News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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While working at the Star, I learned early on just ask Gwen Hilson. She has worked at the Star for a zillion years and under three owners. When writing about people or places you always come up with questions,and it’s easier to ask Gwen than find a source that will provide answers. Gwen knows just about everyone and how they are connected to other people — where the skeletons are buried, so to speak. Not only is she a treasure trove of community knowledge, she can do several things at the same time and not lose a beat. She not only solves a l...
Although New Zealand and Washington are located half a world apart, they have lots in common — beautiful seashores, majestic mountains, crystal clear streams and lakes, and — vibrant salmon and trout fisheries. Both are struggling to rid their air sheds of CO2 and other greenhouse gases coming from the burning of carbon fuels (coal, natural gas, gasoline, and diesel) in vehicles, home heating and electric-power generation. New Zealand and Washington share a common goal to be carbon-neutral by 2050. The good news is both are endowed with lot...
Lady Raiders finish with no-hitters and home runs The Lady Raiders softball team dominated this past week in the final five games of the season to finish with a 9-3 win-loss record. In Oroville May 11, the Lady Raiders shut out the Lady Hornets 16-0 in the first game of a doubleheader. Emma Marchand pitched a no-hitter and seven strikeouts. "Marchand was too much on the mound for the young team in Oroville," Head Coach Jaci Gross said. Offensively, Halle Albert and Sawyer Steffens each hit a hom...
With a hunger for getting out built up among rodeo fans, the first one in the state since pandemic lockdown set attendance records and put Grand Coulee on the national rodeo map. Ridge Riders President George Kohout said Tuesday he'd watched The Cowboy Channel's TV segment on last weekend's Colorama Rodeo twice and "just about teared up a little bit." Friday night's attendance at the Colorama Rodeo "set a record, and Saturday night's blew that all to hell," Kohout said. That took some doing. The...
With poll and absentee votes both now certified, twenty-six candidates have been narrowed down to 14 in the primary for seven seats on the Colville Business Council, with only one incumbent knocked out of the running. There are seven out of 14 total positions up for election to the Colville Business Council, the governing body of the Colville Tribes. Primary polls opened May 8, with poll votes certified on May 10, and absentee votes were certified May 13. The top two candidates in each race will move on to the general election June 19 with...
Sara Kennedy will be Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School's new principal starting with the 2021-22 school year. Kennedy, who has worked as the school's dean of students since 2019, was approved as the new principal at the May 10 Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting. After 40 minutes of the board being in executive session, and prior to the board's approval of Kennedy, Superintendent Paul Turner said, "I wholeheartedly recommend Sara Kennedy to take over the position. She's done...
Although there will be no tours of the Grand Coulee Dam this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working on a plan for the return of the Laser Light Show and for opening its visitor center. USBR Public Affairs Specialist for the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region Erika A. Lopez told The Star that tours will not be conducted this year at Grand Coulee Dam “because of CDC–recommended COVID-19 restrictions.” “Visitors will be unable to safely maintain social distancing of six feet on the tour buses and dam elevator,” she said. Lopez also said...
During a Grant County Leadership ZOOM meeting May 5, people from various organizations discussed how to market COVID-19 vaccines more effectively. Misty Aguilar, public information officer for the Grant County Health District, said that Grant County’s numbers continue to increase. “We get several cases every day,” she said. “The majority of the cases are coming from ages 19-40.” She said that if Gov. Jay Inslee hadn’t paused the phases of the state’s Covid recovery plan, Grant County would have been rolled back to a more restrictive p...
You may learn a thing or two about local history if you pick up a copy of a new book titled "Dry Falls and Sun Lakes" from Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series, which includes early and rare photos of that area. Local man John "Jay" M. Kemble compiled the book following his 2020 publication titled "Steamboat Rock" in the same Images of America series. "I hope I am presenting several stories that tie together to create a larger whole," he said about "Dry Falls and Sun Lakes," which...
While our four kids were home, we always tried to take a good family vacation. One year we took a month, and in our Chevy Impala we took off for an intended trip to Houston, Texas, then over to San Diego and up the West Coast. I mention the Impala because there wasn’t a center console, and we had wide seats front and back. That put three in front and three in back with a rotation system so everyone had a chance to sit in front. We took off through Idaho and stopped at my wife’s folks’ and family. Then we were off to Utah, and started poppi...
When Congress established the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) in 1935, it was intended to provide temporary and partial income replacement for workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It was supposed to be a “bridge” to a new job and not “in lieu of compensation” to remain jobless. The coronavirus pandemic produced massive layoffs. The resulting economic downturn swelled the ranks of unemployed Americans by more than 14 million — from 6.2 million in February to 20.5 million in May 2020, Pew Research reported. The unemp...
Voters will decide on about 30 positions up for election in the 2021 elections for local town councils, school boards, and more. Candidate filings of intent to run for these offices are open from May 17-21. Grand Coulee Three seats on the Grand Coulee City Council are up for reelection this year, all to four-year terms. At their Jan. 19 council meeting, it was announced that three council members’ terms expire on Dec. 31 and are up for reelection in November: Council Position #1, currently held by Tammara Byers; Council Position #2, c... Full story
Local counties remain in Phase 3 of Washington's COVID-19 recovery plan, which means that the local Colorama Festival with its variety of activities in the area can go on as planned despite Grant County, for one, not meeting the requirements to stay in Phase 3. Grant County's incidence rate is 50 percent higher than current guidelines calling for it to be rolled back to Phase 2. "This is our wakeup call," GCHD Administrator Theresa Adkinson said in a statement Tuesday after Gov. Jay Inslee... Full story
Lake Roosevelt High School intends to hold a high school prom this month to give its students a sense of normalcy. “We believe as a district that students need a sense of normal and that traditional events should continue during this pandemic,” Superintendent Paul Turner said in a statement to The Star. “We understand that this event will look different from years past but are adapting to the current guidelines.” “Other schools in our area have opted to let parents host prom,” the statement continues. “If we host Prom as a district, we have mor...
The city of Grand Coulee is considering installing electronic speed limit signs on both ends of the city limits along SR-174 and paying for it with money brought in from a public safety tax. The signs would potentially be placed near East Heights, and the hospital and canal area. In both directions, while approaching town, the speed limit changes from 60 miles per hour to 35 mph. The public safety tax was started as a result of Grant County's Proposition 1, which passed in 2019. The proposition...
You may be able to spot a Grand Coulee Police car more easily if the department gets new badging for their cars. The topic of "rebadging" eight Grand Coulee Police patrol cars was discussed at Grand Coulee's March 16 council meeting. "Apparently, people think the wave is weird," Mayor Paul Townsend said about the current logo that is on the side doors of the police cars, a version of the city's logo which shows a drawing of the Grand Coulee Dam with a wave flowing from it. City Clerk Lorna...
When Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday that he and state public health leaders had decided to go easy considering a dreaded possible rollback to more restrictive public safety measures, no sighs of relief left his critics’ lips, just more grumbling. After watching case rates rise for weeks, public health quantifiers noted the trend had plateaued, leveled off. Critics of Inslee’s approach in deferring to public health experts and letting science guide the state through the pandemic, might have been expected to be glad they’d finally come down...
Damon Landeros is my great grandson. He’s really more than that; he is one of my best friends. Damon is a frequent visitor to our home and has the run of the place. He has two TV locations, the computer, and of course, the refrigerator. He has also been a great help around the house and does things to help without being asked. He has been here for almost all of the Gonzaga games, and probably knows more than anyone about Gonzaga’s program, except for Mark Few. He knows all the players, their numbers and most of their statistics. During the gam...
Lady Raiders win three of four close games The Lady Raiders fastpitch team lost a close one to Omak before winning both games of a double header with Almira-Coulee-Hartline last week. LR led Omak up until the seventh inning April 27 when "Omak's bats came alive and our defense did not respond," according to Head Coach Jaci Gross. LR lost the game 6-5. "Their pitcher garnered 17 strikeouts, which didn't help our cause," Gross said. LR offensive highlights include Emma Marchand going 3-4 at the pl...
Community members aren't happy with library-related decisions made at the administrative level that have affected the local library and that have led to the resignation of branch librarian Lisa Moore. The topic was brought up at Grand Coulee's April 20 council meeting, where the council discussed workers at the library being required to "have some kind of degree," a requirement Councilmember Alan Cain called "elitism B.S." City Clerk Lorna Pearce said that a representative from the North...
Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School is in need of a new principal again with current Principal Kirk Marshlain resigning to take a special education director position in Okanogan. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors accepted Marshlain’s resignation, effective June 30, at the April 26 board meeting. Marshlain has served as principal for the past two school years at LR. “It’s a decision that came based on family needs and trying to raise my family and provide what they need,” Marshlain told the board. Marshlain said hi...
The continued closure of a city emergency route during a long-stalled federal construction project is worrying the city council in Grand Coulee. During their April 20 meeting, the Grand Coulee City Council discussed the continued closure of B Street during construction of the US Bureau of Reclamation’s fire station located along SR-155. The bureau awarded the $13.6 million construction contract in 2016. Construction began in April of 2017 and was originally scheduled to be complete in the first half of 2018. Numerous delays, including c...
The Colorama parade will be held like normal along it’s Midway Avenue route, but button raffles will be held online with multiple prize drawings held over multiple days. “The parade is on!” Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachel Haven told The Star in an email. Haven received official word that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be opening B Street, which runs near the fire station they are constructing, as an alternate route which allows Midway Avenue to be used for the parade. Colorama buttons are also out and f...
With five more dead in Grant County from COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy apparently on the rise, health officials issued pleas this week for people get use the available “tools to take the fight to the virus.” The five deaths reported by Grant County Health District Monday night bring the county’s total fatalities to 120, and officials noted the ages of those who don’t survive is trending younger than it was early on as seniors were the first non-healthcare group to be allowed to get vaccinated. All Moses Lake residents, they were man in his... Full story
School leaders chose NAC Architecture as the district’s new architect during their April 26 board meeting. A week prior, the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors had interviewed both NAC and Design West Architecture and had the week to review each of their statements of qualifications. The board’s decision was made without much discussion. Superintendent Paul Turner explained last week that once the architect was chosen, the district could then move onto the next step, which is to collect community input on what they want to do...