News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Three new town council members and a new mayor took the oath of office at the first council meeting of the new year last Wednesday. Larry Price, who was elected in November with a nearly 74-percent margin, presided over his first council meeting quite readily taking tips on protocol, having sat through few such meetings before. He was sworn in by Clerk/Treasurer Stefani Bowden, as were the council members. Sworn in and taking their seats on the council were council members Bob Poch, in council... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner had an opportunity to give state Senate lawmakers a touch of reality Jan. 9, after being invited to talk about discipline in schools. He was one of three superintendents that the Senate Education Committee invited to Olympia to tell what was going on in their school districts. Spokane and Battleground school districts were also invited. The invitation from the senators said not to bring up funding because that was not the purpose of the meeting. Turner was quick to challenge this....
At the beginning of a new era in Coulee Dam, the city council Wednesday night rolled back one of the last pieces of legislation passed under the previous council in December. Councilmember Keith St. Jeor had voted against a measure at a special meeting Dec. 20 to give a steeper discount to income-eligible people on rates for utilities. At the Jan. 10 meeting, after three new council members took their oaths of office, St. Jeor moved to repeal the earlier rate-setting ordinance, which boosted discounts to 30-35 percent for qualifying low-income...
Nearly 1,000 people from law enforcement, gun rights groups, gun violence prevention groups, veterans, and Washington residents signed in to support or oppose contested firearm bills heard on Monday, Jan. 15 at the state capitol. Hundreds lined up along the corridors of the capitol's Cherberg Building, where Senate bills are heard, and along exterior sidewalks to get into the hearing. Packed into three filled hearing rooms, activists, lawmakers, and citizens heard five bills. Those under...
Elmer City has a new town council member. Jesus Lopez was sworn in at the town’s last council meeting, Jan. 11, after telling the council that he would like to make a contribution to the town and see it grow. He came to the area from California about a dozen years ago and started up his construction business at that time. He told the council that he was interested in serving on the town’s governing body. Lopez is a general contractor and now serves on the town’s volunteer fire department. He replaces Larry Holford, who decided to retire from...
Grand Coulee 1/4- A Burdin Boulevard man was ticketed after being stopped for expired tabs. While telling the driver why he was stopped on the tabs issue, the officer noted that an infant was improperly restrained in the front seat. That was added to the citation, and the man moved the infant to the back and fixed the restraint properly. - A woman told police that she had purchased something from the deli counter at Safeway and received $40 change and placed it her wallet. Later, she discovered her wallet missing and contacted Safeway, whose...
Residents of Electric City have let it be known how they wanted two proposed city parks to be named. City dwellers who came into the office to pay their utility bill were given an opportunity to cast their vote for the naming of the two parks last month. They voted for “Ice Age Park” for the development on McNett Avenue and for “Talus Park” at the Grand Avenue site. The names and votes received for the McNett park were: Ice Age, 26 votes; Fossil River, 22; and Mammoth, 18 votes. Votes for the Grand Avenue site names were: Talus, 28; Mammoth...
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 off 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...
Care Net, a facility that helps young mothers, expecting mothers, and those who suspect they may be expecting, has operated in the area for over a year now and has had positive feedback from local young mothers. Rachel Harris, who manages the facility, estimates that she gets about 20 visits from women each month who come in for Care Net services, which range from free pregnancy tests, emotional support through the process, education on pregnancy and parenthood, and items rewarded for becoming...
Superintendent Paul Turner was in Olympia Tuesday to address the Washington State Senate Education Committee on discipline in the Lake Roosevelt School District. Turner was one of several superintendents in the state invited to address the senate members. It was a unique opportunity for Turner to tell the district’s story and concerns that have dominated the local school scene in recent months. The senate committee was quick to point out that they were seeking information only, and that the appearance of the superintendents was not to be t...
The mayors of Coulee Dam and Elmer City plan to meet next Tuesday to discuss the eventual hookup of the Elmer City sewer system to Coulee Dam’s new plant and the discrepancy in several billing invoices. Elmer City has outlined how it can solve the need to pump sewage some 20-feet higher than it currently does, as a short term solution to the problem. The town indicated recently that it could put in two new pumps as a temporary step in meeting the date of the opening of the new Coulee Dam plant, now estimated at late summer. The cost of the two...
Lockdown was a precaution Lake Roosevelt Schools were secured in a lockdown Monday when a suspicious figure was seen around the schools. “We called the Coulee Dam authorities, secured the building, and stayed in secured status until the authorities gave us the all-clear that the potential threat had been mediated,” an official statement from the school read. “We erred on the side of safety, staff followed procedures and protocol to protect our students, and everything went well.” A school worker told The Star that a suspicious man carryin...
Spooked by a photographer, Canada geese seem to run on the water of Banks Lake with Steamboat Rock in the background Thursday, an overcast day. See our weather forecast for the week on page 8. - Jacob Wagner photo...
Motorists at the Million Dollar Mile on SR-155 clear what debris they can to open up the southbound lane after a rockslide blocked both lanes about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. State Department of Transportation workers arrived with equipment to clear the northbound lane soon after. - Launi Ritter photo...
Those of you who are still wondering where the big sculpted wood fish has gone, just be patient, it might soon be back. You will recall the big blow back in July 2012, when one of the region’s fiercest wind storms toppled a couple of evergreen trees in Mason City Park. The freak storm became an opportunity to create artwork for the town (now a city) as then-mayor Quincy Snow, himself an artist, convinced the council it would be a great idea to use some hotel/motel money and have someone carve figures on the two remaining stumps. Snow had s...
The Northwest Native Development Fund recently received a $32,000 grant to grow its arts program, the lending agency announced this week in a press release. The grant from the First Nations Development Institute of Longmont, Colorado, will support the efforts of the NNDF’s Plateau Native Arts Project. “We are really excited to receive this grant from FNDI. This will greatly help our already growing arts program,” said Ted Piccolo, NNDF executive director. “This will help us expand our annual Art Show, open an arts gallery for tourists, and pro...
A turkey problem in Electric City is more complicated that it seems. The council had invited wildlife agent Eric Braaten to its meeting Tuesday night to talk about wild turkeys and what the city could do about their ever-expanding numbers. If council members expected that Braaten represented some kind of Pied Piper that would lead the turkeys out of town, they were disappointed. Braaten lives in the city, on acreage, and often has them on his property. He explained that there was little the city can do about the growing number of turkeys, a...
A far-reaching package of laws aimed at clean water, orca whale protection, and phasing out fish farms in the Salish Sea could come before state legislators this year. Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island plans to introduce the Salish Sea Protection Act that would fund oil spill prevention, update response plans if an oil spill happens, establish rescue tug boat efforts, and coordinate emergency efforts with Canadian officials. His proposed Orca Whale Protection Act is threefold. The bills would focus on restoring the lack of salmon as a food...
Grand Coulee 12/18 - A Fortuyn Road woman reported to police that her bank card had been stolen and some $3,000 had been charged to it. She reported that her bank is working with her to determine who had used the card. 12/28 - The owner of Pepper Jack’s Bar & Grille reported to police that someone had been dumping their garbage in the restaurant’s dumpster. Police looked to see if the culprit could be identified through something that was discarded. The restaurant official said it wasn’t the first time this has occurred. 12/29 - A 20-fo...
Governor Jay Inslee rolled out his most recent proposal to tax carbon emissions across the state of Washington. The proposal he unveiled on Tuesday is sweeping: emissions generated by power plants and transportation fuels — with the exception of airplane jet fuel — would be taxed at $20 per ton, starting July 1, 2019. With annual increases of roughly 3 percent plus inflation, the governor’s office estimates that the proposal would generate roughly $3.3 billion over the next four years. The revenues from the tax would be channeled into a varie...
With the 2018 Washington state legislative session kicking off, a 2016 state Supreme Court decision on water continues to make waves in the House and Senate. The so-called Hirst decision in October 2016 set a precedent that compels local governments and landowners to take into account the availability of water before issuing permits to developers. The decision came after the court determined that Whatcom County had been issuing permit exemptions that violated instream flow rules designed to protect stream water levels. According to the...
A senate committee is considering a bill that could bring an end to some of Washington state’s largest salmon farms. Senate Bill 6086, heard in committee on Tuesday, Jan. 9, is sponsored by 11 Democratic senators and calls for a ban on the use of Atlantic salmon and other non-native fish in marine aquaculture. The bill was introduced by Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, as part of his proposed Salish Sea Protection package, which also includes measures to protect orca whales and fund oil spill prevention. SB 6086 comes on the heels of an A...
With a prediction from the National Weather Service for up to 6 inches of snow today and at least one road closure so far, travel plans may be altered. SR 17 is closed due to a collision about halfway between Soap Lake and Coulee City, the Grant County Sheriff's Office said about 10 a.m. Thursday advising motorists to find an alternative route. The National Weather Service in Spokane issued a weather advisory in effect until 4 p.m. today that predicts precipitation will remain in the form of...
A Sammamish couple, and their daughter from Electric City, continue to face barriers as they try to locate a new variety store in the area. Doug and Mary Lou Lockard, and daughter, Launi Ritter, have a variety store on the ready, but no location. The Lockards have tried to lease the building the Variety Store occupied before it closed out late last fall. However, according to Lockard, owners Bill and Stacia Mattson only want to sell the building, at $349,000, not lease it. A realtor handling the property, Chad Blevins, confirmed this Tuesday....
Nespelem School District will start two hours late today, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. The delay is due to dangerous road conditions.... Full story