News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Not only did dozens of gigantic floods shape the local landscape thousands of years ago, they raced across the solid-rock remains of hundreds of layers of lava flows that built the local bedrock millions of years earlier. So said Geologist Nick Zentner to roughly 130 people at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center on Saturday, brought to town by the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club. Zentner, who hosts the video series "Nick on the Rocks," spoke for over an hour in the upstairs theater in the Visitor...
Term limits, change, whatever you want! Now is the time. Every day, I hear people want term limits. If you read last week’s Star, you see many, many open volunteer vacancies in local organizations, cities, boards, etc. Now is the time for you, or your friends, or your family to step up and volunteer for one of these positions; now is the time to help enforce time limits by voting. Only you can make a change. If no one is willing to step into one of these volunteer roles, then please don’t ask for something you are not willing to help with. It...
An era of Raider wrestling is ending with the coming retirement of Coach Steve Hood, whose professional and personal life was shaped by the sport he viewed as a means to help shape young lives. "It's been a great ride, a great experience," Hood told The Star recently. "A lot of really good experiences. Athletics gives you an ability to work with kids on a different level than in the classroom. It's an opportunity to help them learn so many life lessons about hard work, and dealing with adversity...
Are you interested in helping make a difference in the local cities, parks, schools, hospital, or elsewhere? There are 28 local offices up for election this fall, including positions on city councils, school boards, and various districts in the area. Those interested in running need to file their candidacy with their county elections office between May 13 and 17. Cities Electric City has four city council positions, as well as the mayor’s office, up for election this fall. Three of the four council positions are for four-year terms; the fourth...
Nearly new sidewalks that Grand Coulee had installed in 2015 are already cracking and crumbling, a situation that could require time in court to work out. Grand Coulee's city council voted at their Feb. 19 meeting to have their lawyer send a letter to Travellers Insurance, which insures Davenport-based Halme Builders, who installed the sidewalks. The 2015 project to install new sidewalks and gutters on Federal Avenue and Main Street cost $407,816.53, paid for with money from a state...
Elmer City’s council approved a resolution Feb. 21 allowing the city to apply for funding to build its own wastewater treatment facility. There was no discussion of the resolution before the vote at the council meeting. There has been bad blood between Elmer City and Coulee Dam regarding their shared sewage treatment plant and Coulee Dam’s process for building a new one that Elmer City representatives have felt left out of, feel overcharged for, and that they say violates a 50-year contract from 1975 between the two cities. “It has been well...
The Care and Share Food Bank, located at the Nazarene Church on SR-174, filled their almost-empty shelves with food from Yakima-based nonprofit Northwest Harvest last week. Carol Nordine, who manages the food bank, was present, and a number of volunteers helped unload the food onto the shelves Thursday. Nordine noted that Shawn Neider, who pastors the Zion Lutheran Church, helps her a lot with food bank efforts. Neider helped clear the parking lot of snow before the food arrived. "The food is ne...
The Natural Helpers program at Lake Roosevelt High School has been a success, staff members and students say, and they want to keep it going. The program, which used a student survey to identify 21 students to whom other students feel comfortable turning in a time of need, took those students on a multi-day retreat to K Diamond K Ranch outside of Republic last fall. There, the Natural Helpers learned how to help peers deal with issues such as depression, suicide, drugs, alcohol, and physical and emotional abuse. The program was discussed at a...
With all the snow occupying our landscape, it’s hard to image spring at all. Be assured that it will arrive; in fact, March 20 will bring vernal, or spring, equinox. It’s that point in time that we have equal daytime and nighttime hours. Yes, even with the passing of equinox, it’s highly likely we’ll still have snow on the landscape. A couple of other things March will bring us – Sunday, March 10, we go through the antiquated ceremonial turning of our clocks forward one hour. Here’s hoping Wash...
The Raiders basketball squad won two and lost two at state last week, ultimately finishing sixth out of Washington's 60 2B schools. The Raiders kicked off their string of games at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Hardwood Classic at Spokane Arena by winning a tight game against Liberty High School Feb. 27, 41-37. The game stayed close the entire time against the Liberty Lancers, with the score tied 13-13 at the end of the first quarter and the Raiders leading 25-22 at the...
The Lady Raiders lost their regionals playoff game Friday, ending their 2018-19 season. Lake Roosevelt lost in Tumwater against Willapa Valley, 44-35. The Lady Raiders led 10-7 at the end of the first quarter, and 16-14 at the end of the half. Willapa Valley pulled away in the second half, scoring 30 points to LR's 19, leading to their nine-point win. The Lady Raiders' final win-loss record is 13-3 in league play, 15-9 overall. Highlights of the season include defeating the top-ranked Brewster...
The Raiders lost their regional playoff game on Saturday, but will play in the first round of state today (Wednesday) for a chance to play in the next round on Thursday. The Raiders lost to the top-ranked Kittitas Coyotes 76-45 Saturday. The Raiders scored eight unanswered points to start the game, and led 18-12 at the end of the first. But the Coyotes, led by Gonzaga-bound Brock Ravet, took the lead in the second quarter and ran away with it. Ravet is Washington state's all-time leading scorer...
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Grand Coulee Dam School District disagree on the impact a bureau project will have on local schools. The USBR is planning a 10-year project to update three generators, named G19-21, in the Third Powerhouse starting in 2023, similar to the ongoing project of updating G22-24 that started in 2010, and is estimated to cost $100 million. The USBR’s Environmental Assessment for the proposed G19-21 update states that the project would have at most 103 workers and “could result in an increased enrollment of five stu...
The Lake Roosevelt High School gym will likely be closed during the summer to upgrade its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. The new HVAC system will be installed on the roof, keeping the noise from the system out of the gym, and granting easy access to the system. The board and superintendent of the Grand Coulee Dam School District discussed the upcoming project and others at their Feb. 25 meeting. The projects will be paid for with about a million dollars from the district’s Capital Projects Levy, which will bring in roughly h...
Grand Coulee considered adopting a resolution refusing to enforce Washington state’s Initiative 1639 related to gun control, but chose instead to have a resolution drafted saying the city supports the United States Bill of Rights. Several sheriffs and police chiefs in Washington have refused to enforce the law, and a resolution Cowlitz County commissioners approved stating their refusal to enforce the law was included in the council’s agenda packets as an example of what the city could adopt. I-1639 took effect on Jan. 1, and raises the age...
Grand Coulee and Elmer City have both cast their vote for a recycling option, both wanting a receptacle at the Delano Transfer Station for no extra charge to the cities or the residents. Electric City also chose that option but wanted the receptacle placed outside the Delano Transfer Station fences. Grand Coulee and Elmer City both specified that they want it inside the fence. Coulee Dam's town council discussed it briefly Feb. 13, with some members saying a single recycling container would get...
by Jacob Wagner The city of Grand Coulee’s financial records seem to be getting in order after years of chaos, but there’s still a ways to go. “Things are getting back on track, and at least our financial system balances to what our bank statements say we have,” said City Clerk Lorna Pearce, who took the position in 2018. “We’re pretty sure the numbers we have are actually what we have.” According to the audit of the year 2017 by the State Auditor’s Office, “since 2012, we have reported the City of Grand Coulee did not have adequate controls...
The Electric City council approved the draft last week of a proposal for a 500-foot-wide “no shooting” buffer zone between the main part of the city and Osborne Bay, where shooting firearms would be prohibited. The proposal needs to be approved by the city, the state Departments of Fish & Wildlife and Natural Resources, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Grand Coulee Police. The city would pay for signs to line the 7,281-foot-long buffer-zone border, and F&W would pay for the posts and install the signs. The signs would explain the buffer zon...
Coulee-ites will be treated to a guest lecture from Nick Zentner, a geologist and host of "Nick on the Rocks," which has aired on Pacific Northwest Public Broadcast System stations and is available to watch on YouTube. Zentner will be at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center March 9, at 1 p.m., to discuss geology in a free lecture sponsored by the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club to celebrate their 70th year. "Grand Coulee is famous for geologists," Zentner said in an email to The Star. "Huge valley...
Electric City’s council voted Feb. 12 to go out to bid on a welcome sign to the city. The sign would be placed at Electric City’s southern limits on SR-155 on the south side of Osborne Bay and would read “Welcome to Electric City,” and “Re-energize your recreation,” with the city’s logo suspended between basalt columns. An earlier cost estimate for the sign from Graybeal Signs was $42,000. The council discussed whether to have the sign framed by actual basalt columns or by aluminum made to look like rock columns and questioned how long actual b...
A longstanding local group whose efforts have enhanced area fisheries and outdoor sports for decades is likely to disband, says its longtime leader. Promoters of Wildlife and Environmental Resources, or POWER, runs the fish-raising pens in Banks Lake in Electric City and has headed or managed other wildlife-related efforts over the past 30 years, such as feeding wild game birds. It now looks like it will shut down for the lack of someone to manage volunteer work. The group met Feb. 6, and discus...
The Lake Roosevelt Raider wrestlers competed at the state tournament known as The Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome over the weekend, with seven of the 23 total wrestlers placing at the event. Due to the cancellation of the regional tournament because of weather, the state brackets were doubled in size, allowing for a large number of wrestlers to take part. The Raiders as a team placed second out of the 45 1B/2B schools at the event with 219 points, and eighth out of the total 448 teams at the...
The Raiders beat league rivals the Oroville Hornets in the District 5-6 basketball tournament in Chelan Friday before losing to the Kittitas Coyotes Saturday, and will play in the regional tournament this coming Friday. Their 55-31 victory over the Hornets Feb. 15 was something the Raiders have wanted for a while now. At the beginning of the season Head Coach Jeremy Crollard said he wanted to defeat Oroville, who had beaten LR twice by only one point in the 2017-18 season. During the 2018-19...
The Lady Raiders suffered a couple of District 5-6 tournament losses over the weekend in Chelan, but will play in the regional tournament Friday for a chance to go on to state next week. The Lady Raiders lost to Brewster 50-41 on Friday, Feb. 15. The next day LR Lost to Liberty Bell 45-26. The Lady Raiders had defeated both Brewster and Liberty Bell at the end of the regular season, but were unable to repeat those victories in the postseason. Coaches were unavailable for stats or comments. The...
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson warned sheriffs and other law enforcement officers Tuesday that they are required to enforce a gun control law passed by voters last November. Sheriffs in four local counties cite Second Amendment concerns about enforcing Initiative 1639, as do law enforcement officials in more than half the state’s 39 counties. I-1639, which took effect on Jan. 1, raises the age limit for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. Beginning July 1, it requires purchasers to pass an enhanced background check, show p...