News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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After their daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes last year, they're forming a new group to bring awareness about the disease and to support kids who have it. The group, with the help of donors, are putting on a free barbecue at Grand Coulee's park on SR-174 near La Presa. And they had a table at last week's National Night Out event in Grand Coulee to promote the effort. Kinzley Dennis got the diagnosis one day after she turned 10 last November, said her dad and the group's president,...
It all ended well, with a young rock climber apparently still healthy after hanging for hours in a harness off a cliff at Northrup Canyon Saturday night, unable to go up or down. The canyon, an offshoot of the Upper Grand Coulee faces Steamboat Rock of highway 155 cutting into the coulee wall. The terrain features "steep cliffs, massive boulders, thick brush and a small crevice that would be difficult to bring equipment through," noted Grand Coulee Police Officer Kline, who was first on the...
Under 200 voters chose the two candidates who qualified Tuesday to run for mayor of Grand Coulee in the November general election. The names of Mike Eylar and Chuck Crowe will appear on the ballot. The race required a primary election to narrow the field of three candidates to two. Eylar garnered 164 votes, or 82.83 percent. Crowe took 23 votes (11.62%), and Kimberly Christensen got four of the 198 votes cast, according to the unofficial results published by the Washington Secretary of State....
Families mingled as a live band played, kids cooled on an inflatable water slide, and fire fighters practiced tearing apart a car during a National Night Out event put on by the Grand Coulee Police Department Tuesday night. Police officers of many kinds also mingled or offered information from booths, including Colville Tribal Police, National Park Service rangers, State Parks rangers, and, of course, the sponsoring Grand Coulee officers. They had closed Midway Avenue and diverted traffic for...
The ground has shifted beneath community journalism, and the new landscape has a different feel. These days, good cameras in almost everyone’s pocket and the emergence of social media turns the possibilities around from what existed even a decade ago, and that is both good and bad. Last week, The Star reported on the funding found for Elmer City’s new fire engine storage facility. Part of the information for that story came from a couple sources that would have been impossible a few years ago. A group of volunteers called Okanogan County Wat...
People on the Grand Coulee City Council think the city may have to find a way to keep services going that some citizens may well take for granted: fire and ambulance. A discussion last week centered around whether to hold public meetings first, or decide on a possible solution before presenting it to the public at large, even beyond Grand Coulee. The city’s ambulance service is already serving a larger area. Coulee Dam no longer has a functioning service, and those in Grand Coulee’s regularly cover calls to the other three local cities. Get...
The only reason North Dam Park is still green and lovely is spelled: The Coulee Area Park and Recreation District, an entity run by volunteers, at least some approaching burnout. CAPRD is an actual government organization, created in 2003 by a vote of the people within its boundaries, which stretch from Disautel Pass to Steamboat Rock, a design intended to give it enough reach to empower everyone to contribute minimal amounts to a collective benefit and initial target: siting and building a new...
After 26 years in Las Vegas law enforcement and another five in the in security and investigations at a resort there, Mike Eylar feels "It's good to be home," he said. Now retired, he'd like to see if he can make a contribution, so he's running for the mayoral seat being left open by Mayor Paul Townsend's decision not to run again. Eylar is one of three candidates for the job hoping to make it through the primary election ending Aug. 1 to make it to the general in November. He faces Kim...
American Rescue Plan Act money will round out what had been another shortfall in funds intended to get a new building constructed for the fire department in Elmer City. The final $150,000 was pledged by Okanogan County commissioners last week after Jimmer Tillman, public works superintendent, and Kelly Ross, the town clerk, had appealed to them June 26 to ask for help overcoming the shortfall. Okanogan County Fire Protection District 2 parks some fire trucks outside, which is bad for the equipment. Two years ago, they started seeking funding...
The new superintendent at the Grand Coulee Dam School District has set a schedule to be available on one Tuesday a month for either morning coffee or evening pizza to sit down and chat. It’s something he has done in other districts with some success, Superintendent Rod Broadnax said when he dropped off a flyer at The Star with a schedule through next May. “Parent & Community Engagement Opportunities with the Superintendent” will offer coffee at 10 a.m. for an hour. The first one is set for Aug. 29. Broadnax said it will likely take place at Vo...
Two local police departments will hold separate events to get together with citizens for some fun on the same date. “National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live,” explains the website that promotes the event that started in 1984. It’s always on the first Tuesday in August. Coulee Dam Police Department will hold their event at Mason City Memorial Park on Mead Way Aug. 1 beginning at 5 p.m. Mead...
Rod Broadnax concluded a busy week at his new job with a report to the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors, when he was sworn in as the new superintendent of the district. Broadnax told the board he’d met with several teachers and other staff members during the week at their request. “All meetings were very collaborative and very supportive,” he said. The administrative team will be studying a book this year, he informed the board. “Is my School Better Because I lead it?” by...
Sewer rates will likely go up in Electric City after the city council approved a funding package obtained by Grand Coulee to redesign and refurbish the wastewater treatment plant they both use. A grant/loan package from the Washington State Dept. of Ecology will fund the final design stage of the project for $1.452 million in engineering bills from Gray & Osborn, Inc., Electric City’s share of which is about $268,620. The total project cost is projected at over $12 million. The cities are looking at a completion date of 2027 or 2028. Loan p...
To enforce or not to enforce was the question Tuesday night as Electric City officially entered the dog days of summer. The city, it seems, has been sending letters to several residents about the city’s pet code, many of whom have been ignoring them, some by a wide margin of error. The city gets complaints, has tried to persuade owners into compliance through other means, and it’s now down to writing tickets, but city employees wanted some guidance on how hard-nosed they should be about it. City Clerk Peggy Nevsimal gave the council exa...
It began with a roadside fire July 5, along SR-155 south of Electric City where a small blaze burned grasses both sides of the highway near jeopardizing homes. In the following days, various agencies in the region would call for immediate evacuations of areas where a wildfire had started quickly. Thunderstorms with multiple lightning strikes didn't help amid conditions the National Weather Service had predicted would include low relative humidity with stiffer winds, calling for a "Fire Weather...
A fairly heavy rain storm, with lightening is head into the area right now. Staying inside and unplugging electronics are good advice. Here's a screenshot of lightning strikes in the area a few minutes ago....
Coulee Dam doesn't do enough to get property owners to control weeds, and neither does Okanogan County. That's the assessment of Councilmember Keith St Jeor, who complained about no enforcement despite a recent increase in his property taxes, which he said supposedly includes payment for weed control. "That place across the street from me ... has been treated by the town like a joke" for the 21 years he's lived in his home," St. Jeor said at the June 28 council meeting. Thinking he paid...
Coulee Dam’s city council unanimously passed a resolution June 28 intending it to put a hold on any enforcement against so called short-term rentals of private property, following a plea from the owner of one such property two weeks earlier. Coulee Dam doesn’t have an ordinance specifically making such an enterprise illegal, but it’s also not specifically allowed in its zoning codes either, which distinguish between residential and commercial zones. At least two houses in east Coulee Dam are advertised on Airbnb, a site that handles the trans...
Early Monday morning, someone stole a tractor from the Spring Canyon Cemetery. The thief was there for at least 40 minutes, apparently breaking into one building through an old, wooden panel covering a door window, then probably taking keys found inside to open another building that housed the tractor, a 1996 John Deere 1070 loader with a backhoe attachment. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is hoping the pickup may look familiar to someone, so they put photos on a Facebook page and asked for...
A man who has been operating his house on Central Drive as a short-term rental took exception to a cease-and-desist letter from the city that said that activity is illegal. Danny Wiyrick didn't back down at a city council meeting June 14, had his arguments ready to go point by point, and had council members wanting to find a way to make it legal before the end of the meeting. But tonight (June 28) they consider a draft resolution declaring a moratorium on such rentals as Wiyrick's Airbnb...
Several years ago, the Grand Coulee Dam School District decided to fence off its “bus barn” near the baseball field in Coulee Dam due to repeated thefts happening at night. Earlier this month, as city officials gathered at the Delano Transfer Station to learn about their new equipment, a good sized $50,000 wood chipper obtained with a grant, transfer station manager Randy Gumm wondered aloud about the advisability of keeping it there; he’s had a lot of problems with theft. Other city officials from Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City...
Kids from all over the area took part in the annual Koulee Kids Fest Saturday, organized by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce and supported by businesses and organizations. About 17 of them put on little activities for kids from 10 a.m to 2 p.m., when the day capped off with a learning opportunity as The Reptile Man taught and entertained kids with live snakes, an alligator, and other reptiles. At least two activity sponsors offered prizes in drawings. Kids who filled in a...
Their house didn't burn, but firefighters couldn't save the garage/shop at Bill and Heather Williams' home in Electric City Monday when fire cut short their plans to work on an old pickup. Searching for the bright side as firefighters sprayed down the charred wood and hot metal siding, Heather Williams said at least they wouldn't have to decide what to keep from a collection of belongings they'd moved into the garage to sort. Electric City Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mark Payne said Bill...
Students from four area schools got to stomp around a field on the Colville Reservation in a citizen science experiment that continued this June. The students, from Nespelem and Keller schools on June 6 and from Lake Roosevelt and Inchelium schools June 7, had prepared in class a lot of "seed bombs," for planting native wildflowers on a field of native bunchgrass. The bombs, which a year ago had been made of clay and a pinch of seeds for the same experiment, this year had a bit different makeup...
Sometimes, there’s a gap between what is right and what is legal. Government is good at falling into those. Locally, the four mayors who comprise the Regional Board of Mayors are asking their councils to consider a problem: an Electric City employee at the transfer station whose wages are funded by the RBOM had his long-term wage agreement altered several years ago without his knowledge or consent and is now asking to be made whole on the “longevity pay” increases he didn’t get. Most council members in Elmer City, Grand Coulee and Coulee...