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Articles from the August 22, 2018 edition


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  • New federal fire help makes a difference

    Jacob Wagner|Aug 22, 2018

    The federal Bureau of Land Management’s recent agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation and local fire districts has already paid off this fire season. The USBR turned over 200,000 acres to the BLM to manage. With Grand Coulee’s fire district already on board with the agreement, Electric City has joined up as well. Fire Chief for Electric City Mark Payne spoke to the Electric City Council last week about the benefits of the agreement. “Ninety percent of our district is bureau ground,” Payne said, “and so we had access to ground troops, cats; it...

  • Lake Roosevelt Raiders welcome back BBQ Thursday

    Aug 22, 2018

    Lake Roosevelt Raiders will be hosting a welcome back barbecue Thursday, August 23 from 5:30 - 7 p.m. This is for students kindergarten through 12th grade. Sponsored by the GCD PTA this event is for elementary students to find out who their teacher is, where their classroom is located and complete required registration forms, while 7-12th grade students may choose their lockers, pick up their class schedule, purchase ASB Cards and complete required registration forms. ENTER TO WIN A SEASON FAMILY SPORTS PASS!... Full story

  • Wildland fire contained

    Aug 22, 2018

    Firefighters head up a road to attack a wildfire suspected to have started in a well house on Pendell Road, also known as Red Road. The fire started about 1 p.m. Tuesday near the road to the Crown Point Vista in Douglas County. Douglas County Fire District 3 Chief Dale Rinker said Tuesday night the fire was contained, but had burned about 215 acres. He said a well house appeared to be the starting point. No other structures were lost. About 50 firefighters from multiple agencies responded to...

  • Run the Dam will add to Harvest Festival

    Jacob Wagner|Aug 22, 2018

    Lace up your running shoes, Run the Dam 2018 will be held on Sept. 15. Participants can walk or run a 5k, 10k, or half-marathon distance, beginning on the east side of the Grand Coulee Dam, running across the largest concrete structure in North America, through "Old Grand Coulee" along B Street, and back along Banks Lake, finishing at North Dam Park, where Harvest Festival will be taking place. Kelly Buche, who is in her third year organizing the event, is expecting about 220 people to...

  • Which cell phone carrier should you choose?

    Jacob Wagner|Aug 22, 2018

    Depending on where you live and work in the area, it can be hard to choose a cell-phone service provider that has service where you are. Who better to ask about where they have coverage than local citizens? Responding to an August 9 post on the Star’s Facebook page, people weighed in on three big cell-phone companies: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. People appear happiest with T-Mobile and Verizon, with AT&T being very spotty in Coulee Dam despite working above the dam and in Nespelem. “T-Mobile [is] the only way to go,” Gary Haag commented. “Year...

  • Newsbriefs

    Aug 22, 2018

    Backup plan not needed On the heels of the Aug. 7 voter approval of its Capital Projects Levy, the Grand Coulee Dam School District board last week rescinded its earlier resolution to hold another election for the same levy in November. That plan had been set as a backup in case the levy did not pass. It did, with 57.71 percent of the vote, 565-414, so the later attempt was not needed. One firefighter per 305 acres Statistics shared by the Grass Valley Fire’s state management team note that the 75,000-plus-acre fire was 10 miles wide, 18 m...

  • Major disaster declared for Colville Tribes

    Aug 22, 2018

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced this week that federal disaster assistance has been made available for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to supplement the tribe’s recovery efforts in the areas affected by flooding this spring from May 5 to May 28. Federal funding is available to Tribes on a cost-sharing basis for assistance for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by flooding. Funding is also available to the tribe on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures. T...

  • Thank you for the school supplies and donations!

    Aug 22, 2018

    All the members of Public Schools Employees Local Union #1001 would like to personally thank all of you involved in our Stuff the Bus for school supplies campaign. It was a huge success, and that reflects the generosity of this community and those around us. We collected just over $2,000 in cash donations, with more coming in. We also gathered a large amount of school supplies and we will use the cash gathered to go buy more supplies. Around 100 individuals and businesses came and stuffed the bus with supplies and cash. We live in an awesome...

  • Back to school…what?

    Jesse Utz|Aug 22, 2018

    It is that time of year again. It seems to come earlier and earlier every year, and our summers get shorter and shorter. It is time for the awesome employees of school districts across the nation to go back to their classrooms, buses, custodial carts and offices. Summer has come and summer has gone (it may be hidden behind the smoke), but nonetheless the school bell has rung. The floors are shiny, the buses are running with a purr, everything is organized, and curriculum is ready to be taught. O...

  • Fake news

    Carl Russell|Aug 22, 2018

    With all the news media in the United States complaining about President Trump calling them fake news, just look at the coverage. CNN and MSNBC, according to reports, are 93 percent negative along with NY Times, NBC. The news media, before he announced for president, was making fun of him for even thinking about running. When he did run, all the same news media and entertainment made fun of him and almost every one of them stated he would never be president; even President Obama made that same statement. Then when we won the party nomination,...

  • Riding Japan's bullet train

    Roger Lucas|Aug 22, 2018

    The long, sleek train reeked of speed as it pulled into Tokyo station. I was finally going to ride Japan’s world-famous “bullet train” at speeds over 100 miles an hour. It was difficult to reference speeds on rails of such proportions. I was traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto, and later to Osaka, a total distance of some 375 miles. This was to be new to me of rail travel for a number of reasons — the speed, of course, but also for the absence of the constant clickety clack of the wheels of the train passing over the joints of the rails beneath...

  • Columbia River Treaty talks too vital to ignore

    Don Brunell|Aug 22, 2018

    While most of our attention in the Pacific Northwest these days is on trade wars, tariffs and wildfires, there are critical talks underway between the U.S. and Canada over future allocations of the Columbia River system’s water. The two countries are renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty, which went into effect in 1964. It is a 50-year agreement under which both nations can redo, providing there is a 10-year advanced warning. That occurred, and negotiators are now busy meeting. A new a...

  • Engineering expert to give talk about Grand Coulee Dam

    Jacob Wagner|Aug 22, 2018

    Those of us who look at the Grand Coulee Dam and think “how in the hell did they manage to build that?” will have the opportunity to have that question answered in detail by an engineering expert. Raymond “Paul” Giroux will be making a free presentation on “Building Grand Coulee Dam,” Saturday, Aug. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. The roughly hour-long presentation will highlight the construction of the primary structure, which was completed by the spring of 1942. Giroux spoke to The Star about what made the constru...

  • Free trees from Arbor Day Foundation

    Aug 22, 2018

    Nebraska City, Neb. – Spruce up your landscape by joining the Arbor Day Foundation in August. Everyone who joins the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation with a $10 donation will receive 10 free Colorado blue spruce trees or 10 white flowering dogwood trees through the Foundation’s Trees for America campaign. The trees will be shipped postpaid between October 15 and December 10, depending on the right time for planting in the member’s area. The 6- to 12-inch trees are guaranteed to grow or they will be replaced, free of charge. To receive the free...

  • Legals for August 22, 2018

    Aug 22, 2018

    SUPERIOR COURT, SPOKANE COUNTY, STATE OF WASHINGTON IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF Case No.: 18401278-5 W. DEAN STUCKER, PROBATE NOTICE TO CREDITORS Deceased. RCW 11.40.030 The Administrator named below has been appointed as Administrator of this estate. Any person having a claim against the deceased must, before the time the claim would be barred by any otherwise applicable statue of limitations, present the claim in the manner as provided in RCW 11.40.070 by serving on or mailing to the Administrator or to the Administrator’s attorney at the... Full story

  • Generosity station

    Aug 22, 2018

    Donor Matt Mauss signs in to leave a gift toward school supplies for students Friday as PSE member Karrie Utz looks on at the Stuff the Bus event, where a school bus parked at the former Variety Store in Grand Coulee was ready for all manner of sorted supplies, which were arriving that morning. The effort also garnered about $2,000 in cash donations for supplies. North Cascades Bank is also accepting school supply donations until the end of August. - Scott Hunter photo...

  • Inflated fun

    Aug 22, 2018

    Melissa Day creates giant bubbles that other kids rush in to burst just before they do on their own at the Wednesday market last week. - Scott Hunter photo...

  • Challenged spuds

    Aug 22, 2018

    Bob Kelton shows complex potatoes from his garden that have had multiple starts and stops in the current growing season. Kelton said russett potatoes are affected this way by high heat and dry conditions, both of which these spuds suffered this summer. — Scott Hunter photo...

  • Inchelium team wins softball tourney

    Jacob Wagner|Aug 22, 2018

    The Inchelium softball team won the Grand Coulee Summer Softball League's Kenny Hearne Summer Classic Tournament on Saturday. Inchelium had to beat the Electric City Bar & Grill team twice on Saturday in the championship after losing to them previously in the winner's bracket. Inchelium came back from behind to win the first game of the championship 13-12. They won the second game 12-9. "The [Electric City Bar & Grill] is a very good team and very tough to beat," said Inchelium's Galen...

  • Coulee Cops

    Aug 22, 2018

    Grand Coulee 8/12 - A man pulled on Alcan Road near the rodeo grounds was cited for driving with no valid operator’s license, no insurance, an expired registration, and a disfigured plate. Complicating matters further, the vehicle had been registered to a woman who had reported the vehicle stolen in 2016 to Wenatchee police. The police there considered it a civil matter due to the owner having let a friend borrow it, but who later sold it. Because of the uncertainty of the situation, the officer had the vehicle impounded. The driver and p...