News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1028 - 1052 of 1807
Grant County sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday morning, May 23, recovered the body of a man from the waters of Banks Lake south of Electric City. Deputies were called around 7:30 a.m. after a boater discovered the body, later identified as 72-year-old Garlan W. Crosswhite of Olalla, Kitsap County. Crosswhite’s boat was found beached along the east shoreline about two miles away. Campers at a campground just north of the Million Dollar Mile, about milepost 9 on SR-155, told a Grand Coulee police officer assisting that a camper and boat tra...
After attending the opening of the wine bar on Main Street Friday night, the ribbon cutting at the new art gallery on Spokane Way on Saturday, and getting a bite and a cup afterward at the new coffee house a block away, a niggling, suppressed hope fought its way to the surface. Its seed has always been present, but lately held at bay. Statements from some who return to the coulee after long absences that “this place never changes,” and our own feeling that we’ve been using the word “potential” about the economics of the area for too long for...
An Idaho man died Saturday afternoon on SR-21 between Wilbur and the Keller Ferry when his motorcycle crossed the centerline on a sharp curve and struck a guardrail, the Washington State Patrol reported. Larry Everett Merriman, 75, was headed north on a 2002 Yamaha XVS11AP near milepost 99 and entering a sharp, left-to-right curve when he crossed the southbound lane, striking the guardrail just after noon May 26. Merriman was wearing an approved helmet, and neither drugs nor alcohol were a factor in the crash, the State Patrol reported. His... Full story
To call it a "school assembly" might give you the wrong impression. It was a rap concert at the end, but the bulk of it before the bass throbbed was all about honesty, mistakes, permanent hurt, forgiveness, letting go, and choices. James Pakootas was on a destructive path not too long ago, until he realized he was making the wrong choices. He told students at Lake Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School, plus a few from the elementary grades, that he had chosen the wrong way to deal with the hurt...
When Amanda Burton moved into a house on River Drive in Coulee Dam, she noticed it's a very busy road with no crosswalk where drivers often speed through, very near Lake Roosevelt Schools. Her kids are a couple years away from walking to school, but about 15 kids cross to and from the school every day, she told the Rotary Club last week. River Drive is also SR-155, which slows to a 35 mph speed zone at the city limits as drivers approach from the north. "A lot of people don't slow down when... Full story
Students at Lake Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School intend to petition the state Legislature to reject the state’s official folk song because its original lyrics contain references they consider racist. Seventh-grade students studying state symbols in Washington state history were upset when they recently heard lyrics in Woody Guthrie’s seminal “Roll on, Columbia,” which are not listed in the Secretary of State’s web page about the song. Written just after Guthrie had seen Bonneville Dam on his month-long commission from the Bonnevill...
An alarm that drew six fire engines, an ambulance, 22 firefighters and emergency medical personnel, plus three police officers tested their response plan but revealed only smoke at the high school gym Thursday about 3:45 p.m. The problem was apparently an old electrical breaker in an electrical room in the basement of the old gym, according to a press release from area fire chiefs. Damage was limited to the electrical equipment and the related smoke damage. When firefighters arrived, the room was filled with smoke, but no flame. The cause is st...
A candidate for Congress announced a tour of the state’s 4th Congressional District that includes a town-hall meeting tonight (Wednesday) in Coulee Dam and a coffee shop visit the next morning. The Christine Brown for Congress campaign announced last week a “Big Table Tour” that includes stops in small towns. It started in Oroville on Monday morning. Brown will hold a public meeting at Coulee Dam Town Hall, 300 Lincoln Avenue, tonight from 6-8 p.m. The next morning from 8-10 a.m. she’ll hold a “Coffee with Christine” at Voltage Coffee Hous...
It's not easy for most people in policy-making positions far away to appreciate what the word "rural" actually means. That's a problem when it could mean life or death. That's a point people with Coulee Medical Center's obstetrics program tried to make last week with a regional bus ride and presentation aimed at those who can influence policies that can either make it possible or impossible for the hospital to continue delivering babies. Leaders at the hospital fee strongly that stopping that se...
Jarred-Michael Erickson leads Janet (Wak Wak) Nicholson by just one vote in the Saturday polling for Nespelem Position 1 on the Colville Business Council, one of seven seats up for election. The poll vote was certified Monday, but can change dramatically as absentee ballots are counted later this week. Nicholson held the edge 50-51, followed by Charlene Bearcub, 30; Joaquin Marchand, 27; and Anna Vargas, 20. Andrea George held only a two-point lead over Darnell Sam for Nespelem Position 2, 56-54, followed by Sheilah Cleveland, 40; and Jonnie...
Few things in modern life are as complicated as healthcare. That fact was all too apparent last week as Coulee Medical Center officials presented their case for supporting the practice of delivering babies in rural hospitals, especially CMC. From a simple accounting perspective, obstetrics would make lots of sense to cut out if the budget is tight (and it is). But that could mean also getting rid of other services that support obstetrics, along with other services. CMC’s push to highlight the need is on the front page. And then there’s the opi...
A candidate for Congress announced a tour of the state’s 4th Congressional District that includes a town-hall meeting tonight (Wednesday) in Coulee Dam and a coffee shop visit the next morning. The Christine Brown for Congress campaign announced last week a “Big Table Tour” that includes stops in small towns. It started in Oroville on Monday morning. Brown will hold a public meeting at Coulee Dam Town Hall, 300 Lincoln Avenue, tonight from 6-8 p.m. The next morning from 8-10 a.m. she’ll hold a “Coffee with Christine” at Voltage Coffee Hous... Full story
The curtain on the stage in the Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School gym, the one the class of 2018 will walk under to pick up their diplomas in June, is falling apart, a problem possibly remedied by spaghetti. At least that's what the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club hopes to do with a fundraising dinner this Saturday at the school cafeteria. The club, famous locally for its spaghetti, is selling tickets for the dinner that will be dished up from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The curtains, said music...
The town of Coulee Dam and the Colville Tribes are negotiating on working together so that each might complete projects to bring high-speed internet service to the town and to the Colville Reservation. "Whether we like it or not, the internet is air," Sanjay Saggere told the town council last week. "I come from a place where I could breathe internet; here I can only breathe air." Saggere, who the tribes hired as their new chief information officer earlier this year, said that the Colville Confed...
All those at the scene of what could have been a horrific tragedy Saturday evening, at the Columbia River Bridge in Coulee Dam, were greatly relieved when it wasn’t. Viewed from the bridge, a woman on the road far below near the river was screaming the name of her teenage daughter, apparently convinced she’d fallen from the bridge. After a passerby called 911 about 6:20, police and first responder emergency crews arrived, trying to help, assessing the situation. Searchers were watching the sho...
The local Rotary Club will put on a spaghetti dinner April 28, to raise funds to help replace disintegrating stage curtains at Lake Roosevelt Schools. The club, which took a lead role in organizing community support and talks around the new school, built in 2014, continues working toward school improvements with fund-raisers and member donations. The curtains on the stage of the old Lake Roosevelt gym, the one LR’s seniors walk across at graduation, has reportedly been in bad shape for decades and may be the kind of capital project that’s dif...
A draft plan for parks and recreation in the town of Coulee Dam that will lay out goals and objectives for the next 20 years was presented to the town council last week. The second edit of the draft Parks and Recreation Plan will go through yet another edit before being finally adopted. That should be presented at the council’s next meeting April 11. “I don’t see it as a wish list,” Larry Curtis told the council in presenting the plan, “I see it as a doable list.” The document is a part of the the town’s “comprehensive plan” and is often a ne...
Coming off a strong winter season, Coulee Medical Center showed upbeat financial numbers, including a nearly $200,000 gain in February and a big drop in the amount the hospital owes to Grant County. Chief Financial Officer Kelly Hughes told Hospital District 6 commissioners Monday night of a gain of $312,830 for the first two months of 2018. She said March had ended with CMC’s registered warrant balance at the county at $1,993,945. At one point that balance was more than $4 million. Hughes noted a government reimbursement had come in at $...
Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School was named a "school of distinction" for its continuous improvement over five years in English/Language Arts and Math. In presenting an award to the school board Monday night, Linda McKay, assistant superintendent of the North Central Educational Service District, said it was given to only 98 of some 2,300 schools in the state, and LR's progress ranked in the top 3.8 percent. "I did the math," she said, noting that a plaque presented merely noted the top 5...
After five years leading the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors and a total of nearly a dozen years on the board, Joette Barry resigned Monday night because she is moving out of the district. “We’re the longest renters in the United States at the same address,” she joked after the meeting to explain the move. The house they’ve been renting in Electric City for years will be sold by its owner, who lives in Arizona. Joette and her husband, Jim, own a house in Coulee City and will be moving there within six weeks, but it won’t be...
It's something you rarely see: a large group of high school and junior high school students standing together, not saying a word. That happened March 14 in the parking lot at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School amidst light rain, puddles and heavy reflection for 17 people who died in a Florida school shooting Feb. 14. The students had left the school, joining in a national walkout organized by students and either tolerated, encouraged or forbidden by their local schools, nearly 3,000 of...
There may be good reasons for Electric City to consider un-acquiring territory it gained when it annexed a considerable amount of land several years ago, but the city council should think about it more than a little before doing so. Some people probably think it would be best for one of the likeliest growth spots in the area to be devoid of local leadership or direction. If members of the council are hoping that turkeys would roam free beyond the causeway, they may be right. The area didn’t develop after the Great Recession killed all p...
Coulee Dam will get some sidewalks fixed when a big project moves forward this year, the result of a vote to move ahead despite higher-than-expected bids on the street project to revamp an area on the east side of town, including Cedar Street. The council accepted a bid from Moreno and Nelson Construction for $820,000 for the work, about 5 percent of which the city must pay with its own funds, about $4,900. The rest comes from the state Transportatin Investment Board. The highest bid came in at more than $1 million. Engineers had estimated...
Coulee Dam wants to know if its residents would like high-speed internet access through a fiber-optic broadband network it's considering building, some of it just for its own use and savings. After researching the origin of some 96 strands of fiber that crosses the Columbia River in a city power conduit underneath the bridge, the city purchased for $34,995 the fiber that winds through west Coulee Dam, crosses the bridge and actually supplies broadband internet access to some enterprises on the...
The way they passed it says it all. With almost no public input or notice, the Washington State Legislature last week passed a bill to exempt itself from a law the citizens of the state decided decades ago should apply to all public agencies: the Public Records Act. The legislators who represent you voted for it too, if you live anywhere around the Grand Coulee Dam area. The bill they passed came in response to a lawsuit the Legislature was losing. Last month a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled that the state’s lawmakers are, in fact,... Full story