News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Members of the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center are still hopeful that they will someday be able to build a garage to house their two buses, even though the city of Grand Coulee is dragging its feet on the issue. Larry Curtis, appeared before the city council at its last meeting, his fourth time on the issue, asking the city what is happening on the seniors’ request to build a bus garage on property that borders on Federal Avenue. The property is not zoned for a separate garage unless there is also a residential building in the package. Each t... Full story
Play on the way The Planet Earth Players will put on “12 Angry Jurors” Feb. 20, 21, and 22, at the Grand Gallery of Arts on Grand Coulee’s Main Street. Tickets for the performances will be on sale at the door for $7. The play is directed by Darlene Morava. Calendars for the past The Coulee Pioneer Museum is considering the development of a historical calendar for 2015. Birdie Hensley said that it would include historical pictures and events. She said for people to check the museum’s Facebook page for additional information. Busy departm... Full story
Tom Poplawski, a retired state parks employee, was named to fill a vacant seat on Grand Coulee’s city council. Three people had submitted their names for the vacant position, but one withdrew his name the night the selection was made. Poplawski was sworn in last Tuesday night to fill the vacant seat, position 2, formerly held by Tim Alling, who chose not to run again for office. The new councilman served as park manager at Steamboat Rock State Park from 1996 to 2012, when he retired. Poplawski had a 37-year career in the state park system a... Full story
Grand Coulee will go out to bid on its Midway Avenue water project, the replacement of about 500 feet of line. The project will replace lines across Midway Ave. from Jess Ford, to Four Corners and to the Catholic Church. It will also replace lines from Safeway to the TeePee Drive-In. The city council gave Mayor Chris Christopherson the OK to execute a contract with Gray & Osborne, the city’s engineering firm. The project estimate, made a year ago, was for $100 per foot, or about $50,000. The job would be advertised, city officials said, Feb. 1... Full story
A Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission meeting Monday night turned out to be anything but civil. Commission President Alan Cain and police Officer Sean Cook got into a shouting match over issues that Cook raised before commission members. The civil service commission is an independent board that interviews and makes recommendations on police personnel. Cook said he wasn’t there representing the police department, but as a private citizen and veteran. Initially, Cook challenged the commission for ordering him out of the January meeting, t... Full story
Nespelem School will start two hours late this morning (Thursday). School will begin at 10 a.m. We're not privy to the precise reason at 6 a.m., but suspect it has to with the cold. It's -2 degrees Fin Nespelem currently.... Full story
With their constituents voicing impatience, hospital district commissioners took no actions after coming out of a closed session last week, but they voted in new leadership and streamlined committee assignments. Tom Poplawski got applause from the full meeting room when he said deferring the beginning of action on a standoff between administration and medical staff was "unacceptable." "Make a decision and let's move on," he said. "We need to start with a new goal here of getting somewhere."... Full story
A large majority of registered nurses at Coulee Medical Center have signed cards asking to be represented by a union, an organizer said Tuesday night. Austin DePaolo, of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1439, said more than 70 percent of the nurses at the hospital had signed cards seeking representation. DePaolo said he couldn’t say the exact number of RNs that would be in the bargaining unit, but he suspected it was about 30. DePaolo said both hospital administration and the state Public Employment Relations Commission (... Full story
Electric City is looking for a water source to service an eventual development of some 300-400 homes on the south side of the causeway. Mayor Jerry Sands appeared before Port District 7 officials Thursday evening to ask if the city could some day drill a well near the golf course to find a water source for future residential development that he said was “coming, maybe not in our lifetime, but it’s coming.” Electric City had engineers and hydrologists here the week before to test three wells that belong to the port district to see if the wells... Full story
The state auditor’s office has advised Lincoln County Fire Protection District 9 that materials required were not furnished to auditors for the period of Jan. 1, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2011. The letter stated that failure to submit required annual financial reports is a violation of state law. The letter further stated that auditors were unable to conclude their audit of the district’s internal controls and compliance. Financial reports are to be filed with the state auditor’s office within 150 days of the closing of the year. The repor... Full story
Orville Scharbach has resigned his position on the Grant County Port District 7 commission. Scharbach, who was just elected to another six-year term last November and took his new oath of office a month ago, advised other commissioners that he was stepping down. He told them, “it’s time.” He has been president of the board for a number of years. Commissioners Jim Keene and Dennis Lohrman were quick to praise Scharbach for his years of service. Both Keene and Lohrman are recent additions to the port commission. Scharbach has been a member of th... Full story
Rob Carroll, of Stevens Avenue in Coulee Dam, can take at least some credit for contributing to the "12th Man" spirit that permeated the state as the Seahawks headed to the Super Bowl on Sunday. In addition to the big lighted sign, he outfitted his lightpost, at left, to resemble the Seattle Space Needle and at halftime painted a Lombardi trophy on a used satellite dish. - Scott Hunter photo... Full story
School enrollment up again Enrollment number for Grand Coulee Dam District schools continues to exceed predictions. January’s enrollment in all three schools was recorded at 667. That’s 27 over what the district budgeted for and 46 students over the same period a year ago. So far this year, enrollment is 205 students over the same period last year. Runway cracks need fixing Airport manager Bob Babler told Port District 7 commissioners that cracks in the 4,200-foot paved runway at the Grand Coulee Dam Airport need to be fixed. The airport is own... Full story
The task of keeping sewer rates low has begun in Elmer City. Mayor Gail Morin, who campaigned on the notion that her town could go its own way instead of paying Coulee Dam for wastewater treatment, says she hopes that the first steps in that direction will come this month. She has met with two Indian Health Services engineers, Alex Dailey and Laura Sliger, on Jan. 17, and says she is hopeful that the agency will conduct an alternative analysis to better help the town set its direction on whether it should build its own plant or team with... Full story
Colville Members for Justice will meet Saturday morning in Elmer City to discuss the status and updates on their effort to sue the Colville Business Council over decisions on how much of a $193 million settlement with the United States government to distribute directly to tribal members. Their civil complaint was dismissed in tribal court, but the groups has filed for an appeal. A hearing on that is set for Feb. 21. “We still do not have legal counsel and plan to discuss this and other measures available to us,” said Yvonne Swan, who is spearhe... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards night will be Thursday, Feb. 13, at Pepper Jack’s Bar and Grille, officials said this week. Chamber Executive Director Peggy Nevsimal said Tuesday that the “Achiever of the Year” and “Business of the Year” will be announced during the evening. The dinner event begins at 6 p.m. Last year’s “Achiever of the Year” was George Kohout, who led the Ridge Riders to one of their most successful seasons with record turnouts for their events. The “Business of the Year” was the Ridge Riders... Full story
Three residents of Grand Coulee responded to the city’s request to fill a vacant city council seat. The Position 2 seat became vacant after Tim Alling decided not to run again and has been vacant since the first of the year. Filing and expressing interest in occupying the vacant council seat were Mike Horne, who unsuccessfully ran for the mayor’s position earlier and is owner of the MPH mechanic shop on Midway Avenue; Travis Irwin, who worked for Grand Coulee’s public works department earlier and who now is an employee of Coulee Dam’s public... Full story
A woman who called police because she felt threatened did not report that the other party had a knife, as stated in a report last week. Heather Downs did not know that Terry Jo Merbach had a knife until Merbach gave it to police when they arrived. Police collected two knives from her and a pistol from Downs for safekeeping during their investigation, but gave them back. Downs had advised the dipatcher that she was armed when she called.... Full story
County sheriffs in the region have been collaborating on finding out who has been stealing from rural residents and getting their property back. Last week, the sheriffs of Grant, Lincoln and Adams counties met in Lincoln County with their detectives to discuss the crimes and suspects, Lincoln County Sheriff Wade Magers said. "As a result of communication, I believe that we have solved numerous crimes," Magers said. "Search warrants in Lincoln County, Grant County, and Spokane Counties were... Full story
On any given week, Star photographers take far more photos than can be used in the newspaper. But the best of the rest are included on a website anyone can explore, and it has just been redesigned. We hope readers enjoy looking through them and feel free to share them in social media as they like.... Full story
A water line extension project in Electric City to service Sunbanks Lake Resort is scheduled for April, city officials stated. Mayor Jerry Sands said this week that the city is going to upgrade the 8-inch water line to a 10-inch water line at the city’s expense so it will be in a position to serve any future water needs on the south side of the causeway. The line will be stubbed where it goes into the Sunbanks property. Sands said Sunbanks will pay for the 400-foot extension of the water line from State Street to the turn into the resort p... Full story
CMC commission meets tonight Commissioner for Public Hospital District 6, which operates Coulee Medical Center, will meet at their regular monthly meeting tonight at 6 p.m. in the CMC public meeting room. Among items on the agenda are the elections of officers for the new year and a closed session that relies on the state’s exception to open meetings for evaluating the performance of a public employee. Seat open on city council Parties interested in serving on the Grand Coulee City Council still have a couple of days to get their letter of i... Full story
A school bus Tuesday passes by the Grand Coulee Dam School District's new kindergarten-through-12th grade complex being built in Coulee Dam. - Scott Hunter photo... Full story
Electric City Volunteer Fire Chief Mark Payne will keep his job despite two incidents of illegal burning at his home. Mayor Jerry Sands made the statement at a meeting Monday night of several local firefighters. “I am not going to remove Payne as fire chief,” Sands said. Earlier in the day, he admitted that he was pondering doing that. Instead, Sands said he was going to use the incidents as a public education effort to inform residents about the burning ban that covers all areas within the urban growth boundaries in cities and towns thr... Full story
A $750 fine of a home mechanic’s illegal operation was supported in Grand Coulee’s municipal court last Friday. The mechanic, Donovan Picard, who lives at 431 W. Grand, was issued a $750 ticket by Grand Coulee police for doing mechanical repair at his home garage in a residential zone and for not having a business license. Last September two local businessmen appeared before the city council to complain that Picard was operating in a residential zone and didn’t have a business license. They said he was siphoning off business from their shops... Full story