News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1181 - 1205 of 1383
Challenger Greg Wilder garnered 67 percent of the primary vote ended Tuesday night to place himself solidly in the general election race against Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow. A third candidate, Shawn Derrick, placed third with 17 votes. Wilder picked up 160 primary votes to Snow’s 61. “I think the people sent a clear message,” Wilder said Tuesday night after the returns came in. The final count will be made on Friday, allowing time for ballots mailed at the last minute, Okanogan County election officials stated. A total of 238 ballots had b... Full story
The school board will meet tonight (Wednesday) in an informal setting with members getting a look at how the district’s energy grant was spent, and then given a walk-through of the new K-12 school site. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and members of the board will meet at the Lake Roosevelt High School Industrial Arts Building. The meeting, officials said, will last about an hour and the public is invited to attend. The energy grant, just under a half million dollars, enables the district to upgrad... Full story
The Galaxy Smoke Shop has been broken into again. An employee, Jesus Lopez, said that he noticed the door ajar when he reported to work at 9:45 a.m., Sunday. Lopez reported that the door had been damaged around the deadbolt, and the door pushed in to gain entry. The shop was also burglarized July 18, and a 26-year-old, Michael Stead, was arrested after that break-in. When officers entered the building Sunday, they noticed that packs of cigarettes had been scattered all over. Some $80 in cash that had been lying under the cash register in plain... Full story
The Sanpoil, the new Keller Ferry, will be christened in special ceremonies Aug. 14, at the south shore terminal, officials reported. Ceremonies will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., after which the Sanpoil will go into service, replacing the Martha S. The $12 million 20-car ferry was built in pieces by Foss Maritime at its Rainier, Ore., plant and trucked to Grand Coulee for assembly at a special location at Crescent Bay. Monday the Sanpoil was out on Lake Roosevelt going through tests conducted for... Full story
The state’s Transportation Improvement Board came to town and Grand Coulee’s city council liked what they heard at their meeting Tuesday night. Executive Director Stevan Gorcester told the council that the TIB would be interested in assisting the city repair or replace sidewalks on Main Street and on Federal Avenue at a cost far beyond what a present grant is for. The TIB had okayed a sidewalk on Spokane Way, but when members found out that Center School was moving, the project was nixed. The city hurried and came up with a project to imp... Full story
A late night fire last Wednesday destroyed a home at 1131 Tilmus Street in Coulee Dam. The house was occupied by Gloria Simpson, and firefighters said that there were no injuries. The blaze was reported at 10:30 p.m., with fire units responding from Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, the Bureau of Reclamation and Elmer City. Grand Coulee Fire Chief Richard Paris said that one room in the house was left pretty much intact, but the rest of the residence was lost. “It appears that 90 percent of the structure is gone,” Paris said. Investigation of the bla... Full story
The seniors are getting mobile. The Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center’s new once-a-month program of going to Spokane to shop has been successful and they are already planning trips to theater productions this fall and winter. The seniors recently were given a 14-passenger bus by People For People, and the donation was barely in their possession before they took their first trip. Seniors now go to Northtown Mall the third Friday of each month, hauling passengers for $15 per person. There were 11 o... Full story
Get ready for the community’s first Harvest Festival, Sept. 14, 15. It will be a family affair with games for both the kids and adults. A similar, but less ambitious, event happened last October. Sponsored by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, the two-day event will feature a barbecue competition cook-off with connections to the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association. There’s a prize purse of $2,500, and those participating will have a cook off of pork, brisket, ribs and chicken. A second competition is a pie baking contest, wit... Full story
Mike Mooney is a magician of sorts. Not the sleight of hand kind, but the type that takes a pile of material and makes something beautiful out of it. Mike builds cars, the custom and hot rod type. His cars are eye stoppers. The attention to detail … the paint … the upholstery … the chopping and fitting. Mike was named to the Street Rod Hall of Fame in 2010. It wasn’t entirely because of the cars he builds, but also because of the help he provides to other people. Then in June, Mooney took th... Full story
A Quincy farmer, who had offered a $2,500 reward for information that would help him recover his stolen truck and trailer, could pick up his own reward after spotting them just outside Grand Coulee. Kevin Weber, of Weber Farms in Quincy, a pilot, flew around the countryside Saturday in his private plane, trying to find his truck and trailer, which had been stolen sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. He spotted them near Grand Coulee in Lincoln County and alerted the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. Lincoln County deputies, a... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board passed its 2013-14 budget Monday night after a public hearing on the matter. No one showed up to question the $9.5 million budget. The new budget exceeds the one for the 2012-13 school year by more than a million dollars. Superintendent Dennis Carlson said the increased revenue comes largely from the way the state is funding education. The state Legislature has responded to the Washington State Supreme Court’s ruling that Washington is underfunding education and will pay districts about $7,000 per s... Full story
A Nespelem man was arrested and booked into Okanogan County Jail Monday after being identified as the person who broke into the Galaxy Smoke Shop last Thursday. Police stated that Michael Stead, 26, was identified through security cameras on site. After Stead was identified, police learned through a phone tip that the suspect was at a trailer residence in Elmer City. Police found Stead there, standing out in the yard with a piece of foil in his hand. He later told police he used the foil to smoke a pain pill. An employee said that she thought e... Full story
Dan Foster, the new superintendent of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, is learning how to do more with less. And it may be only an omen of things to come. He told chamber of commerce members last Thursday that he is operating with 6 percent fewer resources than what were available the year before, and if the sequester problem at the national level isn’t solved, the next year it could climb to 12-13 percent. Foster said adjustments this season have included such things as mowing l... Full story
Jerry Beierman, a Grand Coulee resident known for raising record-sized veggies, thinks someone doused several of his plants with some kind of poison, he reported to police Saturday. On Monday, Beierman said that three tomato plants, two bean plants and one cucumber plant were killed, along with an area of his lawn. He also said another plant had died, he thought from a separate incident. Beierman said he was concerned that others might suffer the same type of vandalism, and he was afraid that someone might still eat vegetables from poisoned pla... Full story
The story of a puppy that was taken by some people from Poulsbo had a happy ending. A man reported to police that while he was in Safeway shopping, someone took his little white female Husky pup named “Sage.” A review of a security tape showed that the dog jumped out of the back of a vehicle and went underneath it. Two people coaxed it out, and then took it. An Electric City woman reported that she saw the people earlier in the day at the veterinarian’s office. After reviewing the tape, the officer stated in his report that he had seen the c... Full story
The new Keller ferry, the Sanpoil, was launched at about 8:40 a.m. last Thursday at Crescent Bay. The new ferry, after final fitting and testing, will replace the old Martha S Ferry which was taken out of service July 8. The Sanpoil’s hull arrived by truck March 18, and Foss Maritime workers have been assembling the vessel until last week. Scores of onlookers crowded the parking areas near the overlook area just above Grand Coulee Dam and above the assembly area to watch the slow moving p... Full story
Ballots go out this Friday to begin an 18-day primary election period. Mail in ballots must be postmarked by Aug. 6, the final primary election day, to be counted. Coulee Dam’s mayor position is center stage with three candidates vying for the town’s top position. The primary election will pare the candidates to the two top vote getters, who will face off in the November general election. Incumbent Quincy Snow goes after his fifth four-year term as mayor. He is being challenged by community act... Full story
The Department of Health has ordered Electric City to shut its arsenic treatment plant down. A letter written by the DOH will go out to water customers in Electric City today (Wednesday) advising residents that the plant is being shut down while city officials fine tune the plant in an effort to get a handle on the brown water that some receive from their taps. The city shut the arsenic treatment plant down July 10, and water from the wells will bypass the plant for the immediate future. This means that water customers will be drinking the... Full story
A Coulee Dam woman who feels that when people eat fried chicken together they have a tendency to get along better, plans a joint Coulee Dam-Elmer City picnic in August. Gloria (Glo) Carroll, a Coulee Dam resident who lives on Stevens Street, has appeared before both Coulee Dam and Elmer City councils, inviting them and their towns to a picnic at 11 a.m., Aug. 24, in Coulee Dam’s Douglas Park, with games to follow in Cole Park. Carroll has been attending Coulee Dam council meetings and was struck by friction between Coulee Dam and officials f... Full story
An Electric City man was arrested by Grand Coulee police Sunday and, according to Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee, is being charged with rape in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment, interfering with the report of domestic violence and obstructing justice. The charges against Michael Berry, 29, of Washington Place, were made after a preliminary hearing Tuesday. Lee said Tuesday afternoon a judge had found there was probable cause on all four counts and Berry remained in jail with bail set at $75,000. An arraignment is scheduled for July... Full story
Fleeing suspects in an Ephrata burglary literally drove the tires off their car after Grand Coulee police put down spike strips to deflate the tires Friday night. Grand Coulee police deployed the spike strips at the north edge of Coulee Dam about 11:30 p.m., to stop the speeding car coming into the area from Omak with Omak police in pursuit. The vehicle had been going up to 90 mph through the Colville Indian Reservation and police reports stated it later traveled some 50 mph through Grand Coulee and Electric City. The silver 2005 Toyota lost... Full story
The debut of the all new Laser Light Show, which had been scheduled for Aug. 8, will now occur next year, officials at the Bureau of Reclamation said this week. A group of stakeholders from the area, who are working with the company preparing the new show, said after a preliminary viewing that the show needed work. Accordingly, bureau Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said it was decided to move the new show to next season. LumaLaser, a company out of Gresham, Ore., which has the $1.6 million contract, has been working with the stakeholder... Full story
A member of the state Transportation Improvement Board will be in Grand Coulee Aug. 6, to meet with the city council. The city has a $215,000 grant and has been asked by the TIB to come up with a comprehensive plan on how they would use it. The grant was first given to the city to build sidewalks on Spokane Way, but that was before officials realized that sidewalks to Center School probably were not necessary because the school will be closing in the fall of 2014, when students move into their new school in Coulee Dam. Then the city quickly... Full story
Grant County Port District 7 will receive funding for a new truck with snow plow provisions and a steel building to house it in. Commissioner Jim Keene reported how the Federal Aviation Administration grant is funding most of the of $293,185 project. The grant will pay 90 percent of the cost of the truck and snow removal equipment, $122,785; with the Washington State Department of Transportation (Aviation) paying 5 percent of the balance, leaving a 5-percent balance of $6,822. The grant will pay 90 percent of the building cost of $101,347... Full story
Grand Coulee police arrested an Electric City man Monday afternoon when he tried to prevent workers from dismantling his burned-out house. Police arrested Michael Lowry, who had ordered the two workers, Timothy Powell and Patrick Peterson, off his property at 214 2nd Street. Lowry told the two they were trespassing, and according to Powell, he was told that he would be shot if he continued demolishing the building. Lowry’s home burned June 4, and Powell told police that he and his partner had been contracted by Fenix Restoration to demolish t... Full story