News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 3825 - 3849 of 6821
Lake Roosevelt and Nespelem schools canceled after-school programs today and will both start two hours late tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 9 due to snow....
Alex Yeutushok, from Portland, Oregon, pulls a whitefish from a hole in the ice while fishing on Banks Lake with his friends Thursday afternoon. Using salad shrimp as bait, he used a fishfinder and a very thin line almost invisible in the water, noting that the fish are very skeptical if they see the line. The ice is about a foot thick and sings an eerie song as it shifts on the water. Ice fishermen drill holes in the ice, about six inches in diameter, with a large ice auger. Yeutushok learned... Full story
The Electric City 25-year Pathway and Revitalization plan would change the face of the city by adding a number of visual treats. While the plan suggests a number of changes, it will depend on successful grant applications to become a reality. Its Ice Age Floods theme would take shape through sculptures and signage. A dominant feature suggested in the plan would be a metal life-sized sculpture of a woolly mammoth greeting residents and visitors who access the city from the south. The suggested mammoth is huge and a fitting symbol of the Ice Age... Full story
Elmer City and Coulee Dam are in a stink over less than $1,000 in current sewage treatment bills. Elmer City has recalculated Coulee Dam’s third quarter wastewater treatment bill by $870.74, according to exchanges between the two towns. Elmer City submitted payment of $9,034.11 on Coulee Dam’s bill for $9,904.85 covering the third quarter last year. In dispute is how Coulee Dam allocates the wastewater treatment plant manager Tim Lynch’s time. Elmer City Mayor Gail Morin says the plant operator is called on to do work outside the waste... Full story
People are frustrated with crime and feel powerless to do anything about it. That was evident at Tuesday night's Community Watch meeting held at the Almira/Coulee Dam Community Church. It was the second Community Watch meeting held in Coulee Dam in an effort to try to find a way to curb crime. About 25 people showed up for the meeting. One thing decided on was to determine places to put up neighborhood crime watch signs. The next will be how to finance the cost of the signs. One woman said she... Full story
New chief in Coulee Dam It’s Paul Bowden’s turn to be police chief in Coulee Dam, according to Mayor Greg Wilder, who explained at the Jan. 25 town council meeting that state law does not allow towns to keep the same interim police chief for more than four months at a time. Sgt. Larry Hall had been named interim chief a year ago after then-chief Pat Collins resigned in 2015. The town has recently hired another officer and will send him to the state academy for training this month. Two others have also applied for positions with the police dep... Full story
Will Friedlander and Megan Abel sing "Little Talks," from the group "Of Monsters and Men," during a talent show at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School Friday night. The duet took the top spot in the contest, earning loud applause. A video of a portion of their performance, posted on The Star's Facebook page, reached nearly 1,900 people and garnered a string of positive comments. - Scott Hunter photo... Full story
One of Grand Coulee Dam School District's buses received damage to its front end last Thursday about 7:15 a.m. when the driver swerved off the road near Nespelem to avoid hitting a vehicle in front of it. There were no injuries, and only one child was on the bus at the time. Damage to the bus was limited to the front bumper and security arm. The Washington State Patrol issued veteran driver David Gates a citation for driving too closely. Gates has been driving bus for the district about 12... Full story
You can access the Grand Coulee Dam District School survey online (http://www.gcdsd.org) and have an opportunity to make comments about the good things happening in the district and things you believe need improving. The district office stated this week that the survey will be open until the end of February. The school board plans to use the information from the surveys in shaping its Strategic Plan. School officials said this week that 83 surveys have been received to date, most returned online. The school district announced the survey after... Full story
The marina that serves the north end of Lake Roosevelt will close in the spring, the National Park Service announced Monday in a press release. The Kettle Falls Marina will close April 30 when the NPS contract with Lake Roosevelt Vacations, Inc. expires. An “effort to select a contractor to continue operations was cancelled to give park officials more time to evaluate visitor services in the northern portion of Lake Roosevelt,” the NPS said. “The National Park Service will take a fresh look at public needs and wants with regard to servi... Full story
Money makes the world go around, and it also builds school classrooms. Both classrooms and money are in short supply at the Grand Coulee Dam School District, just three years after opening the new Lake Roosevelt Schools complex in 2014. Currently, the school district is in the midst of its five-year “study and survey” that will spell out the district’s classroom needs in detail. There’s currently a crunch for classroom space, specifically in the elementary wing of the school. The “study and survey,” after a review by Superintendent Paul Turner... Full story
Nespelem School will start two hours late on Tuesday, Feb. 7.... Full story
Nespelem Elementary School has canceled school for Monday, Feb. 6. due to too much snow." Th"ere will be no preschool at all tomorrow, nor will breakfast be served, the school announced Sunday evening. Lake Roosevelt Schools will start two hours late....
A family lost their Grand Coulee home Sunday morning when a fire broke out in the carport and went undetected until drivers passing by saw it, alerting authorities and the family inside. No one was hurt. But Josh and Brenda Ristine, their 9-year-old twin girls and 10-year-old boy are starting over. The 1981 double-wide is gone, along with nearly everything they owned. The fire started just before 10:30 a.m. Brenda was already at work, Josh Ristine said, as firefighters worked to put out the... Full story
Electric City’s 25-year Pathway and Revitalization plan is complete. This week, the Star newspaper looks at two new city parks as they are outlined in the plan. Funding for parts of the Pathway and Revitalization is anticipated through grants as they are available to the city. The two new parks are: Grand Avenue Park, with an Ice Age focus; and McNett Splashpad Park, behind the fire department building and just temporarily named. The Pathway project was just recently completed by a team of instructors and students from Washington State U... Full story
An organizational community watch meeting will be held Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 6 p.m. at the Almira/Coulee Dam Community Church. The meeting is a follow-up to an initial meeting held early in December, and is being organized by Ed Bartley. About 50 people showed up at the first meeting, alarmed by reports of burglaries and car prowls in Coulee Dam. Bartley, who has had about 50 years of experience in law enforcement-related activity, drew out concerns local residents had at the first meeting, and stated that organizing against crime would be the ta... Full story
An after-school program in place at Lake Roosevelt is hoping to recruit more volunteers to help enrich kids' understanding of the world and be better prepared to face it as they get older. The SHARP Kids program, which stands for "Safe, Honest, Aware, Respectful, and Present," is in its 13th year, with around 120 kids of all ages involved. The age groups are first through third grade, fourth and fifth, sixth through eighth, and high school. SHARP Kids is funded by a federal 21st Century... Full story
Green fees to stay the same Sometimes when organizations don’t raise rates it makes the news. Port District 7 commissioners last week reported membership dues at Banks Lake Golf Course will remain the same for another year. Individual memberships are $700, with family memberships $800. Junior memberships are $100, and green fees for nine holes are $18, and for 18 holes $30. Cart rentals for nine holes are $12, and for 18 holes $24. The course is scheduled to open March 1, weather permitting. Firm selected for Elmer City Belsby Engineering of S... Full story
Citizens and town council members argued Wednesday over whether to OK an application for a grant that would help save an old “steam building” behind Coulee Dam Town Hall, developing it into a trailhead for Candy Point Trail — with a bathroom, including a shower. The “Candy Point and Crown Point Trailhead Development” proposal asks the state Recreation and Conservation Office for $108,450 of a total project cost of $135,650, with the town making up the $27,200 match. Mayor Greg Wilder said half of that would come from “in kind” work, and don... Full story
Kevin Portch owns Loepp Furniture and Appliance. A story last week incorrectly named his parents as the owners.... Full story
Coulee Dam expects to award a construction contract in late March to build a new multimillion dollar wastewater treatment plant, the mayor and consulting engineers told the town council Wednesday. The town got a “verbal OK” earlier in the day from the Colville Tribes’ planning department following a unanimous vote during its meeting with Varela and Associates, the engineers on the project. The matter will still need a formal vote of the Colville Business Council later this month. The project plan had also seen a quick turnaround after submi... Full story
Police have arrested one person and are looking for additional suspects in the burglary of Loepp Furniture early Sunday morning, Jan. 15. Officers Adam Florenzen and Chris McClanahan took part in the apprehension of a 34-year-old Omak woman, Darcy K. Edwards, who was in the driver’s seat of a pickup parked in the alley behind the store, partially filled with objects from inside. At least one other person was believed to be part of the burglary, the police report stated, and possibly two. Florenzen, on patrol, reported that as he was driving M... Full story
Brother and sister Nick and Becky Heilman serve fruit cups during a ham-hock-and-bean soup dinner to members at the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center Tuesday. Their mother, Chay, is the head cook there. The GCD Senior Meals program is open to everyone, with no membership required. Dinner is served Tuesday through Thursday at 5 p.m., and breakfast served Monday through Friday from 8 to 10 a.m. A recommended donation of $3.50 for senior citizens, or $6.50 for everyone else, buys a full meal. It's... Full story
A follow-up “community watch” meeting in Coulee Dam has been set for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the Almira/Coulee Dam Community Church, according to Ed Bartley. A feeling that the crime rate in Coulee Dam was rising rapidly spurred the first meeting early in December, with about 50 people showing up. Bartley chaired the meeting then and will again when the follow-up meeting is held. That meeting will put some meat on the bones with some specific suggestions of how community members can help fight crime, not as vigilantes, but by coo... Full story
An upcoming visit between two local governments could help prevent a big local asset from degrading into a permanent eyesore. The Grand Coulee Dam School District has been invited to Grand Coulee’s next planning commission meeting on Feb. 8, to let planners know what it plans for the Center School property. The school district has conducted two advertisements calling for bids on the 8.3-acre school building and property, but has never appeared before city planners. Both attempts to receive bids have failed to produce any because investors w... Full story