News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A car fire in Coulee Dam and a burning house in Grand Coulee kept local firefighters busy this week. Very early Monday, Grand Coulee and Electric City volunteers were dispatched to a house fire on Roosevelt Drive in Grand Coulee. A police officer arrived first and made sure the occupants were outside and OK. Firefighters said they found the home filled with smoke and a storage room in the basement filled with smoke and smoldering fire, which they extinguished. "The home sustained smoke damage...
Public safety laws on the Colville Reservation will be strictly enforced during the current spike in COVID-19 cases, a Dec. 9 press release from the Colville Tribes says. “The Tribal Health Department is issuing specific orders to infected or exposed people which are intended to control the spread of the disease,” the release reads. “These orders may be for an individual to quarantine or isolate and avoid all contact with others. Any violation of a Tribal Health order is a criminal Class A violation of the Colville Tribal Criminal Code punis... Full story
Grant County Health District is reporting 11 additional confirmed COVID-19 associated deaths of Grant County residents. Ten deaths were associated with Long Term Care Facilities (LTC) outbreaks first reported on Nov. 20. All those residents had underlying conditions putting them at higher risk for severe complications due to a COVID-19 infection. Lake Ridge Center in Moses Lake has had a total of 15 confirmed COVID-19 associated deaths during the recent outbreak. There are 3 known additional deaths pending death certificate review. These most r... Full story
The return to school for seventh- through 12th-grade Lake Roosevelt students on Monday, Dec. 7 continued under a plan modified in an emergency school board session Friday night that sets a much higher threshold for the number of local Covid cases it would take to stop in-person schooling. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors held an Emergency Board Meeting tonight via Zoom where they voted 4-1 to modify the plan, previously approved on Nov. 9, for junior/senior high students to return part time to physical school on Dec. 7....
A COVID-era rule intended to help individuals has meant lost revenue for cities, and utilities. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s Proclamation 20-23, first issued in March of 2020, doesn’t allow utilities to be shut off for a resident, nor for late fees to be charged. That has meant that those who charge for utilities, such as local cities and electric companies, are holding higher amounts of their customers unpaid bills than usual, and that they also haven’t been able to bring in money from late fees like they have before. Locally, the city of Gr...
Paul Stout delivers an empty grocery bag to a doorstep in Coulee Dam Saturday. The Scouts BSA boys and girls troops 24 and 52 will be picking up those bags, which they left all over the community last week, this coming Saturday after you fill them with food. The full bags of food will be delivered to the local food bank, which will be glad to get them since food drives have been more difficult to organize in the year of Covid. - Scott Hunter photo...
If you have a drivers license and an insured vehicle, you could help local senior citizens by volunteering to deliver meals to them. “We are in desperate need of volunteer delivery drivers,” Senior Meals Director Chay Heilman said. Deliveries have gone up during the COVID pandemic since the dining room of the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center, where the food is prepared and normally served, is closed. Heilman said that three drivers are needed for each of the five delivery times throughout the week: at 9 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays, and at 3 p.m... Full story
If you heard loud booms on Friday or Saturday night, it was probably local man Alan Cain lighting them off with about eight of his friends from the Northwest Pyrotechnics Association. The fireworks were lit on Cain’s property along SR-174 near the Lakeview Terrace area. The group obtained a permit from the city of Grand Coulee, whose fire department manages that area, about 45 days in advance. Cain said the group shot off about 50 “cakes” or bundles of various professional-grade fireworks, which they are licensed to use. “It’s sort of a reli...
As of Dec. 8, Grant County had reported 5,585 total COVID-19 cases, including 54 deaths, 18 of those in the past week. There have been 22 cases in the Grand Coulee Dam area and 23 in the Coulee City area. The county has had 880 cases in the prior 14 days for an incidence rate of 900, down from 1,104 Dec. 1. The incidence goal is 25 or fewer cases per 100,000 population. All local counties are seeing rates in the multiple hundreds, as is the state as a whole. As of Dec. 8: Okanogan County has... Full story
Coulee Dam’s town council gave a preliminary nod to a proposed budget for 2021 Monday night in a special meeting online despite uncertainties about next year’s revenue forecast. The council voted to approve a first reading of the ordinance authorizing use of the $5 million budget proposed by Clerk Stefani Bowden. The council has mulled the budget in several special workshops over several weeks. Mayor Bob Poch said the council could have approved the budget Monday, but he wanted to present it only as a first reading, then pass it at the nex...
The Colville Tribes has imposed a curfew in Inchelium due to a COVID outbreak there with dozens diagnosed. The curfew is active each day between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., according to a Dec. 7 press release from the tribes. During that time, all residents or visitors to the Colville Reservation in the area must remain indoors. Travel is allowed only if essential, such as to or from a verifiable place of employment or to seek urgent medical attention. Those who violate the curfew may be cited or prosecuted pursuant to the Colville Tribal... Full story
People at a virtual auction last weekend bid each other up as much or more than they do in person and the chamber benefited. With its annual Vintners and Brewers dinner and auction canceled for Covid, the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce licensed online bidding software and held the auction anyway, with most participants buying dinner prepared by PK’s Culinary and heating it up at home. The auction of all-donated items brought in $15,396. “That will keep us going for a while,” said chamber President Natalie Dennis. The chamber has n...
I think that opening our school district to face-to-face learning is one of the biggest mistakes we could have made to start with. We start out allowing 25 per 100,000, then 75 and now 200. Who are they trying to kid? What is this actually doing aside from adding more risk to all of our lives. How many weeks — well, more like days — has it been since our state governor was begging people not to gather for Thanksgiving, so what has changed from then till now? My understanding is that cases are increasing not dropping, so the district is now wil...
Roger, I enjoyed reading your (column). For one thing, I’ve always enjoyed your readable style, but also, in this case your pointing out once again how difficult it is to deal with the agencies of the Federal Government. Having grown up in Grand Coulee, then returning for 13 years, I have been struck by the lack of humanity and/or transparency of the Bureau. I swear that I could list a litany of ‘grievances’ which they have shrugged off in the last 20 years. In my early years, the Bureau was a strong supporter of the community in a myriad of wa...
Once upon a time there was this rock along the Snake River just out of Melba, Idaho. It was an Indian map rock where ancient natives had etched the route of the Snake River along with other helpful information. While a reporter for the Idaho Free Press, I did a story on the rock map that later was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune magazine. When living in the Boise Valley, I had visited the rock many times. Friends of mine, Myron and Gwen Finkbeiner, reported to me recently that they went out to see the rock and it was gone. Myron has been...
By mid-September, there was no one left to call. The West, with its thousands of federal, state, and local fire engines and crews, had been tapped out. Wildfires across the West had consumed the labor of all available wildland firefighters, and though there were fewer fires burning, those fires were larger and more difficult to contain. They consumed 13 million acres -— an area almost the size of West Virginia. In the midst of the 2020 wildfire season, John Phipps, the Forest Service’s deputy chief, told Congress that this “was an extra...
The final days of the 2020 legislative session last March presented some real challenges. The Legislature worked diligently to wrap up its session as some of the first cases of COVID-19 in the United States were confirmed in our state. Lawmakers approved all three state budgets (operating, transportation, and capital) along with a $200 million COVID-19 response bill. In those final session days and in the days that would soon follow, the governor began issuing his statewide executive orders. One of the earliest included a statewide closure of...
Francis John Michael Reyes, 83, passed away on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. He was born on May 24, 1937, in Nespelem, Washington, to Modesta (Abraham) Shadle and Catherino Reyes. He grew up in Okanogan County, graduating from Okanogan High School in 1955. Francis then joined the Air Force in 1955 serving until 1959. Francis moved to Portland, Oregon and met and married the love of his life, Bonnie Overberg. They made their way back to the Grand Coulee Dam area in 1974 where they raised six... Full story
Frances Lucille Lyle Sather, age 90, passed away peacefully October 10, 2020. Born February 27, in Burlington, Washington to Edward and Mary. She left this earth after a long fight with Alzheimer's and dementia. Frances married her soulmate Glyn who preceded her death in 1998. She is survived by her brother, Edward "Lloyd" of Virginia; her daughters: Betty of Oklahoma, Jacquie of Virginia, and Anita of Spokane; her sons: David of Everett, Everett of Spokane, her grandchildren: Chris, Chad,... Full story
Timothy Raymond Neal, age 70, passed away Dec. 2, 2020, in Tonasket, Washington. Tim was born October 27, 1950 to Ray and Elaine Neal in Spokane, Washington. He was a proud member of the Colville Confederated Tribes. He lived in Coulee Dam, Washington and attended elementary school there until his father, a powerhouse operator, was transferred to Mattawa, Washington. He finished his elementary education there before moving to George, Washington where he grew up ranching with his Dad. They raised... Full story
Lowell Hensley passed away Monday, December 7, 2020, after a short illness. Lowell was born in Newbridge, Oregon, June 18, 1936, to Logan Hensley and Alberta Pease. He was very young when his family moved to Mansfield, Washington and he spend most his life in the Mansfield Area. He only completed the eight grade and than went to work for his Uncle farming. In June of 1960 he married Kay Birch and had two children, Kathy (Ray) Wadsworth of Spokane and Kris (LaDonna) Hensley, LasVegas. He worked... Full story
Trees of Sharing volunteers are preparing this week and next for delivery of Christmas gifts Saturday morning, December 19th to children in Belvedere, Elmer City, Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, Delano and Electric City. Gifts will be delivered between 10 a.m. and noon to 115 children in forty-nine local families. If you have an ornament tag, please return your wrapped gift to any ‘tree’ location not later than Monday, December 14. If you were unable to purchase a gift to go with the tag you took from a tree, or if you have a gift that you can... Full story
Port District #7 Grant County PUBLIC NOTICE OF A CHANGE OF MEETING DATE OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Notice is hereby given that Port District #7 of Grant County, Washington will be changing their Regular Meeting for the month of December from 12/31/20 to 12/17/20, at 3:45 p.m. due to the holidays. The meeting will be held by telephone conference calling. Anyone wishing to join the conference call can contact the District Secretary at portdistrict7@gmail.com for connection instructions. This notice is given by order of Jim Keene, Chair, Port... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 12/2 - On Bowen Street, a man and woman agreed to separate for the day after getting into an argument when the man wanted to get his iPad for work. - A woman on Lakeview Avenue complained to officers about various topics, none of which they could do anything about. Complaints included those about people around her rubbing their ears, and about someone breaking her car, on which she didn’t provide any more details. She thanked the officers for their time. 12/3 - A woman at apartments on Lakeview Avenue said a woman had tamper...
New Cancer Support Group Cancer patients, caregivers, and survivors have been gathering semiweekly to talk, in a safe environment with honesty about the physical, emotional and spiritual impact of cancer. The group meets the first and third Thursdays of the month at 6 p.m. in the multipurpose area of the Nazarene Church. Face masks and social distancing are maintained. New AA Group in the Area A new Alcoholics Anonymous group is meeting each Saturday at noon at the Grand Coulee Community Church, 405 Center St. Meetings are open. More...