News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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If you hear a loud explosion, hopefully it's just local man Alan Cain, who recently received his Pyrotechnics Display Operator License allowing him to use display-type fireworks that normal civilians can't get their hands on (lest they lose some fingers). To get the license, Cain had to prove he had experience in at least six fireworks shows. Cain said he has experience with about 27, including baseball stadiums, events in Spokane, and other areas. Also needed to get the license are four...
The spring runoff from melting snow in Canada is now coming down the Columbia River, and Lake Roosevelt is beginning to refill. Following the long 2016-17 winter, Lake Roosevelt has been kept at a low water level in anticipation of the large mountain runoff to come. Currently, with the water level at an elevation of about 1,256 feet above sea level on Tuesday, the target for May 31 is for the lake to be no higher than 1,262, according to the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation. The lake is completely fu...
A transformer at a Coulee City railway siding awaits delivery to a Bureau of Reclamation facility this week in Grand Coulee. The 346-foot rig was scheduled to beging the journey from Coulee City Tuesday night, stop for the day at a scenic overlook just south of Electric City, then resume the trek about 1 a.m. Thursday morning. It should arrive about 5 a.m. at the switchyard on SR-174 north of Grand Coulee overlooking Grand Coulee Dam. Moving no faster than 25 mph, the million-pound vehicle will...
A million-pound load of equipment will slow traffic on local highways from Coulee City to Grand Coulee next week as it creeps to its destination just north of Grand Coulee, with delays expected of up to 90 minutes at a time. Drivers probably should not plan to travel on SR-155 late Tuesday night, May 30, nor early Thursday morning, June 1, when a huge piece of equipment will be blocking traffic for up to an hour and a half. An Oregon company will be moving a million pounds along the route from Coulee City to Grand Coulee, then up SR-174 on...
Workers apply oil Tuesday at the end of the federal government's chip sealing job on the pavement along SR-155 as a single lane of traffic is led by a pilot car. The job began last week but completion was delayed by a couple days of rain. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation owns and maintains the stretch of highway from Federal Avenue in Grand Coulee to Coulee Dam. - Jacob Wagner photo...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District issued a strong response to invitations for comments on a Bureau of Reclamation proposed modernization program. The Bureau had advertised for draft environmental assessment comments on its 12-year plan to modernize and overhaul generators in both the left and right powerhouses. The school district, long critical of a lack of financial support from the Bureau, stated in a letter dated May 12: “Regarding impacts on the district, it is clear the Bureau still does not understand the complexity and unique s...
[Update] The company planning the move of the big transformer has delayed the move after "discrepancies" were noted during a "weigh and measure" session with the state Department of Transportation, the company said. No word yet on a new schedule. Original story: Drivers probably should not plan to travel on SR 155 late Monday night/Tuesday morning, nor early Wednesday morning when a huge piece of equipment will be blocking traffic up to 90 minutes at a time. An Oregon company will be moving a million pounds along the route from Coulee City to...
The Bureau of Reclamation has a number of construction projects going on lately, and drivers will notice some delays, starting this week. ACCU Construction Inc., based in Santa Ana, California, got the $4 million contract, which involves repair to various roads and parking areas in the Grand Coulee Dam vicinity, including the parking lot at the Bureau, the area by the administration building, the shop in the industrial area, and repaving the road and parking area down to the Left Powerhouse at the dam. The Bureau of Reclamation says that,...
Grand Coulee Police 5/7 - A landlord on Burdin Boulevard was advised by police that he couldn’t just move a tenant out of his place without going through the eviction process. - An Electric City woman was arrested and will be charged with fourth-degree assault domestic violence after scratching her boyfriend while the two were breaking up. She was taken to Grant County jail. - A walkie talkie radio that a Bureau of Reclamation firefighter left at Safeway was returned to him by a police officer. 5/8 - A Grand Coulee man told police that he h...
The Bureau of Reclamation has a number of construction projects going on lately, and drivers will notice some delays, starting this week. ACCU Construction Inc., based in Santa Ana, California, got the $4 million contract, which involves repair to various roads and parking areas in the Grand Coulee Dam vicinity. The parking lot at the Bureau, the area by the administration building, the shop in the industrial area, and repaving the road and parking area down to the Left Powerhouse at the dam. The Bureau of Reclamation says that, weather...
The Bureau of Reclamation says that, weather pending, Highway 155 will be chip sealed from just south of Pole Park to just below the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. Chip sealing, a common maintenance procedure, will take place from Monday, May 15 until Friday, May 19 with delays of up to 10 minutes....
This architectural rendering depicts what the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's new fire station off Highway 155 will look like in the evening about a year from now as construction is completed. Crews started working last month, closing off the end of B Street in Grand Coulee, which will still be used as a detour route during the Colorama Parade on Saturday. Reclamation awarded the $13.6 million construction contract to Innovative Construction & Design Ltd., a small business based in Post Falls,...
We certainly aren’t seeing the amount of rainfall that the Olympic Peninsula receives with an annual average of 140 inches a year. Yet, we have been wet here in our region of the state. With all that rain and melt-off, things do happen — flooding, mudslides, roads washed out and crop planting delays. The folks at the National Weather Service office in Spokane stated this: “A combination of abundant late winter snow, heavy rain from several wet Pacific storms, and near-seasonal tempe...
Thirty new campsites at Steamboat Rock State Park will still have to wait to become a reality, with no set date for construction to resume. Currently the area for the new campsites is just a big, empty lot of sand, just as it was left in the fall of 2016. The $2.5-million-dollar project was delayed last fall because of the expiration then of the 2010 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the State Parks, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Washington State Department of Archaeology Historic Preservation (DAHP), and the Colville Confederated Tribes....
Things are getting serious about allowing ATV travel in city streets in Grand Coulee. And a new twist was added at Grand Coulee’s council meeting a week ago. An idea surfaced to allow all-terrain vehicles to travel between Grand Coulee and Electric City. Part of the idea would be to slow traffic from 45 mph down to 35 mph, the speed that ATVs can travel. It all started several weeks ago when Grand Coulee resident Bill Moore attended the council meeting and brought up the idea of ATV travel in the city. Moore and several others appeared at t...
Patricia 'Patsy' Mae Pace (Dickerson), 79, softly departed on Monday, April 17, 2017, at her Helena, Montana home in the comfort of her son Gregory. Caring for her the weeks up to her passing was her daughter-in-law, Kathleen, and granddaughters: Miranda and Rachel. When Miranda was little she started calling her grandmother Mocha. We have no idea where the nickname came from, but she was always Mocha to her Montana family. Patsy was born July 15, 1937, in Polson, Montana, to Dorothy and Frank...
The Bureau of Reclamation is asking for comments from interested parties on a planned overhaul of 18 generators in the left and right powherhouses of Grand Coulee Dam. The generators have been in service for some 70 years and need repair, the bureau has said. Doing the work would keep them making electricity for another 30 years. In a draft environmental analysis, the bureau lays out its preferred of three alternatives: Do the upgrades on two generators at a time and complete the work between 2018 and 2029. Another alternative would extend the...
Firefighters cut holes in the side and roof of a house at 111 Washington Place in Electric City Thursday, but saved it from burning down. A bathroom light-ceiling fan combination unit caused the fire. Firefighters from Electric City, Grand Coulee and the Bureau of Reclamation were on scene at the mid-morning fire. Grant County lists Amelia Stanger as the owner. - Scott Hunter photo...
Grand Coulee Police 4/11 - Dispatch advised police that that a man smelling of alcohol had been reported as leaving a local business and getting into his car. Police looked for the vehicle but it was out of the area by the time the officer arrived. - Police advised two men that they could neither enter the area by the Bureau of Reclamation administration office nor by the small waterfall. The two were banned from BOR property. The two said they understood. - The manager of property on Third Street in Electric City told police that someone was...
Fire destroyed a home at 323 Roosevelt Drive in Grand Coulee late Saturday evening. A family of four were away at the time of the fire; however, two dogs died in the blaze. The Jesus Llamas family rented the mobile home that was owned by the Loretta Bingham family. Firefighters from Grand Coulee and Electric City volunteer fire departments and the Bureau of Reclamation responded. Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Chief Rick Paris stated that fire and smoke was coming from the mobile home when...
As some 203,000 cubic feet of water per second flows downstream of Grand Coulee Dam Sunday evening, about 58,000 cfs comes down the spillway through seven outlet tubes while the Bureau of Reclamation coordinates river flow for flood control. The current forecast calls for Lake Roosevelt to be lowered to 1,222.7 feet above sea level to accommodate expected high snow melt runoff, which has not actually started down the river yet. - Scott Hunter photo...
Rain! We’ve had a decent amount of it in the past year. I measured a total of 15.21 inches of precipitation at my home weather station in 2016. Rain is just one of many forms of precipitation. It’s part of the water cycle, more properly the Hydrologic Cycle. Precipitation is water that is released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It’s the main connection in the hydrologic cycle that provides for the delivery of atmospheric water to this little planet we live on, Earth. Most precipitation around the plane...
Grand Coulee Police 3/12 - A dispute over a niece smoking pot at a Weil Place residence brought police. It was decided that the niece and uncle would leave the house for the night. - A woman told police that she received a counterfeit $20 bill when getting change from Safeway. Police took the fake bill as evidence. 3/13 - Dispatch advised police that someone had been seen dropping off a bag in a field near East Grand Avenue in Electric City. Police looked but couldn’t find the reported bag. - A woman called police to tell the officer that s...
An Electric City man has received one of two scholarships offered by the state to study structural firefighting. Joshua Reeding, who recently moved to the area from Victorville, California, won an 11-week training scholarship recently, and will be going to the North Bend Fire Center for instruction. The training runs from April 7 through June 25. "It is a great honor for Joshua and for our volunteer fire department," fire Chief Mark Payne told the Electric City Council last week. Reeding was a v...
A contractor will be on site next week to start work on a new fire station for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which means two portions of local roads will be closed for that project. Innovative Construction & Design Ltd., a small business based in Post Falls, Idaho, was awarded the $13.6 million construction job last September. The company is scheduled to be on site Monday, March 13, Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said Monday. The portion of B Street from Division Street to Industrial...