News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Want an old school building sitting on about eight acres of property? Center Elementary School in Grand Coulee is on the sales block, and interested buyers have until August 5 to get their bids in. The building and property was recently appraised at $190,000. “It won’t go for that, and we expect it to be much more,” stated Superintendent Dennis Carlson. The school was vacated at the close of the 2013-14 school year and its near 300 students helped open the new school facility in Coulee Dam last September. Center School housed kinde... Full story
Elmer City’s sidewalk project is up in the air as the lone bid for the work was far too high, council members were informed Thursday night. The bid was for $306,000, far above the engineer’s estimate of $159,000. Public works director Jimmer Tillman said the town will try again, this time allowing those on the town’s small business roster to bid on the project. The town has a $225,000 grant from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board and was advised to reject the lone bid. The work includes sidewalks on Front and Williams Streets and prov... Full story
The Grand Coulee sidewalk project on Main Street and Federal Avenue is going to move forward after some change orders brought the bid in line with the Transportation Improvement Board grant that funds it. Gray & Osborne told members of the city council last Tuesday night that the change orders totaling just over $50,000 would bring the project in line with the money available and the low bidder wanted to move forward on the work. The low bid of $440,292 was submitted by Halme Construction of Davenport. The engineer’s estimate on the project h... Full story
Students at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School received awards in a special ceremony last Wednesday in the school's Accelerated Reading Program. Making the awards was Aaron Derr, elementary library reading specialist. The following students earned the top reader award and a $25 Amazon gift card for their grade level. Finn Beery, kindergarten; Emry Piturachsatit, first grade; Noah Hunt, second grade; Celeste LaPlace, third grade; Brit Egbert, fourth grade; Showaway Hunt, fifth grade; and Mikayla... Full story
Luke and Isaac Olson are bringing their country rock sound to Coulee Dam, July 4, where they will perform as the Olson Bros. Band, in the park below the Visitor Center. The two hail from Olympia and seem destined for fame with their musical and songwriting skills. The duo won the The Texaco Country Showdown national songwriting contest with a cash prize of $5,000, and soon plan to return to Nashville for a recording session. The band is booked to play twice at the State Fair, and other bookings... Full story
Electric City citizens will be served by a police department an extra city away next year. Coulee Dam got the contract for 2016 to provide police services to Electric City, whose city council, with little discussion, agreed June 9 to a five-year contract with Coulee Dam’s police department at $122,223.42 a year. For decades, Electric City has contracted with Grand Coulee for police services. But that will all end Dec. 31, of this year. Currently, Electric City pays Grand Coulee $115,000 a year for police services. Council committees from b... Full story
Kids, mark Saturday, June 20, on your calendars. That’s the day the 11th Annual Kids Fest occurs in the coulee area. Start by picking up your passport and map from a variety of places -- Saturday Market at North Dam Park, Coulee Hardware or the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. It’s your ticket to a day of fun and adventure -- and potential prizes. Bring your passport with six or more stamps on it to the Grand Theatre on Grand Coulee’s Main Street for a performance by juggler-comedian-yoyo man Curtis Carlyle ( a 60-minute performance) with... Full story
You can now have accessory buildings up to 3,000 square feet if you have property to support the size. The Electric City Council accepted a number of changes to the building code at its meeting June 9, the most sought-after being the size of accessory buildings. It has been in the works for about two years, and the changes to the planning commission’s recommendations caused three of its four members to resign in protest. The council adopted the International Building Code which allows accessory buildings up to 3,000 square feet in size. But as... Full story
There has been a wave of counterfeit money hitting the Grand Coulee area. Police said Monday that they have picked up a number of 5's, 10's, 20's and a 50 so far from local businesses. Some of the counterfeit copies are poorly done and are either poorly aligned, miss the watermarks and lines through the paper, or are done on paper obviously not matching regular paper money stock. The police department in Grand Coulee asks that officers be informed when someone thinks they have a counterfeit... Full story
Carol Nordine was selected to fill out Marie Chuinard's unexpired term on the Electric City council last Tuesday night, with a tie vote broken by the mayor, her son. At the conclusion of the meeting she was sworn in by Mayor John Nordine. She was one of two candidates who filed for Chuinard's vacated seat. The other was Birdie Hensley, who had served on the council earlier. Both will be on the November ballot for the full four-year term. But the vote was close, ending in a 2-2 tie, with the... Full story
The fate of some Colville Business Council positions is fuzzy as a result of polling last Saturday. Absentee ballots will be counted this Thursday, providing the final vote tally. Both races in Nespelem are close. In Position 1, Brian J. Nissen led Ricky Gabriel, 105-97; and in Position 2, Sheilah Cleveland was ahead of longtime council member Andy Joseph Jr, 105-97. In the two Omak council positions, the races are equally close. In Omak Position 1, Karen Condon leads Richard Tonasket, 107-91, and Mel Tonasket leads Cherie Moomaw, 103-96 for... Full story
You soon can run your wheeled ATVs on Electric City streets. The city council passed an ordinance last week to allow all-terrain vehicles on city streets, and one permitting golf carts will soon follow. The council, in passing the ATV ordinance, instructed city Clerk Jackie Perman to draw up a corresponding ordinance allowing golf carts the same privilege. The ATV ordinance restricts speed to 35 miles per hour and to streets that don’t have a higher speed limit. It also requires that the driver wear a helmet unless the ATV has a roll bar. O... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson Monday night outlined changes in the use of some spaces at the gym site on the Lake Roosevelt High School campus. Carlson told the board that the plan is to remove a wall in the old art room and then use the space s a weight room. That would turn the existing weight room into a space for Lee Largent and his special math classes. Work would include some interior door work for security reasons. Carlson said the low bid on the remodeling work was for $9,064. In other business, the... Full story
Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School principal Brandon Byers has resigned. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors accepted Byers’ resignation at a special meeting Monday night. Byers said Tuesday that he has accepted a position as assistant principal at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake. Byers graduated from Moses Lake High School in 2002 and has several family members there. Leaving is “bittersweet,” Byers stated, and referred to the many fine staff members he has been associated with here, adding, “But it is the rig... Full story
Grand Coulee may move to aggressively enforce its own nuisance laws to clean up the city and add a part-time employee to do so. A woman who lives on Burdin Boulevard, finally got her message about trash in her Grand Coulee neighborhood across to the city council at its meeting June 2. Becky Billups found a friend in Mayor Pro-tem Paul Townsend, who will be the city’s next mayor, and in a council poised to act on her complaints. The council listened again to Billups Tuesday night, periodically breaking up as she told how her neighborhood was goi... Full story
A new metal sculpture called "Raider" will soon stand near the entrance to the new school complex in Coulee Dam. The Grand Coulee Dam School District's art committee had hoped to have the sculpture placed before school was out but it will have to wait a few more weeks before all the things are in place. The 7-foot high metal work was created by Virgil "Smoker" Marchand cost $12,500, part of some $70,000 worth of public art that will eventually be associated with the new school. Marchand said... Full story
Grand Coulee’s council inched closer to a deal to address the Four Corners traffic question last Tuesday night. The council voted to ask the Department of Transportation to move forward and install two “Your Speed Is” radar signs on SR-155 to improve the compliance rate of vehicles to the existing speed limit of 35 mph. This is one of the steps that the DOT had suggested to the city in a memo sent to city hall a week ago. The council isn’t ready to take on the idea of reducing the speed between Four Corners and the turnoff to Delano. There h... Full story
The Regional Board of Mayors is looking at some type of recycling program for the area. The idea of starting a recycling program is not new for the mayors, who are still trying to figure out how to pay for it. The group heard a proposal from Sunrise Disposal Monday that would limit product to cardboard and aluminum, both easily sellable and possibly able to pay their own way. Most items that are considered recyclable don’t pay their way. Start small, and do what’s doable, seemed to be the message. Sunrise would supply bins and place them in... Full story
The low bid for the proposed Federal Avenue/Main Street sidewalk project in Grand Coulee came in about $80,000 over the original engineer’s estimate, Grand Coulee’s council learned last Tuesday night. The low bid of $440,292 was submitted by Halme Construction of Davenport, who did work for the city during the covering of the landfill project some years ago. At the meeting, Jeff Stevens, of Gray & Osborne, the city’s engineering firm, said he was working with the low bidder to see if there was some wiggle room that would get the project withi... Full story
Visitors to the coulee area over the July Fourth "Festival of America" festivities will get to hear the "Big Band" sound at the park below the Visitor Center. Tuxedo Junction, a 21-member band, is made up mostly of "teachers," according to music director Craig Catlett. There will be an added twist to the band's appearance; there could be up to five Lake Roosevelt High School band members playing during Tuxedo Junction's second set at the park. "I still have some things to get settled before I... Full story
Jean Comstock didn’t have public comment this week after she learned that the City of Grand Coulee had denied her application for a business license to put in a marijuana retail store on Burdin Boulevard. While Grand Coulee was denying an application for a business license, the city of Omak was granting one. The state’s attorney general had declared that his office would not recognize a city’s refusal to grant a business license based on the fact that it would be in violation of federal law. That was the primary reason Grand Coulee City Clerk C... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District spent $1,762 more in utility expenses for the new school in the first seven full months of this school year, the school board learned Monday night.The utility comparison is for power, water, sewer and garbage, and is from October, 2014 through April, 2015. Superintendent Dennis Carlson said that a more accurate picture of comparisons will likely take two or three years. Prior to this year, the district schools were in three different buildings. September, 2014, is not included in the comparison because of... Full story
A school board candidate who filed for Ted Piccolo’s at-large seat has decided to withdraw her name. Tamra Sacchi, who filed her intention to seek the at-large seat during the normal filing period, found out Monday that she couldn’t serve on the school board and be a substitute teacher at the same time. She said Tuesday that she plans to advise the Grant County Auditor’s office of her decision and have her name taken off the ballot. Earlier this week, Sacchi had delivered a letter of interest in finishing out Piccolo’s term to the school... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson received an “Award of Merit” from the North Central Washington Educational Service District for his administrative leadership. Each year the various educational service districts in the state select a key administrator to honor for outstanding contribution to education in their area. Making the presentation May 21 in Wenatchee was Richard Johnson, Okanogan School District superintendent and chair of the Washington Association of School Administrators. Richard McBride, ESD sup... Full story
The school board learned how students referred to the “Opportunity Room” get a new lease on life, at their meeting Monday night. Tami Nichols, who short circuits students referred to the program because of their activities, had put a spark back in their lives by using a book and teaching tool called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.” Nichols, catching the students before they face more serious consequences, has had good success showing them that they all possess sometimes hidden talents and abilities. Nichols provided an outline of the ... Full story