News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1078 - 1102 of 1807
Leaders of the little government district that has kept North Dam Park from collapsing into disrepair for several years is feeling uncertain about the future. After approving a budget Monday night in which they show spending at about $33,000 next year, commissioners at the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District, all volunteers, discussed the uncertainty of the district’s continued funding. Originally formed with the intent of building a swimming pool in 2003, the district has never collected a tax to help fund its efforts, having been t...
Two Coulee Dam residents surrendered to authorities Sunday as suspects in a Moses Lake stabbing. Rebecca N. Norton, 28, and 24-year-old Aaron Pfaltzgraff-Miller, both of Coulee Dam surrendered about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, the Grant County Sheriff's Office said. Responders were called about 4 a.m. Saturday to the 11000 block of Road 14 Northeast for an adult male who had been stabbed. Investigators said everyone involved had been at the home for a party. The victim, whom authorities did not name,...
Although they passed a $9.6 million budget unanimously, the mayor had to break two ties to get to that point at a Coulee Dam council meeting Monday night. The sticking points were around changes to rates for utilities that Councilmember Keith St. Jeor said he didn’t recall coming up in budget workshops. It wasn’t about a lot of money — up to $200 in total, the mayor said, for a handful of people eligible to receive lower rates due to low income. But because rates hadn’t been raised or lowered evenly for all, across the board, St. Jeor didn’t fe...
Parents and school employees spoke loud, clear and long at a long school board meeting Monday about a lack of discipline in Grand Coulee Dam School District schools, an issue that involves much more than the schools alone. This community is not alone in wrestling with the consequences of society’s wrong turns. Although school personnel complain that they should not feel unsafe at work, and neither should their students, similar complaints can be found in school districts across the state. If you imagine, as an adult, that the norms you were rai...
Grant County detectives are looking for two Coulee Dam people named as suspects in an early morning stabbing near Moses Lake. Investigators are looking for 28-year-old Rebecca N. Norton and 24-year-old Aaron Pfaltzgraff-Miller, both of Coulee Dam. Responders were called about 4 a.m. today (Saturday, Nov. 25) to the 11000 block of Road 14 Northeast for an adult male who had been stabbed. Investigators said everyone involved had been at the home for a party. The victim, whom authorities did not...
Army Specialist Jonathan Hughes had been back from Iraq since September when he spoke at the local chamber of commerce meeting last week. He spent nine months in the northern part of the country, including in Mosul, the city that was taken from ISIS last summer and was basically leveled in the process as Iraqi forces moved forward. "Our job was just to advise and assist," Hughes said. "Every movement that they made, we were one step behind them." A "combat engineer," Hughes said American forces...
Local emergency responders rushed to the scene of a one-car rollover Monday morning after a federal security officer found a man crawling from his overturned car along the highway to Bridgeport. James Hernandez, 21, of Spokane had been heading east on SR-174 when his 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis swerved to the right before Hernandez overcorrected, then drove off the highway to the left, a Washington State Patrol report concludes. A highway sign was broken and lying on the ground, and the Grand...
Ramona Hicks started “turning over the rocks” in June, as she took the lead position at Coulee Medical Center after the resignation of the last CEO. And lately, Hicks has been meeting with as many community groups as possible to tell the story of the hospital’s current status and finances, and to ask what the community really wants and expects from the hospital. Hicks, the interim chief executive officer, spoke at the Rotary Club last Wednesday. Although business has been brisk, so is the rate at which expenses pile up, and the hospital is suff...
When Fritz McGinnis wanted to buy Russell Drug in Grand Coulee decades ago, he had no way of knowing his ambition to run a community drug store here would eventually be realized by a couple he hadn’t yet met, the eventual owners of the company of small community pharmacies he grew. That would be Amanda and Paul Goyke, who are working hard to get ready for the opening next week of their latest new pharmacy, inside Coulee Medical Center. “Everything goes in circles,” Amanda says, reflecting on the intersection of the history of their compa...
The average citizen in modern American is too far removed from the reality that keeps our country demanding more of those who choose to serve the country with military service. So inside this issue of The Star, we include our annual salute to our veterans, with photos and names of those who have served, and who have ties to the local area. We add more each year; some who served long ago, some who served more recently or are serving now. Page after page shows us the cost of war and the sacrifice and dedication required to support our nation, eve...
For David Schmidt, serving on the town council is a civic duty, one he is currently fulfilling for the second time, having served an earlier term a decade ago. "It's just a sense of feeling of responsibility to the community where you live," Schmidt said in an interview last week. "Everybody has a responsibility to ... offer to society what you have the skills for." Schmidt served as president of the Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union for 35 years, taking the financial institution from $1.2...
Fred Netzel has been prodding Coulee Dam's current administration and town council for more than a year to take action on issues he finds important, so he's running for a council seat to be more effective. It started with encouraging the town to fix badly broken sidewalks, an issue he raised at a council meeting in July 2016. "As time unfolded, I realized that from the outside you can only get so much done," said Netzel, who has canvassed the town door-to-door with flyers and petitions to make...
Coulee Dam Councilmember Gayle Swagerty says Coulee Dam is making a lot of good progress and she has the most experience to carry it forward as mayor after current Mayor Greg Wilder steps down at the end of his term in January. "I really care for this town," she said last week. "I know how to take the town forward in the future." Swagerty, who was elected to the town council and began serving in 2014 along with Wilder, points to her increased involvement with oversight of some important...
Larry Price thinks people in Coulee Dam aren't happy with the tone of their current government, and he wants to change that. Price is running for mayor against Gayle Swagerty, whom he considers to be a "clone" of Mayor Greg Wilder. Price notes he doesn't go to town council meetings much. "I do not like the agression; I do not like the anger," he said. "I see it from the mayor; I see it from some of the council people." He said he sees people being bullied. "That's no way to run a city. ... I...
Bruce Bartoo doesn't like the direction the town of Coulee Dam has headed the last four years. "Except for the wastewater treatment plant, it seems like everything that's been happening has involved trees in one form or another," said Bartoo, a retired powerplant operator. But the town has other problems that need to be addressed: the fire department has been downgraded, the ambulance service doesn't exist, and he'd like to see more fiscal responsibility. Although he said he's never looked at...
Marcia Warnecke has lived in Coulee Dam for 45 years and now she’d like to help the town by serving on the town council. “I think I can offer some objective, new ideas and help,” she said. “It’s important to be able to listen and hear every side and make your own decisions.” Keeping the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant on track is important to her, she said. “We need to take care of our city,” she said. “If somebody doesn’t get involved and help, it can’t be done alone.” With her lengthy and in-depth local experience, Warne...
Elected positions for Grand Coulee Dam School District and the city of Coulee Dam are up for election, and The Star will publish candidate interviews for each contested position in our Oct. 25 issue. In Coulee Dam, the mayor’s office is sought by current Councilmember Gayle Swaggerty and by Larry Price. Voters will also choose between incumbant Councilmember David Schmidt or challenger Fred Netzel for Position 1 on the council. Bruce Bartoo and Marcia Warnecke both seek Position 3 on the council. Each of the contested Coulee Dam offices e...
Coulee Medical Center is taking an abrupt change in the direction of a plan that was introduced just six months ago as a way to right its finances, and it’s rebuilding its in-house billing department with an emphasis on efficiency. The new direction comes just half a year after then-CEO Jonathan Owens decided to cut non-medical staff and outsource the billing of insurers to an out-of-state company in an effort to get paid more quickly for services. But the effort backfired, says current Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks, and the hospital is...
A few years ago, Electric City inadvertently ran afoul of the rules for properly appropriating funds brought in by taxes collected from motel and campground patrons, leading to a small fiscal problem when the city had to repay the money to its own reserves. The city should be careful that it’s not about to make that mistake multiplied many times over. When city council members and the mayor back then decided that those hotel/motel taxes could be used to buy Christmas lighting to decorate power poles along the main thoroughfare, they reasoned t...
The town of Coulee Dam will soon become a “non-charter code city,” following a vote at the town council meeting last week. The council voted unanimously to make the switch that Town Attorney Mick Howe said most other municipalities in Washington have already taken. The proposal met with concern among citizens last June, who showed up at a council meeting after hearing of the proposal via a letter delivered door-to-door by a town council candidate, Fred Netzel. His concern, he said at the time, was not that the move would be bad for the tow...
A local man drove over a steep embankment at an overlook just below Grand Coulee Dam Friday night, surviving a 200-foot plunge down the hill. Christopher Coffey, 32, of Electric City, was ejected from the 2000 Toyota Tundra he was driving, ending up about 25 yards from the pickup, the Washington State Patrol and local police reported. As he headed southbound on SR-155 just before 7:30, Coffey drove uphill through two fences and an aluminum street light pole before heading over the hill to the...
A study on Elmer City’s options for sewage treatment suggests the town may save over the long run by building a new treatment plant of its own, instead of extending its decades-long contract with Coulee Dam. Elmer City has received its wastewater treatment plant alternative study developed by Indian Health Services, and the report will get its first airing at the town council’s meeting, Oct. 12. The report provides several alternative routes for the town to develop its own sewage treatment system, or do nothing at all and remain with Cou...
State Patrol investigators are piecing together the scene of a crash near the top of Grand Coulee Dam tonight. A driver apparently powered through the parking lot in the overlook just below the top of Grand Coulee Dam, knocked over a street light, drove through the fence and down the long hill to the bottom of the ravine at Riley Point. No tracks were visible on the hillside lit by the floodlights of a Bureau of Reclamation fire truck about 9 p.m. tonight, suggesting the pickup at the bottom...
So, Jacob took a ton of photos this week and we actually got the best of them online. You might be in some. Below is a slideshow, but you can find all our photos online here...
An Electric City man who went missing Monday night, prompting authorities to issue a “Silver Alert,” was found Tuesday afternoon and is safe. Donald S. Fisher, 69, hadn’t been seen since about 7 p.m. Monday, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday morning in a “Silver Alert,” a system used in the United States to disseminate information about missing persons — especially senior citizens with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease — in order to aid in locating them. Fisher had been suffering from recent strokes and a brain surgery and... Full story