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 full report on Electric City’s proposed Pathway and Revitalization project could come by late August, city Deputy Clerk Russell Powers said last week. The Washington State University Rural Communities Design Initiative team will be finishing up its report and then it will be reviewed by Electric City’s community committee. The city council then will review it and it eventually will become part of the city’s comprehensive plan. The WSU team, made up of Assistant Professor Kathleen Ryan and three students, was in Electric City July 16 for t...
A candidate running for Sen. Linda Evans Parlette's 12th District seat in the Washington State Legislature visited Grand Coulee Thursday, speaking to members of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. Jon Wyss, who has been a Gebbers Farms executive for 11 years, said he visits Grand Coulee often from Brewster to get his vehicle's oil changed at Jess Ford. He's running in the primary against Brad Hawkins, who has represented the 12th District in the state House of Representatives since...
The soon-to-be newest chief executive officer of Coulee Medical Center attended Monday night's public hospital district commissioner's meeting, saying he and his family are excited to be moving here. Jonathan Owens and family will be moving to the community on Friday, but Monday was the first of two votes of the commission required under state law to seat him as the man to replace current CEO Debbie Bigelow, who is retiring. "We're thrilled to death to be here," he said. "We feel like we've...
If you are finding it more enjoyable sitting outside on the patio this summer, there’s a reason. Mosquitos! Or really, the lack of them. Grant County Mosquito District 2 officials used a new granular product this year in an aerial treatment around the shore of Banks Lake. The application came in May, and mosquito officials reported last week that it was “very effective.” Officials had planned for a second aerial application this season, if needed, but it appears that this might not be necessary. District Secretary Carl Russell said that distric...
A 17-year-old was arrested and taken to Grant County Jail last Friday charged with attempted first-degree robbery after allegedly pulling a clear, plastic, air gun on a store clerk. The Auburn, Washington juvenile, only five days short of his 18th birthday, allegedly had entered Jack’s Four Corner Service, along with two other youths, and, after walking around the store, asked the clerk for a “swisher” (a cigar). The clerk asked for some ID and then refused the sale of a cigar, a police report states. Some words were exchanged; the youth left t...
The Moose Lodge in Grand Coulee Saturday hosted 10 girls for dinner who are the organization's reason for raising funds. The girls, from 8 to 12 years old, live on a 1,000-plus acre campus outside Chicago, Illinois, and benefit from the Grand Coulee lodge's fundraising efforts every month. "Mooseheart" is about a third of the national Moose organization's reason for existence. It's called "The Child City ... a home for children and teens in need, from infancy through high school." Its residents...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board adopted a $11,017,937 general fund budget for the 2016-17 school year at its Monday night meeting. The budget is about $500,000 higher than the previous budget and was described by Superintendent Paul Turner as austere. “We will have to tighten our belt this year,” Turner said. Turner noted that school districts are subject to decisions made by the Legislature and it isn’t always predictable what decisions might be made that affect school financing. In other funds, besides the general fund, the board...
Police arrested a man for allegedly pointing a rifle at and threatening a woman and her child Sunday. An occupant of the Hill Avenue Apartments, Levi A. Redd, 29, was arrested Sunday, and taken to Grant County Jail, charged with first-degree assault and third-degree assault. A woman in the apartment complex told police that Redd had a rifle, “something with a banana clip,” and had pointed the rifle at her and “scared her and her son.” She told police officers Chris McClanahan and Dan Holland that the man was wearing a long, black trench...
Given the current squabble about the Town’s Wastewater Treatment Facility, I suppose I should contribute my view. To begin with, this is a “simple” process and simple project: all of our Coulee Dam sewage is “domestic”… we don’t process or treat industrial wastes, we don’t process or treat commercial fruit canning. Virtually all we do is process and treat domestic wastes… it can’t be any simpler than this! And, virtually our population hasn’t changed for decades. In 1990 our population was 1,100 AND today it still is 1,100. And, our own T...
This letter is to voice our comments, once again, on the Electric City pathway project. We did read the newspaper article regarding the most recent meeting and were pleased that the citizens are standing up for their rights. The people have a right to be angry because they are not being heard. The meeting we attended was a joke – they only wanted discussion about the “vision” of parks and not the pathway. The council members have their minds made up – and yes, they think it is carved in stone! They are obviously not considering what the peo...
Dear Editor, This spring the (Okanogan) county commissioners found themselves with a big problem. They did not have enough money to pay 3-4 months of normal expenses until April property tax receipts arrived in the county’s account in mid-summer. Leah Cormack, County Treasurer of 10 years, reported at the commissioners' meeting in early April that she had never seen during her years as Treasurer as dire a revenue shortfall as had occurred. How did this happen? Aren’t two of the incumbent commissioners campaigning on successfully balancing the...
The school board accepted the resignation of Geary Oliver as head football coach at Lake Roosevelt High School at its meeting Monday night. The district has stated that it was exercising its long-established practice of awarding head coaching positions to sitting teachers, if they are qualified for the job. Advertisements for candidates to fill the position will soon be underway, and it is expected that Loren Endsley, Lake Roosevelt’s physical education teacher who acted as Oliver’s assistant last year, will apply. Oliver said Athletic Dir...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District hired a dean of students and a new athletic director at Monday night’s board meeting. Dean of students at Lake Roosevelt High School for the next school term will be Charles Pierce, from Soap Lake. Pierce will be in his final year for his principal certification at Whitworth College during the 2016-17 term. A person well known to hoop sports fans here, Levi Seekins, will take over as Lake Roosevelt’s athletic director, replacing Richard Black, who will retire in August. Black was named to the school boa...
Electric City's revitalization and pathways project got just a little tougher last Saturday in the second of two public gatherings designed to pull together ideas on what residents would like to see done in their city. Apparently, a lot of them like it just the way it is, at least those who showed up Saturday and were the loudest. About 45 people showed up for the outdoor presentation by city officials and a group from Washington State University's Rural Communities Design Initiative, made up...
Did you see a tornado near Grand Coulee Friday? KREM reports that one touched down here about 3 p.m. And they have video of one near the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights. If you have photos, we'd love to see them....
The state Department of Ecology disapproves of a replacement sewer plant plan that resulted from the contested 2013 election of the mayor of Coulee Dam. In a July 1 letter to the town this month, Ecology had critical remarks about Coulee Dam’s current wastewater treatment project, developed after the new mayor insisted all the options had not been analyzed. The letter was made available to town council members, by people outside of town government, in time for their meeting last Wednesday night. The letter stated: “Ecology recognizes the need f...
Newly elected Colville Business Council members were sworn into office Wednesday during the annual ceremony at the Colville Tribes’ center of government near Nespelem, the CBC announced. Council Members Sheilah Cleveland, Larry Allen, Georgia Simpson and William Womer were officially sworn in. Reelected council members are: Michael Marchand, Edwin Marchand and Joseph Somday, who will be working along with seated members: Ricky Gabriel, Jack Ferguson, Susie Allen, Bessie Simpson, Mel Tonasket, Andy Joseph Jr., and Richard Tonasket. The c...
A Coulee Dam resident asked town officials what they planned to do about some of the town's sidewalks that need repair. Fred Netzel had reviewed the town's Six-Year Street Plan and asked the council if it could designate over $600,000 to repair its streets, why council members couldn't also address the sad status of many of its sidewalks. City Clerk Stefani Bowden told Netzel that the street plan was only a wish list that the town had to create every year, and that there wasn't money available f...
A 10,000-gallon oil storage tank that will be jointly owned by Grand Coulee and Electric City has been delivered, but neither of the two cities know yet what the cost will be. That prompted Electric City last Tuesday night to shelve the issue until someone tells officials what their share of the cost will be. Grand Coulee City Clerk Carol Boyce said she has requested that the company that shipped the tank provide an invoice showing its cost. Friday there was still no price on the tank. That's wh...
Electric City is asking if Grand Coulee would be agreeable to arbitration in an effort to unravel a dispute between the two cities over arsenic treatment charges. At issue is about $39,000. The Electric City Council went into executive session July 12 for 20 minutes to discuss the conflicting charges, and then voted to seek arbitration. Grand Coulee would have to agree to it. Its council voted at its last meeting that they didn’t owe the fee. Councilmember Erin Nielson moved to stick with the agreement and not pay the fee billed by Electric C...
You probably can’t blame the heat; this is the coolest July in recent memory. So maybe some locals are taking their cues about civility, or lack of it, from national movements and leaders. They shouldn’t, but it can be hard to avoid. Reportedly, there was a lot of shouting going on in local public meetings last week. While it’s undoubtedly true that people are frustrated, they are not more so than citizens of the past. Our system of government, never easy, almost ensures some degree of frustration. But when reasoned, heated debate gives way t...
I played football with Geary Oliver, and he was the ultimate teammate. He sacrificed for others; his interest was always in the team and its needs, and he sacrificed his ego for that end. This was 1978, over 30 years ago. We were a good team with a winning record who missed the league championship by one game. Geary has been involved with LRHS football through many of the recent years, thin times often. When he took over the head coaching role, I was very excited to see his team progress and the excitement for football return to LRHS. Despite t...
Over the last 35 years our family has vacationed at the same place on the beach. While the buildings have been refurbished, the complex remains largely unchanged. However, our entertainment has changed a lot. We still swim, jump the waves and build sand castles, but our board games, puzzles and playing cards have been replaced with kids’ electronic tablets, smart phones and movies downloaded from the internet. We still take lots of pictures, but rather than taking them to film processing centers, we use cellphone cameras to instantly text a...
When students return to school this fall they will see six huge abstract paintings hanging in their school. The paintings, by Portland artist Lucinda Parker, feature two birds or fish in an abstract setting, with sayings painted on the frames. It will be a lesson, of sorts, to not only enjoy the painting but to understand and develop the meaning of the paintings. Two paintings are located in each of the two cafeterias, and one in each of the landings of the two stairwells that serve the upper...
The status of Lake Roosevelt High School’s varsity football coaching position was clouded last week when Geary Oliver resigned as head coach under unusual circumstances. Oliver had already been issued his contract for this fall, but was asked to resign because the district had indicated it wanted to go in a “different direction.” The football coaching position was the subject of a closed session of the school board on July 11, and in spite of the fact his contract had already been approved, the board left it up to Athletic Director Richard Blac...