News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Due to complications from a new state law, the city of Grand Coulee is considering no longer issuing business licenses. The new law requires a lot of extra work for the city to coordinate with the state and the businesses, work that City Clerk Lorna Pearce feels may not justify the $4,500 a year the licenses bring into the city. If Grand Coulee chooses to continue issuing licenses, Pearce explained, their licenses would have to be issued from the state of Washington website. “We’ll have to wait for them to give us our money, pull reports fro...
Once again, we come to the community to thank everyone for a fantastic summer season at the VET Center. Our American Legion Post appreciates everybody who came by and shopped with us during our sale season. Although it seemed like a really long stretch for those of us who worked every week to gather and prepare all the treasures that we had for sale, the time flew by as we greeted many of the same people on a weekly basis. With all the community support, our sales assisted us with gaining the funds we need to help Veterans in the area. Our...
Red tape, protocol, and a failure to communicate is keeping the Grand Gallery of Arts from reopening. Faran Sohappy owns a business called Music and Beyond. First located off of Midway Avenue across from Safeway, Sohappy was selling CDs, music equipment, movies, and more. Sohappy jumped at the opportunity to move his business to the Grand Gallery of Arts building on Main Street. The move to the new rented space would enable Sohappy to, in addition to running his shop, host music events on the stage and produce music, something he is passionate...
At last week’s Grand Coulee City Council meeting, the beginning fund balances for 2018 were set, numbers that would typically have been approved in January. “I have spoken with the state auditor’s office and they agreed to allow us to draw a line in the sand, take the money we know that we have, and reappropriate them,” explained City Clerk Lorna Pearce, who took over the clerk position in February of this year. “There hasn’t been good financial tracking for the past seven years,” Pearce continued. “It’s been a disaster. The state auditor’s o...
Grand Coulee Police 8/20 - A King Street man noticed that an unoccupied home he owns has had people inside. A door had been pried open, boxes packed, and someone had been sleeping in the guest bed there. He said a computer, pans, silverware, a wagon, Jim Beam bottles, electrical insulators, and tools were missing. - An officer checked on the welfare of Grand Ave. dogs and found them to be in good health, with food and water. The officer explained to the homeowner the reason for the stop. - A woman who lost custody of her child wanted an...
The body of a Colville tribal member who went missing late last month was recovered from the waters of Soap Lake on Friday evening, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday morning. Kayakers found the body of Michael Edwin Clark, 60, and notified authorities. Deputies recovered the body and Coroner Craig Morrison’s staff confirmed the body’s identity, a Sept. 2 release for GCSO said. An autopsy conducted Saturday was inconclusive due to the condition of the remains, but no obvious signs of trauma were found. Clark’s remains have be... Full story
The federal Bureau of Land Management’s recent agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation and local fire districts has already paid off this fire season. The USBR turned over 200,000 acres to the BLM to manage. With Grand Coulee’s fire district already on board with the agreement, Electric City has joined up as well. Fire Chief for Electric City Mark Payne spoke to the Electric City Council last week about the benefits of the agreement. “Ninety percent of our district is bureau ground,” Payne said, “and so we had access to ground troops, cats; it...
Lake Roosevelt Raiders will be hosting a welcome back barbecue Thursday, August 23 from 5:30 - 7 p.m. This is for students kindergarten through 12th grade. Sponsored by the GCD PTA this event is for elementary students to find out who their teacher is, where their classroom is located and complete required registration forms, while 7-12th grade students may choose their lockers, pick up their class schedule, purchase ASB Cards and complete required registration forms. ENTER TO WIN A SEASON FAMILY SPORTS PASS!... Full story
Firefighters head up a road to attack a wildfire suspected to have started in a well house on Pendell Road, also known as Red Road. The fire started about 1 p.m. Tuesday near the road to the Crown Point Vista in Douglas County. Douglas County Fire District 3 Chief Dale Rinker said Tuesday night the fire was contained, but had burned about 215 acres. He said a well house appeared to be the starting point. No other structures were lost. About 50 firefighters from multiple agencies responded to...
Lace up your running shoes, Run the Dam 2018 will be held on Sept. 15. Participants can walk or run a 5k, 10k, or half-marathon distance, beginning on the east side of the Grand Coulee Dam, running across the largest concrete structure in North America, through "Old Grand Coulee" along B Street, and back along Banks Lake, finishing at North Dam Park, where Harvest Festival will be taking place. Kelly Buche, who is in her third year organizing the event, is expecting about 220 people to...
Depending on where you live and work in the area, it can be hard to choose a cell-phone service provider that has service where you are. Who better to ask about where they have coverage than local citizens? Responding to an August 9 post on the Star’s Facebook page, people weighed in on three big cell-phone companies: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. People appear happiest with T-Mobile and Verizon, with AT&T being very spotty in Coulee Dam despite working above the dam and in Nespelem. “T-Mobile [is] the only way to go,” Gary Haag commented. “Year...
Backup plan not needed On the heels of the Aug. 7 voter approval of its Capital Projects Levy, the Grand Coulee Dam School District board last week rescinded its earlier resolution to hold another election for the same levy in November. That plan had been set as a backup in case the levy did not pass. It did, with 57.71 percent of the vote, 565-414, so the later attempt was not needed. One firefighter per 305 acres Statistics shared by the Grass Valley Fire’s state management team note that the 75,000-plus-acre fire was 10 miles wide, 18 m...
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced this week that federal disaster assistance has been made available for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to supplement the tribe’s recovery efforts in the areas affected by flooding this spring from May 5 to May 28. Federal funding is available to Tribes on a cost-sharing basis for assistance for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by flooding. Funding is also available to the tribe on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures. T...
Those of us who look at the Grand Coulee Dam and think “how in the hell did they manage to build that?” will have the opportunity to have that question answered in detail by an engineering expert. Raymond “Paul” Giroux will be making a free presentation on “Building Grand Coulee Dam,” Saturday, Aug. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. The roughly hour-long presentation will highlight the construction of the primary structure, which was completed by the spring of 1942. Giroux spoke to The Star about what made the constru...
Grand Coulee 8/12 - A man pulled on Alcan Road near the rodeo grounds was cited for driving with no valid operator’s license, no insurance, an expired registration, and a disfigured plate. Complicating matters further, the vehicle had been registered to a woman who had reported the vehicle stolen in 2016 to Wenatchee police. The police there considered it a civil matter due to the owner having let a friend borrow it, but who later sold it. Because of the uncertainty of the situation, the officer had the vehicle impounded. The driver and p...
The Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club is offering cash assistance grants of up to $500 to those affected by the Grass Valley Fire. Assistance is available to those in need due to fire loss or emergency evacuation expenses. If you or someone you know needs help, contact Club Treasurer Jerry Kennedy. He can be reached at 509-631-4567....
Okanogan County Fire District 8 firefighter Brett Read, 38, was injured while fighting the Grass Valley Fire in Douglas County Saturday. Read and another firefighter were attempting to leave their work area when the fire behavior unexpectedly intensified, Fire District 8 Chief Ed Townsend said in a statement. Read became separated from the engine he was working on and suffered burns during the incident. The second firefighter on Read’s engine was not injured. Read was taken to Coulee Medical Center in Grand Coulee, and later airlifted to Harbor... Full story
Whipped by wind, a fire that started near the turn to Mansfield Saturday morning sped over grass, sage and stubble, burning one firefighter and threatening homes and property, on its 20-mile race to menacing Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam, parts of which were ordered to evacuate. Eventually, 247 firefighters would respond from across the state, but the initial attack was up to local volunteers. Douglas County Fire Districts 3 and 5 were dispatched to a mile east and a mile south of Sim's Corner, th...
With many cities, counties, fire districts and multiple jurisdictions of every kind coming together in the Grand Coulee Dam community, it can leave many newcomers scratching their heads, but firefighters on the Grass Valley Fire reported seeing a remarkably close community. At a meeting called Monday to give the community information on the Grass Valley Fire, Public Information Officer Ben Shearer, from the Southeast Washington Incident Management Team, said he has been fighting fires for 28 years, but had to give credit to the Grand Coulee...
Despite an amicable meeting of leaders, two local towns could be about to square off in court over disputed costs of just $30,000, if conversations at their respective council meetings are an indication. Coulee Dam Town Council members talked at length last Wednesday night about the major dispute that has Coulee Dam and Elmer City disagreeing about who is responsible for paying for new equipment to lift Elmer City's sewage another 20 feet higher as it's pumped to Coulee Dam's new treatment...
Local skateboard enthusiast Ben Hughes has already received outreach from skateboarding companies after The Star published an article about his ambition to improve on the current skateboarding culture. “The article that was in the paper (‘Skateboarding scene could grow in the coulee’) is a testament to how the internet works,” Hughes, a commissioner of the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District, said at their Aug. 6 meeting. “I named Zumiez in the article, and someone at Zumiez forwarded it on to someone who forwarded it on, and they cont...
A free presentation on “Building Grand Coulee Dam,” by Raymond Paul Giroux, will discuss how the right conditions, people and engineering allowed it to happen at that time. The Aug. 25 program will be presented at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. “During the early twentieth century, the Bureau of Reclamation was charged with harnessing the water potential of the western United States,” an Aug. 13 bureau press release states. “Critical to this vision was taming the mighty Columbia River. With river flows more than 300,000 c...
Elmer City appoints new council member Elmer City resident Terje Berg was approved to be on the town council at the town’s Aug. 9 meeting. Berg has lived in the area for three years and said that his reason for wanting to be on the council is that he wants to know what is going on in the town. Total fire restrictions for Lake Roosevelt Due to extreme conditions, all fires at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area are prohibited, effective 12:01 a.m., Friday, Aug. 17, until further notice. No open flames are permitted. This includes, but is n...
Star Facebook followers submitted photos of the Grass Valley Fire as it was happening Saturday and Sunday....
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for three fires burning in central Washington, including the Grass Valley Fire in Douglas and Grant counties near Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam. Early Sunday morning, FEMA granted the state’s request for federal Fire Management Assistance Grants to help with firefighting costs for the Grass Valley Fire burning in Douglas and Grant counties. At the time of the request, the fire was threatening homes in and around the c...