News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A young mom holds the bag open as her child gathers eggs at the Lions Club's 85th annual Easter Egg Hunt Saturday at the former middle school in Grand Coulee. The club takes over an hour to set up the field with the plastic eggs that members have filled with prizes. The hunt is over in minutes with no sign of eggs left on the field. A photo of prize winners is on page 6. - Scott Hunter photo...
The annual Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge is just around the bend, coming up on April 12-14 at Coulee Playland. In addition to the fishing tournament on Saturday and Sunday, the weekend will feature an expanded Fun-Day Friday on the afternoon of April 12 from 1 to 5 p.m., featuring live music and an open beer garden for the first time, as well as the popular rainbow trout net-pen for kids, crafts and face painting stations, gold panning, S'mores, and an expanded food vendor choices. "This year...
Electric City’s main sewer line repair job has received an offer of just under a million dollars in a combined grant and loan package from the state Public Works Board, marking a crucial milestone in the quest to prevent failure of the critical infrastructure running parallel to Banks Lake. The board, which provides grants and loans to municipalities for critical and emergent public works projects, awarded $998,680 — half as a loan and half as a grant — according to the city’s contract engineer, Marissa Siemens of TD&H Engineering. Once th...
Big maps up on a screen made an impression. The maps outlined all the areas burned by wildfires in Okanogan County. The first slide showed burns from 1982 through 2013. The second slide added what has burned since 2013. From a glance at the map, you might guess that possibly twice as much land burned in the last 11 years as in the prior 31. In a room full of firefighters and others concerned with keeping the county from burning up, it was an appropriate intro to the Community Wildfire...
Don Redfield has been selected as the next chief of the Grand Coulee Police Department, a turnabout from the mayor's initial decision this month not to hire any of the candidates from the original pool. Mayor Mike Eylar's choice was unanimously approved by the city council at a special meeting convened last night, moving forward a process that had garnered public criticism from the department's rank and file. "Circumstances changed that made immediate action necessary," Eylar told The Star...
Local organizations received accolades Tuesday night as the chamber of commerce announced the winners of three awards voted on by chamber members at a dinner for that purpose at MPH Hi-Dam. Addressing a fairly young crowd, Nancy Zimmerman-Boord, executive director of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, noted that young people are starting new businesses or taking over established ones. "What I love to see about this community ... is that our kids are stepping up into owning...
A whole-community town hall has been pushed back a week to Saturday, May 4. The meeting will still take place at the Coulee Dam Town Hall Ballroom at 10:30 a.m. and feature all four local mayors and most council members from each jurisdiction. The Star’s editor and publisher, Scott Hunter, will moderate the event. The event is being organized by the Regional Board of Mayors. The agenda and format is still being determined, but attendees can expect to hear updates about regionally relevant projects, including road chipseal repair jobs that s... Full story
The annual Spring Clean-up dates have been set for the weeks of April 8th and 15th. Self-hauled yard waste (bagged or unbagged) will be accepted both weeks at Delano Transfer Station during the dump’s regular hours: Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge, but residents still need to weigh their loads in and out so staff can track the weight. Three of the local towns will go house to house for limb chipping, with varying schedules. Electric City’s chipping dates are April 8-12. City staff wil...
People stream in to visit inside the new fire barn in Elmer City Thursday after Okanogan Fire District 2 Chief Dave Finch cut the ceremonial ribbon and opened the doors. Mayor Jesse Tillman and Public Works Director Jimmer Tillman recognized the funders who got the funds for the project, including the fire district, 12th Legislative District Rep. Mike Steele, 7th Legislative District Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber, and Okanogan County commissioners, who voted to pass on federal American Rescue Plan...
The third in a series of the “Okanogan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan” meetings will be held Wednesday evening, March 27, from 5-7 p.m., at the Lucy Covington Government Center, 21 Colville Street, Nespelem, the headquarters of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Any Okanogan County residents can attend the meeting to be able to “engage with CWPP partners and discuss community-level wildfire concerns and values at risk,” an agenda for the meeting states. “We will share the goals and action steps for updating... Full story
It started out with an abrupt retirement announcement from the Public Works director — and didn’t get much easier from there at last night’s Grand Coulee council meeting. By the end of the evening one council member and two police officers — including an applicant for the police chief opening — were directly questioning the mayor’s decision to not hire any current candidates for that position. The unusually tense meeting happened on a night with an already packed agenda covering a road reconstruction project, in-town speed limits, several vac...
The third in a series of the "Okanogan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan" meetings will be held Wednesday evening, March 27, from 5-7 p.m., at the Lucy Covington Government Center, 21 Colville Street, Nespelem, the headquarters of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Any Okanogan County residents can attend the meeting to be able to "engage with CWPP partners and discuss community-level wildfire concerns and values at risk," an agenda for the meeting states. "We will...
The Grand Coulee City Council will convene for a special meeting Tuesday, March 26 at 6 p.m., the city clerk announced Monday. The council is expected to confirm a police chief candidate, a key move in a hiring process that has garnered criticism from Grand Coulee Police Department rank and file, and at least one Grand Coulee council member. Mayor Mike Eylar had originally declined to hire any of the candidates from the pool of five applicants, after interviewing the top three selected by the city’s volunteer Civil Service Commission. Since las... Full story
Children line up for their bows at the conclusion of Saturday's matinée performance of The Secret Garden, produced by the Missoula Children's Theatre at the Lake Roosevelt High School gym. They had just auditioned on Monday, with parts going to all the kids who tried out, from fireflies to a red-breasted robin. The effort was sponsored by the Grand Coulee Dam PTA. - Scott Hunter photo...
Local 9th through 12th graders with a knack for creative writing have the chance to win one of three cash prizes this spring in the 13th annual Teen Short Fiction Competition, hosted by North Central Washington Libraries and a Wenatchee-based nonprofit organization. High school students - whether in public school, private school, home school or Running Start - are invited to submit original short fiction up to 2,000 words in length, either a short story or the beginning pages of a longer piece,...
New Colorama Rodeo Queen Faith Jensen, of Omak, addresses the crowd at the Ridge Riders Saddle Club's Banquet & Auction Saturday at Coulee Dam Town Hall, just after receiving the crown from Talliyah Timentwa, who has served as queen for the last two years. The live auction portion of the event raised well over $20,000, which does not include the silent auction and admission tickets. - Scott Hunter photo...
After days of creating hundreds of Easter baskets at the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center, (from left) Carlene Worsham, Diana Canady, Kerry Noggles, Evelyn Alling, Judy Behrens, Bev Bruno, Debby Clark, Edna Hauser and Debbie Nelson gather for a photo with a few of their creations in the background at right. They created 350 new baskets that are on sale now at the center. - Gwen Hilson photo...
Washington State University Extension is hosting a 4-H Livestock Nutrition and Health Workshop in Keller Sunday to help youth raising livestock better understand animal health care and nutrition in preparation for fair season. WSU experts will be part of the event at the Keller Community Center March 24 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free and open to all. "In low-income areas where the margins for agriculture are so slim, if you're raising animals for sale, the loss of just one can be...
Winter's gray gives way to spring's yellow as Dakota Hunt, right, examines buttercups at Highway Rock Friday, where he and his mother Rebecca Hunt were "scoping out climbing routes" just south of Jones Bay on Banks Lake along SR-155. Rebecca took the photo. Below, Chuck Morrow holds a buttercup found by Megan Reyes Saturday in the Delrio area of Douglas County. Reyes took the photo....
In the decision between three finalists for Grand Coulee police chief, Mayor Mike Eylar has chosen option D: None of the Above. “I’m not offering the position to any of the three that I interviewed,” Eylar said in a phone call Tuesday. “I’ll tell you exactly what I told them: I don’t doubt the heart and the desire and willingness to do the job, whatsoever. It’s just that we’re in what I think is kind of a critical stage, where I need somebody that has the knowledge, skill and abilities that the job requires, in order for us to be able to be a...
Residents of the local towns will have the opportunity next month to hear from–and address–all four mayors and most council members at one joint public meeting dedicated to area-wide issues, the Regional Board of Mayors decided at their March 6 meeting. The all-community town hall will take place Saturday, April 27 at 10:30 a.m. at the Coulee Dam Town Hall Ballroom. The Star editor and publisher Scott Hunter will moderate the event. The idea has been out there since Grand Coulee Mayor Mike Eylar floated it at the February mayors meeting. Ove...
Local firefighters fought a stubborn fire in a Delano home early Monday, with one person being taken from the scene by ambulance for treatment. At approximately 1:47 a.m. Grand Coulee and Electric City fire departments were dispatched for the fire at 57928 Yakima Street NE in Delano. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also responded for assistance and led fire ground operations, the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department, stated on its Facebook Monday. The Grand Coulee Ambulance took one patient from the scene to Coulee Medical Center for...
A ribbon cutting ceremony in Elmer City will introduce to the public the town's new fire hall March 21 at 1 p.m. The recently completed structure is already in use, housing fire engines for Okanogan County Fire Protection District 2. The $1.3 million project, funded mostly by the state Legislature with the final $150,000 coming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act via Okanogan County commissioners, began in 2022 when the town began seeking state funds. The project involved the work of two...
A Missoula Children's Theatre worker, seated, takes notes as Lake Roosevelt students seek to be the next chosen during an exercise before casting decisions were made Monday evening for the upcoming production of The Secret Garden. The group will practice after school all week with the cast, then put on two performances on Saturday, at 2 and 6 p.m. It's been three years since the Grand Coulee PTA has been able to bring the MCT to town. - Scott Hunter photo...
Jess Ford of Grand Coulee announce Monday that the firm had received the Ford’s President’s Award for 2023, for the second year in a row. It’s one of only two dealerships in Eastern Washington to be so honored. “This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team here at Jess Ford,” said General Manager Josh Pitts. Pitts emphasized the dealership’s commitment to going the extra mile for their customers. “At Jess Ford, we believe in doing the little things that make a big difference in our customers’ ex...