News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1317 - 1341 of 1383
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 last Wednesday’s 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 wastewater treatment plant loan. Engineer Jeff Stevens, in his letter, outlined a plan where the town of Coulee Dam would change its current funding source from the Departme... Full story
The local airport’s runways will be kept open in winter with a new snowplow. Port District 7 commissioners learned Thursday that they will get a new replacement truck with snow plow equipment, plus a building to house it. A $265,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration will pay for 90 percent of the cost of both projects. An additional 2.5 percent of the cost could come from the Washington State Department of Transportation’s airport division, and the port district will pick up the final 7.5 percent. Lisa Corcoran of the port’s engin... Full story
Jerry Birdwell will resign as a Port District 7 commissioner effective April 1, he advised Chairman Orville Scharbach on Thursday. Birdwell stated Friday that he had a number of things going on that will require that he leave the board. He was named to the commission, which oversees the operation of the local airport and the golf course, last July after the resignation of Larry Maier. The board has been functioning with only two members since Stan Conklin, the third member, has been down south for the winter. Scharbach said the port plans to... Full story
Sensing a sticky wicket, Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands took the issue of joining the chamber of commerce off the city council’s agenda last Tuesday night and it will appear on the agenda again,March 12. The $100 joining fee got an immediate response from Councilmember Bob Rupe, who stated that the city had given the chamber a lot of money and they could take the membership fee out of that. Sands explained that the money given earlier was from its hotel/motel tax funds and was for promoting this area. He said the $100 fee was entirely d... Full story
Electric City’s Bob Rupe has asked that the city’s drug and alcohol policy be reviewed by attorneys so it includes the use of marijuana and other controlled substances. He wrote in a recommendation to the council that language be included in the city ordinance and in employee handbooks that makes the use of drugs, alcohol, and controlled substances a dismissal offense. “The purpose of these rules is to balance the personal rights of an individual and the right of Electric City … and help employees understand what conduct is expected and necessa... Full story
The Electric City Council has decided to cut its meetings from two a month to one. Mayor Jerry Sands said the city had caught up on updating its ordinances and got the arsenic treatment plant up and running, so the amount of business for the council in the city has diminished. The council has regularly met on the second and fourth Tuesday nights each month for decades, but now will meet only on the second Tuesday night of the month. The council also decided to change its meeting hour from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. Electric City now joins Coulee Dam in... Full story
The city of Grand Coulee is busy unraveling four years and $70,000 worth of municipal court billings. The money is in the bank, city clerk Carol Boyce stated, but the temporary clerk hired to do the work, Debra Pifer, now has to determine what goes where. The city, county and state all own a piece of the court money. The municipal court handles tickets written by Grand Coulee police officers, and the money is supposed to be paid to the three entities -- city, county and state -- according to a formula that is based on the type and amount of... Full story
The school board reversed itself Monday night on decisions it made a month ago on calendar dates for the next school year. The board had decided to hold school on Columbus Day and eliminate the mid-winter break next February. This month, absent board member Ted Piccolo, who promoted the changes in January, the three members present changed everything back to the way the calendar had been presented a month ago. Veteran teacher Sandy Hood, from the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School, told board members that both students and staff needed the... Full story
The chamber of commerce is sponsoring the “Are You Tough Enough” First Annual Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge, April 6-7, out of Coulee Playland. The two-day event features a fishing derby for smallmouth bass, walleye, and rainbow trout and has two age categories, 0-14 years of age and adults. So dust off your rod and reel, read up on the contest, and get your 2013 fishing license so you are all set for the big event. Grand prize is an Achilles 4-person inflatable boat and Yamaha outboard motor. There are other prizes, including money, so the... Full story
The theft of a school district food service truck is costing the district over $8,500, according to a Grand Coulee Police Department report issued last Thursday. The truck was stolen during the weekend of Feb. 9-11, and found the following Tuesday abandoned along the I-5 corridor near Seattle. Two district employees were dispatched to Seattle to retrieve the truck, and after getting a new battery for the truck, were able to get it home. The trip, and the tow bill for pulling the truck to an impound yard, cost the district $1,379.50, according... Full story
The school board approved a three-year labor contract with its Public Service Employees at its meeting Monday night. The contract runs from the 2012-13 school year through 2014-15 school year. In the immediate year, the district has agreed to increase wages for its building secretaries by 40 cents per hour for additional work they have been asked to do. In the 2013-14 school year, PSE employees, (clerical, janitors, bus drivers and aides) will receive a 2.5 percent wage increase. And in the final year of the contract, wages will remain the... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved two trips for students and chaperones at Monday’s board meeting. Victor Camarena, project coordinator for Step Pipeline to the Future at Lake Roosevelt High School, is in charge of both trips. On March 21-23, Camarena will take four students to the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair in Albuquerque, NM. Going on that trip are Abe Batten, Brady Black, Lukas Hermetz and Corbin Wilder. Batten and Black will be presenters at the fair and will mentor Hermetz and Wilder, who w... Full story
Brandon Byers, an English teacher at Lake Roosevelt High School, was named interim principal at the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School by the school board Monday night. Byers is finishing up his principal credentials at Whitworth University this year and is one of three candidates to apply for the position. Byers replaces Lisa Lakin, who has moved over to Center Elementary School as principal. Lakin and Superintendent Dennis Carlson have been co-principals at Center School so far this year since Sue Hinton left the district. Carlson said that... Full story
The bid deadline for the new K-12 school project has been delayed until March 12, Superintendent Dennis Carlson said Monday. Carlson said that the delay is due to a request by several general contractors who said the district wasn’t allowing enough time between the date they had an on-site review and the bid deadline, which would have been Monday at 3 p.m. Contractors were concerned that they wouldn’t have enough time to fully look at the options associated with the bid and get bids back from sub-contractors in time. Postponing the bid deadline... Full story
The bid deadline for the new K-12 school project has been delayed until March 12, Superintendent Dennis Carlson said Monday. Carlson said that the delay is due to a request by several general contractors who said the district wasn’t allowing enough time between the date they had an on-site review and the bid deadline, which would have been Monday at 3 p.m. Contractors were concerned that they wouldn’t have enough time to fully look at the options associated with the bid and get bids back from sub-contractors in time. Postponing the bid deadline... Full story
Mayor Quincy Snow assured those attending a town council meeting last Wednesday night that the town would follow through on a “value engineering” study of its $4.92 million wastewater treatment plant project. He made the announcement after a long presentation by David Dunn, an engineer from the state Department of Ecology, who came to the meeting to explain the value engineering process. At the end of the presentation, Snow asked if the town should have gone through this process earlier. “It is late in the process for major changes to be made,... Full story
The boards from the Nespelem and Grand Coulee Dam school districts districts met jointly last week, in another of what have become quarterly meetings. Concerns were shared about the two districts’ school calendars for next school year. Efforts have been made in the past to get the two calendars as closely aligned as possible. In this instance, Nespelem Director Jolene Marchand stated, Coulee Dam passed its calendar without Nespelem getting to look at it. At its last meeting, Grand Coulee Dam School District passed a calendar that scheduled s... Full story
A food service truck stolen from the Grand Coulee Dam School District has been recovered. Two district employees traveled to the Seattle area last Wednesday and brought the 1994 Ford truck back to the bus garage for repairs. The truck went missing sometime during the weekend of Feb. 9-11, and was found abandoned on Interstate 5 near Seattle by the Washington State Patrol. District employees found the truck in an impound lot and stated that the steering column had been peeled so the vehicle could be started. When the door was opened, the front... Full story
The man you can’t say “no” to was awarded two plaques at the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 installation and awards banquet last Thursday night at Pepper Jack’s Bar & Grille. George Kohout, of Electric City, was first awarded a plaque for “Business of the Year,” awarded to the Ridge Riders club, of which he is president. Moments later Kohout was called to the front again, this time as the 2012 “Achiever of the Year,” an unprecedented double recognition, this time for his outs... Full story
Fish and Wildlife officials are seeking information about poachers who killed five whitetail deer near the Rosenberg Ranch in Lincoln County. The department was alerted to the poaching by an Electric City man who had been in the area shooting coyotes and stumbled across the deer carcases. Fish and Wildlife biologist Eric Braaten said only the back straps and rear quarters of the deer were taken, and the remainder of the deer were left behind. He said that entry to the property, which overlooks Lake Roosevelt, was through two gates. Those... Full story
The city of Grand Coulee is advertising for people interested in serving on the city’s Civil Service Commission. All three positions are vacant. City officials stated that positions for two-year, four-year and six-year terms are open and available. The Civil Service Commission provides for the administration of the city’s civil service process. Commissioners conduct interviews of applicants for open police positions and move forward their top three selections for consideration. The civil service is independent of city control and its rec... Full story
The Electric City Council put out the welcome mat for chickens at its Tuesday night meeting. Council members looked at the new chicken ordinance prepared by the planning commission and liked what they saw. After routine comments and suggestions, they passed it. Come Monday, Feb. 18, it will be lawful for residents to have chickens, up to six. You’ll still have to use your alarm clock because the ordinance specifies no roosters. There are a lot of regulations. No loose chickens. There’s a chicken license you have to get at city hall - $15 wor... Full story
Jess Ford’s detail shop, now being constructed across the street from the car agency, when completed, will allow the Ford dealer to have a tire alignment shop and also sell tires. Wade Jess, president of the dealership, said that moving his detail shop across the street will free up space in the agency’s main building to do wheel alignment and sell tires. Jess purchased the property, across the highway from the agency, and has installed a used vehicle lot there. Now a 30-foot by 60-foot bui... Full story
A school district food service truck stolen from its location at Center School sometime between Saturday and Monday was found abandoned near milepost 144 on Interstate 5 in western Washington, the Washington State Patrol reported. The truck was found Monday and was towed to a neutral location. District officials said a driver and mechanic are going to the site to recover the truck today (Wednesday). The theft resulted in cold district meals for students since the truck housed a large food warmer used by kitchen personnel to deliver warm meals t... Full story
Two young men face first-degree burglary charges following a midnight break-in at 16 W. Coulee Boulevard in Electric City last Wednesday. Police Chief Mel Hunt stated Monday that damages to the building and to items in the building amounted to about $6,200. Arrested at the scene were Michael Desautel, 18, from Nespelem, and a 17-year-old juvenile from Electric City. The police report said both were armed, one with a screwdriver and the other with a knife. Police Officer Adam Hunt, who was on patrol only a couple of blocks away, got a report of... Full story