News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Students at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School may feel like something is missing during the coming school year as smart phones will not be allowed during the school day. According to a handbook policy approved on July 25 at the Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting, the students aren’t allowed to have their cell phones during the school day, not even during lunch. “Students will be asked to NOT bring phones to school,” the handbook reads. “Students who have their phones at school will be asked to store them in lock boxes....
Election results last night for the state and the four local counties showed voters choosing candidates not from the extremes edges of the political spectrum but from something closer to the middle. The race to watch from now to November is for the 4th Congressional District, held by Rep. Dan Newhouse, who will face Doug White, a Democratic challenger who thinks he can win. Statewide, Newhouse was ahead by just 1,008 votes, leading with just 27.32% of the vote to White’s 25.98%. Newhouse faced primary challenges from seven Republicans who t...
by Jacob Wagner Preventing the spread of invasive species can save millions of dollars, and boaters at Northrup Boat Launch can now use free equipment to help with that prevention. A ribbon-cutting ceremony and demonstration of a "Clean-Drain-Dry-Dispose unit, known as a CD3 system," will be held on Aug. 9 at 10 a.m. at Northrup Boat Launch. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife partnered last year with the Washington Invasive Species Council, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Washington...
The governing body of the Colville Confederated Tribes has a new chairman in Jarred-Michael Erickson, appointed by fellow council members on July 14, following the June election of the Colville Business Council. Erickson, a representative of the Nespelem District, replaced fellow Nespelem District Representative Andy Joseph Jr. as chairman, with Joseph returning to his former position as Health and Human Services chair and having served as CBC chairman from 2020-2022. Also on the CBC, Keller...
The National Weather system is warning of dangerous heat coming again. Their alert: Excessive Heat Warning Alert: ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON MONDAY TO 11 PM PDT TUESDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with high temperatures in the 100 to 106F range. Overnight lows will be in the mid 60s to lower 70s. * WHERE...Grand Coulee, Coulee City, Odessa, Creston, Ralston, Electric City, Lamona, Stratford, Harrington, Coulee Dam, Ritzville, and Wilbur. * WHEN...From Noon Monday to 11 PM PDT Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Excessive...
Firefighters got a stubborn blaze stopped near Leahy Junction Tuesday after a day of fighting in the hot sun. The fire reportedly started about 6:30 a.m. under a Douglas County PUD powerline, but the cause was not yet known, said Douglas County Fire District 3 Chief Cory Allman. Allman said he wouldn't be surprised if it started a lot earlier; he lives just four miles down the road and it was already larger than he expected when he arrived. Called the Nilles Fire for the corner of P and Road 27...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District approved a ballot measure Monday that will ask voters this fall to pay about half what they have been under levies about to expire. The levy resolution approved by the school board Monday will go on the November ballot seeking only $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value within the district from 2023 through 2025, compared to the current rate of $4.20. “We are looking to reduce costs for taxpayers, especially now with inflation,” School Board Director Rich Black said at their July 11 meeting. Grant Cou...
The Colville Tribes has a new executive director in Cody Desautel. "The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has appointed Cody Desautel to serve as the Tribes' new Executive Director," stated Colville Business Council Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson in a July 21 press release. The executive director is the administrative head of tribal government and reports directly to the 14-member governing CBC. "Cody is well known to us and to tribal membership due to his prior service as...
Police officers are a part of communities, and on Tuesday Aug. 2, Coulee Dam police officers will host an event with food, beverages, games, and activities to engage with the community. The event will be held from 5-9 p.m., at Mead Park and along Mead Way in Coulee Dam, near Harvest Foods and the post office, and is appropriate for families and children of all ages, according to a flier for the event. The event will celebrate National Night Out, "an annual community-building campaign that...
In Grant County, the two-week incidence rate was at 238 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents as of July 21, up from 227 on July 7. The case rate was at only 26 cases per 100,000 residents on March 31. A rate lower than 200 used to be the metric for whether a county could have fewer restrictions on businesses and events. Official case rates are widely viewed as undercounted due to home testing kits and an associated lack of reporting. According to the Grant County Health District, the Grand Coulee/Electric City area of Grant County has seen...
Oroville Mayor Jon Neal would like to be an Okanogan County Commissioner. Neal has lived in Oroville his entire life, taking over his family's auto body repair business in 1992 and working in the industry for over 40 years, he described in a Facebook page for his campaign. He has raised three children in Okanogan County and has six grandchildren, along with wife Traci. Neal has been involved in city government for 21 years, including six years as the mayor of Oroville and, along with that role,...
A contestant in the senior girls' cow riding competition hangs on Saturday afternoon during the Ridge Riders' Junior Rodeo. The two-day event drew more than 200 young cowboys and cowgirls from all over. - Scott Hunter photo...
Hot day, cool scene Plenty of people populated the beach and picnic areas at Spring Canyon Tuesday as temperatures reached into the 90s. Check our weather forecast on page 2. - Scott Hunter photo...
The Colville Tribes has a new executive director, the tribes announced Thursday night. "The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has appointed Cody Desautel to serve as the Tribes' new Executive Director," stated CBC Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson in a press release. The executive director is the administrative head of tribal government and reports directly to the 14-member governing Colville Business Council. "Cody is well known to us and to tribal membership due to his prior...
Electric City is moving with caution as they consider an ordinance to allow short term rentals just three years after banning them. During their July 12 meeting, the city council discussed the pros and cons of allowing people to rent out residences for short stays, less than 30 days, as made popular by websites like Airbnb. Mayor Diane Kohout noted that the previous council had voted down the idea of allowing short term rentals. That happened in 2019, after more than a year of discussing the issue. At that time, a Lakeview Avenue couple noted t...
Colville Confederated Tribes Natural Resources Director Cody Desautel is one of 47 people, selected from 500 applicants, appointed to the new federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, the Interior and Homeland Security through the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the selections on July 7. The commission will “play a key role in recommending ways that federal agencies can better prevent, mitigate, suppress, and manage wildland fires. It will also recommend policies and s...
North Dam Park can continue to be maintained, at least for a while longer, as more funding has been donated by the community to the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District. At their July 13 meeting, CAPRD commissioners were presented with a $5,600 check by Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachelle Baughman who started a page at the online fundraising site, GoFundMe.com. Commissioner Kevin Portch said that CAPRD also received $900 in private donations separately from that online donation site. The group voted to...
Affordable housing, good jobs, good schools are just a part of Kari Alexander's vision for Okanogan County as she runs for county commissioner. Alexander would like to see youth more involved in the local government. "Our youth are the future of this county," she wrote in an email to The Star. "I think we all want to ensure that Okanogan County is the kind of place our kids want to come back to and raise their own families - which means we need affordable starter homes, good jobs, and good...
Attention may be the most valuable thing a county commissioner can do for issues, and Aaron Kester, if elected, wants to give his attention to a multitude of issues facing Okanogan County. Mental health, housing, and industry maintenance and growth are among what Kester listed to The Star as issues facing Okanogan County. "Each issue needs direct inspection and attention," Kester wrote in an email, "and although I hate to see it, some issues will not receive needed attention when our most concer...
The Elmer City council will be meeting earlier from now on in their monthly meetings. The group voted to make their meetings earlier, now at 5:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month, rather than later in the day. No one in the group had a problem with the time change, which had come up as a topic because new City Clerk Kelly Ross lives in Keller and her commute is made easier with the earlier monthly meeting time....
Elmer City has hired Kelly Ross as their new clerk this month following the resignation of Gary Benton from that position. Ross lives in Keller where she has a small farm with her husband, she told The Star. She has over 30 years of administrative experience and was the clerk in Nespelem for the past year and a half. She also has a water distribution manager license....
The parking lot at Grand Coulee City Hall was off limits for days in the last week as sewer line work needed to be done. City Clerk Lorna Pearce explained that sewer line failure resulted in needing a replacement line for the city hall building on Midway Avenue. The work is anticipated to be done and the line made operational sometime this week. City Hall has remained open, although parking wasn’t available in their parking lot. A cost estimate for the repairs was not yet available....
Due to compounding conditions, all fires at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area are prohibited effective 12:01 am, Friday, July 22 until further notice. No open flames are permitted, the National Park Service said Tuesday. This includes, but is not limited to, all fires in NPS provided fire rings and boxes, shoreline fires, charcoal fires, tiki torches, incense burners, candles, and propane campfires. Self-contained propane or gas stoves and lanterns are still allowed during the full fire ban. For the most current information regarding the...
After two school levies failed in February for the Grand Coulee Dam School District, school board directors are looking to run just one levy election in November. Roughly 56% of voters voted against two levies the district proposed in February — the Educational Programs and Operation Levy, and the Capital Levy for Safety, Technology and Facilities Improvements. The board of directors, in their July 11 meeting, told Superintendent Paul Turner they would like to pursue a $2 educational levy for three years, a significant drop from the $4.20 t...
Staff at Lake Roosevelt Schools say that student cell phones have been a major issue in the classroom, and options for addressing the issue were discussed at the latest Grand Coulee Dam School District meeting. On Monday, school board directors discussed the issue of cell phones in the classroom when the topic of student and staff handbooks came up for discussion. The current cell phone policy in the elementary school’s handbook states that students can bring their phones to school, but can only use them before 8 a.m. or after 3 p.m., before a...