News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Grant PUD’s decision to pursue a partnership in a next-generation nuclear power plant stems from the same circumstance that incented Columbia Basin Hydropower’s interest in its Banks Lake Hydropower project. The factors driving this grip all of us; change is inevitable. Both the PUD and Columbia Basin Hydro figure more power will be needed in the coming years, and that much of it will come from renewable energy developments that need a more stable, fairly permanent source of power to steady their less-than-stable energy flow. Both of those pro...
Things look pretty bad right now for the people of Burma. In my visit to Burma, I found the people of a peaceful nature, but governed by military men who at the time stayed in the background. Since that time, there was a peaceful transfer of power to an elected government. That didn’t last long. Power grabs people and doesn’t let go. We have seen the evidence of this here in our own country. While there, I observed uniformed men carrying rifles on most street corners. They weren’t threatening, but their presence was unsettling. While everything...
The Ever Given’s grounding in one of the narrowest parts of the Suez Canal underscores the vulnerability of the world’s supply chain. The reverberations will be felt for months as consumer demand, suppressed by the COVID pandemic, ramps up. The canal, which was completed in 1869, is the main shipping artery between Asian and European seaports through which 10 percent of the global shipping traverses. Much of the 120-mile waterway is extremely narrow, especially for ships as long as the Empire State Building (New York City) is tall (1,300 ft....
As public health authorities track cases of COVID-19, they worry that just as vaccines are rolling out faster, spring, sunshine and the yearning to breathe free could undermine progress on the fight against the virus and cause another surge of illness and death. As numbers come down, then stop dropping, they're tending to "plateau" at a level higher than earlier plateaus, Coulee Medical Center CEO Ramona Hicks told her commissioners at a meeting Monday night. She'd been on a weekly health care...
The area comprising the Grand Coulee Dam School District has a 14-day COVID-19 incident rate of 263 cases per 100,000 population. The district’s website, www.gcdsd.org, includes a link to a Covid report compiling data from the five local zip codes within the district including 99123, 99133, 99155, 99124, and 99116. Updated on Friday, the report shows 11 cases within those zip codes making for the incidence rate of 283 cases per 100,000 population, as of March 26. In Grant County, the incident rate as of March 26 was 211. As of March 29, t...
Nespelem School has been phasing students into in-person schooling. The school board approved the return to in person school at their meeting held at the end of February. Principal and Superintendent Effie Dean told The Star that Indian Health Services vaccinated the school staff in February, giving the school board the confidence to bring kids back to in-person school. Dean said the school started phasing students into in-person schooling a couple of weeks ago with kindergarten through second-grade students attending for about a full day of in...
If awarded a grant, Grand Coulee’s Shane Proctor Park could have new playground equipment, a half-court basketball court, and more. The city of Grand Coulee applied for a $162,000 grant from the Ephrata-based Paul Lauzier Foundation to make improvements to the park located along SR-174 between the gas station and the Mexican restaurant. The grant would pay for new playground equipment and playground surface, a half-court basketball court, and to make the park compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. “The last couple of years the...
The Colorama Rodeo this year will include a show put on by Jason Dent, also known as Whistle-Nut, and his pet bull that he can ride around like a horse. Whistle-Nut is an entertainer, barrel man, clown, and stuntman "all rolled into one," he told The Star over the phone on Monday. "We're the real deal. ... They can expect to really be wowed," he said about his show that includes comedy, stunts, and personal interaction with the crowd. Ole (pronounced OH-lee), now 15 years old, was trained as a...
If you asked someone who the heroes of World War II were, you would probably get FDR, Gen. MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Gen. Patton, and so on. And they would be correct. But what about the unsung heroes? The kids across America did their part in the winning of World War II. They became a gigantic salvage yard operation in collecting aluminum, rubber and iron, and buying Savings stamps and bonds. When the country was asked to bring in salvage items to help the war effort, millions of young boys and girls really rolled up their sleeves and got...
Catastrophic wildfires have had a devastating impact on our region. Wildfires can ravage vast sections of our state, displacing families, putting firefighters at risk, and leaving long-term economic recovery challenges. One of the key elements to minimizing our risk of wildfire is to engage in responsible forest management practices and to greatly reduce the small diameter trees, organic waste, and logging slash throughout our timberlands. Throughout my years in the Washington State Legislature, I have been an active supporter of efforts to...
A year into living with the ramifications of a global pandemic, it is clearer now than ever before how important science is to our decision-making – and how quickly it can get tossed to the side in lieu of more politically expedient “truths.” When other countries join the fray to undermine our nation’s stability, annoyance quickly gives way to alarm. China is leading the latest attack against America with one goal in mind: to undermine our nation’s food supply. Alarming, to say the least. China is asking the World Health Organization (WHO) to d...
Students at Lake Roosevelt Schools will attend in person more than they have in a year, following the passage by the school board of a new schedule aimed at accomplishing increased face time with teachers and peers, even with masks. The new schedule will get kids in classrooms half a day Monday through Thursday, beginning April 12, nearly doubling their time physically in school but cutting time for those who wish to keep learning online. Fridays will be used to help students who need extra help catching up after a year of mostly online...
The annual spring cleanup will be free after all. The Regional Board of Mayors, after being awarded a grant, chose during a special meeting March 18 not to charge locals for dumping yard waste at the Delano Regional Transfer Station during spring cleanup week, which runs from April 3-16, with days depending on each town (see the ad on page 2). Originally, the mayors had chosen this year to charge a fee for pickup loads of yard waste taken to the transfer station to cover the costs of taking that waste to the landfill in Ephrata. They were previ...
Pedestrians in Elmer City will be more footloose and fancy-free with a pathway project being completed later this year. In 2018, phase one of the pathway project built a path along the Lower River Road from Third Street to about halfway to Front Street, with two crosswalks connecting to the Downriver Trail across the Lower River Road. Phase two will finish the path down to Front Street. Front Street’s sidewalk, which currently stops short of the corner with the Lower River Road, will be completed and connect with the pathway. During their M...
Scouts are staying busy with another food drive. “A food drive is always helpful,” said Carol Nordine, who manages the local Care and Share Food Bank located at the Nazarene Church on the outskirts of Grand Coulee heading east on SR-174. “It gets us a variety of things we normally don’t have.” The boys and girls in the local troops left bags at area residences last weekend with a flier explaining how to donate food. Residents are encouraged to place food in the bags and leave them outside their homes before 9 a.m. this Saturday, March 27,...
Raiders win third straight football shutout The Lake Roosevelt Raiders football team defeated the Manson Trojans 41-0 in Coulee Dam Friday, their third straight shutout in a row, for a 3-0 win-loss record. The Raiders first got on the scoreboard when quarterback Hunter Whitelaw powered his way into the endzone on a short run after the Raiders made their way downfield. Next, Whitelaw threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Sam Wapato, and then ran a 50-yard touchdown run to end the first quarter with...
The vaccine showed up, the numbers are going down, and places are beginning to open back up. While the hope of a return to normalcy may be peeking out, I want to remind ourselves that some of the worst repercussions of this pandemic are beginning to emerge. This past week, a tragedy, a suicide, occurred with a high school student right in our area's backyard. While we all wish it was an anomaly, the truth is that the pain is right here in our house. Life can be difficult no matter who you are,...
It is said that a dog is man’s best friend. If this is true for you, then you have a serious problem. I’ve only had one dog that ever came close, and I will get to that in a minute. My first dog was a collie/shepherd mix, called “Scottie.” I remember how he would sit out on the lawn until he could see me in the distance coming home from school. He had a body clock that would tell him that I would come into view soon. He could see me drop down off North Hill when I was about an eighth of a mile away, and he would come running down the road to...
Surprisingly, there is something U.S. Presidents agree upon: America’s economic and national security hinge upon maintaining our technology edge in semiconductors. Those tiny computer chips are the brains of modern electronics. They operate our laptops and smart phones and permeate every sector of our lives from farming and manufacturing to health care and public safety. They are embedded in our military’s most advanced equipment and give us a tactical edge. Semiconductors are among our nation’s top five exports. The Semiconductor Indus...
Anyone can now either sign up for a vaccination event in Grand Coulee this Friday or get on a list to get vaccinated against COVID-19 through a state website Grant County Health District made live last week. So far (11 a.m. March 17), about 576 appointments are already set up for the drive-through event in Coulee Medical Center's parking lot from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The website seems improved from an earlier version and is simple to navigate. It...
Whether they continue to share a wastewater treatment facility with Coulee Dam, or build their own, Elmer City ratepayers are looking at higher sewer rates, but how much higher remains to be determined. The Elmer City council watched a presentation from Project Engineer Nancy Wetch of Gray and Osbourne last Thursday night. Wetch’s report compared the estimated cost of building Elmer City’s own wastewater treatment facility to the costs of renegotiating their current agreement with Coulee Dam, which expires at the end of 2024. The report loo...
The need for a community basketball court was discussed at a parks district meeting last week. Commissioners for the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District met on March 10 via Zoom for the first time since December. Commissioners discussed pursuing grants for projects in North Dam Park, such as for new playground equipment, which was a top priority for respondents to a poll The Star conducted in December. Respondents to that poll also expressed wanting a full-size basketball court, with the current single basketball hoop at the park, on a...
The town of Coulee Dam still plans on its traditional, spring cleanup help with yard waste despite the fact that the areawide spring cleanup was altered this year. Grant County officials told the Regional Board of Mayors recently that the traditional waving of fees at the transfer station for spring cleanup is not legal, so the mayors agreed on a reduced fee for dumping yard waste, not free. Coulee Dam has its own spot for dumping yard waste, so will continue with that service for its citizens April 3-10. “Since we do not use the landfill to d...
Electric City will be holding its second informal meeting with the community where people can give their input and ask questions about the goings on of the city. The meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 20, from 1-3 p.m. at the American Legion building on Coulee Boulevard. The mayor, city engineer, and members of the city planning commission and city council will be available to talk to the public. Topics at the meeting include sidewalks being built, the pedestrian waterfront pathway project, an informal poll on a community park, changes to...
American Legion #157 Commander Jim Brakebill spoke to the Regional Board of Mayors March 8 about wanting to create a veterans’ memorial for the Coulee area. Brakebill emphasized the idea for a memorial was only in the earliest stages, and he wanted to involve the mayors and communities so that people could share their input on the project. Various possibilities were discussed in brief, including the options of having lighted flags for the different branches of the military, and of selling bricks with the names of service members printed on t...