News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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We like to go about our business believing that things are working as they should — and they seem to, mostly. Until they don’t. That can be when we have to realize some foundation of stability in our experience just wasn’t so stable after all. Take our local police forces and the way our firefighting infrastructure is set up. Yesterday’s wildfire at Sunbanks in Electric City (actually outside town at the moment) was prolonged due to — well, that’s uncertain at this point. But a nearby firefighting helicopter sat on the ground at Grand Coule...
Grand Coulee volunteer firefighters responded to 526 Wetzel Street for a fireworks-related blaze reported at 8:41 p.m. They were on scene by 8:46. Douglas County Fire Disrtrict 3 also responded. It was one of several fires that burned in region over the last several days. The fire was put out quickly and all crews left by 9:09 p.m., a department Facebook post said. Police at the scene said it was believed to have been started by people under the age of 18 and that no infraction would be issued s...
Searchers on Tuesday recovered the body of a young man missing in Banks Lake since Thursday. From Tacoma, Daniel Ciobanu, 28, and his wife had been riding a paddleboard near Coulee City when a breeze came up and they fell into the water in a spot "filled with very thick aquatic vegetation," according to a Grant County Sheriff's Office Facebook post. "The woman made it to shore, but the man went under and didn't resurface. First responders were called right away." That was about 8:30 a.m. They se...
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's Festival of America drew good crowds all day July 4 and filled the park below the Visitor Center at Grand Coulee Dam for the STCU-sponsored fireworks off the dam that night. Chamber Executive Director Nancy Zimmerman-Boord said more musical acts got people from all over interested in the festival as a music venue, and the addition of a beer garden kept people in the park. She said the plan will be considered and refined for next year. The second...
The Grand Coulee volunteer firefighters would like to remind everyone to be careful during the upcoming July 4th holiday and to be careful all summer during outside activities. Local firefighters are not alone in their concern. Agencies responsible for fighting fires statewide are issuing pleas for safety and advising people take in public displays instead of lighting off their own fireworks. "In 2023, fire incidents from fireworks resulted in more than $12 million of property damage in...
Oohs and aahs and lots of applause were audible at the end of last year's fireworks show put on by Rocketman Pyros, L.L.C. So the chamber of commerce brought them back again. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's main sponsor of the fireworks, STCU, merged in 2021 with the Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union and has been a reliable community partner ever since, helping the community to put on many events. It's hard to imagine a better, more iconic venue for the patriotic show than the top...
The Visitor Center Park in front of Grand Coulee Dam is a sprawling lawn just below an award-winning visitor information center that you can walk to learn more than you thought possible about the mile-wide concrete behemoth in front of you, but that might not mean much to your kids. That’s why the Festival of America organizers for the sponsoring Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce will have games and activities, including cool water features, literally, to keep kids entertained and not overheated. So, you might want your kids to go p...
Cell phones and how to handle them are a point of major discussion among school superintendents in Okanogan County, Rod Broadnax, superintendent at Grand Coulee Dam School District, told the school board June 10. “That has been a big, big topic,” he said. The local school board already banned cell phone use during school two years ago, but enforcement has been slipping later in the year. English teacher Steve Files presented his research on some options to address the situation. Files said he’s been following the issue for years. “At least i...
Coulee Dam tripled its budget for street projects Monday, accepting contracts with the state Transportation Improvement Board for funds to chip seal most streets in town this summer and upgrading sidewalk ramps for compliance with federal rules on access for wheelchair users next year. The city council amended the 2024 Street Fund budget from $531,526 to $1,595,526. The chip seal work, in which crushed gravel is layered smoothly on a prepared street, then oiled and rolled, will happen this summer, City Clerk Stefani Bowden said. The work on...
Two stories in The Star this week revolve around a problem central to not only the Grand Coulee Dam area, but to the nation as a whole: housing shortages. More than any other problem, a lack of good housing is the biggest impediment the local area faces to economic development. Two proposals — Coulee Medical Center’s tiny homes project and the Center Senior Living initiative — would address different aspects of this similar problem. All the largest employers in the area deal with a lack of housing when recruiting workers to come here. The B...
A member of the Grand Coulee Dam school board has resigned in the wake of a contentious stand the board took last week to not allow four graduates to "walk" at graduation. Deidre Ellsworth explained her decision to step down in a letter to "students offended by my action after the board meeting," which she asked The Star to publish. It's on page 2. The affected students allegedly had arranged to buy alcohol on the senior trip to Disneyland. The board backed the decision of the administration to...
Four seniors at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School lost an appeal to the school board Tuesday night, after asking the board to let them walk across the stage at graduation with their peers. The seniors had reportedly bought alcohol on the senior trip to Disneyland the prior weekend, which they had promised not to do. The board had heard the appeals of four students in a meeting last Thursday and decided not to counter the administration's decision. The appeals of their classmates played out in...
Bureau of Reclamation officials opened the doors of the new fire station in Grand Coulee Tuesday during public tours of the nearly complete new facility they said would be open within a few weeks. With terrazzo floors embedded with LED lighting strips to guide engine drivers in, a computer room overlooking the engine bay, a huge kitchen with lockers for individual crew members, windows that adjust the incoming sunlight to the needs dictated by the HVAC system, and much more, the bright facility...
It’s not always clear who is going to learn what or when as consequences come down after rules are broken. But one possibility this week is that the community is learning to draw a meaningful line. Four students, by all accounts good ones, will suffer the consequences of breaking rules against alcohol at school functions and contrary to their own pledges: They won’t be allowed to walk at graduation this Saturday. Following two executive sessions, appeals from each of the four, and more appeals from some 30 or so of their supporters Tuesday nig...
Celeste LaPlace chooses challenges, an evident mindset that has put her at the front of her class at Lake Roosevelt High School, which she hasn't really seen much of for a couple years. LaPlace is a Running Start student who will graduate from LR with both her high school diploma and a two-year college degree from Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. "I've been able to do two years of college for free," she noted when asked about the good and bad aspects of pursuing that tougher path. She...
At the end of her high school education, Raeley Portch looks back on a community of people she says have influenced what she would become. "Everyone's been here for me," said the class co-salutatorian, "... everyone's shaped me into the person I've become." Portch, with a 3.98 GPA, reflected on "all the support our community has," whether it comes from teachers helping to make sure an event goes smoothly, or businesses, organizations, or individuals chipping in to help. "There's always someone...
Every year on Memorial Day, a few citizens go to great effort to put on a tremendous display of patriotism to honor and remember those veterans who have passed on, dedicating new flags to those whose families wish to have them remembered with one. More than 600 American flags were flapping gently in the breeze Monday as speakers shared their thoughts on the day, and also during a moment of silence, which was a beautiful moment. It also meant volunteers put up and took down 600-plus flags, no easy task. But it is one that yields the kind of...
Four Lake Roosevelt athletes competed at the WIAA 1B, 2B, 1A State Championship Meet at Yakima's Zaepfel Stadium at Eisenhower High School May 23-25. John Cooley placed sixth at the state track meet in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.94 seconds. Cooley came in ninth in the 300-meter hurdles in 43.10. He came in 12th in the triple jump with a personal record of 38 feet, 2.5 inches. Carly Neddo placed eighth in the javelin at the state tournament with a throw of 109 feet, 11 inches, and ninth in the...
The Lady Raiders notched their first-ever win at the state tournament last week before losing two more games to knock them out of the competition. The Lady Raiders ended their season ranked eighth among the state's 48 teams in the 2B classification, with a 19-7 overall win-loss record. Head Coach Jaci Gross said the team has been to the WIAA state tournament in Yakima four times, but hadn't won a game there until they beat the Liberty (Spangle) Lancers in their first game on May 24 in the...
Five Raiders will compete at the 2024 WIAA 1B - 2B - 1A Track & Field Championships in Yakima May 23-25 after their team won the North Central 2B League Championship May 7, then qualified for state at the District 6 Championships in Brewster last Thursday. Lake Roosevelt junior John Cooley took first in Brewster in the 300-meter hurdles in 43.69 seconds. Cooley also took second in the 110m hurdles in 16.09, third in the triple jump at 37 feet, 5.575 inches, and sixth in javelin with a 116-foot t...
When Presley Steffens was in sixth grade, her future coach, Jaci Gross, gave her a shot at batting against standout Lady Raider pitcher Emma Marchand, just to try it out, see how it feels. Marchand got one past her. The next one went over the fence. Friday night, Steffens, now a sophomore, demonstrated her skills at both pitching and batting, slugging one over the fence in the fourth inning to bring in Taylor Thomas Vargas and herself, bumping the score to its final 15-4, then taking the mound f...
Leaders of two school districts Tuesday night, agreed to a “tuition” plan that’s been in dispute for months, which threatened to cost them over half a million dollars that would otherwise go to educating their students. Everyone was relieved at a joint meeting of the boards of directors of the Nespelem and Grand Coulee Dam School districts. “Thank you so much for working hard to make that agreement successful,” GCDSD Board President Rich Black said. “I know it wasn’t exactly what you had in mind. It wasn’t exactly what we had in mind.” At is...
The Lady Raiders took a loss after a win this week in their quest to make it to the state Fastpitch Softball Championships at Yakima's Gateway Sports Complex May 24-25. In District 6 playoffs, Lake Roosevelt bested Tonasket 8-7 in Grand Coulee May 10, as league pitcher of the year Presley Steffens struck out 13 batters. Last night, however, LR lost to the Lady Bulldogs, 5-2, in Okanogan. LR (17-5) will now play Brewster on the Raider's home diamond in Grand Coulee Friday at 4:30 p.m. in a...
It will start at 11 a.m., just as it has for decades, but for a few hours, chamber leaders thought the upcoming annual Colorama Parade on Saturday would have to be canceled. In fact, it was called off on Monday afternoon. Until about 5 a.m. Tuesday. That's when the executive director of the chamber got an email from the Grant County Sheriff's Office, saying they would, after all, be able to send three deputies in cars to help with traffic control. Closing two intersecting state highways for an h...
Two students at Lake Roosevelt Jr./Sr. High School were expelled on an emergency basis Thursday after an investigation of their emails revealed threats to kill five students at the school. During an authorized investigation into one student’s emails, school personnel came across a “hit list” of five students to kill, naming two of them. The responding student asked who they were and wrote that he or she would help. The two students doing the emailing were not in school on Thursday and now won’t be, following the emergency expulsion. The school...