News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1467 - 1491 of 1807
Big Bend Community College has improved on the success rate of its students over the last couple years, boasted college President Terry Leas last week, speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon in Grand Coulee Wednesday. Leas said a common state measurement for gauging a college’s success with student learning looks at the percentage of students getting a C average or greater. In the 2013-14 school year, 84 percent of BBCC’s student earned at least a C average in traditional classrooms, up steadily from 81 percent the year before, and 76 percent the y... Full story
by Roger S. Lucas and Scott Hunter This year's Harvest Festival will feature a barbecue competition with some $3,500 prize money, as the event continues to evolve in its third year. That and a lot more will be part of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's Third Annual Harvest Festival, Sept. 12-14, at North Dam Park. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's Third Annual Harvest Festival, Sept. 12-14, at North Dam Park will also offer wagon rides, helicopter rides, an apple and... Full story
In an avalanche of last-minute personnel changes, Nespelem Elementary School covered all its employee bases Monday, as new Principal Debra Pankey walked the school board through a configuration of new teachers and aides. Pankey, the school’s special education director, was hired this summer following the resignation of John Adkins as superintendent and principal. She will retain the special-ed administrative duties, but gain a teacher (Rick Mead) for teaching the students. Teachers Katlynn Reidt and Bethany Williams notified Pankey just last w... Full story
A settlement administration firm in Montana is getting ready to distribute funds to individual tribal members under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Interior. But more than 1,600 members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation are on a list of those whose whereabouts are unknown. Payments for the Trust Administration Class in the Indian Trust Settlement are expected to be mailed in the early fall, the settlement administrator, The Garden City Group, Inc., announced Wednesday. The settlement is for a nationwide class... Full story
Travelers headed to Spokane on US 2 this week should plan plenty of time to get there, the state Department of Transportation says, but the contractor has changed schedules to adust for congestion on US 2, easing it during high-use hours. Congestion near Airway Heights is expected to be high at times, as lanes of on- and off-ramps to Spokane International Airport close for "grinding." From the DOT: Spokane Airport Interchange and access road construction latest schedule adjustment SPOKANE – T... Full story
After losses totaling more than $1 million in the two months prior, June’s negative nick of just $48,000 felt like very good news for hospital leaders Monday night. “The corner is turned,” commented Commissioner Geary Oliver following a report on the hospital district’s finances at Monday night’s meeting of the Hospital District 6 commissioners. In her report, Interim Chief Executive Officer Debbie Bigelow said the hospital has worked to reduce expenses to meet declines in revenue. The loss of income has been associated with the loss of primar... Full story
The Keller Ferry vessel, Sanpoil, is out of service with mechanical issues until further notice, the state Department of Transportation said late Monday afternoon. With the ferry that carries vehicles on State Route 21 across Lake Roosevelt out of service, anyone who travels that route will will need to use alternatives to reach their destinations. There is no estimate on when the vessel will return to service. Several miles of highway 21 are currently closed due to the fires of the Devil's Elbow Complex burning 10 miles north of Keller. Some...
Some of the smoke choking the area from The Devil's Elbow Complex fires north of Keller may come from firefighters' efforts to battle the blaze, as they burn out fuel to deny the fire a way to spread. It has consumed more than 17,000 acres so far and still threatens about 150 homes and 90 other structures. Highway 21 is closed and evacuations along it have extended north from Capoose Creek/Meadow to the Bear Creek campground. More than 100 firefighters took part in a burnout operation Saturday...
Update As of 9 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 7, the fires had consumed nearly 8,300 acres and was threatening some 50 homes and 50 other structures. One outbuilding has burned. San Poil Valley residents were ordered to evacuate Tuesday due to several fires on the Colville Indian Reservation that have burned about 2,000 acres, according to officials at the Mt. Tolman Fire Center. Some 20 to 25 homes are threatened, along with cultural resources, power lines and commercial timber. One fire, burning in... Full story
Thanks to the observations of our astute community members, we can classify that remarkably weird little storm that blew through Aug. 2 as a type that is more common to Africa, the arid Middle East, Central Australia and the American Southwest. Using the photo shared on The Star's Facebook page by Erika Jennings and the quick research of Glo Carrol, what we could just call a dust storm might more accurately be called a "haboob." The Wikipedia entry on this phenomenon says, "During thunderstorm... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District's new school complex in Coulee Dam stands close to completion Tuesday morning. The K-12 school is on schedule for its mid-September opening. Said one construction worker as he passed by a photographer taking pictures of the progress: "Taking pictures of the beautiful new school? You should. We're changing lives here."...
When her sister died suddenly in June, Carla Kneeland had already happened to have had a conversation with her about what to do next: give the contents of the home she and her husband made in Grand Coulee to the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center. That’s why a big yard sale coming up Saturday is a special one. Kneeland's sister, Christie Arbaugh died of a stroke June 14, six months after her husband, Pete Arbaugh had died while fishing at Crescent Bay. “We believe the stroke was caused by a broken heart,” Kneeland said. Pete would fish just about... Full story
Recent leadership exhibited by many on municipal councils indicates what we hope is flowering trend in local governance: intelligent cooperation toward common goals. Within the space of a few months, at least two examples, involving a total of four local legislative bodies, show that problems can be addressed when cool heads come together and work to work on them. The council committees of John Nordine and Aaron Derr of Electric City and David Tylor and Erin Nielsen of Grand Coulee were able to work together and make progress on the police... Full story
The massive Carlton Complex fire has destroyed 300 homes, and regional and nationwide response has been in some ways "overwhelming," says Okanogan County Frank Rogers. Here's is his latest update, including what vicitims currently need: Members of the EOC and County Assessor’s Office have been out checking the burn areas and today were able to finish up the area that has been destroyed by the fire. The count today on homes lost is now 300. The Okanogan County Emergency Operations Center asked for state assistance on Tuesday, 07-22-14, for addit...
When a storm system moved across the region July 14, lightning started multiple fires just as temperatures would reach into the 100s for days, feeding what would become the largest wildfire in state history. Local firefighters from Grand Coulee, Electric City, Coulee Dam and Elmer City would answer calls for help as Brewster and Pateros evacuated and a hundred homes burned. As of Tuesday, the largest complex of fires, the Carlton Complex, had consumed 250,000 acres of timber, an area four times... Full story
The degree to which the people and their elected representatives get involved in the day-to-day details of governance depends on how keenly the results are felt and on the relative opportunity for corruption. Our Constitution sets up a purposely cumbersome system of checks and balances between three branches of government, a principal that follows all the way down to the local level, where it sometimes seems forgotten. The legislative branch (municipal councils) make the laws and set the budget. Seeing that those things get carried out in a... Full story
It's difficult to grasp the size of the fires burning in Washington when some says they've burned 168,000 acres. But most of us are familiar with our area on maps. Here's a map of the area, with red dots representing the burn area and arrows giving wind direction. The fires at Brewster and Pateros are more than 40 miles away. The smaller R Road fire near Leahy Junction is about 14 miles away as the ash flies. That fire is just smoldering. The Carlton Complex is not contained and grew at... Full story
A brush fire that started south of Leahy Junction Wednesday afternoon had consumed nearly 7 square miles of grass and brush by this morning after some short-range jumping and fast movement late Wednesday. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Eric Braaten discovered the fire about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. With crews totaling 20 firefighters and three fire engines, what's now called the R Road fire set local mutual-aid agreements into play, and firefighters from Grand Coulee and...
As the local chamber of commerce got ready to host thousands of people in the area to its annual Festival of America last Friday and Saturday, members became aware of misperceptions among the public in general of just how those festivities are funded. As chamber members picked up fireworks donation cans from various public countertops, comments indicated that many people assume the whole thing is funded by the federal government. Not so, hence the attempt to solicit small donations that brought... Full story
A number of small fires marred the busy July 4 holiday weekend, Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Chief Richard Paris reported this week on behalf of several responding agencies, and one large fire near Keller was still being battled Tuesday morning. At least five of the fires were caused by fireworks incidents, but none covered more than small areas. Thursday night Electric City firefighters responded to a small fire just north of Devil’s Punch Bowl along Banks Lake. That fire covered a tenth of an acre. Friday night, July 4, Grand Coulee f... Full story
A civic minded man made a big contribution of labor Saturday, helping to clean up the top of North Dam after Fourth of July fireworks the night before. But no one knows who he is. The young man, say Bureau of Reclamation officials, was walking by the mess left by private individuals lighting off fireworks from the top of the earthen dam that holds back Banks Lake when he decided that just wasn't right. He had gathered most of the refuse into piles to make it easier to clean up, and hauled some to a dumpster at North Dam Park by hand. The top... Full story
The two letters below on separate problems at nearby state and national parks illustrate a larger problem with a policy stance the entire nation has adopted through its politics. For decades now, the drumbeat, originating from the Chicago School of Economics in early 1960s, has insisted the solutions to all our problems can come from cutting government budgets and subjecting every government service possible to the forces of the open market gods, which can do no wrong. The adoption of that economic religion has led to some good and some bad... Full story
As absurd as it is starting to appear, the current discussion between Grand Coulee and Electric City regarding their police services contract at least serves to illustrate why an area with a tiny population continues to burden itself with four separate towns where one would do nicely. The problem is we’re too focused — on ourselves. Electric City is now considering the possibility of launching its own police department rather than accept the sticker shock of a proposed huge increase in the rate it pays to Grand Coulee for the service. Tha... Full story
Nespelem School District is searching for a new principal and superintendant after accepting the resignation last week of John Adkins. Adkins has held that office for five years. He has accepted the superintendent job at Wellpinit School District on the Spokane Indian Reservation, which serves about 500 students. Nespelem, with about 150 students in preschool through eighth grade, is beginning a search for a candidate to fill the spot “with a strong likelihood of an interim” superintendent/principal, according to Rich McBride, executive dir... Full story
Spending more than a million dollars to reside and reroof old school buildings, construct stares and fix tennis courts shouldn’t have to happen, but it’s a good thing that it will. Apparently, that’s due to good stewardship of the construction process for the new K-12 school complex and some good timing and decent luck during the bidding phase. Despite that good management, we should not lose site of the fact that buildings and property deteriorate and will again require repairs. If that means a few more dollars from each of us per year to so... Full story