News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 39
On September 11, 2001, terrorists declared war on our nation by killing an estimated 3,388 innocent people. The loss of precious life includes: 87 aboard American Airlines Flight #11, 60 aboard United Airlines Flight #175, 59 aboard American Airlines Flight #77, 40 aboard United Flight #93, 2,606 at the World Trade Center, 125 at the Pentagon, 411 emergency personnel and an unestimated number thereafter. In the past 11 years countless thousands have died, and the death toll continues to rise. Our sons and daughters at the U.S. Military...
A young motorcycle rider from Nespelem died today when he failed to make a curve on SR 155 in Coulee Dam. Jason Chuckulnaskit, 28, hit the guardrail as he headed south just past the high school at Aspen Street at 11:45 Saturday morning. He was driving a blue 2004 Yamaha YZFR6/S. The Washington State Patrol is investigating the cause of the accident....
Jezelle Elizabeth Marconi entered the Coulee Dam, Washington home of Urisha “Ookie” & Randi Pakootas-Marconi on March 5, 2006 and for the next six years brightened the lives of everyone she touched with her infectious smile and exuberant love of life. Thursday evening, September 6, 2012 with her beloved family surrounding her Spokane, Washington hospital bed, Jezelle quietly slipped away following her courageous battle with aplastic anemia. A proud first grader at Grand Coulee’s Center Eleme...
After seven years of study, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the state Dept. of Ecology have identified a solution to drying wells in potato country south of Grand Coulee Dam: draw down Banks Lake farther in August. The agencies issued last Friday a statement that they have completed the “Odessa Subarea Special Study Final Environmental Impact Statement” (FEIS). The study identifies several alternatives to address a declining aquifer and avoid collapsing a reported $600 million annual farm industry that currently relies on drying-up wel...
Nancy Brown and her grandson Lane take advantage of a National Park Service program Saturday night that offered telescopes to view celestial objects, including the moon a night after an official “blue moon.” Arranged by Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area Education Specialist Janice Elvidge, the program offered two other large format hobby telescopes shared by enthusiasts at Crescent Bay. — Scott Hunter photo...
A Wenatchee man who walked away from an Okanogan County Jail work release program was spotted by local police in the Lakeview Terrace Mobile Home Park area and chased into the tall sagebrush by Grand Coulee officers before he got away, temporarily, last Thursday. The fugitive, Nathaniel David Smallbeck, 18, was later apprehended by Okanogan County Sheriff officers on farmland at the top of the hill off the highway to Wilbur. Grand Coulee Police Sgt. John Tufts picked up the pursuit last Thursday about 9:30 a.m. and was later joined by Police...
A public hearing on Electric City’s new transportation benefit district could be held Sept. 25, City Clerk Jackie Perman said this week. The city planned the hearing to let the public speak to the fact that the city will charge residents $20 for each licensed vehicle they own. Perman said that the Sept. 25 date was the earliest that the public hearing could be set. Through a new law, the city can now charge a $20 license fee for each licensed vehicle a resident owns. The fee would be collected when a person purchases their tabs. Mayor Jerry S...
A Utah father of five will go after his second world record here Sept. 15 when the Grand Columbian Triathlon offers him his 23rd iron-distance race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) since January. He’s in pursuit of 30 within a year. James Lawrence already holds the record for half-iron distances races, according to Guinness World Records. He completed 22 of them in 30 weeks in 2010. His schedule will take him to 10 countries on five continents this year, with races in Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, S...
A wildfire broke out in Seaton’s Grove right below the rock cut on SR 155 just north of Elmer City just before 7 p.m. Sunday. Several units of firefighters responded from Okanogan County Fire District 2 and Coulee Dam Volunteer Fire Dept., at least. The fire burned in the rocky brush area around the rock cut, and police were blocking the highway. A bulldozer and brush trucks secured a fire line in the sage at the rock cut’s north side to protect property, including two outbuildings and a hom...
Jazelle Marconi, died Thursday night in a Spokane hospital bed, ending her battle with the disease that sapped her strength. An obituary and notices of services is available here. A registry drive for a bone marrow transplant will begin this week for a 6-year-old Coulee Dam girl, Jezelle Elizabeth Marconi. Jezelle Elizabeth has been diagnosed with aplastic anemia, which gives her a deficiency of red and white blood cells and platelets. She is the daughter of Randi and Urisha “Ookie” Marconi and...
Grant County Port District 7 put another $6,000 into Banks Lake Golf Course’s operation during the month of August. It was one of the golf course’s better operating months, and there are still two months to go before the end of the season. Receipts for August at the golf course totaled about $12,500, port commissioners learned last Thursday night. The port district has invested nearly $110,000 in its promise to keep the course open this year. While there has been some discussion about the next golf season, the fact remains that the Port Dis...
McKinstry, a company that had helped Grand Coulee Dam School District with an energy conservation grant that was finally tanked, is trying again. This time, district Superintendent Dennis Carlson told board members, would be for a $714,000 grant for energy conservation and upgrading for the present Lake Roosevelt High School gymnasium and industrial arts building. The previous energy conservation grant, which was approved, was turned back because it had been granted for Center Elementary and the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School, as well as parts...
A Grand Coulee woman was struck by a truck Friday while walking on Alcan Road and flown by helicopter to Spokane for treatment, but may face drug charges when she returns. The truck was driven by Wayne Fowler, 58, who said that Angelette Joy Obendorf, 33, was talking on a cell phone and just stepped in front of his vehicle on the “s curves” on Alcan Road. Fowler loaded Obendorf into his vehicle and took her to Coulee Medical Center’s emergency room, where she resisted treatment and hospital authorities contacted the police. While placing Obendo...
The Coulee Dam Credit Union’s street address is 402 N. Columbia Ave., Coulee Dam, Wash., 99116. Due to an editing mistake, the wrong address was given in a story last week about the Credit Union’s current drive to gather food for the Care and Share Food Bank....
Granted, splitting the principal duties between several individuals doesn’t seem ideal, I find it more concerning that some of the school board seem to be ignoring an upcoming problem. With the new school being constructed I question how administration of the new school will be conducted. Will the new two winged school be in need of three principals? It seems like overkill in the administration department, and with the going pay rate of principals, a little expensive too. In light of Hinton’s dismissal, the school board should be taking the...
Help the food bank The Eagles is sponsoring a chicken dinner for a donation of food and $5 to help stock the shelves of the Care & Share Food Bank. Half of the proceeds from the dinner will be donated to the food bank, along with all of the food collected during dinner. We have been taking food donations the month of August at the Club. And I am hoping we can get a truckload of donated food to help stock the food bank’s shelves. The buffet style dinner will be fried, baked, or BBQ chicken, potato salad, baked beans and a dessert. This event is...
It seems our council is for the mayor instead of for the citizens. Are they not there to represent the citizens? Why did they feel they needed the police at the last meeting? Were they afraid they would have problems with the public because of their actions? (The officer even said he was there in case of a conflict at that meeting). The more they go along with the mayor -- voting in the rezoning, annexing in property and now the vehicle license tab, it seems to me they don’t care what the citizens think, they just do whatever they want to d...
I have read the comments from readers on the $20-per-vehicle charge. I have NEVER lived anywhere that I was penalized for having a vehicle. I have to get to work, and that is my only means of transportation! With the price of gasoline and the "obvious" price gouging, I can barely afford gas to get to work, much less having to pay a penalty for having a car! I can't really afford another $20 on top of my license tab fees that I must pay each year! It is bad enough that our water bill goes up so much and our utilities, etc. I can barely make it...
Well, did the people writing to the paper about the tax complaining check why the city council is considering passing the tax? Or just jump on the band wagon complaining. Well, if you want to complain, why you don't blame the people that elected the Democrat House and Senate in Washington State? They are the ones that passed the law for Counties and Cities to collect the tax. Electric City has not passed the tax yet, but if they don't the tabs will still go up the $20 no matter where you live but the county will get the money not the city....
The reason we celebrate Labor Day is largely because of the contributions made by unions to the betterment of America’s workers. The idea of a Labor Day holiday itself was conceived and promoted by labor organizations. The numerous beneficial influences of organized labor cannot be ignored. Most of the benefits workers now enjoy are directly attributable to unions. To cite but a few: the 40-hr. work week; paid holidays and vacations; sick leave; grievance procedures, collective bargaining and generally superior wages. Unfortunately, s...
I am in favor of marriage equality. Where did God say that this group of human beings or that was not created in his image? What criteria do we use to say God given rights do not apply to all human beings? Thousands of civil laws concerning child custody and welfare, inheritance, taxes, healthcare, property contracts, etc, use the word marriage. Reality check: single parents, unmarried couples, couples without children, abusive parents, divorce, and death exist in our society. Who does not “deserve” to have a legal structure to help them nav...
Music lovers enjoy a free rock and blues concert by longtime Northwest band Jr. Cadillac Friday night at North Dam Park and Event Center at a blue moon rises in the east. About 200 people attended the open air event in the grassy amphitheater, some 50 of them tourists, an important fact for the use of tourism derived hotel/motel tax dollars that paid for the concert series that ended Saturday. — Scott Hunter photo...
Carolyn Lee Pachosa, 83 passed away at Brewster, Wash., on Monday, August 27, 2012. She was born in Lumber City, Ga., on January 1, 1929, to Howard and Rose Wilbanks. Carolyn adored her Aunt Bertha Lowery who helped raise her. Her father Howard married Alice Coley when Carolyn was about eight years old and this union produced 10 siblings whom she cherished. Carolyn met the love of her life Jack while he was stationed in Georgia. She worked at the Army PX and Jack knew this southern peach was...
Larry W. Hall, Sr., 69, of Electric City, peacefully passed away Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. Larry was born on October 3, 1942, to Ruby and Ernest Hall of Omak, Wash. Larry entered the Navy in 1959 and rose to the rank of Lt. Commander before retiring after 22 years of service. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War and received several service commendations, including the Silver Star for gallantry in action. The Silver Star is the third-highest combat...
Phyllis Jean Avey passed away on September 4, 2012, at Emeritus Hearthstone in Moses Lake,Wash. Phyllis made the Grand Coulee Dam area her home for over 60 years. She is survived by he husband Clifford W Avey, several children and grandchildren. There will be a viewing at Strate Funeral Home in Grand Coulee on Thursday, Sept. 6. There will be no funeral, however there will be a graveside service on Friday, Sept. 7, at 2 p.m., at Spring Canyon Cemetery. A complete obituary will follow next week....
