News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Gary L. Pierson passed away Thursday, September 20, 2018, from a heart attack in Ephrata, Washington. He retired from the Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam in 1995. A memorial service will take place Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, at 2 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Ephrata, Washington....
Robert Joseph Mueller, age 93, died on October 24, 2018, in Spokane, Washington. Bob was born December 4, 1924, in Aberdeen, SD, to parents Otto Edwin Mueller and Margaret Arntz Mueller. From April 1943 to August 1945, Bob was with the Army's 346th Infantry Division. He received two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart while seeing action in France and Belgium, including the Battle of the Bulge. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical...
An independent candidate for the state Legislature visited the Grand Coulee Dam area last Thursday and Friday, knocking on doors and speaking at the chamber of commerce luncheon. Ann Diamond is running to represent the 12th Legislative District, which includes most of the Grand Coulee Dam area. A physician who founded the first family practice clinic in the Methow area, Diamond, said her travels during her campaign have taught her that small towns share in common many issues of concern:...
Sharene (Sherry) Lee Dotson, 75, passed away Tuesday, October 9, 2018, at her home in Electric City, Washington. Sherry was born on July 15, 1943, in Portland, Oregon to James (Marvin) and Edna Marie White. She attended grade school and high school in Winston, Oregon. She married Loren Dotson in Roseburg, Oregon, in November 1960. Loren and Sherry lived in Klamath Falls; Las Vegas; Livermore, California and Eugene, Oregon before arriving in the Grand Coulee Dam Area in the early '70s, where...
As the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District works on a list of projects to help bring North Dam Park into compliance with federal law on providing access for those in wheelchairs, it increases the likelihood of starting other projects, such as a community garden. Still, the list is long. CAPRD manages North Dam Park, which is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The USBR has a list of items that need to be done to bring the park up to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, accessibility projects concerning parking, pathway...
CAPRD approves future kiosk at park Kiosks to tout the features along the Coulee Corridor are looking like they will finally get put up after about 10 years of effort, if a paper discussed at the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District is an indication. A local kiosk will detail the history and geology of the area and be placed at North Dam Park in Grand Coulee. It will be one of a total of five along the Coulee Corridor National Scenic Byway, joining others in in Coulee City, Soap Lake, Othello, and Warden. Total cost for the project going...
The Grand Coulee city council voted to extend the closure of B Street through October 2019 while the United States Bureau of Reclamation continues to build their fire station off of Highway 155. "We would like to think that they're going to bring the road to a better condition than it was," said Mayor Paul Townsend. Construction on the building began in April 2017, and the council laughed about the length of time construction seems to be taking. The bureau awarded the $13.6 million construction...
The Bureau of Reclamation was fined $115,500 by the Environmental Protection Agency for hazardous waste handling violations at the Grand Coulee Dam. The EPA said in a press release Tuesday that the action was taken at the request of the state of Washington’s Department of Ecology. “We conducted this inspection at the Dam at the Department of Ecology’s request and found some areas of non-compliance,” said Chris Hladick, EPA Regional Administrator in Seattle. “Proper handling and management of hazardous waste is a serious responsibility that prot...
A study of the Bureau of Reclamation’s problems in attracting qualified employees to the area is leading to broader avenues of local communication and could even result in the privatization of some federal land. “In all the places I’ve worked in the United States, I’ve never seen this situation,” Jeffrey Simons, of Stantec, told the local Rotary club last Wednesday. “Not only do you have four communities, but you have multiple counties and the tribes.” Simons, who also spoke to the chamber of commerce’s Economic Development Committee the n...
Sandra June (Debar) King, 77, passed away Monday, September 3, 2018. She was born June 1, 1941, to Erma (Holm) and James Debar in Wenatchee, Washington. She grew up in Manson, Washington. She married Dennis J. King December 20, 1961. They moved to Coulee Dam, Wash., in 1970. Sandra was very creative and enjoyed many hobbies, which included painting, sewing, quilting, crocheting, cooking, gardening, canning and many others. She worked for the Bureau of Reclamation and took an early retirement in...
B Street closure could last another year Grand Coulee City Council decided to wait another month before approving a time extension for the closure of the east end of B Street during the construction of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s fire station. Council members said it would be smart to ask the USBR to agree to repair the street after they are done using it for the construction. They said the USBR expects the station to be done in spring of 2019, but the extension would allow for the closure of the road to last until October of 2019. The r...
The federal Bureau of Land Management’s recent agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation and local fire districts has already paid off this fire season. The USBR turned over 200,000 acres to the BLM to manage. With Grand Coulee’s fire district already on board with the agreement, Electric City has joined up as well. Fire Chief for Electric City Mark Payne spoke to the Electric City Council last week about the benefits of the agreement. “Ninety percent of our district is bureau ground,” Payne said, “and so we had access to ground troops, cats; it...
Those of us who look at the Grand Coulee Dam and think “how in the hell did they manage to build that?” will have the opportunity to have that question answered in detail by an engineering expert. Raymond “Paul” Giroux will be making a free presentation on “Building Grand Coulee Dam,” Saturday, Aug. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. The roughly hour-long presentation will highlight the construction of the primary structure, which was completed by the spring of 1942. Giroux spoke to The Star about what made the constru...
With many cities, counties, fire districts and multiple jurisdictions of every kind coming together in the Grand Coulee Dam community, it can leave many newcomers scratching their heads, but firefighters on the Grass Valley Fire reported seeing a remarkably close community. At a meeting called Monday to give the community information on the Grass Valley Fire, Public Information Officer Ben Shearer, from the Southeast Washington Incident Management Team, said he has been fighting fires for 28 years, but had to give credit to the Grand Coulee...
A free presentation on “Building Grand Coulee Dam,” by Raymond Paul Giroux, will discuss how the right conditions, people and engineering allowed it to happen at that time. The Aug. 25 program will be presented at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. “During the early twentieth century, the Bureau of Reclamation was charged with harnessing the water potential of the western United States,” an Aug. 13 bureau press release states. “Critical to this vision was taming the mighty Columbia River. With river flows more than 300,000 c...
Robert Carl Hanson, 89, passed away peacefully, with his family by his side, at the Nevada State Veterans Home in Boulder City, Nevada, on Thursday, July 26, 2018. He was born April 7, 1929, in Rapid City, South Dakota, and was a 40 year resident of Boulder City. Bob enlisted in the U.S. Navy and proudly served his country during the Korean War, followed by a very distinguished career as a Personnel Officer for the Bureau of Reclamation. He contributed to such projects as the Grand Coulee Dam and the Central Arizona Project before joining the...
Agencies that control most of the public lands in the region have issued restrictions on the use of fire. “Fire restrictions on lands administered by the Bureau of Reclamation have been modified to prohibit the building, maintaining, attending or using a fire of any type, including charcoal briquette fires,” a press release from the Bureau of Land Management states. The BLM has an agreement with the USBR to operate on their lands for fire management purposes. “An exemption is made for liquefied and bottled gas stoves and heaters, provi...
Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend welcomes Nicolaus D. Johnson as the city's newest patrolman after swearing him in Tuesday. Coming from Yakima, Johnson was recruited laterally, meaning he's already fully qualified to serve without the city having to send him to state academy training. That's important, Townsend noted, because he can immediately take part in the city's contract supporting the Bureau of Reclamation. The city now has eight officers, Townsend said. - Scott Hunter...
In past columns I’ve talked about the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or as some call it, the Southern Oscillation. Let me briefly review what this thing does. There are two ocean temperature and wind actions that occur down along the Tropical Pacific Equator that can, and do, affect global climate. These fluctuating ocean wind and temperature events also play a role in our winters here in the Pacific and Inland Northwest. One is referred to as El Niño (the child, Spanish) and the oth...
Volunteer firefighters in Grand Coulee responded quickly to local fires recently, stopping them before they could grow in size and do major damage. Firefighters responded to a fire right in Hometown Pizza's backyard on July 26, the second fire that week following a July 23 smoldering fire in a pile of manure. The Hometown Pizza fire was responded to by 14 firefighters, five fire engines, two law enforcement officers, and two Grant County PUD linemen who kept the grass and brush fire to approxima...
Coulee Dam seemed likely to follow a path already pursued by Electric City and Grand Coulee last week, when the town council heard nothing but favorable remarks during a public hearing on allowing people to drive four-wheelers on city streets. About a dozen people attended the hearing Wednesday night, not all of them from Coulee Dam. "It's a cheap way to get around," commented a man named Wes, who Councilmember Keith St. Jeor said was from Wenatchee. "It's a boon to the city." Coulee Dam is...
City gets firefighting agreement with BLM The federal Bureau of Land Management, which has an agreement to operate on United States Bureau of Reclamation land, has entered into an agreement with the city of Grand Coulee. The agreement allows Grand Coulee firefighters to take care of fires on land the BLM is responsible for, and the city can in turn bill the BLM, as well as use resources from them, such as fire-fighting aircraft. “It’s a one-way deal,” said Grand Coulee Fire Chief Rick Paris, referring to the city benefitting from the partn...
Kenneth Eugene Williams passed away Friday, July 13, 2018, on his 93rd birthday. He was born on July 13, 1925, in Tecumseh, Nebraska, the first son of Fred and Gertrude Williams. He graduated from Tecumseh High School in May of 1944. On July 22, 1944, he was inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and was discharged on August 17, 1946, after service in the Asiatic Pacific Campaign. He received the Purple Heart Medal on December 15, 1945, from wounds received in June 1945 at...
A large collection of logs and debris floating at Crescent Bay should be all tugged away by a tugboat sometime between mid- and late July. "The Bureau of Reclamation has a contract with Columbia Navigation to collect the logs that come down the river during the spring runoff," said USBR Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher. "The logs that are at Crescent Bay and the logs that have collected behind Grand Coulee Dam in the Forebay area will be gathered together and Columbia Navigation will use...
Grand Coulee 6/19 - Coulee Gas reported a counterfeit $20 bill that police collected and will send to the U.S. Secret Service. Police were unable to identify the customer who used the bill in security footage. - An Elmer City man wanted on a warrant ran from police after being spotted in the Delano area. An officer chased the man, who gave himself up and was taken to Grant County Jail on the warrant. He was also charged with resisting arrest and obstructing an officer. - Police looked into a report of possible squatters at an abandoned house...