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 Village Cinema in Coulee Dam is history. Its fate was settled last Wednesday night by mutual consent of the town council and the cinema operator, Lynette Zierden and her family. She asked for relief from her lease with the town and explained that she would make arrangements to pay off any debt owed the town of Coulee Dam. The town council quickly OK’d the request, recognizing that it was a sign of the times. The need to convert the theater’s present film projection equipment to digital was more than Zierden could afford. The theater was... Full story
It’s a big week in the coulee. Local residents and visitors will be treated to the 56th Annual Colorama Festival celebration, beginning Thursday with the opening of the carnival and ending Saturday evening. Events include the Ridge Rider Pro-West Rodeo Friday evening and Saturday, the Colorama Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday, the vendor fair at North Dam Park Friday and Saturday; helicopter rides Friday and Saturday, the Paradise Amusement Carnival Thursday at 3 p.m. and Friday and Saturday; the s... Full story
Thieves broke into Banks Lake Golf Course office sometime Sunday night and took the safe from the premises. It was the second time this year that the course’s safe has been taken. The first time was in January. Police said this time the safe was found along the 18th hole at the golf course. Golfers reported the smashed safe about 11:30 a.m. Monday. Police Chief Mel Hunt stated that the total money taken was just over $500. About $300 of it was in the safe at the time, and another $200 was t... Full story
A public art hunt is on for the new K-12 school project. Public buildings are required to set aside one-half of one percent of the cost of construction for art. The school board decided Monday night to seek art produced by local artists, that is artists from the counties that lie within the school district boundaries. The total money set aside for the art contribution is $120,000. Board members discussed the possibility of sculpture either inside or outside, and graphics inside. It was decided to solicit ideas from artists interested in making... Full story
A comment from a resident of Coulee Dam who asked why something isn’t being done to get people to clean up their properties, got a quick response from the police department. This past week police went on a real campaign to notify property owners whose places are in violation of the town’s nuisance ordinance that they better clean them up. Some 24 notices went out to property owners that their places were in violation. Property owners who fail to respond to cleanup notices could be subject to fines of $500 for each day of violation. The pol... Full story
The results of Saturday’s Colville Business Council primary election, minus absentee ballots, show that in two of the races, it appears incumbents are in for serious challenge. The Keller District position 1 incumbent, Darlene Zacherie got 23 votes while challenger Jack W. Ferguson received 34 votes. Others in the Keller race include Leroy Jerred (0) votes; Sylvia Tatshama Peasley (2) votes and John F. Stensgar (23) votes. Absentee ballots will decide which two advance to the general election. And in the Nespelem District position 1 race, incum... Full story
The Grand Coulee/Coulee City meals program will not be affected by any cutbacks due to the sequestering of funds by Congress, Director Myrna Schryvers said Monday. While the Meals on Wheels program might feel some effect from federal cutbacks, the local program, Grand Coulee Senior Meals, is funded separately. Schryvers said that the senior program feeds about 55 people daily, a combination of meal delivery and meals served at the senior center. She said that her program has a suggested donation per meal of $3.25. “We also get a lot of other f... Full story
A fire in a service bay at Jack’s Four Corners Union 76 that could have been a disaster was quickly extinguished by a combination of firefighters mid-morning Monday. A vehicle in the service bay at the station caught on fire when gas ignited and attracted a variety of fire engines and law enforcement units. The 2001 GMC extended cab was described as probably a total loss with some material at the repair shop damaged. There was no damage to the rest of the structure. Douglas County Fire D... Full story
A task that many thought would be difficult proved a piece of cake for th e school board Monday night. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson had asked the board to allow him to name a committee to come up with three possible names for the new K-12 school complex. The board did him one better than that, as they proceeded to pick a name right then. It’s Lake Roosevelt Schools: Lake Roosevelt High School, Lake Roosevelt Junior High and Lake Roosevelt Elementary. There was little hesitation as board members expressed the f... Full story
It was an unlikely night, with community activist Greg Wilder, who has opposed just about everything about Coulee Dam’s proposed wastewater treatment plant, going to work for the town. He isn’t being hired by the town, but he volunteered to raise the money for a alternative analysis study of the town’s current treatment plant plan. Town officials argued that they hadn’t pursued an alternative analysis, a study to see if the plant would be better located elsewhere, because of the cost, estimated at $25,000 to $50,000. Wilder who has argued... Full story
Elmer City has advised the town of Coulee Dam that their agreement on the wastewater treatment plant is over. A letter dated April 22, states that a 1976, 50-year agreement no longer controls the relationship between the towns, and after Elmer City makes its final bond payment on the USDA bonds that financed its portion of the plant, on March 1, 2014, the agreement is over. The letter states: “Going forward, Elmer City is willing to engage in negotiations to enter into a new agreement based upon the proposed expansion of Coulee Dam’s was... Full story
The Coulee Dam branch of Bank of America will close its doors Aug. 23, corporate officials stated in notices distributed recently, Notices to business and regular customers started going out April 19, and customers have been referred to other BofA branches in Moses Lake and Omak. Local branch manager Michelle Bredstrand confirmed the closing date and referred queries to the bank’s Seattle headquarters. Media representative Britney W. Sheehan told The Star that discussions are going on now to see if the bank can help employees find placement i... Full story
Fern Blaylock, a veteran volunteer at Center School, received an award April 25 from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The award, for outstanding volunteer service, was presented to her at the Governor’s Executive Mansion in Olympia. Blaylock was nominated for her work through the Colville Tribal Foster Grandparent Program. “Fern is so kind and gentle she will remind you of all the grandmas in your life rolled into one,” information on the event’s program stated. “She is not only the children'... Full story
Lake Roosevelt High School Principal Brad Wilson is taking a position as principal of the middle school in the Chelan School District. The school board accepted his resignation Monday night. Wilson has been in the Grand Coulee Dam School District 11 years as teacher, coach, athletic director, interim principal and dean of students, as well as principal. He had won a number of honors including Coach of the Year in the Caribou Trail League and took several teams to the state basketball tournament. Wilson filled in as interim LRHS principal when... Full story
A public art hunt is on for the new K-12 school project. Public buildings are required to set aside one-half of one percent of the cost of construction for art. The school board decided Monday night to seek art produced by local artists, that is artists from the counties that lie within the school district boundaries. The total money set aside for the art contribution is $120,000. Board members discussed the possibility of sculpture either inside or outside, and graphics inside. It was decided to solicit ideas from artists interested in making... Full story
A California woman arrested last Thursday who allegedly made a bomb threat while on a tour at Grand Coulee Dam, was booked into Okanogan County Jail and released the next day on her personal recognizance. Christina Frisvold, 33, was arrested by Coulee Dam police officer Michael Sullivan after she told him two times that she had a bomb, according to police. She was on the tour with her boyfriend, Robert Marty, also from California, who, according to a police report, had told her to stop talking about a bomb. She later told officials that she... Full story
Grand Coulee is going to make an effort to get a daycare center in its Central Business District zone. The public interest in a daycare center has attracted the attention of city officials, and the ways and means of making a zoning change was discussed last Tuesday night with Vivian Ramsey of SCJ Alliance, the city’s planning group. The city’s planning council, made up of council members and city staff will have to be reconvened and a recommendation will have to be made to council. When this is done the recommendation goes before the State Env... Full story
The K-12 school project is underway. It started at 9 a.m. Tuesday with a formal groundbreaking, and immediately Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson met with builder representatives from Walker Construction to get the project moving. Four members of the school board, Joette Barry, Ken “Butch” Stanger, Carla Marconi and Ted Piccolo, all turned the initial spades of dirt over to declare the near $23 million project started. Members of the Colville Business Council also tu... Full story
Grand Coulee officials are trying to get a sidewalk project on Spokane Avenue changed to the same kind of improvement on Federal Avenue. A sidewalk on Spokane Way lost its main focus when city officials realized that Center School would no longer be in use after the 2013-2014 school year since students would move to a new building in Coulee Dam. The project’s main intent had been to provide sidewalk service to Center school. Now the city is checking with the State Transportation Improvement Board, the source of the funds, to see if the a... Full story
The Chamber of Commerce will host a beer tent during the Colorama Festival celebration at North Dam Park. Chamber Manager Peggy Nevsimal said a 1500 square-foot tent will be located on the tennis court at North Dam Park and staffed by volunteers. Nevsimal said that people’s IDs and age will be checked at the entrance to the area and that beer and wine will be available. She said the beer tent will be open from 4-9 p.m. Thursday, May 9; 4-9 p.m. on Friday, May 10; and Saturday, May 11, from 4-10 p.m. Live music will be featured both Friday a... Full story
The Lower Crest Drive project in Coulee Dam will begin Monday, public works director Barry Peacock reported. The quarter-mile road project will go from River Drive to the city limits at the bottom of the hill. Granite Construction, from Wenatchee and Omak, won the bid to do the project and it could take about two weeks or more to complete. The town received a federal grant of $302,750, for the project, and the State Transportation Improvement Board is paying the town’s matching share of $47,250, Peacock stated earlier in a council meeting. M... Full story
A Spanish teacher at Lake Roosevelt High School is in Okanogan County Jail this week, facing charges of forgery and identity theft, after being arrested last Thursday by Coulee Dam police. Guillermo Guzman has also had a hold placed on him by Border Patrol agents and he will face deportation hearings in Tacoma when he is finished in Okanogan County, according to a jail spokesman. Guzman was picked up by Coulee Dam police officers along with a Border Patrol agent after a man with a similar name... Full story
The Bureau of Reclamation is having trouble attracting and retaining new skilled employees, Power Manager Mark Jenson told a number of local leaders Monday afternoon. Jenson said that often a combination of local factors creates a problem for workers recruited or transferring to work here on the Grand Coulee Dam project. Jenson stated that project employment, now 466 workers, will move to 582 by September of 2014. That’s a payroll jump from the present $32.6 million to $42 million in 2015. That expected boost of 116 employees is “not a tem... Full story
The largest producer of hotel/motel taxes in the area proposed changes to the way the funds are used at a meeting of some 20 community people Monday. Pat Welton, managing partner of Sunbanks Lake Resort, stated that the three local municipalities that collect the tax are currently “hoarding” the money and releasing it bit by bit. The fourth local community, Elmer City, doesn’t have any campgrounds or motels within its borders. Sunbanks, located inside Electric City’s boundaries, accounts for about $60,000 a year of the funds collected from th... Full story
A solution to the Coulee Dam wastewater treatment plant controversy that could satisfy a large number of the stakeholders could come next Wednesday night when the council meets. Councilmember Karl Hjorten said Tuesday that he plans to make a motion next Wednesday to move forward on the project doing only what is necessary to take care of the sludge, chemical levels and rotor problems. This would cut the costs of the project down to around $2 million to $2.5 million, Hjorten stated. Currently the... Full story