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 Washington State Department of Transportation said that routine engine maintenance will close the Keller Ferry vessel, the Sanpoil, from 10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb 10 until about 6 a.m. the following morning, Sunday, Feb. 11. "Crews periodically swap one of the two engines on the Sanpoil with a third engine that is in reserve," the WSDOT explained. "The engine from the boat goes to a machine shop to be overhauled and brought up to factory specifications. That engine becomes the spare and ready for the next exchange." The engine coming out...
Dave Simms (foreground) and Pat Belt, both of the Waterville area, and Dick Jennings (middle), of Coulee Dam, all chose Crescent Bay as the place to go in order to get out of the house and break their cabin fever Tuesday. Jennings, who had a construction company in the Seattle area, chose Coulee Dam as his retirement spot, moving here about 10 years ago. Jennings said the biggest fish he's caught at Crescent Bay was a 6-pound rainbow trout. All the men were using power-bait marshmallows as bait...
Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend dismissed Carol Boyce as city clerk late last week. "Carol has made a longstanding contribution to the community and city, and I regret that this became necessary," Townsend said in a statement Tuesday. Boyce came to work at city hall 17 years ago, and for the past seven years has served as city clerk. Townsend didn't go into details on why he is replacing Boyce. State audit "findings" last summer detailed several deficiencies, and the city has had to hire an...
Despite the passage of last year’s bipartisan agreement to fully fund K-12 public education with a property tax hike, the state Legislature is still wrestling over the issue as school leaders across the state say the changes will hurt their districts, including at Grand Coulee Dam. In November, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature needs to ramp up funding for teacher and other school staff salaries to meet its imposed September 2018 deadline, despite the billions that have already been allocated to public education. However, s...
The Department of Fish and Wildlife has been awarded $3 million to buy about 7,250 acres of shrub-steppe habitat six miles west of Grand Coulee for sharp-tailed grouse, the department announced last week. The grant is from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program. It is the final phase of a three-phase project to buy more than 20,500 acres, with previous purchases making up the department's Big Bend Wildlife Area. The land is an important link between sharp-tailed grouse populations in...
Tribal officer involved in shooting A Colville Tribal Police Department officer was involved in a shooting on the Colville Reservation on Saturday, according to a Feb. 6 press release from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. “The incident is under investigation by the FBI,” the press release states. “No further information is available at this time.” Voter registration problem discovered If you thought you had registered to vote through the state Dept. of Licensing but you didn’t receive a ballot, be advised they’re w...
Elmer City received six bids, and town officials will likely award its “Complete Streets” project to one of the low bidders at its meeting Feb. 8. The $250,000 project is the result of a grant from the state Department of Transportation’s Transportation Improvement Board and will cover both the engineering and construction cost of a 2,300-foot pathway along the Lower River Road. Bids were opened last Wednesday, with DW Excavating, Inc., from Davenport, submitting the lowest bid of $159,726. The engineer’s estimated construction cost was $160,00...
The mild winter weather has people thinking about the upcoming golf season. Not the least of those looking ahead are commissioners of Grant County Port District 7, who are responsible for management of the 18-hole course in Electric City. The course normally opens March 1, but it could be earlier this year since rain and warm weather have cleared snow from the fairways and greens. Commissioners have decided to continue last season’s membership rates and single-day fees for 9-hole and 18-hole play, and for cart rentals. Individual season members...
Progress, albeit slow, on the “dangerous” building issue in Grand Coulee, is moving forward. A meeting between the city Building Inspector Gary Lampella, and attorney Tom Geiger, who represents the Vlachos family, didn’t occur last Wednesday as scheduled, but Geiger wrote to the city and to Birdie Hensley, who oversees the Coulee Pioneer Museum, and his message is promising. Lampella had declared the museum building that Constantinos Vlachos had owned at 136 Spokane Way “dangerous,” and was working with the city council to raze the colorful...
Grand Coulee Police 1/30 - Police arrested a man wanted on warrants after they found him hiding in a bedroom at a residence on Alcan Road NE. Police were trying to stop a vehicle with a faulty light, and the car drove to the residence, where the man ran into the house to avoid arrest, police said. The woman who remained in the car said the man had been driving. - A man on Goodfellow Avenue in Electric City reported to police that someone had broken into his vehicle. - A woman whose vehicle had been repossessed was given the number of the tow...
The state’s new plan for funding education is going to make it difficult to put together the budget for the 2018-19 school year, officials here have indicated, and they’re planning for a second round of big cuts. Superintendent Paul Turner, who trimmed the current year’s budget by over $500,000 last spring and summer, will be faced with the task of doing it again. It is all tied to the McCleary ruling handed down in 2012 when the Washington State Supreme Court told the Legislature that it had to fully fund basic education. The Legis...
Kindergarteners perform a poem titled "Chubby Snowman" during a concert at Lake Roosevelt Elementary last Wednesday. They are holding their hands on their noses to represent the carrot that a hungry bunny stole. From left to right are Haddie Marconi, Eva Connors, Sage Green, Macy Paslay, Charisma Holt, Reese Erickson, Kolby Graves, Kacen Duclos and Shyne Redstar. - Jacob Wagner photo...
Voters in Grand Coulee this week received their mail-in ballots asking whether they approve of creating a Transportation Benefit District (TBD) and bumping up the sales tax rate to pay for it. The city council voted back in October to create a TBD to raise money for streets. If voters pass the issue, residents and anyone else purchasing taxable items within the city limits will pay two-tenths of one percent more in sales tax. The new money would develop funds to repair streets within the city. A transportation benefit district can use one of...
Elmer City has requested Coulee Dam’s help in paying for adjustments needed to keep the two towns’ sewage treatment systems working together, an idea that met with resistance at Coulee Dam’s town council Wednesday night. Coulee Dam, which treats Elmer City’s sewage, is building a new wastewater treatment plant, due to come online later this year. Elmer City’s leadership has chosen to pursue building its own plant, but that would be years from opening, provided they are successful getting the financing to build it. In the meantime, Coulee Da...
No basketball tournament this year Larry Jordan announced this week that the Nespelem All-Indian basketball tournament has been canceled for this year. Town to open bids on trail Bids will be opened at 3 p.m. today (Wednesday) on the Elmer City recreation trail, officials stated. The opening will be at town hall. The $250,000 project was funded by the state Transportation Improvement Board. The grant will pay for both the engineer and construction cost. The trail system, a paved system for both walkers and bicyclists, will be along the Lower...
If you were to rate the reception you get at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the greatest, you might rate Ivan Snavely's welcome an 11. Snavely runs the tour program and the Visitor Center for the Bureau of Reclamation. "It's the best job I've ever had," Snavely said last week. His smile, and interest in meeting and serving people, is contagious. Snavely has been on the job here for eight years, and recalls when he filled out the applications for a variety...
A four-car crash blocked the intersection of two highways at Soap Lake Tuesday, injuring three people, including a Grand Coulee man. The Washington State Patrol said the collision occurred at 10:13 a.m. when a Twisp driver headed south in a 2014 Jeep Wrangler ran a stop sign where SR-17 meets SR-28. The Jeep, driven by Amy Days, 39, struck the passenger side of a 2010 Honda Element driven by 79-year-old Colleen Martin, of Wilson Creek, who was driving west through the intersection. The Jeep...
University of Washington students from the Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses met with lawmakers in support of higher education bills during the annual Huskies on the Hill lobby day, Monday, Jan. 29. The Associated Students of the University of Washington from all three UW campuses asked their legislators to fully fund the State Need Grant which, they said, is underfunded by $85 million. But diversity and undocumented students' rights were at issue too. Kendra Canton, director of diversity...
Utility rate discounts set in December for Coulee Dam were repealed by the town council last week when members passed a set of ordinances identical to the ones the previous council had replaced in December. The new ordinances passed Wednesday reset the discount amounts charged for water, sewer, electricity and trash collection to their previous rates, but may be amended again after the new council agrees on new rates. Councilmember Keith St. Jeor had objected to the ordinances passed in December and contends that discounts set for low-income...
Coulee Dam Police 1/22 - A man was stopped by an officer, who noted his vehicle didn’t have rear lights on after dark. The officer learned the driver’s license was suspended. He was cited for that and told to park the vehicle until a licensed driver was found. - Police officers assisted tribal police in the arrest of a man wanted on warrants. The officers noticed the man run into a house on River Drive and called for tribal officers to come to the location. Tribal officers got permission to enter the house and found the wanted man hiding in...
For the first time in more than 30 years, emergency planning in Washington state could include preparations for potential nuclear attacks, with bipartisan support in bills entering both the House and Senate. The Legislature voted in 1983 to ban including nuclear war preparations in emergency planning procedures. The prohibition specifically applies to planning for evacuation and relocation of citizens. The move was made in the context of increasing tensions between the United States and the former Soviet Union. With former President Ronald...
Online subscribers have access to this week's special Remember When ... section via their included digital copy of the newspaper by signing in and clicking on the Jan. 31, 2018 PDF at the upper right corner of the content section. You can also find past electronic versions of the printed Stars there. This week's Remember When ... section can be found by scrolling through the pages of The Star; the special section simply starts after the last Star page. This was one of the most difficult special...
Despite the passage of last year’s bipartisan agreement to fully fund K-12 public education with a property tax hike, the state Legislature is still wrestling over the issue as school leaders across the state say the changes will hurt their districts, including at Grand Coulee Dam. In November, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature needs to ramp up funding for teacher and other school staff salaries to meet its imposed September 2018 deadline, despite the billions that have already been allocated to public education. However, s... Full story
Most of the federal government shutdown at midnight on Friday, before reopening on Monday night, raising the question of how our local-area federal agencies were affected, and how they would be affected in the event of another shutdown. Lynne Brougher, public affairs officer of the Grand Coulee Power Office for the Bureau of Reclamation, said that the Grand Coulee Dam is not affected by a shutdown. “Because the majority of our funding for Grand Coulee Dam is not congressionally appropriated, a government shutdown does not impact Grand Coulee Da...
When Coulee Medical Center's infection control nurse went home for the weekend a couple weeks ago, the state of Washington was in the green, but had turned dark red by Monday morning. Those are the colors that represent the best and the worst cases on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's map of the spread of flu across the country. Sandy Edwards is the infection control czar at the local hospital, which was recognized by the state Dept. of Health this year for its control procedures,...