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 Grand Coulee Dam School District board has approved a raise for Superintendent Dennis Carlson: 20 percent of his current base salary during pre-construction of the new K-12 school complex. The increase is due to the amount of extra time the superintendent will spend while all the details of the construction project are worked out, a board report stated. Carlson’s base salary is $104,000; however, he had voluntarily taken a 3-percent reduction in salary during the last budget period. The board had recently added a year to his contract, t... Full story
Fire crews have had quite a workout over the past week, particularly in Douglas County, Grand Coulee’s fire chief Rick Paris reported Monday. Just as a Type-3 incident management team was cleaning up and leaving from the near 500-acre Cache Butte fire on north Banks Lake late last week, the area experienced another lightning storm that started several small fires and a larger one. Douglas County Fire District 3 and District 5 battled a fire between Mansfield and Bridgeport near Foster Creek that turned into a major fire, starting about m... Full story
Primary ballots out this week Ballots for the Aug. 7 primary, will be mailed to voters today, Wednesday, in Grant County and Thursday in Okanogan County, their respective elections departments noted. If you don’t get a ballot by July 25, you can call Grant County’s department at 754-2011 ext. 377 or ext. 423. Okanogan County’s election officials can be reached at (509) 422-7240. Trees coming down The Bureau of Reclamation plans to cut down eight or nine trees in North Dam Park. Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said that Bonneville Power... Full story
Several music concerts have been scheduled in a series of free summer concerts at North Dam Park and Event Center. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce has scheduled a variety of live bands to play in the park at its grassy hillside amphitheater and is arranging an advertising campaign to promote them. Free concerts, along with other area attractions, including Grand Coulee Dam, the Laser Light Show, area lakes and great weather, well promoted, should boost tourism through August. The concerts, and advertising of them, will be funded... Full story
A woman on River Drive who suffered a gunshot wound to her right forearm last Saturday night told officers that her guitar had exploded. Coulee Dam Police Chief Pat Collins said Tuesday that there was a bullet hole in the woman’s guitar and that police pulled a bullet from a wall. A 45-caliber handgun was recovered near the room where the incident occurred. When Officer Joshua Dies arrived at 11 p.m. at 1017 River Drive, he found the woman, Nicole Stice, standing in her driveway yelling, “Somebody help me,” according to the police repor... Full story
A Douglas County farmer and his wife, Leroy and Betty Sanderson, have been named “Landowners of the Year” by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. The couple, who now live in Electric City, own a large cattle and wheat ranch and have cooperated with Fish and Wildlife in enrolling hundreds of acres of wheat into the Conservation Reserve Program. The Sandersons turned the reserve property into a recreation area for wildlife by planting trees, shrubs or crops specifically for wildli... Full story
High-speed Internet will soon be on its way to the Colville Reservation, according to Jim Ronyak, IT division director for Colville Indian Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. New fiber-optic lines will bring service to Nespelem School, Nespelem Head Start and the tribal government campus. Later it will branch out to other areas. Ronyak said this week that high speed Internet service on the reservation would be “life changing.” The estimated $1.4 million project was 90-percent financed by a grant from federal Universal Service funding sup... Full story
A downed telephone pole dropped two major phone lines across SR-155 near the Star Newspaper office early Monday morning about 7:15 a.m., stopping traffic until evening. Police officers manned the traffic problem, turning traffic around and diverting it around the affected area. A new pole was placed by Century-Liink and the wires re-strung Monday. The pole had rotted out at the bottom allowing it to fall dropping the lines.... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board has hired Wenaha Group, a native firm out of Pendleton, Ore., and Kennewick, to manage construction of its $31 million K-12 school. The board reached its decision last Wednesday evening after hearing five firms make presentations earlier in the day. The firm could receive somewhere in the neighborhood of $420,000 to oversee all construction phases of the new facility, The fee for services is one calculated by the Office of Superintendent of Instruction according to the size of the project. There’s s... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board Wednesday night awarded a contract to demolish A.E. Wright Elementary. Elder Demolition, a Spokane/Portland firm bid $371,095 -- about $49,000 over the official estimate -- yet $47,000 under the next lowest bidder. Senior architect Laurence Rose, of Design West, told the board that Elder Demolition indicated plans to grind up concrete at the site and store it there for later fill on the K-12 project, therefby saving the district a considerable amount of money. The second lowest bid came from Cates and... Full story
A Keller woman was sentenced Monday to 120 months and one day in prison for discharging a firearm during a crime committed Oct. 2, 2011. United States Attorney Michael C. Ormsby, for the Eastern District of Washington, said , Leona Sutton, 34, was sentenced for using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault with a deadly weapon. The Keller woman was sentenced by Judge William Fremming Nielsen, who ordered that after imprisonment she serve three years supervision by the court and pay restitution of $5,796.24. Sutton is an enrolled member... Full story
State fire assistance has been mobilized under the Washington State Fire Services Resource Mobilization Plan in support of local firefighters working to contain the Douglas County Complex Fire located near Mansfield in Douglas County. Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste authorized the mobilization of state firefighting resources on July 15, 2012, at the request of Douglas County Fire District # 5. The complex consist of two fires; Road A Fire - started approximately 1:52 p.m. on July 15, 2012 and is burning in grass, sage and standing... Full story
While local school officials are gearing up for the initial phase of building a new K-12 facility, State Senator Linda Evans Parlette is beating federal funding bushes to find the additional $15 million necessary to finish the project. In a letter to four members of the state’s congressional delegation, Parlette outlined why the federal government should step up to the plate and provide final funding for the construction project. “I believe the Federal Government has a responsibility to thi... Full story
A U.S. Forest Service helicopter scoops water from Banks Lake Tuesday evening to fight a 200-acre brush fire near Barker Canyon. The fire erupted following a massive thunderstorm that hit the region about 3 a.m. and struck the state more than 6,000 times with lightning. Douglas County Fire District 3 Chief Dale Rinker said the fire was controlled but not contained Tuesday night, thanks to ”a lot of good work from a lot of good firefighters.” District 3 was joined by District 5, Coulee Dam, Gra... Full story
The local park district through which North Dam Park was rescued in a joint community effort last year, will seek tax support at the ballot come November. Commissioners of the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District voted Monday to seek a levy to help support the district, which recently learned it will get a matching grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this year. CAPRD is a junior taxing district, but has never collected taxes. Local municipalities have propped up its efforts to save North Dam Park and Event Center by feeding it taxes...
Community churches will conduct a food drive this Friday from 4-8 p.m. at both Harvest Foods in Coulee Dam and Safeway in Grand Coulee. The Care and Share Food Bank has been running low on supplies lately, said Paster Shawn Neider of Zion Lutheran Church, a problem nearing a “crisis level.” Neider said anyone who would like to help but can’t make it to the stores during those hours can contact the food bank directly at 633-2742 or send a check to P.O. Box 671, Grand Coulee, WA, 99133.... Full story
Tim’s 4 Corners Union 76 Station has been purchased by Jack and Lauretta Madsen. The sale ends a 24-year ownership of the popular corner station by Tim and Michéle Arrants, who purchased the business in 1988, after leasing it for a number of years previously. The Arrants plan to stay in the community for the next few years while their youngest son, Sammy, finishes his schooling. The Arrants came to the community in 1980. After leasing and then owning the station for 10 years, the couple ex... Full story
An Electric City resident told the city council at its last meeting in June that rules it had enacted for their meetings were probably illegal. Jeff Eiffert took issue with the council’s desire to curb comments and criticism by trying to keep visitors from making complaints in public meetings. Eiffert had fired off his objections to the state Attorney General’s Office, whose open government ombudsman, Tim Ford, said if the council has a place on the agenda for citizens to speak, it can’t tell them what they can or cannot say. Ford’s similar... Full story
Mosquito District to meet Grant County Mosquito District 2 will hold its July meeting tonight, July 11, at 7 p.m. in the city council chambers in Electric City. The district usually meets on the first Wednesday of the month but the July meeting was delayed due to the July 4 holiday. NPS gets interim super Natalie Gates is the new acting superintendent of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. She replaces Debbie Bird, who recently retired from the management position. Gates comes here from the the Point Reyes National Seashore Resort, in... Full story
7-11-12 Star - Images by Scott Hunter...
Dennis Schuchman came by his love of airplanes naturally. His dad was a Grant County deputy sheriff and had his own full-size airplane, and, from Dennis’ earliest days, his father was into radio-controlled planes. They flew a lot together, and even though Dennis never got his own flying license, he often took the stick in his father’s plane, taking off and landing. “My dad would fly prisoners from Ephrata to minimum security prisons,” Dennis remembers. This love of flying later transfe... Full story
An Electric City man is a suspect in jewelry theft from a woman who lives near his 123 West Grand Avenue residence. Mark Perman, 31, who is currently serving a sentence in Grant County jail for obstructing a police officer, was arrested on a warrant and taken to jail June 1. A subsequent search of the articles that Perman had on him when incarcerated and from a search of his residence disclosed that many missing pieces of jewelry matched a description of stolen articles provided by Tena Herbert, who lives on 2nd Street NE in Electric City.... Full story
A crane lifts filtration tanks over the wall of the arsenic treatment plant building as Clearwater Construction personnel continue progress on the water treatment facility in Electric City. The crane was scheduled to do the lifting a week earlier but got hung up on an overpass near Spokane and the lifting had to be delayed a week. The $1.3 million project will help the city meet federal water quality standards. — Roger S. Lucas photo... Full story
This could help explain and encourage the push for new permits to explore schemes for new, smaller hydropower in the local region, including a reservoir above the coulee opposite Million Dollar Mile, or a penstock under the city from Banks Lake to Crescent Bay. A tweet from U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, 5th District, Wash: House just passed 372-0 the #hydropower bill I co-authored w/ @RepDianaDeGette. READ: bit.ly/PDcgmr #energy PIC: twitter.com/cathymcmorris/… — CathyMcMorrisRodgers (@cathymcmorris) July 9, 2012...
EPHRATA, Wash. – After a three week personnel review, Grant PUD commissioners today agreed to terminate General Manager Tim Culbertson. “In our judgment, Mr. Culbertson’s decision to maintain a relationship with another utility employee makes it impossible for him to discharge his unique responsibilities as general manager without the appearance of a conflict of interest,” said Commission President Tom Flint. “The potential for such conflicts, whether actual or apparent, undermines the trust and confidence that the Board of Commissio...