News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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As a newspaper, we actually try not to cover certain stories if they’re arising from an individual’s personal mental health problems. It’s not unusual to get a report that authorities have responded to an individual in distress, or worse. But if someone threatens to do themselves harm, most often it seems far less likely that a news story would help either the individual or society, which might only suffer greater loss if a news article placed more pressure on an already bad situation for that individual. Most of the time. But it was diffi...
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...
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...
Some deep thinking has been going on, and its helping. Last week, many local professionals in law enforcement, emergency medicine, and other first responders, — the folks who have to live with the possible trauma of a car crash to which they only responded to help — took time to show every local high school student just what happens in a crash. Many of them worked for weeks or months in preparation and planning. Teenagers as a group are far more likely to be involved in car crashes, and this area has too often seen the worst side of those sta...
Sometimes city governments run smoothly, but as they operate with humans in a democracy, rough patches happen. Balancing human needs, egos, ambitions, desires, skills, or a lack of them, all within the confines of public perceptions, budgets, legal restrictions, and politics sounds like the kind of idea that might cause many stalwart business pros to run screaming from the room where it was suggested. But that’s exactly what it takes for a city, or any municipality that serves us, to operate. It’s natural when tensions rise, and they can be...
It became clear as crystal last night. Within the time allotted for one city council meeting in Electric City, at least three issues were discussed that require regional attention of two, three, or four local cities, all of which would benefit from cooperation among or between them. That’s why interest in at least one meeting among all their leaders, with the public invited, is an encouraging sign. The new kid on the block, Grand Coulee Mayor Mike Eylar, proposed last week at the Regional Board of Mayors meeting, that all the councils come t...
Maybe she thought she could trust me, or maybe she just really needed to tell someone right then. We were both about 10, and our conversation then sheds light for me on a minor item in today’s report from the Elmer City Council meeting last week. She’d come over to our house with her parents, who were friends with my parents. Sally and I didn’t know each other well, but got along OK. She was with me when I fell off the cliff, but that will come a little later on in this story. This is about her, and all of us. We lived at the foot of Marshal Gr...
It’s times like these that make you wonder if there’s something to astrology. There is always turmoil somewhere in the world, but when it rears its chaotic head in local communities, it begs the profound question, What the heck? With months of employee and community unrest surrounding Coulee Medical Center coming to a head, and a year of heated discontent within the city of Grand Coulee coming to the fore this week, it’s hard not to ask that question. There may be no sign of the Age of Aquarius in sight, but let’s hope that as the new year un... Full story
People are understandably anxious about the lack of resolution of the issues embroiling Coulee Medical Center. While we feel obliged to report on the controversy, it’s not as easy, and much more technical, to report on the hospital’s progress. Although tensions are high and morale may be low at that crucial community institution, everything has not really gone kaput, as one person recently said, despite appearances. After all, CMC reported a slight gain for 2013 of $71,000, and that’s a big improvement from the hole it was in earlier in the yea... Full story
Authorities clamped down on a local fire chief this week, who said he didn’t know burning the kinds of materials he had in his burn pile was illegal. He’s not alone in a lack of understanding of this state’s laws regarding outdoor burning. City hall seems to think that if he had contained his fire to a certain size, had a ready means to extinguish it and kept the burn to unoffending materials, such as leaves, it would be OK. It would not. It is against the law in this state to burn anything within “Growth Management” boundaries. It has been... Full story
A majority of hospital district commissioners voted Thursday to immediately hire new legal counsel, then went into closed session with the new attorney. Commissioner Jerry Kennedy said the board’s reasons for changing attorneys had been compounded the week before when the hospital administration mailed a notice of a privacy breach, reportedly to thousands, saying a doctor had violated federal patient privacy rules. “One of the hopes that I had was that … having legal counsel involved in that would help minimize reputational damage to the insti... Full story
Among the most frustrating regulations that citizens run up against when trying to fight city hall are zoning laws. But some of the most obvious problems this community faces result from a lack of them, or of their past enforcement. Zones in a city define how portions of geography are to be used: homes here, businesses there, mixed use over here. Their purpose is rooted in a great American concept — that we can do what we want with our own property, as long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s. Zoning is supposed to help make that more... Full story
• The Missoula Children’s Theater, which the local PTA paid to put on an impressive musical with local kids in less than a week, is a happy symptom of a depressing malady in society. We need more resources to go toward such humanities efforts, less for educational testing ad nauseam. • It will be interesting to see what a judge makes of the dispute between a local mechanic working out of his house and the city, which fined him for not having a license and practicing the trade in a residential zone. He claims his services have basically gone... Full story
If citizen involvement is a key ingredient in the health of a community, this one should feel pretty good about itself. The upside of people complaining about what they think is going wrong is that they care and they act as caring citizens should: they complain. This week we feature stories that reflect citizen concerns: local political races for 11 contested seats because people cared enough to want to serve; and folks confronting the hospital district commission on issues that matter to them. As uncomfortable as such controversy can make... Full story
Our diverse region and readership have decisions to make. We hope this week’s Local Candidates Forum provides some help for voters who open their mail-in ballots to cast decisions on races they may not have even realized were occurring. Readers should know that candidates were notified that we wanted them to answer three simple questions, but only via an email and a front-page article in last week’s paper. If you don’t see a reply from them this week, there could be several reasons for that, including that they’ve been away and didn’t... Full story
Remember when you were a little kid and had to learn, likely through repeated lessons, that you just can’t always get your way? That you have to learn to give a little just to get along in this world? That’s not just a childhood lesson, it’s a basic principal that undergirds the healthiest societies, keeps disagreements civil and greases the wheels of democracy. It makes civilization itself possible. But a new faction within the Republican Party rejects that premise, insisting that compromise is evil. Many in the House of Representatives got el... Full story
So, I’m very glad I took out that MedStar membership. Took a ride last night. The good pros at Coulee Medical Center figured out why I was so weak and sent me to Sacred Heart ICU. Turns out I have multiple pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in lungs). Yes, that’s bad. A surgery or two is coming up, along with some lengthy recuperation. Life is what happens when you had other plans. So, although your submitted photos are always welcome in The Star, they will be more so in the coming weeks. You can email them to gwen@grandcoulee.com, along wit... Full story
• Congratulations to local firm Taylor Enterprises, LLC for landing a $4.2 million contract to provide the Grand Coulee Dam with janitorial services. • Electric City’s planning commission should think carefully if asked to alter what kinds of buildings are allowed within the city. Understanding why restrictions are in place should be the first step in either removing them or keeping them. Decisions like that affect everyone’s property values. • In our special triathlon section this week, read about a remarkable young athlete who registere... Full story
• The Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada, which the two countries will start renegotiating soon, is one international news story the local community needs to watch. It can affect everything from how much water remains in local lakes to whether, as some very hardy canoeists on the front page would like, we build fish ladders around Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams. • Even while trying to form a better advocate for growing tourism via a local tourism board, the chamber of commerce continues in the interim to entice local... Full story
Along with many others, we were saddened this week by the news of Dakotah Holt’s death, and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. As a child, Dakotah was a Star newspaper carrier for a time. He was a bright, ambitious kid who seemed eager to do well as we followed his progress through high school. The world is diminished without him in it. Scott Hunter editor and publisher... Full story
Some local municipal councils have passed laws banning local participation in what appears to be on the way to becoming a legitimate enterprise: growing marijuana. With the state’s passage of Initiative 520 last year, and with the guidance last week from the federal Justice Department on how that will jive with federal drug enforcement efforts, local leaders might need to consider to loosening up a bit. Voters passed the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana last fall, and not because they all want to get high. Most just recognize t... Full story
It happens repeatedly in Coulee Country, even when we invent ways to try to get around our biggest road block to progress. In a community with four town councils and four mayors, we’ve needed to find ways, institutions, to make it possible to tackle common problems and goals: hence, the Regional Board of Mayors was born for the purpose of managing our common landfill, now a transfer station. But the RBOM has little real authority and cannot act decisively when needed. A recent need for an emergency repair at the transfer station may be a l... Full story
The Star will be closed from 1:45 to 4:15 p.m. this afternoon due to scheduling conflicts with news events. We will re-open by 4:15, and the deadline for classified ads will extend to Tuesday noon. Classifieds can be entered online anytime here: http://www.grandcoulee.com/classifieds. And news announcements and letters to the editor can always be emailed in to star@grandcoulee.com or placed in the physical dropbox outside the front door.... Full story
The first time I met Guillermo Guzman he had just done the butterfly stroke across Crescent Bay and back in September. I had taken his photograph for possible use in the paper and so introduced myself and asked his name. His thick Mexican accent was compounded by the fact that he was shivering terribly, his teeth chattering, yet he politely entered conversation as if he weren’t dying to get dried off from the frigid lake water. I’ve had little interaction with him since that 2009 encounter until this spring, when he hit on the idea of rai... Full story
Political stupidity in Washington, D.C. is about to come down hard on our local area. Some economists argue that the sky will fall because of the “sequester,” a budget cut imposed by Congress and signed by the President in 2011 in a move designed to make such blind, across-the-board cuts so painful that they would never be politically feasible, forcing opposing parties in the nation’s fiscal policy debates to compromise. That was a huge political miscalculation based on the perception that things are as they have ever been. They’re not. Te... Full story