Grant County Health District issued an alert for an influenza outbreak in the county Friday. Health officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny said in the release that everyone six months old and older should immediately get a flu shot. “Be aware of increasing influenza and influenza-like illnesses in Grant County and Washington state,” Brzezny stated. The county has been receiving many influenza A and B cases in the past few weeks. There have been five influenza-related deaths in the state already this season, the report stated. Coulee Medical Center rep...
Superintendent Paul Turner responded to staff concerns on discipline issues at Monday night’s Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting. Turner told the board, and about 25 staff members who were present, that he has had “time to reflect on the outpouring of discipline issues raised by a large number of Public Service Employees (PSE) that appeared in November.” Turner stated that what he heard from parents at that meeting was: - There needs to be better communication by district officials; - there are questions of how officials apply...
A party who was interested in purchasing the Center School property, but walked away from signing a sales agreement at the last school board meeting, said Monday that he is still interested. “It all has to do with the price,” Elijah Kleimenov stated. The Grand Coulee Dam School District had drawn up a sales agreement for $150,000, the amount that the school has in the property, but the deal fell through at an earlier meeting. At the time Kleimenov said that he “wasn’t ready to make the deal.” Monday he said that the school district needed to...
Carol Nordine was installed as a member of the Electric City council at its monthly meeting Tuesday night. She takes the place of Jeremy Miller, who resigned his position recently, and who stated he plans to build a home outside the city limits. He had replaced Brad Parrish, who resigned when his wife, Diana, took a position as deputy clerk in the city. Nordine, who is the mother of John Nordine II, the mayor of the city, had served on the council on one other occasion when she was selected to fill out an unexpired term. Nordine had run for...
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...