News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Sunshine is so seductive, which you certainly know if you ever went to a school in springtime with windows in the classroom. It can ruin your focus, draw you out, trash the best of intentions after a long, dark winter just ended. Happened every year for me in grade school. I feel like that now, freshly, fully vaccinated more than a year after entering the battle against the pandemic, everywhere is begging to be a destination. Can’t really blame anybody for wanting to throw caution to the wind. Fortunately, that feels close to the r...
As your state senator, I am not opposed to taxes outright, but I do care greatly about the tax burden placed upon you. Taxes are applied to us at all levels of government (local, state, and federal), and government should always demonstrate a prudent use of tax dollars. As a state legislator, I am involved in “state” level taxes, not local or federal taxes. The primary taxes for Washington state budgeting include sales taxes and business taxes. Understanding the property tax system Of all the taxes that exist, the one I receive the most que...
Sometimes being first isn’t good. Such is the case with legislation making Washington the only state to ban natural gas in new homes and commercial buildings. Thankfully, the legislators ended their session in Olympia and left that bad idea on the table. However, it is destined to come back next year. The issue is complicated and expensive. Earlier this year, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) unveiled it as part of a package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It included a phase out of natural gas for space and water heating by forbidding the use of fossil...
While at the Statesman Newspaper in Boise, I was assigned boxing and covered a single pro wrestling event. The promoter of both boxing and wrestling in Boise was Al Berra, who operated a tavern in the downtown area. Al was constantly finding ways to build the gate for his events, and of course filling his pockets at the same time. He had built a stable of pretty good boxers, with two of them ending in the top 10 in their weight division. I was at ringside for all the boxing events and remember once getting splattered with blood, ruining a new...
Softball loses to Brewster, splits DH with Tonasket The Lady Raiders' fastpitch team won one and lost two this past week. Lake Roosevelt lost the April 20 road game against Brewster 13-7. "Defensively, we had too many errors, racking up nine!" Head Coach Jaci Gross said. "It was a great first game" with "a lot of positives" as well as "a lot of things we need to work on." "It felt great to have the athletes back on the field after a long absence," she continued. "I think we are all just grateful...
The Colville Tribes are interested in purchasing the community building in Coulee Dam that houses the old movie theater, bowling alley, restaurant, fire station, and more. At Coulee Dam’s April 14 city council meeting, the Colville Tribes Natural Resources Director Cody Desautel, who also oversees the tribes’ Real Estate Services program, asked the city council if they were interested in selling the building. Asked by Councilmember Merv Schmidt how the tribes might use the building, Desautel replied that it would be used similarly to its curren...
Receiving no response from the contractor that built their wastewater treatment plant, nearly to completion, has led Coulee Dam representatives to consider taking a trip to the contractor’s office across the state so the city can close the books on the cost of the plant and tell Elmer City what its share will cost. The wastewater treatment plant being built by McClure & Sons, based out of Mill Creek, Washington, is almost entirely complete, and is functioning, but some details are not finished, including installation of a handrail and some p...
Next Monday the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors will choose an architect to help design the future of their facilities. On April 19, the board interviewed two architectural firms: Design West Architects and NAC Architecture, and will choose one of them on April 26. "The board this week is looking at the material, looking through their Statements of Qualifications, so they can be ready," Superintendent Paul Turner told The Star on Tuesday. "Either one of them will be very...
The Community Crab Feed and Triple Fish Challenge events held this past weekend and sponsored by the local chamber of commerce were judged a success, especially by the angler who has been trying to win that tournament since he was 7. “The Community Crab Feed went great!” Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email. “The meals were delicious. We heard that many people were planning at-home crab feeds, which sounded like a lot of fun.” She said 300 pounds of crab from Pacific Seafood...
Each of the past several elections has thrust rural people into the media spotlight. Rural and urban people are divided, the pundits tell us. Neither understands the lives of the other, the news reports read. I find the entire narrative rather tired. It is rife with inaccuracies that I won’t try to unpack here. It is also a distraction. Spending our energy debating an unhelpful caricature of cultural divides keeps both voters and policymakers distracted from making changes that matter. I suggest we focus our energy instead on a simple q...
I’m writing this letter in response to the recent article regarding updating the Shane Proctor Park. I would like to suggest a new sign be added to the updates. The old sign (made from a broken pallet) is an embarrassment. Our hometown hero will be returning to the area for the Colorama festivities, and he should be welcomed back to town with a sign that shows our pride in him! Colorama is only weeks away. Maybe something can be done with this tacky old sign before he and his family arrive. Thank you for your time. Cheryl Pr...
A special THANK YOU to Katie & Jeff, Bob that came to help Evelyn & Carl Saturday cleaning up the gravel pit where people shoot rifles and shotguns. Evelyn & Carl helped Sunday afternoon along with a young man that was here for a wedding. Carl spent two hours Monday. A total of 15 man hours. We burned all wood & cardboard, recycled all plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Still ended up with 600 lbs. of garbage to go in the garbage dump. It is so irritating people think of themselves as SPORTSMEN when they leave all their trash, including...
When I moved here, I thought with all this water I would get some boating and fishing in. I was wrong on both ideas. First, I bought a boat, a nice little boat, 17 foot long, as I recall. Paid $2,000 for it. I had been told that the two days that stand out are the day you purchase a boat and the day you sell it. The only boat I had ever used before was a rowboat, a fishing vessel rented by several of my high school buddies and trolling by dipping the oars slightly in the water. I got a hitch put on my rig and wondered how I was going to do...
The saying goes: if you can’t win the debate, change the rules. And that is exactly what the Democrats in Congress are doing. Over the past few weeks, Democrats in Congress have pressed forth numerous pieces of legislation to change the one set of rules we all play by – our Constitution. They’ve usurped State’s rights in holding fair elections, are trying to turn the federal city of Washington, D.C. into a state to add two more liberal Democrats to the Senate, and now want to add more Supreme Court justices in order to tip court rulings...
OLYMPIA – Starting today everyone 16 and older who wants a COVID-19 vaccine can receive one in Washington. The eligibility expansion marks the four-month anniversary of vaccine rollout in our state. Since mid-December, nearly 4.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the state. More than 2.67 million people have received at least one dose and more than 23% of Washingtonians are fully vaccinated. Opening eligibility to everyone 16 and older will further protect our communities and help us get closer to crossing the f...
The school district will be interviewing, then selecting, an architect who could eventually design new athletic facilities, as well as options for what to do with the former high school and middle school. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors voted Monday to interview two architectural firms out of five applicants to a Request for Qualifications to design options for school facilities. The interviews of Design West Architects and NAC Architecture will take place at a special Ap...
Lake Roosevelt Schools are seeking a community review panel for their School Improvement Plan. “We are in the process of finalizing the LRHS School Improvement Plan (SIP) and would like feedback from our community stakeholders,” a description on the school’s website reads. The SIP is a document required by Washington State and “includes academic outcomes and action steps that focus on improving school goals, community engagement, equity, and other important factors for school success.” The SIP review will take place sometime from April 26-...
Nez Perce descendents who are currently in fourth through eighth grades have until April 27 to apply for a free rafting trip down the Snake River in their ancestral Nez Perce homelands. The rafting trip program seeks to have 15 youth from three different areas with Nez Perce residents to go on a 32-river-mile trip along the Snake River July 25-29, which includes two nights camping along the river. The program, paid for with grant money from the Gray Family Foundation, is being conducted in a partnership between the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland Pr...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District leadership is taking a good step forward by preparing for the day when funding becomes available to entities who already have plans in place for improvements. In fact, that’s exactly how the district got its new school built, by taking the steps necessary to be ready when fortune, or the state Legislature, or Congress, smiles. When the plans were already in place, the day came that a jobs bill was looking for a place to lay in some green. A sharp state legislator we had working for us knew what to do. S...
P.Y. Yee put clothes on you that fit and were of superior quality. He was one of the infamous tailors in Hong Kong, and I got to know him visiting his tailor shop in Hong Kong during my several visits there. It was like getting new skin, his coats and suits fitting so well. He had a remarkable memory, greeting me by name though my visits were a year apart. I learned of Yee through someone who had used him on an earlier occasion. His shop wasn’t fancy, and I often wondered what he thought of my store-bought clothes. He must have quickly g...
It isn’t often we hear good news from Hanford, but the Dept. of Energy recently announced the nation’s first commercial advanced nuclear power reactor would be developed on the massive federal reservation north of Richland. Much of the news from Hanford focuses on radioactive waste cleanup and storing it safely. It has accumulated since the 1940s when nuclear reactors enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. While that tedious work will continue for years to come, Hanford scientists have a new mission — develop smaller and safer nuclear react...
We all agree that senseless acts of violence are unacceptable, and in our nation of law and order, there is no room for gun violence. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration is utilizing heartbreaking crimes to push its agenda. Manipulating tragedy for political gain is just wrong. The recent shootings in Colorado and Georgia were absolutely devastating for the families and loved ones affected by these events. Now, instead of being allowed to grieve in peace, their lives have been turned into a political circus. And rather than offering viable...
A woman standing on two horses and jumping through a hoop of fire is something you have to see, and can see, at this year's Colorama Rodeo. Haley Proctor, wife of Grand Coulee's own national rodeo star Shane Proctor, is a trick rider in rodeos herself. Having seen her uncle do trick riding when she was little, Haley Proctor got in trouble trying to do things she wasn't supposed to do like standing up on her horse or hanging off the side. So her parents told her if she was going to do trick...
Grant PUD announced last week that it would join in a partnership with two other entities to pursue building a nuclear power project. The county-based utility that already operates two hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River will work with Energy Northwest and X-energy, in a "TRi Energy Partnership," a "mutual partnership to support the development and commercial demonstration of the country's first advanced nuclear reactor," the public utility district announced in a press release Thursday....
Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Nespelem, Rachel McClure now finds herself working for a congressman, striding two worlds connected by legislation with a large influence on agriculture. McClure grew up on her family's cattle ranch, near Nespelem, that has been in operation for over 100 years. "My roots are deep there," she told The Star in an interview conducted over email. " I feel very fortunate to have grown up in such a beautiful place and with access to horses, fishing, and all the...