News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce is asking for cooperation in keeping everyone safe during Colorama. The chamber issued the following guidelines: “Masks are to be worn at all times (except when actively eating or drinking) at all Colorama Festival activities, including all events being held in North Dam Park (Beer Garden, Food Fair, Arts and Crafts, Kids Festival Zone, Helicopter Rides), and the Parade down Midway. “We ask the community to do their best at making personal choices that keep themselves and their families safe whi... Full story
The Colorama parade will be held like normal along it’s Midway Avenue route, but button raffles will be held online with multiple prize drawings held over multiple days. “The parade is on!” Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachel Haven told The Star in an email. Haven received official word that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be opening B Street, which runs near the fire station they are constructing, as an alternate route which allows Midway Avenue to be used for the parade. Colorama buttons are also out and f...
With five more dead in Grant County from COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy apparently on the rise, health officials issued pleas this week for people get use the available “tools to take the fight to the virus.” The five deaths reported by Grant County Health District Monday night bring the county’s total fatalities to 120, and officials noted the ages of those who don’t survive is trending younger than it was early on as seniors were the first non-healthcare group to be allowed to get vaccinated. All Moses Lake residents, they were man in his... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that Siam Palace, Coulee Construction, and Centerline Development have come together to sponsor 20 Kids Festival Zone day passes to the community. The passes will be raffled off and posted on the GCDA Chamber of Commerce Facebook page and in The Star. To enter, provide your name and contact info by email to chamber@grandcouleedam.org, message the chamber at https://www.facebook.com/gcdachamber, or stop by the chamber office (17 Midway Ave, Grand Coulee). It’s limited to one entry per p...
The chamber of commerce is seeking volunteers to help with the “Kids Festival Zone” part of the Colorama festival this year, which will feature attractions such as a mechanical bull, a bungie jump and more, as well as tamer stuff for little kids. The area will also offer traditional carnival games, which is what the chamber needs volunteers to staff. Think of those subtle skill games like throwing a hoop on top of a bottle from 10 feet away. Executive Director Rachelle Haven says she needs at least six individuals to staff games over the cou...
Vendors are being selected for the Colorama festival, and the usual parade looks likely. Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email that roughly 20 food and market vendors are being selected, and that the chamber is still receiving applications. The parade is still being finalized but looks like it will happen as it has traditionally. "We have applied for all the proper permitting and worked with the Grant County Health Department to...
The Community Crab Feed and Triple Fish Challenge events held this past weekend and sponsored by the local chamber of commerce were judged a success, especially by the angler who has been trying to win that tournament since he was 7. “The Community Crab Feed went great!” Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email. “The meals were delicious. We heard that many people were planning at-home crab feeds, which sounded like a lot of fun.” She said 300 pounds of crab from Pacific Seafood...
This year, Colorama will give kids the opportunity to ride a blow up mechanical bull, ride a 34-foot long slide, and more. The "Kids Festival Zone" will be staged at North Dam Park in the upper baseball field on Friday and Saturday, May 7-8, from 12-8 p.m., and on Sunday, May 9 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. "We found All-Star Jump, a rental company out of Spokane that will be joining us for Colorama," Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email....
With the Lions Club's annual Easter egg hunt canceled this year, kids can take part in an "Alternative Egg Hunt" next week in which 26 different homes in Electric City will participate. Those homes will display colored paper eggs with letters on them in their windows starting Sunday, March 28 until Saturday, April 3. It's organized by Shannon Hitchcock of the Faith Community Church. Kids can go around the Electric City area south of Coulee Boulevard and east of Gold Avenue to find all the... Full story
Will the Laser Light Show and Visitor Center at the Grand Coulee Dam, which saw nearly 200,000 people in 2019, open this spring? The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation didn’t answer the question from The Star with a straight yes or no, but did answer. “At this time, the laser light show and Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center will remain temporarily closed in support of the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Public Affairs Specialist Erika Lopez, who works in Boise, Idaho, in an email. Lopez said that the G...
Popular local events that didn't happen last year are at least tentatively scheduled to happen this year. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce will tentatively be hosting 10 events in 2021, including Colorama, the Festival of America, and Harvest Festival. "We are really looking forward to providing the community with some fun and excitement this summer," Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email. "We have the opportunity with our events to try new things and create a...
Santa Claus has been getting courtesy rides from local firefighters this week, doing goodwill tours through Coulee Dam Monday night, Grand Coulee Tuesday and tonight (Wednesday) in Electric City. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce is posting schedules that start at 6 p.m. on its Facebook page. - Scott Hunter photo...
Robert Louis Pachosa, age 78, passed away in his residence, surrounded by family, on Sunday December 13, 2020 in Spokane, WA. Born on March 21, 1942 in Mason City (Coulee Dam), WA. Bob spent his entire childhood in Grand Coulee, graduating from Grand Coulee High School In 1960. Bob's Grand Coulee Tigers boys basketball team won the State B Basketball Tournament in 1960 and Bob, with most points scored in the tournament, was named to the all state class B basketball team soon after. This led to... Full story
People at a virtual auction last weekend bid each other up as much or more than they do in person and the chamber benefited. With its annual Vintners and Brewers dinner and auction canceled for Covid, the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce licensed online bidding software and held the auction anyway, with most participants buying dinner prepared by PK’s Culinary and heating it up at home. The auction of all-donated items brought in $15,396. “That will keep us going for a while,” said chamber President Natalie Dennis. The chamber has n...
Billboards along Main Street in Grand Coulee will be allowed to stay, at least until leases for the billboards are over, and a committee will be looking at ways to possibly allow them to stay indefinitely. Following a couple of complaints, Sam Hsieh, who owns Coulee Plaza, a lot of grass and picnic tables on Main Street, was told he’d have to take down his advertising signs that line the property. The money brought in from those signs helped pay the mortgage and maintenance costs of the property. After being told he’d have to take them dow...
The group that puts on popular events such as Colorama and the Harvest Festival is seeking to raise funds in a virtual auction and dinner to help them to keep functioning and hosting these events. With a slew of events canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce has lost out on a lot of revenue to pay expenses such as rent and wages for its lone employee. “We really want the chamber to survive into the future when we can do live events again,” said board member Solveig Chaffee, who is wor...
So far, 180 businesses in Grant County have received grants amounting up to $10,000 for economic relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grant County’s Economic Development Council doled out the awards in three phases. Phase one awards totaled $438,000; phase two awards totaled $910,000, and phase three awards totaled $339,000 for a total of $1,687,000. The money comes from $2.5 million set aside from the county’s $5 million total they received in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Economic Security (CARES) Act funds the county received. Local bus...
Small businesses that operate in Electric City will be receiving some financial relief from the economically distressed times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Electric City council voted at their Sept. 8 meeting to approve distributing $24,000 in federal relief money to local businesses through a grant application process they held during the summer. The money comes from a grant program set up using some of the city’s $30,900 the city is qualified for in total in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds. The 12 b...
More local events that have become traditions have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Run the Dam running event, as well as the Harvest Festival, have both been canceled this past week. Both were originally scheduled for the third week in September. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce announced on July 17 the cancellation of what would have been the ninth Harvest Festival on their Facebook page. Their board of directors "have explored all possible options to keep this... Full story
Kids got out of the house this past weekend to take part in the 2020 Koulee Kids Fest. "Koulee Kids Fest went FANTASTIC!" wrote Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Haven in an email to The Star. "The turn-out was amazing, more than we ever expected." The festival included children going to local businesses to get take-home activity kits or take part in an activity. Coulee Wall Variety Store had close to 250 kids attend their "fishing pond" activity, Haven said,...
Koulee Kids Fest will take place this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and one lucky child will win an iPad Mini and a pair of Beats headphones. Children of any age participating in Koulee Kids Fest will pick up a “passport,” then take it to area businesses where they will pick up kits, a treat, or take part in an activity that follows social distance guidelines. Each location will stamp their passport, and six stamps qualify a child to win the iPad Mini and Beats headphones grand prize by dropping their passport off at the Grand Coulee Dam...
Potatoes, apples, and onions oh my! Anyone who’d like some free produce can get a box with a bag each of potatoes, apples, and onions at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, June 13, beginning at 9 a.m. The church is located at 806 Spruce Street in Coulee Dam. The giveaway was organized by the church in collaboration with Chelan Fresh, with the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce helping to get the word out over their Facebook page. Chelan Fresh takes part in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Fam... Full story
In the face of uncertainty during the COVID-19 restrictions, the chamber of commerce board of directors voted May20 to cancel any planning for the Festival of America over this year’s Independence Day holiday. The annual event, which normally includes vendors and performers in the park below the visitor center at Grand Coulee Dam, draws thousands each year, most to watch the fireworks off the top of the iconic dam. But all of that takes planning and a timeline that has run out. And the host federal agency, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, has n... Full story
"Achiever of the Year" and "Business of the Year" for 2019 were chosen last week by members of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. Kerry Higgins, who co-owns Coulee Hardware, was named achiever of the year. Coulee Wall Variety Store was picked for business of the year. Coulee Wall Variety Store was named business of the year, an honor given to a business that "is active in the area, demonstrates growth, has innovative products or services for the community, provides excellent...
Rachelle Haven took the reins as executive director of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce in April during a strange year for a local economy that counts on tourism. Haven moved here 10 years ago, but has been coming here longer. "I grew up on the coast, but my dad is a 'Grand Coulee original,' and I still have many family members located here," she said. "I grew up spending my summers in the Coulee with my grandparents and fell in love with the area. I decided that Coulee was my home... Full story