News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Stanley Henry Spieler lived from February 15, 1935, to April 28, 2013. The son of Henry and Irene Spieler, Stanley was born in Boise, Idaho, and peacefully passed away at his home in Coulee Dam, Washington. Joining the United States Marine Corps when he was 17 years old, Stanley married Barbara J Montrose in 1960, their union being blessed with three sons: Paul, Michael and Daniel. Although Barbara and Stanley later divorced, they remained lifelong friends. Stanley worked for the Bureau of... Full story
A fire in a service bay at Jack’s Four Corners Union 76 that could have been a disaster was quickly extinguished by a combination of firefighters mid-morning Monday. A vehicle in the service bay at the station caught on fire when gas ignited and attracted a variety of fire engines and law enforcement units. The 2001 GMC extended cab was described as probably a total loss with some material at the repair shop damaged. There was no damage to the rest of the structure. Douglas County Fire D... Full story
Walk-in freezer bid accepted Coulee Dam council voted to accept a bid of $8,650.60 from Cascade Mechanical of Omak to replace the walk-in freezer at the Melody Restaurant. The Community Building The Melody is located in is owned by the town. The space is being refitted so it can be reopened. Two bids were received, just $58 apart. Tapping hotel/ motel funds The Coulee Dam council passed a $21,000 budget amendment last Wednesday night to move money from their hotel/motel fund to pay for the following: Ridge Riders, $5,000; Coulee Corridor,... Full story
Grand Coulee is going to make an effort to get a daycare center in its Central Business District zone. The public interest in a daycare center has attracted the attention of city officials, and the ways and means of making a zoning change was discussed last Tuesday night with Vivian Ramsey of SCJ Alliance, the city’s planning group. The city’s planning council, made up of council members and city staff will have to be reconvened and a recommendation will have to be made to council. When this is done the recommendation goes before the State Env... Full story
If Mark Jenson, the Bureau of Reclamation power manager sees it as a hardship living right here presently, he should have tried it before we got our Variety Store. A lot of us enjoy life in Coulee Dam because each morning, Iris, our town’s mail carrier, walks up to my house; she says with a smile, “Good morning Frank.” It’s that simple. Frank Ward Coulee Dam... Full story
EPHRATA, Wash. - The Bureau of Reclamation will temporarily reduce water deliveries today (Tuesday, April 30) to irrigation districts in the Columbia Basin Project while engineers assess damage to the Main Canal just below Pinto Dam located in eastern Grant County, Wash Water flows in the canal must be reduced so work crews can get to the collapsed concrete panel and assess the damage. Flows were at 7,000 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs) when the crack was reported by a canal ditch rider on Monday. “We’re reducing flows in the Main Canal, and exp... Full story
The power outage in Coulee Dam will likely last until 5 or 6 p.m. tonight, one source told The Star. Lynne Brougher, with the Bureau of Reclamation, said USBR personnel are helping Coulee Dam crew and their contractor restore the service after a Coulee Dam's contractor, Christiansen Electric, cut a main power line during excavation. It's not clear whether the relatively new, buried line had been properly marked. Businesses in Coulee Dam remain closed, although service to Coulee Dam Credit Union'... Full story
The Bureau of Reclamation is having trouble attracting and retaining new skilled employees, Power Manager Mark Jenson told a number of local leaders Monday afternoon. Jenson said that often a combination of local factors creates a problem for workers recruited or transferring to work here on the Grand Coulee Dam project. Jenson stated that project employment, now 466 workers, will move to 582 by September of 2014. That’s a payroll jump from the present $32.6 million to $42 million in 2015. That expected boost of 116 employees is “not a tem... Full story
The largest producer of hotel/motel taxes in the area proposed changes to the way the funds are used at a meeting of some 20 community people Monday. Pat Welton, managing partner of Sunbanks Lake Resort, stated that the three local municipalities that collect the tax are currently “hoarding” the money and releasing it bit by bit. The fourth local community, Elmer City, doesn’t have any campgrounds or motels within its borders. Sunbanks, located inside Electric City’s boundaries, accounts for about $60,000 a year of the funds collected from th... Full story
The Bureau of Reclamation reported this week that it had received an exception to the federal government hiring freeze so it could fully staff its Grand Coulee Dam tours. The Bureau had earlier stated that it might have to trim the number of days and hours that it provided tours due to the hiring freeze. Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said the job offerings will be posted this week and it was her intention to have the tours fully operable by Memorial Day weekend. After the hiring process is complete, tour guides will have to be trained,... Full story
The Colville Tribes pitched the Elmer City council last Thursday to provide the town’s official police force. Appearing at the town council were Public Safety Director Bill Elliot and Tribal Police Chief Corey Orr. Elliot told the council that the Tribal Police Department would like to put in for a state-funded police grant, but to be successful it must represent a town or city. He said that the Tribal Police would not charge the town anything to be its law enforcement department, but would use the grant to supply reserve officers to cover Elme... Full story
Two local residents, Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley, who appeared a few weeks ago before Grand Coulee’s city council to look into starting a daycare service on Main Street, met the same results again last Tuesday night. They were informed that it took the city two years to get its zoning ordinance in place, and the city wasn’t interested in changing it. The zoning code doesn’t allow a daycare center in the “central commercial” zone. Mayor Chris Christopherson encouraged the two to seek a different location, one zoned for their interests... Full story
The Colville Tribes will hold their fourth annual Earth Day celebration, Monday, April 22, at the powwow grounds near Nespelem. Joaquine Bustamante, of the tribal recycling program, told the local Rotary Club he’s hoping for some 1,600 participants this year. They had 1,200 last year. Activity will begin at 10 a.m. and run until 1:30 p.m., officials stated. Organizers stated that there will be over 60 informational booths, as well as drumming and dancing. Visitors can stay and enjoy a free hotdog and potato salad lunch. A number of door p... Full story
Martha (Woelk) Glick Stefanik was born on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 1919, to Abraham A. and Anna (Goertz) Woelk on a farm one mile north of Goessel, Kansas, and passed away from natural causes on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, at the age of 93. The fourth of eight children and the first to live to be 90, Martha graduated from Rural Gordon School and went on to attend high school in Goessel. When the family moved to Peabody, Kan., the summer after her sophomore year, Martha entered the work world.... Full story
Political stupidity in Washington, D.C. is about to come down hard on our local area. Some economists argue that the sky will fall because of the “sequester,” a budget cut imposed by Congress and signed by the President in 2011 in a move designed to make such blind, across-the-board cuts so painful that they would never be politically feasible, forcing opposing parties in the nation’s fiscal policy debates to compromise. That was a huge political miscalculation based on the perception that things are as they have ever been. They’re not. Te... Full story
Tours, visitor center hours and laser light show offerings might be curtailed because of budget cuts, officials confirmed this week, but they’re still hoping for a reprieve from the national budget cutback known as “sequestration.” Although tours at Grand Coulee Dam resumed Monday after a normal winter stoppage, a hiring freeze across the Department of Interior has made it impossible to hire the extra help needed to keep operations open all week through the normal tourism season, explained Lynne Brougher, public affairs officer with the Burea... Full story
There is good news and bad news for those who visit the area to see the laser light show. The new show won’t be ready until mid-July. However, the all-new laser equipment will be able to show the old laser show. Until recently that ability was an unanswered question. It all depends on the “sequester” and how that affects staffing the various visitor functions at the Bureau of Reclamation. Nicole Poisson, project manager for LumaLaser of Eugene, Ore., the firm that is developing the new show, said visitors are going to see something outst... Full story
Two women proposing a licensed day care center on Grand Coulee’s Main Street found out why it is said “You can’t beat city hall,” but they’re not stopping their effort to start a daycare. Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley, who told council members that they wanted to start a “much needed” licensed day care center in the building at 227 Main Street, currently occupied by Button It graphic design, ran into a zoning problem and could only get a promise that the city would look into it. Under city zoning, a daycare center is not among allowed uses f... Full story
Ten Years Ago Paying to protect Grand Coulee Dam does not come cheap to the Bureau of Reclamation, which pays the Washington State Patrol and area police departments a high price for their services. Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam have negotiated contracts with the Bureau to help provide 24-hour police service to the dam at least through September, with possible extension through 2005. Anyone in the Grand Coulee Dam area concerned about a new firing range above the town of Coulee Dam will get a chance to talk to Bureau of Reclamation officials... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 3/11 - Police entered a home on Cardinal Road NE because of a report of domestic violence. A couple who had given another couple permission to stay there wanted them to leave. The officer asked the four to work it out, but getting the four to sit down and talk about it didn’t produce the desired result. Police advised dispatch of the attempt. - A FedEx driver told police that a car that had its front wheels off was blocking the road at Spring Canyon and Plum Point. Police advised Lincoln County officials of the problem. - P... Full story
A family shocked by the loss of their home to fire Thursday night is also amazed at the instant support pouring in from the community. Fifteen years ago, Warner Whybark built their home on a hillside overlooking Banks Lake in the North Shores development. Last week, they escaped after a neighbor called to tell them to get out of the house. In under 45 minutes, everything was gone. Shortly after 10 p.m., local fire departments got the call, but there was little they could do by the time they arrived. Both the house and the garage were “fully i... Full story
An explosion at Grand Coulee Dam Saturday morning damaged the right powerhouse when a line and equipment connecting a generator and transformer exploded. No one was injured. A “buss,” essentially a pipe and related equipment housing a large electrical line, exploded, reportedly causing considerable damage even to the building’s concrete. Acrid smoke was so thick that firefighters responding could not initially enter the building, and the Bureau of Reclamation will not likely allow perso... Full story
A “stakeholder” group met Tuesday to try to put the finishing touches on the script for the all- new laser light show. The schedule for the inaugural show now has slipped to mid-summer, Bureau of Reclamation Public Affairs Officer Lynne Brougher said Monday. She stated that most of the programming for the laser portion of the show can’t be done until the final script is settled. Originally it had been hoped that the showing of the new laser show could start during the Memorial Day holiday at the end of May. And area promoters had hoped that... Full story
A suggestion to finance a rebuild of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant over a period longer than it will last should raise concerns. It’s certainly something that could be done for the sake of lowering rates, but would you finance a new car over, say, 10 years, even if the car salesman told you it would last you only five? Perhaps all the moving parts of the plant will be new after the rebuild, but even concrete ages. And the concrete in the old sewer plant would be 90 years old by the time Coulee Dam citizens got done paying the 40-... Full story
Ten Years Ago An Electric City man involved in the town’s adoption of a nuisance ordinance last year believes the town, rather than neighbors, should instigate its enforcement. “I hate that neighbor has to turn in neighbor,” Jerry Sands said. “It shouldn’t be a neighbor ratting on a neighbor. The Grand Coulee Dam Little Guy Wrestlers “Coulee Crushers” began their season with a trip to Royal City on March 1. On March 8 they traveled to Chewelah for matches, with many receiving recognition for their efforts. Those who took first place, receiv... Full story