News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 751 - 775 of 1382
Electric City will spend thousands less on boosting tourism efforts and related job growth after the city council reversed itself in a 3-2 vote last week. The council last Tuesday night backed off its previous decision in November to spend 75 percent of its annual hotel/motel taxes each year, choosing instead to stay with its present ordinance that fixes spending at 50 percent of what comes in during a given year. John Nordine, one of two council members on the tourism committee, told the council that he would still like to see the city do a... Full story
Lucinda Parker, an abstract artist from Oregon, has been commissioned to produce $75,000 worth of artwork for the new school complex. Parker was one of scores of artists recommended to a local committee by the Washington State Art Commission. The $75,000 project is required as part of the public building/art program and is administered by the state art commission. Nate Piturachsatit outlined the local committee’s selection to Grand Coulee Dam School District directors Monday night and indicated that dozens of artists were considered before P... Full story
Elmer City passed its 2015 budget last Thursday night — barely. The $674,662.80 budget passed with a 3-2 vote. A large portion of the budget, $244,971, is pass-through money that will come in 2015 from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board for a street and sidewalk project scheduled for 2016. The budget and council meeting took a dark turn as the lights went out just as the meeting was scheduled to begin. Out came the flashlights, but within 10 minutes the lights came on again. The budget passed after some intense budget workshop mee... Full story
Grand Coulee Mayor Chris Christopherson has filed a public records request for all activity and minutes of meetings of the city’s Civil Service Commission from July through October of this year. It seems all part of the see-saw tug of war that has been going on in city government over the past few months as the city looks for a new chief of police. Alan Cain, chair of the CSC, said, “That’s fine, we have nothing to hide.” But the trust between the mayor and the Civil Service Commission isn’t fine, and Christopherson has been working to exclud... Full story
Grand Coulee’s city council voted Dec. 2 night to undo its prior move, made two weeks earlier, to take the city’s police chief job out of civil service protection. The 4-1 vote was to put the police chief back under the protection of the Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission. The issue came up as the council was setting its agenda for the evening. Council member and former mayor Tammara Byers asked that it be placed on the agenda for reconsideration. “I just never gave it enough thought,” she said, “and I feel that I made the wrong decision.” B... Full story
Pay raises for two Elmer City employees are intact as the town’s budget process moves forward. Now it will be up to the council to pass the document, this Thursday night. In a budget workshop, the second in two weeks, the council was split 2-2 in an advisory ballot, with Mayor Gail Morin breaking the tie in favor of the budget as it then stood. It was all over giving Town Clerk Renee Tillman and public works Director Jimmer Tillman a raise in 2015. This had been challenged by the husband and wife council team of Donna and Jeff DeWinkler. The D... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam School District taxpayers will be asked to vote on a new maintenance and operation levy, Feb. 10. The amount and duration will be decided Dec. 15, by the school board, after it receives a recommendation from an independent levy advisory board. That advisory board met last Thursday and will meet again at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10, in the new school conference room. Karen Depew was elected chair of the advisory board. Depew has chaired a number of the recent levy committees. The advisory board will work out the details of... Full story
As it stands today, Electric City will be out of police coverage for its residents on Dec. 31. It’s a money issue. Electric City pays for police protection from Grand Coulee, which wants more. Council committees of the two cities met a couple months ago and agreed to a price for coverage in 2015 at $115,000 — up from $77,000 in 2014. That would give the two cities time to come up with a comprehensive plan that could lead to a two-city police department. A week ago, Grand Coulee sent a contract offer for that amount to Electric City and to dat... Full story
People in Electric City interested in putting up larger shops and garages, or in preventing others from doing so, can attend a couple meetings in January on that subject. Electric City has scheduled two meetings in January to discuss and make decisions on zoning changes on accessory buildings. The first meeting, Jan. 6, will be a public workshop of the planning commission on various changes being considered. The second meeting, Jan. 22, will be a public hearing on amendments to the city’s zoning code. Changes to the zoning code as it relates t... Full story
Big Bend Community College will soon be hanging its shingle out at the former Grand Coulee Dam Middle School annex building. It will be the beginning of a Community Knowledge Center, where students and local residents can take advantage of a range of activities still to be developed. Barbara Collins, who heads the program for BBCC, said the initial activity will be a beginners’ computer class starting in mid-January. Big Bend has a number of Community Knowledge Centers, including those at Wilson Creek, Warden, Royal, Mattawa, Odessa and Q... Full story
Students, are you having trouble with your homework and your parents can’t help? Then North Central Regional Library might be your answer. Kim Mehr, out of the Wenatchee Public Library, and representing NCRL, made a presentation last month to students in seventh through 12th grades about services available for them, and homework was one of the topics. Students must have a library card, easily obtainable at any NCRL branch, and go online to the regional library home page at www.ncrl.org. Click on the Research & Homework tab. You can access i... Full story
Every school has its own culture or identification. The new Lake Roosevelt School is no exception. The character of a school is not easily transferable from one location to another, and because of this, officials are trying to help the new school complex develop its own and unique culture. Associate Principal Ronanda Liberty reported to the school board recently on efforts she is making, working with staff and students, to develop the school’s own unique signature. A school is just four walls, so to speak, until staff and students arrive. They... Full story
When it rains, it pours. At least most of the time. It rained inside Lake Roosevelt High School's gym last week - that's right, inside. Circumstances and a winter rain caught school officials off guard and it resulted in a wet gym floor that led to the cancellation of a basketball game Nov. 25. The old gym is scheduled for a new roof and new look, but a couple of things got in the way. School officials had scheduled a new roof for the gym but had to wait to see if there would be enough money... Full story
Nate Piturachsatit has moved from physical education coordinator to counselor at Lake Roosevelt Elementary School. The change was approved by the Grand Coulee Dam School District board for the remainder of the year. Principal Lisa Lakin said this week that Piturchsatit is also taking his internship as a principal and expects to complete it this next spring. The district had the unexpected retirement of Rosella Covington, who held the counselor position at the middle school for a number of years. The district had advertised for a replacement... Full story
Grand Coulee’s city council changed its mind last week about protecting its next police chief by passing an ordinance removing the chief from Civil Service. Two weeks earlier, the council had voted 4-1 to keep the chief of police position under the protection of the Civil Service Commission, which is designed to shield public employees from political backlash. This time the vote was 3-2 to remove the chief from Civil Service protection. Councilmember Erin Nielsen asked why the ordinance was on the agenda, since the council had already voted f... Full story
The Grand Coulee/Electric City police contract for 2015 is in limbo. Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands said this week, “we haven’t seen any contract, yet.” Ever since voters turned down a real estate levy request by Electric City by a two to one margin (232-116), a police contract has been in question. The special levy would have raised $65,000 for Electric City. “Apparently residents don’t want police protection,” Sands said. The two law enforcement council committees had met several months ago and pounded out an agreement for $115,000 fo... Full story
Elmer City wants to provide overdue pay raises for two town workers but leaders have to figure out how to pay for it, after a proposal to raise utility rates was blocked last week. Mayor Gail Morin said that the two workers, Town Clerk Renée Tillman and public works Director Jimmer Tillman, both receive far less than workers in cities and towns nearby and haven’t had their salaries keep pace with the cost of living. The clerk now receives $18.50 per hour and the town’s 2015 budget would increase this to $19.50. Works Director Tillman rece... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board made two decisions on athletic policy Monday night, one over the objections of one of its members. School board Director Ted Piccolo had issues with changing district policy so that student athletes can be failing one class and still participate in sports. The policy requires athletes to carry a 2.0 grade point average (C average) to participate in sports. The change the board approved allows an athlete to carry one failed grade. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask that a student passes all their... Full story
Electric City plans to add at least 15 new street lights next year. The initial cost is about $2,000, and it will boost the city’s electric bill a bit higher. The decision to move forward on the street light program was made last Tuesday night and spelled out in the 2015 city budget. The city initially will pay for the trenching for the lines, and the rest of the expense will be handled by Grant County PUD. The PUD recovers its expense by the monthly fee it charges for electricity. The city now pays about $975 a month for energy costs for i... Full story
An effort to develop an Electric City park moved one step closer Nov. 11 when the council matched the property owner’s asking price. The council voted to offer the Banks Lake Bible Church $25,000 for a double lot near the old Baptist Church school, which measures 80 by 160. Councilmembers Lonna Bussert and Brad Parrish explained to the council that the property had been appraised at $45,000 if used for a residence and $35,000 if used for other purposes. The church group was asking $25,000, and even offered to carry a contract if the city w... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District board Monday night approved a five-year grounds contract with Oasis Lawn Care for an annual cost of $37,600. The contract includes mowing, trimming and edging, lawn aeration, pruning, fall leaf removal, weed eating the hillside above the athletic fields, chemical and fertilizer applications and summer irrigation. Oasis provides its own equipment, and where it can, its proposal stated, tries to hire Lake Roosevelt graduates, and students returning for summer work from college. Superintendent Dennis Carlson... Full story
Officials at Lake Roosevelt Elementary are trying to figure out why one of the first-grade classrooms picks up a sewer smell off and on. It happens in Kim Campbell’s first-grade room, and on occasion drives her and her 18 students across the hall into another classroom. Plumbers and other tradesmen are working to find the problem, crawling around checking pipe joints. Theories abound. None have proved positive. The smell doesn’t occur every day, nor at the same time each day that it happens. Usually, it doesn’t last over 20 minutes to half... Full story
Lake Roosevelt’s football program took a hit this week with the head coach and two assistant coaches resigning. Resigning was Head Coach Steve Files, and Assistant Coaches Paul Braun and Joe Tynan. Files stated in his resignation letter to Athletic Director Richard Black, “the decision was not an easy one and involved many hours of thoughtful consideration. In the end, I strongly feel that at this time new leadership is in the best interest of the program” The Raiders had a league win-loss record of 1-7 during the past football season. In ad... Full story
Could there be a new athletic league in Lake Roosevelt High School’s future? It’s possible that someday the Raiders will be part of a proposed “Columbia River League.” But there’s a long road awinding before that could become possible, Athletic Director Richard Black told the school board Monday night. In spite of all the things Lake Roosevelt and others proposed for the league would have to do, the school board was enthusiastic about the idea. Nevertheless, Black was cautious. “When you start pulling schools out from other leagues, you open up... Full story
Grand Coulee’s planning commission kicked the can down the road to the city council on the Mike Horne proposal to move his MPH mechanic shop down the street to a new location. One planner after another moved away from trying to find a way that Horne could move his business to another location on Midway Avenue, where it is currently grandfathered into a zone that changed in 2011 and no longer allows that type of business. It appeared to spell doom for the move since two city council members sit on the planning group — Councilmember Tammara Bye... Full story