News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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In local elections Tuesday, Electric City voters demonstrated a preference for change, favoring two newcomers over one current and one former city council member, and giving another current councilman a fairly close race, with two of the three Grand Coulee Police officers who ran for council poised to take office. Incumbent Councilmember Brian Buche appears to have survived a challenge from Thomas Levi Johnson for council position 3 by a vote of 117 to 89 or 57-43%. But Matt Gilbert clearly won the race for position 4 seat that former council...
Inside this issue of The Star and inside Lake Roosevelt Schools this week are two things designed to help you remember what Veterans Day is all about. And if that were not enough, how about adding a good breakfast. At Lake Roosevelt Schools this Thursday, the public is invited to a special assembly in honor of veterans at 9 a.m. in the gym. The assembly both honors the veterans and impresses on students the importance of understanding their commitment to the country. At the annual assembly students personally honor attending veterans, and a...
Congrats on the Turnbull Award. Journalism is a tough gig right now and rural journalism even tougher. You’ve managed to keep the community informed and educated and entertained despite their resistance at times. The Star is really a hub for the whole area and you are doing consistent, outstanding work. I’m pleased it has been recognized by your peers. It’s well earned. And ask Carl Russell if he’s ever heard of James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Zachary Taylor or Herbert Hoover. You should know all the preside...
Caden Portch competed at the state cross country meet at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco last Saturday, turning in his best time ever in the 5,000-meter race. The sophomore Lake Roosevelt Raider completed the course in 18 minutes, 13.3 seconds, a time he fairly steadily whittled down all season from a high of 21:56.9 in Manson on Sept. 16. when he finished 21st. Two weeks later, he took the top honors at Tonasket in 19:35.8, then trimmed his time to 18:58.0 in Omak a week later. "He's a...
The Lady Raiders lost their last volleyball game of the season in three sets Saturday to the Lind-Ritzville-Sprague Broncos at Mead High School in Spokane. The teams met in a District 6/7 2B Volleyball Crossover game in which the Broncos prevailed in three sets 25-14, 25-14, 25-9, sending them to the state tournament this coming weekend in Yakima. Lake Roosevelt finished the season with a 9-5 win-loss record in the Central Washington B League, 10-9 overall....
The Raiders ended their football season with a drubbing at the hands of Northwest Christian in the District 6/7 Crossover game at Riverside High School in Chattaroy Friday night. The Crusaders (10-1) took down the Raiders 76-14, ending the season for Lake Roosevelt with a 5-5 win-loss record overall. Lake Roosevelt's team scored two touchdowns in the first quarter, one on Francis Louie's long run after he had the presence of mind to pick up a still-live ball near the end of a play, took off for...
Blake Martin thinks the Electric City Council has a relationship problem with its citizens. If he were to win the election for a seat at that table, he could help change that, he says. "I don't feel like community concerns are being heard and responded to as they should be," he said. "I feel as there is a current disconnect there between our elected city officials and the general public." Although Martin said he is a fan of the community meetings the city has been having, they still fall short...
Birdie Hensley is running for Electric City Council to find out what’s going on, and to fix some earlier mistakes. “I just think if you’re in the community, you should be involved,” she said. “And if you’re not on city council, you don’t find anything out about the city.” She’s been on council before, when the council made new rules on development requirements for curbs and sidewalks. That was during a time when the city annexed land with an eye on possible expansion to the south. Now she sees that push had some unintended consequences, mak...
Coulee Dam Police Chief Paul Bowden briefed the city council last week on a couple possibilities for expanding the kinds of services his agency can provide. They include connected cameras that read license plates, and also trained police dogs that can search for drugs. Bowden would like to consider the purchase of four cameras, two for Coulee Dam , two for Electric City, which his department serves, to mount and record license plates as they come through town. He said he was considering applying for an available grant to pay for the cameras,...
If you live in Grant County and power your home with Grant PUD electricity, you pay below the utility’s cost to produce it, and discussions are underway now on how to gradually increase rates to get back on track toward “target goal posts” after a four-year hiatus. Grant PUD commissioners told an audience in their packed boardroom Oct. 24 that their ongoing “discussion over how to set electric rates and arrive at a rate increase for 2024 will take into account all the county’s economic sectors and ensure ‘core customers’ are protected,” a...
The Raider girls beat Liberty Bell in their first District 6 playoff game Saturday at Omak High School 3-0, but lost three hours later to Okanogan in three sets. Then on Tuesday, Halloween night, at 6 p.m., Lake Roosevelt met the Bears in the Omak gym, this time falling 1-3 to Brewster and taking fourth place in District 6. Now it's time to broaden the competition. LR's girls will move on to the District 6/7 2B Volleyball Crossover Saturday, Nov. 4 at Mead High School in Spokane. They'll play...
The Raiders beat the Tigers in Tonasket Friday 34-14, in their last North Central 2B League game of the season. “We had a good night throwing the football and a great defensive effort to get the win,” Raider Head Coach Geary Oliver said. The Raiders gained 190 yards in the air, 166 on the ground. They made 41 tackles in the game. “We played a tough Tonasket team that is better than their record would indicate,” Oliver said, noting two Tiger losses were to 1A teams and two more were to a couple of the best of 2B teams in the state. That could in...
Inside this issue of The Star and inside Lake Roosevelt Schools this week are two things designed to help you remember what Veterans Day is all about. And if that were not enough, how about adding a good breakfast. At Lake Roosevelt Schools this Thursday, the public is invited to a special assembly in honor of veterans at 9 a.m. in the gym. The assembly both honors the veterans and impresses on students the importance of understanding their commitment to the country. At the annual assembly...
Lake Roosevelt Schools took an unplanned day off Monday after the district learned on Friday it would not have a school nurse. Superintendent Rod Broadnax said he learned as he was out of town Friday that the nurse who had been supplied to the schools for two days a week by the local hospital district would no longer be available. Registered nurses are in short supply in Washington state, and Coulee Medical Center spends large sums to bring in temporary nurses, as do many, if not most, hospitals. Broadnax said Monday night in a letter to...
Tension simmered last week during a discussion of what staffing direction Grand Coulee will ultimately take in staffing its wastewater treatment plant. Council members Anita Eylar and Ruth Dalton pressed others on which direction the council was leaning: filling the need with the city’s own employees or continuing to contract it out. The latter was the course the council took earlier this year, but only on an emergency basis. The city’s current contract with a union allows for contracting out city jobs in an emergency only, city officials sai...
Brian Buche sees himself as a voice for the community. Running for re-election to the Electric City Council seat he's held since 2020, full-time UPS driver and now part-time farmer says he takes pride in talking one-on-one with people. "Anybody can approach me and tell me what it is they think or they don't like or whatever," he said. "I'm an open book." Elected when council members at the time were taking considerable heat for some controversial projects, Buche said listening to people is...
Levi Johnson sees public safety as the most pressing issue facing Electric City. So do his fellow officers. Johnson is a police officer in Grand Coulee, as are two other candidates running against incumbents for Electric City council seats. Johnson, who joined the Grand Coulee Police Department in 2015, says that's no accident. When the Electric City Council decided to change its police services contractor, choosing Coulee Dam over Grand Coulee last year, they took notice. "I think that's kind...
The Raider volleyball team scored two wins this week to put them third in the Central Washington 2B League with a 9-5 win-loss record. The Lake Roosevelt girls put away the Brewster Bears Oct. 19 in three sets on LR's home court on senior night, a label that applies to two-thirds of the varsity team. LR bested Brewster 25-23, 26-24, 25-21, with displays of discipline and versatility. Precision setting by Shy Marchand preceded several Carly Neddo kills like clockwork, a pattern that repeated...
Most streets in Electric City could be in for some upgrades if the grants come through, a long-hoped-for waterfront trail should be built by late next summer, and the city’s corroding sewer pipes might be saved with a lining for over $1 million, a small group of citizens attending a meeting at the fire hall learned Tuesday night. Trent Ward, of Century West Engineering, the city’s consultant, said the 8-foot-wide trail along SR-155 from Coulee Playland to North Dam Park will cost about $870,000, including a two-foot gravel pathway on each side...
If you were planning to rent out a shipping container or RV on your property in Coulee Dam, or use it for events such as weddings, sounds like you’re out of luck, but the town council heard last week exactly how short rentals will be allowed and under what circumstances. Mike Manning, of SCJ Alliance went through a long list of requirements Wednesday night during a public hearing before the regular council meeting, seemed like common sense, but some added restrictions you might not think about. Among those are an annual requirement to pass a...
An obsolete recall sign and that one about the ugliest town in the west came up as subjects of poor taste at last night’s Electric City meeting. A woman asked if the city might be able to encourage a sign seeking a recall of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to be brought down now that he’s not running for re-election. She said she’d had company recently who commented on it. “It’s just bad taste,” said the woman, who did not identify herself. Mayor Diane Kohout said the city could contact the property owner to ask about it. The woman also asked about...
I was honored and ambivalent at the same time earlier this month to accept the highest honor awarded by the 136-year-old Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA) at a time when, more than ever, I’m still trying to figure this business out. Because it’s much more than a business; community newspapering is an institution and a calling that from the early days of America has been recognized as a big part of what makes this country work. Newspapers were “the power which impels the circulation of political life,” philosopher Alexis de Tocq...
I’ve lived in the Nespelem area most of my life and am a graduate of Lake Roosevelt High School. My children were raised here too and are graduates of LRHS. Now my grandkids, grandnieces and grandnephews are being raised here on their way to being graduates of LR. I came from a traditionally Native home that was riddled with alcoholism and, unfortunately, so were my children. Now our families are living alcohol free, some of us 6-plus years in, and are doing our best to raise our children and grandchildren without that dysfunction of a...
The good news is “we have good people in the right place” at Lake Roosevelt Schools, a consultant hired to coach principals in the school district told the board of directors Tuesday night, but “we have our work cut out.” Mike Horn had been working in the district for a 10-day period of coaching principals, also talking with staff to get input. In the course of discovering the district’s needs, he said, he’d learned that 78 percent of students at the school miss 10 percent of classes. “That’s daunting,” he told the board. Hiring Horn was one of...
A discussion on a persistent problem with vaping at school turned into an opening conversation on how to solve that and other discipline problems for some students at Lake Roosevelt Schools. Layla Flett, a student representative on the board of directors for the Grand Coulee Dam Area School District, cautioned the board and superintendent Tuesday night that some measures may not work as intended. The subject came up when Superintendent Rod Broadnax asked Flett how she thought the school year was going so far. Flett said the only real issue she...