News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The City of Grand Coulee would like a couple of questions addressed before extending their B Street closure agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. One end of B Street has been blocked off near the bureau’s fire station construction site since 2017, and numerous delays in that construction project have kept the road closed. B Street connects to SR-155 through the bureau-owned Industrial Road, with the area between B Street and SR-155 being closed off. At their May 18 council meeting, the council discussed wanting emergency access t...
The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center and laser light show will begin on Saturday in time for Memorial Day weekend. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced the re-opening for the visitor center and the "One River, Many Voices" laser light show in a statement May 19. "To safely re-open the visitor center and return the laser light show, Reclamation will be following the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," the release states. "Fully vaccinated visitors are...
A Senate Democrat and a House Republican have teamed up to introduce a bill that would benefit a local push to build a new energy plant in Grand Coulee. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse (R, WA-04) reintroduced legislation this week to improve permitting for pumped storage hydroelectric projects and protect tribal interests in the process. The bill will also help increase renewable energy production, storage, and job growth in the...
Although there will be no tours of the Grand Coulee Dam this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working on a plan for the return of the Laser Light Show and for opening its visitor center. USBR Public Affairs Specialist for the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region Erika A. Lopez told The Star that tours will not be conducted this year at Grand Coulee Dam “because of CDC–recommended COVID-19 restrictions.” “Visitors will be unable to safely maintain social distancing of six feet on the tour buses and dam elevator,” she said. Lopez also said...
The continued closure of a city emergency route during a long-stalled federal construction project is worrying the city council in Grand Coulee. During their April 20 meeting, the Grand Coulee City Council discussed the continued closure of B Street during construction of the US Bureau of Reclamation’s fire station located along SR-155. The bureau awarded the $13.6 million construction contract in 2016. Construction began in April of 2017 and was originally scheduled to be complete in the first half of 2018. Numerous delays, including c...
The Colorama parade will be held like normal along it’s Midway Avenue route, but button raffles will be held online with multiple prize drawings held over multiple days. “The parade is on!” Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachel Haven told The Star in an email. Haven received official word that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be opening B Street, which runs near the fire station they are constructing, as an alternate route which allows Midway Avenue to be used for the parade. Colorama buttons are also out and f...
Vendors are being selected for the Colorama festival, and the usual parade looks likely. Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Haven told The Star in an email that roughly 20 food and market vendors are being selected, and that the chamber is still receiving applications. The parade is still being finalized but looks like it will happen as it has traditionally. "We have applied for all the proper permitting and worked with the Grant County Health Department to...
Things look pretty bad right now for the people of Burma. In my visit to Burma, I found the people of a peaceful nature, but governed by military men who at the time stayed in the background. Since that time, there was a peaceful transfer of power to an elected government. That didn’t last long. Power grabs people and doesn’t let go. We have seen the evidence of this here in our own country. While there, I observed uniformed men carrying rifles on most street corners. They weren’t threatening, but their presence was unsettling. While everything...
The need for a community basketball court was discussed at a parks district meeting last week. Commissioners for the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District met on March 10 via Zoom for the first time since December. Commissioners discussed pursuing grants for projects in North Dam Park, such as for new playground equipment, which was a top priority for respondents to a poll The Star conducted in December. Respondents to that poll also expressed wanting a full-size basketball court, with the current single basketball hoop at the park, on a...
It’s on again! Here’s the good news: the Bureau of Reclamation plans on restarting its fire station project. The bad news is that no one has any confidence the bureau will ever finish the project. This project has had more starts than the fleas on a hound dog. You can tell it’s a government job because it’s going to take deep pockets to pull this out. Now the bureau is going to find another contractor for the restart. It seems the contractors are only part of the problem. The rest lies with inspecting the work that is being done. The bureau...
The Bureau of Reclamation has canceled a contract to build its new fire station for the second time, it announced, but construction is expected to restart sometime this spring with a new contractor doing the work, perhaps even while lawsuits among the parties persist, if court records are an indication. The government originally awarded the contract in 2016 to build the 22,000-square-foot fire station, with completion expected in April 2018. Innovative Construction and Design (ICD), a small...
Will the Laser Light Show and Visitor Center at the Grand Coulee Dam, which saw nearly 200,000 people in 2019, open this spring? The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation didn’t answer the question from The Star with a straight yes or no, but did answer. “At this time, the laser light show and Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center will remain temporarily closed in support of the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Public Affairs Specialist Erika Lopez, who works in Boise, Idaho, in an email. Lopez said that the G...
The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project, which would bring an estimated 1,000-2,000 workers to the area during construction and add an extra 500 megawatts of hydropower electricity per hour, is still in the works, if a little Covid delayed. Secretary Manager Darvin Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower spoke to The Star on the phone Tuesday, with an update on the project for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The gravity-feed system would power two 250-megawatt generating units, or...
Newly elected Grant County Commissioner Danny Stone spoke with the Grand Coulee City Council during their Feb. 16 meeting held via Zoom. Stone is the first county commissioner from the northern part of the county in recent memory, possibly since Fred Ludolph in the 1940s. Stone introduced himself and told the council that he was available to talk with them. "If you need something," Stone said, "I can't tell you I can always fix or help, but I can sure be a part of the discussion and be...
In response to the shocking news about the sandy beach area at Steamboat Rock State Park being permanently closed due to a government mystery: oh Ya and EROSION, I’m thinking why stop there? Shut the entire Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt down. Certainly, the rise and fall of water levels and tourist enjoyment has and will cause more erosion. If that’s the case, then I also feel I’m in danger while driving through the Coulee Walls and beside any natural hillside or formation caused by erosion. I hate to be the bearer of bad news people, but t...
The closing of Steamboat Rock Park’s Boat Camp and access due to erosion doesn’t make sense. The fact that there is reluctance to identify the reason more succinctly leads one to suspect there is more to the story than reported by the Bureau of Reclamation and State Parks. The lack of information from the Bureau of Reclamation, at least, gives me a chance to guess on the reason. In the early part of this century, the grave of a Native American was found in that general area. It did not appear to be a part of a burial ground, but one has to won...
Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union is seeking approval of regulators to merge with Spokane-based STCU, a joining that would rebrand the local institution but retain jobs and offer more services, both credit unions say. The move, approved by both institutions' boards of directors in December, will require the approval of state and federal regulators - and a majority of CDFCU's members. It's a change following dominant industry patterns, as smaller banks and credit unions find it increasingly challen...
An addition to the local airport that would make it safer and more usable is on the horizon and may land if a major grant comes through to pay for it. A new Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) at the Grand Coulee Dam Airport would offer various aviation advantages, specifically by increasing safety and ease of landing. The estimated $274,000 AWOS project should be paid for in part with a 90% Federal Aviation Administration grant, and a 5% Washington Department of Transportation Aviation...
A popular beach at Steamboat Rock State Park, located northeast of the boat launch, is being closed permanently due to erosion, authorities say. "The Bureau of Reclamation in cooperation with Washington State Parks will permanently close a beach area located in Steamboat Rock State Park in order to provide resource protection," a legal notice published throughout December 2020 in the Columbia Basin Herald states. "The closure will take place on January 1, 2021. Washington State Parks will...
Early on Saturday, November 14, 2020 beloved great grandmother, grandmother, mother, aunt, sister and wife Mavis Gorman passed away in her home surrounded by her three children. She was 89 and passed just a few days shy of her 90th birthday. Mavis was born on December 8, 1930 in Jamestown North Dakota. The first child of Ed and Alvina Klundt she was soon joined by her sister Betty. Ed farmed wheat with a team of draft horses, Alvina kept a garden. The farm had a family cow, raised turkeys and...
If you really want to know when the Bureau of Reclamation fire station will be completed, keep track of the sani-cans outside. Star reporter Jacob Wagner gave a good rundown of the history of the project in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago. I would like to fill in the story a bit. The estimated cost of the project was $13.6 million. It is now estimated that the fire station will be completed in 2021. The project was started in 2016, with the awarding of the construction contract. Total cost is a number that would be embarrassing even for any...
Our local Star newspaper has always done a good job of sharing a diversity of viewpoints: It is extremely hard for me to share these thoughts. Numerous people over the last few years have shared frustrations with me about our local school district. Many have felt they were treated poorly or even ignored. Some have taken their students out of our district. I’ve listened and shared productive solutions. I have lived in Coulee Dam for almost 40 years and have always supported our school district no matter what. I also show up and cheer on our R...
The long-anticipated Bureau of Reclamation fire station is expected to be completed in 2021. Construction began on the fire station on SR-155 across from Pole Park back in April of 2017, with a $13.6 million contract originally awarded to Innovative Construction and Design in 2016. The termination of that contract was confirmed by the bureau in March of 2019, and construction resumed in April of 2019 by Northcon Construction, which took over the contract. The bureau would not comment on why they changed construction companies. “There are many f...
The construction of additional campsites at Steamboat Rock has resumed after a nearly four-year delay. The construction of 30 full-hookup RV sites at what will be called Cove Loop at Steamboat Rock State Park is on track to be finished in February of 2021, with the sites likely to be ready for campers in late spring or early summer next year, according to Dennis Felton, area manager for state parks in the Coulee Corridor, including Steamboat Rock, Sun Lakes-Dry Falls, and Potholes. A...
Edward "Peanuts" Haven, 86, passed away peacefully in his home Wednesday, October 7, 2020, with his wife and son by his side. Peanuts was born May 3, 1934, in his Golden Valley, North Dakota home to parents Ralph and Ellen (McLaughlin) Haven. He was the oldest of his siblings, Harvey Haven, Betty Dennis, and Anita Register. The Haven family moved to the Coulee Community in 1944 where Peanuts graduated from Grand Coulee High School in 1952. Peanuts was then soon drafted into the U.S Army and...