News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1381 - 1405 of 2941
A Coulee City man died Monday afternoon as he rode a three-wheeled motorcycle down Highway 17 toward Soap Lake. Benjamin L. Coates, 78, was southbound about 13 miles north of Soap Lake when, according to a Washington State Patrol investigation, he passed three vehicles in a no-passing zone before a curve, moved back into the southbound lane, then lost control of the trike and drove off the right shoulder, hitting a rock wall. The crash happened about 12:26 p.m. at milepost 89. Coates was riding a blue 2011 Harley Davidson Tri Glide...
Coulee Dam utility customer charges for sewage treatment will likely rise $5-$6 a month to around $61-$62 per household equivalent when the town builds its new wastewater treatment plant, Mayor Greg Wilder told the town council at its Aug. 9 meeting. Construction is beginning on the $7.7 million project now with the contractor on site. Wilder said if Elmer City decides to build its own plant in eight years, when a contract between the two towns ends, the ERU (Equivalent Resident Unit) rate Coulee Dam residents would pay would rise to about...
Below are three letters nominating a few deserving people for the volunteer of the year. To help decide which of the three is picked to be honored on behalf of many local volunteers, readers should log onto our online poll, or mail in or deliver their votes on paper, to The Star by Friday, Sept. 1. Feel free to include comments as you like. The Star is at 3 Midway Ave., Grand Coulee. The mailing address is P.O. Box 150, Grand Coulee, WA, 99133. You can use this link to Go To Our Online Poll. Please do not vote both online and in person. Scott... Full story
A Coulee City man died Monday afternoon as he rode a three-wheeled motorcycle down Highway 17 toward Soap Lake. Benjamin L. Coates, 78, was southbound about 13 miles north of Soap Lake when, according to a Washington State Patrol investigation, he passed three vehicles in a no-passing zone before a curve, moved back into the southbound lane, then lost control of the trike and drove off the right shoulder, hitting a rock wall. The crash happened about 12:26 p.m. at milepost 89. Coates was riding a blue 2011 Harley Davidson Tri Glide...
Readers should be aware of a couple of policies The Star will follow this year and into the future. First, regarding elections: The Star will accept one letter from each of the candidates in local elections this year as a means of introducing their general ideas to the voters. And we have begun the process of seeking interviews with each of those candidates in contested elections to further our readers’ understanding of the issues and of the candidates themselves. Readers, of course, are encouraged to share their thoughts on the process, the c...
Vivian Dugan has quilted for charity for as long as she can remember. Then during the illness and death of her husband, Bill, in 2011, she began making lap quilts at her home in Coulee Dam as an outlet for her concern and her grief. In the beginning, she sent them all to Sacred Heart Hospital of Spokane, where Bill was being treated. When his doctor recommended hospice to them, Vivian began to channel some quilts through to the hospice program in Omak - which is now Frontier Home Health and...
I am an Okanogan Indian and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. I am so disappointed in your name choice; I must re-remind you of your history and that we are not 12 tribes; we are but 10 bands of one tribe. The name change you have suggested sounds like you are glorifying the Grand Coulee Dam, not the falls that no longer exist, nor the river that is no more. Why would you think that we the Syilx People would consider that to be just or respectful? It is the fact that we are a Salmon People and not “Big Water” peo...
Last Wednesday, President Trump signed bipartisan legislation into law that Congress had passed overwhelmingly to sanction hostile regimes in North Korea, Russia, and Iran. I joined my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the House on a vote of 419 to 3 to pass the “Russia, Iran, and North Korea Sanctions Act.” After House passage, the Senate voted 98 to 2 to send the bill to the President’s desk. The unity in Congress’ action shows how seriously we are taking adversaries who work to oppose American interests and those of our allies around...
Do ordinary citizens still have a voice in Washington and in their state capitals? Despite the cynicism of these times, my answer is, yes, we do. ... But we have to exercise it. I don’t just mean going to a town hall meeting and yelling, or shooting off a letter or email. I mean making an appointment to sit down with your representative — in his or her office, at a cafe in the district, or wherever else you can meet — and holding a real conversation. We don’t do this often enough in our country. The heart of a representative democracy does no...
An Omak man died in a car wreck just north of Nespelem Saturday night. The Washington State Patrol reports that Ronald R. Hance, 39, was driving a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup northbound on SR-155 when it left the road to the right about 12:41 a.m. The driver overcorrected and the pickup turned sideways, then left the roadway to the left, struck a guardrail and rolled. Hance was ejected when it rolled, and the pickup came to rest and caught fire. A passenger, Addie P. Simpson, 34, of Spokane Valley, was taken by ambulance to Coulee Medical Center....
After a thief in the night stole their cash, credit cards, car and luggage a week ago, an Electric City couple were happy to have at least their car returned with only minor damage. "I'm so happy to have it back," Sherry Constantine said Monday of the 2009 Kia Borrego. "They didn't wreck our car, and it's fixable." On Tuesday the week before, Sherry and Don Constantine had been packed and ready to go on a vacation to Victoria, British Columbia. Their bags were by the door, as was her purse,... Full story
Delivering high quality health care in rural communities – including those in Central Washington – has long been a growing challenge. Access to primary care can be time-consuming and costly for medically-underserved rural residents. Less-populated areas are facing a devastating shortage of primary care physicians compared to urban areas. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, while 20 percent of the nation’s population lives in rural areas, only 10 percent of physicians practice in those same areas. I have heard from and spoke... Full story
They traveled around the world to land in Grand Coulee, and he and his wife are at Coulee Medical Center "for the long run," Dr. Sam Hsieh told a chamber of commerce gathering last week. Hsieh (pronounced Shay), a general surgeon and the chief of staff at the hospital, was born in Hong Kong; raised mostly in Canada; graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland; and completed his surgical residency in Texas. He and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Hsu (pronounced Sue), an... Full story
As I was waiting to go up the hill in the line of traffic after the fireworks this year, I saw a woman pushing her baby in a stroller. She hit one of the bumps in the sidewalk and the stroller did a stoppie. If that baby hadn’t been buckled in, it would have gone flying in the air and landed hard on the sidewalk. It made me wonder how many other babies got a hell ride that night on the sidewalks of our Great Grand Coulee Dam. I mean, those sidewalks have been in that condition for many years. I wonder how many babies really have gone flying i... Full story
Still worried about a possible lack of money coming in after the Legislature’s late decisions in double overtime last month, Nespelem School District Superintendent Mary Hall told school board members Monday it’s going to be a fiscally tight year. The board passed budgets totalling nearly $5.4 million, including the general operating budget for $4.57 million, and a capital (major building expenses) budget of $695,200. Hall advised the board the district could end up paying for some items from reserves as the state lets go of funds later tha... Full story
There will be no primary election for the town of Coulee Dam’s town council race, even though three candidates filed their intention to run, according to Mila Jury, elections officer for the Okanogan County Auditor’s Office. That’s because those finally filing did not do so until an extra filing period was declared because no one had filed earlier. Jury said three names will appear on the November ballot and the county auditor’s office will certify one as the winner. That’s true even though one of the three declared last week that he was withd... Full story
Two toy toads may soon be homeless as the result of a town council decision to direct the mayor to get the worst of Coulee Dam's broken sidewalks fixed this year, not later. The decision was foisted upon Mayor Greg Wilder after he told the council during their regular semi-monthly meeting Wednesday that a planned street and sidewalk project would not start this summer, as had been planned. Wilder said he'd been informed that day by the state Transportation Improvement Board that bids on the... Full story
I have written you, the Colville Business Council, through this approach to let everyone know what I am saying to you. Now that we have a new Business Council seated, I respectfully ask that each of you take these three things into consideration, now. First, to change our name to reflect our history. We are bands of Indians that spoke one language, N Syilxn, not three languages. We are Salmon People. We are not a scattered group of hunter gatherers. We are a strong and vibrant People that other Tribes feared. Let the name reflect us, the sqilx-... Full story
At a special meeting last Wednesday in the wake of the CEO’s resignation, hospital district commissioners approved a letter to employees about the future leadership of Coulee Medical Center. The letter was penned by commission President Jerry Kennedy but sent from the whole board of commissioners and later posted to the hospital’s website. Owens resigned during the June 28 hospital commission meeting. The letter expressed confidence in the executive team composed of Interim Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks, Chief Financial Officer Kel... Full story
Four young adults were injured Monday night in a high-speed crash a mile north of Nespelem, including the driver, who now faces charges. The Washington State Patrol reports that Curry A. J. Pinkham, 20, of Nespelem, was driving a purple 2007 Honda Ridgeline pickup south on SR-155 about 9:30 at a high rate of speed when the pickup left the roadway to the right and hit gravel when he lost control. The vehicle went into a field over an embankment, rolled once and landed on its wheels. Three passengers, all of Nespelem, were injured in the crash, i... Full story
I totally agree with Dorothy Harris; a rescue is badly needed in this area, we have no vets available on weekends, we have no place to take strays. If they were available, they would end up putting them down! Years ago I found a dog that had heat stroke/seizures; had to call the police to take it to the vet’s office. The city of Electric City called them, and after a time the poor animal was just put down, even though it never had any more seizures. I tried to put up flyers to get it adopted, as I could not do that. By the way, the city of Elec... Full story
I, for one, am very disappointed in this non-4th of July, 4th of July celebration. Many who had reservations here over the 4th did not know that the fireworks were on Saturday. One of my daughters who works in the office of Columbia River Inn called all who had reservations for over the 4th and had many cancellations. I doubt that all motel and campgrounds did that, leaving many visitors unhappy when they arrived to find that the fireworks and festival in the park were already over. Folks have already heard many times over that the newest laser... Full story
I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to journalism, I’m a traditionalist. Old-fashioned, even. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that even while confidence in the media drops to new lows and Time magazine feels moved to wonder “Is Truth Dead?” on its cover, huge numbers of Americans have come to believe the media is not as authoritative as it once was. Straightforward, responsible journalism is an indispensable public asset, a cornerstone of democratic life. This is threatened by the trends reshaping the media landscape.... Full story
Almost a year after he started, the hospital’s CEO resigned last week after a committee of the hospital commission interviewed employees ahead of his upcoming evaluation. Jonathan Owens took the reins of Coulee Medical Center in July 2016. Owens stopped a plan last fall that had the hospital spending more on an electronic medical records system than it could afford. He hired a financial consultant to target high expenses and low revenue areas that had contributed to losses that forced the hospital to pay debts with county warrants, i... Full story
A process that for a time stranded some federal funding in Washington D.C., will now play out with Coulee Dam residents paying less for their new wastewater treatment plant because a grant finally came through. With some prodding. Mayor Greg Wilder received word in an email Monday morning that more than a half million dollars of the total $7.9 million augmented plan would come through as a loan, and almost a million more in a low-interest loan to allow the town to upgrade its “solids” handling at the new plant. Wilder said the new bottom lin... Full story