Sorted by date Results 2359 - 2383 of 6625
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...
County-wide burn ban reminder Grant County commissioners and the fire marshal on Monday reminded residents that an ordinance passed in September 2018 bans outdoor burning anywhere in the county from June 1 to September 30. “Agricultural and orchard burning are allowed when permitted by the Department of Ecology,” a Monday press release states. “Recreational campfires are still allowed in approved devices at public campgrounds when allowed by the campground authority. Recreational campfires at residences in private fire pits as long as there...
The Grand Coulee Dam was built during the Great Depression and is now entering the future via interactive, 360-degree virtual reality tours becoming available this weekend. Seattle-based virtual reality company Pixvana partnered with Big Power Project, a content production studio in Seattle, to create the five-minute experience that becomes available at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitors Center this weekend, May 25. Up to four users at one time will wear Oculus Go headsets that will allow them to exp... Full story
The Isle of Flags Memorial Day ceremony is set for 11 a.m. Monday, May 27, at Spring Canyon Cemetery, when a dozen new flags will be dedicated to fallen veterans. Those will join more than 500 that have been dedicated over the years and make for a rousing display each Memorial Day. That happens with a lot of volunteer help, and community members are encouraged to join in. Anyone who would like to help set up the flags can do so on Saturday, May 25, at 1 p.m. Local veterans will also be serving up their Veterans’ Center Memorial Day Breakfast a...
A few months ago, we decided to revive a decade old entrance sign idea. Our fabulous citizens, council and planning team held a contest for a motto/slogan to be placed on our entrance sign. The winning slogan was “Re-Energize Your Recreation”. We put our heads together & had this professional design created as our prospective entrance sign, to help welcome family, friends and visitors to our city!! We went out for bids… the bids are in and we’d like to know which way your heart is leaning…. Voting opens May 19th and runs until June 4th at 5:...
Police will be on the lookout for people not wearing their seatbelt so they can ticket them as part of an effort to increase safety on the roads. Colville Tribal Traffic Safety is taking part in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Click It or Ticket” high-visibility enforcement effort that runs from May 20 to June 2. “Aimed at enforcing seat belt use to help keep families safe, the national seat belt campaign runs concurrent with the busy travel season,” a May 21 press release from the tr...
Grand Coulee Police 5/13 - A woman drove her car into the ditch near the carwash at Jack’s 4-Corners Gas Station, and couldn’t back out because of the sandy conditions of the ditch. The woman said she misjudged the turn into the gas station. A man came and towed the car out of the ditch. 5/14 - A caller reported a child wasn’t in their seat on a school bus. An officer was unable to respond due to being occupied with a higher priority situation. - A woman reported that her children were playing near the former middle school on Federal Avenu...
The votes are in for the primary election for seven of the 14 positions on the Colville Business Council, the main governing body of the Colville Tribes, with 13 candidates seeking office in the Nespelem District alone. All the incumbents survived the primary. The primary narrows the number of candidates for each position down to two who will face off in the general election June 22. The Nespelem District Position 1 race was led by incumbent and current CBC chair Rodney Cawston (324) and Charlene Bearcub (157). Eliminated from that race are...
Faced with critics who question discipline policies at Lake Roosevelt Schools, officials Monday presented data and studies behind a direction they said is not only working better locally, but also mandated statewide. Ready with a raft of statistics for Grand Coulee Dam School District directors at a special meeting, Elementary Principal Lisa Lakin, Mark Herndon and Elementary Dean of Students Shamra Steffler told the school board that incidents of undesirable student behavior are way down from last year, thanks to programs put in place to...
The National Weather Service in Spokane has issued a flood watch for areas in North Central Washington and Eastern Washington, including around Grand Coulee Dam. NWS is warning of showers and thunderstorms that might be capable of flash flooding from 2 p.m. today through late tonight, Thursday, May 16. NWS warns: "* Flood Watch for portions of North Central Washington and Northeast Washington, including the following counties, in North Central Washington, Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan. In... Full story
Tribal, state and local governments have joined forces at Lake Roosevelt to combat the spread of northern pike, recently recorded just two dams away from critical Columbia River salmon habitat. The lake’s co-managers at the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Spokane Tribe of Indians and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife worked alongside the Kalispel Tribe of Indians and public utility districts in Chelan and Grant Counties May 6-10 to catch northern pike in the largest coordinated suppression event of its kind. “We are...