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 first time I met Guillermo Guzman he had just done the butterfly stroke across Crescent Bay and back in September. I had taken his photograph for possible use in the paper and so introduced myself and asked his name. His thick Mexican accent was compounded by the fact that he was shivering terribly, his teeth chattering, yet he politely entered conversation as if he weren’t dying to get dried off from the frigid lake water. I’ve had little interaction with him since that 2009 encounter until this spring, when he hit on the idea of rai...
We would like thank everyone who has helped us out since we lost our home in the fire. It was such a lonely and devastating thing to watch nearly everything we owned go up in flames. As many of you may know, my husband and I both grew up in Brewster, and then moved to the larger town of Spokane. We missed the feeling of a small community, so when Safeway had an opening here, we moved without a thought. It only took moments following our loss to remember exactly why we wanted to be in an area like this. Even before the house was done...
I had heard rumors early in the school year that the Hoe Down was going to be eliminated this year, but I was hoping that this would not be the case. However, it appears that the decision has been made, and there will be no Hoe Down this spring. As a 30-year veteran, now retired, elementary teacher, I would like to share my thoughts on this decision. The Hoe Down has been a LONG-standing tradition of the grade school, whether it was Center School or Wright Elementary. Square Dancing has been an acceptable and important part of the 3rd grade...
So, the administrators and staff of Center Elementary school have decided to do away with the annual Colorama “Hoe Down” that has been taking place in our community for at least 25 years that I know of. This decision provides yet another example of how our local schools continue to erode in the Arts department and demonstrates a narrow-minded approach to the development of a well-rounded student that will function in the 21st Century with global intelligence and the ability to “think outside the box.” First, the elementary school decided to eli...
The mean precipitation for March was 0.82 inches, though here at the home weather station we only received 0.36 inch, a huge variance from last year’s March total of 2.64 inches. What a difference a year makes, hey. Temperature-wise, this March we had a mean of 42.5°F (41.1°F mean) with a monthly low of 22.2°F (record low 0.0°F) accompanied by a monthly high of 71.6°F (record 74.0°F). So, we were off by a half inch in precipitation and generally near averages for temperatures. As I write t...
Well, once again the Grand Coulee City Hall’s elected officials have proven that they are EXTREMELY effective when it comes to stomping out business in the Grand Coulee area, and not as good when it comes to cultivating an atmosphere for it. Our question to you, Mr. Mayor and the Council Members that have failed to act over the last couple weeks regarding the day care center (whomever you may be, we did hear it wasn’t all of you but complacency isn’t much better in our opinion), why does it take so long to do anything in your city? Why six mont...
Political stupidity in Washington, D.C. is about to come down hard on our local area. Some economists argue that the sky will fall because of the “sequester,” a budget cut imposed by Congress and signed by the President in 2011 in a move designed to make such blind, across-the-board cuts so painful that they would never be politically feasible, forcing opposing parties in the nation’s fiscal policy debates to compromise. That was a huge political miscalculation based on the perception that things are as they have ever been. They’re not. Te...
At the Coulee Dam Town Council meeting held on March 27th, Councilperson Bob Poch stated that "we" could not just walk away from $1.5 million on the table from IHS for the proposed Waste Water Treatment Facility and that more and sufficient time is needed for IHS to bring their proposal and requirements for their contribution to the WWTF. Kudos to Mr. Poch for stating the need to move forward with new ideas and alternative plans. Shame, shame, shame on the rest of the council who hung their heads and for not offering a motion or a second on...
This letter is in response to the March 20 Star article about Electric City looking to get rid of its “butt ugly trees.” In the 1980s, there was a consensus of the whole Grand Coulee Dam area community to beautify our area by creating more parks and greenery to soften the plainness and harshness. Project REV was implemented based on that and other mandates in the mid 1980s and the community worked hard to do just that by creating green areas wherever they could. Now our local governments are cutting down beautiful mature trees and soon we...
The tributes to former Gov. Booth Gardner, who died March 15 at the age of 76, remind us of a better time. Throughout his political career, Booth was known for his respectful demeanor, good humor and dedication to consensus. That is in stark contrast to today’s reality. Now, partisan rancor is the norm in a high-stakes blood sport where the only goal is political advantage, and people with opposing views are assailed as enemies. This scorched earth mentality has become so pervasive, people a...
Tax revenue from tourists who stay in hotels is a critical resource for Washington state’s cities and towns, which often rely on that income to promote and expand events that attract visitors, according to those who testified on bills introduced this legislative session in Olympia. The proposals relate to the state’s hotel and motel tax, also known as the lodging tax. Individual counties and cities may choose to levy a fee of up to 2 percent on charges to customers by hotels and motels. Lodging-tax proceeds are used in most cases for tou...
As everyone knows, the proposed new waste water treatment plant is being discussed at Coulee Dam Council meetings. There are a few people who religiously attend this meeting and do all they can to keep a run-away Town Council in check. Their behavior at recent meetings can only lead us to believe that they only agreed to a three-month hiatus on the forward motion of the project to appease the people who signed the petition to stop it. At the last meeting, Councilmember Karl Hjorten (up for re-election this year) made a motion that we once...
Dry indeed, February brought a parching 0.09 inch of precipitation that included 0.6 inch of fresh snow. The mean precipitation is 0.92 inch while we had a high of 3.58 inches back in 1940. Mean snowfall is 2.5 inches. So, as you can see, we were behind by about 90 percent. Temperatures were higher, as well. The mean for February here at the home weather station was 34.2°F, while the historical mean is 32.7°F. That’s a 1.5°F uptick from the mean. The low for the month was 24.1°F (average minim...
In November 1982, our state’s unemployment rate peaked at 12.2 percent, the highest since the Great Depression. Interest on a fixed rate home loan was 13.4 percent, and an 11.5-percent inflation rate burned through our checkbooks. The economy was a mess. The impacts of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 hadn’t fully kicked in yet, and Gov. John Spellman (R) and the Legislature had repeatedly increased taxes and cut programs to balance the state’s budget. It was a bleak t...
Reviewing data from the past four Januarys shows we didn’t have any changes from the normal. We had good, measurable snowfall this year (2013, 7.3 inches) and last (2012, 9.9 inches). Here’s how it broke down for 2013 and showing all-time records in parenthesis. High temperature 46.0°F(record is 61°F), low 12.7°F (record -17°F), mean 26.5°F (record 36.1°F), total precipitation 0.60 inches (2.25 inches) and snowfall 7.3 inches (21.6 inches). January was nothing to write home about. Given the...
When we moved from Montana to Olympia 35 years ago, we saw enticing television and magazine ads for our neighboring states, but none for Washington. Fast forward to 2013 and nothing has changed. It was puzzling then, but even more perplexing today, considering the money and jobs at stake. Tourism in our state is no small potatoes, it is big business. Visitors spent $16.4 billion in 2011 and accounted for 150,000 direct jobs, which is nearly twice Boeing’s workforce in our state. But our state i...
California and Texas are like the two biggest kids on the block going toe-to-toe for bragging rights. Who’s the biggest? Who’s the best? Bravado aside, comparing the business climate in these two states reveals why one state is lagging while the other is thriving. California, once the most attractive business environment in the nation, is today caught in a downward economic spiral while Texas is on the upswing. Between 1960 and 1990, more than four million people moved to California, attracted b...
Giving farm families the ability to protect their property and livestock from predatory wolves is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, claims Sen. John Smith (R-7th District, Colville) as he testified Tuesday (Jan. 29) before the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee on legislation he’s proposing to control the marauding animals. A second bill Smith is sponsoring would allow law enforcement officers to kill attacking wolves under certain circumstances. The two bills would also limit the Department of Fish and Wildl...
This thank you letter is long past due, but I’m getting slower as the years go by. When was the last time that you said a thank you to a volunteer? At this time I would like to say a big thank you to all of our volunteers! Our veterans are on top of the list for serving our country during a war or in peace time. Our volunteer firemen and EMTs who are there to help us anytime we need their help. These two groups of volunteers spend a lot of time away from family and friends when they are needed! Next would be all of our community volunteers w...
Reviewing data sets for December 2011 and 2012 shows we were a bit warmer and wetter. Our low for December 2012 was 21.9°F compared to 2011, which was 16.4°F. That’s a 5.5 degree difference. The all-time low temperature for December was a minus 16°F in 1968, while the mean low is 29.6°F. Precipitation shows a difference of 1.63 inches. We measured 2.12 inches for 2012, while in 2011 we received only 0.49 inches. Snow accumulation for December 2012 was 6.4 inches and in 2011 just 1.3 inches. For...
To educate the whole person, you must develop fully the mind, the body and the spirit. Are our schools (public and private) doing this? Consider these facts: • HS School dropout rates vary from 30-50 percent. • Students graduating from HS oftentimes require at least one year of remedial education at Community College to meet entry requirements. • Science and mathematics skills are dreadful (elem-HS). • Obesity is indication of poor physical fitness and health. • Stress abounds due to poor priority choices and prevalence of constant assaults...
The new 113th Congress are now seated. The 112th Congress failed to recognize veterans of the Vietnam War. House Bill HR-3612 and Senate Bill S.1629, to restore The Agent Orange Equity Act did not make it out of committee. In all probability, these bills are dead and must be re-introduced. There are 439 members of Congress, 100 members of the Senate. In the 112th assembly of both houses, only 126 representatives co-sponsored the house bill and 14 senators co-sponsored the Senate bill. What does this say about those legislators who ignored the...
On Tuesday, noon at Omak City Park, Jan. 22, 2013, there will be a march for life in Omak so that we will not forget that it is legal to kill an innocent, helpless baby in a mother’s womb through abortion. Everyone is welcome to join us January 22 to commemorate the sad, infamous day that the U.S. Supreme Court passed the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand in the United States of American in 1973. Common sense tells us that this is wrong. It seems that not much attention is directed at the killing of these babies any longer, i...
I would like to apologize to the people of the Grand Coulee Dam Area and the wonderful people that were willing to volunteer their time to honor the victims of the Newtown shooting. I realize it was cancelled with very short notice due to the increasing hazardous weather conditions. I contacted the parties that I had been involved with, and it was my understanding that the other parties would be contacted as well. My apology to the people that showed up only to find that it had been cancelled. It is my understanding that it is in the process...
Our snowfall certainly wasn’t anything to get too thrilled about. Over a two-day period, the Dec. 10-11, we got 1.9 inches of snowfall here at the home weather station. That’s slightly more than the November mean of 1.4 inches. Mean precipitation for November is 1.25 inches, while we recorded a meager half inch here at home. For the year, we are well above our average precipitation of 10.50 inches, currently at 13.56 inches here at home. We had a November mean temperature at 40.9°F, below the...