News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1143 - 1167 of 1807
Students who witnessed a mock crash scene last Friday may not realize it, but they were given an important advantage that we hope they don’t squander. As horrific as the actors and organizers of the mock accident scene made it, the impact of any such impression naturally fades over time. But at least the students of Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School were subjected to the event organized by Colville Tribal Police in the first place. Now comes the tricky part. The mock crash depicted the scene of a two-car collision with multiple deaths a...
Several local educators in two districts were honored last month, chosen for accolades in front of their counterparts from district all over this part of the state. Their own union members voted to send them to ceremonies of the North Central Washington Educational Service District, after nominations by colleagues. From the Grand Coulee Dam School District, Jess Utz was chosen from the classified educator staff for the Excellence in Education award. Jeff Piturachsatit got the award from the...
This coming weekend is typically one that is packed full for many local folks, in a good way. This year it promises much the same, weather holding. With Mother’s Day, the Colorama festivities, the big rodeo, and the old-home week atmosphere at local gathering places, there’s no excuse for boredom. The chamber of commerce never stops working at improving Colorama, a multi-faceted, complex enterprise, the successful completion of which will leave many revelers pleasantly exhausted, but not more so than its organizers. The Colorama Rodeo, the con...
Coulee Dam's town hall will end up with an almost entirely newly refurbished police department, community ballroom, kitchen and more after repairs to damage done last winter from a variety of causes. The work will likely cost more than $100,000, with the bill paid, for the most part, through insurance, says Mayor Greg Wilder. Last December a hot water heater in the kitchen off the facility's ballroom blew its top, flooding water went undetected for some period of time while no one was in the tow...
Man, you’d think we’d just come out of a long winter and every part of the community was now straining with fresh green shoots of progress at the first rays of sunshine. The buds are everywhere: a rebuild at Coulee Dam’s town hall, plans for patching in Electric City, a needed new crosswalk in Grand Coulee, a new building for mosquito district equipment, kids performing in a musical and a junior rodeo. And those are only the buds we had room for this week. News is fun when it’s full of good stuff. We’ll have more next week, having to do with o...
An article in last week’s Star, written on an event that occurred at deadline, accurately reported the event on which we had limited information available — except for one word. “Vandalism” was the wrong choice in the headline of “Daylight vandalism” over the photo caption that relayed our reporter’s eyewitness account of a pickup truck crashing through the fence at the Lake Roosevelt High School athletic field, then spinning in circles, throwing up turf and damaging the grounds before taking off up the road and getting stopped by a police o...
A high speed chase ended on Peter Dan Road when two vehicles, a car and a truck, both crashed into the landslide that spans the road. A woman, apparently a nearby resident, told The Star that two suspects then took off on foot, and that police were going to houses looking for them. The resident also said that a SWAT team was on the scene in full uniform with guns drawn. No further info is yet available. A witness in Coulee Dam said a car speeding down the hill at Grand Coulee Dam hit the bottom...
Coulee Dam’s new wastewater treatment facility got big push ahead last week as the town council approved interim financing to get the project started, then approved the bid to build it for more than expected, but with more cost-saving features. The council awarded the construction bid Wednesday to McClure and Sons Construction of Spokane, which bid $5,609,399.07. That award was contingent on the approval of supplemental funding from the US Dept. of Agriculture for extra work engineers deemed prudent to lower long-term operating costs. The t...
The Bureau of Reclamation is asking for comments from interested parties on a planned overhaul of 18 generators in the left and right powherhouses of Grand Coulee Dam. The generators have been in service for some 70 years and need repair, the bureau has said. Doing the work would keep them making electricity for another 30 years. In a draft environmental analysis, the bureau lays out its preferred of three alternatives: Do the upgrades on two generators at a time and complete the work between 2018 and 2029. Another alternative would extend the...
The local PTA is looking for support to continue filling in an important gap in the curricula offered by local school districts. Each year the group funds or sponsors a variety of worthwhile events, the latest being the science fair at Lake Roosevelt Schools. Next up, it will bring the Missoula Children’s Theater to town so local students can get a taste of a subject not offered here — drama. In a world focused on what is viewed as practical — science, math, engineering — it’s important to remember that those critical disciplines focus on...
The little shop on Main Street that opened with coffee, knickknacks and T-shirts three years ago now plans to expand its restaurant offerings outside. Junkers, which began offering subs and wrap-style sandwiches in January 2016, will add outdoor seating within a month, say owners Richard and Mandi Button. That seating will be offered under a shade canopy Richard has built and will install in the grassy area he leveled and built up at the corner of Main and Spokane Streets in Grand Coulee, about a block off Midway Avenue. With the canopy,...
Okanogan County commissioners declared a state of emergency Monday, due to threat of flooding and debris problems on county roads. Commissioners passed the resolution after county roads suffered damage from heavy precipitation recently. They acknowledged the continued threat of heavy rain has created a danger to public health and the safety of those using county roads. The Charlton Complex and other wildfires stripped vegetation from hills in the county, resulting in flash floods with mud and debris being swept over roadways. Commissioners...
At one point it seemed that for several years, the local community slipped by without a home burning down. That was unusual, a local fire chief and I agreed, hoping the trend would continue. It didn’t. Although home fires are reportedly less common in recent years than in the decades earlier, they still happen too often. Families in this community have suffered three in the last few months, including one on the front page of this issue. Firefighters remind us to keep batteries in smoke alarms, and change them about every six months. Figuring ou...
After years of court dates and a life put on hold, a former Lake Roosevelt High School Spanish teacher had a burden lifted by Okanogan County Superior Court Monday, when it dismissed charges of identity theft and forgery. After receiving a call from a woman in California four years ago, Coulee Dam police checked the Social Security number Guillermo Guzman-Romo had used to apply for the Spanish teacher job at Lake Roosevelt High School. It was the same number he'd used as he worked to put...
Leaders at Coulee Medical Center will submit to its federal funding agency by the end of the week a plan to turn the facility around financially. That plan will show a reduction in wage and benefit costs of $2.1 million a year following decisions made by Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Owens to cut staff in non-patient care positions. “People understood that we needed to adjust where our focus was in the facility,” Owens said of the general reaction in the hospital, which has employed as many as 225. “If it wasn’t a direct patient care positio...
Some 34 injured veterans and 20 host boat captains made a day of fishing on Banks Lake Sunday, the first of what organizers said they hope is an annual event. The Fallen Outdoors organization takes veterans on outdoor excursions and says its mission is to "film and show real-life American soldiers balancing duty for their country and passion for the outdoors." Eastern Washington Team Leader David Atteberry said the event had been planned for March 10 but was postponed because the lake was...
You hear all the best teachers talk about it, and last Thursday night anyone who attended the PTA’s science fair at Lake Roosevelt Schools got a little taste of it, as well. “It” would be the “Aha!” factor, the real reward that teachers crave when that light comes into the eye of a student excited for having just learned something new. Talking with each of the students who entered their science experiments, it was apparent they’d taken great interest and care in putting together some fairly sophisticated evidence and arguments, and accepted th...
A young Electric City man was killed and another man injured last week in a one-car rollover about a mile south of Electric City. Brandon Buche, 23, had recently finished a tour with the U.S. Navy, where he served as an electrician’s mate. He was employed at Safeway in Grand Coulee while working to pursue a career with electricity. Around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Buche was driving a 2006 Jeep Wrangler on Bay Area Drive near Coulee View Road when he failed to negotiate a curve in the road, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office reported. The Jee...
If we could partake of the pain of others, and so lift a small portion of it from them, how would it change the world? Perhaps not much, judging by the reaction and feelings spread throughout the community when news hit of young man, full of promise, cut short. The sharing of some small portion of the pain of his family by a large part of the community seemed very evident over the last week — from Facebook posts to meetings canceled, even by some not directly affected. The loss of such a life is not something we can, or should, get over. I...
After racking up multi-million dollar losses in four of the past five years, Coulee Medical Center will put in place a turn-around plan to “stop the bleeding,” CEO Jonathan Owens said, “sooner, rather than later,” and that will include some strategic job cuts. Owens said CMC will be operating in the black within eight months, predicting the restructuring plan will produce a nearly $6.6 million turnaround in 2017 and $3.6 million per year thereafter. The hospital is currently in debt to Grant County and out of sorts with its mortgage loan co...
A former vice principal at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School was sentenced in federal court Monday to seven years in prison for receipt of child pornography. Nathan Piturachsatit, 38, pleaded guilty to the charge Nov. 29, 2016. Sentenced by United States District Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr., Piturachsatit will be supervised by the court for 10 years after release and must register as a sex offender. He also surrendered his iPhone, with which he had traded sexually explicit images with a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl using Instagram. Piturachsatit...
A contractor will be on site next week to start work on a new fire station for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which means two portions of local roads will be closed for that project. Innovative Construction & Design Ltd., a small business based in Post Falls, Idaho, was awarded the $13.6 million construction job last September. The company is scheduled to be on site Monday, March 13, Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said Monday. The portion of B Street from Division Street to Industrial...
It’s not easy to get used to driving 10 miles per hour slower on a short stretch of highway you’ve been traveling daily for decades. That’s a problem many folks face trying, straining, braking to navigate the multi-lane stretch of highway 155 by the Bureau of Reclamation’s Grand Coulee Project, which the bureau slowed from 40 to 30 mph because it’s building a new fire station across from Pole Park. Even if traveling more slowly in front of a fire station is warranted, slowing the entire stretch seems a bit much. Admittedly, that complaint sound...
Three student athletes who placed at the state wrestling tournament in Tacoma last month were treated to lunch at The Siam Palace with the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club Wednesday. Lake Roosevelt Raider wrestling Coach Steve Hood introduced Kaleb Horn, Tony Nichols and Jon Shelley, all of whom had also just been awarded at a school assembly for high academic marks. At the state tournament, Horn took first place in the 113-pound division for 2B schools; Nichols took third at 138 and Shelley took...