News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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If you’ve ever dealt with a construction project, you may realize the near certainty of finding more problems than you planned for. Now apply that concept to an industrial plant built decades ago. The Grand Coulee City Council on Feb. 17 approved a significant electrical upgrade at the city’s wastewater treatment plant and advanced several related engineering agreements with Gray & Osborne, Inc., moves aimed at improving safety, reliability, and longterm compliance at the regional facility. The most expensive of the actions was a roughly $24...
Facing a steep jump in sewer treatment costs, the Elmer City Council voted last week to shift its utility rates, raising sewer charges while cutting water rates in an effort to limit the impact on residents. During a public hearing on Ordinance 393, ClerkTreasurer Kelly Ross laid out the numbers now confronting the town. Under an injunction stemming from a legal dispute with Coulee Dam, Elmer City is being billed $98.98 per household per month for sewer treatment and plant loan repayment alone. That does not include the town’s own sewer c...
If you have an old American Flag that's tattered and torn, official protocol calls for a proper disposal. That involves retiring the nation's symbol with respect, not a trash bag. That's where Addison "AJ" Cannon comes in. Cannon, almost 18, is working on getting her Eagle Scout rank, which involves an ambitious project to supply the local area with flag retirement boxes for used flags. She has been working with American Legion Post 157, which will have a key to the boxes. She presented one...
Washington state moved one step closer Monday to creating a personal income tax two years after the Legislature said it wouldn't. Majority Democrats in the Senate advanced legislation on a 27-22 vote to tax households earning more than a million dollars. Passage of the bill followed a three-and-a-half hour debate on whether this will make for a fairer tax code or harm the economy and incite an exodus of Washington's wealthy residents. House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, who watched the vote...
The educational leader who has led Nespelem School District since 2020 will resign at the end of the school year. Dr. Effie Dean, who took over in June of 2020 as the Covid pandemic was disrupting education and society in general, informed the district board of directors Jan. 30. Monday night, directors voted to begin the search for a new superintendent, engaging Northwest Leadership Associates, of Wenatchee, to begin the search and vetting process. Dean’s last official day is June 30. She told The Star on Tuesday that she is not certain of h...
Electric City’s council and administration plans to hold a retreat in March and discussed last week subjects that it would be beneficial to talk about there. Topics brought up at the last city council meeting Feb. 3 included: • the need for animal control • development of a city Facebook page • fire department funding • the location of the retreat (probably the fire station). The retreat is set for March 28....
Blue skies overcome banks of fog below Grand Coulee Dam over the Columbia River Tuesday morning, providing some relief from a week of overbearing low clouds and fog. Check out Bob's Weather Watcher Forecast on page 3 for what's next. - Scott Hunter photo...
In a change from a prior policy considered by the Regional Board of Mayors, the Delano Regional Transfer Station may soon accept credit cards following an Electric City Council vote on Feb. 3. Electric City administers the transfer station operation. It’s workers and administrators are city employees. New Mayor Blake Martin brought up the fact that only cash and checks have been accepted for payment at the transfer station, options that increasingly seem too limited in modern society. “I mean, I know I don’t really carry cash on me,” Martin...
Two Washington tribal leaders could soon snag seats on the state's Board of Natural Resources, which guides logging sales and other management decisions for millions of acres of public land. Sen. Claudia Kauffman, a Democrat from Kent who's the first Native American woman to serve in the state Senate, proposed Senate Bill 5838. On Monday, it was voted out of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. The bill originally called for only one tribal representative to be appointed to...
Protesters Saturday along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee express their disagreement with Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies, denials of due process of law, and a failure to open the promised Epstein files for public scrutiny. About 36 people attended. President Donald Trump has called in the last few days for Republicans to take over elections in at least 15 places in the United States, despite the U. S. Constitution giving that authority to the states. The Star online will...
The third powerhouse at Grand Coulee Dam happens to be lit up in blue and green lights during Superbowl LX Sunday as the Seattle Seahawks took the championship from the New England Patriots. - Scott Hunter photo...
After years of arguing that Grand Coulee is treating it like a paying customer instead of a co‑owner of the regional wastewater treatment plant, Electric City is turning to the courts. The City Council voted Tuesday to seek a legal judgment on the 1984 agreement that created the joint facility, saying Grand Coulee has ignored board decisions, relied on a costly contractor, and refused to enter mediation. The two cities are parties to a 1984 interlocal agreement that created the jointly owned t...
Two people were arrested Monday afternoon after allegedly breaking into a property in Douglas County and trying to escape from police into Grant County, a release from the Grant County Sheriff’s office said. Their news release follows: Around 2 p.m., Douglas County deputies responded to a burglary in progress at Rimrock Meadows, about 18 miles west of Ephrata. The suspects left the area in a red minivan and drove into Grant County. A Grant County sheriff’s deputy spotted the minivan traveling east on Sagebrush Flats Road. The van fit the des...
Electric City Mayor Blake Martin, right, shakes hands with new Councilmember Joe Higgs after Higgs took the oath of office at Monday night's council meeting. The two knew each other from their prior place of employment, the Grand Coulee Police Department. Higgs is now retired. The city council voted Tuesday night to appoint Higgs into the vacant council position 5. - Scott Hunter photo...
OLYMPIA - A protest at the Capitol Saturday called for the removal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "everywhere." With more than 1,500 attending, the rally joined similar nationwide protests after the recent ICE-involved killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Evergreen Resistance organized the protest. The group is Olympia's branch of the nationwide organization 50-50-1 (50 states, 50 protests, one movement). "We're a group that does not want our nation to become more...
A big boulder fell from the wall of the Grand Coulee during the night, blocking most of two lanes on SR-155 along Banks Lake. Drivers could still drive around it where it was coned off at a wide spot in the shoulder of the road on an area of light traffic. But drivers Saturday morning found one-lane (mostly on a pull-out) traffic on the highway just south of the entrance to Steamboat Rock State Park. The Washington State Department of Transportation sent out an alert on its mobile app about 3...
A Grand Coulee man was arrested Jan. 18 after reportedly admitting to shooting his rifle at a boat on Rufus Woods Lake to try to “scare the occupants away,” a sheriff’s report says. Deputies of the Douglas County sheriff arrested Shawn W. Robison, 41, after an investigation, a Jan. 22 release from the sheriff’s office states. One of the five people on the boat called to report the shots, and deputies were dispatched at 8:14 p.m. to the “1000 block” of Strahl Canyon Road, in a remote section of the county about 25 minutes northwest of Grand Co...
Firefighters quickly doused flames in a pickup burning next to the Masonic Lodge in Coulee Dam. Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department responded to the call at 10:18. The pickup truck was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived. Two small explosions occurred as they were working to put out the fire. The pickup was backed up almost to the building on a gravel surface on the west side of the building. That building and an RV were close enough to be risk but were not damaged. Firefighters were...
Elmer City’s residents already pay around $68 a month for their sewer service, not the $14 stated incorrectly in an article last week, but that amount will still go up following a court ruling last December. The $14 cited at a town council meeting is what Elmer City had been paying Coulee Dam for treating sewage at the time. Okanogan Superior Court Judge Kathryn Burke ruled on Coulee Dam’s preliminary injunction seeking payment from Elmer City at double the $80 rate Coulee Dam charges its own customers. The judge didn’t agree to that high a rat...
OLYMPIA – Washington state lawmakers want to rein in how license plate cameras, designed to track vehicles, can be used. During a public hearing Jan. 20, Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, cited a recent University of Washington report that revealed federal immigration authorities were accessing data obtained by automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems in Washington as a major reason why the state must regulate these cameras. Trudeau is the sponsor of Senate Bill 6002, which would create a regulatory structure for ALPR systems and the data c...
Like a fully decorated tree occupying the living room well into the new year, STCU’s season of giving is still lifting spirits across the region. Earlier this month, the credit union presented $5,000 to Specialized Needs Recreation, a Coeur d’Alene non-profit that provides athletic and socialization opportunities for people with special needs. The credit union has surpassed $600,000 in giving this season, which began with $350,000 donated to food security initiatives last fall, including $10,000 to the local Care and Share Food Bank. That tot...
Elmer City must pay a lot more for the wastewater treatment service it buys from Coulee Dam, a county judge ruled recently, which may force Elmer City residents to have to pay more for their utilities. The town council endorsed a plan Thursday to increase rates to cover the bill in dispute for 2025, although the town is working on an appeal. In the meantime, residents who are used to paying $14 a month for their sewer service will have to pay considerably more. Coulee Dam's own residents pay...
A big boulder fell from the wall of the Grand Coulee during the night, blocking most of two lanes on SR-155 along Banks Lake. Drivers can still drive around it where it's coned off at a wide spot in the shoulder of the road on an area of light traffic, but drivers should expect one-lane traffic on the highway just south of the entrance to Steamboat Rock State Park. The Washington State Department of Transportation sent out an alert on its mobile app about 3 a.m. Saturday warning of a...
A Grand Coulee man was arrested Jan. 18 after reportedly admitting to shooting his rifle at a boat on Rufus Woods Lake to try to “scare the occupants away,” a sheriff’s report says. Deputies of the Douglas County sheriff arrested Shawn W. Robison, 41, after an investigation, a Jan. 22 release from the sheriff’s office states. One of the five people on the boat called to report the shots, and deputies were dispatched at 8:14 p.m. to the “1000 block” of Strahl Canyon Road, which is at about its intersection with Road 32 NE in a remote sect...
The city of Grand Coulee will write a letter endorsing a local effort to explore forming a regional "fire authority," the city council voted Tuesday night. A fire "authority" differs in state law from a "district" in that it is possible to include emergency medical services in it. Each of the affected areas in the currently proposed area must write a letter of its intent to move forward with such a study. The vote at Grand Coulee was unanimous, ticking off one more box on the list of things to...