News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Grand Coulee approves senior meals donation Grand Coulee will donate $3,500 to the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Meals Program, the city council decided at their Dec. 4 meeting. The program donated over 16,000 meals to the Grand Coulee Dam area from October of 2017 to September of 2018. Grand Coulee approves hotel-motel tax distribution The Grand Coulee city council decided how to disperse their hotel-motel tax money for 2019, giving $4,000 to the Coulee Area Park & Recreation District, $7,000 to the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, and...
Hank Wiebe and his friends are raising hell against the United States Bureau of Reclamation’s recent announcement that they are considering no longer allowing people to drive onto “Geezer Beach” behind the Third Powerhouse at the Grand Coulee Dam, or possibly not allowing fishing there at all. The Grand Coulee man has been placing petitions at local businesses to gather signatures to voice opposition against the idea. “People are fired up, saying, ‘Keep after them,’”Wiebe said. Wiebe said that he and his friends go fishing at the beach regular...
It will take nearly $4.4 million to run the city of Grand Coulee next year, according to a budget prepared for the city council, which took a look at it last week. That’s just about a break-even amount that includes nearly $1 million for fixing streets. The city expects to take in just under $4.5 million, including more than $637,000 in taxes and $955,000 for goods and services, including water and sewer. The Grand Coulee City Council was presented the preliminary budget at their Dec. 4 c...
The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking comments on the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed modernization project for generating units 19–21 (G19–G21) in the Third Power Plant at Grand Coulee Dam. The proposed modernization project will provide continued, reliable hydropower production for 40 years or more and will ensure that Reclamation meets its contractual obligations for power generation, the bureau said in a press release. In the draft EA, analysis is underway on a proposed action and a no-action alternative for any pot...
The volunteer group that has fed and nurtured hundreds of thousands of fish in Banks Lake may come to an end Dec. 19, its longtime leader Carl Russell said this week. The Promoters of Wildlife and Environmental Resources will meet at the senior center in Grand Coulee next Wednesday at 10 a.m. with a representative of the state Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. And he had asked owners of Coulee Playland and Sunbanks Lake Resort to come also, he said. “It looks like it will be shut down,” he said....
Grand Coulee 12/4 - A man appearing to be heavily intoxicated urinated on himself at Safeway and was given a courtesy ride by an officer. - A student was caught with marijuana at the former middle school in Grand Coulee. Possession charges were forwarded to the juvenile prosecutor’s office. - A woman at the senior center asked police to take a man someplace warm. The officer told her they didn’t have a warm place to take him. The woman said they would let him stay until they closed. - An estimated $200 in damage was done to a door that had bee...
A Grand Coulee woman offered last week to help Coulee Dam work on getting the former Village Cinema up and running. Kimberly Christensen and her husband, Michael, who started their Coulee Kettle Corn business a year ago, moved to the area eight years ago. The coulee was new to her, but he was raised in the area, she said. Now she just wants to help improve things if she can, she offered, and Coulee Dam is the town that holds two areas of concern: the closed movie theater and the closed swimming pool, both owned by the town. Christensen said...
The Bureau of Reclamation may change rules related to fishing and recreation on "Geezer Beach," a popular spot along the shore behind the Third Powerhouse of the Grand Coulee Dam. People will often drive their vehicles onto the actual beach to go fishing there during the spring drawdown, something that the bureau may no longer allow, with another alternative being not allowing fishing or recreation there at all. "Driving and parking on the drawdown can present a public safety risk to drivers...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved the details of a new “enrichment” levy, at their Nov. 26 school board meeting. The levy will be on the Feb. 12, 2019 ballot for voters to approve or deny. The enrichment levy, also known as the Replacement Educational Programs and Operation Levy, replaces what was called an “operations and maintenance” levy that expires at the end of 2018. The enrichment levy is the second part of a two-levy approach intended to replace the single levy now taken over by the state. That O&M levy took in up t...
Port district approves levy increase Grant County Port District 7 commissioners Monday approved an increase of $698.01 to their tax levy to be collected in 2019. The 1.5-percent annual increase brings the total amount of taxes the district collects to $47,376.63. The port district runs the Grand Coulee Dam Airport and operates the Banks Lake Golf Club on district land. Winter access more limited at recreation area Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is inviting people to “come and enjoy the great outdoors,” but notes in a recent press rel...
The bus between Grand Coulee and Ephrata will only run on request, transit officials have decided. They announced that decision at a meeting in Grand Coulee last week. Grant Transit Authority will remove their regularly scheduled route connecting Grand Coulee to Ephrata and Moses Lake and will begin offering it only upon request with 48 hours’ notice. The change comes as a result of the cost of running the route. That cost is unjustified with the bus being empty regularly, GTA Board Member Bruce Reim said at a public meeting in Grand Coulee h...
University of Washington students, working for the Grant County Health District, interacted with the community members last week, asking what they think about health in relation to the area. The students, about 15 in total, are in the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program, earning their masters degrees at the University of Washington School of Public Health. The students attended a school board and a hospital board meeting, spoke to small business owners and people at the senior center, and held a public meeting at Grand Coulee...
The death of a child is always hard, but every holiday thereafter can be especially tough on the surviving parents. Next Sunday, many of them will gather in mutual support to “honor the memory of all children gone too soon,” as The Compassionate Friends website puts it. Locally, Cindy Parra is arranging for a gathering at Lake Roosevelt Elementary. Parra’s 16-year-old daughter, Amy, died in a car wreck 16 years ago. “I guess you learn to cope with it, but you never get over it,” she said. “Holidays are hard.” Parra is arranging for locals wh...
What better way to express the joy of Christmas than a lighted tree? Two lighted trees, of course, said Barbara Durnil, of the town of Coulee Dam’s Parks and Recreation committee. The town and the Colville Confederated Tribes are arranging just that. The town will have two Christmas trees this year, one in east and one in west Coulee Dam, to light the season. First, Durnil said, an evergreen in Mason City Park, across from the post office, will become a new bright Christmas tree for east Coulee Dam, replacing one from long ago. Second, t...
Grand Coulee 11/25-26 - A disagreement over child custody on Fourth Street was eventually resolved with a temporary custody order and a temporary restraining order. The mother took custody of the child while an officer stood by. - A woman lost her phone while in Moses Lake, and while using the “Find My Phone” app, traced it to apartments in Royal City. Grand Coulee Police attempted to contact Royal City Police, but no one was on duty. Grand Coulee Police told her to try to call Royal City Police the next day. 11/26 - A man was reported lyi...
Each of us can recall severe storms we’ve lived through. Major thunderstorms with crashing lightning and heavy rain and hail. Wind events, not unlike some we’ve had right here in the Coulee — those walls of dust moving through, blowing over trees, damaging roofs. There’s the major league storms — tornadoes and hurricanes, and the results they bring. I recall witnessing at least three storms that came close to stopping most all human activity. Ice storms can slow or stop us in our tracks ve...
In a symbolic gesture at their council meeting on Nov. 20, the Grand Coulee City Council unanimously came out in support of the chief of police in Republic, Washington, who has announced he will not enforce a new gun law passed by voters in the recent election. Initiative 1639 passed in Washington state with 60 percent of the vote. In Ferry County, where Republic is located, 73 percent voted against the initiative. In Grant County, where Grand Coulee is located, 68 percent voted no, and in Grand Coulee in particular, citizens voted 175-138, or... Full story
After a year of financial nerves and fiscal restraint, Coulee Medical Center officials delivered good news on progress toward a turnaround Monday night. Hospital commissioners passed a budget that comes close to double what it was in 2014 and projects a positive bottom line for what would be the second year in a row. Following a report by Chief Financial Officer Kelly Hughes, commissioners approved a budget that hits nearly $30 million in net patient revenue for 2019 and ends with a net gain of slightly more than $1.3 million. Hughes said it...
The symmetry of the arches on the bridge on top of Grand Coulee Dam is reflected in the sunny, still waters of Lake Roosevelt Saturday. For the weekly Weather Watcher forecast, see page 8. - Scott Hunter photo...
Foundation rumor unfounded A rumor of a crack in the foundation of the new fire station under construction was put to rest by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Tuesday. Lynne Brougher, public affairs officer for the bureau, told The Star in an email on Tuesday that the foundation is just fine. “An inspection of the Fire Station was completed this morning and the only cracking that was observed is within normal parameters for concrete,” Brougher said. “The building has control and expansion joints per engineered designs to control cracking. It al...
Brenda Covington was chosen Monday night by the Grand Coulee Dam School District directors to join their the board. Covington and Lisa Lyngar were interviewed for about half an hour each to fill the Electric City area spot on the board left vacant earlier this year, with the board choosing Covington after deliberating in executive session. Covington will finish the unexpired term of the position left vacant by Joette Barry, which has less than two years left on it. Covington will have to run for re-election for a four-year term. Covington said...
The state Transportation Improvement Board is covering Grand Coulee’s match in a large grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded to repair street damage from the harsh 2016-17 winter. In late 2017, FEMA awarded Grand Coulee $853,990 in the form of a grant that requires a 12-percent match. The TIB is covering that match, equal to $106,750. The $957,639 total will go toward improving city streets that suffered some damage from the harsh winter of 2016-17, as well as the wear and tear of time. To be repaired are “pieces from abo...
An owner could have his dogs taken away if he doesn’t address the ongoing issue of the dogs barking. The dogs, located on Grand Coulee Avenue, are constantly barking and running at large, resulting in 20 calls made through Multi Agency Communication Center dispatch in 2018 alone. Each call cost the city $29.42, or $588.40 total. Police Chief John Tufts said that whoever reports the dogs doesn’t want to just call the police station directly, and may be calling the non-emergency MACC number, which charges the city the same rate as it would for...
Electric City is looking into adopting a drug nuisance ordinance, similar to one Grand Coulee passed in October, that would allow the seizure of known drug houses for up to a year. State law on the abatement of drug houses, Revised Code of Washington 7.43, says that If a house is regularly the scene of police enforcement, drug use, drug dealing, or otherwise, the home could be evacuated and boarded up for a year to effectively remove any ongoing nuisances. The process requires superior court approval to seize a house. “If Grand Coulee is going...
Vehicle crashes attributed in part to icy roads killed three people in the region in the last week, authorities said. Richard Howe, 62, of Omak, died about 8:35 p.m. Nov. 21 on SR-155 six miles south of Disautel Pass. Howe was wearing a seatbelt in the 2004 Ford F350 pickup as he lost control just after passing another vehicle, according to a Washington State Patrol investigation. The pickup, headed north, fishtailed several times, went onto the shoulder on the southbound side of the road into an embankment and struck two trees, coming to rest...