News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A resident on Columbia Avenue in Coulee Dam is about to throw up his hands in resignation from the runaround he has been getting on a serious water drainage problem. During the most recent storm, his driveway, garage and outbuilding were all flooded. The problem is that the drain at the street side of his driveway will not take all the water that gushes down Douglas Avenue, runs along the curb, and spills over into his yard and into his garage. Daniel and Ann Marie Morfenski have talked with... Full story
An Electric City man, already wanted on a warrant, was arrested Sunday on various charges, including possession of stolen jewelry. Arrested and taken to Grant County Jail was Jerome J. Harrington, 60, of 58220 Spokane Boulevard. When arrested Harrington had what was estimated at $15,000 worth of jewelry, including one very large diamond. Harrington is charged with breaking into an apartment occupied by Kelly Walker, 57, who lives in an apartment house on Continental Heights in Grand Coulee. Harrington is being charged with burglary,... Full story
An Electric City woman read a prepared statement before the Electric City council last week, taking apart the city in general, the planning commission, and, in particular, Gary Haven, the city’s compliance enforcement officer. Linda Zernick, who lives at 218 Stevens, was trying to find out who made a complaint about her property, to no avail. She received in the mail a notice that she needed to bring her property into conformance with city ordinances or face a citation. A walk through of her property revealed that it is perfectly landscaped and... Full story
Grand Coulee police Chief Mel Hunt and Sgt. John Tufts have about 70 years of combined service to the area. That's about to change, with Hunt ending 39 years of service to the Grand Coulee area beginning in 1975 as a reserve office and ending Oct. 1, 2014, as police chief for the past 35 years. Sgt. Tufts started with the Grand Coulee police department in 1984, after spending two years as an Okanogan County deputy sheriff. He has been sergeant since 2002. Tufts said Monday that he plans to... Full story
Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands took issue at the city council meeting last Tuesday night, Aug. 12, with two stories about him that appeared in successive weeks in The Star newspaper. “It makes me look like a village idiot,” he told the council and some dozen members of the community who had come to the meeting. The first story had outlined how the mayor went to police headquarters in Grand Coulee and told Chief Mel Hunt to back off enforcing Electric City’s noise ordinance. Police had issued a citation to Electric City Bar and Grill becau... Full story
A Spokane Valley man found that you can’t dig holes in a Grand Coulee park even though you are looking for buried treasure. Steven Harder, 46, was found Thursday, along with his metal detector, and dressed as a treasure hunter, digging in the park alongside SR-174 just west of La Presa restaurant. When police officer Joe Higgs got to the site, he found Harder with hand tools walking the park. He explained to Higgs that he was digging for buried treasure and always filled up the holes he dug. Higgs told the man that he was digging in a city p... Full story
Demolition of the classroom wing of Lake Roosevelt High School started Monday. Walker Construction, which has the overall contract, expects the demolition to be completed by the end of this week. A subcontractor from Moses Lake, Advance Demolition, after completion of the demolition, will take out the concrete foundation and provide some 8 feet of fill, raising the area where the classroom wing was located to match the elevation of the new construction area. Most debris from the demolition will... Full story
A Spokane Valley driver was critically injured last Friday when the vehicle she was driving crossed the center line and hit a tractor trailer head on. The accident occurred at about 8:20 a.m., about five miles west of Wilbur in Lincoln County on SR-174, according to the Washington State Patrol report. Deceased at the scene was Melinda L. Hirst, 53, driving a 2003 Thunderbird. Hirst was wearing her seatbelt when the accident occurred. The Thunderbird crossed the center line and struck a 2014 Volvo tractor trailer. The semi-truck was driven by... Full story
Plastic explosives from a mining operation in Canada have been showing up in Lake Roosevelt with some degree of regularity, the most recent near Crescent Bay. A tube of the explosives, about a foot long and several inches wide, was detonated at Crescent Bay by the Spokane Bomb Squad on July 31. The Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department was on standby during the detonation. One local resident, who saw the detonation, said it made a pretty big bang. Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area Chief R... Full story
Two Electric City women were arrested early Monday morning and are being charged with burglary and making false statements to a law enforcement officer. Taken to Grant County jail were Jennifer M. Miley, 33, of 340 Electric Boulevard; and Juliana Y. Terry, 30, of 58063 2nd Street NW. The two were found in a house at 110 E. Grand Avenue, Grand Coulee, at about 2:30 in the morning. A nearby resident had called police to say that some people were prowling around the house. When police arrived, the report stated, a back window was broken and when a... Full story
The Keller Ferry went back in service at 6 a.m. Aug. 13. after steering system issues were resolved. The Keller Ferry is down, with a steering problem. The relatively new ferry, the Sanpoil, went down Monday shortly after 2 p.m., and officials from the Washington State Department of Transportation stated that there is no estimate on when the ferry will be back in service. The new ferry, with a price tag of nearly $12 million, went into service August 14, 2013, connecting travelers from Wilbur to Republic across Lake Roosevelt on SR-21. The... Full story
A land donation to the town of Coulee Dam by an Anacortes woman will close at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, at town hall. Diane Hartzell, whose father, Melvin Hartzell, worked on Grand Coulee Dam in the mid-1930s, had purchased the property being donated, with the hope of someday building a retirement home here. The property, about an acre in size, is located at the north end of River Drive, with a portion of it overlooking the Columbia River. Diane will be in Coulee Dam to work with Mayor Greg Wilder and Town Attorney Mick Howe to close the... Full story
A Grand Coulee man who was in a Spokane hospital lost his safe containing from $5,000 to $8,000, plus coins and other money when an unknown person entered his home on Martin Road sometime from Aug. 1-6, a police report stated. Dean Stucker, former owner of Stuck’s Tavern, was in a Spokane hospital at the time of the burglary. Police stated that entry was likely gained through an unlocked window on the north side of the residence. This gave the intruder access to an enclosed porch area where a hammer was used to smash a window in a door that l... Full story
The city will spend more on a recent water pipe maintenance project than it thought earlier. Grand Coulee’s city council approved two change orders totaling $53,147.66, on its recent water project on Midway Avenue. Gray & Osborne officials appeared at the council meeting asking the elected body to approve the change orders and gave an explanation for the extra charges. The work was done by Pikin Construction of Wenatchee. The first change order was for $34,016.23, and was necessary because of rock excavation while digging across SR-155, a... Full story
An author who has written extensively about Okanogan County history, will offer a reading at the Grand Coulee public library. Bruce Holbert will read from his recent book "The Hour of Lead" a epic family novel and coming of age story that is once again imbibed with the mythology of the west at 6 p.m., Aug. 19. The public is invited, and this book along with his previous novel "Lonesome Animals" will be on sale that evening. Holbert, the son of Pat Holbert of Electric City, graduated from Lake... Full story
Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands’ attempt to influence how Grand Coulee police pursue noise complaints has fallen on deaf ears, at least for the short term. He went to the Grand Coulee police department office recently and told officers there to back off responding to noise complaints from local taverns who have live music. Grand Coulee Police Chief Mel Hunt said he and his officers take an oath to uphold the laws and nothing has changed. “If Electric City’s legislative body (the council) wants to amend its noise ordinance, then that might... Full story
Grand Coulee’s Civil Service Commission will begin work soon to hire a new police chief. That task was handed to them as the result of a memo from Mayor Chris Christopherson on advice from the city’s attorney. The commission took quick action Monday evening and scheduled a special meeting of the commission for Monday, Aug. 11, at 5:30 p.m. in the city council chambers. “The public is invited,” Chairman Alan Cain stated. At that meeting, the commission will come up with the qualifications they will seek in a new chief so advertisements on the... Full story
Coulee Dam’s Civil Service Commission is up and running. Mayor Greg Wilder named the third member of the commission a week ago and the first task of the three-member group is to hire a third police officer. “In order to remove nepotistic hiring practices, inappropriate selection of friends or other practices that may not serve us well, I have adopted a new policy relating to the selection process,” Wilder stated. Then the mayor went on to detail his hands-off policy. “All applications for openings for sworn officers in our police departm... Full story
A Western Washington woman has agreed to gift a piece of property on Coulee Dam’s north entrance to the town, Mayor Greg Wilder stated last week. Diane Hartzell, whose parents lived here during construction of Grand Coulee Dam, will be in Coulee Dam Aug. 21, when the property gift clears legal hurdles. A public ceremony is planned, with details to come later. Hartzell has advised that she will also be donating a heavy box of tools her father used while working on the dam site, as well as photographs and copies of scrapbooks. Wilder stated t...
Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands has advised the Grand Coulee Police Department to back off enforcing the city’s noise ordinance as it relates to music at the Electric City Bar and Grille and other places in the city. Sands told three members at the department office, including police Chief Mel Hunt, last Friday that he was going to allow the bar’s music to continue with greater-than-normal noise until 11 p.m. The city’s ordinance reads: “No person, whether or not that person is in actual possession of the noise source, shall create, continu... Full story
The ribbon cutting at the new K-12 school facility will be Sept. 12, the Grand Coulee Dam School District board was advised Monday night. The $30 million-plus project is right on schedule and a number of important dates were noted by Superintendent Dennis Carlson. The driveway into the new school is paved, and workers are focusing on a number of "finish-up" projects throughout the building. The K-6 wing will be turned over to the district by general contractor Walker Construction this Friday.... Full story
A resident on Holly Street complained to the Coulee Dam council last week about a burned out house next to her property and the fact that no one is doing anything to clean it up. Heidi Bradeen, of 609 Holly, lives next door to a structure that burned in September, 2012. "On warm days the smell is so bad we have to stay inside our house," Bradeen said Thursday. Mayor Greg Wilder responded to Bradeen's problem and stated that the property could come up in a tax sale sometime soon, and that the... Full story
A Maryland man was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident Sunday three miles west of Grand Coulee on SR-174. Newton C. Pereira, 57, of Brookeville, Md., was dead at the scene, after striking a 2003 Chevrolet Venture van. Three of the occupants of the van had unknown injuries and were taken to Coulee Medical Center for observation and treatment. Injured were the driver of the van, James Rikeo, 38, from Spokane, and two passengers, Samuel Longmour, 57, of Enid, Oklahoma, and Nish H. Livai, 18, Spokane. Grand Coulee police officer Sean Cook was... Full story
Electric City’s council, in a special meeting Tuesday night, voted to place a levy on the November general election ballot for police services. The total levy amount that the city could ask for is $3.10 per thousand of assessed valuation; that’s an increase to residents of 90 cents. The city had hoped to double its levy amount, asking for $2.21 more, but was told by the county auditor’s office that $3.10 is all the city could ask for. The city’s current levy is $2.1957 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The increase of 90 cents w... Full story
Coulee Dam’s Civil Service Commission is up and running. Mayor Greg Wilder made the third appointment to the three-member commission last week, naming Joe Tynan. The commission will be involved in the hiring of police. The three members are Councilmember Shawn Derrick, Tynan and Herb Sherburne. Kandy Merriman was named secretary. The commission’s first order of business will be the selection of the town’s third police officer. The town started advertising for its third officer last week.... Full story