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 Biden-Harris administration last week announced a historic agreement to support tribally led efforts to restore salmon populations in the Upper Columbia River Basin. The agreement between the United States, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians will fund efforts to test the feasibility of, and ultimately to reintroduce salmon in blocked habitats in the Upper Basin. The pact includes $200 million over 20 years from the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal p...
Federal river managers warned last week that Lake Roosevelt’s future operations could change as a treaty between the United States and Canada goes out of date a year from now. Meetings are planned, starting today, to explain it all to the public online. Absent modernization, the treaty would no longer require Canada and the United States to coordinate for flood risk management as they have for the first 60 years of the treaty. The United States’ ability to “call upon” Canadian storage when needed does not expire and continues so long as Cana...
A month into the new school year, the school district in Grand Coulee Dam is teaching 23 fewer students than a year ago, the superintendent reported Monday night, but the Nespelem district has gained more than expected in its new, limited high school program. Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Rod Broadnax told the school board 10 specific students had not yet shown up but may yet. He did not say which grades those students would be in. Broadnax reminded the board that enrollment numbers affect the budget. In Nespelem Tuesday night...
Susie Marchand receives Superintendent Rod Broadnax's "spotlight award" Monday night to recognize the Grand Coulee Dam School District business manager's work on behalf of all students. Human Resources Director Amy Sayler said Marchand brings a sunshine attitude to work even though her job watching the district's finances can mean she has to deliver unwelcome news. She received a $100 gift card from Broadnax, personally, plus a $30 certificate donated from The Teepee. - Scott Hunter...
A mechanic repairing his company’s semi-trailer died Sept. 11 at Coulee Medical Center as he was repairing its suspension, the company said in a press release. Mike Coppess, of Bellevue, Washington, was 68, married and the father of two, said Rich Braedt, director of Clinical Operations for Heritage Imaging. Emergency personnel responded to the scene at the hospital, where Coppess was pronounced dead. The trailer he was working on contained magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment, a service the company has been supplying at Coulee Medical C...
The race that lets people run across the top of Grand Coulee Dam drew hundreds on Saturday morning for 5K, 10K or half marathon run under blue skies. Organizer Kelly Buche said about 290 had pre-registered for the race, but far more than usual took advantage of late registration Friday night and early Saturday. She thought the total might come to about 350 runners registered. With the finish line at Banks Lake Park, the event also offered a beer garden with live music, arts and crafts booths in...
Grant County Health District says COVID has been ticking up for weeks, and annual immunizations will likely be necessary, just like the flu. Luckily, new vaccines are available, GCHD pointed out, and they’re aimed at newer strains of variants. The public health agency said Tuesday that the county is seeing a rise cases and hospitalizations. Coulee Medical Center officials confirmed that facility is seeing more cases too, and local schools report multiple cases have occurred predictably, causing scheduling problems for teachers and sports t...
If you have any relatives or friends that were in the Nespelem Women’s Auxiliary Unit 114 from 1936 to present, please submit their names to Vincent McDonald, CCT Veterans Program, 509-634-2755, or email vincentmcdonaldvet@colvilletribes.com. We are working on a monument to honor these women....
Coulee Dam is reviewing a proposed change in the rules that govern how property owners can rent their property for short periods of time. The change is sought by those who want to meet what they say is a consistent need in the local market already served by online companies like Airbnb that serve both property owners and renters for stays under 30 days. The city council spoke with Mike Manning of SCJ Alliance, a planning consultant for the city at their Sept. 13 meeting. Manning has been drafting changes to the city’s Comprehensive Plan to spel...
The Paschal Sherman Indian School (PSIS) has been named a “School of Distinction” by Cognia, a global nonprofit school improvement organization. Out of more than 1,100 eligible institutions reviewed by Cognia, only 25 schools and eight systems were honored, the Colville Tribes said in a press release Tuesday. The honor is bestowed upon institutions that demonstrate evidence of a growth in learning by students, a healthy culture for learning, engaging and high-quality instructional environments, and effective leadership for learning. PSIS ser...
Hundreds turned out for the Fish Fest at Spring Canyon last Saturday for what Emilee Franklin hopes will become an annual event. Franklin, and education specialist at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, said the event drew over 500 people into the park. Five of them actually caught fish, but 175 caught free fishing poles at the event that was put on to help kids learn to fish. "I think for the first year of the park ever doing anything like this in the community, it was a pretty big...
Commissioners of Grant County Port District 7 have been in negotiations with the Colville Tribes for a possible sale of Banks Lake Golf Course. Commissioners met in a special meeting Sept. 6 to consider the sale and its details in a closed session, then reconvened to vote on giving President Jim Keene authority to continue to negotiate. The purpose of the special meeting stated on the agenda was to discuss a “Purchase and Sales agreement — Real Property.” The only action to be taken: “Motion to accept, reject, or ‘accept-with-changes’ the CCT P...
The city of Coulee Dam has agreed to pay over $70,000 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failure to file paperwork on time regarding its new wastewater treatment plant. A “Consent Agreement” and “Final Order” detail the town’s alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and its operating permit. They include not submitting a notice to both EPA and the Colville Tribes on time that the new plant was up and running or that the old plant had been taken offline. EPA said the city was years late in giving written notice that it had develop...
It's not just a dam run anymore. Run the Dam has morphed into more than a 5K, 10K, or half-marathon race on Saturday, Sept. 16. Now a festival, RTD will offer vendors and food from 4-10 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday. It also features a Kids Korner with at least 15 activities. A beer garden will host six music acts Friday (1 - 11 p.m.) and Saturday (10 a.m. – 11 p.m.) And a motorcycle poker run will culminate at the beer garden in North Dam Park after riders make five stops t... Full story
Merle Roberts, of Grand Coulee, earned a blue ribbon in photography last week at the state fair in Puyallup. Roberts named his photo, in dramatic dark gray shades of a local tree growing right out of rock, "Its A Tough Life." It took Best of Scenic for black and white photography. He entered it in the International Photography Exhibit at the fair, which he said meant he would go up against entries from New York and California, or even Hong Kong. "Yeah, you have to butt heads with the biggest...
When it burned down on Oct. 12, 2021, Almira's school was so completely destroyed that only about 33 bricks of the old red-brick school could be salvaged. Those are now encased in concrete outside the brand-new school the community opened Aug. 31 for an open house and celebration by the community. They filled the new multi-purpose room to overflowing, necessitating moving the staff from the side of the new foldout bleachers to up onto the new stage, where the music and drama teachers plan to...
From left, Nespelem School District Superintendent Effie Dean, Nespelem Directors Nancy Armstrong-Montes and Jarae Cate, Grand Coulee Dam Director Shannon Nicholson, GCD Superintendent Rod Broadnax, GCD Directors Rich Black and Alex Tufts, Nespelem Directors Anna Vargas and Jolene Marchand, and GCD Director Ken Stanger, pause for a photo during their joint meeting of the two school boards of directors August 30 at Siam Palace. Once a promised practice, the two board haven't met together since...
Coulee Dam is considering rezoning two properties for a use for which most people think they’re already zoned. Two buildings across Lincoln Avenue from city hall, built as dormitories in the 1930s, have been used as residences, a bed-and-breakfast, an assisted living facility, and as a place to stay for visiting medical professionals working at Coulee Medical Center. The current proposal would alter the city’s comprehensive plan to reflect such uses. A public hearing on the proposal will be scheduled, perhaps as soon as Sept. 27 if pro...
Marlene Oddie of Grand Coulee, and former local resident Nancy Cargo, now from Port Angeles, Washington, are semi-finalists at one of the biggest juried quilt shows in the country. The two have been chosen to display the quilt, 24 Karat Rondure, along with 210 others in the 2023 AQS QuiltWeek in Des Moines, Iowa to be held Sept. 27-30. Regardless of how their quilt places in the final judging, all semi-finalist quilts will be displayed at the show, which is expected to draw more than 10,000...
If you've ever wanted to fish but don't really know how, now's your chance to fix that. The Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is offering "Fish Fest" this Saturday at Spring Canyon, and they'll be giving away free fishing poles to the first 300 kids 14 and under. If you're ready to get "SCHOOL-ed in how to fish," as the National Park Service folks teased on Facebook, show up early during the 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. event to "to learn how to cast, reel, and tie knots." At the free family friendly f...
Students racked up a policy victory at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School Monday when the school district board of directors voted to implement most of their recommended changes to the dress code, one evening before school began. A group of Associated Student Body officers and representatives had presented their ideas to the board Aug. 14 using a sneaky tactic: they looked and acted exactly like typical high school students, then admitted that only one of the eight of them was meeting the current...
Grand Coulee’s city council voted just days before they had no operator to sign a one-year contract for operation of its sewer plant via an independent contractor, on an emergency basis. At the time on Aug. 23, the current employee had given notice earlier this month to retire on Aug. 25 after months of being the lone operator. The contractor, SJ Environmental, had already been in talks with both Grand Coulee and Electric City about running the plant and doing other related work. The plant processes 184,000 gallons of waste a day in the s...
The plan is to make it across the country in 44 stops, while along the way garnering even more pledges of support for veterans' causes, and, around here, dodging wildfires. A group of bicyclists stayed overnight in Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee Saturday, leaving early Sunday morning on day five of their trek that started at the naval airbase on Whidbey Island. Their "Navy '83 Ride Across America" will get them to their Naval Academy class of 1983 reunion in Annapolis, Maryland in October. Allan...
Firefighters from at least 10 different agencies fought a "stubborn" fire on a windy Friday weather forecasters had predicted could be a bad one. It was. The fire dubbed the Plum Point Fire erupted the same afternoon fires near Coulee City, Quincy, Medical Lake, and Elk started amid a Red Flag warning by the National Weather Service that fires that starting in the windy, dry conditions could spread rapidly. Initially estimated at 60-80 acres about 1:15, the Plum Point Fire was finally kept down...
A longtime community leader who revived the ailing Colorama Rodeo over a decade ago and focused on strengthening its sponsoring Ridge Riders Saddle Club, has died. George Kohout "was the epitome of Ridge Riders and Colorama Pro Rodeo, a community leader, the truest of cowboys from his hat to the bottom of his boots, and one of the greatest men the rodeo world will know from Grand Coulee" an announcement reads on the Ridge Riders' Colorama Pro Rodeo Facebook. "Our community and the area rodeo...