News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1599 - 1623 of 1807
A 34-year-old man hanged himself in the tribal corrections center Sept. 24, a press release from Colville Tribal Police stated Tuesday. Police Chief Cory J. Orr said police responded last week to the Colville Tribal Corrections Center near Nespelem and found Aaron J. Swan in a cleaning closet. “Mr. Swan had hanged himself with a bed sheet,” Orr stated. Swan had been in the facility for two days, held on tribal charges of rape and indecent liberties, the release said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Dis... Full story
Remember when you were a little kid and had to learn, likely through repeated lessons, that you just can’t always get your way? That you have to learn to give a little just to get along in this world? That’s not just a childhood lesson, it’s a basic principal that undergirds the healthiest societies, keeps disagreements civil and greases the wheels of democracy. It makes civilization itself possible. But a new faction within the Republican Party rejects that premise, insisting that compromise is evil. Many in the House of Representatives got el... Full story
So, I’m very glad I took out that MedStar membership. Took a ride last night. The good pros at Coulee Medical Center figured out why I was so weak and sent me to Sacred Heart ICU. Turns out I have multiple pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in lungs). Yes, that’s bad. A surgery or two is coming up, along with some lengthy recuperation. Life is what happens when you had other plans. So, although your submitted photos are always welcome in The Star, they will be more so in the coming weeks. You can email them to gwen@grandcoulee.com, along wit... Full story
• Congratulations to local firm Taylor Enterprises, LLC for landing a $4.2 million contract to provide the Grand Coulee Dam with janitorial services. • Electric City’s planning commission should think carefully if asked to alter what kinds of buildings are allowed within the city. Understanding why restrictions are in place should be the first step in either removing them or keeping them. Decisions like that affect everyone’s property values. • In our special triathlon section this week, read about a remarkable young athlete who registere... Full story
Hoping to make a bigger impact for local business and jobs, the chamber of commerce told Coulee Dam leaders last week of its more ambitious plans for marketing the area in 2014. Peggy Nevsimal, the manager of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber wants to buy more advertising on the west side of the state to market the area, but it takes a lot of money. Coulee Dam, like Electric City and Grand Coulee, collects hotel/motel taxes on every room rented in the town, the funds from which must be used to promote tourism.... Full story
• The Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada, which the two countries will start renegotiating soon, is one international news story the local community needs to watch. It can affect everything from how much water remains in local lakes to whether, as some very hardy canoeists on the front page would like, we build fish ladders around Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams. • Even while trying to form a better advocate for growing tourism via a local tourism board, the chamber of commerce continues in the interim to entice local... Full story
Five people in two canoes got as close as they dared to Grand Coulee Dam Saturday on a “Sea to Source” expedition in craft carved from trees by school kids and others. Their purpose is to call attention to what they consider to be deficits in the soon-to-expire Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada. Under that 1964 treaty, which addresses power and flood control issues, three dams in Canada and Libby Dam in the United States were built. Tribes and conservationists now wan... Full story
Anyone who has ever tried to work in community economic development has heard it repeatedly: “You guys should just get a grant.” Easier said than done, most of the time, but opportunities do exist. Finding them is often the problem. But not one that would stop Birdie Hensley. Hensley has had a goal for years of founding a local museum that would showcase the area’s rich history and its pioneers. In the last year she has turned to focusing on that goal. With that in mind, she helped arran... Full story
Family and friends are grieving for a young man killed in an electrocution accident last week. Dakotah Holt, a 2011 graduate of Lake Roosevelt High School, was following his chosen career as a lineman in Kansas Thursday when a new power pole he and other workers were setting up fell against a nearby power line after wind twisted it from the grapple hooks on a boom truck, according to news reports quoting the Barber County Sheriff’s Office. Holt, 20, an apprentice lineman with Track Utilities a... Full story
Along with many others, we were saddened this week by the news of Dakotah Holt’s death, and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. As a child, Dakotah was a Star newspaper carrier for a time. He was a bright, ambitious kid who seemed eager to do well as we followed his progress through high school. The world is diminished without him in it. Scott Hunter editor and publisher... Full story
Some local municipal councils have passed laws banning local participation in what appears to be on the way to becoming a legitimate enterprise: growing marijuana. With the state’s passage of Initiative 520 last year, and with the guidance last week from the federal Justice Department on how that will jive with federal drug enforcement efforts, local leaders might need to consider to loosening up a bit. Voters passed the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana last fall, and not because they all want to get high. Most just recognize t... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam Cooperative Preschool is about to start up again for fall. The cooperative, which has operated for decades in the area, is currently taking applicants for two age groups of children: those who will be 3 years old by Nov. 1 for the regular preschool, and those who will be 4 by Sept. 1 for the pre-kindergarten class. Classes are taught by Becky Loch, who said she had only two openings left for the Pre K class on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., which costs $100 a month She said there were still several...
A powerful storm packing high winds and lightning has knocked out power in parts of Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam. Sketchy reports, unconfirmed have come in about trees down all over, some across mobile homes in Lakeview Terrace , transformers knocked out in Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee. Highway 155 from Coulee Dam to Grand Coulee is blocked due to a downed powerline near Pole Park and likely will be for 5-6 hours. Another line is down at the south edge of the town of Coulee Dam at SR-155 and Grant Avenue, but there is a detour down Stevens... Full story
It happens repeatedly in Coulee Country, even when we invent ways to try to get around our biggest road block to progress. In a community with four town councils and four mayors, we’ve needed to find ways, institutions, to make it possible to tackle common problems and goals: hence, the Regional Board of Mayors was born for the purpose of managing our common landfill, now a transfer station. But the RBOM has little real authority and cannot act decisively when needed. A recent need for an emergency repair at the transfer station may be a l... Full story
Park commissioners Monday night barely passed a motion to allow the chamber of commerce to hold another beer garden event at North Dam Park next month. Commissioners expressed frustration with learning of the planned event in the newspaper before actually getting a request from the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. “I'd like to again apologize that we ‘jumped the gun’ on announcing that there would be a beer tent during Harvest Fest before clearling it with you,” chamber Manager... Full story
The cause of the fire that destroyed the Colville Tribes’ administration building July 29 is still unknown, Tribal Police Chief Cory Orr said Tuesday. Orr said private investigators had been unable as yet to determine a cause and federal investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are continuing the investigation. The building’s charred remains all collapsed into the basement of the building, leaving a black pile of rubble to sift through. Investigators still have to do that, Orr noted. He said earlier sta... Full story
Star Online readers, This site will be down tonight as the site is migrating to faster servers. Downtime will start about 11:30 p.m., so you probably won't notice. I know I won't! IT guy says it should be down about four hours.... Full story
The building that has housed the headquarters of the Colville Tribes for decades burned down early Monday, leaving tribal leaders to figure out how to spread out even more of their government operations across the agency campus. The aging A-frame building, itself the subject of recent controversy, inspired emotions of a different sort in the pre-dawn darkness as flames licked the sky and what had been the roof over much important tribal history collapsed. “That was the face of our nation,” mourn... Full story
Since arriving in April, the new Safeway store manager in Grand Coulee has been working to correct weaknesses in the store and repair some community relations, he told chamber of commerce members Thursday. Ryan Dykes stood in his Army National Guard camouflage to talk to the gathering at SunBanks Lake Resort’s Cantina, having driven back from a Yakima base to give the talk. Dykes said that on his first day, he walked over to the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce office to ask about j... Full story
A request to the town of Coulee Dam for public records, coupled with a possible misunderstanding of who the requestor was, has led the mayor to step squarely into the middle of a perpetual fight in the state Legislature between cities and open government advocates as a “poster boy” for the latter. The Association of Washington Cities (AWC) made “relief from harassing and abusive public records requests” a top priority in Olympia this year, citing claims of prison inmates and others filing requests just to harass officials at great expense to ta... Full story
Just as the nation was about to celebrate its most patriotic holiday, one of its greatest symbols of achievement literally closed the gates on what would have been a welcoming spectacle. The Bonneville Power Administration makes the call on just when the Bureau of Reclamation should spill or not spill the Columbia River over the top of Grand Coulee Dam. Most years it seems they just make their goal of filling Lake Roosevelt by July 1, but weather sent extra water into the river this year, creating a need to spill water for many days just... Full story
In an area often derided by its own citizens for not sticking together, it’s amazing how quickly and efficiently one very important part of the local infrastructure can congeal into an effective team. Several local fire departments attacked a fire Sunday night so quickly that, despite high heat and a freakish wind, a wildfire did not consume several local homes. From a vantage point across the river at Washington Flats, the fire could be seen as a wall of relentless flame driven by high winds. Tiny people squirting a little water or piloting a... Full story
Two fires separated by a couple of miles and a day scrambled local fire fighters early this week to protect property. Brisk winds pushed a fire Sunday night perilously close to Lone Pine homes and briefly brought on a level-three evacuation notice for that area as well as River Drive in Coulee Dam. Monday, fire marshals were combing the area trying to determine the cause of the 15-acre blaze. The fire started shortly after 7 p.m. and lit up the skies as flames worked their way through grass,... Full story
A young teacher from Wenatchee is spending his first summer off standing on the water, for 1,200 miles. Matt Honor pulled his paddle board ashore at Crescent Bay Saturday afternoon, needing portage around Grand Coulee Dam. Honor had called ahead, and chamber of commerce members met him to help. He decided he wanted to watch the outgoing laser light show on the dam, and so stayed the night at the Columbia River Inn, resuming his trip Sunday morning with a ride to Seaton’s Grove boat launch. His b... Full story
Coulee Medical Center lost nearly $100,000 in May after income fell some $430,000 short of expectations, although June numbers were looking far better, commissioners were told June 26. Financial statements given to Public Hospital District 6 commissioners indicate the latest bad month for CMC brought the year-to-date loss to $321,213 on total net operating revenues of $9,027,825, a margin of negative 3.5 percent. The facility had budgeted for a year-to-date gain of nearly the same amount by the... Full story