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Articles written by Stuart Gillespie


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  • Sheilah's accountability problem

    Stuart Gillespie|Oct 12, 2016

    Incumbent County Commissioner Sheilah Kennedy’s campaign slogan is “accountability.” But, has she really been accountable and listened to the citizens’ concerns these past three-plus years? She and the other commissioners were not accountable to the hundreds of citizens who protested against the Three Devils Road closure. She ignored their comments and voted to close the road to people living near the road, for tourism and ATV use. She has not been accountable to the taxpayers nor the county’s finances when the commissioners decided to litiga...

  • Family vacation ends in inferno

    Stuart Gillespie|Aug 24, 2016

    At the end of a week of vacation on the lake, Wade Taylor and his family were getting ready to head back home to Grand Coulee when they saw smoke in the sky from an origin too nearby. "That's pretty darn close," Taylor thought as he was helping his cousin launch a boat on the Spokane River arm of Lake Roosevelt. The fire would eventually take about 80 percent of their 80 acres of half-timbered property perched above the lake near Cayuse Cove, consuming a barn, trees and more, and burning right t...

  • County finances held surprises in 2016

    Stuart Gillespie|Jul 27, 2016

    Dear Editor, This spring the (Okanogan) county commissioners found themselves with a big problem. They did not have enough money to pay 3-4 months of normal expenses until April property tax receipts arrived in the county’s account in mid-summer. Leah Cormack, County Treasurer of 10 years, reported at the commissioners' meeting in early April that she had never seen during her years as Treasurer as dire a revenue shortfall as had occurred. How did this happen? Aren’t two of the incumbent commissioners campaigning on successfully balancing the...