News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Until further notice, Keller Ferry users who travel across the Columbia River on State Route 21 should continue to find alternate routes, the state Department of Transportation says. The Keller Ferry (M/V Sanpoil) was removed from service Wednesday, Jan. 10, due to an electrical issue that caused transmission issues during sailing. While troubleshooting the vessel’s electrical systems that week, technicians discovered that an additional electrical breaker system had failed. Coupled with the recent arctic air this past weekend, the vessel e...
A police officer couldn't wait for the fire department to evacuate a woman inside a home that was burning in Coulee Dam last week. Officer Josh Watkins went back to the home he'd visited a few minutes before for an unrelated matter after the dispatch center in Moses Lake told him a bedroom in the house at 1107 River Drive was now on fire. It was 5:23 p.m. Watkins arrived and saw large flames coming out of the bedroom at the northeast corner of the house. Young people he'd just spoken with were...
A citizen initiative aimed at giving police wider discretion on when they engage in high-speed pursuits was forwarded to the Legislature on Jan. 11. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs notified the Legislature petitions for Initiative 2113 meet all legal requirements. Initiative 2113 backers want to amend a law on police pursuit that passed in 2021, which requires officers to have “probable cause” instead of “reasonable suspicion” to engage in pursuits. Critics say that measure hinders law enforcement officers who want to pursue possible lawbrea...
Grant PUD staff have recommended transitioning the utility’s current “Active-E” ethernet technology for to-the-home fiber-optic service with industry standard “passive optical network” or PON technology for a more cost effective and scalable service with greater longevity. IT Manager David Parkhurst told commissioners last week the PON technology would use a lot of the same infrastructure as the existing network, the PUD said in a release, but it would mean lower maintenance and operation costs, faster upload and download speeds, better cy...
Electric City swore in its two newest council members Tuesday and one who held onto his seat in the November election. Brian Buche took the oath of office again, having been re-elected over challenger Levi Johnson. The new members now joining Buche at council were Matt Gilbert and Blake Martin, who, like Johnson, are Grand Coulee police officers. The newcomers got a relatively light agenda to start, with 19 items on it ranging from approving prior meetings’ minutes to hearing the particulars of a sewer connection discussion and passing an o...
The National Weather Service in Spokane is warning of dangerously cold wind chills as low as -25 degrees being a possibility over the several days, from Thursday evening through Sunday morning in the Upper Columbia Basin. That area includes Grand Coulee, Coulee City, Wilbur, Creston, Odessa and Harrington. The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes. NWS says, "Confidence is increasing for very cold temperatures Friday into early next week... Full story
SR 21 is closed in both directions as Keller Ferry on the Columbia River at MP 106.65 north of Wilbur is out of service. The state department of Transportation advised to use an alternate route and expect a long delay. The ferry went down at 1:40 pm on January 10, according to WSDOT’s app.... Full story
Early morning sunlight paints the back of the top of Grand Coulee Dam and the mountains to the north Tuesday after an overnight snowfall brought winter back to the region following a warm December. Temperatures are expected to get much colder later this week. - Scott Hunter photo...
To celebrate their anniversary, the Eagles Auxiliary and the Eagles Aerie made a donation Saturday to a young student raising money for a trip to Boston this summer. On the 77th anniversary of the Eagles and the 75th anniversary of the auxiliary, Pharaoh Hudson received their check for $300. He and his family are trying to raise enough money to get him to Boston and cover expenses for the trip. Hudson received in the mail a notice that he had been nominated for an "award of excellence for...
Public safety should be a top priority for this year's legislative session, Gov. Jay Inslee and bipartisan state legislators said on the eve of the 2024 legislative session. "We need additional officers on the street," Inslee told reporters. "And to help local police forces find their additional officers, I'm proposing a $10 million grant program." Washington state ranks 50th in the nation for the number of law enforcement officers per capita, Inslee and legislators acknowledged. At the annual...
Two Lake Roosevelt Elementary School teachers were recognized for their efforts before the school board at its meeting Monday night. Third-grade teacher Jessica Tufts and fourth-grade teacher Alissa Seaver were each highlighted in the "Superintendent's Spotlight" for those who go "above and beyond" for the district. Superintendent Rod Broadnax said he stops by their classrooms every day. "Students are engaged, students are learning," he said. The two were responsible for organizing the recent...
Grand Coulee Police 1/1 - Two vehicles were towed away after a collision on Midway Avenue that caused extensive front-end damage to both vehicles. One of the vehicles had failed to yield to the other as it was turning onto Spokane Way. 1/2 - Police responded to a residence where a woman said she had been sprayed by pepper spray. There was no discoloration or odor from the spray. The woman said she didn’t know how she was sprayed but that her eyes were swollen. The situation was handed over to a medical crew. - Police responded to Weil Place w...
Seven brave souls take a refreshing dip in Lake Roosevelt just after noon on New Year's Day at Spring Canyon for the annual polar plunge. In its seventh year, the plunge seems to attract participants numbered in proportion to the degrees above zero on the thermometer. It was about 40. From left: Bob Carlson, Koy Griesse, Lazelda Foster, Gwen Hilson, Tammy Norris, Diana Parrish, Diane Bussard and Kori Goudey. - Scott Hunter photo...
An effort to put a school resource officer at Lake Roosevelt Schools and add another policeman to Grand Coulee’s department has been stopped, and grant funding for it turned down. Funded partially by a federal grant, the effort would have expanded Grand Coulee Police efforts to enhance community relations and allay potential future problems with an in-school presence. It also would have required coordination of two budgetary processes right at a time when both the city and the school district needed to finalize budgets by law. The city had u...
Nespelem School is hoping to find extra land on which to expand with a future sports area. The board voted last week to formally inquire with the Colville Tribes about land across the street currently held in trust status that the school board members recall being acquired by the tribes for that purpose. The board met in special session Dec. 26 specifically to authorize a letter to Colville Business Council Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson to address the topic. “It was years ago that the tribe had let us know that they had purchased the p...
Earlier this year, two local firemen, Gary Rosco and Leonard Sanders, retired from the Electric City Fire Department with a combined 61 years of service. Rosco retired as assistant chief with 27 years, and Sanders retired with 34 years of service. Both firemen received a custom Pulaski with years of service engraved in them. The retirement party was well attended with family, friends, current firemen and past retired firemen from the department. Chief Mark Payne said the department would like...
GasBuddy released its annual Fuel Price Outlook Dec. 28 with some good news for drivers: expect lower gasoline and diesel prices in 2024. The outlook highlights key trends in gasoline and diesel prices, forecasting that, after two years of above average gas prices, 2024 will bring relief at the pump for consumers as several factors contribute to less of a pinch at the pump. GasBuddy expects the yearly national average will drop from $3.51 per gallon last year to $3.38 in 2024. The national average was at $3.06 per gallon on Tuesday, said the...
Sagebrush burned during a wildfire above Coulee Dam several years ago combines with the dawn over Grand Coulee Dam Tuesday to illustrate that dark times always yield to a new day. Happy New Year. - Scott Hunter photo...
With the world below huddled under dense fog on a dreary day, powerlines at left climb from Coulee Dam into a clear sky at sunset Saturday, illuminating the clouds hugging the Columbia River toward Nespelem and Moses Mountain, at left. The shot was taken from Grand Coulee Hill Road south of Grand Coulee. - Scott Hunter photo...
Electric City will ask voters to approve a ballot measure in February that will remove four parcels of land from the city that had been added in an earlier annexation. The city had started to add the question to last month’s ballot but had missed the deadline to do so. The city council Dec. 12 unanimously passed Resolution 2023-14 to put the measure on the Feb. 13, 2024 ballot. The proposal would de-annex all of the state and federal lands surrounding Osborne Bay east of the causeway, which the city annexed several years ago, along with l...
Coulee Dam is planning street and sidewalk improvement projects in the new year that will smooth out streets, build or rebuild sidewalk ramps and plant trees to replace those lost on Ferry Avenue in last year’s sidewalk replacement project. The city has been awarded two grants, one for a chip seal street project for $546,485. An ADA ramp replacement project will cost $481,406. Both projects are totally funded by grants, funds that don’t have to be paid back, not loans. TD&H Engineering representative Marisa Stevens said they had actually mea...
Seven Canada lynx were recently trapped in Canada and relocated to the Colville Indian Reservation (CIR) in an effort to help recover the species in Washington state. A team of biologists, technicians, trappers, vets and other volunteers set up traps east of Kelowna, British Columbia in the beginning of October. Each trap had a game camera to record activity and allowed team members to monitor a lynx when one was captured. "We are in year three and one of the issues with trapping early in the...
If you like to watch the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. each New Year's morning, take note of the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade float this year, which will include the image of an Omak man being honored for his life and for saving two lives - after his death. Marty Palmanteer was a United States Air Force veteran and a proud member of the Colville Tribe. But he was also a beloved husband and father, known to most as a kind and comical man who always made people laugh, according to...
Grand Coulee Police 12/17 - A vehicle was pulled over at Four Corners for having a brake light out. Police noticed burnt tin foil on the floor of the back seat, an item associated with drug use. The driver said she came to the area from Twisp to drop off friends who needed a ride, and perhaps one of them had left the tin foil. She didn’t tell police their names. Police asked if she had large amounts of cash, firearms, or narcotics in the vehicle. She said she didn’t have cash and was unsure if there were any narcotics inside but that there sho...
Events for or featuring kids marked the week before Christmas, with a school pre-holiday musical event kicking off a mood of celebration Friday that packed the Lake Roosevelt gym with a "mind-blowing" number of adults, according to the emcee, Jess Tufts. That spirit of community support seemed to carry through the weekend, with Santa hearing children's Christmas wishes in at least three venues in town on Saturday - at the Moose Lodge's annual party, at Les Schwab Tire Center, and at a new...
