News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 601 - 625 of 1887
The Colville Tribes and top federal officials of the Environmental Protection Agency met Tuesday to discuss and announce proposed changes to air quality regulations that affect some Indian reservations, including the Colville Reservation. The Federal Air Rules for Reservations (FARR) apply to all residents and businesses on or within 39 reservations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation hosted the EPA's deputy administrator, Janet McCabe, and...
Police were not giving out any information tonight as officers from various agencies arrived from far away to diverge on Nespelem, where tribal police were searching for an active shooter. Colville Tribal Emergency Services posted a warning on Facebook about 7 p.m., asking Nespelem residents to stay in their homes. The mayor also issued that plea and added that a car chase was happening with someone shooting at police. Many commenters on Facebook made statements on social media giving other... Full story
Maybe she thought she could trust me, or maybe she just really needed to tell someone right then. We were both about 10, and our conversation then sheds light for me on a minor item in today’s report from the Elmer City Council meeting last week. She’d come over to our house with her parents, who were friends with my parents. Sally and I didn’t know each other well, but got along OK. She was with me when I fell off the cliff, but that will come a little later on in this story. This is about her, and all of us. We lived at the foot of Marshal Gr...
The reduced amount elected school board directors at the Grand Coulee Dam School District are seeking in the upcoming levy should be an easy yes for voters. Sensitive to the times we’re in and emerging from, the board changed course in July after getting feedback on an earlier proposal. In essence, they cut their ask in half. That doesn’t mean the needs are fewer, but it does show there’s flexibility in meeting long-term needs for maintenance and upgrades. Unless your property was assessed this year at more than twice what it was before (high...
As a community, we are facing a significant decision between now and November 8th, Election Day this year. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, the outcome of this decision will affect everyone in our extended community — young and old alike. The result of this community-wide decision will clearly have an impact on the quality of education received by our school-aged children. As voters we must decide whether we will continue to financially support the public schools in the GCDSD area by approving a school levy…or not. The successful edu...
After a nice break for a couple weeks, the infection control nurse at Coulee Medical Center had to get back in the saddle the third week in September with three employees out with Covid-19. And as of Monday night, reported CEO Ramona Hicks to the hospital district board, five more employees were isolating due to exposure and 10 more were testing for it. The hospital has lost 710 working days among staff, due to the covid pandemic. Covid-19 isn’t going anywhere, officials say, but there are still precautions to take to prevent yourself, and o...
The wastewater treatment plant that takes care of all the sewage from Grand Coulee and Electric City has been in operation continually since 1985, treating 127 gallons a minute on average. The two cities have not grown out of it capacity-wise, but it’s “aging out” and needs an update, according to consulting engineering firm Gray and Osborne, which is working on a plan to update for the next 20 years. “What the guys are largely running up against is that … some of the equipment is just no longer made,” Gray and Osborne Engineer Nancy Wetch...
People in Nespelem opened up a new ball field Friday, complete with dugouts, fencing all around, bleachers, a tall backstop, and synthetic turf. The baseball/softball field can also be used for other activities, such as soccer and flag football. To underscore that point, after speeches concluded, the first game played was a game of kickball with players of all ages. Little bits of black rubber rose like heavy dust behind runners, then falling immediately back below the fabric that serves as the...
It was constructed nearly three years ago, but people behind putting up an informative kiosk at North Dam Park, delayed by circumstances, decided to hold a ceremony to officially open it last Saturday. The kiosk tells historical information about the area, and gives overviews of some of its features. Washington State Parks' Coulee Corridor Area Manager Dennis Felton and board member Birdie Hensley were joined by longtime corridor president Tim Alling, who cut the ribbon on the basalt...
Rep. Dan Newhouse’s call on this page for the U.S. Senate to pass his Farm Workforce Modernization Act repeats his longtime call for reform, and it’s by most accounts a reasonable and necessary legislation for all the reasons he states in his column on this page. There are factors he doesn’t mention that you might want to know, and I have one question. First, not everyone agrees the bill is a good one. Some farm workers organizations say it would cause hardships on their constituent population and even allow pitting them against one anoth...
The wildfire smoke in the air, which may come from this or that fire depending on which way the wind is blowing, is unpleasant and unhealthy to breathe, and has an effect on local events. Grand Coulee Dam School District leaders discussed air quality at their board meeting on Sept. 12 when Superintendent Paul Turner discussed www.purpleair.com, showing how sensors installed at volunteer locations measure air quality. Local sensors on the network include one south of Osborn Bay, one near Spring Canyon, one in downtown Grand Coulee, another in ea...
A Nespelem man and two women from Omak ran into trouble and fruit crates Monday evening before Okanogan County Sheriff's deputies arrested them on several charges, the sheriff said. When a deputy tried to pull over a Ford F-250 in connection with thefts from a Tonasket retail store, the driver wouldn't stop, reached a dead end, then turned and tried to run into the deputy's vehicle, Sheriff Tony Hawley said in a press release. "Deputy Ray was able to accelerate and swerve away to narrowly avoid...
The recent suggestion that the area consider forming an emergency medical services district is a good one and could lead to a better service for everyone in the area when help is needed. Local leaders should consider it carefully, openly, and with open minds. They should also be mindful that at its core, the idea may be another attempt at an end run around a fundamental problem this community has always had but never faced constructively: lack of unity, even artificially induced disunity. An EMS district could be a great solution if local fire...
When the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services flew from Washington, D.C. to Seattle a couple weeks ago on a fact-finding mission, the CEO of Coulee Medical Center was on hand to give her some. Like the fact that in 2019, only fog or wildland fires could stop the transfer of a patient to another hospital for needed care, and that was rare. Now it happens from three to 10 times a week, and not because anyone is overrun with Covid-19 patients. Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks...
President Joe Biden likes to promote “union jobs” whenever he can, recognizing the tremendous contribution the union movement made in American history in the last century. This century, it’s less clear cut, as union numbers were decimated in most industries over recent decades, but it’s still worth recognizing and pondering. Today, some argue that with the emergence of artificial intelligence and robotics coming on, the role of human workers is actually somewhat questionable. Note that China is planning a large new hydroelectric dam — to be...
A computer system shut down the water system supplying Coulee Dam residents with drinking water sometime last weekend, but nobody knew it until pressures dropped low enough Monday morning. City Superintendent Mike Steffens said a computer programmer worked on restoring the system Monday morning, but the city crew still had to manually operate different valves across the system to equalize pressure and restore functionality. At Steffens' urging, the city purchased a new computer system to replace...
A neat trick in American politics is taking advantage of our collective unwillingness to really pay attention to what’s being said. So, when they talk about a real problem, attributing it or at least insinuating it’s due to some nefarious plot or stupidity by the other side, we nod our heads and sleepily agree when in the next sentence they offer a solution that is completely unrelated but liked by their own side. They’re relying on us to be long-blinking right past the propaganda, especially in the dog days of summer. That’s like naming a colu...
This is the last of three letters intending to bring clarity and facts to the community about the Grand Coulee Dam School District. This installment will address the complicated and challenging issue of school discipline. ISSUE: School Discipline This issue may be the most complex problem to quantify and eventually resolve in large part because it requires an all-hands effort to succeed. In short, there are no easy answers here. It is accurate to note that public school discipline is a wide-ranging challenge covering nearly every school...
I was excited to learn Norway’s government is investing €10 million over five years to develop cultivated meat and precision fermentation. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without slaughter. It’s better for the environment, public health, and livestock. “We can increase self-sufficiency in food in Norway, and we do not have to kill animals to produce the necessary protein,” said the project’s leader, Sissel Beate Rønning. “In Norway, we have both the expertise and the money needed to develop new tech...
A Nespelem man — who kidnapped three minor children at gunpoint in June of 2020, robbed and sexually assaulted another, stole a truck, committed arson, and led police on a high-speed chase — was sentenced last week to 22 years in federal prison in a case that authorities hailed as the result of great collaboration among several law enforcement agencies and the courage of his young victims. John Edward McGinnis, 35, of Nespelem, was sentenced Aug. 9 by United States Senior District Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson to 264 months, followed by a fiv...
This letter is an effort to bring clarity and facts into the conversation about the financial operations of the Grand Coulee Dam School District rather than unsubstantiated opinions. This is the second installment of three total letters addressing issues related to the GCDSD. This installment will address financial management. ISSUE: School District Fiscal Management THE FACTS: Despite what some may suggest, the Grand Coulee Dam School District is not broke, but it is financially challenged. Public education in this country is a very, very...
Firefighters responded to two small wildfires in the Lone Pine area Aug. 3 amid high temperatures and low humidity. John Purdue said he didn't know until his neighbor told him that the steep hillside just inches from his back deck was on fire. Firefighters from Okanogan County Fire District 2 and Coulee Dam were applying water and foam to a stump and burned grass in a patch along the downhill side of the Elmer City Access Road, with Purdue's house at the bottom on Lone Pine about 5 p.m. It was...
Apparent illnesses at Spring Canyon brought to light by a Facebook post apparently stopped on their own, officials said last week, although details were scant. “There are no facts,” stated Kim Hines at Lincoln County Public Health, noting the local clinic had recorded no cases of vomiting or diarrhea complained of by several people on the social media site after a commenter just wanted to find out how many might have been affected by whatever it was July 27-28. The Colville Tribal Health Dept. and the National Park Service each took sam...
This letter is an honest effort to bring clarity and facts to the rumors, innuendos and often half-truths that frequent this page when referring to the Grand Coulee Dam School District (GCDSD). The local community, in particular the parents of children attending a Lake Roosevelt school, deserve to know the facts. Each of the issues to be addressed is complex and complicated. However, we will endeavor to address the highlights of each matter as space permits. Because of space limitations, the issues will be addressed in three separate...
Election results last night for the state and the four local counties showed voters choosing candidates not from the extremes edges of the political spectrum but from something closer to the middle. The race to watch from now to November is for the 4th Congressional District, held by Rep. Dan Newhouse, who will face Doug White, a Democratic challenger who thinks he can win. Statewide, Newhouse was ahead by just 1,008 votes, leading with just 27.32% of the vote to White’s 25.98%. Newhouse faced primary challenges from seven Republicans who t...