News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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This letter is an honest effort to bring clarity and facts to the rumors, innuendos and often half-truths that frequent this page when referring to the Grand Coulee Dam School District (GCDSD). The local community, in particular the parents of children attending a Lake Roosevelt school, deserve to know the facts. Each of the issues to be addressed is complex and complicated. However, we will endeavor to address the highlights of each matter as space permits. Because of space limitations, the issues will be addressed in three separate...
Hello. I am just commenting on your supplement, Grand Coulee Dam Area (Visitor’s Guide). I found this to be about the most useful tourist magazine for an area that I have ever come across. Kudos, to all at your paper. Have the publisher/editor take all you employees out for a beer! Cheers! Gary Miller...
Who has more mental problems — the perpetrators of gun violence or congressional Republicans, including our own Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who lack normal compassion and regard for human life, even of young children? Congressional Republicans have once again copped out of their responsibility to do anything significant to stop the mass killings by effectively acting only on mental illness measures. At the least, their social-emotional development has been severely stunted. Using the Second Amendment of the Constitution as their crutch, they i...
I have always been taught to give something back to society. For years I tried to do so by volunteering or running for public office. I have held office in park boards, library boards and school boards. Most recently I served 17 years on the North Central Regional Library Board and 10 years on the local school board. But there comes a time when that isn’t possible, so I have been trying to find a couple of charities that cover things I can identify with. There are so many needs in our world that could use some help, and people can choose t...
Communities in every corner of the country now struggle with a lack of affordable homes, an ailment long associated with fast-growing urban areas. A lack of affordable housing hamstrings rural towns’ abilities to attract workers and slows business growth. Quality housing is also linked to health and well-being, and home ownership remains a primary way working people build equity and ownership. Small towns need affordable, quality housing for people across the financial spectrum. Solving this shortage will require multifaceted solutions, c...
Implausible as it may seem, gasoline powered vehicles can be part of reducing carbon emissions. They need to be part of the solution and not brushed aside. Take for example, Glacier National Park in northwest Montana, where there is a fleet of 33 tour buses powered by gasoline engines. Each year, they transport 60,000 visitors mainly across Logan Pass — the park’s famed “Going to the Sun Highway.” Without them, congestion would be much worse and fewer people would enjoy Glacier. The Logan P...
A smooth landing and takeoff helps make flight a more pleasurable experience for mankind, and the port district is getting some funds to make it so. Grant County Port District #7 commissioners accepted July 20 the first of two Federal Aviation Administration grants to fund runway pavement maintenance. This first grant is in the amount of $386,000, and Trey Dail of T-O Engineers said that a second grant, estimated at $90,000, is expected in August to provide more funding for the $530,000 estimated total cost of the maintenance. An additional...
Students at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School may feel like something is missing during the coming school year as smart phones will not be allowed during the school day. According to a handbook policy approved on July 25 at the Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting, the students aren’t allowed to have their cell phones during the school day, not even during lunch. “Students will be asked to NOT bring phones to school,” the handbook reads. “Students who have their phones at school will be asked to store them in lock boxes....
Election results last night for the state and the four local counties showed voters choosing candidates not from the extremes edges of the political spectrum but from something closer to the middle. The race to watch from now to November is for the 4th Congressional District, held by Rep. Dan Newhouse, who will face Doug White, a Democratic challenger who thinks he can win. Statewide, Newhouse was ahead by just 1,008 votes, leading with just 27.32% of the vote to White’s 25.98%. Newhouse faced primary challenges from seven Republicans who t...
by Jacob Wagner Preventing the spread of invasive species can save millions of dollars, and boaters at Northrup Boat Launch can now use free equipment to help with that prevention. A ribbon-cutting ceremony and demonstration of a "Clean-Drain-Dry-Dispose unit, known as a CD3 system," will be held on Aug. 9 at 10 a.m. at Northrup Boat Launch. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife partnered last year with the Washington Invasive Species Council, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Washington... Full story
The governing body of the Colville Confederated Tribes has a new chairman in Jarred-Michael Erickson, appointed by fellow council members on July 14, following the June election of the Colville Business Council. Erickson, a representative of the Nespelem District, replaced fellow Nespelem District Representative Andy Joseph Jr. as chairman, with Joseph returning to his former position as Health and Human Services chair and having served as CBC chairman from 2020-2022. Also on the CBC, Keller...
Having come here in 1985, and having lived in Spokane before that, my idea of a normal summer includes high heat reaching into the 90s. Now, we’re trying to accept the latest triple-digit trend as the “new normal.” That’s a mistake. Just because we live through a heat wave, or “heat dome” two or three times, doesn’t mean it’s OK, normal. It’s not, and our changing weather seems to be changing our landscape, with fire the great change agent. Burn scars don’t always rebound to their prior state. There used to be more sagebrush on the hi...
I recently wrote a column on my Aunt Voe. I am writing this column on my Aunt Lorena, just to show how important family is to help younger members grow up. I was born in a farmhouse on Four Mile Creek, just out of Palouse. My parents and siblings had arrived just months before from Minneapolis. My Aunt Lorena, my dad’s youngest sister, just happened to be at the house when delivery was imminent. My father had gone to town to get Dr. Dart, the family doctor, but I guess I decided to enter this world without Dart. The fact that Aunt Lorena did th...
North Dam Park will host another First Friday event on Aug. 5 from 5-9 p.m. that will include live music, mixed cocktails, food, and vendors, organized by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. Dry Fly Distillery will be providing the alcohol in the beer garden in the form of cocktails in a can with drinks like huckleberry lemonade, Moscow mules, bloody Marys, gin & tonics, greyhounds, whiskey smash, and more. Two musicians will provide the acoustic ambience Friday. Local musician Randy...
Firefighters got a stubborn blaze stopped near Leahy Junction Tuesday after a day of fighting in the hot sun. The fire reportedly started about 6:30 a.m. under a Douglas County PUD powerline, but the cause was not yet known, said Douglas County Fire District 3 Chief Cory Allman. Allman said he wouldn't be surprised if it started a lot earlier; he lives just four miles down the road and it was already larger than he expected when he arrived. Called the Nilles Fire for the corner of P and Road 27...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District approved a ballot measure Monday that will ask voters this fall to pay about half what they have been under levies about to expire. The levy resolution approved by the school board Monday will go on the November ballot seeking only $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value within the district from 2023 through 2025, compared to the current rate of $4.20. “We are looking to reduce costs for taxpayers, especially now with inflation,” School Board Director Rich Black said at their July 11 meeting. Grant Cou...
The Colville Tribes has a new executive director in Cody Desautel. "The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has appointed Cody Desautel to serve as the Tribes' new Executive Director," stated Colville Business Council Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson in a July 21 press release. The executive director is the administrative head of tribal government and reports directly to the 14-member governing CBC. "Cody is well known to us and to tribal membership due to his prior service as...
Oroville Mayor Jon Neal would like to be an Okanogan County Commissioner. Neal has lived in Oroville his entire life, taking over his family's auto body repair business in 1992 and working in the industry for over 40 years, he described in a Facebook page for his campaign. He has raised three children in Okanogan County and has six grandchildren, along with wife Traci. Neal has been involved in city government for 21 years, including six years as the mayor of Oroville and, along with that role,...
In the last couple weeks, this community has shone brightly with examples of strength and good will and a readiness to step up and do what is needed. First, people immediately stepped up to answer a communitywide need: to support an important park at North Dam, home of many community events and activities, giving thousands to keep it in operation this summer, even knowing that a full solution has yet to be found for the basic underlying problem. Next, the Siam Palace and many volunteers arranged to put on a dinner to raise money to help a...
Surprisingly, recent U.S. Presidents and congressional Democrats and Republicans agree America’s economic and national security hinge upon tiny, yet powerful semiconductors. Semiconductor computer chips are the brains of modern electronics that operate our laptop computers, vehicles, and smart phones. They permeate every sector of our lives from farming and manufacturing to health care and public safety. They are embedded in our most advanced military equipment and weapons. Sophisticated s...
The Colville Tribes has a new executive director, the tribes announced Thursday night. "The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has appointed Cody Desautel to serve as the Tribes' new Executive Director," stated CBC Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson in a press release. The executive director is the administrative head of tribal government and reports directly to the 14-member governing Colville Business Council. "Cody is well known to us and to tribal membership due to his prior...
Electric City is moving with caution as they consider an ordinance to allow short term rentals just three years after banning them. During their July 12 meeting, the city council discussed the pros and cons of allowing people to rent out residences for short stays, less than 30 days, as made popular by websites like Airbnb. Mayor Diane Kohout noted that the previous council had voted down the idea of allowing short term rentals. That happened in 2019, after more than a year of discussing the issue. At that time, a Lakeview Avenue couple noted t...
Colville Confederated Tribes Natural Resources Director Cody Desautel is one of 47 people, selected from 500 applicants, appointed to the new federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, the Interior and Homeland Security through the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the selections on July 7. The commission will “play a key role in recommending ways that federal agencies can better prevent, mitigate, suppress, and manage wildland fires. It will also recommend policies and s...
North Dam Park can continue to be maintained, at least for a while longer, as more funding has been donated by the community to the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District. At their July 13 meeting, CAPRD commissioners were presented with a $5,600 check by Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Baughman who started a page at the online fundraising site, GoFundMe.com. Commissioner Kevin Portch said that CAPRD also received $900 in private donations separately from that online donation site. The group voted to...
Affordable housing, good jobs, good schools are just a part of Kari Alexander's vision for Okanogan County as she runs for county commissioner. Alexander would like to see youth more involved in the local government. "Our youth are the future of this county," she wrote in an email to The Star. "I think we all want to ensure that Okanogan County is the kind of place our kids want to come back to and raise their own families - which means we need affordable starter homes, good jobs, and good...