News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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By Scott Hunter Supporters filled the meeting room at La Presa as the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a dinner to honor local businesses for their accomplishments in 2024 March 13. Coulee Hardware was voted Business of the Year for being far more than a hardware store. The store "also provides a lot of other services," noted Nancy Zimmerman-Boord, chamber executive director," listing its UPS package shipping center, retail rentals, garden supplies, fresh plants every spring,...
A lot was different in the unofficial final game of the basketball season last Friday at the Lake Roosevelt High School gym, where the school staff put on a shocker of close-call overtime game against the class of 2025, complete with state-class varsity basketball players. The ambulance backed up right in front of the gym exit as a precaution might have been a clue, but it wasn't necessary. In fact, a planned 20-point advantage the seniors thought they'd spot the elders wasn't needed either,...
Some students might get to ride on a battery-powered bus sometime next year, if a grant application is accepted by the bus manufacturer. Grand Coulee Dam School District Transportation Director Wade Magers presented the school board Monday with the option to go electric with one bus in a little over 10 months. Magers said there are pros and cons to getting one, but the financial aspect of the application makes it attractive. Magers said the IC Electric School Bus (ESB) should go about 130 miles on a charge and recharge fully in about eight...
We’d all gain a great deal if we could just talk with people of a different opinion, calmly and rationally. During simultaneous rallies for opposite political viewpoints Saturday along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee, some people carried signs that could have worked for the other side verbatim: “Stop the Lies” is a common cry both for supporters and detractors of President Trump and his policies. And both sides are full of people who just want what’s best for the country. The difference, it was apparent Saturday, is that they take in informa...
The Lake Roosevelt Raiders ended their post-season basketball quest March 5 at the Spokane Arena in the Round of 12 at state tournament with a loss to Tri- Cities Prep. With eight players over 6 feet, the Jaguars won 64-33, effectively limiting the Raider offense, shooting 48% to the Raiders' 24%. Tri-Cities' Bryson Wilde scored 21 points. Ivan Alejandre led LR scoring with 17. The Raiders dropped in 11 of 32 two-point attempts and 11 of 16 free throws, but not one of 14 trey attempts, making...
Bureau of Reclamation employees at Grand Coulee Dam who had accepted the “fork in the road” offer of deferred retirement, expecting to stop working on March 7, instead got a memo Monday morning telling them to clear out by the end of the day, March 3. No reason was given for the rush, but the emailed instructions from Boise, the Columbia Pacific Northwest Region headquarters, had an air of resignation about it: “Big change in the DRP rules as of 10:37am this morning,” the email began, explaining that all Deferred Resignation Program participant...
People with concerns and picket signs can gather on Grand Coulee's Midway Avenue (SR-155) from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 8. The march will take place on the same day as a nationally advertised march for women, but it will be the fourth in a series of local, loosely organized events for expressing solidarity with others concerned about the recent changes in the federal government, including layoffs, forced resignations and coming RIFs, abolishing entire agencies established by Congress, and...
Lake Roosevelt on Tuesday sent off the Raider boys' basketball team to the state tournament at the Spokane Arena. "We knew we're going to be tough this year," Coach Ed Wolfe told the assemble student body. "Here we are. We put in a lot of work from summertime till now. We believed in ourselves from the very start." Scheduled to play Tri-Cities Prep in game 11 of the state tournament, they'll meet the Jaguars at 12:15 in Wednesday's "Round of 12" in a loser-out contest to see who goes on to the...
A couple months after she and her husband John, moved here in 2010, Carol Nordine had found the local food bank. She's been volunteering at the Care and Share Food Bank ever since, the last seven years as its manager. Just in time to see a growing need. A roomful of volunteers and friends gathered at La Presa Saturday to honor that service, eat, and enjoy each other's company. Shawn Neider also volunteers at the food bank, as well as pastoring the Zion Lutheran Church. He recalled the growth...
Coulee Dam’s police chief published a statement Monday asking people to report crimes to police, not just post it on Facebook. “If we don’t know about it, we can’t do anything about it,” noted Chief Paul Bowden. Bowden said the don’t consider Facebook posts as a proper way to report police issues. “This is a reminder to PLEASE report any criminal or suspicious activity such as thefts, car prowls, break- ins, etc. directly to the Police Department by calling MACC Dispatch at 1-888-431-9911.” Bowden also addressed comments he’s heard that there...
After a vandal hit Grand Coulee City Hall Jan. 4, the city was left with cleanup and repairs. Those are coming in at about $74,000 to fix broken windows, damaged floors and walls, office equipment and police cars parked outside. The city council Tuesday night OK’d spending $13,450 on new windows, including a couple not damaged in the incident but old enough to be replaced with more energy-efficient windows. The council also voted to declare surplus five of those now-unused police vehicles outside, which had served the police department when it...
Ice fishers and other recreators are urged to stay off the ice on Banks Lake, which will soon become unstable if it isn't already. The Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam will begin pumping water into Banks Lake, beginning Saturday, Feb. 22, at 10 p.m. This influx of water may result in unstable ice conditions that present serious safety risks to all ice fishers and recreationists, Reclamation announced this week. The change in operation will conclude on Monday, Feb. 24, at 6 a.m....
Elmer City residents may notice their city bill gets a boost next month. Effective March 1, each service will cost another $1, following the passage Thursday of an ordinance increasing the monthly fee for garbage, water and sewer service by a dollar each for the bill that comes due in April. The council also passed an ordinance instituting an ongoing, planned utility rate rise of 1.5% every year, beginning in 2026. Both the $1 rise this year and the future 1.5% annual increase starting next year were discussed during council budget discussions...
Citizens unhappy with the direction of the federal government under President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who heads up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, marched with signs Monday from noon to 1 p.m. along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee. A week earlier, Sheri Edwards had walked the route alone. On Monday, President's Day, the number climbed to 13 like-minded people. Several said they were pleasantly surprised by positive responses, and no negative ones, from passersby honking horn...
The Raider boys took down La Salle's basketball team by 12 points Saturday at the District 5 tournament to get into the district championship for first or second place Feb. 22 in Moses Lake. The LaSalle Lightning came to play, keeping the margin low most of the game. But the Raiders' dogged determination refused to let up. LR won 69-57. Champ Louie started the scoring for the Raiders in style, hitting two treys back-to-back to establish a six-point lead that proved to be the advantage in much...
A tax levy to support local schools was passing by about a 5% margin Tuesday night. Proposition 1, the Grand Coulee Dam School District's proposal to replace its expiring levy with a new one at the end of this year, seeks to tax property owners $2.13 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. In the four counties the district serves, the proposal was passing by 422-383 votes Tuesday, that is, by about 52.42%. The measure needs a simple majority to pass. If it were up to Lincoln County voters, it would...
One woman walked through Grand Coulee Wednesday in solidarity with demonstrators in state capitals across the country decrying actions taken by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency over the last few weeks. Sheri Edwards, a retired schoolteacher (and this writer's wife) decided Monday that she would join the protests, but not at Olympia, here locally. Edwards carried a sign that said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself. You and I are neighbors" and, on the other...
They served pink cookies to go with their pink shirts Monday morning to help celebrate a big gift to Coulee Medical Center and the difference it will make in local detection of breast cancer. After a promotional blitz with a theme of "Now Screening" designed to look like a cinematic release, CMC officials officially cut the ribbon on a new 3D mammography machine. "Early detection is crucial in the fight against breast cancer, and this new equipment will provide higher-quality images, reduce...
How much do people pay to support their local schools? After a fundraising dinner cooked entirely by the school's culinary arts students, citizens in Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High's HUB Thursday took in those facts and more on the upcoming school levy election. Cory Plager, of D.A. Davidson, a bonding company involved in building schools across the state, shared information he gathered from officials in counties included in the Grand Coulee Dam School District and from the state. "This is no opinion...
Problems always get talked about more than good news. That’s just a basic fact of society, one that applies to the way we view the institutions we all depend on, such as our local schools. That doesn’t mean good things aren’t happening too, or that we should stop supporting them. That’s what the current levy election is about. It seeks to replace the one that will expire this year, and it presents your opportunity to support your local schools. A change in approaches to leadership, professional development, and accountability is always likely...
A person died in an early-morning fire Monday when a home at the corner of B Street and Second Street in Grand Coulee burned. Fire Chief Ryan Fish said the single-wide mobile home was fully engulfed the first time he saw it, and he lives across the street. Citizens called it in at 5:24 a.m. They also "took actions to save two dogs from the yard," a Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department press release states. Fish was at the scene at 5:29. Fish called for response from the U.S. Bureau of...
Superintendent Rod Broadnax’s contract with the Grand Coulee Dam School District he leads was just extended by his bosses — the elected school board directors. The board met in a closed session during part of Monday night’s regular meeting to evaluate their employee, then emerged to take a vote, which was unanimous among those present. Director Buffy Nicholson was absent. Broadnax’s three-year contract was extended one year ago, when he was given a pay increase to $160,000 a year, plus cost of living increases. Monday’s action extends i...
A new team of federal personnel attended the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District meeting at the old middle school Jan. 22, to meet with district commissioners and get a sense of how to move forward during a transition. Bill Dykes, Stefani Utter, Chloe Johnson and Lauriann Mountjoy, all with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation are the new resources group that will work with the district that currently oversees North Dam Park, which is owned by Reclamation. "We're here to see what are options and...
A state agency has raised the question with Electric City of whether it might consider re-annexing some of the land it de-annexed last year after annexing it several years ago. Mayor Diane Kohout told the city council last week that some of the land the city had been advised could not be developed into valuable real estate actually could be. Land owned by the state's Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, can be developed with local partners. In fact, the land on which Sunbanks Lake Resort...
Local voters will be asked to decide whether to approve continuing to tax themselves to support schools next month. The election date is Feb. 11. Mail-in ballots were to be mailed yesterday, Jan. 22, but the Post Office says to allow a week for your ballot to arrive. The Grand Coulee Dam School District is seeking a levy of about $2.13 per thousand dollars of assessed property value. That would replace the current levy, which expires at the end of 2025. The new one would bring in over $967,461 in 2026 and rise yearly if property values continue...