News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1738 - 1762 of 6735
Free COVID-19 testing will be offered to all community members in the Grand Coulee Dam area tomorrow, Dec. 8, from 3-8 p.m. at Lake Roosevelt High School. Look for Lifeline Ambulance in the athletic field parking lot. All are welcome, not just residents of Okanogan County. The testing will be drive-thru, at the football field parking lot near the tennis courts. Look for LifeLine Ambulance vehicles and personnel on site. Pre-registration is encouraged at https://forms.gle/UMVVBjjf8f9GBeut8 but on-site registration also available. "Results will... Full story
The return to school for seventh- through 12th-grade Lake Roosevelt students on Dec. 7 will continue under a plan modified in an emergency school board session Friday night that sets a much higher threshold for the number of local Covid cases it would take to stop in-person schooling. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors held an Emergency Board Meeting tonight via Zoom where they voted 4-1 to modify the plan, previously approved on Nov. 9, for junior/senior high students to return part time to physical school on Dec. 7.... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors will be holding an Emergency Zoom Board Meeting today, Friday Dec. 4th at 5:00 p.m. to discuss 7th-12th grade re-opening. The meeting can be accessed via Zoom at https://gcdsd.zoom.us/j/677070515 The board previously decided on Nov. 9 for 7th-12th grade students to return to in person school, starting with one day per week, beginning on Dec. 7. Kindergarten through sixth grade students have already been going to in person school part time. Since then, there has been a surge in COVID cases... Full story
With the surging of the coronavirus around the country and even in local counties, there’s still enough evidence to give experts confidence that schools are not major spreaders of the illness, if managed for it and if local COVID cases aren’t out of hand. So what, exactly, do Lake Roosevelt Schools do to keep COVID off the campus? Health officers from Region 7 (Okanogan, Grant, Douglas, Chelan, Kittitas) counties have set up a protocol for screening for COVID-19 at schools, which Lake Roosevelt follows. The protocol allows students and sta... Full story
Nespelem School, which had planned to start bringing students back to part-time, in-person school in November and to have them all back full time in January, delayed those plans indefinitely. A Zoom meeting on Nov. 4 between the school district and parents and community members was held to see how they felt about returning to school. Principal and Superintendent Effie Dean told The Star on the phone on Tuesday that on that day COVID rates started “going through the roof,” which changed how people felt about returning to physical school. Dean sa...
Local boys and girls this weekend will be delivering grocery bags to the doors of the community that they hope you will fill — with food. The BSA Boy and Girl Troops will come back the following Saturday to pick up your bag of food items to help the families of the Grand Coulee Dam Area. The local food bank is particularly looking for canned vegetables, canned fruit, and boxes of Mac’n’cheese. Note that they don’t want Costco giant sized cans, and that they can’t accept expired food items. Donations will be picked up on Saturday, Dec. 12,... Full story
COVID rates are up across the map in local counties. As of Nov. 30, Grant County had reported 5,019 total cases, including 36 deaths. There have been 21 cases in the Grand Coulee Dam area, 18 in the Coulee City area. The county has had 1,060 cases in the prior 14 days for an incidence rate of 1,085, up from 565 on Nov. 17. Grant County Health said in a Facebook post Tuesday night that rate may be starting to trend downward, but it was too early to tell if that was due to a Thanksgiving lag in testing. The incidence goal is 25 or fewer cases... Full story
The Hughes household in Grand Coulee includes two geese and a duck, all named after violent gangsters. A duck named Allie was originally named Al Capone, but when she started laying eggs, her name was changed. "Duck eggs are delicious," Ben Hughes noted, speaking with The Star about his family's pet flock over email. Allie, along with a goose named Pablo, after Pablo Escobar, both came from North 40 Outfitters in Omak. The other goose, named Chapo, or El Chapo, comes from NorthWest Seed & Pet...
Lake Roosevelt High School’s Associated Student Body will lose revenue from restrictions imposed from a new state law. House Bill 1660, which passed the state Legislature earlier this year and affects the current school year, will prevent schools from charging students who qualify for free or reduced lunches for ASB cards, as well as for admission into sports games. Their guests over the age of 65 might also not have to pay admission into sports events, or would pay a reduced entry fee. The bill aims to create more equity in schools, saying tha...
Keller Ferry users who travel across the Columbia River on State Route 21 will need to find alternate routes beginning Saturday, Dec. 5. The M/V Sanpoil will be removed from service on Saturday, Dec. 5, and Sunday, Dec. 6, for crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation to replace the roller assemblies on both terminals and realign cables. The work being done is part of the Keller Ferry pontoon and terminal replacement project that began in 2019 and replaced both terminals on both sides of the river. The ferry is...
A new study was recently published in the journal Science that chronicles three decades of arctic animal movements. The study is called Arctic Animal Movement Archive. There have been over 200 studies addressing the impacts on 86 species of animals that call the Arctic home. "There's changes everywhere you look – everything is changing," said Dr. Gil Bohrer, an author of the new archive. The culmination of 30 years of studies had been carried out by more than 100 universities, government a...
Grand Coulee Police 11/23 - A man and woman started arguing because her child was throwing grapes while they were travelling together. They stopped at the gas station. Police spoke to both of them. The woman didn’t want to travel with the man anymore. She arranged for a ride to Omak. 11/24 - A woman on Silver Drive said her husband wouldn’t unlock their car for her to get some belongings to leave the house following an argument. The man unlocked the car and the woman took off on foot after gathering some belongings. - A woman checking on her...
Free, community COVID-19 testing in Okanogan County continues on Tuesday December 8 in Coulee Dam, Okanogan County Public Health announced Friday. That agency, in collaboration with local healthcare, schools, and city partners, continues free COVID-19 testing throughout Okanogan County during December. All are welcome. The test is easy, safe, and doesn't hurt--it is a self-administered nasal swab. The next testing event will be at Lake Roosevelt High School on Tuesday December 8 from 3 to 8pm. Testing will be drive-thru, and will be in the... Full story
The current wave of coronavirus spread is more ominous than the first in Washington for reasons that give doctors cause to fear the near future, including those at Coulee Medical Center, where “we’ve been pretty lucky thus far,” says Dr. Jacob Chaffee at CMC, but they’re also feeling upbeat about coming vaccines. “Hospitals across the state are becoming saturated both on their medical floors as well as their ICUs, and so our biggest fear is that if we see our rates climb significantly, we’re not going to be able to transfer patients wh... Full story
Robert Fields has been wanting a big piece of art on the side of his garage facing the highway to Bridgeport for more than a decade, and he got it this summer in collaboration with his longtime friend and artist Keith Powell. A closeup of a billowing American flag brings the steel siding on Fields' shop to life, the stripes undulating like the Palouse hillsides near Pullman, which is not what Fields had originally thought he'd get. "I just got way more than I dreamed I would," said Fields, who...
There are birds aplenty in the world, the country, the state of Washington and in the Grand Coulee Dam area, and if you need something to do, looking for birds is one option. "There are many opportunities locally for bird watching, wildlife observation or wildlife photography in general," said Eric Braaten, a local biologist for the state Department of Fish & Wildlife, in an email to The Star. "With a mixture of private and public lands, our area is species-rich most of the year with different...
As of Monday, school is intended to continue as planned, with high COVID numbers in local counties, but not in the area itself. At Monday’s Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting, Superintendent Paul Turner presented a document outlining the current COVID-19 pandemic situation in relation to the school. Turner explained that although COVID numbers are currently high in local counties, in talking with county health officials, spikes are related to incidents outside of the Grand Coulee Dam area, such as in northern Okanogan County and d... Full story
Nine people have died of COVID-19 at one Grant County nursing home, and two other long-term care facilities tallied 108 infections among residents and staff, Grant County Health said Friday. GCHD said cases at two long term care facilities, one in Moses Lake and one in Ephrata, are linked to a recent large wedding event held in Ritzville. "It is important to note that mass gathering events where COVID is spread will quickly spread into the community and risks the safety of our most vulnerable...
The city of Grand Coulee has lost revenue from late fees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s Proclamation 20-23, first issued in March of 2020, doesn’t allow utilities to be shut off for a resident, nor for late fees to be charged. At Grand Coulee’s Nov. 17 city council meeting, City Clerk Lorna Pearce told the council that the city has about $18,000 in outstanding utility bills from people not paying. In 2019, Pearce told The Star, the city brought in $5,127 in revenue from late fees. Pearce said one frustration is th...
Grand Coulee Police 11/16 - Police assisted law enforcement officers from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol with a vehicle that was not pulling over for a Grant County officer while heading north from Coulee City and travelling at speeds as high as 110 miles per hour. The vehicle eventually pulled over near milepost seven along SR-155. The driver and passenger, two men, both appeared intoxicated. There were empty beer bottles in their car. The WSP trooper processed the driver for driving while intoxicated and t...
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...
After Washington families were asked last week not to gather with people outside their households over the coming holidays, the governor added more details and broader restrictions in a modified order Sunday. If you get together for Thanksgiving with people not living with you, you'll be going against that ask, - unless you had already begun to quarantine by Friday and you keep it up until Thanksgiving, or keep it up for seven days prior and get a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours...
COVID-19 cases are up and down all over the map and the state is seeing record high days. The Seattle Times reported Nov. 16 that "for the third day in a row, state health officials have reported a record number of daily cases in Washington, with 2,309 new COVID-19 cases as of Sunday afternoon." That compares to statewide case rates in the 600s two weeks ago. As of Nov. 17: Okanogan County has reported 1,204 total cases, including 14 deaths. There have been 15 cases in Coulee Dam, five in Elmer...
The fate of Electric City’s potential Ice Age Park may be decided at the city’s Dec. 8 council meeting. At their Nov. 10 meeting, the council discussed the park following the failure of a levy to raise funds for maintenance of the park for one year. That levy failed 330-192 in the Nov. 3 election. During the public comment period of the meeting, Mayor Diane Kohout read aloud an email signed by Ian and Cara Turner. The email offers “some insight from the perspective of a community member, planning commissioner, and parent to young child...
Anthropologist to speak online Robert Moïse will be the guest speaker at the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club’s Zoom meeting Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 5:15 p.m. and the public is invited. Moïse, a consulting anthropologist, has worked a lot in Africa, and he’s been tapped to share his insights, derived from a career of helping big organizations trying to do good in small communities. You can join the meeting from your phone or computer. If you don’t have a Zoom app, just search in google for “join zoom meeting” and follow the prompts. In the Zoom ap...