News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1103 - 1127 of 1807
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...
The upcoming Harvest Festival will offer lots of fun for both local residents and tourists, but it’s also offers an easy way to get involved in a community activity. Putting on such an event takes a lot of coordination and a lot volunteers to coordinate. That latter half of that is where you can come in. Could you help out on the hay ride? Help with the Run the Dam race? Attend to little kids blowing bubbles? Greet vendors arriving? Help set up or tear down the “human foosball” court? The beer tent? The chamber of commerce has set up an easy...
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that its deputies and local police will soon receive training and anti-opioid overdose kits to counteract overdoses in the field. “Not only can we help the victim of an opioid overdose, we can also help another officer or one of our K-9s which becomes exposed to an opioid,” said Sheriff Tom Jones. “We do see many drug crimes involving opioids, and we have responded to several deaths caused by opioid abuse.” Opioids include heroin, morphine, fentanyl, codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, meperidin...
Two developments among the Colville Confederated Tribes are encouraging because they should mean the creation of many local jobs. The first is still in the entrepreneurial realm of risk, but could pay off. The tribal effort to develop a crop other than trees to grow on its land, and to do it with what could become a growth industry product, has great possibilities. Hemp can yield many useful products but was outlawed in this country in the 1930s along with its psychotropic cousin, marijuana. By taking advantage of more enlightened changes in... Full story
If you have not yet made your choice for the 2016 volunteer of the year, you have through this Friday to choose between Donna White, Cheryl Hoffman and Archie Dennis. Drop us a note at The Star or go to our online poll, marked here in this article online.... Full story
A Coulee City man died Monday afternoon as he rode a three-wheeled motorcycle down Highway 17 toward Soap Lake. Benjamin L. Coates, 78, was southbound about 13 miles north of Soap Lake when, according to a Washington State Patrol investigation, he passed three vehicles in a no-passing zone before a curve, moved back into the southbound lane, then lost control of the trike and drove off the right shoulder, hitting a rock wall. The crash happened about 12:26 p.m. at milepost 89. Coates was riding a blue 2011 Harley Davidson Tri Glide...
Coulee Dam utility customer charges for sewage treatment will likely rise $5-$6 a month to around $61-$62 per household equivalent when the town builds its new wastewater treatment plant, Mayor Greg Wilder told the town council at its Aug. 9 meeting. Construction is beginning on the $7.7 million project now with the contractor on site. Wilder said if Elmer City decides to build its own plant in eight years, when a contract between the two towns ends, the ERU (Equivalent Resident Unit) rate Coulee Dam residents would pay would rise to about...
Below are three letters nominating a few deserving people for the volunteer of the year. To help decide which of the three is picked to be honored on behalf of many local volunteers, readers should log onto our online poll, or mail in or deliver their votes on paper, to The Star by Friday, Sept. 1. Feel free to include comments as you like. The Star is at 3 Midway Ave., Grand Coulee. The mailing address is P.O. Box 150, Grand Coulee, WA, 99133. You can use this link to Go To Our Online Poll. Please do not vote both online and in person. Scott... Full story
A Coulee City man died Monday afternoon as he rode a three-wheeled motorcycle down Highway 17 toward Soap Lake. Benjamin L. Coates, 78, was southbound about 13 miles north of Soap Lake when, according to a Washington State Patrol investigation, he passed three vehicles in a no-passing zone before a curve, moved back into the southbound lane, then lost control of the trike and drove off the right shoulder, hitting a rock wall. The crash happened about 12:26 p.m. at milepost 89. Coates was riding a blue 2011 Harley Davidson Tri Glide...
Readers should be aware of a couple of policies The Star will follow this year and into the future. First, regarding elections: The Star will accept one letter from each of the candidates in local elections this year as a means of introducing their general ideas to the voters. And we have begun the process of seeking interviews with each of those candidates in contested elections to further our readers’ understanding of the issues and of the candidates themselves. Readers, of course, are encouraged to share their thoughts on the process, the c...
An Omak man died in a car wreck just north of Nespelem Saturday night. The Washington State Patrol reports that Ronald R. Hance, 39, was driving a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup northbound on SR-155 when it left the road to the right about 12:41 a.m. The driver overcorrected and the pickup turned sideways, then left the roadway to the left, struck a guardrail and rolled. Hance was ejected when it rolled, and the pickup came to rest and caught fire. A passenger, Addie P. Simpson, 34, of Spokane Valley, was taken by ambulance to Coulee Medical Center....
After a thief in the night stole their cash, credit cards, car and luggage a week ago, an Electric City couple were happy to have at least their car returned with only minor damage. "I'm so happy to have it back," Sherry Constantine said Monday of the 2009 Kia Borrego. "They didn't wreck our car, and it's fixable." On Tuesday the week before, Sherry and Don Constantine had been packed and ready to go on a vacation to Victoria, British Columbia. Their bags were by the door, as was her purse,... Full story
They traveled around the world to land in Grand Coulee, and he and his wife are at Coulee Medical Center "for the long run," Dr. Sam Hsieh told a chamber of commerce gathering last week. Hsieh (pronounced Shay), a general surgeon and the chief of staff at the hospital, was born in Hong Kong; raised mostly in Canada; graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland; and completed his surgical residency in Texas. He and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Hsu (pronounced Sue), an... Full story
Still worried about a possible lack of money coming in after the Legislature’s late decisions in double overtime last month, Nespelem School District Superintendent Mary Hall told school board members Monday it’s going to be a fiscally tight year. The board passed budgets totalling nearly $5.4 million, including the general operating budget for $4.57 million, and a capital (major building expenses) budget of $695,200. Hall advised the board the district could end up paying for some items from reserves as the state lets go of funds later tha... Full story
There will be no primary election for the town of Coulee Dam’s town council race, even though three candidates filed their intention to run, according to Mila Jury, elections officer for the Okanogan County Auditor’s Office. That’s because those finally filing did not do so until an extra filing period was declared because no one had filed earlier. Jury said three names will appear on the November ballot and the county auditor’s office will certify one as the winner. That’s true even though one of the three declared last week that he was withd... Full story
Two toy toads may soon be homeless as the result of a town council decision to direct the mayor to get the worst of Coulee Dam's broken sidewalks fixed this year, not later. The decision was foisted upon Mayor Greg Wilder after he told the council during their regular semi-monthly meeting Wednesday that a planned street and sidewalk project would not start this summer, as had been planned. Wilder said he'd been informed that day by the state Transportation Improvement Board that bids on the... Full story
At a special meeting last Wednesday in the wake of the CEO’s resignation, hospital district commissioners approved a letter to employees about the future leadership of Coulee Medical Center. The letter was penned by commission President Jerry Kennedy but sent from the whole board of commissioners and later posted to the hospital’s website. Owens resigned during the June 28 hospital commission meeting. The letter expressed confidence in the executive team composed of Interim Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks, Chief Financial Officer Kel... Full story
Four young adults were injured Monday night in a high-speed crash a mile north of Nespelem, including the driver, who now faces charges. The Washington State Patrol reports that Curry A. J. Pinkham, 20, of Nespelem, was driving a purple 2007 Honda Ridgeline pickup south on SR-155 about 9:30 at a high rate of speed when the pickup left the roadway to the right and hit gravel when he lost control. The vehicle went into a field over an embankment, rolled once and landed on its wheels. Three passengers, all of Nespelem, were injured in the crash, i... Full story
Almost a year after he started, the hospital’s CEO resigned last week after a committee of the hospital commission interviewed employees ahead of his upcoming evaluation. Jonathan Owens took the reins of Coulee Medical Center in July 2016. Owens stopped a plan last fall that had the hospital spending more on an electronic medical records system than it could afford. He hired a financial consultant to target high expenses and low revenue areas that had contributed to losses that forced the hospital to pay debts with county warrants, i... Full story