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  • New Year's paddle

    Jan 3, 2018

    Four locals paddle their kayaks on New Year's Day at Crescent Bay. It was their third year in a row for the stunt to show that they won't let the elements tell them they can't paddle when they want to. This was their first year at Crescent Bay; Coulee Playland's launch was frozen. Participants, from left, were Rod Harden, Bob and Sandy Hendrickson, and Ross Vordahl. "I try to kayak all year if I can; there's not a lot to do around here," Harden joked. "The secret is to dress really, really...

  • A report and thanks from Trees of Sharing

    Trees of Sharing Committee|Jan 3, 2018

    The annual Trees of Sharing event kicked off Nov. 1 and culminated with the delivery of Christmas gifts to 125 children in 45 families on a snowy Saturday, December 16. The Committee thanks each of the many people in our community who enthusiastically embrace this project and make it possible each year by purchasing gifts for needy children in the Coulee area. We extend special thanks to Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union, Coulee Family Medicine, Harvest Foods, North Cascades Bank, and Safeway Pharmacy for help with collecting children’s names a...

  • Coulee Cops

    Jan 3, 2018

    Coulee Dam Police 12/27 - A Tulip Street resident reported that someone had taken an appliance envelope containing a mechanical part off their porch. The report also stated that a Bible study guide was additionally taken from inside the screen door. - A driver whose vehicle crossed the centerline near the Bureau of Reclamation industrial area on SR-155 was given a warning by an officer. - A local officer and officers from the Grand Coulee Police Department responded to a report that someone heard a woman yelling for help. They traced the...

  • State lawmakers to again consider eliminating capital punishment

    Taylor McAvoy, WNPA Olympia News Bureau|Jan 3, 2018

    A bill to be introduced this session would eliminate the death penalty in Washington state and require people convicted of first degree murder to serve life sentences without the possibility of parole. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson requested Senate bill 6052 after Senate bills proposing the same legislation did not pass through a committee hearing last year. “I’m reasonably optimistic that this could be the year,” Ferguson said mentioning the bill’s bipartisan sponsorship. “The votes are there.” Despite other legislative...

  • Gov. Inslee lashes back at Sessions on marijuana

    Alex Visser, WNPA Olympia News Bureau|Jan 3, 2018

    Washington Gov. Jay Inslee expressed a defiant attitude last week toward U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced on Thursday the rescinding of Obama-era guidelines that assisted the legalization of non-medical marijuana in Washington, seven other states and the District of Columbia. Sessions’ announcement came via a memo to U.S. attorneys, in which he referenced the illegality of possessing and distributing marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. The attorney general suggested that such legislation confirms that marijuana i...

  • Activists try to occupy the front steps of the state capitol

    Taylor McAvoy, WNPA Olympia News Bureau|Jan 3, 2018

    Climate activists erected tents and teepees Monday in front of the Washington State Capitol building, on the opening day of the Legislature's 60-day session. "We are here today in prayer," member of Protectors of the Salish Sea Paul Che Oketen Wagner of the Saanich First Nation of Canada said. Wagner claims under the Medicine Creek treaty of 1854, the legislative grounds are native lands. He said the group hoped to occupy the space between the legislative building and the Washington State...

  • Despite new majority, state Democrats won't scramble for a capital gains tax

    Josh Kelety, WNPA Olympia News Bureau|Jan 3, 2018

    OLYMPIA, Wash. — While Democrats in the state Legislature have supported enacting a capital gains tax to fund public education in the past, they aren’t itching to pass one this legislative session now that they control both the statehouse and the governorship. At a Thursday morning news conference, Senate Majority Leader Sharon Nelson, D–Maury Island, said that while “everything will be on the table” she doesn’t see much momentum behind passing a capital gains tax assessed on profits derived from the sale of property or other assets this...

  • Senate Democrats take early aim at gun legislation

    Alex Visser, WNPA Olympia News Bureau|Jan 3, 2018

    With a newfound majority in the Washington Senate, state Democrats have found an early target in firearm regulation as the 2018 legislative session gets set to begin. Senate Bill 6049 would regulate the ownership and manufacturing of large capacity magazines and make them all but illegal in most cases. “Large capacity” refers to any magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds. The bill was requested by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who cited a motivation in mass shootings across the country, including a 2016 shooting at a house party in...

  • New variety store possible

    Roger S. Lucas|Dec 27, 2017

    A search for a location for a new variety store is currently underway, and with everything else in place, principals in the business are hopeful for an opening sometime in February. Negotiations are currently stalled on a lease of the Midway Avenue building that until last fall housed The Variety Store, but Launi Ritter said she is also looking for another suitable location for the business. The principal investors would be her parents, Douglas and Mary Lou Lockard, of Sammamish, Washington. Ritter said they are interested in leasing space are...

  • Cast for recognition

    Dec 27, 2017

    Officials gather around a new bronze plaque presented at a Coulee Dam City Council meeting Wednesday night to be hung on the new wastewater treatment plant when it's complete. From left are Travis Denham, Varela & Associates; Rick Rose and Dave Dunnell, both of USDA Rural Development; Mayor Greg Wilder; Daniel Cowger, Varela & Associates; and Kurt Holland, Varela & Associates. Wilder emphasized that the Rural Development lending agency deserved credit for its helpful approach to financing...

  • Company will convert Electric City facility into Bitcoin mine

    Jacob Wagner and Scott Hunter|Dec 27, 2017

    A warehouse in Electric City will soon become the "Grant County Data Centre" for processing a type of currency that only exists digitally and has gained recent worldwide attention as its value increased 2,700 percent since September. Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc., a Canadian company, has apparently purchased the former Young's Welding building in Electric City for $300,000, and plans to invest another $2.6 million into it. Atlas Cloud, shares of which are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchang...

  • Old buildings eyed for demolition

    Roger S. Lucas|Dec 27, 2017

    The city of Grand Coulee may soon destroy an old museum on Spokane Way that once displayed the remnants of its owner's most radical invention - a car powered with a different kind of propulsion. The colorful old Constantinos Vlachos building has been declared a "dangerous" building by city building inspector Gary Lampella, and the matter is slowly working its way through the council. There are a lot of memories from the 1930s, '40s and '50s in regard to the old building. It housed a collection...

  • Newsbriefs

    Dec 27, 2017

    Hundreds of ambulance calls noted for year Grand Coulee’s ambulance service was called out 455 times so far in 2017, volunteer fire chief Richard Paris reported to the council last Tuesday night. He reported that during the month of December the ambulance was called out 36 times, nine in Coulee Dam, and that there were eight transport incidents. Fire trucks, Paris reported, went out a single time in December to fight a structure fire where there was smoke from an electrical problem. Sewer rates set for Grand Coulee Sewer rates are going up i...

  • City acquires fiber optics in preparation to offer service

    Scott Hunter|Dec 27, 2017

    The city of Coulee Dam has bought a business and its 96 strands of fiber-optic cable that run beneath the Columbia River bridge, the mayor announced at a special city council meeting Wednesday. The purchase, a year-and-a-half in the making according to Mayor Greg Wilder, will allow Coulee Dam to move forward in developing plans that council members have advocated to bring internet speeds in town up to modern standards. The council had voted Dec. 13 to allow Wilder and City Attorney Mick Howe to work out a deal with Basin Broadband LLC, a Moses...

  • City sets new sewer charges for USBR, others

    Scott Hunter|Dec 27, 2017

    Coulee Dam’s city council voted Wednesday to sewer service rates that will charge low-income customers a little less and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation a lot more. Low income senior citizens and disabled residents who qualify for a discount will find slightly better rates, with discount levels bumped from 25 to 30 percent and from 30 to 35 percent. Mayor Greg Wilder said the increased discount would make very little difference, about a couple hundred dollars, to the town’s budget, but could make a meaningful difference to those who qua...

  • NPS wants to keep Lake Roosevelt mussel-free

    Dec 27, 2017

    Boaters in Lake Roosevelt will be asked to “self certify” that their boats aren’t carrying invasive species, the NPS announced Tuesday. In an ongoing effort to prevent aquatic invasive species, the National Park Service (NPS) at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is implementing a mussel-free self-certification program. The NPS is requesting operators certify their boat or personal watercraft free of aquatic invasive species, especially quagga/zebra mussels, prior to launching, and for boaters who have recently boated in infested water...

  • Grant PUD restructures $77 million in debt ahead of tax changes

    Dec 27, 2017

    Grant PUD has refinanced $77 million in outstanding debt to reduce finance costs, help hold a planned 2018 rate-revenue increase to 2 percent, and more equitably align debt burden to the life of the assets it finances, a PUD press release stated Tuesday. “This transaction increases customer value by spreading the debt burden over the multiple generations who will benefit from the equipment upgrades it financed,” Bonnie Overfield, senior manager of finance, said. The transaction refinances bonds of varying maturity dates through 2023 into a sin...

  • Net neutrality repeal not a big factor locally, so far

    Jacob Wagner|Dec 27, 2017

    A recent topic in the national news has been the repeal of “net neutrality” rules which restrained internet service providers (ISPs) from charging consumers more for access to certain websites, and from charging websites more for faster download speeds for their sites. The repeal has people nationwide worried that their internet bill could go up and be comparable to satellite and cable television services which bundle their channels and charge more money for access to certain channels. Micah Seekins, operations manager at Coulee Internet Ser...

  • Coulee Cops

    Dec 27, 2017

    Grand Coulee Police 12/18 - A caller reported a man walking through yards and knocking on doors in the Delano area. He was elusive and not seen by police when an officer arrived. - An officer responded to a report of an injured deer in a driveway on Partello Park. It was gone when police arrived. - A Nespelem man was stopped for having auto tabs that had expired nine months earlier. The officer learned that the man had a suspended license and also a warrant for his arrest. A passenger also had a warrant for his arrest from the Department of...

  • C.D. Mayor to introduce rate changes tonight

    Scott Hunter|Dec 20, 2017

    The mayor of Coulee Dam intends to ask the city council to pass new water and sewer rates tonight (Wednesday) in the last council meeting over which he will preside, with some significant changes. Mayor Greg Wilder explained to the council at their last regular meeting Dec. 13 that he was working on an ordinance for their consideration at tonight’s meeting, called especially for that purpose. Wilder explained that he had been examining usage rates on the east and west sides of town and would recommend rates based on the “Orange Book,” a docum...

  • Christmas cookie burglar foiled

    Roger S. Lucas|Dec 20, 2017

    A Grand Coulee man ended up in Grant County jail after a police search for missing Christmas cookies and other items led them to him Saturday. Arrested and jailed was Jeffrey Muellner, 56. The cookies, various decoration and more had been put in the kitchen area of St. Henry's Catholic Church, where the Coulee Community Choir was set to hold its annual concert on Sunday. Choir practice ended about 9 p.m. the previous evening and everything was OK at that time, but when volunteers came to the chu...

  • Electric City council considers allowing vacation rentals

    Roger S. Lucas|Dec 20, 2017

    Electric City is considering changing its Comprehensive Plan to allow “vacation rentals.” Terry and Debra Ann Jensen, who own a residence at 9 Lakeview Avenue, requested the change. The city council indicated the city would move forward on the request to amend the Comprehensive Plan, plus a rezone, to accomplish the change. City Clerk Russell Powers stated that the city might be able to accomplish the change by as early as February next year. The city would have to hold two public hearings on the change before it could be adopted. Powers sta...

  • School board member: public, union were heard

    Roger S. Lucas|Dec 20, 2017

    School board member Richard Black responded at the last school board meeting, Dec. 11, to discipline issues within the school district. Black had held several positions within the Grand Coulee Dam School District prior to taking a seat on the board, including acting assistant principal and athletic director, and feels he knows the dynamic of the schools from being an active participant for a number of years. He addressed about 30 people in the audience, visitors, and staff members. “You are being heard,” Black assured the audience. He said it i...

  • Newsbriefs

    Dec 20, 2017

    Pope appointed fire chief Charlie Pope was appointed chief of the Coulee Dam Volunteer Fire Department Wednesday night. Mayor Greg Wilder said Brian Warnecke had resigned. Wilder, whose term will end with December, said Warnecke had only committed to serving in the position while Wilder was mayor. Warnecke was appointed in September 2016. Sidewalks report cites more than 1,000 breaks A report from a concrete company documented over 1,000 “compromised” places in Coulee Dam’s sidewalks, Councilmember Gayle Swagerty said Wednesday at the counc...

  • Big smile for Santa

    Dec 20, 2017

    Santa elicits a big smile from Jovanna Bradeen Thursday night with the gift of a coloring book at the annual Lighting of the Library event in Grand Coulee. - Scott Hunter photo...

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