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 volume of recent surprisingly vitriolic comments has forced me into this rare, lengthy post. In this age when our kids and grandkids will spend more time on social media than we adults ever will, is it possible we could set a good example by dialing back the hateful rhetoric, venom, denigration and malice aforethought a bit? Perhaps, display the benefits of the compromise we have learned from grade school, debate club, city council, PTA meetings, our jobs, and our love lives. Can we agree to disagree? That’s the advantage of the USA c...
The leaders of Electric City would be monumentally mistaken to spend almost a million dollars on two parks. #1) There is no way you can justify Hotel/Motel tax money that is earmarked for tourism be spent on a rinky dink park. NO WAY people are going to drive from Seattle, Washington, to see your little town park. #2) Our region is REPLETE with parks and outdoor activities. Of all the things we might not have, outdoorsy things are not one of them. And I mean we have GREAT outdoor things. We have Steamboat Rock State Park and all the little...
The beginning of a new year... or is it the end of a year? Whatever works for you will work for me. The Coulee Pioneer Museum in Electric City has had another successful year. Each year it grows a little, and more and more people are donating items to it. This is that time of the year when the Coulee Pioneer Museum produces another Historical Calendar. This year we are highlighting Coulee Dam and down river. We’re also celebrating Coulee Dam’s new logo. Calendars can be purchased with a membership for $30, or you can get the calendar alone for...
I do believe it is still a law to stop for people in crosswalks. On Monday morning I stopped for a couple that was standing in a crosswalk in Coulee Dam. They started to cross when the truck behind me gunned the gas to go around me. He sped by right in front of the crossing pedestrians. It was almost a disaster right before me, all because of impatience. I almost followed the truck, found out where it was going and wrote down the license plate. But I did not. I did not confront the person that almost hit two people crossing the road. I did...
An 18-foot diameter penstock liner, and load of reinforcement steel approaches the right powerhouse by road along the river. A barge will carry one truck and the loaded trailer across the intervening water of the right tailrace. The reartruck acts as a hold back on the down-grade portions of the road. - October 27, 1939...
A few years ago, Electric City inadvertently ran afoul of the rules for properly appropriating funds brought in by taxes collected from motel and campground patrons, leading to a small fiscal problem when the city had to repay the money to its own reserves. The city should be careful that it’s not about to make that mistake multiplied many times over. When city council members and the mayor back then decided that those hotel/motel taxes could be used to buy Christmas lighting to decorate power poles along the main thoroughfare, they reasoned t...
Over this past year “Jess, shut up!” has become the first thing I turn to after reading the front page. I just want him to know how much I appreciate his column, and warn him that if I ever see him in person, I will be giving him a BIG hug. He gives me hope that there are some good people out there. Barbara Peter...
Instead of just relaxing in retirement, Richard “Dick” Jarrett and his wife, Nancy, were committed to working for the Lord. In 2003, Dick called the regional Seventh-day Adventist church leadership and was able to speak with Doug Johnson, the then-communication director. Doug provided names of several churches across the northwest that could use some assistance. Dick and his wife actually went to all of them and, through prayer and a hat draw, Grand Coulee was selected. His wife was enthusiastic about community outreach and started a thr...
Some of you may have missed it, but Tom Petty passed away this last week. There was other pressing news on the headlines taking the most press time, but the rock and roll legend’s life was very similar to the way he went out. Powerful, but not fighting for attention, he was one of the most influential and popular American rock stars of our generation and his music continues to be favored by all generations. It all started with a chance meeting with Elvis in 1961, and that set the spark. Fueled by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, he set out to be...
The outlet works at elevation 1036 have been embedded in concrete, and formwork is in place for the gate gallery control chamber. The four vertical pipe headers on each side of the gate chamber forms are the air vent headers for the outlet gates - four for the gates at elevation 934 and four for the gates at elevation 1036. - Sept. 21, 1939...
“Real Newspapers, Real News” is the theme of this year’s National Newspaper Week (Oct. 1-7). Indeed, there’s always been lots of “real” at newspapers. Real stories, real journalism, real work, real deadlines, real honesty, real facts, real changes and, now, real threats. This is the 77th annual National Newspaper Week, a time to reflect on the job of newspapers to keep all things “real,” such as real conversation, real democracy, real science, real trade, real fact-sharing, real faith and real friends. Of course, we hear lots these days abou...
As a concerned group of Grant County citizens, we believe that your readers will be as concerned as we are to learn that Grant PUD eliminated build-out of new fiber connections from their 2018 budget. The budget maintains service to those that have fiber, but no new service will be connected in the coming year. Our community group, Grant County Fiber Active, believes that fiber service is a necessity for the future of our county. Without connectivity, businesses, homes and students are completely disadvantaged. Modern agriculture businesses...
I woke up Monday morning and my heart broke. I watched the video and sat in awe once again. A shooting in Las Vegas, 59 dead, hundreds injured and the shooter took his own life. It became obvious as the details emerged that this was a planned-out massacre and murder of many. The why is not known at the time of writing, but with investigation that may emerge also. Is this what America has come to? Violence and unnecessary death fed to us on a daily score sheet. Arguments over the little and big that end up destroying sons, daughters, mothers,...
A dozen years ago, the preface to a report on federal election reform began with these words: “Polls indicate that many Americans lack confidence in the electoral system, but the political parties are so divided that serious electoral reform is unlikely without a strong bipartisan voice.” I can find no part of that sentence that’s not still true. Americans still lack confidence in the electoral system. The political parties are still divided. Serious electoral reform remains unlikely. Perhaps the only change is that the commission issui...
Interior view of the left barrel of the cut and cover section of the feeder canal. In the foreground, forms for a completed pour are still in place. – October 11, 1949...
In honor of breast cancer awareness month, please join me for lunch. I am raising funds for The CCNW Foundation. The foundation provides educational, financial and emotional assistance to inland northwest cancer patients and their families. This foundation provided me emotional support and items of physical comfort in my time of need through my treatments. It’s my turn to give back. Lunch will be served after the CMC Guild cancer walk Oct. 21. We will be serving a homemade chili or chowder bread bowl (homemade by Juan Moreno from The M...
When we look at the history of our nation, it is hard to get the facts straight unless you lived it. By now we know our history books in school are skewed and sanitized to vaguely cover one topic and dive deep into another. It all depends on the culture of the current legislation and education push at the time of print. What’s important to teach during this season can undermine the emotional and topical acceptance of what actually happened to this culture and that group of people. But history does have its place if we choose to read beyond t...
In Washington, the legislative stalemate over permitting new household wells and the state’s construction budget has not only delayed needed funding for public projects, but triggered yet another salvo in the wider conflict over future supplies of fresh water for people, fish and farms. At immediate risk is $4.2 billion in state funding for local water and sewer projects, school construction, mental-health facilities, colleges and universities, and other construction. While there is general agreement between Democrats controlling the House a...
Pictured above is the outlet of the 12 discharge pipes from the pumping plant. The pumping plant site (dark) and the top of Grand Coulee Dam may be seen in the background. Discharge pipes have already been installed in the first three tunnels and these will shortly be connected with the curved crest pipes shown in the right foreground. - September 21, 1949 photo...
Most of us don’t think much beyond an initial “Oh, wow!” reaction when we hear about the rescue of someone from a harrowing situation, but a local man has played that part for most of his life. Archie Dennis was chosen as our volunteer of the year because he’s the kind of guy who shows up anywhere he might be needed in places a lot of people would not want to go. His story and photo on the front page will let us all think of the human beings behind those news stories, whether they’re about rescuing someone off a cliff or recovering a drowning...
At the close of World War II, the winners (the Allies) divided Germany into east and west Germany, Korea into north and south Korea, and Vietnam into north and south Vietnam. The division of Germany produced a threat of military conflict for more than four decades. Germany was eventually reunited without war. The division of Vietnam did produce a military conflict that, in retrospect, seems to have been foolish. Vietnam is reunited. The division of Korea produced a war, and that conflict is unresolved. After Mao Tse Tung gained control of China...
Sometimes a phrase in a movie becomes more popular than the actual flick. The words spoken can mean things to one person that fly completely over the head of another. We use these sayings or movie quotes on a day-to-day basis and they become part of the culture and bring back memories of a time in our lives when going to the movies was a rite of passage, a sign of growing up, a sign of hope. Or it is just plain fun. Here are some of my favorite movie quotes that I use from time to time without even realizing it. Maybe one of the most used and...
Key tax policies emanating from the east and west coasts are like passenger trains passing one another heading in opposite directions. One train is loaded with elected officials proposing changes to reduce taxes while the other is packed with those pushing for new and higher taxes. The cumulative effect of those modifications will impact all of us and our economy, jobs and ability to compete as a state and nation. The adjustments will determine whether we grow, limp along or wither away. Make no mistake, they will impact our pocketbooks and...
Feeder Canal, Coulee Dam, Washington - Columbia Basin Project. View taken from the left of centerline a camera station 93+90+ atop the chute wall, looking upstream, showing the turbulence below the overflow structure. This photograph was taken by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation photographers on May 21, 1954. The contractor is L.D. Shilling Company under Specifications No. DC-4055. - May 21, 1954 photo...
In a fine example of disfunction, the current failure of local government to get a simple thing done should lead reasonable people to look for an alternative. It sounds like a simple matter. Some repairs are needed, and called for by the insurers, at the local refuse transfer station operated on behalf of the four local towns by the Regional Board of Mayors. But the process necessary for the RBOM to actually do anything legally requires the ratification of four municipal councils — four legislative bodies designed to deliberate city b...