News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Part of Federal Avenue in Grand Coulee is receiving a half a million dollar makeover. Wheeler Excavation, LLC out of Benton City is the contractor for the project, replacing the main water line, installing a sidewalk and storm drainage, and rebuilding the street. The full project is expected to cost $535,555, Grand Coulee City Clerk Lorna Pearce said. The streetwork is being done with state Transportation Improvement Board money up to an amount of $524,096. The city will be paying for the...
A $7,000 study funded by the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center found that developing senior housing in the area would be beneficial. The senior center pledged up to $25,000 for studies geared towards developing land currently owned by Centerline Development into living options for senior citizens. With this initial study saying it is a good plan, further studies would include financial studies, an architectural plan and legal expenses, among other items, totalling about $50,000. At a March 14 meeting at the senior center, Ian Turner and Nic...
Electric City could expand beyond Osborn Bay, but first they need to have a water system there. Electric City is applying for a Washington State Department of Commerce grant from the Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) to help pay for a water feasibility study to be done for an area just south of Osborn Bay. The feasibility study will tell the city if they could drill a new well there, which would allow for future development of residences in that area, Mayor Diane Kohout said. She...
Electric City is forming a new committee focused on developing a city park, and Electric City residents can be a part of that committee. At a May 18 special council meeting, the council approved going forward with forming a new park committee focused solely on building a city park. Councilmember Brian Buche noted during the meeting that people have expressed interest in taking up the cause again. Buche was elected as part of a new administration in 2019, including all new council members, a new mayor, and a new city clerk, with the park being...
Some people aren't too thrilled about a possible impending speed limit reduction on a stretch of highway between Electric City and Grand Coulee. The upcoming construction of a pedestrian and bicycle pathway along Banks Lake connecting the Coulee Playland area to the North Dam area may come with a speed limit reduction from 45 miles per hour to 35 mph for an 800-yard stretch of road if the state Department of Transportation deems it appropriate. The path will narrow the roadway, which will...
A big top circus is coming to town June 2, and the sponsoring Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce is working to promote the event that was a big hit last time it came here. The Culpepper and Merriweather Circus is planning two shows - at 5 and 7:30 p.m. But there's more to the experience they offer than watching from the bleachers. Those who can are welcome to "watch the big top rise" at 9:30 a.m. that morning. "You'll also get a chance to tour the grounds, learn all about life on the...
Results are in for the May 7 primary elections for positions on the Colville Business Council. The CBC is the governing body of the Colville Tribes with 14 positions total for the council, and seven up for re-election each year. Poll votes in the current primary were certified May 9; absentee ballots were certified May 12. There are four positions each in the Inchelium, Nespelem, and Omak districts, and two positions in the Keller district. Four of the races this year went through the primary process to narrow them down to two candidates each....
When you call 911 in a medical emergency, those who respond are people who spend considerable time training and belong to local and national organizations dedicated to helping them learn or certifying that they have. In 2021, Grand Coulee Dam area emergency medical service responders answered over 500 calls, says Grand Coulee Ambulance Service Director Richard Paris. May 15-21 is National EMS week, the theme for which is “Rising to the Challenge.” “This is the 47th annual celebration of EMS Week, where we honor our frontline heroes, dedic...
A construction project is beginning on a new waterline and paving on a section of Federal Avenue in Grand Coulee from Main Street down to Midway Avenue by The Star newspaper building. The street was closed Tuesday to through traffic. The project also involves putting in a sidewalk and storm drains on one side of the street. Construction is anticipated to be finished by July 7, City Clerk Lorna Pearce said at the May 17 council meeting. The Star reported in September of 2021 that the city's...
This weekend is the time, and the Delano Regional Transfer Station is the place to "e-cycle" that old TV or computer monitor that's been cluttering up your garage or attic. This week, May 19-21, you can take certain electronics to the transfer station for free to be recycled. The transfer station is open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the 19th and 20th, and on Saturday the 21st from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. An electronics bin was previously outside of the gates of the transfer station, but some people...
Update More than just the town of Nespelem will be affected by the outage Friday, a 5pm correction from OEM says: “ 2022-05-20 Correction: Nespelem Valley Electric Scheduled Power Outage Correction for Location of Outage. Nespelem Valley Electric will have an 8 hour scheduled power outage tomorrow Friday, May 20, 2022 from 7:00 AM to 3 PM to allow Bonneville Power Administration to conduct line maintenance. Correction on location: The following area will be affected: The Town of Nespelem, Government Center (Agency), Corrections Center, S...
You can see the world from a different perspective by flying a drone. Greg Behrens, a retired geologist from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, demonstrated his drone for The Star in April at his home east of Grand Coulee in the Spring Canyon area. Behrens got his drone in July of 2021 and his commercial license in October, but he didn't really need it; he just enjoyed the intellectual challenge of passing the test for certification and learning all there was to learn about it. "You have to...
Where should a new gym be and where should the baseball field be? Those are decisions coming up for the Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors. At their May 9 meeting, the group discussed with Superintendent Paul Turner, wanting to involve other people involved in athletics to find out what they’re preferences might be regarding what options they might prefer for placement of a new gym and for a baseball field. Turner told the board they would need to give some more direction to NAC Architecture. Options include building a gym a...
Okanogan County is starting the process to update its Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which may address issues such as wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness, or structure protection. Okanogan County Emergency Management would like to engage the public and other governmental agencies in the process, it said in an emailed announcement Tuesday. The agency will hold the “first of many meetings” Tuesday, May 17, at 6 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Hearing Room, at 123 5th Ave. North in Okanogan. It will be an in-person meeti...
Firefighters from Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, and Elmer City departments responded to a vehicle fire near the Coulee Dam Casino Tuesday. The fire burned inside the cab of a pickup truck. The cause is still under investigation. The fire, reported at 5:14 p.m., was extinguished by 5:25 p.m. Two fire extinguishers were used to put the fire out, which could have been worse, according to firefighters on the scene, who said it could have burned the truck to the ground. Firefighters at the scene of...
The annual Colorama Parade heads up Midway Avenue Saturday as people line the roadway and kids rush after candy thrown by participants. After a bleak weather forecast for a festival weekend, officials of the chamber of commerce and the Ridge Riders found less to worry about after a soggy start to Friday yielded to better weather and crowds were plentiful. See photos from the festival and rodeo lining the bottom of pages in this issue, along with more photos and various results in the second...
Alonzo Adams signed a celebratory letter of intent May 5 to attend Pacific University in Oregon, where he'll play basketball and study hard. In a small ceremony in the Lake Roosevelt High School HUB with family, friends and teammates, Adams signed the letter saying he intends to play basketball for NCAA Division III school in the 2022-23 school year. A table of basketball mementos from his high school years also included a framed certificate of admission to Pacific University as a "trustee...
The hulking shell of a construction project will be revived at some as-yet-unknown date, but a tangle of legal problems has been resolved to allow the Bureau of Reclamation's fire station project to move forward. The agency announced an agreement with the insurance company April 28. The bureau said in a press release that Berkley Insurance Company has selected J.S. Held LLC to coordinate the project with National Native American Construction, Inc. "The mobilization date is unknown but is...
The elite runners of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades at Lake Roosevelt Elementary lunge forward right after the starting gun for a full mile, four laps, around the football field during the school's Mini Bloomsday event Friday. The clouds in the distance at upper right surrounded the area but didn't move in with rain until well after it was over. - Scott Hunter photo...
Electric City is able to keep $278,979 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds it wasn’t sure how to spend. The city had planned a special city council meeting to decide last week, just before and application deadline, until a final ruling from the U.S. Treasury Department was distributed, clarifying how the money could be used by local governments. The $1.9 trillion plan passed by Congress was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March and includes $350 billion in funds for state, local, tribal and territorial governments in C...
It's Mother's Day weekend in May, which means it's also Colorama time. If you're new to the area, it's pronounced with the word "color" in it. Some people unfamiliar with our unusual spring festival name see it in a medical context, rendering a completely different connotation. So why is the festival called Colorama; what's so colorful? When local folks first decided to have a big spring hoot, they called it Western Days, a spirit that still lives on in Colorama with the popularity of the...
Below the surface of Puget Sound, disappearing kelp forests and eelgrass beds are threatening the stability of dependent species. The shrinking population is now drawing the attention of lawmakers, with a variety of approaches encouraging restoration of the building block of this aquatic ecosystem. A bill signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this year will provide the Department of Natural Resources with funding to create a plan to conserve 10,000 acres of kelp and eelgrass habitats by 2040. The department will work with partners and...
by Jacob Wagner The Grand Coulee Dam School District will offer $16,000 to a man who filed a lawsuit against them regarding a public records request, and who has reportedly made around a million dollars over the years with similar lawsuits against small school districts, towns, hospital districts and other such agencies. The GCDSD board of directors on Monday approved offering the settlement to Eric Hood, who filed suit in February of 2022 saying that the school district had not provided all documents related to a public records request he had...
A new picnic table accessible to people in wheelchairs will be available at the Colorama Rodeo May 6, donated by a local boy scout as his project for attaining the eagle rank. David Bordon, of BSA Troop 24, presented the big table made of Douglas fir last Saturday to Ridge Riders Saddle Club President George Kohout at their rodeo grounds in Delano. Borden said that he, one other scout, and his family helped with the effort, totaling over 200 hours and months of coordination on the project that...
Kiser Payne rounds the barrels at the Nespelem Junior Rodeo Sunday in 16.63 seconds. The rodeo includes events like goat undecorating and hay bail roping for the youngest contestants but works up to steer riding and barrels for the more seasoned athletes. Dorothy Palmer said they'd been worried their schedule might conflict with Tonasket's junior rodeo, which just changed to the same weekend this year, but the opposite effect was noticed. Attendance was up, with many of the same traveling rodeo...