News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The long-anticipated Bureau of Reclamation fire station is expected to be completed in 2021. Construction began on the fire station on SR-155 across from Pole Park back in April of 2017, with a $13.6 million contract originally awarded to Innovative Construction and Design in 2016. The termination of that contract was confirmed by the bureau in March of 2019, and construction resumed in April of 2019 by Northcon Construction, which took over the contract. The bureau would not comment on why they changed construction companies. “There are many f...
Lake Roosevelt Schools will begin the process of re-opening in-person education next week, some eight months after the COVID-19 pandemic closed all schools in Washington state. Beginning Monday, students in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will begin going to physical school again, starting in phases organized by grade levels. The school board Monday night approved for students from kindergarten through second grade to begin school. Superintendent Paul Turner explained new guidelines from local health districts about a phased approach to... Full story
High school student athletes may get to shake off some rust and get back into the rhythm of their sports soon. On Monday, the Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved a plan presented by Athletic Director Tim Rasmussen, who will ask Okanogan County Public Health to approve it. The plan, which won’t include games against other schools, describes a practice schedule beginning with spring sports practices from Oct. 19 through Nov. 7, then fall sports practices from Nov. 9 through Nov. 28, and finally winter sports practices from Nov. 30 t...
Some good news for distance learners came this week related to devices and internet service for students. Superintendent Paul Turner told The Star Monday that an additional 275 Chromebooks should be in this week, enough for every student in the Grand Coulee Dam School District to have a device to use. Turner also said that the school qualified for funding from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to pay for internet for up to 100 families through June of 2021. That is about how many families need internet in the district, Turner...
A levy seeking to bring in roughly $600,000 over two years to the Grand Coulee Dam School District will be on the ballot for the Nov. 3 election. Superintendent Paul Turner said the new levy is important to the district because of an “uncertainty of funding” coming from the state this coming spring. The state is required to fund basic education, but the definition of basic education doesn’t include transportation, Turner explained, saying that is one area that could get hit. Turner said that the COVID-19 pandemic created budget problems for t...
Jeffrey Butcher, right, and artist Jacob Lucas in front of Lucas' rendition of otters and fish sculpted from a sycamore tree. Butcher found the two trees in the front yard of his house at 415 Columbia in Coulee Dam too overbearing for the lot, so he hired Lucas to carve them into art with his chainsaw technique. Lucas, who also created the sculpture in the city's Mason City Memorial Park, as well as numerous carvings in Bridgeport, started the project last Tuesday, finishing up Sunday. The...
The construction of additional campsites at Steamboat Rock has resumed after a nearly four-year delay. The construction of 30 full-hookup RV sites at what will be called Cove Loop at Steamboat Rock State Park is on track to be finished in February of 2021, with the sites likely to be ready for campers in late spring or early summer next year, according to Dennis Felton, area manager for state parks in the Coulee Corridor, including Steamboat Rock, Sun Lakes-Dry Falls, and Potholes. A...
So called flushable wipes may flush down the toilet, but they don’t decompose. At the Regional Board of Mayors meeting on Monday, Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout said that the city’s public works director Jarred Armstrong has noted a problem with flushable wipes causing problems with the septic systems due to them not decomposing. Armstrong wasn’t at the meeting to elaborate. “Toilet paper is designed to disintegrate in our pipes and sewage systems, but wipes are not,” an article on the website of the non-profit company Green America r...
The Regional Board of Mayors on Monday discussed the possibility of dump rates going up significantly. The landfill in Ephrata, to where the garbage from the Delano Regional Transfer Station currently ships, hasn’t raised its rates in 12 years. Those rates could go from $28.31 per ton to $46.76 per ton, or $49.93 after tax, Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout said. That would result in about $72,000 more in annual fees, which, unless other ways to absorb the additional costs are found, may need to be covered by raising rates at Delano to s...
The Okanogan County Auditor’s office will offer a live video feed for observing the ballot inspection boards for the November general election. The link will be available on the elections tab of the auditor’s page on the county’s website at https://www.okanogancounty.org/auditor/elections/elections.html starting Wednesday, Oct. 21. Ballots will be mailed by Oct. 16. Okanogan County voters who have not received your ballot by Oct. 23 should contact the county auditor’s office at (509) 422-7240....
OLYMPIA – Registered voters in Washington state will soon receive their ballots for the General Election, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Ballots must be sent to registered voters no later than Friday, Oct. 16. Voters have until 8 p.m. Nov. 3 to place their marked ballots in one of over 500 drop boxes statewide. Drop-box locations can be found at VoteWA.gov, Washington’s online voter portal. People who choose to return their ballots by U.S. mail can use the provided postage-paid envelope. The U.S. Postal Service recommends that ballots should be returned by... Full story
Grand Coulee Police 10/4 - A man told police that while turning into the Safeway parking lot, a silver colored truck leaving the lot in the wrong exit lane struck his vehicle. The two men talked about money compensation for the damage rather than using insurance, and the driver of the truck didn’t agree to the amount the man wanted and left without providing any info. Safeway said they would review security footage but that the collision seemed to occur out of view of their cameras. 10/6 - Police were unable to locate a suspicious person r...
OLYMPIA – Oct. 13, 2020 – Washington State Parks today announced its 2020-21 winter schedule, with more than 100 parks remaining open for camping or day-use activities. The winter schedule is available online. More than 100 parks will remain open during the winter, while about 22 parks are closed until dates in March, April or May. State parks offer ample opportunities for those who enjoy camping in the winter months. Campgrounds that remain open are less crowded, and more campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. In add...
So far, 180 businesses in Grant County have received grants amounting up to $10,000 for economic relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grant County’s Economic Development Council doled out the awards in three phases. Phase one awards totaled $438,000; phase two awards totaled $910,000, and phase three awards totaled $339,000 for a total of $1,687,000. The money comes from $2.5 million set aside from the county’s $5 million total they received in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Economic Security (CARES) Act funds the county received. Local bus...
Despite a large amount of opposition from the public, the swim dock at Spring Canyon will be removed under a new management plan at the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. The National Park Service released a Finding of No Significant Impact for the Environmental Assessment of the Visitor Use Site Management Plan for the park, which includes Spring Canyon among eight other sites. An Oct. 2 statement from the NPS says that "as funding is available," the NPS will implement proposed actions...
Coulee Dam is offering grants to local businesses funded with money from the CARES Act, and applications must be turned in by Oct. 30. The application, first distributed Monday, says businesses are eligible if they: • are a small businesses located in and doing business in Coulee Dam, • have 20 or fewer full-time employees, • had been in business for a minimum of one year as of March 1, 2020 • have a valid UBI number, and • have a Coulee Dam Business License. The business must have been directly impacted by Governor Inslee’s Stay-Home,...
Voting by mail in Washington is safe and secure, Kim Wyman, the secretary of state and the state's top election official has said repeatedly over the last several months. But President Trump's insistence that it's not, as well as changes happening in the U.S. Postal Service lengthening delivery times have concerned the public. That's had Wyman, a Republican seeking her third term in office, also touting the state's system of ballot drop-off boxes. "Our experience in Washington," she wrote in... Full story
Citizens can register to vote by mail or online up until Oct. 26, or in person up until election night on Nov. 3. A Sept 17 news release from the office of Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman explains how to register to vote. Eligible citizens can register to vote online at VoteWA.gov, using either a Washington state driver’s license or I.D. VoteWA.gov is Washington’s online voter portal that also offers ballot drop box and election office locations, a personalized voter guide, and more. People also have the option of downloading and pri...
Grand Coulee Police 9/29 - A woman reported her iPhone stolen from her vehicle parked at Safeway. - A 93-year-old woman was accidentally locked out of her Second Street home. - Someone “egged” a Pontiac Grand Prix on Sunset Drive. 9/30 - Police responded to a report of squatters at a King Street trailer. They found no one at the residence, but plywood covering the back entrance had been removed. - Police were unable to locate a woman said to have been in an abandoned residence on Grand Avenue and had gone “in the face” of a city employe...
COVID-19 incidents are down slightly in Grant and Douglas counties while incidents are up in Okanogan and Lincoln counties, as well as in Washington State as a whole. Here are the latest data for COVID-19 in Grant, Okanogan, Lincoln, and Douglas (GOLD) counties. As of Oct. 6: Okanogan County had 1,082 total cases, including 13 deaths.There have been 11 cases in Coulee Dam, five in Elmer City, and 25 in Nespelem. The county has had 17 new cases in the past 14 days, making for an incidence rate of 39.8,, up from 28.1 since Sept. 29. Grant County... Full story
A poker run begins on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 11 a.m. at the Jess Ford Detail Shop in Grand Coulee. "We all need some order from all this chaos," a website for the event states. "Join us for a day of fun." The poker run welcomes all types of vehicles to participate in a five-stop 80-mile drive spanning from Coulee Dam to Crown Point to Coulee City to Wilbur and back to Grand Coulee, and includes a barbecue fundraiser at Coulee Plaza (on the corner of Main Street and Spokane Way) at 3 p.m. when the winner, the one with the best poker hand of cards... Full story
TUMWATER — A handful of businesses are facing fines for violations related to lack of mask use by customers and staff. Yet thousands of others that were the subject of complaints are following the governor’s order after numerous contacts and education about requirements from L&I, the agency says. Since mid-July, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) has looked into mask complaints concerning more than 4,200 retailers, restaurants and other businesses in the state. In the vast majority of cases, the businesses that were violating the rul... Full story
School district directors did not rush into a decision Monday to reopen Lake Roosevelt Schools sooner than the start of the second quarter, but students who need to will be able to start using the computer labs this week. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors held a Zoom meeting Sept. 28 that included a discussion on reopening school to a hybrid model of distance learning and classroom learning, in which some students would be in the school on Mondays and Tuesdays and others...
In Okanogan County, voters will choose a candidate in the upcoming election for Commissioner District #2 between incumbent Andy Hover, a Republican from Winthrop, and Katie Haven, a Democrat from Twisp. Hover "I have been an Okanogan County Commissioner for almost four years now," Hover told The Star in an email. "In that time I feel proud about the state of financial affairs that I have helped bring to Okanogan County. I feel proud that I can see county government working more efficiently for t...
Coulee Dam will offer grants to city businesses to help with expenses due to the COVID-19 emergency. The town might have as much as $14,000 in its own expenses to cover with money allocated the city through the “CARES Act” passed by Congress this year for relief during the pandemic. But that sum would leave plenty left over to help local businesses. The city’s allocation of funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act recently increased to $49,500 from an earlier $33,000. It can be used for many needs within the town gover... Full story