News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1105 - 1129 of 1840
A warehouse in Electric City will soon become the "Grant County Data Centre" for processing a type of currency that only exists digitally and has gained recent worldwide attention as its value increased 2,700 percent since September. Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc., a Canadian company, has apparently purchased the former Young's Welding building in Electric City for $300,000, and plans to invest another $2.6 million into it. Atlas Cloud, shares of which are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchang...
The city of Coulee Dam has bought a business and its 96 strands of fiber-optic cable that run beneath the Columbia River bridge, the mayor announced at a special city council meeting Wednesday. The purchase, a year-and-a-half in the making according to Mayor Greg Wilder, will allow Coulee Dam to move forward in developing plans that council members have advocated to bring internet speeds in town up to modern standards. The council had voted Dec. 13 to allow Wilder and City Attorney Mick Howe to work out a deal with Basin Broadband LLC, a Moses...
Coulee Dam’s city council voted Wednesday to sewer service rates that will charge low-income customers a little less and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation a lot more. Low income senior citizens and disabled residents who qualify for a discount will find slightly better rates, with discount levels bumped from 25 to 30 percent and from 30 to 35 percent. Mayor Greg Wilder said the increased discount would make very little difference, about a couple hundred dollars, to the town’s budget, but could make a meaningful difference to those who qua...
As we enter the New Year, we suggest the best resolution of all would be to keep a level head, an open ear and a metaphorical red pen at the ready to scratch out the hyperbole in our political rhetoric, examples of which can be found in each of the following columns. They represent the arguments at both ends of the debate over the tax-cut bill that just passed, and each overstates the case made — one by your elected congressman for Washington’s fourth district in the U. S. House of Representatives, the other by the liberal group Americans for...
The mayor of Coulee Dam intends to ask the city council to pass new water and sewer rates tonight (Wednesday) in the last council meeting over which he will preside, with some significant changes. Mayor Greg Wilder explained to the council at their last regular meeting Dec. 13 that he was working on an ordinance for their consideration at tonight’s meeting, called especially for that purpose. Wilder explained that he had been examining usage rates on the east and west sides of town and would recommend rates based on the “Orange Book,” a docum...
In the business world, decisions are generally made by weighing the costs of something desirable for a business against its benefits over time. A piece of equipment may cost a lot of money, but if it pays for itself in a few years and provides an added benefit, such as increased customer satisfaction, it’s likely to be bought. Public schools don’t generally have the luxury of increasing their revenue by such means. They get what a state formula says they’ll get, regardless of any increased value its leaders think the school could bring to st...
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...