News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Even if a new “enrichment” levy passes next February, the Grand Coulee Dam School District is set to lose $800,000 per year the way things are currently budgeted, the result of recent changes in state law. If the levy doesn’t pass, that loss figure is closer to $1.2 million. According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, many districts are on a course to lose major dollars. The 2012 McCleary decision by the state Supreme Court ruled that the state wasn’t fully funding basic education, and it required the Legislature to do s...
The Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department/Ambulance Service and the Grand Coulee Police Department members and spouses met Saturday night to honor and thank them for their service to the area. The year's activities were recounted, good teamwork the three departments had enjoyed and the fact all the departments had not had any injuries were reported this year. The major wildland fires and large fire in Elmer City with which the volunteers and police officers had been involved were also...
The local chapter of the Public School Employees union voted 28-8 to ratify a 6-percent raise in the Grand Coulee Dam School District late last month and the school board approved the change last Thursday. After months of deliberations, the PSE Nov. 27 approved the raise for the roughly 75 members, plus a $2-an-hour raise for the lead mechanic position and a 50-cents-an-hour raise to the Spanish paraprofessional position. The lead paraprofessional in the preschool was made a “coordinator,” which comes with a raise of about $1.15 an hour, as...
Grand Coulee approves senior meals donation Grand Coulee will donate $3,500 to the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Meals Program, the city council decided at their Dec. 4 meeting. The program donated over 16,000 meals to the Grand Coulee Dam area from October of 2017 to September of 2018. Grand Coulee approves hotel-motel tax distribution The Grand Coulee city council decided how to disperse their hotel-motel tax money for 2019, giving $4,000 to the Coulee Area Park & Recreation District, $7,000 to the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, and...
Hank Wiebe and his friends are raising hell against the United States Bureau of Reclamation’s recent announcement that they are considering no longer allowing people to drive onto “Geezer Beach” behind the Third Powerhouse at the Grand Coulee Dam, or possibly not allowing fishing there at all. The Grand Coulee man has been placing petitions at local businesses to gather signatures to voice opposition against the idea. “People are fired up, saying, ‘Keep after them,’”Wiebe said. Wiebe said that he and his friends go fishing at the beach regular...
It will take nearly $4.4 million to run the city of Grand Coulee next year, according to a budget prepared for the city council, which took a look at it last week. That’s just about a break-even amount that includes nearly $1 million for fixing streets. The city expects to take in just under $4.5 million, including more than $637,000 in taxes and $955,000 for goods and services, including water and sewer. The Grand Coulee City Council was presented the preliminary budget at their Dec. 4 c...
The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking comments on the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed modernization project for generating units 19–21 (G19–G21) in the Third Power Plant at Grand Coulee Dam. The proposed modernization project will provide continued, reliable hydropower production for 40 years or more and will ensure that Reclamation meets its contractual obligations for power generation, the bureau said in a press release. In the draft EA, analysis is underway on a proposed action and a no-action alternative for any pot...
The volunteer group that has fed and nurtured hundreds of thousands of fish in Banks Lake may come to an end Dec. 19, its longtime leader Carl Russell said this week. The Promoters of Wildlife and Environmental Resources will meet at the senior center in Grand Coulee next Wednesday at 10 a.m. with a representative of the state Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. And he had asked owners of Coulee Playland and Sunbanks Lake Resort to come also, he said. “It looks like it will be shut down,” he said....
Solutions to serious problems should not require contortions of logic that look like the loser in that old game of Twister. You know the one: where players try to reach different spots on a large surface on the floor with different parts of their bodies until one of them finally falls over. The solution the state Legislature came up with after the state Supreme Court ruled the state was neglecting its primary constitutional responsibility — basic education — was a partial solution that will not last because it does not address fundamental ine...
Yet another takeaway? As a disabled fisherman, I, along with many other disabled, aged friends, have fished Geezer Beach for many years. We fish this area exclusively four to five times per week from January to June. Due to our disabilities and very limited walking capabilities for many of us, it is the only alternative for fishing the area. In all of my years of enjoying fishing Geezer Beach, I have never seen or experienced any of the suggested scenarios. I am proud to say that due to our appreciation of the ability to fish there, we are...
The community is invited to the Grand Coulee Library Holiday Open House Thursday, December 13, beginning at 4 p.m. The gifts and services are provided by your library card and NCRL. Find out all about the wonderful services provided by your library free of charge. For example, learn about downloading ebooks, movies, audio books and music to your device; learn a new language, a craft, valuable computer skills, and many, many other services. Don’t have a library card?? No problem, we can make cards for anyone in the NCRL service area. (Please b...
Chamber This Week Chamber will meet at noon, Thursday, Dec. 13, at Voltage Coffee House. General business is on the agenda. Grant County Fire Dist. 14 to Meet The Grant County Fire District 14 will hold its regular monthly meeting Monday, December 17, at 7 p.m., at the Electric City Fire Station. Grant County Mosquito Dist. 2 to Meet Grant County Mosquito Dist. 2 will hold its regular monthly meeting Thursday, December 13, at 5 p.m., at the Mosquito District building. Senior Volunteers Offering Caregivers a Break Senior Center volunteers will...
Vanessa Berry and Lindsey Vargas of Nespelem, Washington, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Skyler Sierra Vargas, born Saturday, December 1, 2018, at Coulee Medical Center in Grand Coulee, Washington. She weighed 7 lbs., 6 oz., and was 21 inches in length at birth.... Full story
City of Grand Coulee PUBLIC NOTICE AVAILABILITY OF 2019 PRELIMINARY BUDGET PROPOSED 2019 BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING A copy of the 2019 Preliminary Budget for the City of Grand Coulee is available to the public at the City Clerk’s office, 306 Midway, P.O. Box 180, Grand Coulee, WA 99133. The city council will hold a Final Budget Hearing on December 18, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. The public hearing will be held in the council chambers of the Grand Coulee City Hall. All interested persons will be given the opportunity to provide both written and oral c... Full story
Grand Coulee 12/4 - A man appearing to be heavily intoxicated urinated on himself at Safeway and was given a courtesy ride by an officer. - A student was caught with marijuana at the former middle school in Grand Coulee. Possession charges were forwarded to the juvenile prosecutor’s office. - A woman at the senior center asked police to take a man someplace warm. The officer told her they didn’t have a warm place to take him. The woman said they would let him stay until they closed. - An estimated $200 in damage was done to a door that had bee...
A Grand Coulee woman offered last week to help Coulee Dam work on getting the former Village Cinema up and running. Kimberly Christensen and her husband, Michael, who started their Coulee Kettle Corn business a year ago, moved to the area eight years ago. The coulee was new to her, but he was raised in the area, she said. Now she just wants to help improve things if she can, she offered, and Coulee Dam is the town that holds two areas of concern: the closed movie theater and the closed swimming pool, both owned by the town. Christensen said...
The Bureau of Reclamation may change rules related to fishing and recreation on "Geezer Beach," a popular spot along the shore behind the Third Powerhouse of the Grand Coulee Dam. People will often drive their vehicles onto the actual beach to go fishing there during the spring drawdown, something that the bureau may no longer allow, with another alternative being not allowing fishing or recreation there at all. "Driving and parking on the drawdown can present a public safety risk to drivers...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved the details of a new “enrichment” levy, at their Nov. 26 school board meeting. The levy will be on the Feb. 12, 2019 ballot for voters to approve or deny. The enrichment levy, also known as the Replacement Educational Programs and Operation Levy, replaces what was called an “operations and maintenance” levy that expires at the end of 2018. The enrichment levy is the second part of a two-levy approach intended to replace the single levy now taken over by the state. That O&M levy took in up t...
Port district approves levy increase Grant County Port District 7 commissioners Monday approved an increase of $698.01 to their tax levy to be collected in 2019. The 1.5-percent annual increase brings the total amount of taxes the district collects to $47,376.63. The port district runs the Grand Coulee Dam Airport and operates the Banks Lake Golf Club on district land. Winter access more limited at recreation area Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is inviting people to “come and enjoy the great outdoors,” but notes in a recent press rel...
The bus between Grand Coulee and Ephrata will only run on request, transit officials have decided. They announced that decision at a meeting in Grand Coulee last week. Grant Transit Authority will remove their regularly scheduled route connecting Grand Coulee to Ephrata and Moses Lake and will begin offering it only upon request with 48 hours’ notice. The change comes as a result of the cost of running the route. That cost is unjustified with the bus being empty regularly, GTA Board Member Bruce Reim said at a public meeting in Grand Coulee h...
University of Washington students, working for the Grant County Health District, interacted with the community members last week, asking what they think about health in relation to the area. The students, about 15 in total, are in the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program, earning their masters degrees at the University of Washington School of Public Health. The students attended a school board and a hospital board meeting, spoke to small business owners and people at the senior center, and held a public meeting at Grand Coulee...
I would like to congratulate the Grand Coulee City Council for their support for the Republic, Washington police chief’s stance on the Initiative 1639 gun law. I would also like to thank Councilmember Tom Poplawski for his succinct comments on the matter. It is my hope that more cities and counties join in on this. For too many times, the east side over here has been subjected to the political tyranny of the socialist/progressive/atheist agendas of King County and Olympia. Today, my “Liberty, founded in Truth” flag is flying. John Overb...
Chamber This Week Chamber will meet at noon Thursday, Dec. 6, at Voltage Coffee House. General business is on the agenda. Senior Volunteers Offering Caregivers a Break Senior Center volunteers will be offering free activities for those with mild to moderate dementia whose caregivers need time for other tasks. For more information call Cheryl at 509-431-1027, Char at 425-879-5835, or Betty at 509-631-2201. American Legion to Meet The American Legion Post 157 next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 11 at the Vet Center in Electric Ci...
Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce President Kerry Higgins celebrates after his coin toss deteremined the winner of a "bead game" at the group's annual Vintners and Brewers auction, this year with a 1960s theme. Participants touch their heads or backsides to signal their choice for the toss, with the winners standing for the next toss. Ben Hughes, at center, won that game as he signaled heads and collected $490. The community spent nearly $28,000 in support of the chamber Saturday night,...
Grand Coulee 11/25-26 - A disagreement over child custody on Fourth Street was eventually resolved with a temporary custody order and a temporary restraining order. The mother took custody of the child while an officer stood by. - A woman lost her phone while in Moses Lake, and while using the “Find My Phone” app, traced it to apartments in Royal City. Grand Coulee Police attempted to contact Royal City Police, but no one was on duty. Grand Coulee Police told her to try to call Royal City Police the next day. 11/26 - A man was reported lyi...