News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1978 - 2002 of 6602
Effective Monday, March 16, The Star is closed except by appointment in keeping with official requests to limit social interaction to address the coronovirus outbreak. Our office doesn’t have to be open to the public for most of our services; we can work from home for much of our work, as advised by health leaders. Those subscribers who have been picking the paper up at our office will receive them in the mail until further notice. Those who must access a public fax/copy service can call 509-633-1350 for an appointment if absolutely n... Full story
OLYMPIA – The arrival of spring typically means drivers in Washington have until March 31 to remove studded tires. However, this year the Washington State Department of Transportation is extending the deadline to Thursday, April 30, due to COVID-19 virus concerns and in support of Gov. Jay Inslee’s guidance to help reduce the spread of the virus by limiting social interactions. “Washington is experiencing some extraordinary challenges with COVID-19 right now and we recognize this is not a time for ‘business as usual,’” said WSDOT Maintenance... Full story
A Grant County resident has died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, but an Okanogan County resident’s test results came back negative as have some at Coulee Medical Center. And community organizations are taking precautions against COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus. Grant County Health District stated Sunday that a Quincy resident resident in his 80s, who had tested positive for COVID-19, had died. The GCHD “has and will continue to follow up with close contacts of this patient,” their press release states. “We know that... Full story
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School to close, local events altering in wake of new virus Schools statewide will close by Tuesday, following an orders coming from Gov. Jay Inslee as the state responds to the threat of a new virus that experts fear could overwhelm the healthcare system and cost many lives if its spread cannot be slowed down in time. Inslee Friday afternoon said the COVID-19 epidemic has reached 15 counties representing 75 percent of the state's population. "A county-by-county approach to this epidemic is not... Full story
A collection of early and rare photos highlighting the history of Steamboat Rock is being published and will be available for purchase in April. The book tells a linear story of Steamboat Rock, from Native American legends, to early pioneers, to the introduction of automobiles, to the construction of the dam, the flooding of Banks Lake, becoming a state park, and more. Local man John "Jay" M. Kemble, compiled the book titled "Steamboat Rock" for Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series. "...
Consumers will need to remember to bring their own reusable shopping bags if they want to avoid the fee that a new law will put on plastic bags. Senate Bill 5323 bans retailers and grocers from handing out single-use plastic bags for free. Shoppers will instead be offered a reusable carry-out bag at check out for an eight-cent fee. “We have been working to deal with the plastic blob in the Pacific Ocean for a decade now,” said Rep. Gael Tarleton, D-Seattle, chair of the House Finance Committee. “There is no perfect tax policy to figure out h...
Tom Flint Monday announced his fifth run for re-election as Grant Public Utility District (Grant PUD) commissioner, District A-At Large. He first joined the commission in 2000. “Institutional knowledge and stability are important characteristics of a PUD Commissioner,” Flint said. “With my 20 years of service on the board, I know this county was built on the foundation of hydroelectric power. I remain committed to preserving those benefits for the residents, farmers, irrigators and businesses of this great county. I also believe strongly that...
As a precautionary measure to protect the safety of customers and employees, all Grant PUD facilities will now be closed to public access, a press release from the utility announced late Tuesday, and as many employees as possible will be told to stay home. The PUD learned that one of its contracted employees has had direct and prolonged exposure to someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and recently came into direct contact with several of Grant PUD’s employees. “Grant PUD believes that this is a prudent precautionary measure to protect publ... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 3/3 - Police performed a welfare check on a man’s daughter said to live in Delano. Police spoke to a neighbor who said that he hadn’t seen the woman or her boyfriend at the house in about three days, and thought they may be at a house in Coulee Dam. An officer forwarded that information to Coulee Dam police. The neighbor was told to tell the woman to call her father if he spoke to her. 3/4 - Upstairs and downstairs neighbors on Main Street argued over noise. An officer told them each to make sure the landlord was aware of th...
Firefighters dig through the smoldering remains of a fifth-wheel trailer that caught on fire early Sunday morning. Two occupants got out of the trailer on Lakeview Boulevard in Delano safely, Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Chief Ryan Fish said. The call came in just after 7 a.m. - Scott Hunter photo...
Wild kokanee in Lake Roosevelt, showing low numbers, are a subject of study for the Colville Tribes' biologists. For the next two years, groups of kokanee will be caught and tagged in order to study their movement patterns, a press release from Colville Tribes Fish & Wildlife says. The goal of the project is to protect and enhance the wild kokanee salmon populations above Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams in an effort to support tribal subsistence and recreational sport fisheries. "The wild...
COVID-19, or the coronavirus, has received widespread news coverage, and as cases and deaths in Washington have been confirmed, how does it affect the local community? "Please be reassured that we have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our community," stated an email sent to Coulee Medical Center staff Tuesday. The email said the hospital "is taking a proactive approach in preventing potential exposure to staff and patients by screening all visitors and patients prior to entrance into the... Full story
Officials at Coulee Dam last week gave a tentative green light to a Colville Tribes proposal to add a splash pad to the town’s park features to cool kids down in the summer. Frank Andrews approached the city council Wednesday with the idea, noting that the tribes could draft a grant application to submit jointly to a state agency that funds such projects. It could go on trust land controlled by the tribes across from the popular playground at Mason City Memorial Park near Harvest Foods, he said. Coulee Dam, along with other cities on or near th...
Expecting to attract a new business to lease the Melody Restaurant in the near future, Coulee Dam is preparing to fix at least part of the roof of the “Community Building” the town owns. The building also houses a bowling alley and a theater not currently in operation. Mayor Bob Poch reported to the city council Feb. 26 that the town has had at least two interested parties express an interest, including one who has operated five restaurants in Idaho. Poch said the individual had researched past Melody sales numbers and concluded it would be...
A former council member will head a planning commission for the city of Coulee Dam that currently has no other members. The city council Feb. 26 unanimously approved Mayor Bob Poch’s nomination of Ben Alling to head the commission, charged with completing a new comprehensive plan for the town as required by state law. The law would also allow the city to appoint one person for the process. The council has discussed that possibility, but Councilmember Keith St. Jeor moved to select Alling to chair the effort. He won’t be without help. The cit...
Police shoot suspect Police trying to take a man into custody on felony warrants Tuesday shot him, said Okanogan County Sheriff Toney Hawley. The shooting happened in Omak at 11:43 a.m., Hawley said in a press release. He said his deputies and Omak police had information on the location of a subject wanted on multiple felony warrants and tried to take him into custody in Riverside, Washington, just north of Omak. “The suspect was shot by law enforcement,” Hawley wrote, not saying which law enforcement officer or officers had shot the man. The...
A potential new, big hydro-electric project for the Coulee area, could be more likely to happen sooner than later if legislation being considered by the Senate in Washington D.C. passes. The $1.4 billion Banks Lake Pump Storage Project, proposed by Columbia Basin Hydropower, would bring in an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 workers to build a gravity-fed, pumped-storage system that would drain water from Banks Lake back down to Lake Roosevelt, turning generators in the process, and later pump the...
February proved to be a bad month for restaurant buildings. On Feb. 21, at about 4:12 p.m., a Coulee City woman drove over the curb on Main Street in Grand Coulee, hitting the outside of Siam Palace, before going into reverse and backing into an alleyway. According to a police report from Officer Dan Holland of the Grand Coulee Police Department, the vehicle, a 1995 Ford Ranger, jumped the curb and hit Siam Palace, causing an estimated $10,000 in damage when the vehicle pushed in a concrete planter, bent a window frame, caused damage to the...
Grand Coulee Police 2/20 - The owner of storage units on Grand Coulee Avenue reported two units had been broken into. Pictures were taken and the owner would contact the unit renters about the incident and tell police if anything is reported missing. 2/21 - The Department of Licensing reported a man saying over the phone that he was going to overdose on heroin and kill himself. An officer went to an Electric City address where the man’s sister lived. She said he didn’t live there, but lived in a hotel in the Seattle area. She called him and...
The coronavirus death count in Washington reached nine on Tuesday, Feb. 3, including two people whose test results were released posthumously.On Monday, when six deaths had been reported, health officials asked state lawmakers for $100 million to attack the outbreak As of Tuesday, 27 people tested positive for the virus in Snohomish and King counties, up from 18 the day before. The three newly confirmed deaths were all residents of Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, which has been the nexus for multiple infected patients, some of whom...
Care and Share Food Bank volunteers restock shelves with food delivered Feb. 17 by Northwest Harvest with goods made possible through local donations to the Safeway program that lets people credit the food bank. A semi delivered 10,304 pounds of food, including cans of sliced peaches, Mac & Cheese, white rice, black beans, canned chicken, cut corn, mixed vegetables and peanut butter. "People will be so glad," said food bank manager Carol Nordine. "We've been out of peanut butter for two weeks."...
A conversation on school bus communication and discipline goes ’round and ’round, and a new director of transportation says he is addressing the issues repeatedly raised over the last couple months. The topic of school bus communication, as well as discipline on the bus, was brought up again at the Feb. 24 Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting, a topic raised back in December of 2019 as well as January 2020. Former school board director Brenda Covington, who has brought up the topic in previous meetings, asked for an update on the top...
The city of Grand Coulee is on track to sign a new contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to provide law enforcement services for the federal agency. The city is currently operating on a six-month extension on a contract that expired in November 2019, a contract in which the city’s police provide additional security at the Grand Coulee Dam. That contract adds four additional officers to the Grand Coulee Police Department, which serves Grand Coulee and Electric City, for a total of eight officers, plus a reserve officer. The bureau pays th...
Craig Moran held up a 30-year-old hawk to a room full of young students at the Vets Hall in Electric City during a two-day event to educate them about birds of prey. Moran, of RaptorLife, a company that teaches people about the raptor category of birds, was showing them August, a 30-year-old ferruginous hawk, that was taken from a nest in Wyoming in 1990. Moran spoke to a mixture of fourth- through eighth-grade students from Lake Roosevelt Schools, and from schools in Wilbur, Creston,...