News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The massacre of 17 students and staff at a high school in Florida on Valentine’s Day wasn’t far from everyone’s mind when school safety became a topic at Monday night’s school board meeting in Coulee Dam. The issue of guns in schools occupied about 15 minutes of the meeting as members of the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors took the opportunity to share their thinking regarding the idea of arming teachers in local schools. School board Chair Joette Barry said Tuesday that arming teachers is not just a board issue, but it...
Having been lowered to the base of Drum Gate 2 atop Grand Coulee Dam, workers tethered to safety lines continue the work of installing temporary catwalks, like the one to the right, which will be used by workers for maintenance on the drum gates beginning March 12. - Scott Hunter photo...
Hires noted The school board made three hires and accepted one resignation at its meeting Monday night. Resigning was Gary Darnold, who will retire this year after spending his entire teaching career of 42 years in the Grand Coulee Dam School District. In his letter to the board, Darnold stated that in all his 42 years he couldn’t recall ever having a bad week. Hires included Jennifer Miley as an eight-hour-a-day custodian. She had been active as a custodian, but not in an eight-hour shift. Also hired by the board were Christopher Wonch as a fo...
Following last week’s rapid-fire vote on a bill to exempt the Legislature from state public records laws, lawmakers are going into damage control with public backlash mounting. The bill, SB 6617, explicitly exempts lawmakers from the state’s Public Records Act, and applies immediately and retroactively — meaning that existing records going back to statehood would be off limits to disclosure requests. The legislation allows disclosure of lawmakers’ calendars and communications with registered lobbyists, but only documents created after July 1,...
Grand Coulee police arrested two people and recovered a stolen vehicle at the same time when they went to a Grand Coulee apartment on Feb. 17. Arrested were Cassandra L. Graves, 27, a Grand Coulee resident, and Larry E. Fry, 19, from Nespelem. Both had Department of Corrections warrants out for them. Police officer Levi Johnson had been looking for Graves and was advised that she was at an apartment over Pepper Jack’s Bar and Grille. Johnson went to that location, along with Officer Joe Higgs. A blue Chevrolet pickup truck parked alongside t...
"Welcome Home, Champs!" read the banner across Spokane Way as the team returned home. The Grand Coulee Tigers basketball team defeated the Ilwaco Fishermen for the 1960 Class B State Basketball Championship at the Spokane Coliseum, 56-54. New coach that year was Jim Savitz, and team members were Don Kurth, Bob Pachosa, Wayne Snyder, Ken Hoke, Ben Flowers, Ray Rice, Terry Mort, Mark Rauch, Bill Trefry, and Jim Green. "It was fantastic; there wasn't a soul left in town," Rice said recently about...
Public Service Employees union president Aaron Derr asked the school board Monday night, “Where’s the plan?” He reminded school board members that when he and about 40 PSE members complained about the level of support on discipline matters last November, they were told that they would receive a plan of improvement from the board within 60 days. “We have not seen or heard” of such a plan, Derr said with a prepared statement. He said that it appeared to union membership that the district was being more reactive than proactive in matters o...
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce held their annual Installation Banquet on Monday at the Melody restaurant, presenting awards to the "Business of the Year" and "Achiever of the Year" for 2017. Lynda Anderson, secretary for the chamber, presented the award for Business of the Year to Jess Ford. "I've been astounded to watch the support that's come out of this year's business of the year. It's been very good for the chamber, and we're glad to have that kind of relationship," Anderson...
With less than two weeks left in the session, state lawmakers introduced a new bill in response to the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. SB 6620, and its companion in the House, HB 3004, introduced Friday, Feb. 23, would create a mechanism for students to report dangerous behavior and would require the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate grants to school districts to implement emergency response systems. It also raises the age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21. The Parkland shooter was reported to be...
A Nespelem man wanted on several arrest warrants was finally captured last Saturday after a foot chase in Electric City and taken to Grant County jail. Arrested was Amos M. Staggs, 23, wanted on a felony warrant and two misdemeanor warrants. Staggs is also facing new charges of escape, obstructing a police officer, resisting arrest and criminal trespass. Police officer Levi Johnson saw Staggs standing outside Banks Lake Pub Saturday afternoon and told him he was under arrest. That’s when Staggs took off running, in spite of repeated s...
Grand Coulee Police 2/17 - A Soap Lake man was stopped because his license tabs were expired. When talking with the driver, the officer learned that he didn’t have insurance. He was cited on both the tab and insurance problems. 2/18 - Police checked on a vehicle taking up several spaces in the Pepper Jack’s parking lot and found a man slumped over. He explained that he had been drinking and didn’t want to drive and was sleeping it off. Several hours later, the report stated, the vehicle was still there. - A local woman advised police that she h...
Terms have been reached for the sale of Center School. An agreement to sell the old school building and property in Grand Coulee was reached at a special school board meeting Tuesday. The sale price was $155,000 — $5,000 more than the amount asked for by the school board at previous offerings. The site is to be purchased by a group headed by builder Nic Alexander, who owns Coulee Construction, and the sale was managed by former school superintendent Dennis Carlson. Carlson handled the sales effort during the two advertised offerings the d...
State lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are pushing a bill devised in secret, in the final days of the session, to exempt themselves from public records requests. The move comes on the heels of a court ruling that the Legislature is required to adhere to the state’s open government laws. The bill, SB 6617, would directly amend the state’s Public Records Act to explicitly exempt the state Legislature—this includes its employees, agencies, and members—from the law’s disclosure requirements retroactively and starting immediately. The legis... Full story
The Horn family has an interesting family tradition: producing state champions in wrestling. There have been four state champions from the Horn family so far: Jason, Jake, Kodie, and Kaleb, creating a local wrestling dynasty that spans 30 years. Jason Horn, the father of Kodie and Kaleb, became state champion while wrestling at the 148 weight division for Ephrata High School in 1987. Then came Jake Horn, Jason's nephew and Kodie and Kaleb's cousin, also wrestling for Ephrata, who became state...
Blood drive next Monday There will be a community Blood Drive Monday, Feb. 26, from 12:15 p.m to 4:30 p.m., at the Community Room in Coulee Medical Center. The drive is sponsored jointly by the Inland Northwest Blood Center and the Grand Coulee Community Blood Drive Volunteers. Crab feed coming Tickets are on sale at the chamber of commerce office, The Star newspaper and Coulee Hardware for the chamber’s Annual Crab Feed. Ticket price for the “all you can eat” Crab Feed is $45 per person. The feed will be at the former Sage Restaurant site on M...
A Nespelem woman died Feb. 15 in an early-morning crash on SR-155, a mile south of Nespelem. Bridget Boyd, 38, was driving a 2005 Buick Rendezvous southbound at 6:43 a.m. when it crossed into the northbound lane and onto the shoulder. She overcorrected to the right, and the vehicle left the road. It hit an embankment, rolled, and came to rest on its wheels at milepost 43. Boyd was ejected during the crash, a Washington State Patrol investigator reported. She was not wearing a seatbelt. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, the...
Grand Coulee’s city streets will benefit from last week’s voter approval for a “Transportation Benefit District,” and the mayor is pleased. The issue on the ballot gained “yes” votes from 122 Grand Coulee residents. Only 45 indicated opposition to raising local sales tax on non-food items from 7.9 to 8.1 percent. The increase goes to repair the city’s streets. Mayor Paul Townsend was pleased with the positive vote. The city council had struggled with the concept of a “Transportation Benefit District” and took an entirely different approac...
Colville tribal members have voted 1630-296 in a recent referendum to keep the name “The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation,” a Feb. 8 press release stated. The referendum vote is advisory, meaning the council could still change the name if they so choose. During the past year, the Colville Business Council explored the idea of changing the name of the tribes, which derives from Andrew Colvile, governor of the Hudson Bay Company during the early part of the 19th century, and an Englishman who had never set foot in the local area. ...
A young family man has been suddenly struck by a serious disease, without insurance, leading to an effort by friends and family to raise funds to help pay the bills. George Davis III, 29, lives in Wilbur, works for a farmer in Coulee City and was raised in the Grand Coulee area. Friday before last, he came home tired and weak, and he was bruising. His wife, Amber, took him to Coulee Medical Center, from which he was quickly transferred by ambulance to Holy Family Hospital in Spokane. Davis was...
Craig Moran, of Kent, Washington-based Raptor Life, shows Lake Roosevelt students his 28-year-old ferruginous hawk named August, caught in Wyoming in 1990. "She's beautiful!" students exclaimed when he presented her at the Bird Fest last week. August eats rabbit, quail, and mice, weighs only three pounds, and has a wingspace between 46 and 52 inches. Moran also spoke to the students about the 3,000-year-old sport of falconry, in which a person uses a trained bird of prey to hunt. Elementary-...
With an early warm spell, some local residents may already be up for a little spring yard cleaning, but the traditional community cleanup dates were set this week for April, when local schools take the first week off and older students can help with the work. The Regional Board of Mayors set the dates for spring cleanup at their meeting Monday afternoon. The Delano Transfer Station will receive garden waste under different schedules, free of charge, starting with Coulee Dam on April 4, and for the three other towns April 17-21. In Coulee Dam, c...
Grand Coulee Police 2/13 - A resident of Kelso Avenue in Electric City reported that sometime during the night, it appeared that someone had used pliers to gain entry into his truck. He said a document in his truck was torn, but it didn’t appear that anything was missing. 2/14 - An Electric City man was cited for driving with a suspended license, and the officer arrested him and administratively booked him into jail. He had been cited earlier for having a suspended license. The vehicle was moved off the roadway. - An officer spoke to a j...
When Grand Coulee leaders put Proposition 1 on the ballot, they thought a bump in sales tax would be the best way for the city to collect a little extra money needed for street repair. Voters agreed, evidently, as votes tallied up last night yielded an 111-39 win for the idea. The 74-percent approval will raise the sales tax in the city from 7.9 percent to 8.1 percent, with the extra money funding a transportation benefits district. The money raised, which city officials expect to come to about $50,000 a year, will be levied against both...
A Nespelem woman died today (Feb. 15, 2018) in an early morning crash on SR-155, a mile south of Nespelem. Bridget Boyd, 38, was driving a 2005 Buick Rendezvous southbound at 6:43 a.m. when it crossed into the northbound lane and onto the shoulder. She overcorrected to the right, and the vehicle left the road. It hit an embankment, rolled, and came to rest on its wheels at milepost 43. Boyd was ejected during the crash, a Washington State Patrol investigator reported. She was not wearing a seatbelt. The cause of the crash is still under...
The Grand Coulee Dam spilled water over the top last week due to anticipation of spring runoff, combine with minor maintenance being performed on a generator. "Inflows into Lake Roosevelt are up slightly," said Lynne Brougher, Public Affairs Officer for the Bureau of Reclamation. "We needed to continue to move water downstream to prepare Lake Roosevelt for the spring runoff." Brougher also said that generator 24 was undergoing some minor, unexpected maintenance, and that spillage over the dam...