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 Washington families were asked last week not to gather with people outside their households over the coming holidays, the governor added more details and broader restrictions in a modified order Sunday. If you get together for Thanksgiving with people not living with you, you'll be going against that ask, - unless you had already begun to quarantine by Friday and you keep it up until Thanksgiving, or keep it up for seven days prior and get a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours... Full story
When Robert Moïse was sent home from work last March as the federal government responded to the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic, he had a long way to go to his east Coulee Dam home. He was in Africa at the time. Moïse, a consulting anthropologist, has spent a lot of time there, and he's been tapped to share his insights, derived from a career of helping big organizations trying to do good in small communities, in an upcoming Rotary meeting open to the public via Zoom. Moïse will be the guest sp...
The little lot on the corner of Main and Spokane Way and at the heart of a controversy over city standards offers, in the narrower view, a conundrum for the city if it reconsiders whether a city code is being violated, one that limits outdoor advertising. But the bigger picture is more meaningful and invites serious, thoughtful discussion and long-term solutions. Those solutions, judging from public comments offered so far, including some on this page, are obviously needed because the corner in violation of the code looks far better than a...
Coulee Dam is offering grants to local businesses funded with money from the CARES Act, and applications must be turned in by Oct. 30. The application, first distributed Monday, says businesses are eligible if they: • are a small businesses located in and doing business in Coulee Dam, • have 20 or fewer full-time employees, • had been in business for a minimum of one year as of March 1, 2020 • have a valid UBI number, and • have a Coulee Dam Business License. The business must have been directly impacted by Governor Inslee’s Stay-Home,...
Coulee Dam will offer grants to city businesses to help with expenses due to the COVID-19 emergency. The town might have as much as $14,000 in its own expenses to cover with money allocated the city through the “CARES Act” passed by Congress this year for relief during the pandemic. But that sum would leave plenty left over to help local businesses. The city’s allocation of funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act recently increased to $49,500 from an earlier $33,000. It can be used for many needs within the town gover... Full story
Coulee Medical Center financial documents show a loss of just over $332,000 in August, but a huge pot of cash came through under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act Congress passed earlier this year. CMC banked some $4.4 million in CARES Act funds, Chief Financial Officer Kelly Hughes reported to hospital district commissioners Monday night over a Zoom meeting. That put the hospital in the black by $4,085,192 for the month and $988,443 for the year so far. That compares to the gain CMC had planned on, pre-pandemic, of nearly...
The Labor Day fires that consumed hundreds of thousands of acres around Washington over the last nine days were coming under control Tuesday, but not before killing one infant, burning dozens of homes and other structures in the local region, taking out hundreds if not thousands of utility poles and hundreds of miles of ranchers' fencing. The circle of fires at the center of which the Grand Coulee Dam community found itself, burned more land by far than all other fires in the state, tallied at... Full story
Update 9/16 11:55 a.m. The state Dept. of Ecology has extended the Air Quality Alert until noon Friday, although locally the air seems a lot less chewy (not a technical term) than it was before Tuesday. And it is only unhealthy currently, as opposed to outright hazardous. Good news: The Natonal Weather Service has co-opted the data from PurpleAir.com, which uses cheaper, but plentiful, air monitors. They've put up a useful new fire and smoke map at https://fire.airnow.gov/?la... Full story
A young family caught in the Cold Springs Fire apparently left their wrecked pickup in an attempt to get to safety Tuesday afternoon, but their 1-year-old son lost his life. The family was found on the banks of the Columbia River, the parents with third-degree burns and the baby already deceased, Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said in a press release Wednesday afternoon. Jacob and Jamie Hyland, 31 and 26, of Renton, Washington, and their baby were found before 10 a.m. Wednesday and were...
A 17-year-old barista in Okanogan tried to hide in the bathroom after a young man came into the Free Bird Coffee Stand on North Second Avenue, asked for water, then demanded everything they had. Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said the young woman was dragged out of the bathroom by the suspect, a man with tattoos on his face wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt. He left headed south, she told police. They were called at 3:10 p.m. Sept. 9, Hawley said. At 3:14, after Omak police, multiple sheriff’s deputies and the Washington State P...
Over the last decade, the area has suffered through several fire seasons that brought not only fire, but lots of smoke, often from elsewhere. This month, we got both, in huge amounts. The fires that burned all around us consumed more than 500,000 acres in our local counties alone, but the smoke that sat on the state (and hard on the coulee) gathered off the coast for many days before making its way inland. At sea, the massive body of smoke spanned an area larger than 900,000 square miles as measured from satellite images. We’ve had so much n...
Sept. 11, 9:30 a.m. update: The Cold Springs Fire is now at 187,689 acres and is 25% contained, according to a Sept. 10 update from the Northeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team. Power companies are working on replacing poles and to restore power in affected areas. "Priorities today will focus on the area east of Omak Lake and the Haley Lake area," the update says. "This area is where the most fire activity is and firefighters on the ground will be assisted by bucket operations... Full story
A 17-year-old barista in Okanogan tried to hide in the bathroom after a young man came into the Free Bird Coffee Stand on North Second Avenue, asked for water, then demanded everything they had. Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said the young woman was dragged out of the bathroom by the suspect, a man with tattoos on his face wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt. He left headed south, she told police. They were called at 3:10 p.m. Sept. 9, Hawley said. At 3:14, after Omak police, multiple sheriff’s deputies and the Washington State P...
Fire razed several buildings in Electric City early Tuesday morning, including an unoccupied house. When the call went out about 12:30 a.m., the fire was already well underway, said Mark Payne, fire chief in Electric City. The fire at the house at 118 Fifth Street near the edge of the city also started a small wildland fire that burned about an acre near the edge of the city on a windless night in dry brush. Payne, who could be heard asking dispatchers to call out more firefighters and brush...
Among the many fires burning in Eastern Washington tonight are five on the Colville Reservation, including three on its eastern edge that have consumed about 8,000 acres, where evacuations are underway. In Lincoln County, sheriff's deputies are notifying residents of Level 3 evacuation orders now (7:45 p.m.) along the entire Hawk Creek Ranch Road and telling residents in Hawk Creek Estates to get ready, a Level 2 evacuation notice. We believe this is now called the Whitney Fire. It had burned... Full story
Update 4:11 p.m. Bridgeport and Bridgeport Bar area is under a Level 3 evacuation, and US 97 is closed from Pateros north. #ColdSpringsCanyonPearlHillFireUpdate: Level 3 evac notices have been issued to the City of B.port and B.port Bar. Residents are being directed to leave towards Brewster and contact the Red Cross (509) 670-5331 if they require shelter assistance. — Douglas County Sheriffs Office - WA (@DoCoSheriffWA) September 7, 2020 Earlier story: Douglas County authorities just... Full story
Another step toward starting a major new hydropower project that would tunnel beneath the city of Grand Coulee happened Monday when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation published its intent to take proposals for a lease for generating electricity using Lake Roosevelt. The Bureau published in the Federal Register that it will take applications from non-federal entities for a “lease of power privilege” (LOPP) for a “pumped storage hydroelectric” project that creates power by pumping water up to Banks Lake, then letting it back down through generators t...
Grant County commissioners issued a "desperate appeal" Aug. 25 for the public's help in getting the COVID-19 epidemic in the county under control. With the county's rate of new infections currently the worst in the state, commissioners Tuesday passed a proclamation recognizing that community commitment "at a 'grass root' level will be the most effective in succeeding at eliminating the covid-19 virus." Since last Thursday, the Grant Health District had received reports of 63 new cases and... Full story
A local doctor traveled this summer to Taiwan, a country noted as having had one of the best responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the world, one with a strategy that differs greatly from that of the United States or even the state of Washington. The island country 100 miles off the coast of the People's Republic of China that has had 488 cases of the disease among its population of 23.6 million, even though its population is approximately 115 times as dense in its cities as Grant County, which... Full story
Grant County commissioners issued a "desperate appeal" Tuesday for the public's help in getting the COVID-19 epidemic in the county under control. With the county's rate of new infections currently the worst in the state, commissioners Tuesday passed a proclamation recognizing that community commitment "at a 'grass root' level will be the most effective in succeeding at eliminating the covid-19 virus." "We issue a desperate appeal to the Grant County community at large to implement the... Full story
An online survey that sought to outline preferences people have for businesses requiring masks or not drew 136 respondents over 13 days and elicited 52 opinions on the matter. The online poll, conducted at grandcoulee.com, The Star's news site, using surveymonkey.com, started on July 31 and received its last response on Aug. 12. The survey asked the question: "How do you feel about being a customer of a business that does not follow public health requirements on face coverings?" Respondents... Full story
The second time was not a charm for that yellow house at the top of the hill on the highway to Wilbur last week after a combine somehow started a fire in a wheat field, the second in three weeks, that totally destroyed the house and tens of thousands of dollars worth of wheat. The Sorenson Road Fire started at the end of that road, near the Herdrick home, Lincoln County Fire Protection District 8 Chief Dennis Pinar said. Pinar said the same three houses threatened in the Highway 174 Fire July...
Students at Lake Roosevelt Schools will start school Sept. 8, six days later than an earlier plan, after the school board Aug. 12 pressed the administration to delay, fearing not enough time to orient staff, students and parents to the distance-learning plan, using Chromebooks and flash drives. School board members at a special meeting urged Superintendent Paul Turner to allow more time for the training period. Board member Alex tufts said the earlier date “bugs the heck out of me” because he’s gotten input from community members, and he noted...
“If you give it away, they will come” might be one lesson Okanogan County Public Health takes away from its current push to provide Covid-19 testing for free all over the county. The county started its free testing last Thursday, bringing in the National Guard to help in the effort. By Monday afternoon, OCPH Administrator Lauri Jones said, they’d collected testing samples from more than 800 people in three communities: 375 in Winthrop, 80 in Brewster, and 368 in Omak. The health district already received from a Seattle lab the test resul... Full story
Grand Coulee Dam's Third Powerhouse was renamed last week, a press release from the office of Rep. Dan Newhouse, who represents the state's 4th District in Congress, announced. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the renaming is in honor of a father-son duo who were "instrumental in the conception, construction and implementation of operations at the dam." The announcement was made during a virtual roundtable event hosted by Newhouse (R-WA) and comes on the heels of Secretary Bernhardt's...