News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Lacy Ward has been working hard and got caught doing it - by the new school district superintendent. Superintendent Rod Broadnax honored Ward Monday night with the first of what he calls the "Superintendent's Spotlight" for "going above and beyond." Broadnax said since his arrival July 1, he's been observing employees and noting who he thinks should be recognized for extra effort, noting Ward's work several times. Ward runs the SHARP Kids program, which engages students after school and had a...
You may or may not know, but I started my culinary career on Maui. I went to culinary school and the Maui Culinary Academy, worked in restaurants and as a private chef across the entire island. I spent nearly five years on the beautiful island, and it will always be my home away from home. If my family weren’t here in the Coulee, I would probably still live on Maui. I love Maui. My heart is broken by the destruction that Maui has faced. Currently, Maui is struggling. Beginning last Tuesday, a series of wildfires attacked and wiped out homes, b...
Four towns and/or cities, but the largest community in the area needs some help! 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...
Happy Humphrey was a professional wrestler. He stood out because he weighed over 600 pounds. Happy came to Boise near the twilight of his career, and the place where he wrestled had to be reinforced due to his weight. The wrestling promoter had tried to convince me that I should cover pro wrestling. I told the promoter that I would cover Happy’s match if he would let me interview him before the match. Happy wore britches and a huge shirt, and he resembled a rodeo clown. He was huge. I challenged him and said I didn’t think he weighed over 600...
Fire fighters scrambled to attack five fires that started Sunday afternoon as a slow-moving lightning storm torched brush and grass in Douglas and Grant counties and prompted a "county-wide" call from local fire chiefs. In Douglas County, a fire at Road 28 Rex was first reported at 4:26 p.m., followed seven minutes later by reports of fires at Pendell Road, two in Grant County in and near Pleasant Valley on the north side of Banks Lake, and another at Barker Canyon at 4:35. Douglas County Fire...
Quite a few years ago my friend, Will Chaussee, asked me to take some time during my trip to Thailand to see if there might be any Thai interest in purchasing sapphires from his mine in Montana. Will had a cedar lumber company in Bothell and sold out his interest in it to spend full time mining sapphires. The mine was halfway between Hamilton and Philipsburg, Montana on mountain road 38. We were invited several years in a row to vacation at the mine. There was good fishing in a creek running nearby, and, of course, the promise of sapphires....
After their daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes last year, they're forming a new group to bring awareness about the disease and to support kids who have it. The group, with the help of donors, are putting on a free barbecue at Grand Coulee's park on SR-174 near La Presa. And they had a table at last week's National Night Out event in Grand Coulee to promote the effort. Kinzley Dennis got the diagnosis one day after she turned 10 last November, said her dad and the group's president,...
It all ended well, with a young rock climber apparently still healthy after hanging for hours in a harness off a cliff at Northrup Canyon Saturday night, unable to go up or down. The canyon, an offshoot of the Upper Grand Coulee faces Steamboat Rock of highway 155 cutting into the coulee wall. The terrain features "steep cliffs, massive boulders, thick brush and a small crevice that would be difficult to bring equipment through," noted Grand Coulee Police Officer Kline, who was first on the...
Under 200 voters chose the two candidates who qualified Tuesday to run for mayor of Grand Coulee in the November general election. The names of Mike Eylar and Chuck Crowe will appear on the ballot. The race required a primary election to narrow the field of three candidates to two. Eylar garnered 164 votes, or 82.83 percent. Crowe took 23 votes (11.62%), and Kimberly Christensen got four of the 198 votes cast, according to the unofficial results published by the Washington Secretary of State....
Families mingled as a live band played, kids cooled on an inflatable water slide, and fire fighters practiced tearing apart a car during a National Night Out event put on by the Grand Coulee Police Department Tuesday night. Police officers of many kinds also mingled or offered information from booths, including Colville Tribal Police, National Park Service rangers, State Parks rangers, and, of course, the sponsoring Grand Coulee officers. They had closed Midway Avenue and diverted traffic for...
The ground has shifted beneath community journalism, and the new landscape has a different feel. These days, good cameras in almost everyone’s pocket and the emergence of social media turns the possibilities around from what existed even a decade ago, and that is both good and bad. Last week, The Star reported on the funding found for Elmer City’s new fire engine storage facility. Part of the information for that story came from a couple sources that would have been impossible a few years ago. A group of volunteers called Okanogan County Wat...
As many struggle to make ends meet because of inflation and our state having the most expensive gas in the nation, the last thing they want is to pay a big new tax. Yet, that is exactly what Washington workers now face. A payroll tax, which went into effect on July 1, is being taken out of most employees' paychecks. This tax is currently equal to $58 annually for every $10,000 in pay. It supports a government-run long-term care program called WA Cares, created by majority Democrats in the...
Last week I came across a number of old letters written to me from my three older brothers who served in various theaters of war during World War II. They were written in the 1940s, some nearly 80 years ago. The question I am facing is, do I toss them or hang on to them? So, I settled in for a trip down memory lane and decided to re-read them. My three brothers were Richard, who was drafted and served in the army; David, who was drafted and served in the air force; and Robert, who volunteered in the navy when he was 17. I have several letters f...
People on the Grand Coulee City Council think the city may have to find a way to keep services going that some citizens may well take for granted: fire and ambulance. A discussion last week centered around whether to hold public meetings first, or decide on a possible solution before presenting it to the public at large, even beyond Grand Coulee. The city’s ambulance service is already serving a larger area. Coulee Dam no longer has a functioning service, and those in Grand Coulee’s regularly cover calls to the other three local cities. Get...
The only reason North Dam Park is still green and lovely is spelled: The Coulee Area Park and Recreation District, an entity run by volunteers, at least some approaching burnout. CAPRD is an actual government organization, created in 2003 by a vote of the people within its boundaries, which stretch from Disautel Pass to Steamboat Rock, a design intended to give it enough reach to empower everyone to contribute minimal amounts to a collective benefit and initial target: siting and building a new...
For the past decade, the media has been obsessed with the idea of a growing divide between rural and urban areas, often portraying it as a deep chaasm separating the nation’s citizens. A recent example of this coverage took it a step further. Not only are we portrayed as divided, but there are now suggestions that we should make it official through a divorce. Case in point: the Greater Idaho Movement, an effort by its supporters in eastern (rural) Oregon to secede from Oregon and join Idaho. The grounds for the divorce? The rural-urban politica...
No better example exists of congressional Republican degeneration than comparison of Liz Cheney with Harriet Hageman, who trounced Cheney in the 2022 Wyoming Republican Primary by more than 30 points. Cheney occupied the third-highest position in House Republican leadership before being ostracized by Republicans for becoming the rare congressional Republican to stand up to former President Donald Trump. Cheney should be the No. 1 Hero of anyone who wants to save our badly threatened democracy, whatever one’s political stripes. In contrast, H...
After 26 years in Las Vegas law enforcement and another five in the in security and investigations at a resort there, Mike Eylar feels "It's good to be home," he said. Now retired, he'd like to see if he can make a contribution, so he's running for the mayoral seat being left open by Mayor Paul Townsend's decision not to run again. Eylar is one of three candidates for the job hoping to make it through the primary election ending Aug. 1 to make it to the general in November. He faces Kim...
American Rescue Plan Act money will round out what had been another shortfall in funds intended to get a new building constructed for the fire department in Elmer City. The final $150,000 was pledged by Okanogan County commissioners last week after Jimmer Tillman, public works superintendent, and Kelly Ross, the town clerk, had appealed to them June 26 to ask for help overcoming the shortfall. Okanogan County Fire Protection District 2 parks some fire trucks outside, which is bad for the equipment. Two years ago, they started seeking funding...
The new superintendent at the Grand Coulee Dam School District has set a schedule to be available on one Tuesday a month for either morning coffee or evening pizza to sit down and chat. It’s something he has done in other districts with some success, Superintendent Rod Broadnax said when he dropped off a flyer at The Star with a schedule through next May. “Parent & Community Engagement Opportunities with the Superintendent” will offer coffee at 10 a.m. for an hour. The first one is set for Aug. 29. Broadnax said it will likely take place at Vo...
Two local police departments will hold separate events to get together with citizens for some fun on the same date. “National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live,” explains the website that promotes the event that started in 1984. It’s always on the first Tuesday in August. Coulee Dam Police Department will hold their event at Mason City Memorial Park on Mead Way Aug. 1 beginning at 5 p.m. Mead...
I recently returned to Palouse to say goodbye to my final classmate. Bob Olson and I were born in 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression. We entered the first grade together in 1936, midway through some very hard times. In fact, 15 of our graduation class of 24 in 1948 entered the first grade together. Bob had requested that there not be a funeral service, so his younger brother Arvid chose a graveside event for those who would come. So Bob had been a friend for 87 years. That’s a long friendship. We were casual friends for many of t...
Rod Broadnax concluded a busy week at his new job with a report to the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors, when he was sworn in as the new superintendent of the district. Broadnax told the board he’d met with several teachers and other staff members during the week at their request. “All meetings were very collaborative and very supportive,” he said. The administrative team will be studying a book this year, he informed the board. “Is my School Better Because I lead it?” by...
The National Weather Service in Spokane has issued a Red Flag Warning for much of this region for wind and low relative humidity, which is in effect from 2 p.m. Sunday to 11 p.m. Monday. A Red Flag Warning means critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will be shortly. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior. * Affected Area: Fire Weather Zone 705, the foothills of the Central Washington Cascades;...
Sewer rates will likely go up in Electric City after the city council approved a funding package obtained by Grand Coulee to redesign and refurbish the wastewater treatment plant they both use. A grant/loan package from the Washington State Dept. of Ecology will fund the final design stage of the project for $1.452 million in engineering bills from Gray & Osborn, Inc., Electric City’s share of which is about $268,620. The total project cost is projected at over $12 million. The cities are looking at a completion date of 2027 or 2028. Loan p...
