News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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"Music is part of human nature," according to new Lake Roosevelt Music Teacher Gabriel James, who moved to Coulee Dam recently for the gig. James, who grew up in Spokane, received his undergraduate degree in jazz performance from Whitworth University, then a master's degree in teaching in June of this year. Saxophone is his main instrument, and he also plays flute and clarinet. While in high school, James played in the Spokane Area Wind Ensemble, and Spokane Area Jazz Ensemble, both of which...
Grand Coulee Police 8/31 - A hospital employee told police that someone had cut the fence to gain entry to “the bull pen,” a fenced in parking area, and taken the catalytic converters off two vehicles. Police photographed the scene, including where the converters were cut off. They are estimated to be worth $700 to $1,500 apiece, but Jess Ford estimated the cost to fix the vehicles at about $5,000. Police also left a message at Coulee Recycling asking if any converters had been brought in. The next day, Jess Ford reported converters cut off...
Firefighters converged with speed and coordination on a hillside blaze just above Banks Avenue in Grand Coulee Sunday night, saving several residences just below the city water tanks. Dispatched to the wildfire at 100 Banks Avenue at 8:40 p.m., Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Dept. called for mutual aid from departments at Electric City, Coulee Dam Elmer City and Lincoln County. Before long, 38 firefighters, two EMTs, two Grand Coulee Police officers and 14 fire engines had responded. Three...
The Banks Lake Golf Course's Club Championship and Senior Club Championship is happening this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 4-5, not beginning Friday. An advertisement in The Star indicated the wrong day of the week for a start, but the correct date. Tee time is at 9 a.m. Saturday. Entrants must have designated the course as their home club and have dues paid in full. Entry fee is $50. The 36-hole tournament follows last month's Rattler Open, which was a "great tournament" with "super turnout,"...
A 1,000%-plus surge in demand for covid testing, brought on by burgeoning cases nearby and across the country, is forcing the local hospital to adapt its operations. Before the more-contagious Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus led to outbreaks of COVID-19 at various regional outdoor events, Coulee Medical Center had been testing one or two patients a day for the virus. Now they’re testing 30-40, Ramona Hicks, CMCs chief executive officer, said Friday, and a local surge of covid is testing CMC’s capacity to handle them. The hospital original... Full story
Cases of COVID-19 have doubled in less than a month in the cities of Electric City and Grand Coulee. Since Aug. 4, local cases in Grant County have doubled to 98 total cases, up by 13 in the last week. Grant County Health District Tuesday reported 286 additional cases countywide since Friday, with 17 patients currently hospitalized for covid, ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s. The 14-day incidence rate in the county is at 1,143 cases per 100,000 population. Earlier this month, that... Full story
The idea of lowering the speed limit from 45 to 30 miles per hour on SR-155 between Electric City and Grand Coulee is a vastly unpopular idea, a Star survey reveals, with 88% of people being against it. However, it may be necessary to lower the limit if a pathway project is to be built at all. Last week, The Star reported on the possibility of the speed limit being lowered by the Washington State Department of Transportation after a pedestrian pathway is built connecting Coulee Playland to Banks Lake Park between the highway and Banks Lake, on...
Reversing an earlier decision, the Colville Tribes will now allow previously canceled stick games and a powwow to go one, but only vaccinated people can attend. The Star received an email announcing the decision late Wednesday morning, after the printing this week's issue. The decision was made by 2 p.m. Tuesday. Below is the new press release: The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has decided to let the powwow and stick games set for September proceed, provided that each event will require all participants to show proof of...
You may notice some greenery missing from the drive along SR-155 near the north end of Grand Coulee in the future. About 30 pine trees near Grand Coulee’s wastewater treatment facility on the north side of the road will be removed due to issues caused by the trees for the facility. The trees pose a risk of damage to the facility if they or their limbs fall onto equipment. Already, tree debris such as needles and cones have fallen into the facility and clogged up pipes and the like. According to Assistant Treatment Plant Operator Travis Irwin i...
Grand Coulee Police 8/23 - Police checked on children alone in a running car at Safeway. The oldest child was 11. Two other kids were there, one of them asleep. The oldest child said their mom had run into the store a few minutes earlier. The mother came out and said she didn’t want to wake the sleeping child and was just in the store for a moment. She left the air conditioner on, so it wouldn’t get too hot in the car. Police warned her it’s a misdemeanor to leave children under age 16 in a running car, but understood she was just looki...
The speed limit between Electric City and Grand Coulee, currently at 45 miles per hour, could drop to 30 with the construction of a new pedestrian/bike pathway. The Star would like to know whether you want the speed limit lowered. With pedestrians regularly traveling the stretch of road, a pathway is seen as a way to give them a safe place to walk or ride their bikes. In 2018, the project was accepted for a $672,410 grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation with a 5%, $35,390 match from Electric City. The original ped... Full story
Attendees of the Omak Stampede are urged to watch for symptoms of COVID-19 after an outbreak was announced in an Aug. 25 press release from Okanogan County Public Health. "Okanogan County Public Health is reporting a COVID-19 outbreak associated with the four-day Omak Stampede, held in Omak, Washington on August 12 – August 15, 2021," the press release says. "Cases have been identified among residents of Okanogan County, the Colville Reservation, and Skagit County." “As of today, we are aware of over two dozen lab confirmed COVID-19 cases in... Full story
Another 20 COVID cases have been reported in the Grand Coulee and Electric City area of Grant County since just last week, making up 23.5% of the total cases in the area since the start of the pandemic. Grant County Health District has reported additional cases in updates from Aug. 18, 19, 20, 23, and 24, bringing the total in the Grand Coulee/Electric City area from 65 to 85. Coulee City, Hartline, and “Almira Rural” cases total 78, up from 75 last week. The GCHD reported 12 additional Covid deaths on Aug. 24, bringing the county’s total... Full story
Workers in some fields are required to be vaccinated or face losing their jobs, and indoor masks are required again in Washington state as the delta variant of the coronavirus sickens more people than earlier strains did last winter. On Aug. 18, a week after announcing that state and healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or lose their jobs, Gov. Jay Inslee announced, along with Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, the same vaccination requirement for employees working in K-12 schools, in most childcare and early... Full story
Well, it lasted longer than 8 seconds, but after just four years of being named Shane Proctor Park, that park is going back to its old name. The park on SR-174, in Grand Coulee between a gas station and La Presa restaurant is called Grand Coulee City Park. In 2017, the city council approved renaming the park after professional bull-riding champion and Grand Coulee native Shane Proctor. Now, after just four years as Shane Proctor Park, it's being changed back to Grand Coulee City Park. On August...
Lake Roosevelt Raiders practice Tuesday evening at Greene Field in Coulee Dam with a fuller schedule ahead of them this season, starting just a few weeks after the state covid health emergency rules allowed them only a brief season last spring. Coach Tim Rasmussen said then he looked at that season like an early extension of a summer football camp. Practice for football started last week. All other fall sports - cross country, girls' soccer, cheer, and volleyball - started Monday. Look for a...
The mental health of students should be addressed more regularly by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, according to a letter school superintendents sent to him and to the state Department of Health. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner is one of 40 superintendents in Washington that signed an Aug. 18 letter to Inslee in response to a July 28 DOH update requiring masks for all K-12 students and staff. “OUR STUDENTS NEED HOPE,” the letter starts. “Coming off an unmasked summer of Washington State being ‘fully open’, our students...
Grand Coulee Police 8/17 - Police collected a Glock 43 handgun found at Sunbanks Lake Resort. A woman called police later and said it was hers. Police told her she would have to talk to the evidence clerk and most likely have to go through a pistol transfer process to get it back. 8/18 - Police gave an intoxicated woman who had been yelling obscenities at the hospital a ride to a friend’s house. At the same time, police convinced a man with a head wound outside the hospital, who had initially refused care, to get care for his wound. Police t...
OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) warns people should not take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19, following today’s Health Alert Network advisory released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug used commonly in humans and animals. Although it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of some parasitic worms, external parasites and skin conditions, evidence shows it is ine... Full story
An agreement, new this year, allows state firefighting helicopters to park at the Grand Coulee Dam Airport and that's helping put out local fires sooner than later. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has an emergency-use agreement with Grant County Port District 7 to pay $1,500 a month to keep two helicopters parked at the airport, plus $750 for each additional one that may go there, based on available space. "It looked like a strategic place for us," said Russ Lane, assistant...
An outdoor music festival in Grant County spread Covid-19 across the state, perhaps underscoring the new realization that the most common variant of the virus that causes it spreads far more easily, even outdoors. The Watershed Musical Festival held outdoors at The Gorge July 30-Aug. 1 is associated with over 230 new cases of COVID-19, Grant County Health District reported Friday. Those cases were spread across the state, identified among Washington residents of King, Grant, Pierce, Skagit, Kitsap, Whatcom, Kittitas, Okanogan, San Juan,... Full story
Covid cases have been active in the community again after a month-long lull, with an additional 21 local cases reported in the past two weeks, a third of all local cases since the start of the pandemic. Since The Star’s last covid update Aug. 4, headlined “Covid cases at a minimum locally,” which reported low numbers of new cases, Grand Coulee and Electric City have seen an additional 17 cases. The Grant County Health District, in updates from Aug. 4, 9, 11, 16, and 17, said new cases have come from all areas of the county, including the Grand... Full story
The business development arm of the Colville Tribes has announced it is looking at a site between Pateros and Chelan for its latest economic development efforts, saying spot has the hallmarks of a new “flagship” resort for the tribes. The Colville Tribal Federal Corporation (“CTFC”) said in a press release that it has completed a “preliminary review” of the site, “colloquially known as MA-18, [which] consists of over 640 acres located across the highway from Azwell, Washington, between Pateros and Chelan. The site features views of the Columb...
A new semi-truck to haul the trailers of trash that come out of the Delano Regional Transfer Station to a landfill in Ephrata will cost a pretty penny in the ballpark of $180,000-$200,000. The Regional Board of Mayors, which includes mayors from Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City, discussed with transfer station manager Randy Gumm Aug. 9 the need for a new truck. City Clerk Peggy Nevsimal of Electric City said possible funding options for the truck included a grant/loan package from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Am...
The lack of animal control locally has been an ongoing issue since time immemorial, but gears are turning in Electric City minds to find a solution for all the local towns. It’s an issue that rears its head at least a couple times a decade, but at the Regional Board of Mayors meeting Aug. 9, Electric City employee Mike Shear and City Clerk Peggy Nevsimal spoke to the board concerning details on how to set up an animal control program. Shear, who currently does code enforcement work for the city and works for the Delano Regional Transfer S...