News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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It's 9:30 Saturday morning, and if you don't absolutely have to go outside in the Grand Coulee area right now, you should wait. Smoke is currently making the air "very unhealthy" to breath. Local air quality monitors are reading in the 270-300 range, which is at the upper end of the "very unhealthy" range. Ad advisory issued by the Grant County Health District this week offered this advice about that kind of air: "Everyone should stay indoors, do only light activities, and keep windows closed... Full story
Dawn Lovelace had none of the risk factors for breast cancer. She got it anyway. “I’m a woman … that’s my risk factor,” she said in a recent interview. The nurse and midwife, who basically founded the obstetrics program at Coulee Medical Center 23 years ago, took her own medical advice and went in to CMC for a screening mammogram in January of 2017. “Unreality,” she said of the news. “The sinking in was very hard.” By the following September, Lovelace had had four surgeries. “I’m fine. I’m cancer free,” she said in July. She decided to “emb...
Agencies that control most of the public lands in the region have issued restrictions on the use of fire. “Fire restrictions on lands administered by the Bureau of Reclamation have been modified to prohibit the building, maintaining, attending or using a fire of any type, including charcoal briquette fires,” a press release from the Bureau of Land Management states. The BLM has an agreement with the USBR to operate on their lands for fire management purposes. “An exemption is made for liquefied and bottled gas stoves and heaters, provi...
The Colville Confederated Tribes have proposed a release of salmon above Chief Joseph Dam and Grand Coulee Dam to return the once-native species to waters from which they’ve been absent since the construction of those giant barriers to their migration. The proposal is to release thousands of adult salmon and tens of thousands of juvenile salmon above the two dams in the Columbia River, as well as its tributaries. “There is a spiritual connection between salmon and Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest that is celebrated in many cer...
A capital improvements levy to support the Grand Coulee Dam School District appears to have passed in Tuesday’s election with more than 55 percent of the vote. The levy will enable safety, technology and facilities improvements in the district and then let it pay for some items that otherwise would have come from its general fund as the transition is made to the new system of financing basic education in the state. In other contested primary elections, 4th District incumbent Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse led Democrat Christine Brown 6...
Local Rotarian Roy Hamilton accepts a "Changemaker" award from Rotary District 5060 Governor Sherry Chamberlain Wednesday at the club's meeting at Siam Palace for his outstanding and continual contributions to Rotary efforts and causes, including a recent gift in the name of his late wife, Donna Hamilton, toward eliminating polio. Hamilton took the opportunity to remind the club that donations toward that cause right now at www.endpolio.org are matched twice by the Bill and Melinda Gates...
Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend welcomes Nicolaus D. Johnson as the city's newest patrolman after swearing him in Tuesday. Coming from Yakima, Johnson was recruited laterally, meaning he's already fully qualified to serve without the city having to send him to state academy training. That's important, Townsend noted, because he can immediately take part in the city's contract supporting the Bureau of Reclamation. The city now has eight officers, Townsend said. - Scott Hunter...
Turn your eyes to the sky on Aug. 13, when the Perseid meteor shower will illuminate the darkness, all the darker due to a new moon, as the National Park Service Sky Rangers give guided tours of the heavens on August 10-11. On Aug. 10, from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., rangers will be at the Crescent Bay area, where the public is welcome to join and look at planets, constellations, and more through their telescope. “We have everything you need to look up, but you are welcome to bring your own telescopes, spotting scopes, or binoculars plus bug spray, a...
Coulee Dam Police 7/23 - A Coulee Dam woman reported that someone had entered her vacant River Drive rental property. A bent window screen was the only damage, and the woman noted that the intruder didn’t even take the half case of beer that was in the fridge. An officer found three cigarette butts as evidence. 7/24 - An officer spoke with a woman on Spruce Street who said that she wanted another woman, who was there to clean, to leave. The woman who was there to clean said she had permission from the complainant’s father to be there. The compl...
The Grand Coulee branch of North Cascades Bank is collecting backpacks and school supplies for local children in need. Cash donations are also welcome and will be used to purchase additional supplies. All items will be distributed to schools in the Grand Coulee Dam School District. Donations will be accepted at North Cascades Bank during the month of August and will continue through September as well. Please help us prepare our local youth for the new school year! Supply lists will be available in the bank’s lobby. If you have any questions abo...
Evacuation levels on the Grass Valley Fire have not changed since last night, officials say. Although milder conditions have allowed the fire behavior to settle down today, that could change, and hot areas still close to towns flare up with a new wind. I would expect a new assessment in the near future, after firefighters get a better overall look at the total fire from the air. SR-174 is still closed from Leahy Junction to Grand Coulee. SR-155 is open, as is SR-17. Businesses are open in the...
The owner of a popular restaurant was arrested on domestic violence charges last week and remains in jail. Juan Moreno, the owner of The Melody restaurant in Coulee Dam, was arrested by Grand Coulee Police July 23 after his estranged wife and her boyfriend told police he threatened them with a knife and baseball bat, abducted her and tried to run over him. An Elmer City woman, who had called 911 about a disturbance next door to where she was visiting in Electric City, told police details that backed up what the two alleged victims had said....
Volunteer firefighters in Grand Coulee responded quickly to local fires recently, stopping them before they could grow in size and do major damage. Firefighters responded to a fire right in Hometown Pizza's backyard on July 26, the second fire that week following a July 23 smoldering fire in a pile of manure. The Hometown Pizza fire was responded to by 14 firefighters, five fire engines, two law enforcement officers, and two Grant County PUD linemen who kept the grass and brush fire to approxima...
A young Nespelem man died early Wednesday morning when the motorcycle he was riding went off the highway five miles north of Coulee Dam. Patrick J. Morin, 18, was riding a 2017 Yamaha FZ-09 south on SR-155 when he entered a curve too fast, lost control and struck a tree, according to the Washington State Patrol. The patrol report stated the July 25 crash occurred at 4:21 a.m. at milepost 35.7. That is in the area known as Belvedere. It was not known whether drugs or alcohol were involved, the report stated. Morin did not have a motorcycle...
In the face of requests for power that total more than three times what they typically sell, Grant County PUD is considering raising electricity rates for "evolving industries" that suck up a lot of power, such as bitcoin mining operations. Atlas Blockchain Group Inc, formerly Atlas Cloud, is a Canada-based company that purchased the former Young's Welding building in Electric City to house such a facility, a decision made to take advantage of Grant County PUD's low electricity rates....
Joel DeWinkler stands on a lift drilling into a wall of the operations/laboratory building at the north end of Coulee Dam's new wastewater treatment facility. To his south is the "aero-mod basin" with clarifiers and digesters. The headworks building is at the far left. The complex is currently scheduled to be completely finished in December, an engineer at the site said on Thursday. - Scott Hunter photo...
Coulee Dam seemed likely to follow a path already pursued by Electric City and Grand Coulee last week, when the town council heard nothing but favorable remarks during a public hearing on allowing people to drive four-wheelers on city streets. About a dozen people attended the hearing Wednesday night, not all of them from Coulee Dam. "It's a cheap way to get around," commented a man named Wes, who Councilmember Keith St. Jeor said was from Wenatchee. "It's a boon to the city." Coulee Dam is...
Grand Coulee Police 7/23 - An officer who was asked by an unknown person to check on the welfare of some chickens on Stevens Avenue in Electric City found the animals to be in good health. - A Spokane woman’s car was damaged in a hit-and-run incident at the La Presa restaurant parking lot. Video surveillance showed a man carrying a child get into a black Ford pickup truck and strike the vehicle, but the footage wasn’t high enough quality to read the license plate. Damage to the vehicle, a dent on the rear passenger side door, was estimated at...
Healthcare professionals at the local hospital were alarmed last week at a big spike in people who had died by suicide. In the space of as many days, seven people took their own lives and one also took the life of another, hospital officials said. Suicide often happens in conjunction with taking alcohol or drugs, which can lead to deeper depression at the same time decision-making capabilities are impaired. If you are someone who is thinking about it, there is help available, if even just by phone through a hotline or by merely calling 911. If...
A young Nespelem man died early Wednesday morning when the motorcycle he was riding went off the highway five miles north of Coulee Dam. Patrick J. Morin, 18, was riding a 2017 Yamaha FZ-09 south on SR-155 when he entered a curve too fast, lost control and struck a tree, according to the Washington State Patrol. The patrol report stated the July 25 crash occurred at 4:21 a.m. at milepost 35.7. That is in the area known as Belvedere. It was not known whether drugs or alcohol were involved, the report stated. Morin did not have a motorcycle... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District will have to figure out how to not go broke in four years. That was one of the darker notes presented at the district board meeting Monday night, where Business Manager Sally Ryan presented the proposed 2018-19 budget, as well as a projected budget for the next four years, which shows the district running out of money by the 2021-22 school year. The 2018-19 school year budget is $12,003,678, up from $11,250,133 last year. With a projected enrollment of 733.5 full time equivalent students (FTEs) in...
A boy slides on a water toy in North Dam Park at the weekly Wednesday evening market sponsored by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, which is offering kids activities, along with local goods and produce. The senior center sponsored the slippery coolness that was a big hit last week. North Cascades Bank is offering finger painting tonight (Wednesday) and The Star will sponsor a slime-making activity next week. - Scott Hunter photo...
City gets firefighting agreement with BLM The federal Bureau of Land Management, which has an agreement to operate on United States Bureau of Reclamation land, has entered into an agreement with the city of Grand Coulee. The agreement allows Grand Coulee firefighters to take care of fires on land the BLM is responsible for, and the city can in turn bill the BLM, as well as use resources from them, such as fire-fighting aircraft. “It’s a one-way deal,” said Grand Coulee Fire Chief Rick Paris, referring to the city benefitting from the partn...
Three elementary-age girls walking down Central Drive in Coulee Dam were approached July 20 by a man who asked the girls to get in the truck with him. The girls stated that the man was persistent in his attempt to get them to get into the truck with him before he drove away. The girls described him as having short gray hair, dark red skin and driving a blue or gray pickup truck. Two dogs, one black and white and the other brown, were in the back of the truck, described as an older model Ford with poles sticking up out of it, the kind used when...
What do students think about the educational system? The system, most often run by older people who haven't been students themselves in decades, doesn't receive a lot of input from the student body, at least not in the Grand Coulee Dam School District. But students Ashlyn Olsen and Raven Clark made a presentation to the school board on Monday night. Olsen and Clark expressed their desire for change within the school dress code, making points such as the difficulty of shopping for items that fit...