News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 5931 - 5955 of 6969
City’s survey results reported A city of Grand Coulee survey, developed by Councilmember Erin Nielsen and sent out to 575 residences in the city, received 61 responses, according to a report at the recent council meeting. Comments of concern included law enforcement, city nuisance enforcement and the city’s overall looks. Nielsen said the survey was designed to help city government know what citizens are most concerned about and alert the council to anything that might affect the city budget. Of the respondents, 36 noted that they had attended...
Construction on the K-12 school facility is finally catching up to its original schedule, Superintendent Dennis Carlson told the Grand Coulee Dam School District board Monday night. By working Fridays, contractors are nearly back on their original schedule. Contractors faced some delays due to mistakes made on the original surveying of the school site. As a result of that, the site had been covered by about two extra feet of fill sand material. The added expenses incurred as a result of this is being covered by the insurance company of the...
Students in the Grand Coulee Dam District will soon be able to participate in a therapeutic horsemanship program. The idea was presented to the school board Monday night by Heather Downs, and it received support from the board. Downs explained that a small group of people here are cooperating with the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office in regard to abused and neglected horses. Currently the group has three horses, housed at the Chris Holman residence in Delano. It was proposed that working with the horses would be a good experience for special n...
The Coulee Pioneer Museum has found a home, at least temporarily. Birdie Hensley, primary activist for the museum, said Tuesday that the feed store building in Electric City, 3 Coulee Boulevard East, will house the museum. The store and property was recently acquired by A. J. Gerard. Hensley got the nod and immediately started moving things into the new location. At least, said Hensley, “we have a temporary home.” This will enable the museum to acquire and catalog donations. Meanwhile, the museum is starting the search for grants so it can est...
Brazen thieves made off with Banks Lake Pub’s 500-gallon propane tank sometime during the night, Aug. 19. Staff arrived in the morning and when they tried to get the kitchen ready for business — no propane. On checking the rear of the building, they noticed not only was the tank missing, but the thieves also took the copper tubing connected to the tank. Pub owner Charley Potts told police that the tank belonged to another person and he was just renting it. Potts checked with the owner of the tank, but he didn’t have it. Police stated in their...
Grand Alley in Electric City will one day become Grand Avenue, at least about 1,200 feet of it. The city council accepted a quitclaim deed Aug. 13 giving it a 15-foot strip of land along its present Grand Alley, allowing someday for a full width street. The city already has a 45-foot right-of-way through the alley. The 15-foot strip of land was left over from a surveying problem when developers put in housing on an 80-acre piece of land they purchased from homesteader Dover Perry. The three developers, John R. Whitelaw, A.J. Gerard and Bill...
Can you bake a berry pie? Or an apple pie? Then you better get ready to enter the community pie contest during the Harvest Festival at North Dam Park, Sept. 13-14. In fact, Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Manager Peggy Nevsimal said, “better bake two.” The plan is that one of the pies (either berry or apple) is for the tasting judges and the other is to auction off. It’s just like the community or county fair that all have enjoyed. A blue ribbon awaits some local baker whose pie recipe will hit the charts, at least for a day. Nevsi...
Pie contest planned for festival by Roger S. Lucas Can you bake a berry pie? Or an apple pie? Then you better get ready to enter the community pie contest during the Harvest Festival at North Dam Park, Sept. 13-14. In fact, Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Manager Peggy Nevsimal said, “better bake two.” The plan is that one of the pies (either berry or apple) is for the tasting judges and the other is to auction off. It’s just like the community or county fair that all have enjoyed. A blue ribbon awaits some local baker whose pie r...
A move to assure that class pictures and trophies at both the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School and Lake Roosevelt High School are saved and put up in the new building got approval from the school board Monday night. The walls in both schools are covered with graduating classes and the two trophy display cases are filled with trophies representing many memorable accomplishments. A letter to the school board from Lonna Bussert, the chair of the Grand Coulee High School Alumni Association, advocated the move. “With the opening of the new school w...
Different strategy, same results There’s an old saying, “There’s more than one way to catch a cat.” It means, if you don’t succeed one way, try again using a different strategy. In this case, the “cat” is the Columbia River — or more precisely, eliminating the dams and commercial use of the river. The activists’ vision of a wild, free-flowing Columbia River has great emotional appeal, but it would have dire consequences for our state. Those dams produce 75 percent of our electricity, maki...
The Grand Coulee Dam Cooperative Preschool is about to start up again for fall. The cooperative, which has operated for decades in the area, is currently taking applicants for two age groups of children: those who will be 3 years old by Nov. 1 for the regular preschool, and those who will be 4 by Sept. 1 for the pre-kindergarten class. Classes are taught by Becky Loch, who said she had only two openings left for the Pre K class on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., which costs $100 a month She said there were still several...
Seniors will soon find out if two is better than one. Friday, seniors received their second 14-passenger bus from People to People, a 2005 version, which will help serve the needs of local seniors. The Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center recently received their first bus, gifted from the People to People program. Already, seniors, once a month for $15, can catch the bus to Spokane for medical or shopping needs. Now a second bus will help seniors plan a variety of extra services as well as have a backup bus in case one goes down. The seniors are now...
Grand Coulee has changed its library ordinance so people residing outside the city limits, but within the service area of the North Central Library District, can serve on the library board. Chair of the library board, Nancy Carlson, had appeared before the council Aug. 6, to ask that a change be made to the ordinance since the board was having difficulty filling its positions. Carlson also suggested language for the change. With the change in language of the ordinance, the library board will advertise vacancies, and if no one responds will...
Coulee Pioneer Museum news The Coulee Pioneer Museum thanks the “Historical Book Committee” and “Them Dam Writers,” Edith Lael and 4-Bears for their timely gift so that the museum could purchase access to one of the largest databases to foundations all over the world. Such foundations donate grants to organizations such at the Coulee Pioneer Museum. The museum will be working closely with the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce to receive monies to help preserve the history and heritage of the Grand Coulee Dam Area and share this area’s...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District made a number of new hires and accepted three resignations at the board meeting Monday night. Hired were Randi Heizer, speech paraprofessional; Sabine Thomas, Middle School Title 1/LAP paraprofessional; Michaelea Black, LRHS nurse/one-on-one; Maria Higgins, LRHS one-on-one visually impaired student paraprofessional; Shannon Hearne, Center Elementary CI/CO discipline paraprofessional; Cherie Shelley, preschool paraprofessional; Ashley Landeros, Center Elementary CI/CO discipline paraprofessional; and Sean...
Complaints of brown water and chlorine smells in Electric City’s water supply brought a large number of residents to the city council meeting Aug. 13. Lillian and Jay Sooter, of 103 Sunset Drive, questioned the city’s response to brown water from their tap and a smell of chlorine so strong that they had to use bottled water. Jay Sooter said the smell of chlorine was so bad that he couldn’t take his pills with city water. Ted Christianson, who also lives on Sunset, said he had to buy bottled water to drink and to cook with. He asked the counc...
A powerful storm packing high winds and lightning has knocked out power in parts of Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam. Sketchy reports, unconfirmed have come in about trees down all over, some across mobile homes in Lakeview Terrace , transformers knocked out in Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee. Highway 155 from Coulee Dam to Grand Coulee is blocked due to a downed powerline near Pole Park and likely will be for 5-6 hours. Another line is down at the south edge of the town of Coulee Dam at SR-155 and Grant Avenue, but there is a detour down Stevens... Full story
Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment project is apparently dead, at least for now. The town’s plan to build a $4.92 million plant was derailed by objections from town residents, and the council’s decision to go for a less expensive first phase was shot down by the state Department of Ecology. Council members appeared stunned last Wednesday night when a letter from the DOE, the lending agency, stated that the town’s interest in a scaled down project was denied. “To change the scope of a funded project after it has gone through a statewide...
A crane lowers the cap into place on the elementary school portion of the new K-12 school building project Monday. A worker at the top of the structure helps guide the girder in place. A number of activities, including pouring concrete, building the retaining wall, and getting the high school side of the project ready for steel framing, are all going on at the same time....
Chamber of commerce Manager Peggy Nevsimal presented an aggressive promotion program for 2014 to the Electric City council last Tuesday night. Electric City, as well as Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam, finances part of the chamber’s tourism promotion activities with hotel/motel taxes collected for that purpose. Nevsimal outlined a $62,000 promotion schedule for the upcoming year, nearly double the chamber’s $34,000 promotional efforts in 2013. She pointed out that lodging establishments are 70 percent empty in the winter and 20 percent empty dur...
Bank of America will close its Coulee Dam branch at 4 p.m., Friday, Aug. 23. The move was announced by B of A some months ago. News that Washington Federal had purchased 51 of the branches being closed by Bank of America in the state brought temporary hope to local customers, but that was quickly dashed. The Bank of America ATM machine is also on the way out. A spokesman for the Duclos family, owners of the building, said Monday that the B of A machine will not remain. The office space is available for rent. Calls to Bank of America’s public i...
An Electric City couple was the first to board the new Keller Ferry, the Sanpoil, last Wednesday when it made its inaugural trip between Lincoln and Ferry County connecting SR-21. Lowell and Birdie Hensley were among some 200 people who gathered near the ferry to see Sanpoil elder Jeanne Jarred break the traditional bottle of champagne against the hull. This time the bottle was full of a non-alcohol beverage. The Sanpoil pieces were trucked to Crescent Bay in Grand Coulee for assembly and testing. Scores of local residents watched the Sanpoil...
A bear that wandered into Coulee Dam caused a little excitement for occupants of the Columbia View Apartments and later for residents on Tilmus Street. Police got the call from dispatch center about a bear near the apartment complex, but when police got there it had moved on to Tilmus. Robert Loch, who resides at 1137 Tilmus, advised police that the bear was in his backyard. Police described the bear as a “large black bear.” Police were joined by a tribal officer who requested a tribal resource officer be called to deal with the bear. The res...
Grand Coulee Police Department’s “bomb” dog Potter is being retired. Potter is handled by police officer Sean Cook, the second dog handled by him since he has been in the department. The city council Tuesday night passed a resolution declaring the dog surplus after nearly nine years service here. Potter and Cook have answered calls all over the United States, even once going to provide cover at a PGA golf tournament at Pebble Beach, Calif. Potter was present at the council meeting, and made the rounds greeting Mayor Chris Christopherson, City...
Members of the school board and district officials tour the Lake Roosevelt High School industrial arts shop Aug. 7 as part of a special meeting. Directors saw the results of a McKinstry project that put in air quality equipment and energy-saving lights from a near half-million dollar grant. The shop, with some updating, will remain as part of the new K-12 school complex project now underway. McKinstry, a Spokane firm, specializes in energy saving projects....