News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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How many times do we look around the community and not see what’s going on? I know it’s only human nature to complain when things aren’t right and not compliment on a good job, but I think it’s about time to thank some of these federal entities, the people doing the work and their contractors on a job well done. For instance, Grant County has done a great job on the road to Eden Harbor, with new gravel and grading even tough the rug dumpers had been there the same as North Dam Park, leaving their garbage around. For the Park Service to allow us...
The latest failure of Congress to compromise has shuttered two local branches of federal agencies but not affected operations at Grand Coulee Dam. The federal government went into shutdown mode Tuesday as the U. S. Senate and the House of Representatives failed to compromise on a continuing resolution that would allow the government to pay the bills already spent and approved by Congress. Locally, barricades and recorded messages greeted many who tried to contact federal agencies or receive...
Just as the nation was about to celebrate its most patriotic holiday, one of its greatest symbols of achievement literally closed the gates on what would have been a welcoming spectacle. The Bonneville Power Administration makes the call on just when the Bureau of Reclamation should spill or not spill the Columbia River over the top of Grand Coulee Dam. Most years it seems they just make their goal of filling Lake Roosevelt by July 1, but weather sent extra water into the river this year, creating a need to spill water for many days just...
I had a dream. In this dream Coulee Country was one. One town, in four counties. One mayor, with one council, one police department with one chief. One water company, one power company. We were one. The time has come for this column, and it will not be popular with some, but it will be with others. For years there has been a murmur out there asking the question: Why don’t we consolidate? And many, many answers have been given as to why. None of those answers have quenched the thought. To start this we must remember to think as one, for the g...
In this community, whose economy is based overwhelmingly on a federal payroll and outsourced contracts, not a lot is yet certain about how the latest fiscal political drama emanating from the other Washington will play out. “Sequestration” became the law of the land on March 1. An act passed by Congress in 2011 was designed to give time for Democrats and Republicans to agree on a path toward reducing the nation’s deficit spending. It imposes across-the-board budget cuts on everybody’s favorite federal programs. At the time, it was assumed...
The Bonneville Power Administration is inviting members of the public to comment on a proposed transmission line rebuild between Coulee Dam in Grant County and Creston in Lincoln County. Public comments can help identify issues that should be addressed in the project’s Environmental Assessment, a BPA press release said. The 28-mile Grand Coulee to Creston 115-kV line has aged over the decades since it was built in 1941. Although routine maintenance has been performed on the line, all the wood poles and conductor need to be replaced due to r...
Primary ballots out this week Ballots for the Aug. 7 primary, will be mailed to voters today, Wednesday, in Grant County and Thursday in Okanogan County, their respective elections departments noted. If you don’t get a ballot by July 25, you can call Grant County’s department at 754-2011 ext. 377 or ext. 423. Okanogan County’s election officials can be reached at (509) 422-7240. Trees coming down The Bureau of Reclamation plans to cut down eight or nine trees in North Dam Park. Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said that Bonneville Power...
Two lucky ospreys in Coulee Dam moved up to a new high rise apartment last Friday. Now you will see them, about two flaps of the wing north, sitting atop a 115-foot pole overlooking their favorite fishing grounds below Grand Coulee Dam. Their former home was atop the steel transmission tower, now removed, that anchored the end of the park below the Visitor Center. While it was new digs for the ospreys, the apartment was familiar. Bonneville Power Administration had Wilson Construction carefully...
An energy savings project for Grand Coulee Dam schools got a little momentum Monday night when the board of directors approved a production schedule submitted by the firm of McKinstry. Superintendent Dennis Carlson said the schedule was based on the assumption that the district will receive a grant from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. He told Grand Coulee Dam School District board members that the district faces a tight construction schedule and that by approving the schedule in advance the project can be moved on...
The town council of Coulee Dam has voted $30,000 worth of energy credits to help the school district upgrade Lake Roosevelt High School’s gymnasium. The council heard of a request by school district Superintendent Dennis Carlson and Jayson Schmidt from McKinstry — an energy company assisting the district in putting together an energy saving plan for its schools — for funds for an upgrade project at Lake Roosevelt’s gymnasium. Coulee Dam received some $37,000 worth of energy conservation funds from the Bonneville Power Administration for the...
Local schools could see a boost in energy efficiency under a proposed project. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson was instructed by the board at its late February meeting to work with McKinstry, an energy company, to pursue incentives and a grant to improve lighting and controls in its three schools. Jayson Schmidt and Mike James, from McKinstry, made presentations at the board meeting about a grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to bring energy savings to the district. The project could...
Given the recent decisions of the Coulee Dam Town Council, I must admit that I’m feeling empowered! That I could almost single handedly force the Town of Coulee Dam to create a new position to deal with their legal and ethical responsibility is, well, entertaining if not downright laughable. The mayor, some of the Town Council, and the Town Clerk would like you to believe that my involvement, my probing, my research, is the cause of their own inability to get their day-to-day work done. Of course it is not! The Public Records Act in W...
A recent increase in requests for public documents will lead to an extra employee at town hall. Coulee Dam’s town council approved the hiring of a “records management” person at its meeting last Wednesday night. Town Clerk Carol Visker asked council members to approve the new position, which will bring the city hall staff to three full-time employees. Visker stated that she plans to meet with the council’s personnel committee, made up of members Bob Poch and Ken Miles, soon to determine that position’s job description, required qualifica...
Payments by Bonneville Power Administration to the town of Coulee Dam related to its power line project are inching upward. The town council learned last Wednesday that BPA has agreed to pay the town $5 a cubic yard for dirt it intends to deposit on town property on the hillside between town hall and the switchyards. The dirt will come from road improvement work and dirt from drilled footings for the towers. Earlier, the BPA had offered to pay $2 a yard. Gary Wilson, BPA’s realty agent, told the council that the dirt placed on town property w...
School help winding through Congress Language encouraged by 4th Dist. Congressman Doc Hastings is included in two bills that passed out of committee Tuesday and could help local schools. HR 3990 would support the inclusion of Grand Coulee Dam School District in methods that currently exist for the federal government to help local schools on which it has substantial impact. The language extends eligibility for emergency and modernization construction grants to school districts where at least 10 percent of property is non-taxable because of...
Bonneville Power Administration, Bureau of Reclamation and contractor representatives from Wilson Construction company will hold a public meeting, Thursday, Feb. 16, from 4-7 p.m. to inform the public on construction details for the new powerlines from Grand Coulee Dam’s Third Power Plant. Replacing lines that take an underground route now, the 500-kilovolt power line project will take power through overhead lines, past the Visitor Center and up to the switch yards and on to the regional power grid. Construction activities began last week, BPA...
The start of a Bonneville Power Administration project to replace power lines from the Third Powerhouse to the switchyards above the town of Coulee Dam has hit a delay. BPA had announced that it would begin the project the second week of February, but only recently requested the town of Coulee Dam schedule a public meeting so the agency and its contractor could explain and answer questions about the project and work schedule. That meeting has been set for 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at the city hall community room. BPA’s Senior Project M...
The Bonneville Power Administration and the town of Coulee Dam still have issues to work out on the project to stretch power lines from the Third Powerhouse to the switch yards. That became apparent last Wednesday night when Mayor Quincy Snow told BPA officials that they didn’t “have the right to do this,” meaning using the city’s access road behind city hall. He was referring to BPA telling the town that it had the right to use the access road behind city hall to move heavy equipment and loads up the hill where high towers will be built....
Although officials with the Bonneville Power Administration are no doubt dealing straightforwardly with the town of Coulee Dam, local officials are right to insist on taking a closer look at BPA’s plans to occupy town property for a year. Federal officials have a goal, a set agenda, set methods of operating and they’re behind schedule. Human nature may not allow them to always look out for the best of interests of the town. That’s up to the mayor and town council, who recognized last week that BPA is planning a big intrusion for very littl...
Town officials will have another opportunity tonight (Wednesday) to offer input on the Bonneville Power Administration’s Third Powerhouse powerline project. BPA’s senior project manager, Mark A. Korsness, said he planned to be at tonight’s meeting, set for 6 p.m. at town hall, to again review plans to string the high power lines from the Third Powerhouse, across the river and up the hill to the switch yards. BPA officials were in Coulee Dam in mid-December to review plans to get the proje...
Gretchen Stinson, age 97, passed away peacefully Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, in Kennewick, Wash. She was born in Halliday, N.D., on September 12, 1914, to Dorothea and Clifford Barrows. She was the first of five children and was raised in Dodge, N.D. After graduating from high school, she attended Dickenson State Teachers’ College. She then went on to teach at a local country school for one year, teaching first graders how to read. She came to the Grand Coulee Dam area and worked for the USBR P...
