News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 276 - 300 of 883
Locals overwhelmingly oppose a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposal to ban cars from driving on “Geezer Beach,” a beach named after the elderly who frequent the spot because of its easy accessibility. The issue is a hot topic among locals passionate about the popular fishing spot behind the Third Powerhouse of the Grand Coulee Dam. The bureau released its “Draft Environmental Assessment” in April, outlining options of leaving the situation alone, blocking vehicles from the shore, or simply banning recreation in the area altogether. “The pu...
Commissioners from the Coulee Area Park & Recreation District met at North Dam Park April 30 to walk around the park and discuss aspects of it, future plans, and talking points for an upcoming meeting with the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the land, and for which CAPRD manages the park. Chairman Kevin Portch and Commissioners Bob Valen, Josh Vega, and Ben Hughes attended the meeting. Absent was Commissioner Carla Marconi. The group toured the concession stand at the upper ballfield and...
Mary Ellen Combs was born in Avon, South Dakota, December 22, 1934, to Emanuel and Lydia Hinzman. She passed away April 15, 2019, on her late husband Everett's birthday. Mary Ellen graduated from Avon High School in Avon, South Dakota. She then attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her mom, Lydia, sold the family farm and moved to Sioux Falls while Mary Ellen went to college. After graduation, Mary went to work for the VA Hospital in Sioux Falls. There she met Everett Combs,...
Construction has resumed on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation fire station off SR-155, with completion anticipated for March of 2020. The $13.6 million contract was originally awarded to Innovative Construction & Design Ltd. in 2016, with construction beginning in April of 2017. The termination of that contract was confirmed by the bureau in March of this year, and construction has resumed in April by Northcon Construction. "Basically what is going on is ICD originally had the contract, and...
USBR tour guide Theresa Wilder watches as kids at the Earth Day celebration in Nespelem Friday interact with an exhibit on renewable energy, brought by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The event "was a huge success," said Joaquin Bustamante who manages Colville Tribal Recycling. "We gave away over $15,000 in giveaway items. Food items. That's the most we've ever given out. That was a huge thing. Between what we put on and the message that everyone was giving out there, it was positive towards...
What would happen to North Dam Park if a local group didn’t take care of it? Commissioners for the Coulee Area Park & Recreation District discussed renewal of their contract with the United States Bureau of Reclamation at their April 1 meeting. The bureau owns the land at North Dam Park, but contracts with the district to take care of it. That 10-year contract is coming up for renewal. “Let’s talk about the downside,” said Commissioner Kevin Portch. “If we don’t take this up, then it falls back to where it was 10 years ago before CAPRD, and...
Twenty Years Ago The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a Y2K forum Tuesday night to address local concerns about the millennium bug that could infect computers January 1, 2000. Wright Elementary students Brieanna Clark, Courtney Kennedy, Andrea Schumaker, Leah Philmon, Amanda VanGeystel and Emily Rehn raised over $110 for their school in their crusade for new playground equipment. Thirty Years Ago Grand Coulee’s pilot well near Crescent Lake hit an aquifer 61 feet below the ground Feb. 7, giving rise to hopes that engineers p...
Grand Coulee Police 3/24 - A woman showed an officer a video of a neighbor shooting a bb gun at something, reportedly birds. The officer told the neighbor not to shoot within the city limits, and the neighbor said he would comply. - A woman reported that her daughter had left for a trip to Canada with a friend two days prior and hadn’t returned. Soon after reporting her daughter missing, the daughter’s grandmother called and said she was on her way home. - The Grant County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance with a domestic issue on Cardi...
A valve deep in the Third Powerhouse at Grand Coulee Dam was opened last week, partially flooding an elevator shaft and an elevator control room, authorities said. Police Chief John Tufts, of the Grand Coulee Police Department, was called to the Third Powerhouse at about 4 p.m. March 19, his written report states. Tufts was told that sometime between noon and 3 p.m. someone had opened a water valve on the “919 level,” that is, 919 feet above sea level, and that the valve was left open for about three hours, partially flooding the inside of an...
A $13.6 million fire station being built for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation along SR-155 has faced numerous delays, and a bigger delay now with the termination of the contract between the bureau and the construction company. The contract for the project was awarded to Post Falls, Idaho-based Innovative Construction & Design Ltd. in 2016, with construction beginning in April of 2017. The building was originally scheduled to be complete in April 2018, according to a bureau press release issued in...
Twenty Years Ago The Town of Coulee Dam may be ready to sell its town shop to a private developer if a suitable site can be found to build a new shop. Coulee Community Hospital is finding it tough to get the state’s attention focused on its $300,000 hillside slippage problem at a time when western Washington rains have loosened the footing of multi-million dollar neighborhoods. Scott and Paul Townsend of TNT Welding built frames for signs to be installed on the Columbia River Bridge. The signs depict the history of the Grand Coulee Dam c...
Twenty Years Ago Hospital Park is a park no more – Grand Coulee’s city council approved the sale of the park Tuesday night to Grant County. Grand Coulee Dam is the first dam chosen in a worldwide study of the environmental effects caused by established older dams. Four months after work began on the expansion of the Safeway store in Grand Coulee, it is complete. As a very conspicuous balloon on top of the store attested to, they held a grand opening last Wednesday to celebrate. Selected as the Employee of the Year at the Colville Con...
Twenty Years Ago Work has begun on the expansion of Banks Lake Golf and Country Club. The Grand Coulee Dam is one of few dams which hasn’t been mentioned for removal, but according to economic consultant Bob Lonn, the disappearance of other dams in an effort to save fish populations will be damaging to the local economy. The continued slow crumbling of the hillside below Coulee Community Hospital and parallel to Fortuyn Road has forced the hand of the Grand Coulee Council to declare a city emergency. Going to state wrestling for the Raiders i...
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Grand Coulee Dam School District disagree on the impact a bureau project will have on local schools. The USBR is planning a 10-year project to update three generators, named G19-21, in the Third Powerhouse starting in 2023, similar to the ongoing project of updating G22-24 that started in 2010, and is estimated to cost $100 million. The USBR’s Environmental Assessment for the proposed G19-21 update states that the project would have at most 103 workers and “could result in an increased enrollment of five stu...
The Electric City council approved the draft last week of a proposal for a 500-foot-wide “no shooting” buffer zone between the main part of the city and Osborne Bay, where shooting firearms would be prohibited. The proposal needs to be approved by the city, the state Departments of Fish & Wildlife and Natural Resources, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Grand Coulee Police. The city would pay for signs to line the 7,281-foot-long buffer-zone border, and F&W would pay for the posts and install the signs. The signs would explain the buffer zon...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District is contesting the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s claim in a draft Environmental Assessment concerning the minimal impact it says a project will have on the district. The USBR is planning on a 10-year project to update three generators, G19-21, in the Third Powerhouse starting in 2023, similar to the ongoing project of updating G22-24 that started in 2010, and is estimated to cost $100 million. The USBR’s Environmental Assessment for the proposed G19-21 update, states that the project would have at most 103...
Twenty Years Ago Nick Caramandi hears about all kinds of service projects when people come to his store looking for supplies. This spring he takes on a challenge of his own – building a skating rink at North Dam Park. Recipients of the Business of the Year award for 1998 were Tim and Michéle Arrants of Tims Four-Corner Texaco. Achiever of the Year was Susan Miller. Hired as new police chief for the Colville Tribal Police is John Shelhart. Selected as student of the week at LRHS was Scott Leadingham. Athlete of the week was Beau Brown. Thi...
Allan Graham, age 88, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2018, in Spokane, Washington. He was born in Blenheim, Ontario, Canada, on March 30, 1930. He was raised in Windsor, Ontario, and, in 1952, joined the United States Air Force. He was stationed at Stead Air Force Base in Reno, Nevada where he met his wife, Alyce. They were married in Reno in 1957. Allan and Alyce had three children, all born in Reno. After Allan's honorable discharge from the USAF in 1956, he worked for the Bureau of Mine...
A 500-foot-wide, 7,281-foot-long, no-shooting "buffer zone" is being proposed between residences of Electric City and the Osborne Bay area. The buffer zone would be an area people cannot shoot guns out of or into. City Clerk Russ Powers said the city has had several complaints regarding hunters behind houses on Silver Drive, and that just last week he saw people with high-powered rifles in the Osborn Bay area near homes. "That is just too close for my comfort," Powers said. Currently Electric...
Annual predictions begin for lake levels The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued its January water forecast for the 2019 flood control season that determines what the needed levels will be for Lake Roosevelt in the coming months. “Based on current conditions, the April 20 flood control level … is 1249.9 feet above sea level,” noted Lynne Brougher of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which physically controls the level of the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam. The predicted level for the end of April is about 40 feet lower than compl...
Willard Pearson, 79, former resident of Coulee Dam, Washington, and Assistant Project Manager of Grand Coulee Dam for 20 years, passed away on December 23, 2018. Willard retired to his home roots of Scottsville, Kentucky, after 37 years with the Bureau of Reclamation. He is survived by his wife, Faye Pearson, and children: Kelley, Matt, Keith and Josh Pearson....
Federal and tribal officials said last week that the question of whether fishermen should continue to be able to drive on the sand along Geezer Beach behind the Grand Coulee Dam stemmed from tribal concerns. The Bureau of Reclamation has been collecting comments on the issue as they do an environmental assessment on whether to continue allowing people to drive on the beach. USBR Public Affairs Specialist Lynne Brougher said the idea of banning cars from the beach started when the bureau received a request to address the issue from the Colville...
The Bureau of Reclamation is looking to modernize three more generators in the Third Power Plant of the Grand Coulee Dam in a project that should get underway in about four years. The upgrade of generators G19-G21, if approved, would take about 10 years to complete, beginning in 2023 at the earliest, and would add tens of millions of dollars to the regional economy, a draft environmental assessment states. A similar project, modernizing G22-G24, started in 2010 and still continues. It has cost...
The Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area will remain accessible to the public, but with no visitor services, during the current shutdown of the federal government. That’s according to a statement issued by the National Park Service unit on Saturday, after Congress and the president failed to compromise on a bill to keep the government fully open. “During the shutdown of the federal government due to the lapse of appropriations, national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and pro...
The city of Coulee Dam will oppose changes to the operation of a beach upriver from the Third Powerhouse behind Grand Coulee Dam being considered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The city council unanimously voted last week to send a letter to that effect. The bureau is considering restricting people from driving vehicles onto the beach during low drawdowns of Lake Roosevelt, or possibly closing the area to fishing entirely. It is seeking comments to include in its decision-making process. The spot is popular with older anglers, from whom...