News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Electric City was set to make a decision late Tuesday on providing police protection for the city after its current contract with Grand Coulee expires at the end of the year. The Star, which had an early deadline due to the New Year’s holiday, will file an online update at grandcoulee.com with the results of the 8 p.m. special council meeting. Council committees from both Electric City and Grand Coulee met Dec. 23, in an effort to see if they could come to an agreement differing from one they had reached earlier. The two council committees ... Full story
A plan for improvements to Coulee Dam's wastewater treatment plant is "a work in progress" that could cost residents a quarter of the amount financed in an earlier plan, Mayor Greg Wilder told the town council and a good number of residents during a December meeting. Wilder said he is exploring the possibility of several improvements to the plant, but he plans on further public meetings before doing anything. One of the meetings will be scheduled in January, Wilder stated. Wilder is trying to... Full story
Grand Coulee and tribal police are looking for a 28-year-old Nespelem man who avoided capture after a 100-mile-an-hour chase Dec. 12, that ended up on the Colville Indian Reservation. Michael D. Desautel, Jr., was seen by Tribal Police Cpl. Harold Allan Oneal, at Coulee Gas and informed police dispatch of the incident. Oneal knew the red 2012 Ford Escape had been reported stolen from Melvin Zacherle, a Nespelem resident. Dispatch notified Grand Coulee officer Dan Holland, who saw Desautel get into the car at the gas station, across the street... Full story
Grand Coulee’s new police chief will have civil service protection because of action the city council took Dec. 16. The council undid work from its previous meeting when members had been persuaded by Mayor Chris Christopherson and city attorneys to remove civil service protection when the city hires its new chief of police. The back-and-forth council action came after the mayor previously had stated that he would let the Civil Service Commission do its work in advertising for and testing police chief applicants. A few weeks ago the council h... Full story
A Grand Coulee woman who lost her life savings in gold Krugerrands has charged that police here show no interest in pursuing ideas she has offered on who might have taken them. Dorothy Harris reported to police early in June this year that someone had taken 200 gold African Krugerrand coins along with other coins from her home. At the time, the Krugerrands were valued at $1,308 each, with the total loss at $261,600. Harris said she has gone to the police here a couple of times lately to provide ideas on who might have taken them, but the... Full story
An Everett man was arrested Dec. 12, after allegedly damaging a number of cars in front of Banks Lake Pub in Electric City. Nicholas Swartz, 26, found himself in Grant County Jail on a first-degree malicious mischief charge for allegedly “keying” some nine cars in Electric City and fighting with witnesses who reported the incident to police. The report stated that Swartz had circled nine cars and key scratched them on both sides. Police stated that there could be as much as $5,000 damage to the vehicles. Police confronted Swartz, who ref... Full story
The Lake Roosevelt High School gym roof is sealed and games there should resume in January when the Raiders have home games scheduled. Superintendent Dennis Carlson said Monday that workers had sealed the roof and reported only one tiny leak during a recent rain storm. “I expect the roof will be finished, weather permitting, within a few weeks,” Carlson stated. When workers initially started to put a new roof on the gym, they discovered asbestos, which delayed progress on the roof. Rain had caused some game changes when the roof leaked and lat... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors Monday night approved a $1.1million four-year levy for maintenance and operations to go before district voters Feb. 10. In doing so, the board followed the recommendations of a special levy committee that had met twice to flesh out a levy plan for the district. The levy will ask district taxpayers to fund the $1,130,000 over four years, making it the third time the district has voted on a four-year levy plan. The levy, if approved, will help the district keep class sizes small, pay for pre... Full story
When you make a 911 call to report a fire in Coulee Dam you expect a town fire engine and crew to respond. Don’t count on it. Last week, Coulee Dam fire chief Robert Jackson resigned after 12 years as chief. When reached he refused to comment on his resignation. The issue came up at the Coulee Dam Town Council meeting last Wednesday night, and shortly after announcing it to the council, Councilmember Ben Alling, who has been a member of the fire department for 38 years, announced his resignation from it. Since then, Mayor Greg Wilder stated, a... Full story
The town of Coulee Dam has made an offer to Electric City to provide police services. The offer was sent last week and outlined for Coulee Dam Town Council members last Wednesday night by Mayor Greg Wilder. The five-year offer would begin in 2015 at $101,253.50, and include annual cost-of-living increases in each subsequent year. Currently, Electric City contracts with Grand Coulee for police protection, but its five-year contract runs out Dec. 31. The final year on that contract was about $80,000. In spite of the fact that Electric City and... Full story
Electric City will spend thousands less on boosting tourism efforts and related job growth after the city council reversed itself in a 3-2 vote last week. The council last Tuesday night backed off its previous decision in November to spend 75 percent of its annual hotel/motel taxes each year, choosing instead to stay with its present ordinance that fixes spending at 50 percent of what comes in during a given year. John Nordine, one of two council members on the tourism committee, told the council that he would still like to see the city do a... Full story
Lucinda Parker, an abstract artist from Oregon, has been commissioned to produce $75,000 worth of artwork for the new school complex. Parker was one of scores of artists recommended to a local committee by the Washington State Art Commission. The $75,000 project is required as part of the public building/art program and is administered by the state art commission. Nate Piturachsatit outlined the local committee’s selection to Grand Coulee Dam School District directors Monday night and indicated that dozens of artists were considered before P... Full story
Elmer City passed its 2015 budget last Thursday night — barely. The $674,662.80 budget passed with a 3-2 vote. A large portion of the budget, $244,971, is pass-through money that will come in 2015 from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board for a street and sidewalk project scheduled for 2016. The budget and council meeting took a dark turn as the lights went out just as the meeting was scheduled to begin. Out came the flashlights, but within 10 minutes the lights came on again. The budget passed after some intense budget workshop mee... Full story
Grand Coulee Mayor Chris Christopherson has filed a public records request for all activity and minutes of meetings of the city’s Civil Service Commission from July through October of this year. It seems all part of the see-saw tug of war that has been going on in city government over the past few months as the city looks for a new chief of police. Alan Cain, chair of the CSC, said, “That’s fine, we have nothing to hide.” But the trust between the mayor and the Civil Service Commission isn’t fine, and Christopherson has been working to exclud... Full story
Grand Coulee’s city council voted Dec. 2 night to undo its prior move, made two weeks earlier, to take the city’s police chief job out of civil service protection. The 4-1 vote was to put the police chief back under the protection of the Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission. The issue came up as the council was setting its agenda for the evening. Council member and former mayor Tammara Byers asked that it be placed on the agenda for reconsideration. “I just never gave it enough thought,” she said, “and I feel that I made the wrong decision.” B... Full story
Pay raises for two Elmer City employees are intact as the town’s budget process moves forward. Now it will be up to the council to pass the document, this Thursday night. In a budget workshop, the second in two weeks, the council was split 2-2 in an advisory ballot, with Mayor Gail Morin breaking the tie in favor of the budget as it then stood. It was all over giving Town Clerk Renee Tillman and public works Director Jimmer Tillman a raise in 2015. This had been challenged by the husband and wife council team of Donna and Jeff DeWinkler. The D... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam School District taxpayers will be asked to vote on a new maintenance and operation levy, Feb. 10. The amount and duration will be decided Dec. 15, by the school board, after it receives a recommendation from an independent levy advisory board. That advisory board met last Thursday and will meet again at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10, in the new school conference room. Karen Depew was elected chair of the advisory board. Depew has chaired a number of the recent levy committees. The advisory board will work out the details of... Full story
As it stands today, Electric City will be out of police coverage for its residents on Dec. 31. It’s a money issue. Electric City pays for police protection from Grand Coulee, which wants more. Council committees of the two cities met a couple months ago and agreed to a price for coverage in 2015 at $115,000 — up from $77,000 in 2014. That would give the two cities time to come up with a comprehensive plan that could lead to a two-city police department. A week ago, Grand Coulee sent a contract offer for that amount to Electric City and to dat... Full story
People in Electric City interested in putting up larger shops and garages, or in preventing others from doing so, can attend a couple meetings in January on that subject. Electric City has scheduled two meetings in January to discuss and make decisions on zoning changes on accessory buildings. The first meeting, Jan. 6, will be a public workshop of the planning commission on various changes being considered. The second meeting, Jan. 22, will be a public hearing on amendments to the city’s zoning code. Changes to the zoning code as it relates t... Full story
Big Bend Community College will soon be hanging its shingle out at the former Grand Coulee Dam Middle School annex building. It will be the beginning of a Community Knowledge Center, where students and local residents can take advantage of a range of activities still to be developed. Barbara Collins, who heads the program for BBCC, said the initial activity will be a beginners’ computer class starting in mid-January. Big Bend has a number of Community Knowledge Centers, including those at Wilson Creek, Warden, Royal, Mattawa, Odessa and Q... Full story
Students, are you having trouble with your homework and your parents can’t help? Then North Central Regional Library might be your answer. Kim Mehr, out of the Wenatchee Public Library, and representing NCRL, made a presentation last month to students in seventh through 12th grades about services available for them, and homework was one of the topics. Students must have a library card, easily obtainable at any NCRL branch, and go online to the regional library home page at www.ncrl.org. Click on the Research & Homework tab. You can access i... Full story
Every school has its own culture or identification. The new Lake Roosevelt School is no exception. The character of a school is not easily transferable from one location to another, and because of this, officials are trying to help the new school complex develop its own and unique culture. Associate Principal Ronanda Liberty reported to the school board recently on efforts she is making, working with staff and students, to develop the school’s own unique signature. A school is just four walls, so to speak, until staff and students arrive. They... Full story
When it rains, it pours. At least most of the time. It rained inside Lake Roosevelt High School's gym last week - that's right, inside. Circumstances and a winter rain caught school officials off guard and it resulted in a wet gym floor that led to the cancellation of a basketball game Nov. 25. The old gym is scheduled for a new roof and new look, but a couple of things got in the way. School officials had scheduled a new roof for the gym but had to wait to see if there would be enough money... Full story
Nate Piturachsatit has moved from physical education coordinator to counselor at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School. The change was approved by the Grand Coulee Dam School District board for the remainder of the year. Principal Lisa Lakin said this week that Piturchsatit is also taking his internship as a principal and expects to complete it this next spring. The district had the unexpected retirement of Rosella Covington, who held the counselor position at the middle school for a number of years. The district had advertised for a replacement... Full story
Grand Coulee’s city council changed its mind last week about protecting its next police chief by passing an ordinance removing the chief from Civil Service. Two weeks earlier, the council had voted 4-1 to keep the chief of police position under the protection of the Civil Service Commission, which is designed to shield public employees from political backlash. This time the vote was 3-2 to remove the chief from Civil Service protection. Councilmember Erin Nielsen asked why the ordinance was on the agenda, since the council had already voted f... Full story