News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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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,...
A resident of River Drive has proposed that it be turned into a “school zone” and earned the support of the school district. Amanda Burton appeared before the Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors Monday night to make her proposal, citing the fact that there are no crosswalks allowing students walking to school to cross River Drive, which is SR-155 as it passes the school in Coulee Dam. “It is only a matter of time before a speeding semi hits a child and I would prefer the school be proactive in preventing this rather than react...
Fire and ambulance calls recounted The Grand Coulee volunteer fire department had 52 fire calls and 480 ambulance calls in 2017, according to a report to the city council last week. In December, the final reporting month, the fire department answered six calls: two in Grand Coulee, including one on an alarm and a second on a citizen assist; two in Coulee Dam on mutual aid; and two in Lincoln County on controlled burns. The ambulance service had 34 calls, five in Coulee Dam, 22 in Grand Coulee and six transports. City salaries approved Grand...
How do you make a building constructed in 1938 look new? You can, but it takes hundreds of hours of painstaking work to make it happen. Solveig Chaffee has done it. She plans to open the Voltage Coffee House at 140 Spokane Way in Grand Coulee in late March or early April. The building originally housed the Carpenter's Union when it opened in 1938, and later a hair salon and at one time a bakery. Solveig laughingly stated last week that, "I've created a job for myself." People familiar with the...
Garrett Jess, left, presents Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner with a check for $667, funding the Steve Breeze Memorial Scholarship at Lake Roosevelt High School. Breeze was a former principal at Lake Roosevelt High School and died from a bout with cancer. Jess Ford also partially provides the school's Driver's Education vehicle. - Roger S. Lucas photo...
A proposal for a student body assembly and concert focusing on opioid addiction, plus a dance, got approval from the school board to proceed Monday night. Making the presentation were James Pakootas and Miah Bearcub, both telling their personal experiences with opioids, drugs ranging from morphine to many common painkillers to heroin. Pakootas explained to the school board that the program was fully funded by the Colville Tribes. He cited his own battle with addiction, and Bearcub called attention to the fact that she lost both her parents in...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District has two new bus drivers. And they need more. Joining the drivers recently were Joan Gross and Chris Wonch. They had completed a comprehensive training schedule and were both on routes last Tuesday. Gross had a route in Electric City and Wonch was subbing for another driver. Both were trained by Transportation Supervisor Stephanie Duclos. "We need more drivers," Duclos said last week. She would welcome anyone interested to get in touch with her at the...
Nespelem School Superintendent Mary Hall noted Monday night that school board members were now about halfway through their year and it was time to recognize them and thank them for their dedication. “There’s a lot of responsibility,” Hall said. “I just wanted to say thank you.” She gave each member a small bouquet of flowers from Seaton’s Grove Greenhouse, paid for with her own money. Director Nancy Armstrong-Montes was also recognized with a certificate from the Washington School Directors Association after having completed a course on A...
Grand Coulee Police 1/11 - A driver who collided with a Coulee Dam police car near the Coulee Dam bridge told a covering officer from Grand Coulee that a city plow truck had forced him to turn sharply and he struck the patrol car. There was minor damage to both vehicles. 1/15 - A woman on Banks Avenue reported that a suspicious person was seen on her security camera crossing her yard. She said it wasn’t possible to identify the person. 1/16 - Police checked on a report of someone near Washington Place in Electric City standing in the r...
A contingent of marchers from the Colville Reservation marched through Omak Saturday along with nearly 400 others, joining a reprise of the historic women's march that set records for worldwide attendance a year ago after President Donald Trump's inauguration. From left, Amelia Marchand, her son, Kisu and daughter Eva; Monica Desautel, Kathy Moses and Patti Porter pose in front of the Nespelem dugout canoe following the protest march. Porter, who keeps the dugout canoe used in last year's...
A Lakeview Avenue couple in Electric City attended the council meeting last Tuesday to protest the proposed establishment of a short-term vacation rental area. David and Nancy Brown, who live at 19 Lakeview Avenue, responded to a neighbor who has been renting out his home next to them for periods ranging in length from one day to longer terms. Speaking to the council, Nancy Brown said the experience has been a nightmare with a number of issues, including unruly behavior, excessive noise, unsafe activity, traffic problems, trespassing, and fear...
Traffic eases along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee Thursday as a heavy snow falls. The Bureau of Reclamation recorded 4.8 inches of snow that day, and multiple traffic incidents occurred on slippery roads, including a fatality that closed SR-17 south of Coulee City. - Jacob Wagner photo...
A Coulee City man died Thursday morning when the pickup he was driving slid off the highway into Lake Lenore upside down. Harold J. Chadwick, 78, and Connie Chadwick, 74, were headed south on SR-17 when the 1996 Ford F150 rotated clockwise and went of the left embankment about 12 miles north of Soap Lake at milepost 86, according to a Washington State Patrol investigation. The pickup rolled several times, coming to rest on its top half submerged in Lake Lenore. Connie Chadwick was injured and taken to Samaritan Hospital in Moses...