News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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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...
City council assigns reps The Electric City council named two of its members to outside boards at its meeting last Tuesday. Richard McGuire was named to continue representing the city to the Grant County Transit Authority; Birdie Hensley was named to represent the city on the Wastewater Treatment Plant, jointly owned by Electric City and Grand Coulee. Treatment plant revamp behind schedule Construction of Coulee Dam’s new wastewater treatment plant is behind schedule by about a month and a half, city engineer Daniel Cowger told the council l...
Various organizations gathered at the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center last Thursday to get input from the public and discuss problems with, and possible solutions for, local public transportation. In addition to members of the community and employees of various organizations were representatives from People For People, who organized the meeting, as well as Grant County Transit, organizations both involved with public transportation in the area. "The purpose of the meeting is to determine gaps in...
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...