News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Providing for senior housing needs is one part of plans by local developers for the land at the former Center Elementary School in Grand Coulee, who updated the city council on their project last week. Centerline Development, owned by Nic Alexander and Ian Turner, purchased the former school located on 8.3 acres between Spokane Way and Martin Road in 2019 for $155,000. The pair has planned to develop senior citizen living quarters at the former school, as well as single-family homes on the...
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is often misunderstood as favoring urban residents over rural. Formerly known as food stamps, a new study analyzing this program shows the opposite may be true. SNAP provides nutrition assistance payments to one in eight Americans every month. Approximately 16% of rural households use SNAP benefits, compared to 13% of metro households. In those rural households, a large majority of benefits assist vulnerable populations, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities. The...
After serving 14 years on the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors, Carla Marconi will be leaving the board after not filing for reelection this year. At their Nov. 22 meeting, Superintendent Paul Turner, Alternative Learning Environment Principal Mark Herndon, and Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School Principal Sara Kennedy all thanked Marconi for her service to the district. Colville Business Council Chairman Andy Joseph, Jr., as well as CBC Member Jarred-Michael Erickson,...
Hackers disrupted the Grand Coulee Dam School District’s board meeting Monday night as “trolls” who logged onto the Zoom meeting. Superintendent Paul Turner, along with the district’s board of directors, held the meeting in the school library while others attended via ZOOM. While Board Director Carla Marconi, who is leaving her position, was saying thank you to those who had just honored her at the meeting, a person logged on with the name “Taylor Duffy” and began playing a clip on a loop from the rap song “Wishing Well” by artist Juice WR...
It costs a pretty penny to throw garbage away, and not everyone wants to spend it. The Regional Board of Mayors is proposing a 33% increase in rates at the Delano Regional Transfer Station, which is on track to lose up to $150,000 a year, but the city of Grand Coulee doesn’t want to raise rates that much. All the local city councils must approve a raise before it can take effect. The county landfill in Ephrata, to where the garbage from Delano currently ships, hadn’t raised its rates in 13 years, but did this year. That 71.28% jump from $28...
Going once! Going twice! Sold! To the lady in the ugly sweater! A virtual auction, a collaborative dinner provided by local restaurants, an ugly sweater contest, wine and beer? What’s not to like? The Vintners and Brewers Auction, hosted by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, will take place on Saturday, Dec. 4, with dinner pickups from 12-2 p.m. at PK’s Culinary on Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee. The virtual auction will be held online from 6 to 8 p.m. The dinner includes loaded potato soup from the Hi-Dam Bar & Grill, smashed map...
For centuries people struggled to determine whether citizens would be governed by the Catholic Church or by civil governments, whether they would be ruled by hereditary monarchies or by elected governments, whether enslaved by fascist armies or saved by military forces from democratic nations. The US has long been admired for its democracy, but that image was damaged by the assault on the U.S. Capitol and U.S. democracy on January 6, 2021. Radical deviant politicians are now condoning and exploiting the people who hold bizarre beliefs...
What if Lake Roosevelt baseball and softball were played at the same place? What if there were two gyms? What if there was a track around the football field? After abandoning the costly, $50 million idea of locating all sports courts, gyms and fields at the main LR campus in Coulee Dam, the district’s board of directors spoke with architects about the idea of locating baseball and softball fields at the former middle school in Grand Coulee and building a track around the football field in Coulee Dam. The current tennis court would remain. T...
Local scouts collected about 1,200 pounds of food for the local food bank this past week. "The food bank is now very well stocked," said Carol Nordine, manager of the Care and Share Food Bank. Nordine said the collection was lower than normal. The drives usually bring in around 2,500 to 3,000 pound of food, Nordine said, but she also noted that there were two drives this year. She also expressed gratitude for cash donations of about $120 that she said are being used to purchase meat from...
People living near the cryptocurrency mining building on Coulee Boulevard in Electric City might have a point when they complain about the noise. Decibel meter readings performed by the city seem to justify the claim made in multiple complaints that the noise from exhaust fans on top of the building is too loud. The building manager’s own readings are lower, however, although he says he’ll do what’s necessary to keep the city happy. People have reported having difficulty sleeping because of the noise, Mayor Diane Kohout told The Star previously...
The newly passed infrastructure package approved by Congress last week promises to reach every corner of the country, and for rural America, funding for water and sewer, broadband internet, and electrical projects could have the most impact. An $11.7 billion annual increase for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds will assist small towns in making much-needed drinking water and sewage system upgrades. The federal-state partnership provides low-interest loans to eligible communities to improve their drinking water supply,...
With an estimated 300 ballots left to count before another vote count update Monday, incumbents in local elections still appear to be keeping their seats, according to Grant County’s website, which also states that 38.41% of the county’s voters turned out. In the race for Grand Coulee Council Position #1, Ben Hughes leads 92 votes to 58 over Tracey Wright, with there additionally being 40 votes for write-in candidates. For Grand Coulee Council Position #2, incumbent Tom Poplawski leads 133 votes to 52 over challenger Cameron Whitney, with the...
Local veteran Fred Long served in Okinawa, Japan, among other places, during World War II, and has stories from his time there that you can read. And he shared more with us last week. Long, who last Saturday turned 99 years of age, wrote a series of short stories in 1999 that are still on the internet. He had been approached by J.A. Hitchcock, a woman whose father had also been in Okinawa. She wanted to honor him and asked Long to contribute a story from there. One story turned into more, and...
Two levies with a combined tax rate of $4.20 per thousand dollars of assessed property value will be on the ballot in February to replace expiring levies of the same combined rate. On Monday, the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors approved two resolutions containing the language of the levies for the upcoming ballot. Together, the levies are expected to raise between $1.4 million and $1.7 million annually from 2023 through 2026. The Educational Programs and Operations Levy seeks an estimated $2.50 per thousand dollars of assess...
The Lake Roosevelt Raiders' football season came to an end in Davenport on Friday at the hands of the Gorillas. The playoff game started with a Gorilla touchdown, followed by a four-yard LR rushing touchdown from Brit Egbert to end the first quarter tied 7-7. In the second quarter, the Gorillas scored a rushing touchdown then a passing touchdown to go into the half leading LR 21-7. In the second half, Egbert threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Chase Marchand. With a missed extra point, this put...
The Lady Raiders volleyball team competed in the District 6 2B tournament on Saturday, finishing third with a 9-7 win-loss record for the season. The Lady Raiders defeated Tonasket in three sets on Nov. 2 at Manson High School to start the playoffs and qualify for the Nov. 6 tournament in Chelan. . In Chelan, the Lady Raiders defeated Brewster 3-1. "Our girls came out with pure fire," Head Coach Meagan Caudell said. "The one set we lost, we made some big adjustments and the power that the girls...
Incumbents in local positions appear to be keeping their seats as election results come in. Although there will be more votes to count, including 1,300 Grant County ballots, 1,760 Okanogan ballots, plus those arriving by mail postmarked on or before Nov. 2, vote counts so far for local elections have been posted. According to Grant County’s website, 25.35% of the county’s voters turned out. In the race for Grand Coulee Council Position #1, Ben Hughes leads 74 votes to 39 over Tracey Wright, with there additionally being 29 write-in votes. In th...
The Electric City council is prioritizing how they would like to spend $278,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. City Clerk Peggy Nevsimal told the council at their Oct 12 meeting that the guidance “is really loosey goosey” on how the money can be spent and how the city needs to report its spending. She and city engineer Steven Nelson, she said, have never seen money that is so “unstructured” regarding how to spend it, but there still must be a record of how they intend to use the money and how they ultimately do spend it. The cit...
The intersection of Electric Boulevard and Crest Avenue in Electric City was never perfect, and the city has considered its fourth change to its stop signs in three years. The cross sections of streets that make up the intersection never quite lined up. Electric Boulevard, which runs southeast to northwest, lines up. However, the section of Crest Avenue that runs down a hill from the southwest, comes into it in an off-kilter, caddy-wompus way in relation to the other forks of the intersection....
The Raider Cross Country teams competed in boys' and girls' district tournaments this past week. At the Central Washington 2B League Championship and state qualifier event at the Okanogan Valley Golf Course Oct. 27, senior runner Colton Jackson placed 16th, just two spots shy of qualifying for state. Jackson ran the 5,000-meter race in a time of 19 minutes and 40 seconds. "I think they all gave an effort that they can be proud of," Head Coach Matthew Timentwa said. The girls' state qualifier...
Community members like their spring and fall cleanups, a survey reveals, and expressing that may help pay for the cleanups. The cleanups involve free dumping of yard waste at the Delano Regional Transfer Station for residents of Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City, and sometimes curbside pickup conducted by local cities. Last week The Star reported that the Regional Board of Mayors was applying for a roughly $30,000 air quality grant from the Department of Ecology to pay for spring and fall cleanups in 2022, and a spring...
Some workers in Washington state, faced with the ultimatum to get the jab or lose their jobs, have chosen to quit or retire instead of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. With employees in various fields, including school, health care, and state government required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as a requirement for their employment by Oct. 18, many workers in the state have opted to retire early or simply quit their jobs. Locally, council members for the city of Grand Coulee, as well as the mayor, expressed support for city employees to make...
I am writing about the article published in the Star on October 20, 2021. I know you [Coulee Dam council member Dale Rey] didn’t mention my husband by name. However, we live in a small town where everyone knows everyone. PLEASE, get your FACTS straight before jumping to conclusions. John did NOT die from covid. John died from heart issues and kidney failure, as per medical records. PLEASE do NOT use John as an escape goat to mandate the vaccine. If YOU, Dale Rey, want to mandate the shots, I suggest you man up and do it. John did his r...
This morning as I was reading a book titled “Prairie Fires”, a book about Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser, I came upon an interesting “visual” showing how much three and a half trillion would look like. In June of 1875, a swarm of locusts came into the Midwest. Having telegraph, it was determined that this swarm was 110 miles wide, 1,800 miles long and between a quarter to a half mile thick, covering 198,000 square miles, an area equal to the area of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshi...
Taking a brief survey can help pay for 2022’s Coulee area spring cleanup, fall cleanup, and another spring cleanup in 2023. During the cleanups, residents of Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City are allowed to dump yard waste for free at the Delano Regional Transfer Station, and cities sometimes pick up yard waste for you from your street. Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout, on behalf of the Regional Board of Mayors, is applying for a roughly $30,000 air quality grant with the state Department of Ecology to pay for costs associ...