News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A fire near Osborne Bay south of Electric City is burning sage brush and other vegetation in high winds. Helicopters from the Department of Natural Resources and the Bureau of Land Management are helping fight the fire along with fire fighters from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the departments from Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, Elmer City, and Lincoln County. Electric City Fire Chief Mark Payne said the fire started at approximately 12:55 p.m. and is suspected to have started... Full story
Grant County health officials are asking people to still wear a mask, even if you’re vaccinated, because too few have gotten vaccinations. The recommendations came Tuesday evening with a list of reasons for the decision. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relaxed its recommended safety measures, most notably not requiring masks when outdoors unless in very crowded areas and requiring no masks for fully vaccinated persons, even indoors. But Grant County is lagging the nation in vaccine uptake, with only 35.8% of i... Full story
Voters will decide on about 30 positions up for election in the 2021 elections for local town councils, school boards, and more. The primary elections will take place in August, while the general election will take place in November. Grand Coulee Three seats on the Grand Coulee City Council are up for reelection this year, all to four-year terms. Three candidates have filed their intentions to seek Council Position #1, currently held by Tammara Byers who is not running for reelection. The candidates who have filed are: Ben Hughes, Tracey...
Social media has become such a big part of modern life, to the point that now the Grand Coulee Dam School District has an employee policy about it. The district’s board of directors approved a social media policy during their May 24 meeting. Superintendent Paul Turner explained to The Star that the policy isn’t required by the state but rather “is preemptive” and “also initiated because of some previous issues.” Turner declined to elaborate on the nature of those previous issues. “Without a policy, there is no guidance to stay consistent wh...
Electric City residents, by participating in a confidential income survey as soon as possible, can help the city pay for its deteriorating main sewer line. “The main sewer line running along Hwy 155 in Electric City is deteriorating and needs repair before a collapse occurs,” reads a statement from Mayor Diane Kohout to The Star explaining the significance of the survey. “The City is in the process of researching grant possibilities and is working with the Department of Ecology and Rural Community Assistance Corporation to conduct an income sur...
Families gather around the flags about to be dedicated in the name of their loved one, each a veteran being remembered on Memorial Day at the annual Isle of Flags dedication ceremony at Spring Canyon Cemetery. At least 17 more flags were dedicated this year at the ceremony which displays more than 500 each year. - Scott Hunter photo...
The City of Grand Coulee would like a couple of questions addressed before extending their B Street closure agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. One end of B Street has been blocked off near the bureau’s fire station construction site since 2017, and numerous delays in that construction project have kept the road closed. B Street connects to SR-155 through the bureau-owned Industrial Road, with the area between B Street and SR-155 being closed off. At their May 18 council meeting, the council discussed wanting emergency access t...
Grand Coulee Police 5/18 - Police located the owner of a vehicle abandoned along SR-155 where a new fog line was being painted. The owner moved the vehicle. - A man thought a trailer hitch was stolen off of his truck, but later told police he found it and that it must have fallen off the truck. 5/19 - A man suspected of illegal dumping was actually just removing parts from a truck on property that he owns. - A man who went into North Cascades Bank was acting unusual and spoke about wanting to be violent towards people. Police located the man...
(Nespelem, WA) — The Colville Tribes announced today that it is immediately lifting all public safety measures previously instituted to protect the community from COVID-19. A Resolution first passed on March 25, 2020, which imposed multiple public safety measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, including the closure of the Colville Reservation and limits on gathering sizes. These safety measures have been extended on multiple occasions as the pandemic continued to remain a threat, but they are all now lifted, effective immediately. The C... Full story
To my kid brother, Raymond George Rinard This is a synopsis of my service time in World War Two. I hitchhiked from Boone to Des Moines, Iowa on October 6th, 1942 to enlist and was sent back home with four papers to be filled out. One was for my mother giving her permission to me to enlist, one with signatures of three businessmen at Boone, one to be signed by the police chief showing I had no arrests, and one by the pastor of our church. I got them signed and hitchhiked to Des Moines again on...
Lake Roosevelt High School’s Class of 2021 graduation is slated for June 12 on the football field in Coulee Dam, with more details still being developed. “Seniors voted to have graduation outdoors on the football field and so we are moving forward with developing plans,” Principal Kirk Marshlain wrote in his report to the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors for their May 24 meeting. “This will allow for graduates to have more guests present for the ceremony. More details to come as we finalize the plans.” During the meeting,...
The annual Memorial Day Isle of Flags ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Monday, May 31 at Spring Canyon Cemetery. The event, which displays over 500 United States flags, will dedicate 17 more this year in honor of Michael R. Bradley, Jerome W. Bussert, Paul G. Dailey, Timothy R. Ehde, Larry Fredin, Benjamin Ross Goetz, Roscoe Goetz, Edward “Peanuts” Haven, Charles Arthur Hayward, Richard “Dick” Jarret, Earl Mustard, Nicholas Newby, Donald V. Richardson, Richard “Dick” Ross, James A. Stansfield, Gerald “Jack” Thune, and Steven Wiyrick. The ce... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center and laser light show will begin on Saturday in time for Memorial Day weekend. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced the re-opening for the visitor center and the "One River, Many Voices" laser light show in a statement May 19. "To safely re-open the visitor center and return the laser light show, Reclamation will be following the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," the release states. "Fully vaccinated visitors are...
Located along SR-174, Grand Coulee City Park, also known as Shane Proctor Park, has experienced incidents of vandalism this spring and the mayor would like citizens to keep an eye out for that type of destructive behavior and report it. This spring, someone smashed the seats of the teeter-totters in the park, and in a separate incident someone crammed the toilet full of toilet paper, a plastic jug, and other garbage. “It’s just a shame,” Mayor Paul Townsend told The Star on Tuesday. “I don’t even know what’s wrong with people. It makes me si...
Vroom vroom! You can see a variety of cars or show off your own at a car show in Grand Coulee on June 19 in a car show being held on Main Street. The Diversity Divine Auto Show, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be held by Coulee Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sam Hsieh through his organization The Divine Appeal. “The MO at The Divine Appeal has always been breaking boundaries and challenging the status quo,” a description for the show reads online. “One group that carries this loud and proud is no other than our car scene enthusi...
The demolition of a condemned building on Spokane Way that once belonged to a local inventor seems likely to happen this summer after about three years of delays. The Grand Coulee City Council approved a bid for the demolition of the “Vlachos” building at their May 18 meeting, as well as for an asbestos survey to be conducted prior to the demolition. The building, once belonging to inventor and mechanic Constantinos Vlachos, has been boarded up and abandoned for years. In 2018, the Coulee Pioneer Museum recovered some items from the premises, i...
Coulee Dam Police 5/10 - A driver was pulled over near River Drive and Roosevelt Way for going 41 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone. The driver said she was late for volleyball practice. She was warned about speeding. 5/14 - A man and woman in the Harvest Foods parking lot who don’t get along with another man there reported that he pulled a gun on them. The man denied doing that. Police said they would review security footage and told the suspect to avoid confrontation with the others in the meantime. 5/15 - Police believe there is probable c...
Elmer City may test a force main that carries wastewater to Coulee Dam’s treatment plant to see how long the 40-year-old cast iron pipe is likely to last. The town applied for a grant of $30,000 for the test, which would help nail down the cost of a possible switch from using Coulee Dam’s to building Elmer City’s own treatment facility. Engineer Nancy Wetch, of Gray and Osborne, went over the likely cost differences with the town council Thursday night after having completed a cost study of the alternatives. Wetch explained two alter...
Climate change — or changes in weather trends over a long period of time — has been part of the national conversation for decades, and we’re curious what our readers have noticed in their subjective experiences of weather and climate in the Coulee, or wherever they may have lived. Please take this brief survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/L855W8W and let us know.... Full story
If you see smoke north of Coulee Dam, there's no need to be alarmed as it is a prescribed burn near Chuweah Creek near Nespelem conducted by Mt. Tolman Fire Center. The fire center is close to a target goal of 5,000 acres of prescribed burning this year, according to Mt. Tolman's Lead Dispatcher Debbie Caudell, with prescribed burns this year having taken place near Mt. Tolman, the Swawilla Basin, Omak Lake, and the Straydog area near Inchelium. The prescribed burns target vegetative fuel that could otherwise be burned from wildfires, and have... Full story
A group of people met in Coulee Dam Tuesday to start a discussion about someday replacing the bridge over the Columbia River on SR-155. The current bridge, built in 1935, is half as wide, at 20 feet, as the state Department of Transportation would like - not to mention every truck driver who finds it necessary to wait for traffic before making an illegal wide swing into oncoming lanes to be able to make the narrow, right-angle turns. Discussion ensued about 1 p.m. around a table at the school...
The Electric City Council accepted the resignation of Councilmember Willie Bott at their May 11 council meeting. Health reasons were said to be the reason behind his resignation. Bott’s position is up for reelection this November, and the person who is appointed to the position will have to run for reelection at that time to stay in that position. Don Redfield was appointed as an interim council member and will hold the position until the city reviews any other candidates and appoints one, possibly Redfield himself. Others interested in f...
Five more people have died from COVID-19 in Grant County, including the county's first death of someone in their 20s. The deaths, announced in a May 18 press release from Grant County Health District, include: two Moses Lake women in their 60s, a Soap Lake man in his 50s, and two Moses Lake men - one in his 80s and the other in his 20s. The deaths bring Grant County's total Covid death count to 125. "COVID-19 continues to kill people from our community," Grant County Health Officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny said. "These reported deaths are not... Full story
A Senate Democrat and a House Republican have teamed up to introduce a bill that would benefit a local push to build a new energy plant in Grand Coulee. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse (R, WA-04) reintroduced legislation this week to improve permitting for pumped storage hydroelectric projects and protect tribal interests in the process. The bill will also help increase renewable energy production, storage, and job growth in the...
Campgrounds in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, including Spring Canyon, have increased their fees. The LRNRA says camp fees are now $23 a night, up from $19, and that all vehicle-accessible campgrounds are now reservation only. Reservations must be made at recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777, with LRNRA recommending making reservations ahead of time from home because cell phone service can be spotty along Lake Roosevelt. Boat-in campgrounds and shoreline camping are still available on a first-come, first-served basis. The...