News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The Colville Tribes will repay the federal government nearly a quarter million dollars to settle allegations it submitted false Medicaid claims in connection with bills submitted by a mental health contractor for services allegedly never rendered, U.S. Attorney Michael Ormsby announced in Spokane late Tuesday. The tribes, which have not admitted to any wrongdoing, agreed to pay $245,860 for alleged “billing irregularities” between January and August 2010, said a press release from Ormsby, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of W... Full story
It's entirely possible The Star could be late tomorrow. As I write, freezing rain is pelting the ground, the National Weather Service is warning of an ice storm with up to a half inch of ice locally, and roads are becoming hazardous. Just for fun, here's a video of the frozen drops bouncing of the ice-encrusted snow in front of The Star tonight as we finish up tomorrow's paper. Freezing rain from Scott Hunter on Vimeo....
Lake Roosevelt Schools and Nespelem School with start two hours late Wednesday. At Nespelem Elementary there will be no preschool at all for the day. Also, breakfast will not be served at Nespelem on Wednesday. Freezing rain was pelting much of the area Tuesday night, making roads very slick....
No after-school activities for Nespelem today Nespelem School will send it’s kids home right after school today (Tuesday, Jan. 17) at 2:45 and will not hold after-school programs, the school said this morning. With freezing rain frequently on Tuesday morning and ice storm warning for this evening and tomorrow morning, administrators thought it best to get the kids home early. There normally would have been after-school activities until 4 p.m. No decision has yet been made on starting school Wednesday morning....
Nespelem Elementary School was start two hours late Thursday, Jan. 12, due to weather conditions, the school announced Wednesday night....
Tonight's (Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017) Coulee Dam Town Council meeting was canceled due to lack of a quorum, a statement posted on the town's website said.... Full story
Grand Coulee's police department showed a marked increase in the number of burglaries reported in its jurisdiction (which includes Electric City) in 2016 over what it reported for 2015, according to records released last week. The report, which included Electric City, showed there were 42 attempted and actual burglaries for 2016, compared to 23 for 2015, an 82-percent hike. Burglary records for Coulee Dam were not available for 2016, but the number of burglaries in 2015 was shown as six. Police... Full story
A small herd of deer watches warily as walkers pass nearby the spot in Coulee Dam's Cole Park where they had bedded down near the tennis courts to wait out Sunday's snowfall. Low temperatures will return, along with various probabilities of more snow from Saturday through next Tuesday, according to the Weather Watcher Forecast on page 8. - Scott Hunter photo... Full story
North Central Regional Library would like to hear from you. The five-county library district is currently working on a new strategic plan and would like to hear what the public thinks of its libraries and what they’d like to see in the future. The organization operates Grand Coulee’s public library. A public survey is now available online at www.ncrl.org, and copies in English and Spanish can be picked up at any of the district’s 30 branch libraries in Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Okanogan and Ferry counties. The survey asks questions about which... Full story
The annual Balde Eagle festival will be held in Grand Coulee Thursday, Feb. 16, and in Davenport on Friday, Feb. 17, according to National Park Service Education Specialist Janice Elvidge. Events on both days are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Elvidge said the event, which educates kids in cooperation with local schools, can use help from volunteers in several areas: • Housing is needed in the Grand Coulee Dam area for one man with at least one bird. He’s new to the festival this year, she said, and will need one room for two to three nig... Full story
Mayor Wilder chairs board Coulee Dam Mayor Greg Wilder was named chairman of the Regional Board of Mayors and presided over the group’s first meeting of 2017 Monday afternoon. No rate increase The Regional Board of Mayors received word Monday that Sunrise Disposal didn’t plan on raising its garbage collection rates for 2017. Councilman says different rate discussed Jesse Tillman, a councilman at Elmer City, stated last week that his research showed that the average hourly rate for city clerks was $14 an hour. The minutes of the council mee... Full story
Patrons of the Grand Coulee Dam School District will soon have an opportunity to officially comment about local schools. The district just recently prepared a survey, which will be online, covering a number of topics relating to different aspect of schools. The survey follows up Superintendent Paul Turner’s efforts to communicate more directly with staff and patrons of the school district. Turner, who took over duties of superintendent last August, stated then that “communications” was one of his top priorities in the months ahead. The distr... Full story
Community members are encouraged to attend an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail informational meeting Jan. 23 in Coulee Dam. The national project is to tell the story of the Ice Age Floods, which includes 16,000 square miles in four states and, locally, formed the Grand Coulee. The meeting in two weeks will feature a report from National Park Service’s Denise Bausch, who will speak on the NPS’ long-range interpretive plan for the trail system. The meeting will be held Monday, Jan. 23, from 1-3 p.m., in the community room at Coulee Dam Town... Full story
Old Man Winter interrupted Monday’s start of school, forcing a two-hour delay because of snow at both Grand Coulee Dam and Nespelem schools. In Coulee Dam, interim bus manager George Davis said roads in general were bad in all directions. He singled out roads in the Nespelem area, Delrio, Grand Coulee/Delano area, upper Electric City and “just roads everywhere.” Electric City, Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam city crews were hard at it Monday morning trying to keep streets open. It wasn’t necessarily the depth of the snow, but finding room to move... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 1/3 - The manager of the Spring Canyon Apartments told police that someone had entered one of the apartments. He said that he had opened up all the blinds and locked the door the previous day, but he found the blinds pulled shut the next day. The manager said the person on the lease was in jail and that whoever had been in the apartment was not authorized to be there. Police entered the apartment but no one was there. - Police were called to the Spring Canyon Apartments where, they were advised, people were arguing and it... Full story
The sale of Center School is made more complicated by the issue of zoning. The school district has made efforts to sell the vacated school and some additional acres, but so far no one has stepped up to the plate to make an offer. The issue of zoning keeps coming up and any interested buyer isn’t certain how the property might be re-zoned. Currently, the Grand Coulee planning commission is studying a wide range of zoning issues. “We are not looking at a single property, but what needs to be done throughout the city,” stated planning commi... Full story
Wintery weather and slickness headed to region The National Weather Service warned Saturday that a fresh round of troublesome winter weather is likely headed our way beginning Saturday afternoon and continuing through Sunday night. We could end up with 1 to 5 inches of snow, followed by some rain and freezing rain that will glaze surfaces enough to "make walking hazardous," not to mention driving. Now might be a good time to stock up on groceries for the next day or so. Below is the NOAA's...
Bob Hendrickson heads back to the boat launch at Coulee Playland after a brief excursion just after noon New Year's Day, kayaking through the ice on Banks Lake. Behind him are Ross Vordahl, Rod Hardin and Darla Orr. - Scott Hunter photo... Full story
There were smiles all around last Thursday as Port District 7 officials got the year-end financial report on Banks Lake Golf Course, which they manage. At the end of 2015, port commissioners were looking at red ink to the tune of $32,000. But last Thursday, district Secretary Joanne Davidson brought smiles to commissioners when her report stated that the golf course was in the black for 2016, $17,006.16. Actually, things look better than that. The Port District paid off its golf carts in 2016, a $17,048.37 non-recurring expense. Given that,... Full story
Grand Coulee got first place, but not necessarily the type of first place you’d want to receive. An FBI report for the state of Washington shows that Grand Coulee, for its size, was rated first in the state for burglaries for the year 2015. Statistics show that Grand Coulee had 23 burglaries for its population of 1,056, a statistic skewed because it doesn’t account for the population of Electric City, which the Grand Coulee Police also support, noted Police Chief John Tufts. Two other nearby communities on the list include Winthrop, which was... Full story
Port changes meeting time Grant County Port District 7 is changing its meeting time, according to a vote of commissioners last Thursday. The Port District has been meeting at the airport at 5 p.m. the last Thursday of every month. Commissioners, by vote, changed the meeting time to 4 p.m., effective, Thursday, January 26. Brrr! With temperatures dropping as low as 0 in the next few days, don’t forget to leave water running about the width of a pencil in any sinks on an outside wall to help avoid costly pipe freezes and ruptures. The Grand C... Full story
Elmer City has a 2017 budget, but not without a bit of strife. It was all over a $2 an hour raise for city clerk Gary Benton. The raise and passage of the town’s $915,603 budget narrowly passed Dec. 8, with one council member, Jesse Tillman, voting against the budget because of the raise, and another, Councilmember Don Bonertz, abstaining. That left the vote 2-1, with Clara Carson and Larry Holford voting for the budget, including the raise for Benton, and Tillman voting no and Bonertz abstaining. Councilmember Joaquin Marchand was not at t... Full story
Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend, right, welcomes the city's eighth police officer in a swearing-in ceremony held Monday at city hall. Mathew Ponusky, left, of Spokane, will attend a four-month academy training session in either Spokane or Seattle as soon as there is an opening. Ponusky replaces Sean Cook, who left the department two years ago. The police department has been operating one officer shy since that time. - Roger S. Lucas photo... Full story
You know who they are. They work in your church or volunteer at the school. Maybe he or she picks up litter every week along the highway, or is the one who can always be counted on to shovel a sidewalk when someone else can’t. Or maybe it’s someone who volunteers on a board or commission or city council, putting in countless hours on behalf of the community. The Star will honor the 2016 volunteer of the year in an upcoming issue and will publish your letters of nomination between now and then. We encourage you to think about those who give of... Full story
The Star newspaper reported last week that Carl Russell had resigned as president of POWER. He only had resigned as manager of the fish pens in Electric City. He is still president of POWER. The Star regrets the error.... Full story