News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1085 - 1109 of 1807
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
An Electric City man went missing Monday night, prompting authorities to issue a "Silver Alert." Donald S. Fisher, 69, was last seen about 7 p.m. wearing a blue fleece coat, blue jeans, brown boots and a white hat. He is 5 feet, 9 inches tall, has gray hair, a white beard and brown eyes. Suffering from recent strokes and a brain surgery, Fisher is "almost non-verbal in communication" the alert issued by the Grant County Sheriff's Office said. He left without his medications, wallet or keys and... Full story
Officials from the Colville Tribes visited with the Coulee Dam Town Council Wednesday to explain the tribes’ plan to write a comprehensive parks and recreation plan that will include all the towns on the reservation and that would be useful to all of them in seeking project funding. When governments apply for grant or loan funding for projects, granting agencies generally require the project to be part of an overall plan. But small towns sometimes don’t have such plans in place when funding opportunities arise. Frank Andrews, of Colville Tri...
Most of us don’t think much beyond an initial “Oh, wow!” reaction when we hear about the rescue of someone from a harrowing situation, but a local man has played that part for most of his life. Archie Dennis was chosen as our volunteer of the year because he’s the kind of guy who shows up anywhere he might be needed in places a lot of people would not want to go. His story and photo on the front page will let us all think of the human beings behind those news stories, whether they’re about rescuing someone off a cliff or recovering a drowning...
With weather nearly ideal, despite a little wildfire smoke, moods were upbeat all around for the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's Harvest Festival last weekend. The event drew in 200 registrants for the Run the Dam foot race, gained a powwow hosted by Coulee Medical Center and showed local wannabe barbecuers what real meat tastes like at a sanctioned barbecue contest. Alan O'Neal was the winner of the TV set. In the run results, Kyle Rattray, 34, won the half marathon in 6 hours, 51...
If you notice the grass turning to brown at North Dam Park, blame a faulty pump. The Bureau of Reclamation installed a submerged pump in Banks Lake several years ago just over North Dam, which abuts the park. That pump quit working last week, Wade Taylor told the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District Monday night. His Taylor Enterprises has been watering and mowing the lawn at the park this year, but on Thursday no water flowed to the sprinklers. Taylor reported to district commissioners...
In a fine example of disfunction, the current failure of local government to get a simple thing done should lead reasonable people to look for an alternative. It sounds like a simple matter. Some repairs are needed, and called for by the insurers, at the local refuse transfer station operated on behalf of the four local towns by the Regional Board of Mayors. But the process necessary for the RBOM to actually do anything legally requires the ratification of four municipal councils — four legislative bodies designed to deliberate city b...
It's not made of concrete and steel, but a new wing, of sorts, was added to Coulee Medical Center last week - a teepee. The effort was paid for with a grant and is an extension of CMC's ongoing efforts to cater to the whole patient, including a patient's spiritual needs. About a third of CMC's patients are American Indian, and leaders at the hospital were bothered by an inability to allow, for various practical reasons, certain cleansing ceremonies inside the hospital. Drumming and singing have...