News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 2719 - 2743 of 3737
The name Nissen has been heard in Coulee Country for years, but it was just a few years ago when I actually met Ray and Sharon. Since that time I have gotten to know Sharon and have found out a lot about her, some of which I can’t tell you about because she would disown me. The truth is, she might be one of the strongest women I know. Despite her small stature and her seemingly meek attitude, she is a spitfire who will tell you exactly what is on her mind and never ask for much help, even when it is needed. She has a large family and is t...
Ten Years Ago GCD School District standardized test scores are higher this year, according to results released from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Rodney Bise retired from the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department after 30 years of service. Rick Paris, fire chief said, “It will take three men to replace him. He’s the best.” The Regional Board of Mayors agreed Monday night that buildin a transfer station was the way to solve the area’s solid waste problem. Elmer City Marshall Dave Marrs received a new patrol...
That big piece of land that so many of us find useful — for walking, playing softball, picnicking, holding reunions and much more — needs to be maintained, and it’s not free. North Dam Park takes some $30,000 a year to maintain, and the community rallied to save it after the city of Grand Coulee decided it could no longer support it alone. Local cities have been drawing from hotel/motel tax funds designated for boosting tourism to help maintain the park where big events are held. That was always seen as a stop-gap measure, in place until other...
The Coulee Dam council meeting on July 8, which had the keeping of chickens on its agenda, was a very well-attended meeting with a very lively audience participation. The group seemed to split into three categories. There were those who loved the birds and being able to use their property as they saw fit. There was the opposition group who believed chickens have no place in the townsite. The largest group seemed to be concerned with our present ordinances regarding pets for two reasons. Their wording is unclear in some cases and even...
No one should ever hang up on a veteran seeking medical assistance. Every veteran deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, and especially with urgency in an emergency medical situation. Proper treatment for our veterans reflects the honor our nation accords for their service in uniform. Anything less is simply unacceptable, and even shameful. Earlier this year, a 64-year-old Army veteran from Kennewick, Donald Siefken, arrived outside the Seattle Veterans Administration hospital emergency room with a broken and swollen foot. Mr....
Sometimes you never know when a revelation of life will hit you. The past few weeks I have been in a few different weed patches, from Belvedere to Electric City and many in between. A few kids (Mason, Marisha, Ronan, Cole and Kaden) along with Karrie and I have been providing a service to those in need. We have dug trenches, put in fence posts, bucked bales, painted a garage, and stained a deck, but yard work seems to have become our specialty. Weeds have become our Achilles’ heel. The kids n...
A rock crew working on the pumping plant foundation. A general program of blasting and excavating a successive series of trenches, the back wall of which was trimmed to the specified slope, was followed. - July 26, 1938...
Maybe it’s just because we so often have a front-row view of tragedy, but two items in this week’s brought home the extreme importance of highly- trained emergency responders and some relief that that training is happening. Serving as a volunteer firefighter or emergency medical technician is far from easy, and considerable training is needed to be kept up even before the actual job of responding to emergencies is tackled. So it’s been with some alarm over the years that the local availability of trained EMTs has seemed at risk. A story on th...
“Relationships, the foundation of tribal journalism” Sorry sir, I take wholehearted umbrage with your recent editorial listed in its entirety! Tribal journalism? What a laugh! To me, journalism is about writing, editing and publishing in factual directions, newsworthy material in a timely manner. Nothing more, nothing less. Bowing down to CCT/CBC iron-fisted dictatorship rule only exacerbates the whole problem! I still opine tribal council indeed bridles our tribal newspaper to every direction; along this line I remain steadfast in my thinking...
As the dust settles on the fight in Congress over Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, we have an opportunity to think anew about what good trade policy could be. If we get past the rhetoric, we can expand the public and political dialogue about trade and truly understand the impact it can have on all our businesses. Representing hundreds of thousands of businesses from diverse sectors and different regions nationwide, we have come to understand first-hand that trade is an important element of a robust economy. As a...
I spent the weekend with some of the most dedicated, passionate and hardworking school employees from around the state. I was at a conference for Washington Public School Employees, where during dinner they gave out awards. It was a very eye-opening moment for me. There where great stories of how each winner had given up so much for a job they loved, and that got me thinking about the school employees who had touched me over the years. So I went back in the database of my mind, and a few names...
Ten Years Ago Grand Coulee Dam Schools will teach fewer students again this year, a fact reflected in the new budget. The school board passed is budget for the 2005-06 school year Monday night. It’s lower than the 04-05 budget by $140,000. Ray Halsey will file for his eighth full term as mayor of Electric City sometime this week. If re-elected he will be, as he puts it, “the longest serving non-paid” mayor in the state of Washington. A community campaign to raise money for a skateboard park at North Dam gets under way this week. Twenty Years Ag...
Last weekend called for attending and photographing two events that represent opposite ends of the social variety spectrum. I couldn’t help but think that their occasions on the same day in the same community serve as an indicator of a healthy diversity in local society. It takes all kinds, as the old saying goes. And it does, at least in America. George Washington knew that as he established practices for his officers and troops to follow that sought to hinder the spread of hard feelings, or at least stifle their appearance. He knew that to w...
We want to thank so much – the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Fire Department, Bryce McCleary, Bryan Kriger, Nikki Katich and Patricia Connant and the maintenance crew for rescuing our cat Whiskers from the shrubbery at Banks Lake Park. Their determination to get her out safely was outstanding. Thanks so much. Ted & Dotty Christensen,’ & Whiskers...
U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur’s finest hour may not have been any sort of combat-related command decision on his part, but his role in assisting in the rise of a hugely prosperous and a decidedly peace-loving Japan after World War II. Japan’s so-called “Pacifist Constitution,” which was enacted at MacArthur’s express urging and which “forever” enjoined Tokyo from returning to militarist ways, is widely credited with laying the groundwork for today’s Japan of high-tech exports and mammoth financial prowess. Now, as diligent follow...
I recently read a news story of an outstanding teenager in Prosser named Walker Orr. Since he was 8 years old, Walker has found innovative ways to offer a service or product in exchange for a reasonable price, from selling varieties of seeds to running a lawn mowing business. Now at the age of just 16, Walker has started a small artisan bread company, Amber Artisan Bread, selling loaves and baguettes at farmers markets in Prosser and Tri-Cities. How can we as a nation encourage budding entrepreneurs just like Walker and those who work hard...
Have you heard this statement lately? “What is going on with our world today?” Or “That kind of stuff just did not happen when I was a kid.” Well, to be honest with past generations, “that stuff” probably did happen but it was behind closed doors and “it,” whatever it might be, was not used to get viewers to tune in to their station. It may have been less of an issue then, but it still happened. That being said, it does seem that certain issues have been amped up or played up lately as the moral compass seems to have disappeared. If...
Ten Years go Sunbanks Lake Resort will begin construction of 11 villas in September and they will be ready for occupancy by the summer tourist season, chamber of commerce members learned Thursday. The town of Coulee Dam is going ahead with a sidewalk project along the Columbia Avenue, despite strong opposition from residents who fear the intentional cutting of roots will kill the town’s big trees. The Delano Landfill has only about a year and a half to go before it reaches its capacity. Foisy and Kennedy Inc. will move to its new location at 3...
I had a unique opportunity to see first hand the impact of the Beer Tent during the Festival of America. THERE WAS NONE. NOTHING. There was NO negative impact. It was right here, I could hear it and see it. Before the Festival, people predicted there would be violence, loud activity, people using the town as a potty. NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. It was peaceful, pleasant, clean, respectful, and potties were delivered to the site and used. We can be so quick as a community to say NO because “In 1974 they tried it and so and so fought and such and s...
Things have certainly gotten interesting here in the Grand Coulee area, especially regarding cannabis issues. I got the R-76 petitions in the mail (only one packet finally arrived after Don Skakie had sent them multiple times via U.S. Postal Mail). It also appears that many of the folks who were active in the discussions about cannabis rights issues recently have gone back into “silent mode” following the Grand Coulee City Council decision to disallow legal cannabis business in our city. On the Facebook group “Grand Coulee Community Annou...
Pablo Picasso said the purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. And if you look in small towns and rural places you will find art and cultural expression in the most unlikely of places. Small towns develop art and cultural experiences to encourage tourism and create local economic opportunities, certainly. But they also recognize that successful efforts to revitalize their communities and mainstreets depend on something deeper than simple economics. No matter their size, thriving communities have an inner vibrancy, an...
My Grandpa Utz delivered the Wenatchee World newspaper locally after he retired. He was the local distributor and on many, many occasions I traveled with him as he drove around the Nespelem area spreading the written news. We had many conversations as we put miles on his little Chevy Luv and papers in your hands. The conversations were about music, (he was old school western fan) driving and many other subjects. He told me stories of his childhood and life in the military. He tried to instill in me the importance of work ethic and honor. As a...
Fifty Years ago - The Grand Coulee High School class of 1965 will be holding its reunion this weekend. Pictured from left - bottom row: John Flowers, Jerry Brenchley, Louise Sackett, Brina Racy, Mick McKinnon, Susan Alling, Harry Sharr, Dale Clark; 2nd row - Glenn Shear, Carleta Rawe, Jim Flowers, George Sanford, Terry Dunning, Mark Cunningham; 3rd row - Barbara Wilson, Gary Sanderson, Kerry Perkins, Peggy Carlson; 4th row - Dan Sutton, Susan Cunningham, Jim Crawford, Lila McKinnon, Wally...
We had a lot of extra pillows being used in the area last weekend. Against the odds imposed by truly oppressive heat, people streamed into this community continuously to celebrate the Fourth of July at the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce’s Festival of America. And that’s a lesson for local governments. That festival was originally conceived as an event with a dual purpose, which it is still supposed to fulfill. It succeeds on one of those counts, anyway; it shows off our area to folks who wouldn’t discover it otherwise. The chamb...
The President has a new opportunity to ensure that the openness policies laid out on his first day of office do not end on his last day. On January 21, 2009, President Obama signed an executive order and two presidential memoranda to usher in what he called a “new era of openness.” The Presidential memo on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ordered federal agencies to operate under a clear presumption of disclosure for information requested under FOIA. “All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their...