News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The Bureau of Reclamation's new fire station has won a national award for design, taking the gold in Firehouse Magazine's annual contest. The Magazine announced the winners of its 12th annual Station Design Awards program Nov. 9. The program recognizes outstanding architecture and design from fire departments and emergency facilities nationwide. Gold, Silver and Bronze awards were issued across eight categories of facilities: Career 1, Career 2, Co-Located, Combination, Renovations, Satellite,...
A dozen basketball games got played Saturday afternoon in the Lake Roosevelt gym, but each of them included only 10 minutes of play. The Raider teams - both junior varsity and varsity teams for both girls and boys, hosted the six-school Basketball Jamboree event with Soap Lake, Omak, Inchelium, Nespelem, and Moses Lake Christian. Each team played two short games with three referees packing in a lot of play in just 10 minutes, but not much attention was paid to stats or even scores for long. It...
School district directors heard from surprised teachers Monday night as the district sought permission to make budget changes to meet the reality of shortfalls, stemming from many causes. Depending on whose estimate you’re looking at, the deficit could be from $600,000 to $1.2 million next year. Administrators want to find ways to cut back now to avoid blowing through all the reserves by the end of the current school year. Superintendent Rod Broadnax asked for approval of an emergency measure to allow the district to adjust as needed, i...
Coulee Dam’s town council heard a seconds-long discussion on the town’s lease of the Village Cinema space that had dominated the Nov. 12 council meeting a week earlier. At the end of the Nov. 19 special meeting, which mainly dealt with items like paying the bills, passing the budget for 2026 and a few other items, Mayor Bob Poch addressed the single item listed under Discussion Agenda, the theater lease. No one had anything to say except City Attorney Mick Howe. He said he didn’t have much to add to what had already been said, but he added that...
I would like to comment on the theater in Coulee Dam. I understand that Coulee Dam is cancelling their lease. It seems like Coulee Dam finally, after years of an empty, useless space, has something positive to offer families in the area, as well as tourists. This includes more than just movies or even movies and a snack bar. It has turned into an all-around entertainment center, offering different forms of educational programs, free matinees and live entertainment, along with an arcade and other fun activities. A lot of new equipment has been...
Larry Hernandez asked for community support and got it as he presented his case to Coulee Dam's town council for an alteration of his lease for the Village Cinema. The council meeting room crowd was standing room only Nov. 12 and spilled out the door as the council wrapped up an earlier meeting and budget hearing, then opened up to hear comments on the city's decision to terminate the theater's lease in the city community building. Hernandez detailed a timeline of starts and stalls with working...
The town of Coulee Dam is offering to buy a piece of property owned by STCU, following a town council vote taken Nov. 12. The part of the lot north of the credit union’s building in Coulee Dam is to be acquired by the town for $65,750, the price offered by STCU. The council voted to approve the purchase, although Councilmember Keith St. Jeor “recused” himself from the vote. “I think in my own mind, it would be a good addition to the city if the city owned that property,” Mayor Bob Poch said. “We have no place else to go for any major impro...
Mayor Ruth Dalton leads Chantelle Crowe by just 18 votes in the election to decide who the next mayor will be. Dalton has 53.91% of the 230 votes cast, while Crowe’s votes at last count on Nov. 14 stood at 46.09%, 124-108. Grant County’s elections office will count the remaining 30 ballots Nov.19 at 5 p.m. Those 30 ballots left to count are for all races in the county’s 81 precincts. It’s not impossible for that small number to make a difference, again, in another Grand Coulee election. The race for the city council member 2 seat has flipped tw...
Kudos for the letter to the editor dated October 29th from Kurt Steinke. Thanks, Mr. Steinke, for speaking out! Impartial news is all but extinct and has been for quite some time. It’s all about pointing fingers now and hating the opposing side. These United States have turned their collective backs on God, the Bible, He gave us, and just plain Christian decency for so long, that I’m shocked He has held our Nation together for this long. Recently I heard it said by a reputable source, that of the near 1100 registered voters in Grand Cou...
The town of Coulee Dam is terminating its lease of the Village Cinema to the proprietor who has spent over a year coming up with new ways to breathe life into the shell that had been vacant for over a decade. Larry Hernandez posted on the theater’s Facebook last week that he’s been ignored since August when he proposed mediation to come to an agreement about his rent going forward and that he waited for 10 months for the city to propose new language in the lease after the town council wanted to have the city attorney clarify it. “This build... Full story
An enterprise seeking to convert the old Center School into the "Center Senior Living" assisted living project has made significant progress. In fact, they now own the building. The project, driven by a dedicated board including local professionals and community members, aims to address the lack of local assisted living facilities, which forces seniors to move far away. The project has secured a $1 million federal grant for hazmat abatement and demolition, and they've raised $291,000 in local...
Mayor Ruth Dalton pulled ahead in the race to keep her office in Grand Coulee. Dalton switched the advantage since last week, when challenger Chantel Crowe, the deputy city clerk was ahead by a few votes. Dalton now leads with 56% of the vote, 120-104. Likewise, for Grand Coulee’s council member 2 seat, Andrew Dobson pulled ahead of Cameron Whitney 88- 79. Cheryl Hoffman gained a 54% lead over Jeremiah Seekins in the race for Electric City’s Council Member 1 seat, 154-129. Bradley Oliver holds an insurmountable 185-97 lead over Robbin Boy...
Seven Lake Roosevelt Raiders traveled to Pasco to compete in the WIAA State XC Championships last week, which has not occurred with a Raider team since this one's oldest athlete was in first grade, Coach Matthew Timentwa said. At a school assembly the day before they got on the bus for Sun Willows Golf Course outside Pasco, Timentwa praised the team. "They worked so hard this year," the coach said. "They all ... put in their best effort, every single one of them, and every single day." Timentwa...
An important institution celebrated its 90th anniversary Saturday, when the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department members gathered at the fire station on Spokane Way, which was built in the 1970s. The modern fire department was consolidated from two earlier, separate departments for the different parts of the city, Rick Paris recounted as people gathered at the station for food and drink, and to honor the department's work and role in the community. Before there was a city or an ordinance to...
Even in an election year when most races were for often uncontested local offices, several were too close to call last night when county election offices stopped counting ballots after 8 p.m. In Grand Coulee, Mayor Ruth Dalton wasn’t getting too nervous yet about barely trailing by 52-48, Chantel Crowe, the city’s deputy clerk who decided to run for the mayor’s office. Neither was Crowe, reached on her way back from a leadership class in Ephrata. She also said it was too close to call. “As of now, I’m excited and I’m certainly honored,” she sai...
The Raider football team capped their season Thursday night with a big win at home on senior night. Lake Roosevelt hosted the Tekoa-Rosalia Timberwolves in an 8-man game that took the place of an originally scheduled contest with the Okanogan Bulldogs. Head Coach Geary Oliver said the Raiders forfeited to Okanogan because it would have been a mismatch, going against one of the primary safety guidelines coaches in the state are supposed to follow: don't mismatch teams. He indicated this year's...
Lake Roosevelt’s boys’ cross-country team took sixth place at the District 5 meet Thursday and qualified seven athletes to compete at the state meet in Pasco Nov. 8. Senior Caden Portch set a personal record to take seventh out of 93 competitors on the district’s 3-mile race at Apple Ridge last week in 16 minutes, 33.4 seconds, beating his own 3-mile time at Oroville last month by 13.5 seconds. Each Raider set a personal record on the 3-mile course. After a send-off assembly at the school on Thursday at 10:15 a.m., the team will board the b...
by Scott Hunter The Care and Share Food Bank, like many others, is getting ready to meet the needs of people who will be caught in the midst of the fight in Congress that has shut down much of the nation’s federal government, including food assistance. “Thanks to our government budget, local support and prudent management, we will be able to support all those in need with basic food support,” Shawn Neider wrote in a note to The Star about what the local food bank expects. “We may have to spread our food thinner but nobody needs to starve.” Neid...
by Scott Hunter It wasn’t for a far-off cause that people gathered to walk through brilliant fall foliage on a perfect afternoon last Thursday. It was to help local women get a mammogram, a screening that can detect breast cancer early and thereby save lives. It was Walking Together for Mammograms. Kelly Buche said she is “a survivor, nine years strong, nine years grateful and nine years blessed” because she had good health insurance. “But I was lucky,” said the local accountant just before aw...
As over 7 million people reportedly took part in No Kings demonstration around the United States Saturday, a group of about 100 of them walked on Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee, waving signs and chatting, dancing to music, and wearing inflatable suits. The crowd was several times the size of what has become the usual 20-35 on a weekly basis in downtown Grand Coulee each Saturday. Started by a single person, Sheri Edwards (my wife) who decided last February she had to do something to speak up...
The outcome of the game with Liberty Bell was even more lopsided than the numbers of players on each football team, but not much. The Mountain Lions mauled the Raiders 70-46 in only the second home game of a "weird" season for the Raiders, and their second to last game of the year. For the Lake Roosevelt team, the challenging schedule comes in part from decisions to play 8-man ball when too few players on either team were eligible. Out of a total official roster of 21, Raiders in the game often...
Lake Roosevelt’s soccer players ended their regular season and their winning streak last night with a 5-0 loss to Tonasket, but a win-loss record of 5-3 in the Central Washington 2B League and 9-5 overall. The LR team finished 15th out of 48 teams in the 2B classification in Washington with a 0.5184 RPI. Now seeded third, the Raiders will play Saturday at home at 11 a.m. in game one of the District 5 tournament for the start of postseason play in a loser-out game. They'll host sixth seed Liberty Bell. This story was updated....
An elementary school teacher was arrested Monday on a charge of “Communication with a Minor for Immoral Purposes.” Kittitas County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Ross Ashenfelter, a fourth-grade teacher at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School at 11:55 a.m. Ashenfelter, 42, of Coulee Dam, was arrested at the school, where he was doing some administrative work while the school was closed for the holiday, the sheriff’s department said in a statement. The sheriff’s office said the arrest resulted from investigations by detectives with the Washington taskf...
The Trump Administration on Friday reportedly fired the entire staff of an office in the Treasury Department that runs a broadly popular program that helps local loan funds in places that are typically underserved by banks, including Native American reservations. The Community Development Financial Institutions that get the funds loan them out to small businesses to help develop local economies, often for higher rates than a bank might charge if they were interested. Those CDFIs include the... Full story
Coulee Dam will not be providing a school resource officer for Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School this year as was earlier expected. Mayor Bob Poch said at the Oct. 8 town council meeting that the town didn’t have enough police officers to cover the duties at this point. The town just swore in a new officer last week. Police Chief Paul Bowden said there was not enough time to get everything done before sending an officer to that duty. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Rod Broadnax said the delay actually helps the district with a b...