News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A large law enforcement grant Grand Coulee turned down last year due to lack of matching funds may have a new lease on life. A U.S. Department of Justice representative contacted the city last month indicating the department would prefer the $293,195 grant be used, even if it means forgoing the local match requirement and expanding the scope of possible activities that could be funded, according to Mayor Mike Eylar. “Apparently this is a matter of, it’s simpler for them to award the money without the restrictions than it is to take the has...
The Regional Board of Mayors again rescheduled the Whole-Community Town Hall, and much of the discussion will center on the possible creation of a regional EMS district for ambulance services. The joint public meeting will take place Saturday, May 18, at 10:30 a.m. at the Coulee Dam Ballroom, and will include time for comments from attendees. The Star editor and publisher Scott Hunter will moderate the event. The mayors whittled the agenda to two priority items: discussion of a regional EMS district, and updates on upcoming highway chipseal...
If you’ve gotten in the habit of driving uncovered loads to Delano, you will now see a fine for that on your bill, according to the board that oversees the transfer station. The Regional Board of Mayors discussed the issue at their April 3 meeting, prompted by Delano Manager Randy Gumm’s recommendation, due to an increase in observed road litter from dump-bound vehicles. He and his new attendant hires have noticed people hauling material into the transfer station that is not tied down or covered, “and we’re finding their stuff out on Alcan R...
Last month, I traveled to Anchorage, Alaska for a Maternal and Child Health Conference. This conference brought together maternal health experts and advocates to discuss the heart-wrenching maternal health crisis in our country and what we’re doing to promote better outcomes. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries. In 2021, 1,205 women died of maternal causes in the United States. In 2020, 861 women died of maternal causes in the U.S., a 40% increase in just one year, and some of our neighbors a...
Carmela Conroy gives eastern Washington voters the unusual, important opportunity to elect a foreign policy expert as their US Representative. As Foreign Service Officer for 24 years, she served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand, and Tom Foley’s Japan office. US voters must weigh foreign policy experience much more heavily than usual in their 2024 voting decisions. Electing wannabe dictator Donald Trump would be a huge catastrophe for our national security by his policies towards Ukraine and Russia, with most congressional Republica...
Ohs and ahs were the favorite two words uttered in the early days when visitors viewed Grand Coulee Dam. My first experience with the dam was in 1948, when a couple of buddies and I escaped the halls of our high school for the day and drove up here. I can’t say we were too excited, but it was clearly a memorable event. We started out from Palouse, hit Spokane, then the coulee, and we ended up in Moses Lake. My next trip here was in 1953, after I was married, when we moved to Grand Coulee after I took a job grading lumber at the mill in L...
In the United States, one of our most important freedoms is individual choice. However, the Biden Administration has unmistakably signaled its determination to advance its aggressive climate agenda at any cost — even at the expense of consumer choice — whether it pertains to gas stoves, dishwashers, or even gas-powered vehicles. As this administration continues their unconstitutional efforts to phase out gas vehicles in favor of electric vehicles (EVs), it overlooks a critical factor: the United States currently lacks the necessary inf...
Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School clubs are planning trips to Seattle and Montana, following Monday night’s school board blessing. The school’s Knowledge Bowl competitors will head to the University of Washington on a trip paid partially by their own fundraising efforts and supported by the gifted program and the Colville Tribes. Members of the team and advisor Pam Johnson advised the board of a transportation problem that is worsening as the group grows: They don’t fit in a Suburban. Johnson said they have a dozen high school students in the a...
All counties are required to install “Albert Systems,” a technology that notifies counties when there is an attempted cybersecurity attack, under a bill Secretary of State Steve Hobbs endorsed. Even though ballot counting machines are not connected to the internet, election data is oftentimes circulated on internet communication channels. Technology like the Albert System can help protect the security of county records by monitoring any attempt to manipulate, intercept, or tamper with data transmitted through these channels. While 36 of 39 cou...
The annual Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge is just around the bend, coming up on April 12-14 at Coulee Playland. In addition to the fishing tournament on Saturday and Sunday, the weekend will feature an expanded Fun-Day Friday on the afternoon of April 12 from 1 to 5 p.m., featuring live music and an open beer garden for the first time, as well as the popular rainbow trout net-pen for kids, crafts and face painting stations, gold panning, S'mores, and an expanded food vendor choices. "This year...
Electric City’s main sewer line repair job has received an offer of just under a million dollars in a combined grant and loan package from the state Public Works Board, marking a crucial milestone in the quest to prevent failure of the critical infrastructure running parallel to Banks Lake. The board, which provides grants and loans to municipalities for critical and emergent public works projects, awarded $998,680 — half as a loan and half as a grant — according to the city’s contract engineer, Marissa Siemens of TD&H Engineering. Once th...
Big maps up on a screen made an impression. The maps outlined all the areas burned by wildfires in Okanogan County. The first slide showed burns from 1982 through 2013. The second slide added what has burned since 2013. From a glance at the map, you might guess that possibly twice as much land burned in the last 11 years as in the prior 31. In a room full of firefighters and others concerned with keeping the county from burning up, it was an appropriate intro to the Community Wildfire...
For decades, the debate over grizzly bear introduction into the North Cascades ecosystem has raged on, and I have been fighting tirelessly to ensure that the voices of Central Washingtonians are heard. Regrettably, last week saw the release of the U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with proposed action on the question of introducing grizzly bears to the region. This proves that—once again—the Biden Administration is acting without due consideration for the concerns of Ce...
Last year I wrote several letters to The Star paper addressing people entering Grand Coulee at high rates of speed from the Bridgeport highway. Over the summer there was no traffic control, but I do feel good knowing the city hall’s well protected. I also asked for the city to install the solar slowdown signs that were purchased for traffic entering our town on Hwy [174] about eight years ago. Well, the signs were not used for the purpose they were purchased for. I have found the signs. They were installed at the corner of Federal and Main S...
When I was growing up in Palouse, I always had a job, or two. One of my early jobs wasn’t one of my best. In fact, it was often dangerous. We had a small bowling alley, six lanes if I remember correctly. I set pins. We didn’t have any automation in those days. They painted a black circle and the task was to set the pins exactly in the circle. If you didn’t put them exactly in the circle, the good bowlers would get really angry with you and sometimes let go with a bowling ball before you were ready. I was paid five cents a line. It was a crapp...
Easter is when potted Easter Lily plants start showing up in nurseries and supermarkets like poinsettias during the Christmas season. They adorn the altars and pulpits of most churches on Easter Sunday, but why don’t sightseers flock to fields to enjoy the spectacular sea of white blooms? The answer is a small group of family lily farmers who are bulb producers. They need to clip the flowers to concentrate the plant’s nutrients on bulb development. Fields of white flowers on the ground are not...
Don Redfield has been selected as the next chief of the Grand Coulee Police Department, a turnabout from the mayor's initial decision this month not to hire any of the candidates from the original pool. Mayor Mike Eylar's choice was unanimously approved by the city council at a special meeting convened last night, moving forward a process that had garnered public criticism from the department's rank and file. "Circumstances changed that made immediate action necessary," Eylar told The Star...
Local organizations received accolades Tuesday night as the chamber of commerce announced the winners of three awards voted on by chamber members at a dinner for that purpose at MPH Hi-Dam. Addressing a fairly young crowd, Nancy Zimmerman-Boord, executive director of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, noted that young people are starting new businesses or taking over established ones. "What I love to see about this community ... is that our kids are stepping up into owning...
A whole-community town hall has been pushed back a week to Saturday, May 4. The meeting will still take place at the Coulee Dam Town Hall Ballroom at 10:30 a.m. and feature all four local mayors and most council members from each jurisdiction. The Star’s editor and publisher, Scott Hunter, will moderate the event. The event is being organized by the Regional Board of Mayors. The agenda and format is still being determined, but attendees can expect to hear updates about regionally relevant projects, including road chipseal repair jobs that s... Full story
The annual Spring Clean-up dates have been set for the weeks of April 8th and 15th. Self-hauled yard waste (bagged or unbagged) will be accepted both weeks at Delano Transfer Station during the dump’s regular hours: Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge, but residents still need to weigh their loads in and out so staff can track the weight. Three of the local towns will go house to house for limb chipping, with varying schedules. Electric City’s chipping dates are April 8-12. City staff wil...
One of the things we liked to do when growing up in Palouse was go to the Washington State College baseball games. We really didn’t care about the game, but we went to see baseball coach Buck Bailey kick the bucket. Buck came to WSC in 1927 as an assistant football coach and became baseball coach. He was coach for 32 years and was tragically, along with his wife, killed in an auto accident in 1965. We didn’t care about his long time as baseball coach or his successful 603-305 record. We came to see Bailey kick the bucket. There were a number of...
Who would have thought that a small Oregon natural grain mill owner’s death would make national news or be the subject of a lengthy feature article in the New York Times (NYT)? However, 94-year-old Bob Moore’s passing in February did. The Times is published just off Broadway in the heart of Big Apple’s network television and theater district. Moore, with his white beard, wire-rim eyeglasses, newsie cap and bolo tie became a “food poster person” approaching the notoriety of KFC’s Colonel San...
It started out with an abrupt retirement announcement from the Public Works director — and didn’t get much easier from there at last night’s Grand Coulee council meeting. By the end of the evening one council member and two police officers — including an applicant for the police chief opening — were directly questioning the mayor’s decision to not hire any current candidates for that position. The unusually tense meeting happened on a night with an already packed agenda covering a road reconstruction project, in-town speed limits, several vac...
The third in a series of the "Okanogan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan" meetings will be held Wednesday evening, March 27, from 5-7 p.m., at the Lucy Covington Government Center, 21 Colville Street, Nespelem, the headquarters of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Any Okanogan County residents can attend the meeting to be able to "engage with CWPP partners and discuss community-level wildfire concerns and values at risk," an agenda for the meeting states. "We will...
The Grand Coulee City Council will convene for a special meeting Tuesday, March 26 at 6 p.m., the city clerk announced Monday. The council is expected to confirm a police chief candidate, a key move in a hiring process that has garnered criticism from Grand Coulee Police Department rank and file, and at least one Grand Coulee council member. Mayor Mike Eylar had originally declined to hire any of the candidates from the pool of five applicants, after interviewing the top three selected by the city’s volunteer Civil Service Commission. Since las... Full story
