News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A follow-up “community watch” meeting in Coulee Dam has been set for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the Almira/Coulee Dam Community Church, according to Ed Bartley. A feeling that the crime rate in Coulee Dam was rising rapidly spurred the first meeting early in December, with about 50 people showing up. Bartley chaired the meeting then and will again when the follow-up meeting is held. That meeting will put some meat on the bones with some specific suggestions of how community members can help fight crime, not as vigilantes, but by coo...
An upcoming visit between two local governments could help prevent a big local asset from degrading into a permanent eyesore. The Grand Coulee Dam School District has been invited to Grand Coulee’s next planning commission meeting on Feb. 8, to let planners know what it plans for the Center School property. The school district has conducted two advertisements calling for bids on the 8.3-acre school building and property, but has never appeared before city planners. Both attempts to receive bids have failed to produce any because investors w...
Brad Parrish has resigned his position on Electric City’s council. Parrish submitted his resignation after he learned that his wife had been selected as deputy clerk. The council meets next Feb. 14, and is expected to accept Parrish’s resignation at that time. Parrish is midway through his second term and would have been up for re-election in 2019. City officials stated that Parrish decided to resign after his wife, Diana, was hired as deputy clerk. She begins work at city hall Jan. 27. Parrish has been the mainstay on the council in sup...
The National Park Service Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail is like a giant jigsaw puzzle; the whole is there to see, but the problem is how to put the pieces together. Denise Bausch, NPS chief of interpretation and education for the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and Ice Age Floods, told about 40 people Monday that "partnerships" with communities and groups along the way would be the key to the trail's success. The meeting was held Monday afternoon in Coulee Dam's community room a...
Yes, the Grand Coulee Dam School District does have a superintendent! A glitch when Paul Turner took over the superintendent position last August was fixed by the school board Monday night. It was one of those things where someone forgot to cross a “t” which prevented Turner’s name from turning up in county records listed as superintendent. Now it’s fixed and Turner, who had served as a vice principal, can now sign his title as “superintendent” without anyone having the license to challenge it. In other action Monday night the board hired...
A city law proposed months ago to regulate fireworks in Electric City has gone “poof” last Tuesday night after the fire chief insisted it wasn’t needed. The ordinance was doomed after volunteer fire Chief Mark Payne appeared before the council and told members it was unnecessary. Payne said he had been associated with the fire department for over 20 years, and fireworks have never been an issue. “Just because Grand Coulee has an ordinance about fireworks, it doesn’t mean that we need to,” Payne responded. The fire chief told council mem...
The most dramatic feature of a proposed four-state trail is centered locally, and residents can learn all about it next Monday afternoon. People can learn how this region will play a small but significant role in the development of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail at a National Park Service information meeting Monday, Jan. 23, from 1-3 p.m. in the community room at Coulee Dam Town Hall. Denise Bausch, of the National Park Service, will make a 45-minute presentation showing the proposed...
Electric City’s Pathway and Revitalization plan is about three-fourths of the way complete, and should be ready for review within a few weeks, the city council learned last week. The plan is being developed by a Washington State University group made up of a team of students and Assistant Professor Kathleen Ryan from the WSU Rural Communities Design Initiative. The WSU team has been working on the plan since last spring, including conducting two public meetings and issuing a preliminary report. When completed, the plan will be reviewed by C...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District directors accepted the resignations of two veteran employees at its meeting Jan. 10. Resigning were teacher and Current Technical Education Director Kathy Proctor, and Human Resource Director Mandi Stack. Proctor came to the district in 1979, and has been associated with vocational education. She will finish up a 37-year teaching career at the close of school this spring. Proctor’s husband, Gordon, retired a couple of years ago, also after many years of service, as a teacher and coach. Stack is a 1997 g...
Electric City may still get started on its new park behind the fire station early this year. A discussion at last week’s council meeting provided some hope to Councilmember Lonna Bussert that work on a needed retaining wall could be done after the city receives the finished Pathway and Revitalization plan from a Washington State University team of an assistant professor and several students. That plan is expected to be complete in either late January or early February and include details of the development of the park. Bussert was active in t...
Grand Coulee's police department showed a marked increase in the number of burglaries reported in its jurisdiction (which includes Electric City) in 2016 over what it reported for 2015, according to records released last week. The report, which included Electric City, showed there were 42 attempted and actual burglaries for 2016, compared to 23 for 2015, an 82-percent hike. Burglary records for Coulee Dam were not available for 2016, but the number of burglaries in 2015 was shown as six. Police...
Patrons of the Grand Coulee Dam School District will soon have an opportunity to officially comment about local schools. The district just recently prepared a survey, which will be online, covering a number of topics relating to different aspect of schools. The survey follows up Superintendent Paul Turner’s efforts to communicate more directly with staff and patrons of the school district. Turner, who took over duties of superintendent last August, stated then that “communications” was one of his top priorities in the months ahead. The distr...
Community members are encouraged to attend an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail informational meeting Jan. 23 in Coulee Dam. The national project is to tell the story of the Ice Age Floods, which includes 16,000 square miles in four states and, locally, formed the Grand Coulee. The meeting in two weeks will feature a report from National Park Service’s Denise Bausch, who will speak on the NPS’ long-range interpretive plan for the trail system. The meeting will be held Monday, Jan. 23, from 1-3 p.m., in the community room at Coulee Dam Town...
Old Man Winter interrupted Monday’s start of school, forcing a two-hour delay because of snow at both Grand Coulee Dam and Nespelem schools. In Coulee Dam, interim bus manager George Davis said roads in general were bad in all directions. He singled out roads in the Nespelem area, Delrio, Grand Coulee/Delano area, upper Electric City and “just roads everywhere.” Electric City, Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam city crews were hard at it Monday morning trying to keep streets open. It wasn’t necessarily the depth of the snow, but finding room to move...
The sale of Center School is made more complicated by the issue of zoning. The school district has made efforts to sell the vacated school and some additional acres, but so far no one has stepped up to the plate to make an offer. The issue of zoning keeps coming up and any interested buyer isn’t certain how the property might be re-zoned. Currently, the Grand Coulee planning commission is studying a wide range of zoning issues. “We are not looking at a single property, but what needs to be done throughout the city,” stated planning commi...
There were smiles all around last Thursday as Port District 7 officials got the year-end financial report on Banks Lake Golf Course, which they manage. At the end of 2015, port commissioners were looking at red ink to the tune of $32,000. But last Thursday, district Secretary Joanne Davidson brought smiles to commissioners when her report stated that the golf course was in the black for 2016, $17,006.16. Actually, things look better than that. The Port District paid off its golf carts in 2016, a $17,048.37 non-recurring expense. Given that,...
Grand Coulee got first place, but not necessarily the type of first place you’d want to receive. An FBI report for the state of Washington shows that Grand Coulee, for its size, was rated first in the state for burglaries for the year 2015. Statistics show that Grand Coulee had 23 burglaries for its population of 1,056, a statistic skewed because it doesn’t account for the population of Electric City, which the Grand Coulee Police also support, noted Police Chief John Tufts. Two other nearby communities on the list include Winthrop, which was...
Elmer City has a 2017 budget, but not without a bit of strife. It was all over a $2 an hour raise for city clerk Gary Benton. The raise and passage of the town’s $915,603 budget narrowly passed Dec. 8, with one council member, Jesse Tillman, voting against the budget because of the raise, and another, Councilmember Don Bonertz, abstaining. That left the vote 2-1, with Clara Carson and Larry Holford voting for the budget, including the raise for Benton, and Tillman voting no and Bonertz abstaining. Councilmember Joaquin Marchand was not at t...
Grand Coulee is hiring an outside source to help the city reconcile its finances. The city council approved the hiring of an outside contractor to do the “reconciliation of city financial software system to city bank accounts to assure accuracy of financial data being reported to the council and State Auditor’s office,” according to a contract for services. Hired was Toni Nelson of Government Financial Services, at a cost to the city of $110 an hour. The estimated time period for the work is 25-30 hours, part of the time on-site and part away...
Grant County Port District 7, which runs Banks Lake Golf Course, has cut down a number of cottonwood trees at the course. The decision was made earlier this year because roots from the trees were tearing up the asphalt cart paths and in some cases "roots were growing into some of the greens," port commissioner Jerry Sands stated. Sands said 13 trees were eliminated and several more cottonwood trees need to be cut down. "When they planted the cottonwoods, I understand," Sands said, "they only...
The POWER program to feed game birds in the winter will soon end. Lack of “manpower” is finally catching up to the longtime program by POWER (Promoters of Wildlife and Environmental Resources). Carl Russell, longtime president of the organization, said that when the final sacks of feed are distributed, the program will end. Some 59 small backyard feeders are scattered around the community along with 15 large feeders, and have been a food refuge for quail and other game birds for over 20 years, Russell stated. Russell recently resigned as pre...
The city of Grand Coulee is changing the way it pays for training for its volunteer fire department personnel. The council has agreed to pay the fire department a fixed monthly fee instead of payment on the number of members who show up for training sessions. The change was made a week ago, based on a request by fire department Chief Richard Paris. Paris said the change would satisfy concerns of auditors on the way training payments were paid by the city. The fire chief told the council that the former payment method had been in place for 36...
The National Park Service, along with local groups, will hold a discussion of an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail long-range interpretive plan here on Jan. 23. The meeting will take place at 1 p.m., at the Coulee Dam community room at town hall. Denise Bausch will make a 45-minute presentation of the Ice Age Floods Trail plan, followed by a question-and-answer period. Also making a presentation will be Russell Powers, deputy city clerk of Electric City, on what the city is doing on its Pathway & Trail plan. The city plans a recreation...
An agreement a local contractor says he made with former mayor Ray Halsey got opposition from Electric City's mayor and council last Tuesday night. Wayne Snyder addressed the council and said that then-mayor Halsey had made a deal that if he annexed his property into Electric City, the city would put in roads and sidewalks within two years. Snyder told the council last Tuesday night that the city should honor its agreements. Snyder wants to short plat four lots on property he owns and are now wi...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District received a grant from the Washington State Library Dec. 13, to enhance reading material for Native American students. The grant will provide more than 80 books, with emphasis on Native Americans and their cultures. Of the book list, 55 volumes are new to the Lake Roosevelt libraries. Margo Piver, assistant elementary school principal, and Aaron Derr, elementary library literacy coordinator, worked on the grant application, which was sent on Dec. 9. Carolyn Peterson, from the WSL, announced winners of the...