News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 183 - 207 of 1383
Grant County Port District 7 will take in and spend nearly a half million dollars in 2017, the largest portion of that coming from grants, according to a budget commissioners passed last week. The total budget amount of $467,000 includes one major project for the new year. With grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and Washington State Department of Transportation Aviation, the district plans to repair the 4,200-foot runway. The runway has developed major cracks and the FAA has... Full story
Clarence Roosevelt Jerred, a homeless man featured in The Star last week, was settled in an assisted living home in Omak Tuesday. Jerred, 84, who insisted that he was 86, was taken to Omak Tuesday by Kathy Baty, where he met with Social and Health Services officials and then was located in Katimbang House, an assisted living facility. He is now one of seven living there. "This is already better," Baty said he told her after arriving. "He ate a good meal and was in fine spirits," Baty said. She s... Full story
A trailer fire destroyed an older residence at 306 Burdin Boulevard last Wednesday morning. One firefighter, Jerry Sands, said Grand Coulee was the second fire department to respond, with the Bureau of Reclamation fire truck arriving at the scene moments earlier. The mobile home, sandwiched between other trailers, was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. Several fire departments responded, and police provided control on Burdin Boulevard. The fire started just before 6:30 a.m., and other... Full story
The former Center School in Grand Coulee is for sale, this time with three parties already showing interest in the property. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner told the school board Monday night that he has been in touch with three parties who have shown interest in the building and a total of about eight acres of land. Turner said he is proceeding with an open bid date of Dec. 1. He declined to say who the interested parties are, but said he would have to excuse himself from being involved in the discussions and... Full story
The pyrotechnics are coming. Look for a lot of noise and fireworks in the sky, Dec. 2 and 3, when fireworks experts from across the state gather on a 135-acre tract near Grand Coulee in Lincoln County. Host to the event will be Alan Cain, who is in the process of completing his pyrotech license. The occasion is a gathering of the Northwest Pyrotechnics Association, whose members gather at different locations to talk about fireworks, and put on a show for themselves and anyone who cares to watch. The show is actually demonstrations by members... Full story
Put yourself in this situation. You are elderly, diabetic, have a memory problem, and you're homeless, and you don't know how to get help. That's the situation Clarence Roosevelt Jerred was in until he met up with Kathy and Dale Baty, owners of Center Lodge Motel in Grand Coulee. They have housed him at the motel since Sept. 25, while they sought ways to help him. Homelessness is increasingly a problem, not only in urban areas, but in small towns across America. Last January, more than 20,000... Full story
A dog named Malquin was declared “potentially dangerous” by the Grand Coulee City Council last Tuesday night. The dog was in the possession of Dorothy Hall, of the 400 block on Roosevelt Drive, at the time of a Sept. 20 incident, who explained that she was keeping the dog for its owner, Sean Bradshaw, who had recently moved out. Malquin, a reddish colored and rather large pit bull, had attacked a yellow Labrador dog owned by Stephanie Hermetz. When Hermetz reported the incident to police she said that “there was blood everywhere.”And when sh... Full story
Tony Wilson, a 1995 graduate of Lake Roosevelt High School, retired from the military recently after serving 20 years in the U.S. Army. Wilson retired as a master sergeant and served as a combat engineer and explosives ordnance disposal specialist. He served combat deployments to Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, and has received the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf cluster, the Army Combat Badge, the Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal Badge, the Meritorious Service Commendation... Full story
The public and Lake Roosevelt Schools students will have an opportunity to meet abstract artist Lucinda Parker on Thursday morning, in two sessions. Parker will speak at 9 a.m., and meet with elementary and seventh- and eighth-grade students in the elementary cafeteria. She will meet in a second session at 10:15 a.m., at the same location, with 9th- through 12th-grade students. The public is invited to attend either session. There will be a dedication of Parker’s six abstract paintings, and Mike Sweney of the Washington State Arts Commission wi... Full story
Two men with guns were arrested and taken to Grant County jail after shooting a street light out from their car near the top of the Grand Coulee Dam. The incident was reported to police by Plant Protection dispatcher Monroe Merriman, who heard the firing while outside his office. Police stopped the pair near Greene Field, and they admitted firing and hitting the street light, police reported. The two, Kristopher T. Simms, 24, from Port Townsend, Washington, and Paul J. Van Dyke, 23, from Chimacan, Washington, said they were on their way to... Full story
Grant County computer systems being down last week will delay or make it more difficult for Electric City and Grand Coulee to develop budgets for 2017. Electric City has a budget workshop scheduled for 6 p.m., Oct. 25. “We will just have to work around this,” City Clerk Jackie Perman said. The county government’s computer systems were completely offline for about two and a half hours Oct. 12, also making all but a few emergency phone numbers inoperable. Enhanced 9-1-1 was not affected. Jury duty was also canceled for the day. Partial servi... Full story
Electric City has agreed to provide Washington State University an additional $1,000 to finish up work on its Pathway and Revitalization project. The city had contracted with WSU’s Rural Communities Design Initiative team last spring to do initial planning for a project that includes downtown sidewalks, two parks and a trail system along Banks Lake. WSU Assistant Professor Kathleen Ryan, leader of the group, informed the city that her group would need another $1,000 to complete the project. The WSU RCDI group’s original contract was for $5,... Full story
A 69-year-old man spent over 10 hours shivering in Banks Lake after his boat capsized Saturday afternoon, Oct. 1. Donald L. Childers, of Brewster, had been fishing on Banks Lake for about an hour when wind-swept waves capsized his 13-foot fishing boat about 2:30 in the afternoon. Childers said he thought he was going to die because he was so cold and no one was responding to his calls for help. Childers said last Monday that when water started coming in he rushed to the front of the boat to grab his life jacket while slipping off a heavy coat... Full story
The Electric City Council rejected an offer from Grant County Mosquito District 2 to sell the city a 10-foot by 90-foot strip of land on property it owns on Coulee Boulevard, where it plans to build a pole building for its headquarters. The mosquito district, in a letter to the city, said that a survey of its property showed that Kent Street encroaches 15 feet onto its property and also that the city’s fire hydrant is also on its property. The district was asking $1.81 a square foot for the property, and for the city to waive its hookup fees fo... Full story
An event that drew a rebuke by the Electric City Council against one of its members is still on the books. Councilmember Birdie Hensley was officially warned last month for presuming to speak for the city when she and fellow Councilmember Lonna Bussert proposed a Christmas event at North Dam Park. The reprimand stuck on Hensley, who took the blame for proposing an event without clearing it with the full council. On Sept. 13, the council issued Hensley the rebuke, overlooking Bussert’s part in the planning for the Christmas event. Hensley got h... Full story
The administration and board of Grand Coulee Dam School District have set their sights on improving the graduation rate of Lake Roosevelt seniors. Under the district’s policy “Accountability Goals” the graduate rate objective is 85 percent. Superintendent Paul Turner said last week that the policy is outdated and that the board is waiting for information from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to update the policy. “The goal won’t change, but our goal is always 100 percent,” he said. The graduation rate of the 2015-16 cla... Full story
A Coulee Dam woman chased a thief off with a shovel in the middle of the night last week when she realized someone was stealing her motorcycle. The dirt bike stolen from Jaci Gross at her Coulee Dam residence on Stevens Avenue very early last Wednesday, Oct. 5, was recovered about noon the same day in Electric City. Gross was out in her lawn with a shovel when police arrived and told officers she was looking for the person who stole her motorcycle. She said in a Facebook post that the thief had also tried to take her four-wheeler ATV, “but I c... Full story
Heard about the successful moose hunt — by a school bus? With a load of young volleyball players aboard, driver Keith Powell had a young cow moose charge in front of his school bus last Wednesday night, Oct. 5, about 8:30, as they were returning from a volleyball match in Okanogan. The moose was alongside SR-155, and charged in front of the bus just after it had gotten over Disautel Pass. The bus hit the moose with its front fender, killing the animal. The bus held both the seventh- and eighth-grade girls volleyball squads that had just c... Full story
School officials plan an open house Oct. 27, so visitors can see a number of abstract paintings, which were installed last June at Lake Roosevelt Schools, and meet artist Lucinda Palmer. Palmer painted six large paintings as part of the Washington Arts Commission grant for arts for public buildings. Palmer, from Portland, Oregon, was selected from a number of applicants to create the paintings, part of a $70,000 grant. Two paintings were hung in the elementary school cafeteria, two in the junior/senior cafeteria and one in each of the... Full story
The Electric City Council passed tourism promotion funding package for local interests at its meeting Tuesday night. There was money from the city’s lodging tax for new activities, but less money than the city had given the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce in the past. Through a number of proposals, the chamber received $16,500, down from almost $30,000 the year before. The city council tourism committee, made up of councilmembers Richard McGuire and Brad Parrish, had proposed $12,000 to the chamber of commerce for fireworks on July 4... Full story
Church to hold first service and open house The rock church in Coulee Dam will host its first service and open house this Sunday, October 9, after the Almira Community Church took ownership. Pastor Paul McArthur said a brunch and games with an apple theme would be offered after the 8:45 a.m. service, and everyone is welcome to attend. Encouraging Raider gear Dig out your Lake Roosevelt shirts and jackets; it’s time to make a color splash for Raider home games. Lake Roosevelt personnel are encouraging fans to wear Raider colors to show s... Full story
A good pair of walking shoes and a cot at night. Those were the essentials for Miss G's 500-mile trek last summer on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across Spain. "Miss G" is Jaci Gross, a 16-year teacher at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School, where students know her affectionately by that name. Her long trek, actually a pilgrimage, traced the centuries-long route from the Pyrenees Mountains in France, across Northern Spain, and finally ending at Santiago. It is the route of St. James (the... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved construction of a heavy-gauge chain link fence at the district's bus complex to protect its fleet from fuel thieves. At a meeting Thursday, board members received a rundown on incidents when thieves have emptied fuel tanks, stolen tires and batteries, and even taken extension cords. Just recently, bus personnel have had to contend with thieves cutting fuel hoses on three Head Start buses. The cost of replacing hoses on those buses runs about $1... Full story
Steamboat Rock State Park is on the grow. Already one of the largest and most popular state parks, a project is underway to add 30 more campsites. When it's finished, 193 of the park's camp sites will be in the main camping area; another 12 are boat sites, only reachable by water. The project, bid at $2.5 million, had to be re-bid since the original low bid of over $3.1 million was above the state park budget. The successful bidder and general contractor is Wesslen Construction, of Spokane.... Full story
Two Ice Age floods hikes and lectures are scheduled for the Grand Coulee area within the coming week. The hikes and lectures are part of several Cheney-Spokane Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institutes efforts to give interested parties a hands-on experience to learn about the floods that scoured the area about 15,000 years ago. Saturday, Oct. 8, beginning at 9:30 a.m., two geologists-authors, Gene Kiver and Bruce Bjornstad, will lead a hike and provide information on a 7.2-mile trek up Northrup Canyon to the lake and back. The hike is listed... Full story