News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1649 - 1673 of 1807
The power outage in Coulee Dam will likely last until 5 or 6 p.m. tonight, one source told The Star. Lynne Brougher, with the Bureau of Reclamation, said USBR personnel are helping Coulee Dam crew and their contractor restore the service after a Coulee Dam's contractor, Christiansen Electric, cut a main power line during excavation. It's not clear whether the relatively new, buried line had been properly marked. Businesses in Coulee Dam remain closed, although service to Coulee Dam Credit Union'... Full story
A Spanish teacher at Lake Roosevelt High School is in Okanogan County Jail this week, facing charges of forgery and identity theft, after being arrested last Thursday by Coulee Dam police. Guillermo Guzman has also had a hold placed on him by Border Patrol agents and he will face deportation hearings in Tacoma when he is finished in Okanogan County, according to a jail spokesman. Guzman was picked up by Coulee Dam police officers along with a Border Patrol agent after a man with a similar name... Full story
The Bureau of Reclamation is having trouble attracting and retaining new skilled employees, Power Manager Mark Jenson told a number of local leaders Monday afternoon. Jenson said that often a combination of local factors creates a problem for workers recruited or transferring to work here on the Grand Coulee Dam project. Jenson stated that project employment, now 466 workers, will move to 582 by September of 2014. That’s a payroll jump from the present $32.6 million to $42 million in 2015. That expected boost of 116 employees is “not a tem... Full story
Steven Riehart, of 24-7 Property Maintenance drops a limb from a huge fir tree at the Fercha home at Fir and Civic in Coulee Dam. Reportedly one of the oldest trees in town, it measured about five feet across at its base, but owners were concerned about its health and risks posed in wind storms. Fir trees are notorious for tipping over in high winds.... Full story
Those looking for a good place to create a daycare center should be encouraged and helped to answer this critical, unmet need in the community. To the casual observer, it may sound like a picayune cause over which to get worked up, but in this community it’s actually a critical economic development question, not to mention a potential child safety problem. Not having access to licensed daycare leaves people who might wish to enter the local workforce no option but to stay out, or find a job that pays enough to hire a live-in nanny. That k... Full story
They’re not the Frisbees you’re used to tossing around on Saturdays, but they’re similarly shaped and heavier, and disc golfers will travel to courses set up for playing with them. Disc golf is a growing sport that Josh Rabe thinks would catch on in Grand Coulee and provide an extra activity for tourists. Rabe is proposing to set up a “nine-hole” course around North Dam Park, an idea endorsed by the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District. Rabe met with district commissioners Monday for the second time, and provided them with a cost breakdown... Full story
Political stupidity in Washington, D.C. is about to come down hard on our local area. Some economists argue that the sky will fall because of the “sequester,” a budget cut imposed by Congress and signed by the President in 2011 in a move designed to make such blind, across-the-board cuts so painful that they would never be politically feasible, forcing opposing parties in the nation’s fiscal policy debates to compromise. That was a huge political miscalculation based on the perception that things are as they have ever been. They’re not. Te... Full story
Tours, visitor center hours and laser light show offerings might be curtailed because of budget cuts, officials confirmed this week, but they’re still hoping for a reprieve from the national budget cutback known as “sequestration.” Although tours at Grand Coulee Dam resumed Monday after a normal winter stoppage, a hiring freeze across the Department of Interior has made it impossible to hire the extra help needed to keep operations open all week through the normal tourism season, explained Lynne Brougher, public affairs officer with the Burea... Full story
A dinner and auction to raise money for a family who recently lost their home to fire was a big success at the Eagles club on Saturday. Heather Downs said the event brought in $3,000 in cash for Warner, Nevada and Brianna Whybark. “It was amazing,” Downs said. “We had people dropping $100 for a plate of spaghetti.” The Eagles dinner hall was completely full about 10 minutes after they opened for the event at 4 p.m. Downs said the Eagles Aerie was very supportive, helping in many ways, not the... Full story
A group of citizens met Friday afternoon to discuss a planning a day-long picnic for Coulee Dam and Elmer City residents to get together, probably sometime in June. And one person announced she would run for a town council seat this year. “I think it’s been a long time since there’s been an air of ‘Let’s get together and figure it out,’” commented Glo Carroll, at whose Coulee Dam home the meeting was held. “We want to foster an air of people just talking to each other.” The picnic could serve as an informal candidates forum for town council... Full story
In what they say is the first such offering in the state of Washington, the Colville Casinos will soon offer gaming apps and a website that makes a range of free gaming readily available to casino customers even after they’ve left the building. Bally Technologies on Tuesday announced its deal with Colville Tribal Federal Corporation to provide its iGaming and mobile solution to the Colville’s three casinos. The Coulee Dam, Manson and Okanogan Bingo casinos will be able to offer online pla...
Few stories are as heartwrenching as those about a family losing a home to fire. The only thing worse is the death of a relatively young person, especially a child. But one fact found and appreciated somewhat mitigated the tragedy of last week’s house fire, even to some extent for the victims, but certainly for me as I tried to unravel what had happened. As I stood the next morning in front of the rubble, hoping to find someone to ask about the fire and get a photo, I was handed a bag of clothes. Was I going to try to find the Whybark family t... Full story
A family shocked by the loss of their home to fire Thursday night is also amazed at the instant support pouring in from the community. Fifteen years ago, Warner Whybark built their home on a hillside overlooking Banks Lake in the North Shores development. Last week, they escaped after a neighbor called to tell them to get out of the house. In under 45 minutes, everything was gone. Shortly after 10 p.m., local fire departments got the call, but there was little they could do by the time they arrived. Both the house and the garage were “fully i... Full story
An explosion at Grand Coulee Dam Saturday morning damaged the right powerhouse when a line and equipment connecting a generator and transformer exploded. No one was injured. A “buss,” essentially a pipe and related equipment housing a large electrical line, exploded, reportedly causing considerable damage even to the building’s concrete. Acrid smoke was so thick that firefighters responding could not initially enter the building, and the Bureau of Reclamation will not likely allow perso... Full story
A suggestion to finance a rebuild of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant over a period longer than it will last should raise concerns. It’s certainly something that could be done for the sake of lowering rates, but would you finance a new car over, say, 10 years, even if the car salesman told you it would last you only five? Perhaps all the moving parts of the plant will be new after the rebuild, but even concrete ages. And the concrete in the old sewer plant would be 90 years old by the time Coulee Dam citizens got done paying the 40-... Full story
The explosion at Grand Coulee Dam this morning was not a transformer or a generator, but a line and equipment connecting the two. Conflicitng reports this morning suggested that one or the other had exploded, but in the smoke-filled building it was hard to tell initially just what had happened. Exactly what happened is still unkown, but a "bus," basically a large pipe that goes through the wall of the right powerhouse is destroyed. An engineer who had been inside the damage is much worse inside...
In this community, whose economy is based overwhelmingly on a federal payroll and outsourced contracts, not a lot is yet certain about how the latest fiscal political drama emanating from the other Washington will play out. “Sequestration” became the law of the land on March 1. An act passed by Congress in 2011 was designed to give time for Democrats and Republicans to agree on a path toward reducing the nation’s deficit spending. It imposes across-the-board budget cuts on everybody’s favorite federal programs. At the time, it was assumed... Full story
With the announcement least week of an upcoming vacancy on Port District 7’s commission, someone wishing to make a difference for the community got another opportunity. Port districts across the state vary in the services they offer, but can be a huge boon to economic development efforts for the communities they serve. “Economic development” may sound to some like a boring topic. Think about creating jobs instead. That’s what port districts in Quincy and Moses Lake have been doing after decades of planning and building. They’ve managed t... Full story
A total of 18 girls each gained a title at the Feb. 16 Queen of Hearts pageant held at the Village Cinema. Organizer Heather Downs said it was standing room only at the theater, the use of which was donated for the event. Downs said the top overall title of “Coulee Sweetheart,” chosen by a secret judge, went to Melissa Merriman, of Electric City. Winners of each division were: Tiny Miss: Queen - Jaci Clark; Princess - Addison Marseilles; Jr. Princesses - Kimmie Thomason, Khloe Kelly. Petite Miss... Full story
The Chief Joseph Hatchery is scheduled for completion in May and should be rearing chinook salmon in July. The $49 million facility near Chief Joseph Dam will, by 2015, raise 2.9 million salmon a year to help replace the fisheries lost after the construction of Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, which halted the upstream migrations of salmon. It will employ 11 people once it’s operational. Currently 66 people are working at the site. The project includes two acclimation ponds at Riverside and O...
Enough is enough. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has apparently adopted a reckless and callous attitude toward community assets not made of concrete or steel, assets that make living easier in this semi-arid desert, assets that often take much longer to build than a dam. Trees are a treasure in this region, but becoming more rare thanks to decisions to cut them down at every opportunity. To be fair to the USBR, it’s not the only agency that finds trees easier to deal with as potential firewood. Trees are messy, in the way, their roots are o... Full story
It will be interesting to see what emerges from a public records request in Grand Coulee causing the police department to review some 13,000 documents. It’s not clear what one of the department’s own officers is looking for, but what is clear is that it’s definitely relevant to the public interest. • Civil service commissions stand as a buffer between civil servants, who can make politically unpopular but correct decisions in the course of doing their jobs, and government administrators and politicians who may be influenced by other pressur... Full story
This week's extra photos are online, including dozens from the regional wrestling tournament in Reardan last week. Here's a slide show. 2-13-13 Star - Images by Scott Hunter...
Coulee Medical Center took a $1.9 million loss on its books for November, 2012, officials announced Wednesday after first briefing employees on the news. Most of the loss has actually accrued over time, but was recognized on the books now after a recent analysis of accounts. The adjustment does not affect cash, they said, and will have no effect on day-to-day operations. “During analysis conducted in the past several months, we identified the need to better address the past impacts of uninsured patients and those insured by Medicare and M... Full story
Lake Roosevelt wrestlers have earned medals at the state Matt Classic in Tacoma tonight. At 145 pounds, Orrin Gross is the state champion in the B division with a 13-5 win over Milo Holston of Liberty Bell. At 182, Sean Waters took second in a 6-3 match against Raymond’s Hunter Borden. At120, Oscar Pakootas took third, pinning Kittitas’s Jose Kike Marin. Kodie Horn took third at 138, pinning Mason Mackey of Wahkiakum. Octavio Alejandre took fourth at 285.... Full story