News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Here’s a look at the most popular stories in The Star over the last year. January Stolen car found abandoned at Keller Ferry after chase A stolen Cadillac that police stopped following because of a new state law was found at the Keller Ferry Marina the next day anyway. Washington State House Bill 1054 took effect in 2021 and limits, among other things, the circumstances in which an officer can pursue a vehicle in a chase, including circumstances related to probable cause, weather conditions, the safety of others, and more. A local officer h...
Covid is apparently on the move locally. Coulee Medical Center cautioned community members Monday that although all services are still available, covid-related staffing problems may cause delays in service. “We are now in the midst of a COVID 19 outbreak in the community which is affecting the operations of Coulee Medical Center,” CMC posted on their Facebook page Monday. CEO Ramona Hicks said CMC has had nine staff members out in just four days after testing positive, far more than they’ve had in months. “I think there’s just a lot more covi...
With temperatures near 0 last Thursday, two leaks on one drum gate on top of Grand Coulee Dam build ice formations as they spray. Ice built up on much of the dam during recent frigid weather but was crashing to the river below on Monday when temperatures were in the high 30s. See our upcoming weather chart on page 2. - Scott Hunter photo...
Grand Coulee’s city council passed its budget reluctantly last week, with one council member warning that the city would need to find another $50,000 by year’s end or layoffs would be necessary. “I wanted to have a balanced budget that we could vote on,” said Councilmember Tom Poplawski at the council’s meeting Dec. 20. “But after all the discussions and all of the meetings, looking at numbers and analysis of it all, we can’t get there unless we were to lay people off. That’s the bottom line. We’ve chosen not to do that.” The city’s 2023 bud...
Utility crews for Grant County PUD worked through the extreme weather last week as power outages affected their customers from Royal City to Grand Coulee. With temperatures plunging to the well-below-zero range, then frozen rain falling across the region, the National Weather Service warned people to prepare for power outages. One hit the Electric City-Grand Coulee area on Christmas night, apparently around 8 p.m. and took until morning to repair. Customers on the PUD Facebook page asked for...
STCU has committed to a $56,000 investment in Almira School District as part of its recovery from a devastating 2021 fire. In an agreement with the school district, STCU will cover full costs of an external reader board and two gymnasium scoreboards at the rebuilt Almira Elementary and Middle School. The building, which is set to open in September 2023, is a replacement for the 80-year-old school that burned on October 9, 2021. Immediately following the fire, school districts, agencies, nonprofits and individuals rushed to respond. Within...
Several people reported hearing a loud boom Monday night in west Coulee Dam, some speculating an electrical transformer may have blown in the town’s electric system. Not exactly. But City Superintendent Mike Steffens said that’s what it sounds like when two big fuses blow at the same time, which is what happened at the end of Stevens Avenue Monday about 4:30 p.m. “Turkeys in the line again,” Steffens said. A flock of about a dozen wild turkeys roam the west side of town, often roosting in trees in nearby Fiddle Creek or Cole Park. When they mi...
The Care and Share Food Bank last Friday gave out Christmas baskets of food to bout 150 clients, including families and a lot of elderly folks, said manager Carol Nordine. That number indicates need is up from past years. Last year’s big Christmas giveaway drew 115. A story in The Star recently reported that Second Harvest, a major food distributor to local food banks, is cutting back deliveries in Okanogan County. Care and Share is on the same route, but Nordine noted they only supply about 10 percent of the locals pantry’s supplies. Con...
An angel on high delivers a Christmas message to pilgrims through the Coulee Dam Community Church's live nativity scene Dec. 17. It included a brief movie about the Christmas story, stops to visit shepherds and sheep, a choir of angels (or at least they sounded like them), and, of course, the baby Jesus in the manger - plus a toddler Jesus meeting the three wise men when some say they actually would have arrived after following the path set by the Christmas star - for a year-and-a-half. - Scott...
STCU employees once again showed their passion for community service by documenting a record 10,000 hours of volunteerism in 12 months. The volunteers including 18 employees who served at least 80 hours of volunteerism for a single organization. Scores of others exceeded the 16 hours of paid time off that every STCU employee receives annually for volunteer activities. In response, STCU is providing a record number of year-end Volunteers Count grants of $25 to $1,000. Those grants go to every organization where an employee reported at least 12...
While his mom takes a photo, Josue gets to tell Santa his wishes for Christmas at the Eagles Lodge Saturday afternoon during a party the club threw for kids. - Scott Hunter photo...
Ninety-four children in 43 households had wrapped Christmas packages delivered to their homes Saturday, Dec. 17 thanks to Trees of Sharing 2022 volunteers who supported the project by making cash donations or purchasing gifts for children who might not have otherwise received one this season. Trees of Sharing began in the Coulee in the mid-1980s with the express objective of assuring each child enrolled in the local school district would receive a gift at Christmastime. Every year since the...
Children talk and stare at Santa and Mrs. Claus, who stopped at Mason City Memorial Park in Coulee Dam Dec. 14 in an event arranged by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce. It also featured other characters popular during the season, such as Elsa. Cocoa around the fire was popular too. Firefighters helped by making the place look like daylight with big lights on their fire trucks. - Scott Hunter photo...
NCW Libraries is planning to upgrade its facilities around its district with a $10 million investment, including the library in Grand Coulee. NCW Libraries has selected Library Forward and Forte Architects as the design lead for the "Reimagining Spaces" project. The NCW Libraries Reimagining Spaces Project represents a $10 million, multi-year redesign of 27 community libraries. In funding the project, the NCW Libraries Board of Trustees hopes to make a visible and impactful investment in...
The National Weather Service in Spokane has issued a wind chill advisory for this region warning that skin should be covered outside to avoid freezing or frostbite. Below is the complete text. URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Spokane WA 231 AM PST Mon Dec 19 2022 ...SNOW AT TIMES THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING PLUS COLD WIND CHILL VALUES... Light snow will slowly wane this morning across southeast Washington and the lower Idaho Panhandle. A second storm system will arrive...
School board directors will study whether to allow weighted grade point averages to be considered for graduation. Considering whether to pass a recommended policy on high school graduation requirements Monday night, Chairman George LaPlace and Superintendent Paul Turner each spoke in favor of tabling that discussion to give time for more discussion with students and staff. Weighted GPAs can add more points for higher-level courses. An honors course might gain half a point on a regular class in the same subject area, for instance. “It takes a li...
Local mayors decided against further studying whether their Regional Board of Mayors could consider taking over the Spring Canyon Cemetery. Meeting as the RBOM Dec. 7, the mayors voted to drop their research into taking over ownership of the cemetery currently owned by the local Lions Club. The club had approached the mayors about that possibility last August, and they’ve been looking into it ever since. Coulee Dam Mayor Bob Poch said his council was not in favor of it. City Clerk Stefani Bowden had asked the Municipal Research Services Corpora...
Sometimes, if it’s not one thing, it’s another when you’re dealing a federal agency that gives you money. Or takes it back. Nespelem’s school board learned Monday that some of their Impact Aid money was being clawed back. Impact Aid is a federal grant program for local educational agencies that have lost local property tax revenue due to the presence of non-taxable federal land. Superintendent Effie Dean explained that the Impact Aid agency had found the school district’s 2019-2020 school year application for Impact Aid faulty, for two years...
A road sign lies on a sidewalk in Coulee Dam after a small car hit it Nov. 28 early on a slippery morning, according to a neighbor who saw it. The sign normally faces drivers coming off the west end of the Coulee Dam bridge over the Columbia River, where concrete blocks await drivers going too fast to slow down on the often-icy corner. A lighting fixture was also hit in a separate accident, and the corner is now dark. - Scott Hunter photo...
A trailer housing two families on E Street burned down Thursday on one of the coldest nights of the year so far, burning one man badly. "This is the devastation that no family should have to go through," Kimberly Minks wrote in an online message the next day. The fire started about 7 p.m. Dec. 1 on E Street, just west of the Bridgeport Highway. A friend, Crysta Harris, posted on Facebook her two kids were visiting at the time. She explained that two families were living in the home - a man with...
City leaders in Grand Coulee met with their engineers Monday to learn about options being recommended for upgrades to their wastewater treatment plant, estimated to cost $10.5 million. The good news is that the Dept. of Ecology has already stated it can fund the project. "You're in a real interesting situation," Gray and Osborne Engineer Nancy Wetch told the city council, noting that she's never seen funding promised without an application even submitted. But funded doesn't mean free. Wetch met...
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's first in-person winter event since 2019 was a success Saturday night, as community members turned out for the Vintners and Brewers dinner and auction. The annual auction was held as an online affair in 2020 and 2021 to meet restrictions or advice on in-person gatherings during the COVID-19 emergency. "It was huge," said Executive Director Roni Smith. "We couldn't have done it without all the volunteers, businesses, and community members who bought...
Olympia – In a 2020 report published by the NFPA, clothes dryers caused 4% of home structure fires in 2014 through 2018. Last year in Washington State, there were a reported 352 fires caused by appliances which included clothes dryers. More home clothes dryer fires occur in the fall and winter months and peak in the month for January. The Washington State Fire Marshal’s Office reminds residents of clothes dryer fire safety by practicing these simple tips: · Do not use the dryer without a lint filter. · Clean the lint filter before and after...
Omak, WA November 30, 2022 – 12 Tribes Colville Casinos’ team members are proud to contribute the annual holiday meals to local families in the Omak, Lake Chelan, and Coulee Dam communities, 12 Tribes said in a press release this week. The holiday meals included turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie. “The holiday season is the perfect time to lend a helping hand, especially with rising food prices in our community,” stated Tony Posey, Interim COO of Colville Gaming LLC. “I am grateful...
There will be no school today for the Grand Coulee Dam School District due to the weather....