News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Electric City is starting a process that could lead to the building of a pedestrian pathway along SR-155, using hotel/motel tax money. Council members have long hinted that the city would like to do a major tourism project using some $280,000 held in its hotel/motel reserve fund. Councilman Brad Parrish talked about the project at Tuesday night’s council meeting. The proposed pathway would go from Coulee Playland to the Causeway and connect with all three firms that develop hotel/motel tax monies, Sunbanks Resort, Skydeck Motel and Coulee P... Full story
Five Lake Roosevelt High School students will begin a pilot project at the Bureau of Reclamation in February. The project will allow upper class students at the high school to spend one day a week getting a work experience at designated locations at the dam. High School Principal Brandon Byers said Tuesday that he is in the process of selecting five students who are currently in the school’s engineering program. Byers said he met with Bureau officials last spring and the process got started. He also stated that if the pilot project gets off t... Full story
1 years ago Yvonne Kilsmoola-Quilachin St. Pierre is the first born baby at Coulee Community Hospital for 2005, the daughter of Yalonda and John St. Pierre of Elmer City. Marvin and Marilyn Farver of Nespelem celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Jan. 23. The sale of the Banks Lake Golf Course is on the agenda at the Grant County Port District 7 special meeting this month. Port Chairman Dennis Wiese said commissioners will discuss selling the business and/or the land, and whether the golf course lease with the port is transferable. CCH... Full story
The park district that struggles to find ways to pay for maintaining North Dam Park will have an easier time financing the effort with a new grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Coulee Area Park and Recreation District commissioners learned Monday night the district will get a five-year matching grant from the USBR, totaling up to $149,703. “We can spend as much as we can match,” Commissioner and Treasurer Phil Hansen told the commissioners. Maintaining the park costs about $30,000 a year, Hansen said. The grant will help pay for tha... Full story
Jan. 8 • Greg Wilder, the new mayor of Coulee Dam, asked the Douglas County Sheriff to investigate the possible theft of public property and destruction of public records, that of a missing computer used by the former mayor, and the computer’s hard drive. Jan. 15 • A majority of hospital district commissioners voted to immediately hire new legal counsel. The move came as commissioners worked on a turnaround of the administration. Jan. 22 • After receiving extensive burns last Nov. 18 from a fire started by the switch gear for Pump Generat... Full story
One of Grand Coulee's first female electricians has been recognized for distinguished government service at the close of her 38-year career. Mary Cox received the Federal Columbia River Power System Meritorious Service Award during a Dec. 16 ceremony in Boise. Cox is an electrical foreman for the Third Power Plant at Grand Coulee Dam. She is a native of Nespelem and has worked at the dam since July, 1976. Presenting the award was Bureau of Reclamation Pacific Northwest Regional Director Lorri... Full story
by Scott Hunter Following a shakeup in the Coulee Dam Fire Department that came to a head two weeks ago, town leaders last week stated their confidence that citizens are safe and that calls for emergency services will be met. “In terms of providing protection, we’re safe,” Mayor Greg Wilder said in an interview Wednesday, but he said there are definitely longterm issues that are being addressed. Within the week, Wilder had received three resignations of longtime fire department and ambulance personnel. First, the fire chief, Robert Jacks... Full story
A 58-year-old man was found inside his vehicle in a ditch on “B” Street near the gate to the Bureau of Reclamation industrial area Friday night. The driver, Richard J. Wippel, was later pronounced dead at Coulee Medical Center. Police had to break a side window to gain entrance to the locked pickup, whose driver was then taken to the hospital. The police report stated that there was no sign of a pulse and it appeared that some type of medical condition caused the vehicle to leave the road. The vehicle was not damaged. Washington State Pat... Full story
Following a shakeup in the Coulee Dam Fire Department that came to a head last week, town leaders this week have stated their confidence that citizens are safe and that calls for emergency services will be met. “In terms of providing protection, we’re safe,” Mayor Greg Wilder said in an interview Wednesday, but there are definitely longterm issues that are being addressed. Within the last week, Wilder has received three resignations of longtime fire department and ambulance personnel. First, the fire chief, Robert Jackson resigned. Then Ben A... Full story
When you make a 911 call to report a fire in Coulee Dam you expect a town fire engine and crew to respond. Don’t count on it. Last week, Coulee Dam fire chief Robert Jackson resigned after 12 years as chief. When reached he refused to comment on his resignation. The issue came up at the Coulee Dam Town Council meeting last Wednesday night, and shortly after announcing it to the council, Councilmember Ben Alling, who has been a member of the fire department for 38 years, announced his resignation from it. Since then, Mayor Greg Wilder stated, a... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 11/21 - A caller reported a theft of liquor from an Almira location and said the party was heading toward Grand Coulee, and gave a description of the vehicle. Police stopped the vehicle but the driver refused to talk with police, so the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office was called and a deputy continued with the investigation. The driver gave a Grand Coulee address. 11/21 - A woman reported that her car parked next to SR-155 had been opened and a variety of things taken. She said the loss was about $60. Police driving b... Full story
Star closed for holiday The Star newspaper office will be closed Thursday and Friday, Nov. 27 & 28 for the Thanksgiving holiday. The office will open for business again on Monday, Dec. 1, at 9 a.m. Local will march in Macy’s Parade Lynda Nutt, who worked for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Visitor Center, will be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City as part of the “Red Hot MaMas.” She says the group will be on directly after the 121st commercial, behind the Paddington Bear balloon. The group was also in the 2005 Macy’s Pa... Full story
Faced with various groups annually vying for tourism tax dollars, most Coulee Dam Town Council members verbally endorsed an approach suggested by Mayor Greg Wilder last week: outsource it — with provisos. Wilder advocated an approach similar to what the chamber of commerce was trying to organize last year, a separate tourism advisory board that each of the three towns collecting the tax from tourists would empower to use funds for marketing the whole area. But even if such an entity does not yet exist, Wilder was in favor of taking that approac... Full story
A number of gun and archery enthusiasts collected a pickup full of debris from the Washington Flats area recently. The five people taking part are all members of the Coulee Gun and Archery Club. Ruth Beaty, one of the members, said most of the material was gun and archery target material that people had left on the site. "The Bureau of Reclamation wants the place clean, and since we use it, we also want the area clean," she said. Beaty added that while it has been reported that people are... Full story
Grand Coulee Police - A man from Partello Street called police to say he had picked up a bank bag with a dollar bill and a deposit slip inside. He met an officer and gave the bank bag to him. - A woman on Young Street told police that a neighbor’s dogs constantly bark at her and it makes it difficult to get her outside work done. Police went to the house but no one would answer the door. - USBR Plant Protection called to report a man by the waterfall near the administration building. He told the responding officer that he was taking pictures a... Full story
Grant County Transit officials have their fingers crossed that their plans for a transportation hub in the middle of downtown Moses Lake will become a reality and link far flung corners of the county to other transportation. The GTA’s longest route is the one that comes to the Grand Coulee area, about 77 miles. The group submitted a grant request to the state Department of Transportation Oct. 6, for $1.998 million, according to Lyle Brand, hub project manager. The proposed “hub” project is located at Division and 5th Streets on 1.1 acres near... Full story
Even the eighth wonder of the world needs rejuvenation sometime. Trouble is, no spa will accept a 3,000-ton turbine. That's why one of the three largest hydroelectric units in the world has been sitting in pieces on the concrete floor inside the largest dam in the nation, like a giant jigsaw puzzle that can only be solved with a 2,000-ton crane. The mammoth water wheel, called G-24, rarely rested in its productive 33-year work life at Grand Coulee Dam in northeastern Washington, apart from... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 10/6 - An officer in pursuit of a vehicle that failed to stop at an intersection reported that his patrol car struck a small animal, thought to be a cat. Later, after dealing with the stop sign violator he returned to the area and looked all over for the animal but couldn’t find it. An hour later a member of the city staff received a call from the veterinary clinic that an elderly lady had dropped off an injured cat and was told the police would pay the bill on the cat. The officer stated that he didn’t agree to pay a veteri... Full story
The Coulee Area Park & Recreation District is moving forward on the planning of an “Aquatic Wellness and Fitness Center.” District President Bob Valen said Monday that the district will soon advertise for qualified firms to indicate an interest in developing conceptual drawings of what the center would look like. The district commissioners then would ask qualified firms to submit their ideas for such a center. The firm chosen would make a set of conceptual drawings for two possible locations, one across the highway from Coulee Medical Cen... Full story
1 Years Ago Two studies, into a fatal accident at Grand Coulee Dam, where Charley Sage oand Gardner Zemke died, found that the accident could have been prevented or minimized if certain safety procedures had been in place and followed. The uniformed police officer that walks the halls at Lake Roosevelt could be eliminated next year due to a dropping enrollment. This came from a statement from District Superintendent, Bob Ranells, stating that the COPS grant that has funded the officer the last three years must be picked up by the school... Full story
by Scott Hunter It's not as evident as the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's annual Colorama parade through the main business district, but chamber committees have been working behind the scenes on both problems and opportunities, identified with a goal of boosting economic development leading to growth and jobs. And one big lead just opened up. The now vacant Center School in Grand Coulee, along with more than eight acres of land in the middle of the city, could become available to... Full story
Vern Crim and several other Bureau of Reclamation workers apply a fresh coat of paint to the concrete in the median on SR 155 near the Visitor Center last Wednesday. The concrete is shaped to look like paving bricks. - Scott Hunter photo... Full story
Police Chief Mel Hunt retires next Tuesday after 39 years of service in Grand Coulee. It all started for him in 1975, when Hunt signed on as a reserve officer. Then things happened fast, and he was named chief in 1979. It was a big step then for an Oklahoma farm boy who had lived there and in Colorado before moving with his family to Grand Coulee, where his father, Lester Hunt, took a position with the Bureau of Reclamation. The idea of retirement came crashing in on Hunt at last Tuesday's city... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 9/15 - A Renton woman staying at Sunbanks Resort asked police about getting a no-contact order against the daughter of her ex-husband who resides in California. She reported that she has been receiving unwanted and profane telephone messages from the California woman. The officer explained how she might get a no contact order from the court. - A Grand Coulee man was arrested and taken to Grant County Jail after allegedly violating an anti-harassment court order. The man contacted a Safeway employee who got the... Full story
This week, local students went from attending some of the worst school facilities in the state to attending the newest, largest and most high-tech K-12 school building in Washington. K-12 is now actually a misnomer, since the district has added preschool to the mix after the plans were initially drawn up with what the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction prescribed to be an 800-student capacity building. OSPI’s formula for determining this is the essential equivalent of a ruler following the last known direction, in this case d... Full story