News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1292 - 1316 of 1383
Officials from Coulee Dam, Elmer City, Gray & Osborne, the Colville Tribes and Indian Health Services are meeting and moving toward some decisions on proposed wastewater treatment plant work that has been halted by controversy. Larry Holford, town council member at Elmer City, said he was pleased with the cooperative attitude of those attending a meeting last Tuesday. “We need to let the principals get their report together,” Holford stated this week. Holford said that Alex Dailey, an engineer from Indian Health Services, Frank Friedlander fro...
Jim Keene, retired school administrator, was named to the Grant County Port District 7 board of commissioners last Thursday. Keene replaces Jerry Birdwell who resigned last month. Keene will take over his duties when the board meets the last Thursday of April. Keene has been superintendent of schools in the Grand Coulee Dam School District, in Clarkston and in Pendleton before his retirement brought him and his wife back to Delano. Keene has also served as president of the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club and is active in a number of local groups....
Work on preparing the old Melody Restaurant for opening has been so extensive that the town of Coulee Dam has given the owner, Juan Moreno another month’s free rent in exchange for an extended contract. City officials pondered another problem at the restaurant site, which is owned by the town, in a 40-year-old, walk-in cooler and a same-age freezer. Public works director Barry Peacock told the council that each unit would cost the city $10,000 or more. Councilmember Bob Poch noted that probably neither unit was energy efficient and that parts t...
Wooden sculptures in Mason City Park will get their final touches as a result of action of the Coulee Dam Town Council last Wednesday night. The sculptures were made from the trunks of two trees that blew over in a wild wind storm last year. The evergreens provided shade for the play and picnic areas in the park. The council voted to let a contract to cut the sculptures loose, and prepare the area around them so they could be bracketed down permanently. The contractor will pour a concrete pad for each of the trees and place crushed rock around...
Coulee Dam may be in line for a grant that would replace all its street lights with energy saving systems. Public works director Barry Peacock told the town council last week that the town is entering phase two in a grant from the Transportation Improvement Board to replace some 300 town street lights with new energy efficient lights, including installation costs. Peacock said the new lights, if the grant progresses, will cut energy costs for the lights by 50 percent. He said the new fixtures cost about $400 each. He said the town was notified...
Two women proposing a licensed day care center on Grand Coulee’s Main Street found out why it is said “You can’t beat city hall,” but they’re not stopping their effort to start a daycare. Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley, who told council members that they wanted to start a “much needed” licensed day care center in the building at 227 Main Street, currently occupied by Button It graphic design, ran into a zoning problem and could only get a promise that the city would look into it. Under city zoning, a daycare center is not among allowed uses f...
The school board Monday night awarded its K-12 new school project to Walker Construction of Spokane. Walker’s bid of $22,765,200 bid was accepted over a second bid of $23,253,600, by Graham Construction, after all of the alternates were considered. Only the two firms bid on the project. A decision to extend the bidding process may have cost the district the ability to start school in the new buildings in the fall of 2014. Superintendent Dennis Carlson said this week that with a 530-day c...
Thirty-three candidates have filed for seven Colville Business Council positions up for election this year. In the Nespelem District Position 1 race, challenging incumbent Brian Nissen are Randy Laramie, Joaquin Marchand, Ricky Gabriel, Deb Louie and Myland Williams. Challenging incumbent Andrew C. Joseph, Jr., for Nespelem District Position 2, are John St. Pierre, Charlene BearCub, Enid T. Wippel and Jonnie Bray. Filing for Keller District Position 1, and challenging incumbent Darlene Zacherle are Sylvia Peasley, John Stensgar, Leroy Jerred,...
The Colville Business Council has voted to spend $40 million to build a new administration building on the Colville Indian Agency campus near Nespelem. The vote was taken March 7, with half the 14 tribal council members present as the resolution passed on a 6-1 vote. The resolution called for the council to borrow the $40 million from the tribes’ “50 percent sustainable fund” of what is called the Qwam Qwmpt Plan for uses of the funds remaining after distributing half of a $193 million federal settlement to tribal members. CBC members votin...
Science and math teacher Ralph Rise, of Lake Roosevelt High School, was recently selected as the recipient of the 2012-13 Science Champions: Science Education Advocate Award, presented by Washington State Leadership and Assistance for Science Reform (LASER), a program led by Pacific Science Center, Battelle and Pacific Northwest Laboratories (PNNL). Science Champions demonstrate passion for advancing science education in innovative ways. Each year, with support from The Boeing Company, Washington State LASER recognizes five individuals, teams o...
The Grand Coulee City Council Tuesday night awarded a contract to repair sheet rock damage at the city’s fire station. The council awarded the bid to DWK Fowler Construction for $7,391.15. The repair work is for the 35-foot by 90-foot meeting room at the fire station on Spokane Way. Fire Chief Rick Paris said the work will begin early in April. Paris said the damage was due to a roof leak several years ago when a heavy snowpack on the roof caused a leak. Paris told council members that he only received one bid on the project...
Elmer City Mayor Mary Jo Carey stated that the disagreement between Coulee Dam and Elmer City on the proposed wastewater treatment plant was like a “family feud.” Carey made that statement last Wednesday night at the end of the Coulee Dam Town Council meeting. She added that both towns want the same thing and it was time for them to wind down the rhetoric and work together. The two towns have been locked in a disagreement about the best way to address the aging wastewater treatment plant that treats sewage for both towns. The meeting sta...
The hull of Washington state’s newest and smallest ferry, the Sanpoil, arrived in Grand Coulee last Wednesday, and Foss Maritime officials said it is due to launch sometime in late June or July. The 116-foot hull made its five-day overland trip from Rainier, Ore., to its assembly point at Crescent Bay, without incident, officials stated. But it was a bit hairy when the truck assembly cleared a tunnel by a couple of feet and just made it under one bridge by several inches. The 300,000-pound h...
Electric City is looking to get rid of some of its “butt ugly trees.” The moonglow junipers that the city put in several years ago, at a cost of about $60,000, has current city council members steaming. Some 190 junipers were planted on either side of SR-155 as it makes its way through Electric City, wiping out parking spaces and eventually growing so tall and bushy that they obstruct the view of motorists entering the highway from the side streets. An item on the internet states that the trees can grow up to 20 feet high and 15 feet wide. Coun...
Interest in filings for the seven Colville Business Council openings has been brisk, election officials stated Monday. As of Monday, 23 interested parties had picked up applications at the election office at the Colville Indian Agency campus. The seven positions and those who occupy them are: Luana Boyd Rawley, Inchelium Position 1; Richard A. Swan, Jr., Inchelium Position 2; Darlene Zacherle, Keller Position 1; Brian Nissen, Nespelem District Position 1; Andy Joseph, Jr., Nespelem Position 2; Ernestina Brook, Omak Position 1 and Ben E....
If residents on the farm acreage in Electric City pushed the dog allowance to the maximum, some could have 22 dogs, Mayor Jerry Sands told members of the council at their last meeting. Councilmember Brad Parrish had asked if the “chicken rule” of six chickens per resident applied to them; Sands said no. Because the farm area is zoned differently, those residents are allowed up to 15 chickens per 5,000 square feet. When he answered a council question on dogs being on the roadway challenging people as they walked by, Sands explained that the sam...
So you always wanted to hold public office. Here’s your opportunity, as a host of city council, school board, hospital and port district offices will be up for grabs this year. Four mayor positions are up for election this year. Those mayorships currently held by mayors Jerry Sands of Electric City, Quincy Snow of Coulee Dam, Mary Jo Carey of Elmer City and Michael Blake of Nespelem are all up this year, all four-year terms. Council openings in Electric City and their terms include seats currently held by Bob Rupe (4 years), John Nordine (...
Two general contractors, both from Spokane, were the only firms to submit bids on the K-12 new school facility here. Bids were opened at 4 p.m. Tuesday by Cameron Golightly, architect with Design West of Pullman. Walker Construction’s base bid was $22,942,000. The second bidder was Graham Construction, which submitted a bid of $23,185,000. Both construction firms submitted a host of alternate bids, 11 in all. Golightly said that his architectural firm, along with other officials, will study the bids and alternative bids to determine who will ge...
You will soon be able to slaughter chickens in Electric City, legally, as a result of action taken by the city council Tuesday night. It takes five days for the ordinance amendment to take effect. The action amends the city’s “chicken” ordinance that passed last month and stated that you couldn’t legally slaughter chickens within the city limits. So residents who already have chickens, or move forward on having up to six hens, can, if they so desire, slaughter a chicken for Sunday dinner. The chicken ordinance stirred up a few folks in the cit...
The Regional Board of Mayors quickly reversed themselves Monday and went back to monthly meetings when it was pointed out that they had acted illegally the month before. In February, the mayors had voted to change their meetings from once a month to once every two months. This week they voted to return to monthly meetings until they get the change right. Coulee Dam Town Clerk Carol Visker pointed out that before the mayors can change their meeting dates, they must go to their councils for approval and then amend their agreement on meetings. So...
A “stakeholder” group met Tuesday to try to put the finishing touches on the script for the all- new laser light show. The schedule for the inaugural show now has slipped to mid-summer, Bureau of Reclamation Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said Monday. She stated that most of the programming for the laser portion of the show can’t be done until the final script is settled. Originally it had been hoped that the showing of the new laser show could start during the Memorial Day holiday at the end of May. And area promoters had hoped that...
A payroll clerk at Coulee Medical Center ran into a problem when the bank associated with the hospital’s payroll account would not let her into the account. The bank, according to a written Grand Coulee Police report, told the payroll clerk that the account had been entered illegally and $4,980 had been removed. The money went to an account at another bank and routing numbers and the person with the account had given his name. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident and the payroll bank stated that it would make the f...
The 56-foot center section of the new Keller ferry will arrive in Grand Coulee sometime Wednesday or early Thursday morning this week, workers at the Crescent Bay assembly site said Tuesday. The 20,000-pound section of the all-aluminum boat was placed on a truck trailer late last week for the long and arduous trip from the Foss Maritime boat yard in Rainier, Ore., to the newly constructed assembly location. Foss workers have been assembling a cocoon-like building where the three pieces of the...
Gray & Osborne engineers outlined ways for Coulee Dam and Elmer City to get their monthly sewer rates down in a letter to Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow that was distributed after the last city council meeting. Coulee Dam residents currently pay $59 a month for sewer service and Elmer City pays $35 a month. Both towns will need to up their rates to pay a $4.92 million loan for the wastewater treatment plant. Engineer Jeff Stevens, in his letter, outlined a plan in which the town of Coulee Dam would change its current funding source from the...
A rehash of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant project dominated the town’s regular council meeting last Wednesday night. Gray & Osborne engineers Jeff Stevens and John Wilson took the council and about 15 people who attended the meeting down memory lane, explaining the time frame and processes used to get the project where it is today. Just where it is, is a question that’s not easily answered. Gray & Osborne has been called off the design phase for three months while the town attempts to go through a “value engineering” process to help d...