News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 6969
Commissioners of Grant County Port District 7 have been in negotiations with the Colville Tribes for a possible sale of Banks Lake Golf Course. Commissioners met in a special meeting Sept. 6 to consider the sale and its details in a closed session, then reconvened to vote on giving President Jim Keene authority to continue to negotiate. The purpose of the special meeting stated on the agenda was to discuss a “Purchase and Sales agreement — Real Property.” The only action to be taken: “Motion to accept, reject, or ‘accept-with-changes’ the CCT P...
The city of Coulee Dam has agreed to pay over $70,000 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failure to file paperwork on time regarding its new wastewater treatment plant. A “Consent Agreement” and “Final Order” detail the town’s alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and its operating permit. They include not submitting a notice to both EPA and the Colville Tribes on time that the new plant was up and running or that the old plant had been taken offline. EPA said the city was years late in giving written notice that it had develop...
Merle Roberts, of Grand Coulee, earned a blue ribbon in photography last week at the state fair in Puyallup. Roberts named his photo, in dramatic dark gray shades of a local tree growing right out of rock, "Its A Tough Life." It took Best of Scenic for black and white photography. He entered it in the International Photography Exhibit at the fair, which he said meant he would go up against entries from New York and California, or even Hong Kong. "Yeah, you have to butt heads with the biggest...
I want to commend the Lake Roosevelt students who petitioned the school board to change the dress code to something more reasonable and less discriminatory. Often when people notice a problem we either stay silent or simply complain online and then go about our lives. That’s why it was so encouraging to see an example of people working together to set a goal, determine strategy, and present their case to decision makers. I hope this is not the last time these students use their voice and organizing skills. It’s cliche to say, but: You are our...
It is with great gratitude, humbleness and excitement that I submit this letter of thanks to the vendors who donated and made our first Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent’s Back to School Kick Off a huge success. We could not have done it without them. On the behalf of the GCDSD Board of Directors and our administrative team, we would like to thank the Tee Pee for donating all of the food, which included 250 hamburgers, hotdogs and buns. We would also like to thank Harvest Foods for donating all of the water and soda for the e...
There is an axiom: Don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good! That is important to remember when it comes to improving our air quality. While climate activists want to banish all fossil fuels to control greenhouse gas (GHG), it is not possible today without epic disruption to our economy, supply chains, jobs, and quality of life. Simply, getting to “zero emission” cannot happen by government edicts. It takes innovation driven by the private sector. For example, the California Air Resou...
The bloodshed was everywhere. It was all over my house, my parent’s house, my neighbors’ houses and splattered at any location in which anyone dared to pet my 9-week-old bundle of joy, Thurber the yellow Labrador. I was desperate to stop Thurber’s reign of puppy-toothed terror, but how? Why Are a Puppy’s Teeth So Sharp? Puppies, like humans, are born without teeth, but by the time they are 2- to 4-weeks old, they start growing “deciduous teeth” — the sharpest blades known to mankind. In the wild, razor-sharp teeth are needed to help puppies...
When it burned down on Oct. 12, 2021, Almira's school was so completely destroyed that only about 33 bricks of the old red-brick school could be salvaged. Those are now encased in concrete outside the brand-new school the community opened Aug. 31 for an open house and celebration by the community. They filled the new multi-purpose room to overflowing, necessitating moving the staff from the side of the new foldout bleachers to up onto the new stage, where the music and drama teachers plan to...
Coulee Dam is considering rezoning two properties for a use for which most people think they’re already zoned. Two buildings across Lincoln Avenue from city hall, built as dormitories in the 1930s, have been used as residences, a bed-and-breakfast, an assisted living facility, and as a place to stay for visiting medical professionals working at Coulee Medical Center. The current proposal would alter the city’s comprehensive plan to reflect such uses. A public hearing on the proposal will be scheduled, perhaps as soon as Sept. 27 if pro...
With students returning to college campuses, it is time to consider other ways for them to pay for tuition, books and living expenses. Too often, they resort to borrowing. Now, student loan forgiveness is spotlighted as the solution when it is only part of the answer. There are other ways. Student indebtedness is mounting. It is exacerbated by rising “total costs to attend” college (COA). The growth rate exceeds inflation, and interest rates on student loans are often higher than on homes. It...
There’s a reason the name “Jimmy Buffett” elicits immediate joy in the hearts of millions: happiness contagion. A study conducted by Harvard University and the University of California followed 5,000 people for 20 years to determine if happiness was contagious. The study’s finding: it most certainly is. If you smile at a stranger as you hold a door open for him, you transfer a positive, happy energy that he can’t help but enjoy. Better yet, according to Psychology Today, the study finds that the happiness you just infused in a stranger...
Last Saturday was football time. For so many of us it was time to slump down in the old recliner and focus on the television set. My days of covering football for a newspaper are over, but the season causes me to relive some peculiar football times. While at the paper in Boise, I had the opportunity to travel a bit. One trip was to Utah State University in Logan, Utah to cover the Idaho-USU afternoon game. I had a former colleague who was on staff at the Salt Lake Tribune. He asked me to travel with his paper's photographer from Logan to Salt...
If you've ever wanted to fish but don't really know how, now's your chance to fix that. The Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is offering "Fish Fest" this Saturday at Spring Canyon, and they'll be giving away free fishing poles to the first 300 kids 14 and under. If you're ready to get "SCHOOL-ed in how to fish," as the National Park Service folks teased on Facebook, show up early during the 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. event to "to learn how to cast, reel, and tie knots." At the free family friendly f...
Students racked up a policy victory at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School Monday when the school district board of directors voted to implement most of their recommended changes to the dress code, one evening before school began. A group of Associated Student Body officers and representatives had presented their ideas to the board Aug. 14 using a sneaky tactic: they looked and acted exactly like typical high school students, then admitted that only one of the eight of them was meeting the current...
Grand Coulee’s city council voted just days before they had no operator to sign a one-year contract for operation of its sewer plant via an independent contractor, on an emergency basis. At the time on Aug. 23, the current employee had given notice earlier this month to retire on Aug. 25 after months of being the lone operator. The contractor, SJ Environmental, had already been in talks with both Grand Coulee and Electric City about running the plant and doing other related work. The plant processes 184,000 gallons of waste a day in the s...
The plan is to make it across the country in 44 stops, while along the way garnering even more pledges of support for veterans' causes, and, around here, dodging wildfires. A group of bicyclists stayed overnight in Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee Saturday, leaving early Sunday morning on day five of their trek that started at the naval airbase on Whidbey Island. Their "Navy '83 Ride Across America" will get them to their Naval Academy class of 1983 reunion in Annapolis, Maryland in October. Allan...
For a lot of years, I have enjoyed how my family has grown. It started and flourished for a time with my four kids, two boys and two girls. It is always true that as parents we have notions on what our kids might become. Toss that idea; kids are going to make their own choices, and sometimes stumble along the way. If you are honest and clear your mind, you likely will remember a few times you stubbed your toes along the way. As parents, we have the unique ability to make adjustments and start over again. Sometimes it takes a lot of adjusting....
As usual, there was too much cross-talk and chaos on stage. And there was way too much partisan cheering and hooting by the audience. But the first Republican presidential primary debate on Fox News was an entertaining spectacle. Instead of watching Tucker Carlson interview Donald Trump on Twitter/X, it was a good way to check out the personalities and political positions of the GOP’s lineup of second and third stringers who have the impossible dream of beating out Trump for the party’s 2024 nomination. No one jumped off the screen and loo...
Firefighters from at least 10 different agencies fought a "stubborn" fire on a windy Friday weather forecasters had predicted could be a bad one. It was. The fire dubbed the Plum Point Fire erupted the same afternoon fires near Coulee City, Quincy, Medical Lake, and Elk started amid a Red Flag warning by the National Weather Service that fires that starting in the windy, dry conditions could spread rapidly. Initially estimated at 60-80 acres about 1:15, the Plum Point Fire was finally kept down...
A longtime community leader who revived the ailing Colorama Rodeo over a decade ago and focused on strengthening its sponsoring Ridge Riders Saddle Club, has died. George Kohout "was the epitome of Ridge Riders and Colorama Pro Rodeo, a community leader, the truest of cowboys from his hat to the bottom of his boots, and one of the greatest men the rodeo world will know from Grand Coulee" an announcement reads on the Ridge Riders' Colorama Pro Rodeo Facebook. "Our community and the area rodeo...
Many fingers are again pointed at electric utilities because downed power lines are suspected of starting another horrific wildfire — the one that raced through Lahaina killing hundreds of unsuspecting people. Who would have imagined that one day, the historic Hawaiian capitol on Maui would be a thriving tourist destination and 24 hours later it would be piles of smoldering rubble and ashes that included remains of people? Cellphone video reveals that high winds downed live electric lines, which...
The Community of Spring Canyon Cemetery was dedicated on March 30 ,1959, has 2,200-plus residents, 4.5 acres of grass, a park manager, council. The cemetery is privately owned by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Lions, but gets no state of federal money to operate. Like many other communities, Spring Canyon Cemetery board members are few and are aging and unable to do several of the tasks that are needed to keep up the cemetery in tip top shape. Yes, we have a grounds keeper like the other cities in the area, but the residents need help keeping their...
It’s not certain exactly how the wastewater treatment plant that serves the roughly 2,000 citizens of Grand Coulee and Electric City will keep operating after nine days from now. That’s when its current operator will retire. Currently, Grand Coulee has no one to replace that employee, and the city has been in talks to outsource operating the plant to an independent company on a contractual basis. That’s if the union representing employees will allow it, or if the contractor can justify that wage scale. All of that is uncertain, even unlik...
Update: 9:12 p.m. Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Dept Chief Ryan Fish said all Grand Coulee units were leaving Plum Point. Multiple fire departments were working the fire in Lincoln County. The fire began to grow again about 3 p.m. after it had looked like it was about under control until the wind kicked up. At 5 p.m. three Fireboss planes arrived, and worked for more than half an hour, repeatedly dousing the fire with water from Lake Roosevelt. By 6:30 p.m. flames were mostly knocked down but... Full story
Electric City voters will be asked to decide on whether to de-annex a part of the city they agreed to add back in 2009. The city council voted Aug. 8 that the city should place a measure on the General Election ballot in November to shed the city of some lands annexed to the east of SR-155 south of the causeway across Osborne Bay that belong to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation or the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Other lands on the other side of the highway, including the area containing Sunbanks Lake Resort, would remain within...
