News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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With the face of Grand Coulee Dam as a backdrop Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's top official wrapped up a tour of facilities in celebration of the agency's 120-year history and the 81 years since the first filling of Lake Roosevelt. Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton listed Reclamation stats the crowd could be proud of, perhaps part of the purpose of the visit and tour. It's not always popular being the "nation's largest wholesale water supplier" in an era when folks in the...
An American flag was dedicated to William (Bill) Myers during the Isle of Flags Memorial Day ceremony. His last name was misspelled in a June 1 article. The Star regrets the erro...
Readers of The Star may notice some changes next month, including weekly full color on some pages and a narrower width of the newspaper, but they come at great cost to Grant County. The venerable Grant County Journal, the Ephrata newspaper where The Star and The Star Buyers Guide have been printed for decades, will cease publication at the end of June after 116 years of serving that community and promoting community journalism in eastern Washington by backing independent publishers. The change means we will be printing at the Cheney Free Press...
The Grant County Port District #7 will hold a Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 3:45pm by telephone conference call. The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss and accept an additional FAA AIP Grant Offer and an additional FAA BIL Grant Offer, both providing additional funding for the new Runway PAPI & REIL's project. No other business will be discussed or considered. The call-in number for the meeting is (978)990-5000 with an access code of 373595#. (Don't forget the #.)...
The Bureau of Reclamation is planning to host an event next Tuesday at Grand Coulee Dam to celebrate the Bureau's 120 years of service in the Pacific Northwest that will include the national head of the agency. Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton will be the keynote speaker at the event. Grand Coulee Dam is the main feature of the Columbia Basin Project and Reclamation's largest multipurpose project. The event will be held in the park below the Visitor Center at the dam, Tuesday,...
Hot, simmering, smoldering is how patrons of the "First Friday" chamber of commerce event were describing the refractive heat, bouncing off the concrete sidewalk last week. But thankfully, firefighters were present with ultimate water power, and the chamber placed cooling locations in the nearby park Upon arrival, it was dominated by dedicated business, with vendors selling goods ranging from popcorn, cheeky shirts, eccentric jewelry, and scrumptious (i.e., "nom nom") food from the Siam Palace....
Grand Coulee Police said Tuesday that their department email account had been “hacked,” after they were notified about 9:45 a.m. of a potential spam email that had been sent from Chief John Tufts account, containing an unknown attachment. The list of recipients was not known, but multiple organizations began notifying the MACC (Multiple Agency Communications Center) dispatchers that they had received the suspicious email, which contained an altered disclaimer and department name that indicated it was of a foreign origin. “Chief Tufts and Offic...
The Nespelem School board Monday OK'd an agreement with the Grand Coulee Dam School District to split the federal Impact Aid money received in the 2023-24 school year for Nespelem students, with 75% going to the GCD district, and 25% going to Nespelem, both for K-8 students and for older students who would normally transfer to Grand Coulee Dam for high school. The two districts have been in negotiations on a new "tuition agreement" the federal Dept. of Education said was needed to make the...
Family and friends applaud high school students Tuesday night at Lake Roosevelt Schools as one of several groups completing the AVID course of study this year. With 50 students in all participating, each group from seventh grade up received certificates of excellence in the program that readies them for their next phases of education by providing skills in organizing, note taking, planning, and more in the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) class. From left, AVID district director...
A hummingbird rests in her nest atop the end of a sycamore twig in Coulee Dam. It may be the same bird that abandoned its nest and egg on the same tree, on the same small branch, a year ago during last summer's high heat. - Scott Hunter photo...
More than 600 American flags fluttered in a gentle breeze Saturday as a couple hundred or more locals and relatives gathered at Spring Canyon Cemetery Memorial Day for the annual Isle of Flags service to remember the fallen veterans and dedicate flags to them. "I stand in awe of the decorations here today," said Grant County Commissioner Danny Stone, in his keynote address. "These flags that line these roads, these pathways around these graves ... It's a fantastic memorial. And it's the first...
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington said last week that office has gotten funding to hire for seven new full-time assistant U.S. attorneys and two support staff “dedicated to combating terrorism, fraud, drug trafficking, and violent crime, including in Indian Country.” U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said in a release that the positions would be spread through the district’s three offices in Spokane, Yakima and Richland. The Department of Justice allocated the funding through last year’s federal budget. “We’re especially...
People listen at a memorial celebration of life for Bubba Egbert May 26 at the Ridge Riders Rodeo Arena. Egbert, a highly respected rancher and Lake Roosevelt Raider football head coach, died in an accident on his ranch May 5. A crowd of about 500 people attended, including those pictured here and many more in the grandstands and around the facility. On page 3, Justus Caudell, a teacher Egbert recruited as an assistant coach, gives his perspective on Bubba Egbert and his approach to life: do...
The city of Coulee Dam will get nearly $393,000 for upgrading crosswalks and adding “speed feedback” signs, flashing beacons, and more to improve the safety on routes to school. The Safe Routes to School grant is funded through the Washington State Dept. of Transportation budget, signed earlier this month by Gov. Jay Inslee. A project schedule indicates engineering will begin in October this year, with an estimated contract award date in May 2024. The project includes installing a new crosswalk, pedestrian scale crossing illumination, rec...
A kayaker paddles near the boat launch at Steamboat Rock State Park Saturday toward a new log boom installed this spring to keep boats and beach users away from the eroding bank. The park now has a fence going up the hill and warnings to stay out of the area. The boom was installed at a cost of $734,000 as part of a bank stabilization project, which will be completed as funds are allocated. The Bureau of Reclamation is funding the work. It received $380,000 to plan, survey, and complete...
A line of employees wrote letters to the school board stating serious concerns about hiring Rod Broadnax as the Grand Coulee Dam School District’s new superintendent, several of which were read at Monday night’s meeting. They’re hiring him anyway. The letters noted anonymous emails that circulated in the community, critical of Broadnax’s record, claims of professional achievement throughout his career and controversy at one community where he worked. Carrie Derr, a longtime teacher who now oversees federal and state grant programs for the dis...
Nespelem School District, which has for decades sent its students to “the dam” after eighth grade to attend high school, is looking at ways to expand its service to the community by moving toward a high school offering. The school board formally approved the move Monday night, directing Superintendent Effie Dean to continue working to set up an “emergent high school,” offering just ninth grade in the coming school year, with a “career technical education” component under discussion with the Colville Tribes. “Everybody is super excited about...
Contractors remove the tops of the last of the 90-year-old red maples from Coulee Dam's Ferry Avenue Friday so the broken sidewalks below them can be fixed. The two-block-long street curving through 16 houses will get all-new concrete but shadeless sidewalks for a project that will come to around $250,000, not including the tree removal, which the city said was unexpected. Basin Tree Service quoted another $57,000 for that. Sidewalk pouring started this week. - Scott Hunter p...
The city of Grand Coulee will hold a primary election in August to pick two of the three candidates who filed to run for mayor, which does not include the current one. Chuck Crowe, of Partello Park; Kimberly Christiansen, of Roosevelt Drive; and Mike Eylar, of Spokane Way, have filed to run for the mayor’s office, currently occupied by Mayor Paul Townsend. The primary election is set for Aug. 1. In Electric City, two council positions have picked up challengers to incumbents. Councilmember Brian Buche, in Council Position 3, will run against T...
A power pole fire Monday night led to an outage as Grant PUD worked on fixing the problem. The Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department had the fire out about 11:30 p.m. but reported that several residences and street lights had no power while the utility replaced the pole and restored service. There were no injuries, and the fire damage was limited to the pole and the transformer, the fire department said on its Facebook....
Starting Saturday, May 26, the Bureau of Reclamation will begin showing its "One River, Many Voices" laser light show and the John W. Keys III Pump-Generating Plant public tours. The light show will run nightly at 10 p.m. through July 31. Beginning Aug. 1, the show will start at 9:30 p.m., and from Sept. 1–30, it will begin at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are not required to enjoy the light show. Public tours at the pump-generating plant will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at 10 a.m., n...
Residents of Coulee Dam's Ferry Avenue couldn't talk city representatives into alternatives Monday night as officials explained why all of the street's 60- to 70-foot-tall shade trees are going to be cut down. A sidewalk fix four years in the making is leading to the removal of the trees that have given the neighborhood of 16 homes its distinct feel for decades. The sidewalk repair will cost about a quarter million dollars, coming from a federal grant. The added cost of removing the maples will...
(Nespelem, WA) - The Colville Tribal Police assisted in the execution of a search warrant on May 9, 2023 and seized more than 1,000 fentanyl-laced pills. The seizure included 20 firearms and drug paraphernalia. Stolen property was also recovered, including stolen firearms and valuable personal property. The property owner, 63-year-old Daniel Curdie, was arrested and booked into Okanogan County jail on charges of delivery of a controlled substance, unlawful use of a building for drug-related...
Some 36 public offices in the local community are up for election this year, with the deadline for a declaration of intent to file for them due by Friday, May 19. The offices range in type from city council positions to park, port, fire, and hospital district commissioners. They are all “non-partisan” with no political party affiliation. All of that can be done online. Most don’t require a fee because most of them don’t get paid much if anything. Many people run for office just to help their communities. We’ve assembled a list of positions...
Grand Coulee police held a public meeting to hear residents' ideas on what they need to focus on and also to introduce them to a new app Officer Matt Gilbert is working on for easier communication with police. The app, which he is developing, is currently for Android phones only. Features will include police related news, resources, alerts, police activity in the area, a one-tap feature for calling the dispatch center to ask for police, and more. The informal meeting was called to give people a...
