News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A flap over law enforcement coverage at the Bureau of Reclamation has attracted the attention of its regional director. Recently the city of Grand Coulee was awarded a four-man contract, a renewal of an existing agreement, to provide police services on the project, leaving Coulee Dam, which had had a similar contract, out in the cold. That could change this week with Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Lorri Lee in town, presumably to meet with interested parties and get things back to normal. Coulee Dam Police Chief Pat Collins said he...
Grand Coulee Police 10/12 - A woman on Weil Place told police that some kind of oil was poured on her doorstep. She said that there were foot prints leading from next door to her door. Police took note of the type of shoe imprinted in the oil. The woman said she saw a known party in the vicinity and police looked for the man and when they found him he had on shoes similar to those imprinted in the oil. Police took the shoes as evidence and sent the report to the county prosecutor’s office. 10/14 - Police had a conversation with six children, 7...
by Roger S. Lucas Grand Coulee police officers can no longer operate within the town limits of Coulee Dam, according to a letter sent last Wednesday to Police Chief Mel Hunt. The letter from Coulee Dam Chief Pat Collins revokes permission for Grand Coulee officers to operate within the town of Coulee Dam, even when they are covering for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Collins said Tuesday that the decision was prompted by Grand Coulee getting a bureau contract when Coulee Dam didn’t. The bureau awarded the three-year, $1.6 million contract t...
Grand Coulee Police Chief Mel Hunt, left, swears in Adam Florenzen, a new provisional officer. Florenzen who replaces Otto Heath who is leaving the department to take a similar position in the Boise area. Florenzen has been a patrol officer in Coulee Dam for the past two years, but was let go when the town of Coulee Dam lost its contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. The council voted last Tuesday night to allow the police department to add a provisional officer. -- Roger S. Lucas...
The latest failure of Congress to compromise has shuttered two local branches of federal agencies but not affected operations at Grand Coulee Dam. The federal government went into shutdown mode Tuesday as the U. S. Senate and the House of Representatives failed to compromise on a continuing resolution that would allow the government to pay the bills already spent and approved by Congress. Locally, barricades and recorded messages greeted many who tried to contact federal agencies or receive...
Police Chief Pat Collins made a little headway in his efforts to retain at least one of his patrolmen after the town of Coulee Dam was axed from its contract for law enforcement coverage with the Bureau of Reclamation. The contract, which affords the town four additional patrol officers, their patrol cars, training and equipment, was up Oct. 1. The town was already short two officers, and the contract’s end means the loss of two more. “I don’t know how I can provide coverage with only three officers,” Collins told the council last Wednesd...
The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $2.5 million contract for asbestos abatement work at the Grand Coulee Power Office and at the Hungry Horse Power Office in Montana. The contract was awarded Sept.16 to Modecor Corporation of Dallas, Texas. The work involves removing asbestos-containing material and asbestos contamination from power plants, switchyards, pumping/generating plant, and other structures at Grand Coulee Dam and Hungry Horse Dam. The contract is awarded for up to a five-year period. Hungry Horse Dam is located on the south fork of...
Ten Years Ago As part of the 21st Century, coordinator Earl Antone organized a open gym and movie night for the residents of Nespelem. Antone targeted struggling youth in the area specifically looking for the area’s drop outs. Antone had worked for Nespelem School before taking his assignment. The Bureau of Reclamation released a report finding “ No significant impact” on the community and area with the new firing range that is being built for the increased security guards at Grand Coulee Dam,...
The city of Grand Coulee approved its latest law enforcement contract with the Bureau of Reclamation at a special meeting of the council last week, while another local police department didn’t get a similar extension of the program. The new contract with Grand Coulee -- for one year with extensions possible for two more years -- was essentially the same as the bureau’s just-lapsed contract with the city. Police Chief Mel Hunt said his department is one officer short, and the city’s civil service board has just advertised to fill the position. C...
Want to work for the government? The Bureau of Reclamation will put on two workshops to teach people how to apply for federal jobs. The first session will be held at the Nespelem Community Center from 10 a.m. to noon, Sept. 30. Sign up by calling Lorna Mills at 509-634-2717. The second session will take place at Lake Roosevelt High School, Oct. 2 from 5-8 p.m. Sign up with Kaitlin Delmer at 208-378-5049 or email jdelmer@usbrgov. Middle school athletes can play The school board approved a cooperative arrangement that allows Nespelem School’s m...
The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $4.2 million contract for janitorial and maintenance services at Grand Coulee Dam to Taylor Enterprises LLC, a Grand Coulee firm. The contract is for a five-year period. The work involves janitorial and maintenance services of several buildings and facilities at the Grand Coulee Project, the bid award press release stated. The release said it was for five years, assuming satisfactory performance each year. The work requires detailed attention to janitorial services to office buildings, tourist facilities,...
It was storm story time in the coulee area Sunday night as the region was hit by a severe wind, thunder and lightning storm. Power was out for some, trees were down, traffic in some areas was stalled or rerouted, and tree limbs and debris were everywhere. The wind tore shingles from roofs, with the most serious being the Coulee Dam Casino, where the wind curled the metal part of the roof like a sardine can, covering the casino’s rooftop sign. Traffic on SR 155 near Pole Park was stopped b...
Ten Years Ago A woodpecker stuck its beak where it didn’t belong yesterday and set off a fire that brought several fire departments to put down the blaze. A Grand Coulee Dam area party that’s for the birds could be coming this fall to celebrate the publication of a birding map that covers north central Washington. Electric City council told Sunrise Disposal that they would allow garbage carts on a volunteer basis, but wanted some changes to the contract. Clerk Lori Hilton said the contract should allow the town to charge the user their pre...
Grand Coulee Police 8/19 - Three youngsters flagged down a police officer in the Safeway parking lot to report that their bicycles had been taken. The three said they were in Safeway about 25 minutes and when they came out their bikes were gone. - Police got a call to check on a National Park Service employee who was out with a subject in Osborne Bay. Police contacted the NPS employee and everything was fine. - Officials at the USBR’s Visitor Center asked for assistance in regard to a car blocking the entrance to their parking lot. The officer...
Grand Coulee Police Department’s “bomb” dog Potter is being retired. Potter is handled by police officer Sean Cook, the second dog handled by him since he has been in the department. The city council Tuesday night passed a resolution declaring the dog surplus after nearly nine years service here. Potter and Cook have answered calls all over the United States, even once going to provide cover at a PGA golf tournament at Pebble Beach, Calif. Potter was present at the council meeting, and made the rounds greeting Mayor Chris Christopherson, City...
Audrey Aanenson of Auburn, WA passed away peaceably in Seattle on August 4th in the presence of her sons. Audrey was preceded in death by Henry Aanenson, her loving husband of more than 50 years. She is survived by her three sons, Jim Aanenson (San Jose, CA), Chuck Aanenson (Seattle), and Bill Aanenson (Seattle), and eight grandchildren. Audrey, born in Ada, Minn. and Henry Aanenson born in Nielsville Minn., married in 1938. They departed Minnesota settling in Pullman and Coulee Dam (1946)...
Ten Years Ago A tense situation came to a peaceful conclusion last Thursday as a Coulee Dam girl, who was feared missing returned safely. Approximately 40 minutes after Tonya Timentwa reported that her 4 year-old daughter Alahna Timentwa was missing, the girl returned to the 1101 Camas Street home. A Grand Coulee Dam Area woman cut off four of her fingers and was still able to drive herself to Coulee Community Hospital for assistance. CR Lumber owner Cindy Corpe said the accident occurred on July 26 while she was cutting stakes for the Mt....
Grand Coulee Police 8/13 - An Electric City woman reported that a young man was at her house asking her to sell him her pain pills. She said she didn’t have pain pills but thought the police should know about the incident. - Officers responded to an Electric City residence concerning a potentially suicidal person. An ambulance went to the location but the person refused attention. It was reported that the subject had drunk a fifth of whiskey and taken some Hydrocodone. - An Everett party ran a boat under the bridge into a restricted area and ca...
It’s not just kids that ask the craziest things. One person at the Visitor Center asked Ivan Snavely, who heads the tour program at the Grand Coulee Dam, if they built the dam from the top down, or from bottom up. Snavely shared this question with members of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce at The Siam Palace last Thursday as he explained what went on with the tourist program at the dam. One of the most successful programs at the Visitor Center is the geocache adventure, in which v...
Park commissioners Monday night barely passed a motion to allow the chamber of commerce to hold another beer garden event at North Dam Park next month. Commissioners expressed frustration with learning of the planned event in the newspaper before actually getting a request from the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. “I'd like to again apologize that we ‘jumped the gun’ on announcing that there would be a beer tent during Harvest Fest before clearling it with you,” chamber Manager...
Ten Years Ago A hot day and an electric fence combined for a close call and some excitement in Seaton’s Grove Friday. A small brush fire spread quickly and would have consumed a home had neighbors and firefighters not responded quickly. On a hill in the nursery at his Seaton’s Grove Greenhouse, John Francis and a couple of friends noticed the smoke below an embankment behind Dennis Payne’s mobile home across the street. People from all over the country went to the Colville Tribe’s greenhouse last Wednesday to learn about how it’s run. The...
The Bureau of Reclamation will conduct a dye test Aug. 8 at Grand Coulee Dam, the bureau announced in a press release Wednesday. The pool below the dam may be slightly discolored as engineers inject the upstream face of Grand Coulee Dam with biodegradable blue dye. The movement of the dye will help to determine the path of the seepage near the Right Powerplant, which has been present and slowly increasing for a number of years. Determining that path will aid engineers in the planning of future maintenance needs. The dye is safe for the...
A late night fire last Wednesday destroyed a home at 1131 Tilmus Street in Coulee Dam. The house was occupied by Gloria Simpson, and firefighters said that there were no injuries. The blaze was reported at 10:30 p.m., with fire units responding from Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, the Bureau of Reclamation and Elmer City. Grand Coulee Fire Chief Richard Paris said that one room in the house was left pretty much intact, but the rest of the residence was lost. “It appears that 90 percent of the structure is gone,” Paris said. Investigation of the bla...
The building that has housed the headquarters of the Colville Tribes for decades burned down early Monday, leaving tribal leaders to figure out how to spread out even more of their government operations across the agency campus. The aging A-frame building, itself the subject of recent controversy, inspired emotions of a different sort in the pre-dawn darkness as flames licked the sky and what had been the roof over much important tribal history collapsed. “That was the face of our nation,” mourn...
Grand Coulee Police 7/18 - An Electric City man told police that someone had taken his cell phone from his car while he was shopping in Safeway. He said officials at the store refused to let him look at security tapes. Later he told police that he had parked his vehicle on the roadway the night before, where Safeway security cameras couldn’t capture it. 7/21 - Police were called to Coulee Boulevard East in Electric City, where a man was throwing his live-in partner’s things outside. Police explained that he could not do this and he agreed to...