News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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When the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services flew from Washington, D.C. to Seattle a couple weeks ago on a fact-finding mission, the CEO of Coulee Medical Center was on hand to give her some. Like the fact that in 2019, only fog or wildland fires could stop the transfer of a patient to another hospital for needed care, and that was rare. Now it happens from three to 10 times a week, and not because anyone is overrun with Covid-19 patients. Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks...
A grand opening of a new Nespelem Softball/Baseball Field will be held Friday, Sept. 16, at 1 p.m. “Fun events are planned, and additional details about the celebration will be shared in the near future,” a press release from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation reads. “The field is Little League and standard high school softball size,” the release continues. “It is multi-purpose and can be used for sports such as soccer or flag football. It features synthetic turf and a large scoreboard. The turf will allow for minimal m...
Some 820 students have enrolled in local schools for the 2022-23 school year, including Lake Roosevelt Schools and Nespelem Elementary School. There are 689 students at Lake Roosevelt Schools. The junior/senior high side of the school has 352 students enrolled, according to a report submitted by Principal Natalie Kontos included in the Grand Coulee Dam School School District’s Aug. 22 board meeting packet. Those 352 students include 47 in seventh grade; 55 in eighth; 66 freshmen; 74 sophomores; 65 juniors; and 45 seniors. Those numbers do n...
A local restaurateur is among those nominated by a Wenatchee organization as “Entreprenuer of the Year.” Patty Oliver, who with husband Brad Oliver owns PK’s Cullinary in Grand Coulee, is up for the honor to be awarded later in September at the NCW Tech Alliance’s Annual Innovator Awards Luncheon at the Wenatchee Convention Center. Oliver is one of three nominated for the award. “Entrepreneurs are people with vision and the ability to see a need and fill it. They have the courage to make change and the stamina to await results. This individua...
Rock ‘n’ Roll has come a long way since LIttle Richard, continuing to both dazzle and offend, allowing young people to express themselves, and now, earn credits in high school. Raider Rock Band started as a club last year with history and creative writing teacher Justin Thompson leading the group, and now it is an actual class taught on the stage at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School, open to grades 9-12 for the year-long course that applies to a student’s art credits. “Last year, rock band club became something really special, although not ent...
Paul McArthur takes a selfie with a new friend Aug. 19 after the great horned owl crashed on the cab of his harvest truck in the heat of the day. "When you're farming, you never know what is going to happen," McArthur wrote on Facebook. "The poor little thing could hardly move." Realizing the bird was suffering from heat exhaustion, he and others moved it to a shady spot and got it water. Temperatures reached around 100 degrees that day. "After about 30 minutes, he/she was standing back up and...
A computer system shut down the water system supplying Coulee Dam residents with drinking water sometime last weekend, but nobody knew it until pressures dropped low enough Monday morning. City Superintendent Mike Steffens said a computer programmer worked on restoring the system Monday morning, but the city crew still had to manually operate different valves across the system to equalize pressure and restore functionality. At Steffens' urging, the city purchased a new computer system to replace...
If Electric City is going to grow, it will be in the Osborn Bay area. The city was approved for an $11,600 grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce Community Economic Revitalization Board to conduct a water feasibility study in the Osborn Bay area with the city providing an additional $2,900 towards the project. There is land just south of Osborn Bay within city limits, owned by various people, but no utilities there. “We’d like Electric City to grow, and that’s the only area to even look at,” Mayor Diane Kohout said at an Aug....
Sometimes it's hard to know where to look for help when it comes to things like getting food or energy assistance, or how to go about receiving medical care, but luckily some people specialize in connecting you to the right people. The STAR Hub, located on Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee since November of 2021, is a division of Rural Resources Community Action, a non-profit based out of Colville, and they specialize in connecting people to organizations that may be able to help. The STAR acronym...
Grand Coulee City Hall could get painted next year Budget time is right around the corner, and money may be set aside for Grand Coulee to paint their city hall building on Midway Avenue which also includes the city police station. At their July 19 meeting, the city council discussed painting city hall, deciding simply to look into options but not discussing what color they’d like to see it painted. City Clerk Lorna Pearce said in an email to The Star this week that the issue will be looked at more closely at budget time, and that city hall d...
Rob Carroll takes a direct hit to his feet during a Sunday evening water balloon fight on Stevens Avenue in Coulee Dam as Westlyn Landeros prepares to launch a counterattack against either her brother Damon (not pictured) or Collin Chaney, left. Carroll decided to arrange the event, a neighborhood tradition he said had gone dormant for too long, for his own birthday. Neighborhood kids and friends used up 2,000 balloons in about 45 minutes, then had Glo Carroll's German chocolate cupcakes. -...
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is open to receiving any questions, comments, or concerns regarding security upgrades they are planning on making at the Grand Coulee Dam and related facilities. The bureau has identified eight areas where it says security upgrades are needed, from new or upgraded gates and fences to a new security department office. The bureau "invites the public to identify issues or alternatives for consideration in the development of an environmental assessment for the Grand...
A Nespelem man — who kidnapped three minor children at gunpoint in June of 2020, robbed and sexually assaulted another, stole a truck, committed arson, and led police on a high-speed chase — was sentenced last week to 22 years in federal prison in a case that authorities hailed as the result of great collaboration among several law enforcement agencies and the courage of his young victims. John Edward McGinnis, 35, of Nespelem, was sentenced Aug. 9 by United States Senior District Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson to 264 months, followed by a fiv...
Short-term rentals are an unpopular idea to some in Electric City, but the idea keeps getting brought up. The city voted down the idea of allowing short-term (under 30 days) rentals in 2019 after more than a year of discussing the issue. But the idea was brought up again last month, with the city council discussing various pros and cons to the idea, and rules they could make to address problems that can arise from short-term renters. Such rules could include requiring owners to live within a certain distance of a rental property, requiring the...
A pedestrian and bicycle pathway connecting the Coulee Playland area to the Banks Lake Park area will probably be done next year instead of this year, and now has some extra funding. Last February, the pathway's construction looked likely for this summer, but at the Aug. 9 Electric City council meeting, City Engineer Steve Nelson of Century West Engineering said the project looks more likely to be constructed next year, although it could still go out to bid in 2022. He also said that an addition...
A survey being conducted by Grant County Health District asks residents a number of questions related to the quality of life where they are in the county, as well as general health questions. The survey, which is open until Sept. 15, asks if people feel like their community is a good place to grow old or raise children, whether economic opportunities exist, and about health-related questions such as risky behaviors within the community and what factors contribute to a healthy community. The surv...
Wildfires in recent years have had a devastating impact on the U.S., including within the Colville Indian Reservation, and a representative from the area will now serve on a federal commission tasked with addressing the issue of these fires. Recently appointed the Colville Confederated Tribes executive director and their former Natural Resources director, Cody Desautel is one of 47 people selected from 500 applicants nationwide appointed to the new federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and...
Firefighters responded to two small wildfires in the Lone Pine area Aug. 3 amid high temperatures and low humidity. John Purdue said he didn't know until his neighbor told him that the steep hillside just inches from his back deck was on fire. Firefighters from Okanogan County Fire District 2 and Coulee Dam were applying water and foam to a stump and burned grass in a patch along the downhill side of the Elmer City Access Road, with Purdue's house at the bottom on Lone Pine about 5 p.m. It was...
There’s a line to tread for a school wanting student-athletes to be better students in order to participate in sports, while at the same time not wanting to take away their opportunity to compete as athletes. The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors, along with the district superintendent and junior/senior high school principal, discussed the topic of raising the academic standards for student-athletes at their Aug. 8 board meeting. Natalie Kontos, new to the principal position at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School, told t...
Cemeteries don’t take care of themselves, and the Spring Canyon Cemetery is no exception. The Grand Coulee Lions Club manages Spring Canyon Cemetery, and Birdie Hensley of the Lions Club spoke to the Regional Board of Mayors at their Aug. 3 meeting about them possibly taking over the management of the cemetery. Hensley explained that as Lions Club members are getting older, it’s getting to be less feasible for them to take care of the cemetery that has about 2,100 people buried in it, including about 450 veterans. Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Tow...
Apparent illnesses at Spring Canyon brought to light by a Facebook post apparently stopped on their own, officials said last week, although details were scant. “There are no facts,” stated Kim Hines at Lincoln County Public Health, noting the local clinic had recorded no cases of vomiting or diarrhea complained of by several people on the social media site after a commenter just wanted to find out how many might have been affected by whatever it was July 27-28. The Colville Tribal Health Dept. and the National Park Service each took sam...
Taking five minutes to use a new, free boat-cleaning station at Northrup Boat Launch could help save millions in dollars of damage that invasive species can cause. A new "Clean-Drain-Dry-Dispose" unit, also known as a "CD3" system, was demonstrated at Northrup Boat Launch Aug. 9 with representatives there from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which funded the system, as well as from the Washington Recreation & Conservation Office (RCO), Washington State Parks, the Washington Department of Fish &...
Jerry Lee Raines entertains a packed "beer garden" crowd at the chamber of commerce's First Friday event at North Dam Park Aug. 5....
Justin Thompson gets soaked and cooled off at the National Night Out in Coulee Dam Tuesday evening with temperatures in the 90s, where one of the activities let people toss water balloons back and forth between two people, each wearing goggles designed to imitate a driver's impairment from alcohol at various levels. Thompson, who teaches world history and rock band at Lake Roosevelt Jr./Sr. High School, wore goggles emulating an impairment of 0.07-0.1 on a blood alcohol level test when he...
A smooth landing and takeoff helps make flight a more pleasurable experience for mankind, and the port district is getting some funds to make it so. Grant County Port District #7 commissioners accepted July 20 the first of two Federal Aviation Administration grants to fund runway pavement maintenance. This first grant is in the amount of $386,000, and Trey Dail of T-O Engineers said that a second grant, estimated at $90,000, is expected in August to provide more funding for the $530,000 estimated total cost of the maintenance. An additional...