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 community was thrown into grief Thursday night as word spread of the death of a mother and her young son in what law enforcement authorities are calling murder. Tribal police found Laura Dick and her 17-year-old son Anthony Vieira, dead in the family home after Damien Martinez Jr. called them and confessed, reported sources, including KXLY, which reported obtaining court records Saturday. Okanogan County Prosecuting Attorney Albert H. Lin issued a statement Monday saying Martinez was being held on two counts of first-degree murder, with...
Chief Paul Bowden said traffic enforcement has gone up in Electric City since two new police officers joined the department. “One is definitely a traffic guy,” said Bowden, who is chief of the Coulee Dam Police Department, with which Electric City contracts for service. Bowden told the city council Dec. 9 that Electric City had had just 14 calls for service in November, but 71 traffic stops had been made. Those included 34 warnings and 37 tickets. “I mean he had one in here that was 96” miles an hour, Bowden noted....
Updating an interlocal agreement between Electric City and Grand Coulee on running the wastewater treatment plant they both use has been the subject of discussions for a year, but Grand Coulee has decided it won’t move ahead with changes. Under the decades old agreement it supposedly operates on says a joint board made up of representatives of both cities will govern, but just meeting on it has been a challenge, Electric City council members involved in the process said last week. Retiring Mayor Diane Kohout said at the Dec. 9 council m...
Tracing my wife’s father turned up a lot of mysteries. He was born in 1882 in Kentucky, near the Land Between the Lakes. His name was James Oscar Compton. When he was 16, he left home after some disagreement with his father and headed west. Next, I picked up that he settled in Missouri for a time, long enough to get married and have two children, Richard and Clara. Upon the death of his wife, he headed west again, leaving the children with their grandparents. He stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho, and four years later married my wife’s mom. The det...
Mayor Diane Kohout presided over her last council meeting Tuesday since taking charge of Electric City six years ago. “I want to thank my council and the staff of Electric City for everything you’ve done over the last six years,” she said. “When I came into this position, it was kind of a rough start. We basically started from ground zero. We had no real staff other than a couple people. We had a whole new council and a brand-new mayor who had never been in city politics before.” The first few months were so stressful, she said, that she got s...
The federal government will provide $12 billion to U.S. farmers who have been hurt by "unfair market disruption," President Donald Trump said at a White House roundtable event Monday. Trump said repeatedly the funding was available thanks to tariff revenues, framing his aggressive trade policy as a boon to farmers rather than a drag on their global market share as critics of the policy suggest. "I'm delighted to announce this afternoon that the United States will be taking a small portion of the...
I have always liked places where there wasn’t a lot of people. I think it is in our family DNA. I remember a few places where this showed up. We were in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. We were taking a few days R and R. My wife would be returning home in a couple of days and I would leave for Japan. The beaches were so crowded that you couldn’t enjoy them, so we rented a car and took off to find our own beach. Less than an hour’s drive later, we made our way through some palms and brush and we found our beach. It was a strip of sand about 30 fee...
As we finish the 2026 Lincoln County budget, the same themes I’ve consistently written about continue to be front and center: the 1% property-tax cap, runaway insurance costs, unfunded mandates, and a revenue system that simply can’t keep pace with reality. Washington law limits counties to a 1% increase in property-tax collections each year. That may have sounded reasonable back in 2001, but 1% doesn’t keep up when inflation as wages, utilities, equipment, and basic operating costs rise 5–10% annually. In 2026, that 1% increase, will generate...
Coulee Medical Center (CMC) received $3,020,475 in the federal appropriations legislation signed into law by President Trump on Nov. 13, 2025. This funding, which was secured by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA, 4), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), will enhance on-site housing accommodations at CMC for healthcare staff serving Grand Coulee and surrounding communities. In recent years, CMC has explored potential projects to increase the safety and accessibility of housing accommodations the hospital provides to healthcare...
We have had our first spit of snow. It was welcomed by some and dreaded by others. I am on the dreaded side. My record with snow is not good. I just don’t like it. Luckily, I am at that stage in life where I don’t have to go anywhere. So I can smile and say, “Let it snow.” I’ve had a number of mishaps or near mishaps in snow. Coming home to Palouse from southern Idaho when my father died, I slid off the road and had a difficult time getting one chain on as my wife held a flashlight so I could see. One chain did it that time. Another time, we...
If my body were a temple, the bricks would be glued together with Cheez Whiz. Okay, so sometimes I eat radishes and kale in between almost never-ending portions of hamburgers and leftover Chinese food. But the leftovers run out from time to time. Hence, I rely on the radishes. My idea of a balanced diet is a large Coke in each hand. But that changed when my sister told me about the 75 Hard Challenge. The rules are simple enough. You have to do two 45-minute workouts a day, eat healthy, drink a gallon of water, and read 10 pages of a...
I would like to comment on the theater in Coulee Dam. I understand that Coulee Dam is cancelling their lease. It seems like Coulee Dam finally, after years of an empty, useless space, has something positive to offer families in the area, as well as tourists. This includes more than just movies or even movies and a snack bar. It has turned into an all-around entertainment center, offering different forms of educational programs, free matinees and live entertainment, along with an arcade and other fun activities. A lot of new equipment has been...
The only grandparent I knew and remember was my mother’s mom. She immigrated from Norway in the 1880s. She settled in Minneapolis where my mom was born an only child. My grandmother, Mary Peterson, came west to Palouse with my parents and my three brothers and sister in 1929. I was born the next year in Palouse. My grandmother lived with us and never bothered to learn English. She held on to her old ways, so my memory of her is rather slim. It took me a very long time — and I had the help of my oldest daughter, Kathy — to help unlock some...
November 26, 1883, Sojourner Truth, women’s rights advocate, preacher and abolitionist died in Battle Creek, Michigan. She was born into slavery in Ulster, New York. The date of her birth is uncertain, sometime around 1797. Sojourner was bought and sold four times, escaped slavery in 1826 as her “owner” failed to fulfill a promise to free her before the date mandated by New York law. At the Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio in 1851, she said. “I have plowed, I have planted and I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me....
Larry Hernandez asked for community support and got it as he presented his case to Coulee Dam's town council for an alteration of his lease for the Village Cinema. The council meeting room crowd was standing room only Nov. 12 and spilled out the door as the council wrapped up an earlier meeting and budget hearing, then opened up to hear comments on the city's decision to terminate the theater's lease in the city community building. Hernandez detailed a timeline of starts and stalls with working...
The town of Coulee Dam is offering to buy a piece of property owned by STCU, following a town council vote taken Nov. 12. The part of the lot north of the credit union’s building in Coulee Dam is to be acquired by the town for $65,750, the price offered by STCU. The council voted to approve the purchase, although Councilmember Keith St. Jeor “recused” himself from the vote. “I think in my own mind, it would be a good addition to the city if the city owned that property,” Mayor Bob Poch said. “We have no place else to go for any major impro...
Kudos for the letter to the editor dated October 29th from Kurt Steinke. Thanks, Mr. Steinke, for speaking out! Impartial news is all but extinct and has been for quite some time. It’s all about pointing fingers now and hating the opposing side. These United States have turned their collective backs on God, the Bible, He gave us, and just plain Christian decency for so long, that I’m shocked He has held our Nation together for this long. Recently I heard it said by a reputable source, that of the near 1100 registered voters in Grand Cou...
My current read is “Patriot”, by Alexei Navalny, who courageously tried to save Russia from Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship before Putin murdered him. That raised my mind’s question: Who is currently our US Patriot playing the same role as Navalny was in Russia? I immediately thought of former US Rep. Liz Cheney and her courageous dedication to saving our democracy from wannabe dictator President Donald Trump. At the other (bottom) end of the courage scale, my recent read was the Aug. 18 Time magazine featuring Republican House Speaker Mike Jo...
November 21, 1864, a letter from President Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby Dear Madam - I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our...
The Ridge Riders are hosting their first Colorama Pro Rodeo Pageant this Sunday, November 23 beginning at 9:00am at the Ridge Riders rodeo grounds. Our contestants will be judged on their horsemanship, personal interviews, modeling in Western Elegance attire & speeches. Professionalism and sportsmanship are also part of the overall judging process. The public is welcome to attend. Who will be the 2026 Miss Colorama Pro Rodeo Queen?...
Monday night recognized Linda Roberts for her "hard work and dedication to the school community." Board Chair Shannon Nicholson said Roberts' frequent attendance at board meetings resulted in her taking action to help with a problem. Earlier this year Roberts saw a need for school supplies, including for newly required clear backpacks, and organized a drive to get more to students. "I will accept this on the behalf of our whole Wayfinders group," Roberts said, referring to a community group she...
Nespelem, WA) Inchelium Red Garlic Revitalization Coalition (IRGRC) hosted their second annual garlic planting event at the Colville Tribes Forestry Greenhouse site in Nespelem, WA. Community members from across the reservation and from neighboring communities joined in to learn about the Inchelium Red Garlic project. Terri Williams, representing Colville Reservation Conservation District, demonstrated how to prepare garden beds for planting and how to plant garlic. She also demonstrated some...
The town of Coulee Dam is terminating its lease of the Village Cinema to the proprietor who has spent over a year coming up with new ways to breathe life into the shell that had been vacant for over a decade. Larry Hernandez posted on the theater’s Facebook last week that he’s been ignored since August when he proposed mediation to come to an agreement about his rent going forward and that he waited for 10 months for the city to propose new language in the lease after the town council wanted to have the city attorney clarify it. “This build... Full story
Dear Mayor Poch and City Clerk Bowden, Please share this email with Council Member Black, Council Member Schmidt, Council Member Adkins, Council Member Hall, and Council Member St. Jeor, since I can’t seem to locate their email addresses on the Town of Coulee Dam website. I understand the challenges our communities face, especially rural towns, when balancing pinched budgets during these difficult times. I have spent the last year participating in these discussions across the state, and I’ve seen how difficult these decisions can be and how...
On behalf of all of us at the Grand Coulee Care & Share Food Bank, I just wanted to take the time to give out a BIG THANK YOU to all of the Boy Scouts and their leaders! You are all amazing and appreciated very much for your outstanding work this past Saturday. You brought to us over 2,600 pounds of food! This will really make a difference in helping those in need. Thanks also to all of you that contributed by leaving bags of food on your front porch! We truly live in a wonderful very Blessed community! God Bless all of you! Dave Noggles...
