News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 968 - 992 of 1806
Firefighters in Coulee Dam want to clean up areas of the town that could contribute to a much worse fire season than the last one under the wrong circumstances. Judah Pope told the city council Wednesday the Coulee Dam Volunteer Fire Department had its eye on several areas of town that, if ignited, could cause serious problems. Pope listed several areas, including Fiddle Creek on the west side of town, where understory brush is thick and close to homes that could easily catch fire if the area were to ignite. But Fiddle Creek is the only area...
A few years after Rod Hartman had retired as the 10-year mayor of Coulee Dam in 1996, he tried to impress upon me the absolute necessity of merging the local towns. I agreed, and always have, that it would probably make sense to do so, even if it would be complicated. But having found too many die-hard old-timers too entrenched in old arguments during the last round of discussions on consolidation, I told him I didn’t think it was time to try it again. Now it is. Hartman knew, from decades of working with city budgets and local, region-wide c...
I had a friend at the age of 10 who swore to me that she was a boy. We were just kids playing in sand and gravel of a pit behind my home outside Missoula, Montana. Her statement didn’t really make any sense to me. She looked like a girl to me, although her interests seemed to indicate she was different. Neither one of us had any idea what sex was all about. But one day she felt compelled to tell me she was really a boy, not a girl. The memory of her informs my opinions on the current international struggle in society to recognize those we now c... Full story
The Grant County County Health District warned in an alert Tuesday that one of two cases in the county of a potentially serious, contagious illness involved a student at Lake Roosevelt Schools. Grant County Health Officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny issued the the alert to the Grant County media, stating that health district staff are investigating two Grant County residents with laboratory-confirmed whooping cough, also known as pertussis. The other case involves a student at Port Orchard Elementary in Moses Lake. “Exposure letters have been d...
The owner of a local restaurant was sentenced Oct. 22 on assault and criminal trespass charges to which he pleaded in Grant County Superior Court. Juan Moreno, 41, pled guilty to one count of criminal trespass and entered an Alford plea to one count of fourth-degree assault. With an Alford plea a defendant is not pleading guilty to a crime, but believes he would be found guilty if the case were to proceed to trial. Grand Coulee police had arrested him July 23 after his estranged wife and her boyfriend said he threatened them with a knife and...
Coulee Dam may raise its utility rates significantly over the coming years, if a discussion at last week’s town council meeting is an indication. With a shift in philosophies kicking in for the first budgeting season of a new council and mayor, town leaders were emphasizing a need to build up reserves for coming large expenses. Some reserves had been drawn down under the prior administration as then-mayor Greg Wilder felt it more prudent to take advantage of historically low interest rates where necessary, and to bring the town’s reserve fun...
Coulee Dam’s sewer plant customers could end up paying three quarters of a million dollars more to add a lift station to carry Elmer City’s sewage to the new wastewater treatment plant, a new cost for which a search for funding will now begin. Meeting in a special session Monday night, the Coulee Dam Town Council voted to pursue one of two options laid out in a hurry by Varela and Associates engineer Daniel Cowger last week following a closed session of the council. Cowger’s $760,000 was described as a “rough” estimate for the cost for the a...
An independent candidate for the state Legislature visited the Grand Coulee Dam area last Thursday and Friday, knocking on doors and speaking at the chamber of commerce luncheon. Ann Diamond is running to represent the 12th Legislative District, which includes most of the Grand Coulee Dam area. A physician who founded the first family practice clinic in the Methow area, Diamond, said her travels during her campaign have taught her that small towns share in common many issues of concern:...
Flowers TD vs Brewster from Somebody at The Star on Vimeo. For the first time in memory, maybe ever, the Lake Roosevelt Raiders beat the Brewster Bears in football Friday night, and it was for their league championship. LR left the field with a 32-14 victory and a 8-0 overall win-loss record for the season (6-0 in league) that will now send them to meet the DeSales Irish from Walla Walla (3-4, 3-6) in their first post-season game next week. The Raiders play at home against the Irish on Friday,... Full story
As we watch the larger political world seem to strain to pull itself apart, it’s heartening to see signs of local unity shining a beam of light through the clouds. Last week, Coulee Dam’s city council agreed to consider paying for the extra horsepower needed to get Elmer City’s effluent to the new treatment plant Coulee Dam is building. The two towns have been at the verge of mutually suing each other over whose responsibility that should be. Then last night, the Grand Coulee City Council voted to put the question of consolidating local munic...
A boulder fell onto the highway along Banks Lake sometime in the early hours of the morning Tuesday, blocking the 60 mph northbound lane. Unfortunately, Shaian Gomez found it in her Ford Focus. Gomez, 23, was northbound on SR-155 just before 5:21 a.m. when the Washington State Patrol got a call. Her 2002 Focus hit the rock, which state Dept. of Transportation Maintenance Supervisor Ryan Smith estimated could weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Smith said the rock was about 4 feet across. The big hunk of...
A fire that destroyed four homes in Elmer City last week left the fire chief thankful for his neighbors, who he said likely prevented a larger catastrophe. Okanogan Fire District 2 Chief Dave Finch said some 41 firefighters from every local department were in Elmer City Tuesday night to fight the fire that started about 6 p.m. in high winds in the Grand View Trailer Park just below SR-155. The first trucks had just arrived on scene when the wind blew the fire across the highway, he said. Finch s...
Two candidates for leadership of the public electric utility in Grant County laid out their cases for election last Thursday at the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Siam Palace. Nelson Cox and Judy Wilson both feel the Grant County PUD has amassed too much debt while serving large industrial users of power, such as server farms. And they take issue with some of the top management living out of county. Cox, a Warden area farmer, said the PUD has done great things but its finances are out of control. “I really don’t und...
High winds threw an Elmer City fire across Highway 155 last night after a blaze started in the Grandview Mobile Home Park below the highway. Details were sketchy last night, but one person with an emergency channel radio said at least three mobile homes had burned. From a vantage point a couple miles away, the fire apparently had burned up a ravine that skirts the town to its south, threatening houses on the hillside. A fire truck drove up to one home near the top of the street that a woman watc... Full story
More than 50 people gathered at the Wine Bar in Grand Coulee Thursday to discuss the idea of consolidating some or all local towns into one. SCJ Alliance, a consulting firm for municipal planning, engineering, transportation and landscape architecture, sent four representatives to attend and lead the discussion, which was organized by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. The firm's Dan Penrose led most of the discussion and passed out an illustration of the "Path to Consolidation"...
If you're thinking of driving to Elmer City to take a look at the fire, don't. The road is blocked. High winds threw the fire across the highway 155 tonight after a fire started in the trailer court below the highway. Details are sketchy now, but one person with a radio said at least three mobile homes had burned, and from a vantage point a couple miles away the fire apparently had burned up a ravine that skirts the town to its south, threatening houses on the hillside. A fire truck drove up to... Full story
A literal power struggle is going on in Grant County, and an electric utility commissioner explained Grant PUD's policies to chamber of commerce members last week. Commissioner Terry Brewer said the county's irrigators don't like the path the PUD commissioners set when they decided that the utility's core customers, including irrigators, would always get cheaper power made at the PUD's Priest Rapids Dam. That policy also puts the utility on a course to lessen the subsidy that keeps rates for...
A study of the Bureau of Reclamation’s problems in attracting qualified employees to the area is leading to broader avenues of local communication and could even result in the privatization of some federal land. “In all the places I’ve worked in the United States, I’ve never seen this situation,” Jeffrey Simons, of Stantec, told the local Rotary club last Wednesday. “Not only do you have four communities, but you have multiple counties and the tribes.” Simons, who also spoke to the chamber of commerce’s Economic Development Committee the n...
Teachers in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will get a 15.2-percent across-the-board increase in salary this year, following an agreement reached between the local teachers union and the district that some have called “life changing.” Superintendent Paul Turner told the school board Monday night that the increase is covered by the new salary allocation coming from the state, but just barely, with the district getting about $2.6 million for teacher salaries. He said the average of teacher salaries in the district is now at $65,614. The new...
Coulee Dam is in talks with Charter Communications, a nationwide cable television company that wants to serve the town. The town council reviewed a proposed contract last month that would grant a franchise agreement and allow the company to operate within the town. The company already operates in other local towns, but Coulee Dam has been served by a small company called Country Cable, which council members said had been the subject of many complaints. “One of the things that bothered them most was they called up this complaint line and they g...
The body of a Colville tribal member who went missing late last month was recovered from the waters of Soap Lake on Friday evening, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday morning. Kayakers found the body of Michael Edwin Clark, 60, and notified authorities. Deputies recovered the body and Coroner Craig Morrison’s staff confirmed the body’s identity, a Sept. 2 release for GCSO said. An autopsy conducted Saturday was inconclusive due to the condition of the remains, but no obvious signs of trauma were found. Clark’s remains have be...
When Marcy Horne took over as principal at Nespelem Elementary School last March, she felt she had at least part of her orientation already accomplished. Horne had been the principal at Paschal Sherman Indian School from 2015 to 2017, a position that familiarized her with not only local issues, but some of the same families served by Nespelem. It has been helpful, she said, "just knowing the system and knowing the area. ... When you come in from outside the area, it does take a while to...
In a special meeting Wednesday, Coulee Dam decided it would would notify the EPA of the potential of sewage in the streets of Elmer City because of a dispute between the towns. Adivsed by the city attorney that it cannot make a gift of its citizens’ funds by paying for new pumps for its customer, council members sought to find another way to help while not backing down in an apparent standoff between the towns that use the wastewater treatment plant operated by Coulee Dam, which is finishing a new one. “I think that Coulee Dam has gone way out...
Coulee Medical Center has been making remarkable strides toward digging its way out of debt, is heading toward profitability, and is even expanding its services, unlike many rural hospitals, administrators and other public officials say. "It's an amazing story as compared to where they were a year ago," Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said Tuesday. "This is a great success story for them." As treasurer, Pheasant oversees all county finances, including the debt incurred by municipalities...
The body of a Colville tribal member who went missing late last month was recovered from the waters of Soap Lake on Friday evening, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday morning. Kayakers found the body of Michael Edwin Clark, 60, and notified authorities. Deputies recovered the body and Coroner Craig Morrison’s staff confirmed the body’s identity, a Sept. 2 release for GCSO said. An autopsy conducted Saturday was inconclusive due to the condition of the remains, but no obvious signs of trauma were found. Clark’s remains have be... Full story