News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 676 - 700 of 6969
School board directors will study whether to allow weighted grade point averages to be considered for graduation. Considering whether to pass a recommended policy on high school graduation requirements Monday night, Chairman George LaPlace and Superintendent Paul Turner each spoke in favor of tabling that discussion to give time for more discussion with students and staff. Weighted GPAs can add more points for higher-level courses. An honors course might gain half a point on a regular class in the same subject area, for instance. “It takes a li...
Local mayors decided against further studying whether their Regional Board of Mayors could consider taking over the Spring Canyon Cemetery. Meeting as the RBOM Dec. 7, the mayors voted to drop their research into taking over ownership of the cemetery currently owned by the local Lions Club. The club had approached the mayors about that possibility last August, and they’ve been looking into it ever since. Coulee Dam Mayor Bob Poch said his council was not in favor of it. City Clerk Stefani Bowden had asked the Municipal Research Services Corpora...
Sometimes, if it’s not one thing, it’s another when you’re dealing a federal agency that gives you money. Or takes it back. Nespelem’s school board learned Monday that some of their Impact Aid money was being clawed back. Impact Aid is a federal grant program for local educational agencies that have lost local property tax revenue due to the presence of non-taxable federal land. Superintendent Effie Dean explained that the Impact Aid agency had found the school district’s 2019-2020 school year application for Impact Aid faulty, for two years...
We were on one of our vacation trips to Montana, Wyoming and Yellowstone Park and stopped for a time in Cody, Wyoming. We were looking for a place to stay because we wanted to take in the museum there and go to the night rodeo. We saw the sign for the Irma Hotel and decided to try our luck there for a bed for the night. When we asked if there was an available room, the clerk said the Buffalo Bill suite was available. It would afford two beds since our son Paul was along. We immediately took the suite. It was really two rooms along with a...
As we near the end of 2022, I want to take a moment to look back on some of the work I’ve done in Congress for our district. From passing landmark legislation to securing critical funds for projects in our communities, we’ve accomplished a lot. And as we enter into the new Congress, I’m committed to building off these successes and continuing to fight for Central Washington’s priorities. As a member on the Appropriations Committee, I work to secure funding for much-needed projects in Central Washington while ensuring our taxpayer dollars are be...
The $5.4 billion expansion of the Panama Canal is paying off for East Coast and Gulf of Mexico seaports. It is putting pressure on the Pacific Ocean-based terminals to be more competitive. The enlarged waterway opened in June 2016 allowing much larger container ships to transit between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Ships carrying up to 14,800 containers can now bypass Washington and other West Coast docks and deliver containers directly to cities from Houston to New York. The older canal...
A trailer housing two families on E Street burned down Thursday on one of the coldest nights of the year so far, burning one man badly. "This is the devastation that no family should have to go through," Kimberly Minks wrote in an online message the next day. The fire started about 7 p.m. Dec. 1 on E Street, just west of the Bridgeport Highway. A friend, Crysta Harris, posted on Facebook her two kids were visiting at the time. She explained that two families were living in the home - a man with...
City leaders in Grand Coulee met with their engineers Monday to learn about options being recommended for upgrades to their wastewater treatment plant, estimated to cost $10.5 million. The good news is that the Dept. of Ecology has already stated it can fund the project. "You're in a real interesting situation," Gray and Osborne Engineer Nancy Wetch told the city council, noting that she's never seen funding promised without an application even submitted. But funded doesn't mean free. Wetch met...
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's first in-person winter event since 2019 was a success Saturday night, as community members turned out for the Vintners and Brewers dinner and auction. The annual auction was held as an online affair in 2020 and 2021 to meet restrictions or advice on in-person gatherings during the COVID-19 emergency. "It was huge," said Executive Director Roni Smith. "We couldn't have done it without all the volunteers, businesses, and community members who bought...
I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Ruby Mountain isn’t some rugged granite peak. Rather, it is a round-topped mountain in Nevada with a beautiful trail to the top. While it is over 10,000 feet in elevation, you can drive your car up to about 7,000 feet. I was looking in Sunset Magazine and came across a short item on a bed and breakfast located in the Ruby Mountains in Nevada. Looking it up, I saw it was close to Elko, where my wife and I were married. I had been wondering where we should go on a short vacation, so I called and made res...
When it was all said and done, the Grand Coulee Dam School District Proposition No. 1 passed in each of the four counties where it was on the ballot earlier this month. The levy election was certified by county election officials in the office of each county auditor, who had to transmit their certifications on Tuesday to the state’s secretary of state. It was a squeaker, with vote tallying and signature checking often showing a winning margin in the 1-2% range and only in one county at times. But the final tally wasn’t as close. Overall, 1,7...
Electric City will set aside some of the money collected from tourists to make improvements to Coulee Playland, which sits on city-managed land. The city learned last month that it would need to invest in the campground to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act with an estimated $1 million in upgrades over coming years. City Clerk/Treasurer Peggy Nevsimal told the city council at their Nov. 22 meeting that the city usually budgets to spend money, itself, from its hotel/motel tax fund, but rarely if ever actually uses that budget line...
Lake Roosevelt's senior class trip to San Diego got a thumbs up from the school board Monday night, a reward for hard work at fundraising. "I have yet to see these kids not make goal," said class advisor Brandi Hansen. "They know what they want to do, and they're great at it." Their big trip at the end of May will take them on a tour of the USS Midway for at least three hours, to a nearby amusement park, and to the San Diego Zoo. The Midway is an aircraft carrier that was decommissioned in 1992...
I applaud Mr. Darryl Hackworth for his ambition and eye for opportunity — certainly that is part of our forward thrusting culture. However, I do believe there are some important facts to deliberate upon when considering inviting chain stores into our small community. Question #1: How well do such chain businesses as Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar support small towns and urban neighborhoods? Answer #1: Research reveals that in smaller, more economically vulnerable areas these chain stores actually add to economic distress. Q...
We shouldn’t need a date on the calendar to remind us to be thankful. I am thankful all year long for my family. While they are scattered from Louisiana to north of Everett, it is like they are with me all year long. On Thanksgiving there were a dozen who made it home to have a great dinner and report on a lot of the things they did since we were last together. They brave the weather to come, and make the long and sometimes tedious drives so we can be together. It isn’t often that we are all together at the same time, but frequent calls kee...
Last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that distillate inventories (which include diesel) were at their lowest levels since 1951—currently we only have a 27-day supply remaining. That means if all production is halted and we maintain our current usage, we will run out of diesel fuel in 27 days. And while this shortage impacts folks in rural communities the most, every single community will feel the effects. Farmers rely on diesel to fuel the equipment to harvest your food. We rely on diesel trucks to transport the f...
The good news is, despite higher prices, inflation and safety concerns, more Christmas shoppers are browsing on-line but making in-store purchases. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported this year an estimated 166.3 million people visited stores from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday----an 8 million increase from last year. It is the highest estimate since NRF began tracking this data in 2017. The good news extends to on-line sales. E-commerce retail revenues this year are projected...
Law enforcement officers from several agencies descended on a mobile home in Electric City Monday afternoon, after a bail bondsman reported he'd been shot at from inside the home and returned fire. He was there with a warrant to collect Christopher Morgan, 38, who had failed to appear for a court date in Spokane, according to Grand Coulee Police. The mobile home sits at the corner of Fifth Street and Sunny Drive toward the northwest corner of Electric City's residential neighborhood close to...
The National Weather Service is warning us to expect heavy snowfall from Tuesday night through Wednesday night, Nov. 29-30, that may make travel "difficult or impossible." An alert issued early Tuesday morning says people in the area from Highway 28 north, reaching to Wauconda and Republic, can expect 5-9 inches of snow, with mountain areas getting up to 10-15 inches. The snow is expected to start about 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Areas south of Highway 28 (the highway that connects Soap Lake and... Full story
Leaders in Electric City Tuesday night approved a slightly revised contract for police services with Coulee Dam after clarifying some language in it. The Electric City Council voted unanimously to approve the contract that will put the city’s law enforcement in the hands of Coulee Dam instead of Grand Coulee for the first time in many decades. Coulee Dam’s council voted last Wednesday to approve the contract with clarifications that had been worked out the prior two days after its last special meeting to consider the contract. Those inc...
The powers that Google and Facebook have over economic and political power in society - especially over the news industry - has caught the attention of lawmakers in Washington, DC. After a close election and many worries over the quality of public debate, many ask if social media have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press and plagues our democracy. Nowhere is this power more daunting than in the social media giants' use of news organizations' reporting, which the...
We’ve been visiting the area for 15 years and recently purchased land for our retirement home. The culture of the GC community is reminiscent of the small towns we grew up in and we intend to get involved. Reading about the plan to allow Dollar (General) to invade the area was dismaying! Not only do these stores undermine local merchant stability (just like Walmart) but they are notorious for L&I infractions! Corrine Behme...
While I was at the Citizen Newspaper in Bothell we were purchased by the Persis Corporation. They owned a number of newspapers and we were placed under the daily paper they owned in Bellevue. It was 1987. It created a lot of problems and opportunities. Instead of printing on our own small press, we started printing our paper in Bellevue. That’s where the opportunities came in. One of the Persis executives, Phil Gialanella, who was headquartered in Hawaii, would come over about once a month and hold a big show and tell time. He was instrumental...
In Central Washington, we have so much to be thankful for. This Thanksgiving, as we come together with our friends and family, don’t forget to take a moment to give thanks to our hard-working farmers, processors, and food bank workers throughout Central Washington who work to provide the food on our plates. From the turkey to the stuffing, our farmers probably played a part in your Thanksgiving dinners. Many of the potatoes, onions, winegrapes and other Thanksgiving favorites you consume were grown right here in Central Washington, making up a...
The local school levy was passing by a better margin after vote tallies continued Tuesday in the four county election offices involved, with more ballots yet to count in two counties Thursday and Friday. With a total vote so far tallied at 630-571 in favor, Grand Coulee Dam School District’s Proposition No. 1 was winning in all counties but Grant by 52.46% of the vote as of 6:13 p.m. Tuesday night. That 4.92% margin had slimmed down from 5.66% an hour earlier after Grant County counted another batch of ballots, bringing their uncounted e...