News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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After two years of an online and hybrid Legislature that severely restricted legislators' direct contact during the pandemic, the House and Senate chambers were full of people reuniting and greeting each other. at the opening of the state Legislature Jan. 9. A main issue at the start of the session was moving past the COVID-19 pandemic and adopting new rules and procedures that allows for in-person and remote participation. President of the Senate Denny Heck, the lieutenant governor, said...
Washington’s ‘tripledemic’ is far from over. As COVID-19, flu and RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) continue to surge, hospitals and health care providers are reaching capacity. In Washington State, flu deaths are at higher rates than are usually seen at this point in the season (40 people, including three children, as of December 10). High levels of respiratory illnesses could continue for a while. As a physician with Community Health Plan of Washington, I urge you to consider the following tips to ward off illness this winter and sprin...
It’s hard to tell what’s changing faster, the weather or words used to describe it. I’ve lived on the Central California coast for some time and have endured many winter storms that line up in the Pacific and swirl across our state. We used to refer to such weather as the Pineapple Express, a playful non-meteorological term reflecting the fact that heavy rain sometimes originates as far away as Hawaii. There was no confusion. When the forecast mentioned a Pineapple Express we knew we were in for a lengthy drenching. Recently, forecasters and jo...
It was 1962, and the baseball season was over. During the off season, Larry Jackson, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, joined our sports staff at the Idaho Statesman in Boise. As a baseball player, Larry was not yet a household name, but he soon would be. Larry was born in Nampa, and he still called the Valley his home. In the offseason, Larry would write for the Statesman. Technically, he worked for me, but I knew that my boss liked to talk baseball, so Larry was put on staff. Larry told me that his friend Stan Musial was coming to Boise...
Coupled with the rapid growth of data centers we rely upon for internet service and information storage is an increased demand for electricity to power millions of computers and cool the mammoth buildings in which they operate. Data center computers are integral to our everyday life and store everything from cooking recipes to complex engineering blueprints. They are heavy power users, consuming 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical commercial office. Energy inflation combined...
If someone asked you what the single worst, most egregious example of government overreach was, what would you say? The death tax? Emissions standards on cars? Livestock trucking rules? Excessive workplace safety requirements? While those are all good examples, they pale in comparison to the Biden administration’s most recent actions on “waters of the United States” or WOTUS. For those who don’t know, WOTUS dictates which waters are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act. During the Obama administration, a definition was release...
Park district commissioners last month approved a proposal for vendors to address in bidding on the maintenance work for North Dam Park for the year. The Coulee Area Park and Recreation District maintains and manages the park on about eight acres of land that belongs to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation below North Dam. Commissioners Dec. 14 approved as to form a document that lays out the scope of work they expect will be done for up to $25,000 in 2023, including everything from mowing the lawns...
As we begin a new year, I thought it relevant to consider our home planet — Earth. Maybe, like you, when I view images being obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope it validates a personal observation: Earth is inconsequential in the totality of Space. Our limited scientific knowledge offers a hypothesis; there could be other planets in other universes that can support life forms. Humans have visited the Moon, and they will again. Now, there are proposals to visit Mars. Both require life support systems so one can simply survive in those h...
When I was a kid, I sold the Saturday Evening Post. Post officials would come to town and round up a bunch of us kids, and we would go door to door to sell the post. It sold for a nickel. I think it was a national effort to raise the circulation so they could charge more for advertising. Think of it, kids all across America selling the Post. Representatives of the Post would come into town and round up willing kids, provide them with newspaper bags, a little instruction and turn them loose. I remember doing this twice, and was the top...
Lake Roosevelt's wrestling team distinguished itself at a tournament full of much larger schools Dec. 30, earning placings in enough weights to take fourth in the Freeman Winter Classic. "Our success is coming from everyone contributing and finding a way to win," Head Coach Casey Brewster said. "They are wrestling the whole match and making it very difficult on their opponents." The 2B Raiders took fourth with a score of 107 behind 3A-4A size teams like Post Falls (194), West Valley (149) and Sh...
Covid is apparently on the move locally. Coulee Medical Center cautioned community members Monday that although all services are still available, covid-related staffing problems may cause delays in service. “We are now in the midst of a COVID 19 outbreak in the community which is affecting the operations of Coulee Medical Center,” CMC posted on their Facebook page Monday. CEO Ramona Hicks said CMC has had nine staff members out in just four days after testing positive, far more than they’ve had in months. “I think there’s just a lot more covi...
Grand Coulee’s city council passed its budget reluctantly last week, with one council member warning that the city would need to find another $50,000 by year’s end or layoffs would be necessary. “I wanted to have a balanced budget that we could vote on,” said Councilmember Tom Poplawski at the council’s meeting Dec. 20. “But after all the discussions and all of the meetings, looking at numbers and analysis of it all, we can’t get there unless we were to lay people off. That’s the bottom line. We’ve chosen not to do that.” The city’s 2023 bud...
Utility crews for Grant County PUD worked through the extreme weather last week as power outages affected their customers from Royal City to Grand Coulee. With temperatures plunging to the well-below-zero range, then frozen rain falling across the region, the National Weather Service warned people to prepare for power outages. One hit the Electric City-Grand Coulee area on Christmas night, apparently around 8 p.m. and took until morning to repair. Customers on the PUD Facebook page asked for...
Several people reported hearing a loud boom Monday night in west Coulee Dam, some speculating an electrical transformer may have blown in the town’s electric system. Not exactly. But City Superintendent Mike Steffens said that’s what it sounds like when two big fuses blow at the same time, which is what happened at the end of Stevens Avenue Monday about 4:30 p.m. “Turkeys in the line again,” Steffens said. A flock of about a dozen wild turkeys roam the west side of town, often roosting in trees in nearby Fiddle Creek or Cole Park. When they mi...
Over the last several weeks, I’ve felt slightly uneasy breaking the habit of strict social distancing and mask wearing to avoid infection. It was a justified queasiness. Following Christmas gatherings and indoor sporting events all over the country, an increase in viral spread was predictable and apparently is happening in our area. I’ll be donning a mask again when in crowded indoor spaces, including sporting events, small meetings in small rooms, and anywhere its likely we’re all breathing each other’s exhalations. That’s not the advice gi...
I would like to thank the city crew in Coulee Dam. The excellent way they have been handling our snow as far as keeping the roads clear, even coming in on the weekends. We all complain about what we feel should be done. But I do appreciate your hard work. Thank you, Larry Price...
On a family vacation several years ago, I learned what claustrophobia was all about. We arrived at Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park in Montana and all of the family made it into the opening for the then self-guided tour. That’s when our youngest daughter, Kim, said she wouldn’t go through the underground cavern. She said that she couldn’t handle being in cramped spaces. So she got back out of the entrance to the cavern. I showed her where we would come out, and she went there to wait for us to do the cavern route. I had tried to persu...
Looking ahead to 2023, one of the most significant shifts America needs is to return to is an “All of the Above” strategy which expands our energy options rather than further restricting them. That strategy was incorporated in the 2005 Energy Policy Act signed into law by President George W. Bush. It was inclusive and focused on incremental improvements coupled with innovation. However, in the last couple of years, our political leaders have hastily and unwisely narrowed fuel options to exc...
The Raiders hosted their annual Powerhouse Wrestling Tournament in Coulee Dam Dec. 22, bringing in competitors from as far away as Napavine, Washington and filling the Lake Roosevelt gym with over 100 athletes from 10 schools participating and finding out what they need to work on for the rest of the season. Three schools didn't make it because of the weather. The Raider boys' team had 11 members place in eight of the 13 weight categories, coming in third as a team with a score of 154, behind...
The Care and Share Food Bank last Friday gave out Christmas baskets of food to bout 150 clients, including families and a lot of elderly folks, said manager Carol Nordine. That number indicates need is up from past years. Last year’s big Christmas giveaway drew 115. A story in The Star recently reported that Second Harvest, a major food distributor to local food banks, is cutting back deliveries in Okanogan County. Care and Share is on the same route, but Nordine noted they only supply about 10 percent of the locals pantry’s supplies. Con...
When I was in grade school, my best friend was Jon Skovlin. His father ran the local Penny’s store, and sometimes I worked with Jon and put together trikes, bikes, and wagons. The store sold a lot of these. Jon’s dad would pay us for assembling the toys. That’s when I decided that I didn’t want to do that kind of work later in life. That was kind of funny because my dad could do just about anything. Raising a family during the Depression, you didn’t just hire people to do tasks you didn’t know how to do. My dad learned how to do things by n...
Christmastime is the season of hope and joy — hope that even when times are dark, we can find the light and joy that follows. The greatest gift the world has received is the birth of Christ and his salvation of humanity. The Christmas season is a time to reflect, to prepare, to spend time with family, and to celebrate. During this time, we must also be grateful and remember the contributions and sacrifices our forefathers and military service members endured to ensure our freedoms. We are blessed to have the freedom to celebrate the season o...
The Holiday Season is an especially difficult time for anyone grieving lost loved ones. Evergreen wreaths placed on veterans’ graves across America help to ease that pain. More than 2.5 million red-ribboned wreaths were placed by thousands of volunteers, including many family members, on December 17. Those wreaths are made from clippings of balsam firs dedicated to deceased veterans. Each tree growing in Maine has the “dog tags” identifying the fallen service member. The trees are living year...
The Raiders topped a mixed weekend with a very large lead Monday night over White Swan in Coulee Dam, beating the Cougars 85-44. The win came on the heels of a one-point loss to Omak on Saturday, which itself had followed a huge victory over Brewster's Bears, 71-60, on their home court, a game about which Raider Coach Jeremy Crollard had not been optimistic due to past experience with uneven officiating. "We left it all on the court when it came to Brewster," Crollard said. The Raiders played...
The Lady Raiders met a challenge by White Swan Monday night, fresh off a defeat by the Omak Lady Pioneers Saturday, to win 64-46. Starting off slow in the first quarter, Lake Roosevelt trailed to finish it behind three points, 11-8. And by the half the Lady Raiders had just reversed the advantage to lead 27-23. The pace was about to change. After the halftime break, Lake Roosevelt went into dominate mode, racking up another 37 points while holding White Swan again to 23 more. "The girls came...
