News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Education looks far different today than when George LaPlace was in school, and he thinks its future is likely to see more amazing changes even though funding inequities currently in place still need work. LaPlace has served as a school board director in the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors since the 2014-15 school year. As chairman since January of this year, he answered questions from The Star over email covering topics ranging from the role of the board, education during...
If your family member or loved one is employed by Okanogan County, I would be seriously concerned due to: The attitude of County Commissioner DeTro, chairman of the Board of Commissioners and Board of Health. Recent positive Covid tests of 11 inmates and four staff, along with 23 exposures at the county jail (not to mention 16 recently confirmed Covid-related deaths at North Valley Extended Care.) On Dec. 7, 2:21 p.m., the County Planning Department supervisor expressed her employees’ distress due to a recent unidentified positive test in t...
Back in 2019, I partnered with Douglas County PUD to sponsor and pass a bill authorizing Public Utility Districts to produce and sell renewable hydrogen. Hydrogen is a gas that can be created from a process that uses electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water. I worked closely that year with Douglas County PUD because of their interest in using surplus hydropower to produce hydrogen. The bill’s passage allows for the production and sale of “renewable hydrogen,” which is defined as hydrogen created from an emissions-free elec...
The return to school for seventh- through 12th-grade Lake Roosevelt students on Monday, Dec. 7 continued under a plan modified in an emergency school board session Friday night that sets a much higher threshold for the number of local Covid cases it would take to stop in-person schooling. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors held an Emergency Board Meeting tonight via Zoom where they voted 4-1 to modify the plan, previously approved on Nov. 9, for junior/senior high students to return part time to physical school on Dec. 7....
A COVID-era rule intended to help individuals has meant lost revenue for cities, and utilities. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s Proclamation 20-23, first issued in March of 2020, doesn’t allow utilities to be shut off for a resident, nor for late fees to be charged. That has meant that those who charge for utilities, such as local cities and electric companies, are holding higher amounts of their customers unpaid bills than usual, and that they also haven’t been able to bring in money from late fees like they have before. Locally, the city of Gr...
If you have a drivers license and an insured vehicle, you could help local senior citizens by volunteering to deliver meals to them. “We are in desperate need of volunteer delivery drivers,” Senior Meals Director Chay Heilman said. Deliveries have gone up during the COVID pandemic since the dining room of the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center, where the food is prepared and normally served, is closed. Heilman said that three drivers are needed for each of the five delivery times throughout the week: at 9 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays, and at 3 p.m... Full story
If you heard loud booms on Friday or Saturday night, it was probably local man Alan Cain lighting them off with about eight of his friends from the Northwest Pyrotechnics Association. The fireworks were lit on Cain’s property along SR-174 near the Lakeview Terrace area. The group obtained a permit from the city of Grand Coulee, whose fire department manages that area, about 45 days in advance. Cain said the group shot off about 50 “cakes” or bundles of various professional-grade fireworks, which they are licensed to use. “It’s sort of a reli...
The final days of the 2020 legislative session last March presented some real challenges. The Legislature worked diligently to wrap up its session as some of the first cases of COVID-19 in the United States were confirmed in our state. Lawmakers approved all three state budgets (operating, transportation, and capital) along with a $200 million COVID-19 response bill. In those final session days and in the days that would soon follow, the governor began issuing his statewide executive orders. One of the earliest included a statewide closure of...
The return to school for seventh- through 12th-grade Lake Roosevelt students on Dec. 7 will continue under a plan modified in an emergency school board session Friday night that sets a much higher threshold for the number of local Covid cases it would take to stop in-person schooling. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors held an Emergency Board Meeting tonight via Zoom where they voted 4-1 to modify the plan, previously approved on Nov. 9, for junior/senior high students to return part time to physical school on Dec. 7.... Full story
With the surging of the coronavirus around the country and even in local counties, there’s still enough evidence to give experts confidence that schools are not major spreaders of the illness, if managed for it and if local COVID cases aren’t out of hand. So what, exactly, do Lake Roosevelt Schools do to keep COVID off the campus? Health officers from Region 7 (Okanogan, Grant, Douglas, Chelan, Kittitas) counties have set up a protocol for screening for COVID-19 at schools, which Lake Roosevelt follows. The protocol allows students and sta... Full story
Nespelem School, which had planned to start bringing students back to part-time, in-person school in November and to have them all back full time in January, delayed those plans indefinitely. A Zoom meeting on Nov. 4 between the school district and parents and community members was held to see how they felt about returning to school. Principal and Superintendent Effie Dean told The Star on the phone on Tuesday that on that day COVID rates started “going through the roof,” which changed how people felt about returning to physical school. Dean sa...
The Hughes household in Grand Coulee includes two geese and a duck, all named after violent gangsters. A duck named Allie was originally named Al Capone, but when she started laying eggs, her name was changed. "Duck eggs are delicious," Ben Hughes noted, speaking with The Star about his family's pet flock over email. Allie, along with a goose named Pablo, after Pablo Escobar, both came from North 40 Outfitters in Omak. The other goose, named Chapo, or El Chapo, comes from NorthWest Seed & Pet...
Lake Roosevelt High School’s Associated Student Body will lose revenue from restrictions imposed from a new state law. House Bill 1660, which passed the state Legislature earlier this year and affects the current school year, will prevent schools from charging students who qualify for free or reduced lunches for ASB cards, as well as for admission into sports games. Their guests over the age of 65 might also not have to pay admission into sports events, or would pay a reduced entry fee. The bill aims to create more equity in schools, saying tha...
A new study was recently published in the journal Science that chronicles three decades of arctic animal movements. The study is called Arctic Animal Movement Archive. There have been over 200 studies addressing the impacts on 86 species of animals that call the Arctic home. "There's changes everywhere you look – everything is changing," said Dr. Gil Bohrer, an author of the new archive. The culmination of 30 years of studies had been carried out by more than 100 universities, government a...
There are birds aplenty in the world, the country, the state of Washington and in the Grand Coulee Dam area, and if you need something to do, looking for birds is one option. "There are many opportunities locally for bird watching, wildlife observation or wildlife photography in general," said Eric Braaten, a local biologist for the state Department of Fish & Wildlife, in an email to The Star. "With a mixture of private and public lands, our area is species-rich most of the year with different...
As of Monday, school is intended to continue as planned, with high COVID numbers in local counties, but not in the area itself. At Monday’s Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting, Superintendent Paul Turner presented a document outlining the current COVID-19 pandemic situation in relation to the school. Turner explained that although COVID numbers are currently high in local counties, in talking with county health officials, spikes are related to incidents outside of the Grand Coulee Dam area, such as in northern Okanogan County and d... Full story
Billboards along Main Street in Grand Coulee will be allowed to stay, at least until leases for the billboards are over, and a committee will be looking at ways to possibly allow them to stay indefinitely. Following a couple of complaints, Sam Hsieh, who owns Coulee Plaza, a lot of grass and picnic tables on Main Street, was told he’d have to take down his advertising signs that line the property. The money brought in from those signs helped pay the mortgage and maintenance costs of the property. After being told he’d have to take them dow...
The fate of Electric City’s potential Ice Age Park may be decided at the city’s Dec. 8 council meeting. At their Nov. 10 meeting, the council discussed the park following the failure of a levy to raise funds for maintenance of the park for one year. That levy failed 330-192 in the Nov. 3 election. During the public comment period of the meeting, Mayor Diane Kohout read aloud an email signed by Ian and Cara Turner. The email offers “some insight from the perspective of a community member, planning commissioner, and parent to young child...
Elmer City residential sewer rates will likely go up by about 20% in 2021. The raise was discussed by the city council during a budget discussion meeting Nov. 12. A sewage lift station pump replacement in the Lone Pine area may cost up to $25,000, Public Works Director Jimmer Tillman explained. With 166 sewer customers, the council and mayor discussed, a $10 boost in rates would raise $19,992 a year, which would go towards the pump and any future sewer-related expenses that may come up. In-town rates would go from $51 to $61, and out-of-town...
Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School students will start returning to in-person school on Dec. 7 with a phased approach. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors again discussed reopening in person school to 7th- through 12th-grade students at their Nov. 9 board meeting. Just two weeks ago the board chose not to bring back Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High students until maybe the second semester, which starts Feb. 1, 2021. Kindergarten through sixth graders are already going to in-person school part time. During Monday’s m...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District's Supplemental Educational Programs and Operation passed with 51% of the vote last Tuesday. Results of the Nov. 3 general election show that Okanogan County voters liked the levy more than voters in Grant, Douglas, and Lincoln counties, and liked it enough to help it pass. A majority of school district voters in Grant County voted against the levy 544-481; in Douglas County said no by a 98-89 vote; and in Lincoln County 55% voted no, 105-86. But in Okanogan...
Voters hung the fate of Electric City’s proposed Ice Age Park in the cold November breeze as a levy for funding maintenance for the park failed to pass last week. The levy failed with 303 (62%) against it, and 182 (38%) for it. The one-year levy asked for 14.2 cents per $100,000 in property value, or $14.22 for a $100,000 property, and would have gone towards maintenance of the park estimated at $7,000-$10,000 a year. The levy itself costs about $5,000 to get on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election. Now that the levy has failed, the c...
The group that puts on popular events such as Colorama and the Harvest Festival is seeking to raise funds in a virtual auction and dinner to help them to keep functioning and hosting these events. With a slew of events canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce has lost out on a lot of revenue to pay expenses such as rent and wages for its lone employee. “We really want the chamber to survive into the future when we can do live events again,” said board member Solveig Chaffee, who is wor...
Locals want to attend public meetings both online and in person, recognizing the benefits and drawbacks of each, a quick survey of readers over the last several days seems to indicate. A short survey posted in The Star online Thursday asked respondents what they thought of public meetings, such as school board and city council meetings, being held online, and how those compare to meetings held in person. The survey only received 18 responses, but those responses show a variety of perspectives, with only one respondent saying they haven’t a...
Through his entire life, Donald Trump has been a SLAPP master. What is SLAPP, you ask? Good question. It stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” For our purposes, it means frivolous legal action, usually by someone with deep pockets, designed to use the court system to intimidate someone else who doesn’t have deep pockets. SLAPPs are against the law in 30 states and D.C. But how does one prove that the litigation crosses the line? The misuse of the legal system is one of the sleaziest tactics available to lawyers and their...