News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Washington state’s top legal officer will speak at local Rotary club’s June 12 meeting. Attorney General Bob Ferguson will be speaking about the work of the Office of the Attorney General and taking questions from those in attendance. The Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club’s meeting at The Siam Palace starts at noon next Wednesday, and the public is welcome to attend. Although not a Rotarian himself, Ferguson has the goal of visiting every Rotary Club in the state, with the local club being the 151st out of roughly 180 in the state, according to a st...
Seventy-nine years to the day after the original Ceremony of Tears, about 80 paddlers will leave Crescent Bay in canoes June 14 for an eight-day journey to Kettle Falls, the site of the original ceremony that mourned the loss of salmon from the traditional fishing spot for Native Americans. The Inchelium Language and Culture Association, in association with River Warriors and the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT), have organized the event for the third year in a row. In addition to the 80 paddlers leaving from Crescent Bay for Kettle Falls,...
Officers shoot man in Okanogan County An Okanogan County Sheriff’s sergeant and deputy were involved in a non-fatality shooting near the Aeneas Valley Store, above Tonasket, Monday night, Sheriff Tony Hawley said in a press release Tuesday. Hawley said that Aeneas Valley Fire District 16 had been called to a reported vehicle fire, where firefighters discovered a body in the trunk of the vehicle, then contacted the Sheriff’s Office. Investigation indicated an adult male was reportedly seen leaving the car fire, which was reported at app...
Eagle parents along the Columbia River have their hands full with four eaglets in their nest in the Washington Flats area. Local wildlife photography enthusiast Nora Gabler Jenn, previously profiled in a Star article titled "Nora the Explorer," excitedly told The Star about seeing the eagles on her frequent drives around the area, as shown on her Facebook page. Jenn is watching three nests of eaglets this spring. "Four eaglets is kind of rare, but not too rare," said Eric Braaten, a local...
At 40, he thought he'd left his cross-country bicycling days in his 20s. Then his 6-year-old shared a dream. James Colver and his son Shepherd, now 7, are bicycling across the country, from Anacortes, Washington, to New York City. If they make it, says James, Shepherd will be the youngest person ever to cross the United States by bicycle. Last weekend they visited the Grand Coulee Dam area. James, now a mechanical contractor from Kenmore, Washington, had toured professionally in his 20s,...
An effort to remove a problematic, invasive fish from local waters has united multiple groups towards the common cause. The predatory northern pike are said by biologist to be a threat to native fish populations. Together, the Colville Tribes, Spokane Tribe, Kalispel Tribe, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Park Service, and Grant and Chelan PUDs were able to remove 433 northern pike in a one-week period, according to a May 31 press release from the Colville Tribes...
The Ridge Riders Saddle Club and their annual rodeos got a boost Monday as Jess Ford principal Garrett Jess handed a check to Ridge Rider President George Kohout to cover the cost of a new piece of equipment. The $2,400 will pay for a new chute for the team-roping event at the Colorama Rodeo. "I kind of have a soft spot for rodeo in my heart," said Jess, who also competes in team roping on the rodeo circuit. That's something he "can't remember not doing," he said, but he only recognized as an...
Grand Coulee 5/25 - A man called 911 and spoke to an officer at Riley Point. The man said he had been the best of friends with a woman for the past two days, but was now concerned about his belongings because she had driven past him without offering him a ride. The officer said he would drive by the man’s place to make sure no one was taking his things. - A man camping at Osborne Bay called 911 about people shooting toward an old rock quarry while people were also hiking. The officer told the man that although the shooters’ safety pre...
The Keller Ferry vessel, M/V Sanpoil, will be out of service until further notice due issues with the north shore loading ramp. There is no estimate on when the ramp repairs will be complete. Drivers are advised to seek alternate routes until ferry service resumes. Those who are planning trips across the Columbia River on State Route 21 should choose an alternate route via State Routes 25 or State Route 155 and State Route 174. Before heading out the door, travelers can find highway conditions and service changes for the Keller Ferry on the... Full story
A public workshop related to school discipline will be held in the Lake Roosevelt High School student hub at 6 p.m. tonight. An agenda for the workshop shows staff members outlining district goals, discipline tactics, and more. "You are invited to attend our board meeting to receive updates on current discipline trends, introduce new discipline laws, and learn what the staff is doing to implement those laws while meeting the needs of our students," the agenda for the workshop reads....
Grand Coulee discussed the scourge of drugs in town at their latest council meeting. “I think we have a bit of a problem in terms of drug dealing,” Grand Coulee resident and business owner Kimberly Christensen said last week to laughter from a city council already familiar with the problem. “I’ve never been around it, I don’t want to be around it, I don’t want to see it. I’m concerned for everyone.” Christensen, who also owns the newly opened popcorn stand “The Popcorn Shoppe” on Midway Avenue and Main Street, addressed the city council May 21...
An 81-year-old man from the Grand Coulee Dam area was the subject of a search and rescue operation on Lake Rufus Woods, and the Douglas County Sheriff is now asking for information from anyone who might have seen him launching his boat. Charles Baker's boat, a 14-foot Alumacraft, was seen floating unoccupied five miles above Chief Joseph Dam May 29, and the next day was beached, authorities said. Baker's 1990 blue Dodge Pickup and boat trailer was found at the Army Corp of Engineers boat launch... Full story
Grand Coulee could turn over a stretch of the infamous B Street to the Bureau of Reclamation. The city council discussed the topic at their May 21 meeting. Public Works Director Dennis Francis brought the topic up, noting that the bureau didn’t want contractors doing repair work on B Street while they were working on the fire station the Bureau is building along SR-155 where it connects to Industrial Road, a small stretch that connects to B Street. Francis said that Ian Turner, the project manager for the bureau’s fire station, came up wit...
Coulee Dam’s sidewalks on Ferry Avenue are heaving, with some uplifted by tree roots by several inches. Councilmember Fred Netzel said he recently walked the street with an engineer, who said the whole 1,200-feet of sidewalks on the street should be replaced. That could be a $100,000 project, Netzel told the city council Wednesday, and an application for an 86.5-percent grant needs to be turned in to the granting agency by June 7. The city should have about $32,000 in it by the end of the year to meet the matching requirement. He slipped in a...
The town of Coulee Dam doesn’t have a functional fire department currently, relying heavily on mutual aid agreements with other local departments. Mayor Bob Poch said Wednesday that several people are interested in stepping up to fill that void, and talks are ongoing with other towns’ more experienced firefighters to offer training. “We have some people that have stepped up and started to volunteer again,” Poch told the city council, and six or eight younger people in town are willing to join the volunteer fire department. “It’s a slower proc...
Coulee Dam looking for planning members Coulee Dam is looking for three people to form the town’s planning commission. The city is putting together a state-required updated comprehensive plan, and Clerk Stefani Bowden said the city must either find volunteers to head that effort or pass a new ordinance establishing a one-person commission. Such solo commissioners are usually city employees. Mayor Bob Poch said finding volunteers is challenging. Grand Coulee last week revised its planning commission requirements to make non-resident Grand C...
The Colville Tribes have filed a lawsuit against major manufacturers of opioids, alleging devastating health effects on tribal communities resulting from the drugs. A May 10 press release from the tribes detailed the lawsuit, saying that “the Tribes has sued over 25 opioid-industry defendants in the action, which seeks both compensation for costs associated with the epidemic and injunctive relief.” “The Tribes’ complaint,” the press release says, “asserts claims against the defendants for allegedly marketing prescription opioids in a manner th...
Coulee Dam’s “Community Building,” the one that houses The Melody Restaurant, Riverview Bowl and the currently unused theater space, has a bigger problem than the city’s budget can currently fix: it needs a new roof. Not a patch job on the leaky roof that customers at the businesses below having been putting up with for years, dodging buckets when it rains, but a completely new covering for which at least one contractor doesn’t even want to offer a cost estimate until he sees an engineer’s specifications. It’s a project that City Superintenden...
A Wilbur man was sentenced May 23 to over 11 years in federal prison for cyberstalking an ex-girlfriend and illegally possessing firearms. Thomas Martin Roberts, 52, had pleaded guilty June 12, 2018, to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possessing an unregistered firearm and cyberstalking, according to a May 23 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. United States District Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson sentenced Roberts to 137 months in prison, to be followed by three years of court supervision after he is...
What good does a sign do if it’s for a business that no longer exists? And what kind of signal does an ugly sign give to a passerby? Grand Coulee Councilmember Tom Poplawski brought the topic of signs up at the May 21 council meeting. “There are signs in this town that need some attention,” Poplawski said, “be it just the cleaning off of bugs where at night you just see nothing else but bugs, to old business signs, signs that don’t do anything for us.” “I have fine memories of the Wildlife,” Councilmember Gary Carriere said, referring to th...
Grand Coulee Police 4/28 - A large fight on Dill Street involved several people with conflicting accounts of exactly what happened. A man said he was confronting a neighbor either about an RV he was selling him, or a wood chipper he heard they were planning to steal from him. The man said he brought a wrench with him in case a fight started. During the fight, the neighbors, two brothers, reportedly beat the man with their mother’s walking stick, breaking both of his forearms as was shown by hospital x-rays. More neighbors, seeing what was g...
Josephine Ayres smiles at a woman from the Quilts of Valor Foundation, which presented her and Fred Long, right, with quilts during the Isle of Flags annual Memorial Day ceremony at Spring Canyon Cemetery to honor their service in World War II. Seated at left are her sons Frank Ayres, left, and Robert Ayres. - Scott Hunter photo...
On a narrow-looking scissor lift, workers with Colvico, Inc. work on replacing the lighting system on the bridge across the Columbia River in Coulee Dam Tuesday. The work includes replacing the old-fashioned looking globes with new, but identical, globes and LED lighting. Most of the wiring also has to be replaced under the $242,086 project. The Washington State Dept. of Transportation says there are no full-road closures scheduled for the work, but drivers can expect one-lane,...
Put off by bids all higher than expected, Electric City leaders May 14 tabled awarding a construction contract for a new entrance sign to the city until asking for the public’s opinion. The city is now taking a poll to gauge public opinion. Votes, by Electric City residents only, can be registered at city hall or online at the city’s website at www.electriccity.us. Expecting a bid for about $35,000, council members were hesitant to accept bids that started nearly $10,000 higher and climbed to more than $100,000. “Seems like a lot of money...
With the filing period now closed, we can see which Coulee citizens have thrown their hats into the ring for positions on local councils and commissions, and which incumbents either filed to keep their spot, or chose not to file. In Electric City, Birdie Hensley and Bob Rupe have filed to be candidates for a two-year term in council position 2, for which incumbent Rich McGuire hasn’t filed. Brian Buche has filed for the four-year term for council position 3, currently held by Hensley. Cate Slater is running against incumbent Carol Nordine f...