News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 731 - 755 of 1708
Students in the Grand Coulee Dam School got their first taste of bus-delivered meals Friday with 215 of them picking up meals delivered by bus two hours after their normal bus pickup time. Superintendent Paul Turner said the school board meeting on Monday will hopefully occur via Zoom, a teleconferencing software service available for free to anyone with a Mac or Windows computer or a mobile phone or tablet running iOS or Android. Tuner’s update with more detials on other aspects of the school shutdown, upcoming academics, schedules and m... Full story
Honestly, it’s not you, it’s us. As these extremely inconvenient — no, let’s call them what they are — horrid, restrictions on our social freedom clamp down on society and commerce in favor of health, that’s a concept some either don’t get, don’t want to get, or just refuse to believe, and that affects us all. Whether they’re just delayed in getting the information because they have lives not tied to any media, or they’re just stubborn because they think this another Y2K-like false alarm, or they just can’t deal with the stress and want to pret... Full story
Effective Monday, March 16, The Star is closed except by appointment in keeping with official requests to limit social interaction to address the coronovirus outbreak. Our office doesn’t have to be open to the public for most of our services; we can work from home for much of our work, as advised by health leaders. Those subscribers who have been picking the paper up at our office will receive them in the mail until further notice. Those who must access a public fax/copy service can call 509-633-1350 for an appointment if absolutely n... Full story
School to close, local events altering in wake of new virus Schools statewide will close by Tuesday, following an orders coming from Gov. Jay Inslee as the state responds to the threat of a new virus that experts fear could overwhelm the healthcare system and cost many lives if its spread cannot be slowed down in time. Inslee Friday afternoon said the COVID-19 epidemic has reached 15 counties representing 75 percent of the state's population. "A county-by-county approach to this epidemic is not... Full story
Soarin' Marchand makes this game-winning, buzzer-beater for three look so easy, I'm sure he's only practiced it about a million times! Good video of the shot as tweeted by SWXRightNow: A perfect shot for the perfect end to a #StateB game! Tonight Lake Roosevelt went head-to-head against Wahkiakum. After a nail biter fourth quarter the Raiders would finish the Mules with a shot from beyond the arc! FINAL: 62-59 RAIDERS#WIAA | @wiaawa pic.twitter.com/Bq0YQf7PsB — SWXRightNow (@SWXRightNow) March 5, 2020... Full story
Officials at Coulee Dam last week gave a tentative green light to a Colville Tribes proposal to add a splash pad to the town’s park features to cool kids down in the summer. Frank Andrews approached the city council Wednesday with the idea, noting that the tribes could draft a grant application to submit jointly to a state agency that funds such projects. It could go on trust land controlled by the tribes across from the popular playground at Mason City Memorial Park near Harvest Foods, he said. Coulee Dam, along with other cities on or near th...
Expecting to attract a new business to lease the Melody Restaurant in the near future, Coulee Dam is preparing to fix at least part of the roof of the “Community Building” the town owns. The building also houses a bowling alley and a theater not currently in operation. Mayor Bob Poch reported to the city council Feb. 26 that the town has had at least two interested parties express an interest, including one who has operated five restaurants in Idaho. Poch said the individual had researched past Melody sales numbers and concluded it would be...
A former council member will head a planning commission for the city of Coulee Dam that currently has no other members. The city council Feb. 26 unanimously approved Mayor Bob Poch’s nomination of Ben Alling to head the commission, charged with completing a new comprehensive plan for the town as required by state law. The law would also allow the city to appoint one person for the process. The council has discussed that possibility, but Councilmember Keith St. Jeor moved to select Alling to chair the effort. He won’t be without help. The cit...
A semi loaded with boxes of apples crashed through a corner of Hometown Pizza at lunchtime today, hurting no one inside but seriously injuring the driver, who may have chosen to avoid two cars in front of him at the intersection. The semi tractor was pulling a refrigerated van that was demolished in a ravine below the restaurant. And a car parked in front of the restaurant exploded as the back of the trailer sent it flying into the signpost advertising the restaurant. The car's blackened...
Lincoln County sheriff deputies booked two people into jail last week after a very precise caller alerted them to what appeared to be ongoing theft from rural mailboxes. Three deputies responded to the area north of Davenport about 7 p.m. Feb. 11, taking different roads to prevent the suspect from getting away, Sheriff Wade Magers reported in a press release Wednesday. Deputies Kurt Cuzzetto, Gabe Gants, and Jerad McLagan responded to the area. Cuzzetto found the vehicle, accurately described by the caller, on State Route 25 and followed it...
Citizens in Electric City discussing the devil-containing details of park financing in Electric City are right to push the subject, on both sides of the discussion. Councilmember Cate Slater is right when she says there is “not a lot of stuff” here to entice families to want to move here. Ian Turner is right when he notes the population is getting younger and that should factor into decisions about how to develop the city. Councilmember Brian Buche is right when he says that “has to be something that’s manageable.” Wayne Fowler is right whe...
The Raiders won their district game against the Oroville Hornets Friday night in a game that was closer than some expected, tied at 40 in the third quarter....
Lincoln County sheriff deputies booked two people into jail last night (Feb. 11) after a very precise caller alerted them to what appeared to be ongoing theft from rural mailboxes. Three deputies responded to the area north of Davenport about 7 p.m., taking different roads to prevent the suspect from getting away, Sheriff Wade Magers reported in a press release Wednesday. Deputies Kurt Cuzzetto, Gabe Gants, and Jerad McLagan responded to the area. Cuzzetto found the vehicle, accurately...
For the last few weeks, The Star has carried some stories from Olympia, written by student journalism interns serving as reporters in the news service of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, of which The Star is a member. I serve on WNPA's board of directors, am a past president, and help edit a few of the stories when tapped on digital shoulder by a dedicated retired publisher overseeing the Olympia bureau. I try to pick stories most relevant to our local readers, although the students produce more than we could ever fit in. The st... Full story
More than half the power outages in the city of Coulee Dam last year were caused by wild turkeys that roam the town freely. Last year the town, which operates its own electric utility, suffered nine power outages, the last five all because of the big birds, said Mike Steffens, the city superintendent who gets to deal with such emergencies. Each time, that takes a minimum of two employees spending a couple hours walking the lines, arranging for upstream power to be shut off, then reconnected, and...
A 41-year-old Almira man was booked into Lincoln County Jail on several charges stemming from a fraud investigation by the county sheriff’s office, Sheriff Wade Magers stated Saturday. David W. McCoy was booked into jail Friday on charges of first- and second-degree theft, money laundering and first-degree identity theft, jail records show. McCoy was still in jail on Tuesday with a bond amount set at $15,000. His arrest followed an investigation by Deputy Jon Evans, who had received a complaint from an Almira resident that nearly $10,000 had b...
Dale Rey, along with the mayor and two other council members, took the oath of office and accepted a seat at the council table in Coulee Dam, Jan. 8. Rey was appointed by the council Dec. 11 to the seat vacated by Marcia Warnecke last fall. As of Jan. 1, the council is still short one member as long-time council member Ben Alling did not seek re-election last year, but he took a seat in the audience last week. Rey had plenty of questions during the 30-minute meeting, including about the town-own...
Chief Henry Hix of the Colville Tribal Natural Resource Enforcement Department, identified the body of 41-year-old Leonard “Junior” Simpson Tuesday afternoon. Simpson was found by two volunteers of the search-and-rescue team organized by Chief Hix. “We are thankful to all the volunteers that showed up to help with the search and rescue,” Chief Hix stated. “Although it was not the ending we had hoped for, the body of Mr. Simpson has been returned to his family and friends. We appreciat... Full story
If you'd like some active fun on New Year's Day, here are a couple local options: Pretend you're a polar bear Meet at Spring Canyon at noon for a polar bear plunge into Lake Roosevelt or join a few crazy kayakers braving the cold. They're both happening at noon. Spring Canyon, the National Park Service's closest campground in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area to Grand Coulee, isn't open with full service now, so plan on taking any trash with you when you leave. And be sure to bring a t...
Coulee Dam’s town council passed new rates and a budget this month that included utility rates increases following a series of budget workshops the council worked on in November and December. A flat increase for garbage pickup of $3 per container will be implemented in March and leave about $13,000 next December in the garbage fund that was in the hole at the end of this year. The base rated for electric service will also rise, by $6 per month, to increase the fund accumulated in anticipation of needed maintenance by $38,000. Sewer rates w...
Quick thinking and some downright neighborly effort saved the day last week when hundreds of frozen turkeys could have spoiled instead of finding hungry families. Pacific Aquaculture, which operates the fish-raising farm in Lake Rufus Woods under contract with the Colville Tribes, each year spends $10,000 worth of turkeys to distribute through the tribal food bank operation, usually at Thanksgiving. This year, however, the tribes had decided to match that effort, so about 600 turkeys were still...
The second fire in the neighborhood just above the Columbia River along the Lower River Road in about three weeks brought a quick response from firefighting agencies last Wednesday evening and was quickly brought under control. Like the fire just down the road Nov. 25, the blaze Dec. 18 affected a building that had been unused for some time, this one a small apartment building that had just been sold this month. Firefighters from Okanogan County District 2 and elsewhere responded about 5:15...
Don Brunell, who wrote a column on this page, doesn’t know the local Portch family, but he might as well have used them as an example in his column on local business owners who do good for their communities. Like his parents before him, Loepp Furniture and Appliance owner Kevin Portch doesn’t miss much in the way of opportunities to make life a little better in his hometown, and it’s an ethic his employees embrace, as well. Which led to the story on the front page about rescuing frozen turkeys to maximize the good to come from another local...
The city administrator in Electric City, who has shepherded through many of the projects that have turned out to be the most contentious in the last few years, will resign in January to work for the engineering firm that designed them. Russ Powers delivered his letter of resignation Tuesday night, effective January 31, 2020, to the city council he admired during its last meeting before four new members take the place of the members they defeated in the election last month. Some of them had said...
Police officers responding to a reported car crash in Coulee Dam Sunday morning found no sign of a driver, except for a blood trail. A Colville Tribal Police officer Coulee Dam Police Chief were following a trail that went nowhere as a reporter arrived. Neighbors later reported having seen the driver walk away from the seen at 1109 River Drive, which is also SR-155. The crash happened about 7:30 a.m., and when no driver could be found, the Washington State Patrol was asked to investigate. A WSP...