News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 2203
Local park district commissioners have secured funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to help keep North Dam Park alive for several years to come, provided matching funding can be secured for a park that is the center of community-wide events. “It looks like we have done it, mission accomplished,” Commissioner Kevin Portch of the Coulee Area Parks and Recreation District said Aug. 31 in an email to the other commissioners and interested parties, including The Star. CAPRD, which manages North Dam Park, located on USBR land, was in some fin...
Fall approaching doesn't mean we are in the clear as far as wildfires go, and many of our worst fire seasons have happened in September and October. "Washington state is in the midst of wildfire season," the Washington State Department of Health warned in a statement last week. "Although it's been a mild season to date, it is important to be prepared and ready to protect yourself and your family from wildfire smoke before the smoke hits." It was in September of 2020 that about half a million acr...
Where does all the money for our county roads come from? You may be surprised to know that, in Lincoln County, only about 15% is generated from property tax revenue that is received from parcels of land in the unincorporated areas of the county. Parcels of land in our towns do not pay property taxes for county roads. About 21% comes from the federal government. Most of this money is for competitive projects that the county has applied for, as well as safety money for guardrails and emergency money for such things as the Porcupine Bay Road...
By Jacob Wagner The Lake Roosevelt Raiders won their football season opener in Kittitas Friday to mark a successful start to their season. Against the Coyotes, Sept. 2, the Raiders won 40-21. "The kids played hard for the first game," Head Coach Bubba Egbert said. "We did things pretty clean, really. They did really well." LR led 21-0 at the end of the first half. Kittitas got on the board with a pair of touchdowns with extra points in the third quarter, scoring 14. The Raiders added 13 more...
Sunbanks Lake Resort's "Blues & Roots Festival" begins Thursday night and runs through the weekend, and locals get a discount to enjoy the music. In the resort's third and final music festival of the year, the tunes aren't limited to "blues" in the strictest sense of the term, although one of the Pacific Northwest's favorite blues rocker bands, Too Slim and the Taildraggers, will top off the show Sunday night. Before the Taildraggers take over the stage, the weekend will be filled with music...
With emergency medical services, such as ambulance services, being desired everywhere in the Coulee, it’s important to have a successful EMS system in place, city leaders heard last week. Nic Alexander, who serves as assistant fire chief to Chief Ryan Fish for the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department and the Grand Coulee Ambulance, spoke at the city’s Aug. 23 council meeting. “We need to be ready for the future,” he said. Alexander noted forming an EMS tax district is just one option for providing support to the service that is current...
Rock ‘n’ Roll has come a long way since LIttle Richard, continuing to both dazzle and offend, allowing young people to express themselves, and now, earn credits in high school. Raider Rock Band started as a club last year with history and creative writing teacher Justin Thompson leading the group, and now it is an actual class taught on the stage at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School, open to grades 9-12 for the year-long course that applies to a student’s art credits. “Last year, rock band club became something really special, although not ent...
I appreciate these letters and I hope people are reading them. So far, we have been lucky in our interaction with the school, and I hope to see that continue — and that is the point of view that I am commenting from. There have been issues here and there but they have ultimately been handled appropriately. I think that an explanation of the specific ways in which the district’s hands are tied with respect to discipline would help the community understand why the school handles certain behaviors in the way they do rather than how people may thi...
Sometimes it's hard to know where to look for help when it comes to things like getting food or energy assistance, or how to go about receiving medical care, but luckily some people specialize in connecting you to the right people. The STAR Hub, located on Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee since November of 2021, is a division of Rural Resources Community Action, a non-profit based out of Colville, and they specialize in connecting people to organizations that may be able to help. The STAR acronym...
This is the last of three letters intending to bring clarity and facts to the community about the Grand Coulee Dam School District. This installment will address the complicated and challenging issue of school discipline. ISSUE: School Discipline This issue may be the most complex problem to quantify and eventually resolve in large part because it requires an all-hands effort to succeed. In short, there are no easy answers here. It is accurate to note that public school discipline is a wide-ranging challenge covering nearly every school...
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is open to receiving any questions, comments, or concerns regarding security upgrades they are planning on making at the Grand Coulee Dam and related facilities. The bureau has identified eight areas where it says security upgrades are needed, from new or upgraded gates and fences to a new security department office. The bureau "invites the public to identify issues or alternatives for consideration in the development of an environmental assessment for the Grand...
Short-term rentals are an unpopular idea to some in Electric City, but the idea keeps getting brought up. The city voted down the idea of allowing short-term (under 30 days) rentals in 2019 after more than a year of discussing the issue. But the idea was brought up again last month, with the city council discussing various pros and cons to the idea, and rules they could make to address problems that can arise from short-term renters. Such rules could include requiring owners to live within a certain distance of a rental property, requiring the...
A pedestrian and bicycle pathway connecting the Coulee Playland area to the Banks Lake Park area will probably be done next year instead of this year, and now has some extra funding. Last February, the pathway's construction looked likely for this summer, but at the Aug. 9 Electric City council meeting, City Engineer Steve Nelson of Century West Engineering said the project looks more likely to be constructed next year, although it could still go out to bid in 2022. He also said that an addition...
Wildfires in recent years have had a devastating impact on the U.S., including within the Colville Indian Reservation, and a representative from the area will now serve on a federal commission tasked with addressing the issue of these fires. Recently appointed the Colville Confederated Tribes executive director and their former Natural Resources director, Cody Desautel is one of 47 people selected from 500 applicants nationwide appointed to the new federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and...
This letter is an effort to bring clarity and facts into the conversation about the financial operations of the Grand Coulee Dam School District rather than unsubstantiated opinions. This is the second installment of three total letters addressing issues related to the GCDSD. This installment will address financial management. ISSUE: School District Fiscal Management THE FACTS: Despite what some may suggest, the Grand Coulee Dam School District is not broke, but it is financially challenged. Public education in this country is a very, very...
After two years without the ability to open our doors, we are again at the end of our sale season as we come to the community to thank everyone for a fantastic TEN week run at the VET Center. Our American Legion Post appreciates everybody who has stopped by and shopped with us during our sale. Although it seemed like a very long stretch for those of us who worked every week to gather and prepare all the treasures that we had for sale, the time flew by as we greeted many of the same people on a weekly basis. With this year shortened by three...
After two years without the ability to open our doors, we are again at the end of our sale season as we come to the community to thank everyone for a fantastic TEN week run at the VET Center. Our American Legion Post appreciates everybody who has stopped by and shopped with us during our sale. Although it seemed like a very long stretch for those of us who worked every week to gather and prepare all the treasures that we had for sale, the time flew by as we greeted many of the same people on a weekly basis. With this year shortened by three...
If you want a glimpse of parched river bottoms behind “would be breached” lower Snake River dams, look at recent photos of European rivers and lakes. On parts of picturesque Rhine River there is often more dry land than flowing water. Europe is in the clutches of another drought — the second since 2018. It is so severe that countries across the continent are imposing water restrictions. There are massive fish kills and desiccated croplands. Shipping is endangered on the Rhine and the Danub...
There’s a line to tread for a school wanting student-athletes to be better students in order to participate in sports, while at the same time not wanting to take away their opportunity to compete as athletes. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors, along with the district superintendent and junior/senior high school principal, discussed the topic of raising the academic standards for student-athletes at their Aug. 8 board meeting. Natalie Kontos, new to the principal position at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School, told t...
Cemeteries don’t take care of themselves, and the Spring Canyon Cemetery is no exception. The Grand Coulee Lions Club manages Spring Canyon Cemetery, and Birdie Hensley of the Lions Club spoke to the Regional Board of Mayors at their Aug. 3 meeting about them possibly taking over the management of the cemetery. Hensley explained that as Lions Club members are getting older, it’s getting to be less feasible for them to take care of the cemetery that has about 2,100 people buried in it, including about 450 veterans. Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Tow...
Taking five minutes to use a new, free boat-cleaning station at Northrup Boat Launch could help save millions in dollars of damage that invasive species can cause. A new "Clean-Drain-Dry-Dispose" unit, also known as a "CD3" system, was demonstrated at Northrup Boat Launch Aug. 9 with representatives there from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which funded the system, as well as from the Washington Recreation & Conservation Office (RCO), Washington State Parks, the Washington Department of Fish &...
This letter is an honest effort to bring clarity and facts to the rumors, innuendos and often half-truths that frequent this page when referring to the Grand Coulee Dam School District (GCDSD). The local community, in particular the parents of children attending a Lake Roosevelt school, deserve to know the facts. Each of the issues to be addressed is complex and complicated. However, we will endeavor to address the highlights of each matter as space permits. Because of space limitations, the issues will be addressed in three separate...
Communities in every corner of the country now struggle with a lack of affordable homes, an ailment long associated with fast-growing urban areas. A lack of affordable housing hamstrings rural towns’ abilities to attract workers and slows business growth. Quality housing is also linked to health and well-being, and home ownership remains a primary way working people build equity and ownership. Small towns need affordable, quality housing for people across the financial spectrum. Solving this shortage will require multifaceted solutions, c...
Implausible as it may seem, gasoline powered vehicles can be part of reducing carbon emissions. They need to be part of the solution and not brushed aside. Take for example, Glacier National Park in northwest Montana, where there is a fleet of 33 tour buses powered by gasoline engines. Each year, they transport 60,000 visitors mainly across Logan Pass — the park’s famed “Going to the Sun Highway.” Without them, congestion would be much worse and fewer people would enjoy Glacier. The Logan P...
A smooth landing and takeoff helps make flight a more pleasurable experience for mankind, and the port district is getting some funds to make it so. Grant County Port District #7 commissioners accepted July 20 the first of two Federal Aviation Administration grants to fund runway pavement maintenance. This first grant is in the amount of $386,000, and Trey Dail of T-O Engineers said that a second grant, estimated at $90,000, is expected in August to provide more funding for the $530,000 estimated total cost of the maintenance. An additional...