News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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It was constructed nearly three years ago, but people behind putting up an informative kiosk at North Dam Park, delayed by circumstances, decided to hold a ceremony to officially open it last Saturday. The kiosk tells historical information about the area, and gives overviews of some of its features. Washington State Parks' Coulee Corridor Area Manager Dennis Felton and board member Birdie Hensley were joined by longtime corridor president Tim Alling, who cut the ribbon on the basalt...
Rep. Dan Newhouse’s call on this page for the U.S. Senate to pass his Farm Workforce Modernization Act repeats his longtime call for reform, and it’s by most accounts a reasonable and necessary legislation for all the reasons he states in his column on this page. There are factors he doesn’t mention that you might want to know, and I have one question. First, not everyone agrees the bill is a good one. Some farm workers organizations say it would cause hardships on their constituent population and even allow pitting them against one anoth...
The wildfire smoke in the air, which may come from this or that fire depending on which way the wind is blowing, is unpleasant and unhealthy to breathe, and has an effect on local events. Grand Coulee Dam School District leaders discussed air quality at their board meeting on Sept. 12 when Superintendent Paul Turner discussed www.purpleair.com, showing how sensors installed at volunteer locations measure air quality. Local sensors on the network include one south of Osborn Bay, one near Spring Canyon, one in downtown Grand Coulee, another in ea...
A Nespelem man and two women from Omak ran into trouble and fruit crates Monday evening before Okanogan County Sheriff's deputies arrested them on several charges, the sheriff said. When a deputy tried to pull over a Ford F-250 in connection with thefts from a Tonasket retail store, the driver wouldn't stop, reached a dead end, then turned and tried to run into the deputy's vehicle, Sheriff Tony Hawley said in a press release. "Deputy Ray was able to accelerate and swerve away to narrowly avoid...
The recent suggestion that the area consider forming an emergency medical services district is a good one and could lead to a better service for everyone in the area when help is needed. Local leaders should consider it carefully, openly, and with open minds. They should also be mindful that at its core, the idea may be another attempt at an end run around a fundamental problem this community has always had but never faced constructively: lack of unity, even artificially induced disunity. An EMS district could be a great solution if local fire...
When the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services flew from Washington, D.C. to Seattle a couple weeks ago on a fact-finding mission, the CEO of Coulee Medical Center was on hand to give her some. Like the fact that in 2019, only fog or wildland fires could stop the transfer of a patient to another hospital for needed care, and that was rare. Now it happens from three to 10 times a week, and not because anyone is overrun with Covid-19 patients. Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks...
President Joe Biden likes to promote “union jobs” whenever he can, recognizing the tremendous contribution the union movement made in American history in the last century. This century, it’s less clear cut, as union numbers were decimated in most industries over recent decades, but it’s still worth recognizing and pondering. Today, some argue that with the emergence of artificial intelligence and robotics coming on, the role of human workers is actually somewhat questionable. Note that China is planning a large new hydroelectric dam — to be...
A computer system shut down the water system supplying Coulee Dam residents with drinking water sometime last weekend, but nobody knew it until pressures dropped low enough Monday morning. City Superintendent Mike Steffens said a computer programmer worked on restoring the system Monday morning, but the city crew still had to manually operate different valves across the system to equalize pressure and restore functionality. At Steffens' urging, the city purchased a new computer system to replace...
A neat trick in American politics is taking advantage of our collective unwillingness to really pay attention to what’s being said. So, when they talk about a real problem, attributing it or at least insinuating it’s due to some nefarious plot or stupidity by the other side, we nod our heads and sleepily agree when in the next sentence they offer a solution that is completely unrelated but liked by their own side. They’re relying on us to be long-blinking right past the propaganda, especially in the dog days of summer. That’s like naming a colu...
A Nespelem man — who kidnapped three minor children at gunpoint in June of 2020, robbed and sexually assaulted another, stole a truck, committed arson, and led police on a high-speed chase — was sentenced last week to 22 years in federal prison in a case that authorities hailed as the result of great collaboration among several law enforcement agencies and the courage of his young victims. John Edward McGinnis, 35, of Nespelem, was sentenced Aug. 9 by United States Senior District Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson to 264 months, followed by a fiv...
Firefighters responded to two small wildfires in the Lone Pine area Aug. 3 amid high temperatures and low humidity. John Purdue said he didn't know until his neighbor told him that the steep hillside just inches from his back deck was on fire. Firefighters from Okanogan County Fire District 2 and Coulee Dam were applying water and foam to a stump and burned grass in a patch along the downhill side of the Elmer City Access Road, with Purdue's house at the bottom on Lone Pine about 5 p.m. It was...
Apparent illnesses at Spring Canyon brought to light by a Facebook post apparently stopped on their own, officials said last week, although details were scant. “There are no facts,” stated Kim Hines at Lincoln County Public Health, noting the local clinic had recorded no cases of vomiting or diarrhea complained of by several people on the social media site after a commenter just wanted to find out how many might have been affected by whatever it was July 27-28. The Colville Tribal Health Dept. and the National Park Service each took sam...
Election results last night for the state and the four local counties showed voters choosing candidates not from the extremes edges of the political spectrum but from something closer to the middle. The race to watch from now to November is for the 4th Congressional District, held by Rep. Dan Newhouse, who will face Doug White, a Democratic challenger who thinks he can win. Statewide, Newhouse was ahead by just 1,008 votes, leading with just 27.32% of the vote to White’s 25.98%. Newhouse faced primary challenges from seven Republicans who t...
Having come here in 1985, and having lived in Spokane before that, my idea of a normal summer includes high heat reaching into the 90s. Now, we’re trying to accept the latest triple-digit trend as the “new normal.” That’s a mistake. Just because we live through a heat wave, or “heat dome” two or three times, doesn’t mean it’s OK, normal. It’s not, and our changing weather seems to be changing our landscape, with fire the great change agent. Burn scars don’t always rebound to their prior state. There used to be more sagebrush on the hi...
Firefighters got a stubborn blaze stopped near Leahy Junction Tuesday after a day of fighting in the hot sun. The fire reportedly started about 6:30 a.m. under a Douglas County PUD powerline, but the cause was not yet known, said Douglas County Fire District 3 Chief Cory Allman. Allman said he wouldn't be surprised if it started a lot earlier; he lives just four miles down the road and it was already larger than he expected when he arrived. Called the Nilles Fire for the corner of P and Road 27...
The Colville Tribes has a new executive director in Cody Desautel. "The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has appointed Cody Desautel to serve as the Tribes' new Executive Director," stated Colville Business Council Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson in a July 21 press release. The executive director is the administrative head of tribal government and reports directly to the 14-member governing CBC. "Cody is well known to us and to tribal membership due to his prior service as...
In the last couple weeks, this community has shone brightly with examples of strength and good will and a readiness to step up and do what is needed. First, people immediately stepped up to answer a communitywide need: to support an important park at North Dam, home of many community events and activities, giving thousands to keep it in operation this summer, even knowing that a full solution has yet to be found for the basic underlying problem. Next, the Siam Palace and many volunteers arranged to put on a dinner to raise money to help a...
The Colville Tribes has a new executive director, the tribes announced Thursday night. "The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has appointed Cody Desautel to serve as the Tribes' new Executive Director," stated CBC Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson in a press release. The executive director is the administrative head of tribal government and reports directly to the 14-member governing Colville Business Council. "Cody is well known to us and to tribal membership due to his prior...
After lab workers mysteriously got sick last Tuesday, forcing an emergency closure, Coulee Medical Center started a phased re-opening Friday morning, starting first with its emergency department at 7 a.m. Tuesday afternoon Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks said CMC was back to full operations and that patients had been back in the building for four days with no problems. Widely reported as a "gas leak," Hick said that was in error, noting that there is no natural gas in the hospital. The deci...
Several community members met with park district commissioners last week in a workshop setting to help solve a funding problem that could potentially close North Dam Park, again. The good news is that the community is responding with money and ideas. After the chamber of commerce set up a GoFundMe online donation account for the park, people immediately began donating to help raise its stated $10,000 goal. As of Tuesday night, it had raised over $5,200. Coulee Area Park and Recreation District...
A mystery substance has shut down Coulee Medical Center after three employees in the lab area became ill for unknown reasons Tuesday afternoon. CMC was evacuated and employees sent home, and a hazmat team has been requested to investigate. No one knows what made the lab workers ill, other than an odor, but their conditions were apparently not serious. It started with headaches, then chest pains, shortness of breath and vomiting. They've been checked out and released. No patients were affected,... Full story
After lab workers mysteriously got sick Tuesday, forcing an emergency closure, Coulee Medical Center will start a phased re-opening Friday morning, when it will "move forward cautiously," opening its emergency department first at 7 a.m. The decision to re-open was made mid Thursday afternoon after a meeting with state officials. It had been 20 hours with people in the building following that shut-down and subsequent investigations looking for a possible cause of the noxious odor that caused half... Full story
Don’t let a wet spring fool you. A day after the year’s hottest day so far in the region, Grant County citizens got a reminder of what that can mean when the sheriff’s office issued a Level 2, then Level 3 Evacuation notice Monday afternoon. People in the area east of Soap Lake were told to be ready to go should it come to that, then were told to leave immediately. Responding firefighters sent out the call countywide for help, at least twice. Remember a few summers ago when a fire that started over a half-hour’s drive away eventually put wes...
The town council in Coulee Dam Wednesday night approved spending $3,020 to "move dirt" in a canyon just above the city hall, a residential neighborhood, and a motel so that police can use it for a shooting range. Officer Josh Watkins introduced himself to the council as the firearms instructor for Coulee Dam's two-officer police department and explained the need for such a space. Watkins said the biggest benefit would be the ability to get free training. Police have training requirements to...
This weekend will feature lots of smiles, as did last weekend. The difference will be in the fact that the average age of smilers will be reduced. Last Saturday, seniors graduated from high school; this Saturday kids get a chance to wear out their parents, or vice versa, at Kids Fest. Whether you love every activity presented is not really important, just remember to enjoy seeing all those smiles. Scott Hunter editor and publisher...