News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Local institutions are rapidly adjusting on the fly after a series of cascading emergency announcements from state and national authorities mandating increasingly harsh measures to stop the spread of the new virus that has infected nearly 190,000 worldwide and killed more than 7,500 as it overwhelms some healthcare systems. Preventing that kind of quick and overwhelming spread is what the new restrictions are all about. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced March 13 that schools statewide would close. Then Monday, he said restaurants, bars, thea... Full story
You can attend tonight's school board meeting from the comfort of your own home. The Grand Coulee Dam School District's board meeting, scheduled for tonight at 5:30 p.m., will be accessible via Zoom, a website and application available on your phone or tablet that lets you "attend" a meeting remotely. The meeting is being held via Zoom, with board directors using the application themselves, in keeping with the social distancing protocol being used globally to stem the spread of the coronavirus.... Full story
Grant County Health District issued three advisories Saturday — a day when the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 jumped from 11 to 18 — urging people in high risk groups to “shelter in place,” leaving home only if absolutely necessary for medical reasons. Of the seven new cases of the disease confirmed Saturday, which increased the confirmed number by 64 percent, five were in Quincy, two in Mattawa, the two most impacted communities in the county. A statement issued at 5:20 p.m., however, no... Full story
Students in the Grand Coulee Dam School got their first taste of bus-delivered meals Friday with 215 of them picking up meals delivered by bus two hours after their normal bus pickup time. Superintendent Paul Turner said the school board meeting on Monday will hopefully occur via Zoom, a teleconferencing software service available for free to anyone with a Mac or Windows computer or a mobile phone or tablet running iOS or Android. Tuner’s update with more detials on other aspects of the school shutdown, upcoming academics, schedules and m... Full story
School meals will be delivered Friday morning to students who meet the bus at their regular bus stops two hours later than they would normally meet it on a regular school day. “Understand that we do not have any way to know how many meals we will need,” Superintendent Paul Turner says in his nightly update embedded below. \”We have packaged what we are expecting and will probably have to adjust on Monday. Please be understanding and work with us as we develop potential meal counts.” The Grand Coulee Dam School District will resume classes... Full story
The Grand Coulee council voted at their March 17 meeting not to shut off anyone's utilities for non-payment during the COVID-19, coronavirus epidemic. The council decided to review late fees for non-payment on a case by case basis.... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam will continue to operate as usual, but its visitor center will be closed to the public, and tours of the dam, which had been scheduled to start April 1, will be delayed until further notice. “Today, the Bureau of Reclamation temporarily closed public visitation to the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center in support of the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”, a March 19 press release from the bureau reads. "The health and safety of the public and our employees is our number one pri... Full story
Lake Roosevelt Schools will continue to feed and teach students, just not in the school. Following Gov. Jay Inslee’s announcment March 13 that schools statewide would close, the Grand Coulee Dam School District released a parent and community update Monday outlining how Lake Roosevelt Schools are being affected by the coronavirus response. Superintendent Paul Turner noted that there were seven confirmed cases in Grant County. “Our job will be to continue enhancing our position to help reduce the spread of this virus and hopefully keep it out... Full story
Electric City will seek an extension for their Ice Age Park grant through the state’s Recreation & Conservation Office. At the March 10 city council meeting, Mayor Diane Kohout told the council that the city received a letter from the RCO saying the city either needed to begin construction on the park before the end of March, or request the extension. The delay comes from trying to get the cost of the park down. The target cost for the park is a total of $515,000 to be paid in part with $257,500 in RCO grant money, and with a match from the cit...
Ted Piccolo walks on a concrete pad outside the master beadroom of a new house in Elmer City just built on speculation by the Northwest Native Development Fund in an effort to affect the local housing market, which he says isn't supplying housing in a price range that young professionals can afford. Piccolo is NNDF's executive director. The 1,500-square-foot house is not quite finished, but Piccolo expects the price be quite competitive in the local market. - Scott Hunter pho...
Larry Hall is sworn in to his new duties as a member of the city council in Coulee Dam. Hall served the city for many years as a police seargent until his retirement, was appointed to a vacant seat on the council March 11. He took his seat immediately at Wednesday's meeting. - Scott Hunter photo...
Construction may resume soon on controversial street projects in Electric City, and city council members spoke on the topic at their March 10 meeting. A parking lot in front of city hall was built over what had been a stretch of Western Avenue, causing additional turns for those who use that route, including the local fire station. Sidewalk work on Coulee Boulevard, Electric City’s main street along SR-155, is another controversial project due to it limiting parking for businesses there. Mayor Diane Kohout told the council that she received n...
Honestly, it’s not you, it’s us. As these extremely inconvenient — no, let’s call them what they are — horrid, restrictions on our social freedom clamp down on society and commerce in favor of health, that’s a concept some either don’t get, don’t want to get, or just refuse to believe, and that affects us all. Whether they’re just delayed in getting the information because they have lives not tied to any media, or they’re just stubborn because they think this another Y2K-like false alarm, or they just can’t deal with the stress and want to pret... Full story
By now, you have most likely received a postcard or letter in your mailbox inviting you to participate in the 2020 Census. Set forth as an effort to count everyone in the U.S., the data collected as part of the census impacts everyone who is, or is not, counted. Before your mailer filters to the bottom of your to-do stack, take a moment to recognize why completing the census is so important, especially for residents of rural communities and states. At its most basic level, data collected through the census ensures equal representation in...
I spend some time looking over weather and climate research sites. Generally, there’s something interesting that captures my attention. These are things that I like to share with you. Recently, I came across the term “flash drought.” I had never heard this term before. The National Weather Service’s (NWS) Climate Prediction Center defines a flash drought as “an event during which an area experiences degradation by two or more drought categories in a four-week period, based on the U.S. Drought M...
If you think the run on toilet paper is just an American thing, think again. On March 10, Business Insider (BI) reported: “The spread of the coronavirus has brought with it panic-buying of food and household essentials, despite the attempts of governments to discourage stockpiling. But no item has made more headlines than the humble toilet roll.” “From buying enough toilet rolls to make a throne, to printing out blank newspaper pages to serve as extra toilet paper, people have had a seemi...
The Coulee Dam Service Station at the southeast corner of what is now Roosevelt Way and River Drive had been a Standard Oil station; but after my parents, Henry and Margaret (Seaton) Taschereau bought it at the end of 1942, it became Texaco. They sold it and moved to Coulee City in 1953. Just up and across the street, where the Coulee House Inn & Suites is now located, was a Ford garage, and just east of that was a theater owned by Oliver Hartman, who had moved to the area about 1936, when his...
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation Environmental Trust Department Request for Proposal (RFP) and Scope of Work Environmental Engineering & Consulting Services, 2020-2022 The CTCR intends to award a single professional services contract for provision of environmental engineering and consulting services on the Colville Indian Reservation (CIR) for 2020-2022. Scope of work includes services as generally described by work plans incorporated into cooperative agreements for funding through EPA’s Brownfield Multipurpose Assessment g... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 3/10 - A man on Kelso Avenue said his air compressor, which he built himself, had been stolen, valued between $375-$500. An officer had him draw the air compressor. The man said two other men he saw in the area were possible suspects. 3/12 - A suspicious person was reported on Midway Avenue peering into a business window with a flashlight. The person turned out to be the business owner who was working on a window, and was there with tools and other workers around 11:20 p.m. - A man wanted on an arrest warrant was arrested on...
Isaac Leo Palmer, 52, of Coulee Dam, Washington, passed away Thursday evening, March 4th, 2020, in Wilbur, Washington. Born August 3, 1967, in Omak, Washington, to Dorland and Eliza Wak Wak-Palmer, Isaac attended Lake Roosevelt High School in Coulee Dam, where he was a member of the cross country, wrestling and track teams, graduating in 1987. A proud member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, Isaac's passion in life was firefighting! A long time member of the Entiat Hot Shot Crew, Isaac had... Full story
Chamber will not meet until further notice, due to the COVID19 precautions....
Several Lake Roosevelt basketball players and wrestlers received Central Washington 2B “All League” honors for their performance in the 2019-20 season. Raider basketball players Sam Wapato and Soarin’ Marchand were named to the All League First Team; Cameron St. Pierre made second team; and Tyler Jordan made third team. Additionally, St. Pierre was named to the first team and Wapato to the second team of the Washington State All-Tournament Teams, selected by covering media. The Raiders won a fourth-place trophy at the Washington Inter...
Effective Monday, March 16, The Star is closed except by appointment in keeping with official requests to limit social interaction to address the coronovirus outbreak. Our office doesn’t have to be open to the public for most of our services; we can work from home for much of our work, as advised by health leaders. Those subscribers who have been picking the paper up at our office will receive them in the mail until further notice. Those who must access a public fax/copy service can call 509-633-1350 for an appointment if absolutely n... Full story
OLYMPIA – The arrival of spring typically means drivers in Washington have until March 31 to remove studded tires. However, this year the Washington State Department of Transportation is extending the deadline to Thursday, April 30, due to COVID-19 virus concerns and in support of Gov. Jay Inslee’s guidance to help reduce the spread of the virus by limiting social interactions. “Washington is experiencing some extraordinary challenges with COVID-19 right now and we recognize this is not a time for ‘business as usual,’” said WSDOT Maintenance... Full story
