News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Amelia Marchand was appointed last week as the new Tribal member on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. President Joe Biden appointed Marchand to a term ending June 2028. "On behalf of our members and staff, I am pleased to welcome Amelia Marchand to the ACHP," Chair Sara C. Bronin said. "Her years of experience in the cultural and natural resources fields, and her expertise in Indigenous Knowledge and climate change, will make her a strong advisor as we move forward in implementing...
Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department members met at North Dam Park Sunday to honor two men retired from their ranks - John Tufts and Jerry Sands. Tufts joined in April of 1988, retired from the department in December 2021 and this year retired as police chief in Grand Coulee. Sands joined in April of 2002 and retired in December 2023. Combined, they rendered over 54 years of service to the community, a poster on the departments Facebook noted. "We had a good gathering at Windy North Dam Park...
A young person likely exposed to rodents in Grant County died from a virus often acquired while cleaning in conditions where rodent waste is present. Grant County Health District said a person in their 20s had a known exposure to rodents, likely inside a vehicle, before falling ill. The last confirmed case of Hantavirus in Grant County occurred in 2019. This is the sixth case of Hantavirus in Grant County in the past 20 years and the first reported case in Washington in 2024. “We are deeply saddened by the passing of one of our community m...
Nancy Brown, right, talks with garden owner Anita Eylar and Dennis Carlson during a tour of Eylar's garden, part of a six-garden tour Saturday organized by Friends of the Grand Coulee Area Library as a fundraiser and social event. It ended at North Dam Park with a lunch from Auntie Dannee's. - Nancy Zimmerman -Boord photo....
A new fawn found in the middle of Grant Avenue in Coulee Dam when city crew members arrived at work June 13 waits without motion for its mother's return. Because of where it lay, crew members moved it to a safer spot. Wildlife experts urge people finding new fawns to leave them alone. Mothers can return a day or more later, but may abandon a fawn with a human scent. This one's mother came back for it the same afternoon. - Scott Hunter photo...
GRAND COULEE, Wash. – The Bureau of Reclamation is prohibiting fireworks on North Dam for the Independence Day holiday. Reclamation is taking precautionary measures to decrease the potential for wildland fire and is reminding the public that use of fireworks is prohibited on Reclamation lands and waterbodies. Reclamation will allow the permitted fireworks display at Grand Coulee Dam to occur for the festivities. There is a low risk of fireworks reaching the surrounding lands from the top of the dam, so the show can proceed. The fireworks s... Full story
Proponents of a future 50- to 80-bed senior living facility in Grand Coulee learned last week that their request for $5 million in federal funds for construction costs will not make it into the 2025 Congressional budget. But local partners continue to finesse the $17 million project, with an eye toward the state's legislative session opening next January and to future requests to the federal government for additional funds. "We know the funding strategy is a multi-year, multi-source strategy,"...
Cell phones and how to handle them are a point of major discussion among school superintendents in Okanogan County, Rod Broadnax, superintendent at Grand Coulee Dam School District, told the school board June 10. “That has been a big, big topic,” he said. The local school board already banned cell phone use during school two years ago, but enforcement has been slipping later in the year. English teacher Steve Files presented his research on some options to address the situation. Files said he’s been following the issue for years. “At least i...
Coulee Dam tripled its budget for street projects Monday, accepting contracts with the state Transportation Improvement Board for funds to chip seal most streets in town this summer and upgrading sidewalk ramps for compliance with federal rules on access for wheelchair users next year. The city council amended the 2024 Street Fund budget from $531,526 to $1,595,526. The chip seal work, in which crushed gravel is layered smoothly on a prepared street, then oiled and rolled, will happen this summer, City Clerk Stefani Bowden said. The work on...
Coulee Medical Center’s request for $3 million made it into next year’s Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration appropriations bill, released by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee last week. The housing project, called “Relief for Rural Health Workforce,” had won the support of Rep. Dan Newhouse of the 4th Congressional District. “Providing critical care in this large service area takes a unique toll on the health care providers and medical professionals that often have multi-hour commutes, necessitating a designate...
Despite threatening skies that occasionally burst into rain, lightning and wind gusts to topple a shade canopy, around 150 kids and their family members came out for Koulee Kids Fest, the car show, or both last weekend. For Kids Fest, families visit participating local storefront businesses, where kids do free activities and get their event "passports" stamped, to be entered in a drawing. Based on numbers from the chamber of commerce, most families chose to focus on businesses in central Grand...
After a process going back more than two years, the Banks Lake Golf Course will soon be owned and operated by descendents of the area's original people: the Colville Confederated Tribes. Grant County Port District #7 Commissioners quickly voted to approve moving forward with the $1.2 million purchase and sale agreement after Commission Chair Jim Keene gave a presentation on the negotiations and terms at a June 11 Port Commission meeting. It was the only item on the agenda. "I'll just say that...
A member of the Grand Coulee Dam school board has resigned in the wake of a contentious stand the board took last week to not allow four graduates to "walk" at graduation. Deidre Ellsworth explained her decision to step down in a letter to "students offended by my action after the board meeting," which she asked The Star to publish. It's on page 2. The affected students allegedly had arranged to buy alcohol on the senior trip to Disneyland. The board backed the decision of the administration to...
The opening for Grand Coulee mayor netted one candidate, Ruth Dalton, who serves on the city council and has been the stand-in mayor for the last month, since the previous mayor resigned. Letters of interest were due Monday, and the council had planned to interview applicants at their June public meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, June 25 at 6 p.m. However, with the sole applicant already being a member of the council, the council may appoint Dalton as mayor at the June meeting without a formal interview, as allowed under state law, City...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program has awarded the Colville Tribes a $16.5 million dollar grant to build a new food processing facility which will combine traditional and modern techniques. The new facility will include several buildings with a total area of approximately 28,000 square feet. Construction will occur on the site of the old food processing plant on Omak Mission Road. The processing facility will be dedicated to traditional first foods of the Colville Tribes. It will utilize state-of-the-art t...
The Colville Tribal Museum opened for the season last week, and they've already had visitors from multiple states stop in to learn local history and culture from the Tribes' History/Archeology Department. This year, staff have installed new exhibits you have probably not seen before - even if you are local. These exhibits include twined basket work by Omak mixed-media artist and tribal member Joe Feddersen, an old dendroglyph on a San Poil ponderosa pine, and a section dedicated to the crisis...
Four seniors at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School lost an appeal to the school board Tuesday night, after asking the board to let them walk across the stage at graduation with their peers. The seniors had reportedly bought alcohol on the senior trip to Disneyland the prior weekend, which they had promised not to do. The board had heard the appeals of four students in a meeting last Thursday and decided not to counter the administration's decision. The appeals of their classmates played out in...
June 7 is the official first First Friday of 2024. This year, the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber’s serial summertime pop-up market will be back at North Dam Park instead of Main Street. The evening market will run from 4 to 9 p.m. on June 7, August 2, and September 6. Vendors will include local businesses, art, leather and jewelry vendors, food trucks, plus a free craft table hosted by the local library, and other activities for kids. For entertainment, Kolton Carson, a Lake Roosevelt 10th grader, will be playing acoustic guitar and singing f...
Bureau of Reclamation officials opened the doors of the new fire station in Grand Coulee Tuesday during public tours of the nearly complete new facility they said would be open within a few weeks. With terrazzo floors embedded with LED lighting strips to guide engine drivers in, a computer room overlooking the engine bay, a huge kitchen with lockers for individual crew members, windows that adjust the incoming sunlight to the needs dictated by the HVAC system, and much more, the bright facility...
Construction work at the Bureau of Reclamation's fire station is near completion, and the public is invited to attend an open house set for Tuesday, June 4 from 4-6 p.m., the bureau said in a press release Tuesday. The fire station is located at the west gate to the Grand Coulee Power Office industrial area near the intersection of Highway 155 and B Street. The public is advised to park at Pole Park. Traffic control will be available to safely guide citizens across the highway to the fire...
The Grand Coulee city council is looking for the next mayor, and any registered voter living within city limits can throw their name into the ring. Interested applicants should bring a letter of intent to City Hall, 306 Midway Ave, by 4 p.m. on June 10. Letters can also be mailed to Grand Coulee City Hall, P.O. Box 180, Grand Coulee 99133. A letter of intent is similar to a cover letter for a job, and is up to individual applicants to decide what to write about. Possible topics could include: why you are interested in serving as mayor; your...
The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project has lingered since Columbia Basin Hydropower first brought it to the attention of local leaders in 2016. Lately the project, planned to generate 500 to 1,000 megawatts of hydropower by moving water in an underground tunnel between Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt, has drawn attention from a new potential investor and developer. But questions remain, hurdles are high, and clear steps forward are a ways off for the proposed project that would involve...
Faced with a housing shortage that threatens their efforts to find and keep rural health workers, Coulee Medical Center wants to develop a tiny-home community for their medical staff. If all the pieces fall into place, the designated "critical access" hospital serving four counties and the Colville Reservation could begin purchasing 30 tiny homes this October to place on their property across SR-174. The cluster of tiny 357-square-foot homes would be developed between the grain silos and the...
After eight weeks with the position vacant, Grand Coulee now officially has an acting police chief. Grand Coulee Police Officer Levi Johnson will serve in the role for up to six months until a permanent chief is hired, the city council affirmed at their regular meeting May 21. Although the motion to appoint Johnson passed unanimously, no one from the council table made any speeches or comments surrounding the appointment. Afterwards, some council members and members of the public offered their...
People enjoy the quiet at Crescent Bay on Lake Roosevelt Saturday morning while getting in a little fishing between the base of big hill and the beach under a blue sky. This week's weather will be a little more, um, spring like. Check out our forecast on page 3. - Scott Hunter photo...