News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 5076 - 5100 of 6918
Following a shakeup in the Coulee Dam Fire Department that came to a head last week, town leaders this week have stated their confidence that citizens are safe and that calls for emergency services will be met. “In terms of providing protection, we’re safe,” Mayor Greg Wilder said in an interview Wednesday, but there are definitely longterm issues that are being addressed. Within the last week, Wilder has received three resignations of longtime fire department and ambulance personnel. First, the fire chief, Robert Jackson resigned. Then Ben A... Full story
When you make a 911 call to report a fire in Coulee Dam you expect a town fire engine and crew to respond. Don’t count on it. Last week, Coulee Dam fire chief Robert Jackson resigned after 12 years as chief. When reached he refused to comment on his resignation. The issue came up at the Coulee Dam Town Council meeting last Wednesday night, and shortly after announcing it to the council, Councilmember Ben Alling, who has been a member of the fire department for 38 years, announced his resignation from it. Since then, Mayor Greg Wilder stated, a... Full story
The town of Coulee Dam has made an offer to Electric City to provide police services. The offer was sent last week and outlined for Coulee Dam Town Council members last Wednesday night by Mayor Greg Wilder. The five-year offer would begin in 2015 at $101,253.50, and include annual cost-of-living increases in each subsequent year. Currently, Electric City contracts with Grand Coulee for police protection, but its five-year contract runs out Dec. 31. The final year on that contract was about $80,000. In spite of the fact that Electric City and... Full story
Electric City will spend thousands less on boosting tourism efforts and related job growth after the city council reversed itself in a 3-2 vote last week. The council last Tuesday night backed off its previous decision in November to spend 75 percent of its annual hotel/motel taxes each year, choosing instead to stay with its present ordinance that fixes spending at 50 percent of what comes in during a given year. John Nordine, one of two council members on the tourism committee, told the council that he would still like to see the city do a... Full story
Lucinda Parker, an abstract artist from Oregon, has been commissioned to produce $75,000 worth of artwork for the new school complex. Parker was one of scores of artists recommended to a local committee by the Washington State Art Commission. The $75,000 project is required as part of the public building/art program and is administered by the state art commission. Nate Piturachsatit outlined the local committee’s selection to Grand Coulee Dam School District directors Monday night and indicated that dozens of artists were considered before P... Full story
Elmer City passed its 2015 budget last Thursday night — barely. The $674,662.80 budget passed with a 3-2 vote. A large portion of the budget, $244,971, is pass-through money that will come in 2015 from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board for a street and sidewalk project scheduled for 2016. The budget and council meeting took a dark turn as the lights went out just as the meeting was scheduled to begin. Out came the flashlights, but within 10 minutes the lights came on again. The budget passed after some intense budget workshop mee... Full story
Evidently, we need a little more time to think. Each year, The Star solicits nominations from readers for Volunteer of the Year award, and each year, we receive multiple letters nominating between five and 10 individuals, any of whom deserve special recognition for the unselfish work they do in the community. But something about the timing, or mood, or perhaps just the exceptional business of this season, has limited the nominations to just three, only one of which is eligible. The other two have been awarded the honor previously, and the commu... Full story
With the Lake Roosevelt gym in the midst of getting a new roof, it hasn’t taken much over the last two weeks to send sports schedules into disarray, with schedules changing sometimes daily. The reconstruction of the leaky roof couldn’t be started until after the school district knew it would have money left over in its construction funds and has led to leaky conditions during a rainy November and December, cancelling, altering and postponing basketball games and wrestling matches. Senior high games have been moved to the old middle school gym... Full story
Grand Coulee Mayor Chris Christopherson has filed a public records request for all activity and minutes of meetings of the city’s Civil Service Commission from July through October of this year. It seems all part of the see-saw tug of war that has been going on in city government over the past few months as the city looks for a new chief of police. Alan Cain, chair of the CSC, said, “That’s fine, we have nothing to hide.” But the trust between the mayor and the Civil Service Commission isn’t fine, and Christopherson has been working to exclud... Full story
Below is a slideshow of 170 photos of the community taken since September, many that have not been published. You can go to Our Photo Site to see them larger, download them or share them on social media. You can even embed the slide show on your Facebook page if you like. These photos will be free to download until Dec. 31, and I plan to add more to this gallery. The password to download is Merry Christmas....
Grand Coulee’s city council voted Dec. 2 night to undo its prior move, made two weeks earlier, to take the city’s police chief job out of civil service protection. The 4-1 vote was to put the police chief back under the protection of the Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission. The issue came up as the council was setting its agenda for the evening. Council member and former mayor Tammara Byers asked that it be placed on the agenda for reconsideration. “I just never gave it enough thought,” she said, “and I feel that I made the wrong decision.” B... Full story
Pay raises for two Elmer City employees are intact as the town’s budget process moves forward. Now it will be up to the council to pass the document, this Thursday night. In a budget workshop, the second in two weeks, the council was split 2-2 in an advisory ballot, with Mayor Gail Morin breaking the tie in favor of the budget as it then stood. It was all over giving Town Clerk Renee Tillman and public works Director Jimmer Tillman a raise in 2015. This had been challenged by the husband and wife council team of Donna and Jeff DeWinkler. The D... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam School District taxpayers will be asked to vote on a new maintenance and operation levy, Feb. 10. The amount and duration will be decided Dec. 15, by the school board, after it receives a recommendation from an independent levy advisory board. That advisory board met last Thursday and will meet again at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10, in the new school conference room. Karen Depew was elected chair of the advisory board. Depew has chaired a number of the recent levy committees. The advisory board will work out the details of... Full story
As it stands today, Electric City will be out of police coverage for its residents on Dec. 31. It’s a money issue. Electric City pays for police protection from Grand Coulee, which wants more. Council committees of the two cities met a couple months ago and agreed to a price for coverage in 2015 at $115,000 — up from $77,000 in 2014. That would give the two cities time to come up with a comprehensive plan that could lead to a two-city police department. A week ago, Grand Coulee sent a contract offer for that amount to Electric City and to dat... Full story
As Coulee Medical Center works to build up its business to a sustainable level, it’s finding success with a homegrown approach to recruiting talent, Chief of Staff Dr. Andrew Castrodale said Monday, and it needs to. The feasibility study that underpinned the decision to build a new hospital several years ago called for staffing the facility and its clinic with four physicians by this time, plus a variety of “mid-level” health care providers. It’s been kept open by just two staff physicians, one of whom just left town on a one-year sabbati... Full story
People in Electric City interested in putting up larger shops and garages, or in preventing others from doing so, can attend a couple meetings in January on that subject. Electric City has scheduled two meetings in January to discuss and make decisions on zoning changes on accessory buildings. The first meeting, Jan. 6, will be a public workshop of the planning commission on various changes being considered. The second meeting, Jan. 22, will be a public hearing on amendments to the city’s zoning code. Changes to the zoning code as it relates t... Full story
Big Bend Community College will soon be hanging its shingle out at the former Grand Coulee Dam Middle School annex building. It will be the beginning of a Community Knowledge Center, where students and local residents can take advantage of a range of activities still to be developed. Barbara Collins, who heads the program for BBCC, said the initial activity will be a beginners’ computer class starting in mid-January. Big Bend has a number of Community Knowledge Centers, including those at Wilson Creek, Warden, Royal, Mattawa, Odessa and Q... Full story
Students, are you having trouble with your homework and your parents can’t help? Then North Central Regional Library might be your answer. Kim Mehr, out of the Wenatchee Public Library, and representing NCRL, made a presentation last month to students in seventh through 12th grades about services available for them, and homework was one of the topics. Students must have a library card, easily obtainable at any NCRL branch, and go online to the regional library home page at www.ncrl.org. Click on the Research & Homework tab. You can access i... Full story
Every school has its own culture or identification. The new Lake Roosevelt School is no exception. The character of a school is not easily transferable from one location to another, and because of this, officials are trying to help the new school complex develop its own and unique culture. Associate Principal Ronanda Liberty reported to the school board recently on efforts she is making, working with staff and students, to develop the school’s own unique signature. A school is just four walls, so to speak, until staff and students arrive. They... Full story
When it rains, it pours. At least most of the time. It rained inside Lake Roosevelt High School's gym last week - that's right, inside. Circumstances and a winter rain caught school officials off guard and it resulted in a wet gym floor that led to the cancellation of a basketball game Nov. 25. The old gym is scheduled for a new roof and new look, but a couple of things got in the way. School officials had scheduled a new roof for the gym but had to wait to see if there would be enough money... Full story
Remember that 911 outage last spring when the entire state had no emergency phone service? You would if you’d tried to place an emergency call that wouldn’t go through. The staff at the state’s Utilities and Transportation Commission remembers, and they are recommending penalty against Centurylink of more than $2.9 million. A UTC investigation found that some 5,840 emergency calls failed to go through in that six-hour period April 9-10, the agency said in a press release. All 6.9 million people living in Washington lost 911 service durin... Full story
Nate Piturachsatit has moved from physical education coordinator to counselor at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School. The change was approved by the Grand Coulee Dam School District board for the remainder of the year. Principal Lisa Lakin said this week that Piturchsatit is also taking his internship as a principal and expects to complete it this next spring. The district had the unexpected retirement of Rosella Covington, who held the counselor position at the middle school for a number of years. The district had advertised for a replacement... Full story
Grand Coulee’s city council changed its mind last week about protecting its next police chief by passing an ordinance removing the chief from Civil Service. Two weeks earlier, the council had voted 4-1 to keep the chief of police position under the protection of the Civil Service Commission, which is designed to shield public employees from political backlash. This time the vote was 3-2 to remove the chief from Civil Service protection. Councilmember Erin Nielsen asked why the ordinance was on the agenda, since the council had already voted f... Full story
Here's a quick video to give you a flavor of the event happening now....
The Grand Coulee/Electric City police contract for 2015 is in limbo. Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands said this week, “we haven’t seen any contract, yet.” Ever since voters turned down a real estate levy request by Electric City by a two to one margin (232-116), a police contract has been in question. The special levy would have raised $65,000 for Electric City. “Apparently residents don’t want police protection,” Sands said. The two law enforcement council committees had met several months ago and pounded out an agreement for $115,000 fo... Full story