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 need for a community basketball court was discussed at a parks district meeting last week. Commissioners for the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District met on March 10 via Zoom for the first time since December. Commissioners discussed pursuing grants for projects in North Dam Park, such as for new playground equipment, which was a top priority for respondents to a poll The Star conducted in December. Respondents to that poll also expressed wanting a full-size basketball court, with the current single basketball hoop at the park, on a...
Electric City will be holding its second informal meeting with the community where people can give their input and ask questions about the goings on of the city. The meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 20, from 1-3 p.m. at the American Legion building on Coulee Boulevard. The mayor, city engineer, and members of the city planning commission and city council will be available to talk to the public. Topics at the meeting include sidewalks being built, the pedestrian waterfront pathway project, an informal poll on a community park, changes to...
American Legion #157 Commander Jim Brakebill spoke to the Regional Board of Mayors March 8 about wanting to create a veterans’ memorial for the Coulee area. Brakebill emphasized the idea for a memorial was only in the earliest stages, and he wanted to involve the mayors and communities so that people could share their input on the project. Various possibilities were discussed in brief, including the options of having lighted flags for the different branches of the military, and of selling bricks with the names of service members printed on t...
The annual spring cleanup in the area will be different this year due to not having curbside pickup from the cities, as well as there being a charge to dump the yard waste you haul yourself. The Regional Board of Mayors on Monday set April 3-10 as the week for spring cleanup when people can bring their yard waste to the Delano Regional Transfer Station, but this year there will be a charge. A pickup load of 2.5 cubic yards, which is a standard size pickup bed filled level with the sides of the bed, will cost $5.25 per load, including tax. Any...
Staff members at Lake Roosevelt Schools received COVID-19 vaccines at Safeway in Grand Coulee and at the Okanogan fairgrounds this past week as part of a nationwide effort to vaccinate school staff before the end of the month. On March 2, President Joe Biden announced a directive to all states to get every pre-K educator, K-12 teacher, and childcare worker at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine in the month of March. Following that announcement, Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner said he began working with Okanogan...
Will the Laser Light Show and Visitor Center at the Grand Coulee Dam, which saw nearly 200,000 people in 2019, open this spring? The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation didn’t answer the question from The Star with a straight yes or no, but did answer. “At this time, the laser light show and Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center will remain temporarily closed in support of the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Public Affairs Specialist Erika Lopez, who works in Boise, Idaho, in an email. Lopez said that the G...
The COVID-19 pandemic, having been prevalent in the US for about a year, has had an affect on the lives of people around the world, including an affect on mental health. “The pandemic has been hard on everyone,” Dr. Marilynn Holman, a psychiatrist at Coulee Medical Center, told The Star in an email. “Financial concerns, social isolation, increased childcare, fear for health of self and others – all can worsen stress and mood.” Holman also said that “those with limited internet/phone access have been particularly impacted as many services or...
Raiders win football season opener The Lake Roosevelt Raiders were strong as ever on Friday when they defeated the Tonasket Tigers, 37-0, in a football blowout in Tonasket. The Raiders were "led by a strong rushing attack," Head Coach Tim Rasmussen wrote on the team's website. Senior Hunter Whitelaw led the attack, running for three touchdowns. Sophomore Brit Egbert threw two touchdown passes, one to sophomore Chase Clark and one to junior Gabe Waters. The Raiders will host the Oroville Hornets...
Tonight, 13 Lake Roosevelt High School students will be inducted into the National Honor Society, joining 18 of their peers. The students are being inducted tonight, Wednesday March 10, at 7 p.m., with some students to be present in the gym and some attending virtually. Students can invite two guests each to the physical event, which will also be live streamed online. The inductees this year are: Penelope Antoine, Ashley Baker, Camryn Carden, Chase Clark, Brit Egbert, Tanner Kiser, Landon Krohn, Elijah Rasmussen, Kawika Whalawista, Hunter...
The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project, which would bring an estimated 1,000-2,000 workers to the area during construction and add an extra 500 megawatts of hydropower electricity per hour, is still in the works, if a little Covid delayed. Secretary Manager Darvin Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower spoke to The Star on the phone Tuesday, with an update on the project for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The gravity-feed system would power two 250-megawatt generating units, or...
A senior trip to Huntington Beach, California is still looking like a go after the board approved the trip contingent on another update in April. About 30 Lake Roosevelt High School seniors are interested in taking the trip on which they would fly to San Diego May 29, bus to Huntington Beach, spend time at an art center, surfing, and at a campfire on the beach before returning to Washington May 31. The trip was discussed at a Feb. 22 school board meeting, but wasn’t yet approved because of confusion as to travel restrictions related to going t...
All eight of Washington's regions are in Phase Two of the state's phased plan for reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic and will be there for "at least several weeks," according to the office of Gov. Jay Inslee. Phase Two of the plan has less stringent restrictions on individuals, schools, and businesses. Regions were required to meet data metrics related to COVID in order to move to Phase Two, and warned that if those stats got worse, a region could move back to Phase One. However, Inslee announ... Full story
A new book by Colville Tribal member Arnie Marchand titled "What Is Your Name?" describes the way of life of the Okanogan Native Americans, examining the lives of individuals and the history of the people. The book, Marchand's second, is published by Heritage Productions out of Oroville where Marchand lives, and is available on Amazon as well as through the North Central Washington library system, which includes the Grand Coulee Library. "In this work I want to let you know some things about...
Lake Roosevelt athletes participated in sporting events for the first time in about a year. "It was great to see the kids back in action and going," Athletic Director Tim Rasmussen said. "It was great to be able to follow all the safety guidelines and protocols and get kids back playing games. First weekend, we had a huge success for Raider Nation." Streaming football and volleyball online was also a success, Rasmussen said, with links to view broadcasted events found at www.lrraiders.com ....
Student performance at Lake Roosevelt has been going up since the start of the 2020-2021 school year, as students and teachers get used to the routine and gain from more in-person time with teachers, school leaders say. In the first quarter of school, which ended on Nov. 9, Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School, Principal Kirk Marshlain said, roughly 68% of 7th- through 12th-grade students had one or more Fs and/or no credits. On Jan. 4, that number dropped to roughly 60%, and at the end of...
Newly elected Grant County Commissioner Danny Stone spoke with the Grand Coulee City Council during their Feb. 16 meeting held via Zoom. Stone is the first county commissioner from the northern part of the county in recent memory, possibly since Fred Ludolph in the 1940s. Stone introduced himself and told the council that he was available to talk with them. "If you need something," Stone said, "I can't tell you I can always fix or help, but I can sure be a part of the discussion and be...
What does charging an electric car have to do with treating sewage? Turns out, quite a bit! The Grand Coulee City Council last week approved amending parts of their municipal code to address how to add electric vehicle charging stations within the city. The topic of electric vehicle charging stations comes with nuances in the form of types of charging stations, their electrical requirements, where the spaces are allowed, and restricting other cars from using those parking spaces. Adding more complication is that council members felt rushed to...
About 30 seniors of the Lake Roosevelt graduating class of 2021 are interested in a senior trip, a tradition for seniors, to Huntington Beach, Calif., but COVID-19 restrictions might keep them in Washington. The class has raised about $20,000 towards such a trip during their years in high school. According to a report submitted to the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors during their Feb. 22 meeting, the students would fly down to Los Angeles on May 29, busing to Huntington Beach, and spending the next couple days on beaches, at...
Popular local events that didn't happen last year are at least tentatively scheduled to happen this year. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce will tentatively be hosting 10 events in 2021, including Colorama, the Festival of America, and Harvest Festival. "We are really looking forward to providing the community with some fun and excitement this summer," Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email. "We have the opportunity with our events to try new things and create a...
The Elmer City fire department, also known as Okanogan County Fire District #2, is interested in getting a new building built behind their old one, and in finding more volunteers. Public Works Director Jimmer Tillman told the town council Feb. 11 that the fire department, for which he has been a volunteer for about 30 years, was interested in a new storage facility for its trucks. He said the city would look into grant options for such a thing, something for which he understands there to be multiple opportunities. Tillman explained that the...
The North Central Region of the state, including this area, entered the less-stringent Phase Two of Washington State's Roadmap to Recovery planned approach to the COVID -19 pandemic just in time for Valentine's Day Feb. 14. Gov. Jay Inslee announced last Thursday that five more regions would join the Puget Sound and West Regions in Phase Two, with only the South Central region not meeting the four requirements to open up to the next phase. That changed on Feb. 14 when the state Dept. of Health announced that a data error had been discovered in...
Recycling at the Delano Transfer Station has been successful, and Sunrise Disposal, the contracted solid waste hauler in the area responsible for the recycling bins there, is working to make it easier. Recycling bins were placed outside of the Delano Regional Transfer Station in January of 2020. Earl Cole, who runs Coulee View Mobile Park in Electric City, hauls recyclables from tenants there to Delano. Cole told Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout about the difficulty of placing the goods through...
Whether restricted by COVID or by distance, Lake Roosevelt Raider fans far and wide should soon be able to watch sporting events, assemblies, and graduations from the comfort of their own homes. The Grand Coulee Dam School District bought a one-year, $2,000 service from Justagame Live, which will allow LR to livestream games and more online. The games can be recorded and streamed via smartphones and tablets operated by students, staff, or parents, or through hard-mounted cameras that could be operated remotely and cost around $750 each,...
A man driving a stolen Grant Transit Authority bus out of Moses Lake was pursued by more than two dozen police on the morning of Feb. 3, with the chase ending in a minor crash. The bus had been reported stolen at about 7 a.m., and Moses Lake Police and other agencies were watching for it when a Grant County Sheriff's deputy spotted it about 30 minutes later. The driver, 62-year-old Richard D. Manley of Grand Coulee, was on highway 28 near Stratford. He turned north on Pinto Ridge Road. Lake Roos...
A meeting held by the city of Electric City on Jan. 23 to engage with its citizens and get their input on various issues was a success, the mayor says. “We had a pretty good event,” Mayor Diane Kohout later told The Star. People representing the city included Kohout, herself, Councilmember Cheryl Hoffman, Planning Commissioners Al Miller and Ian Turner, City Engineer Steve Nelson of Century West, and Public Works Director Jared Armstrong. “We all felt it was a good start to bring our residents information about potential projects and needs...