News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Electric City plans to distribute $40,000 of its hotel/motel tax funds to a handful of organizations in 2018, the council voted last Tuesday night. Upon recommendation of the city’s lodging tax committee, the council voted to fund its lodging tax applications with reserve lodging tax monies totaling $42,920, which includes $1,600 for advertising and $41,320 for the design and planning of two planned parks on McNett Avenue and Grand Avenue. The taxes are collected on motel and campground stays in the city. The committee further recommended that...
The Grand Coulee city council last week adopted new ambulance rates for 2018, adopting slight increases and providing different rates for non-residents. Beginning Jan. 1, ambulance attendants will be paid $15 an hour for their services. The new charges as adopted are below. Grand Coulee’s Volunteer Fire Department has made 374 ambulance calls so far this year, according to a report made to the city council last Tuesday night. Fire Chief Richard Paris stated that 50 ambulance calls were made during the month of September. Of those, nine were m...
Two entertaining events are planned for Saturday this week. You can take part in the “Breast Cancer Awareness Color Me Pink and Purple” fun run and walk, sponsored by the Coulee Medical Center Guild and Radiology Department, Omni Staffing, Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union and North Cascades Bank. (See the entry form on page 5 in today’s Star.) The run/walk begins at 11 a.m. at North Dam Park. Late registration will start at 10 a.m. All participants will receive a T-shirt, gift and a chance to win a Costco gift card. All money from the run stays... Full story
A 23-year-old felon, who gave a Spokane address, was arrested Sept. 30 and taken to Grant County jail. Arrested was Chance Carson, who had a felony assault warrant out for him out of Spokane and was listed by local police as a “violent felon.” Charges filed included resisting arrest, obstructing a law enforcement officer, and escape in the third degree. Carson was seen getting into the back seat of a vehicle that was getting fuel at Coulee Gas. The police plan, according to their report, was for one patrol car to block the back of the sus...
Electric City officials got a look at what their two new proposed parks might look like at meetings Monday and Tuesday. The parks, one at McNett Avenue and the other at Grand Avenue, are high on the city's agenda to bring change to Electric City. Robert Droll, landscape architect from Lacey, Washington, was in the area Monday to meet with a citizens' group, and Tuesday to show his park drawings to the city council. City Clerk Russell Powers said the city would submit a grant request early next...
Mold and other needy repairs was again the topic when mayors met for their monthly meeting Monday.in the Electric City council chambers. The Regional Board of Mayors have tried several times to get action to remove mold and make other repairs at the Delano Regional Transfer Station operated jointly by the four municipalities. The “black mold” is inside the walls in at least two offices and elsewhere, and is there because of moisture problems where rooms were not dried properly, according to JRCC, a restoration service firm. Twice the four may...
The Delano Regional Transfer Station has become a dump site for used antifreeze, the Regional Board of Mayors decided Monday. The offer was made by the Grant County Department of Public Works early in September and agreed to when the mayors had their monthly meeting this week. Now the transfer station can offer year-round dumping privileges to residents within its service area. The county will pay the transfer station for the antifreeze deposit program, with funds coming out of the Ephrata Landfill tipping fees. Two additional sites in the...
The town of Elmer City currently has no plan to upgrade its sewage pump station, which it will need to by spring if it is to continue sending sewage to Coulee Dam. The issue came up at the town’s last council meeting when two members of Coulee Dam’s council and two of its engineers informed Elmer City that they needed to update their pumping station by March of next year when Coulee Dam’s new wastewater treatment plant goes online. If the new sewer plant went online now, “it would fail,” Elmer City Mayor Gail Morin stated last week. “It may n...
A Grand Coulee woman who has tried to salvage a “dog rescue” operation, but was prevented from doing so by the city, hopes to relocate outside Grand Coulee so she can continue her work with animals. In a notice to the city Dorothy Harris indicated that she is now in conformance with the number of dogs she has (three) and currently is no longer operating her “rescue” operation. “I actually don’t have any rescues for the first time in over 30 years,” Harris informed the city. Harris has been in a struggle with both the planning commission an...
A Grand Coulee man who appealed a “potentially dangerous dog” charge in municipal court Friday was denied. Andrew Kramer, whose dog “Howdy” had bit a Portland woman in front of Banks Lake Pub July 22, appeared before Judge Richard Fitterer in August to appeal a decision by Grand Coulee’s city council declaring his dog to be “potentially dangerous.” He indicated in the August court meeting that he wanted to secure counsel to help him appeal the decision. Kramer appeared Friday before Fitterer, without his attorney, and his appeal was readily d...
A Hill Avenue man who was pulled over by police twice the same day for driving with a suspended license found himself in Grant County jail. James E. Goodlake, 24, is the same man Spokane police arrested there last July for possession of a car stolen from an Electric City couple. Goodlake was stopped by Officer Tom Johnson about 9 a.m., Sept. 10, for operating a motor vehicle while his license was suspended. Then at about 3 p.m., he was stopped for the same offense, this time by Officer Joe Higgs. The second time, things got messy for the Grand...
"It's my world." That's how Archie Dennis, who has been named "Volunteer of the Year" for 2016, described his life in search and rescue. Dennis was top vote getter in The Star newspaper's volunteer of the year program for 2016. Dennis is no stranger in the area. He was born here, attended schools here, and only recently retired after being employed by the Colville Tribes and the Bureau of Reclamation. His life has been one of helping others. He is known for his diving rescue work, but that's...
Electric City Council authorized city officials Sept. 12 to bid on two lots up for auction along SR-155 in the center of the city. The lots at one time housed a filling station. The Oct. 27 auction is being held by Grant County, which has a lien against the property for back taxes and penalties amounting to $1,142.99. The two lots are currently valued at $23,845, according to county records. The current owner is Gary L. French. The council met in executive session to discuss bidding on the property and providing guidance on the level of bid....
Electric City council approved its 2018-19 police contract with Grand Coulee at its meeting last Tuesday night. The contract amount is for $140,000, which is $15,000 more than the contract amount of the current year. The council approved the new contract with a 5-0 vote, and without the usual council committee debates that have been necessary in past years. In fact, Electric City hadn’t even named members to a police committee. The contract went to the Grand Coulee council last night for passage. The contract package was prepared by Grand C...
Police served papers last Wednesday on a woman who has wanted to get permission to run a “dog rescue” operation in her home, telling her instead that she had 90 days to get her dog total down to three dogs. City officials stated that Dorothy Harris had been sent two registered letters but failed to respond to them. Police were then directed to serve the city notice to Harris to get rid of the dogs she had at her residence on Young Street from an earlier dog rescue operation. Harris said Monday that she has her rescue dogs down to three after ta...
When the community steps up, things happen. There's a lot of new white sand out at Banks Lake Golf Course, thanks to two benefit events. The first was a golf tournament that raised about $2,500 to revitalize sand traps at the golf course. The tournament, run by former Grant County Port District 7 commissioner Stan Conklin, produced enough money for the golf course to order a truckload of white sand from the Inchelium area. A second benefit, a car wash, held by Jess Ford on Sept. 2, produced a...
A Grand Coulee man received a sentence of 50.5 months in prison to go along with an earlier sentence of 29 months in a Grant County Superior Court case last week. Melvin Toulou, Jr., 43, pleaded guilty to four counts — trafficking in stolen property in the first degree; unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree; burglary of the Vlachos estate building on Spokane Way, and trafficking in stolen goods taken from the Vlachos property. The state agreed to the guilty plea, and Toulou received a 101-month sentence, with 50.5 month of p...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors met in retreat Monday night to set goals for the current school year. Money is the thing that greases the wheels of education, and will play a major part in shaping the goals set by the board. The board agreed, and the administration set passage of a school tax levy as one of the goals. The levy would go to voters sometime in the spring. A levy committee is being formed and will make recommendations to the board on the amount, the number of years, and how the funds would be used....
It’s time for the harvest. The community Harvest Festival, that is. You can set aside this Friday, Saturday and Sunday for some fun, relaxation, and excitement. It’s the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce’s 6th Annual Harvest Festival, Sept. 15-17, located at North Dam Park and Banks Lake Park. There’s a barbecue competition and tasting, a wellness powwow, a motorcycle poker run, human foosball competition, vendor fair, a Run the Dam race, kids’ games, a beer garden that features football games Saturday and Sunday, with a bit of live m...
Workers at the Delano Transfer Station will have to live with a mold problem a little longer. The Regional Board of Mayors had the mold issue on their agenda Monday, but not enough mayors showed up for the meeting to deal with the problem. The mold issue and other problems were targeted for repair by the group’s insurance company last spring, and the mayors were given 60 days to correct the problem. That was several months ago, and the issues raised still haven’t been dealt with. Work needed includes asphalt repair and drainage (causing the...
Work on the Grand Coulee Dam Airport’s runway will begin Sept. 18, Grant County Port District 7 commissioners learned at their meeting Aug. 30. Commissioners also got more good news when their engineering firm, TO Engineers, reported that the successful bid of $248,000 for the runway work came in well below the engineer’s estimate of $319,000. The low bid was awarded to Road Products, Inc., from Spokane. The total cost of the project, including engineering and management costs, will be $288,759. The project to repair major cracks in the 4,200-f...
A 29-year-old man found himself in Grant County jail last Wednesday after he allegedly rammed a patrol car after being stopped by police for driving under the influence. In jail is Wade G. Rainbolt, 29, who is known in the area, but who gave his address as Valley, Washington. Washington State Patrol Public Information Officer Brian Moore said Tuesday that Rainbolt is being charged with driving under the influence, hit and run, second-degree assault and first-degree malicious mischief. Grand Coulee Police were alerted by dispatch that what...
Coulee Dam police arrested four suspects and are charging them with burglary after an incident at 1019 Camas Street Aug. 21. Arrested were Martina Delacruz, 48; Rodney Ezell, 29; Daniel A. Lewis, 26 and Marissa S. Curry, 31. They were all taken to Okanogan County jail. Police didn’t have addresses for those arrested. Trina McCurty advised police that there was someone trying to break into the house she was in charge of. One of the four told police that they were there to see the owner of the property. Police knew the owner of the property w...
What should be done with old trophies? That question regarding old Mason City High School trophies was brought to the Grand Coulee Dam School District board by Electric City resident Birdie Hensley Monday night. She explained in a letter that many of the older trophies are stored in the basement of Coulee Dam Town Hall and in other places around the community. Hensley proposed that the tabs on the trophies be taken and mounted on a board so that they could be preserved. The old trophies would go where all old trophies end up — in a discard pile...
A benefit car wash to raise money to help Banks Lake Golf Course re-do the course’s sand traps is planned for Sept. 9. The car wash will be at Jess Ford in Grand Coulee and will begin at 9 a.m. and run until 4 p.m. Jess Ford will provide a lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost of the car wash is $25. Banks Lake Golf Course held its own money-raiser tournament to re-do its sand traps but the effort didn’t cover the entire cost. The Jess Ford benefit car wash is to help the golf course realize enough funds to complete the job....