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 Monday's school board meeting requested full-time counselors, citing the stress of the recent deaths of fellow students, and bullying and violence that have taken a toll in the last few months. They asked for on-site and text-based counseling and suggested a program called Only7Seconds out of Chelan, which works with schools to address youth loneliness and prevent self-harm. ASB President Riley Ayling said she had a phone conversation with the executive director of the program last...
From the starting bell in the morning to the end of the school day, Lake Roosevelt students will no longer be allowed to use their cell phones — not even at lunch — a change intended to reduce distractions, bullying and other discipline issues. In a 3-2 vote, the school board Monday night agreed with staff members who advocated for the formal change, citing statistics about student learning and cyberbullying, and personal anecdotes of the discipline challenges that can easily distract a room full of students or lead to harassment of students by...
Elmer City officials and citizens met to look over a draft of the town's park and recreation plan Aug. 22. Planning consultant Kurt Danison of Highlands Associates presented the draft as the small group discussed ideas and additions or changes to it. The town hired Danison to help put together a master plan that will serve in the ever-important process of acquiring grant money for projects to improve the quality of life in the town with better recreational amenities. That process, itself, is...
A Granite construction worker lays down a coating of crushed gravel over freshly applied hot oil to "chip seal" Ferry Avenue in Coulee Dam Monday afternoon. The $1.9 million project, funded entirely by a state grant from the Transportation Improvement Board, began on Aug. 12 and includes streets in Grand Coulee and Electric City. The cities agreed to pool projects to be able to attract a larger construction company, saving time and resources. - Scott Hunter photo...
Larry Hernandez sat alone Tuesday in the Coulee Dam theater that hasn't been operating as one since 2013, testing speakers with the big screen blank, streaming the audio from his phone via a Bluetooth connection, the 1985 movie "Back to the Future" blaring out. That alone could be taken a hopeful sign for the theater that closed 11 years ago as technological updates mandated by the movie distribution industry collided with small-town realities in many places that still operated with projectors...
A former three-term Grant County commissioner who moved to Grand Coulee five years ago will be the city’s next council member. Tim Snead did not take his seat after the council voted him in on Tuesday night, but he will be sworn in and ready to participate for the next meeting. Snead also served as city administrator of Quincy for 13 years, including during the server farm boom years. “We went from an assessed value of $700 million to $2.4 billion before I left, but I will tell you: Growth is a pain,” Snead said, to laughter around the room....
A verbal argument over a barking dog allegedly escalated into a physical fight, with one man getting shot and injured in Delano Heights Aug. 6, according to a Grand Coulee police report. An 89-year-old man listed as a witness told police he too pointed a firearm at the suspect in order to break up the men — an action the victim’s mother credits with saving her son’s life, the police report said. Dustin Miley, 45, survived his injuries but spent multiple days in the intensive care unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center and is about to under...
A Department of Justice grant created to help small and rural law enforcement agencies combat violent crime will bring in just under $300,000 over three years for the Grand Coulee Police Department to spend on several key strategies as defined by the DOJ. The city council voted to accept the grant August 20, after hearing Officer Matt Gilbert’s presentation at a special meeting the week prior, in which he shared an updated proposal of what specific initiatives the $293,125 award would fund. Gilbert had applied for the grant in 2023, and the D...
Several boat ramps on Banks Lake will be temporarily unavailable because of an upcoming scheduled drawdown. The Bureau of Reclamation will lower the elevation of Banks Lake by 7.3 feet to support environmental and operational objectives, the agency said Aug. 16. The reservoir's level will be lowered Aug. 23 and may remain low through Sept. 5. At that time, the reservoir will return to its regular operation elevation. The drawdown will reduce the lake's elevation to 1,562.7 feet, impacting the...
A 17-year-old lost her life in a tragic crash Aug. 13 as she and her four passengers headed north on SR-155 five miles south of Nespelem. The Washington State Patrol reported that at 9:24 p.m., the 1999 GMC pickup Jaelynn F. Vallee was driving failed to negotiate a curve, drove onto the shoulder, overcorrected, came back across the northbound lane, rotated and rolled onto the southbound shoulder. The four other children in the vehicle injured and taken to hospitals: a 3-year-old girl to Coulee Medical Center, along with a 12-year-old boy; a...
A motorcycle rider suffered injuries when he lost control of his bike, slid nearly 200 feet, and hit a median light pole, allegedly fleeing police in pursuit across the town of Coulee Dam Friday night. The rider was taken by Grand Coulee Ambulance to Coulee Medical Center. Tribal police had attempted to pull him over north of Coulee Dam on SR-155, when the motorcycle reportedly sped away. He made it to the south edge of the town before losing control near the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. A...
Lake Roosevelt schools could move to a four-day school week in the 2025-26 school year, and an informal survey of the community showed a majority of respondents support the idea so far. Superintendent Rod Broadnax presented the school board Monday with the results from the voluntary six-question survey he put out to the public on the district website and Facebook page, asking people’s thoughts on how a four-day week would impact families, student learning, attendance and other metrics. 260 people responded. To the big question – “Do you feel...
Grand Coulee will make an appearance in an independent coming-of-age/road trip movie coming out next year. At least one iconic location in town could show up on the silver screen. The filming crew for "Evergreens" stayed in town a couple of nights in late July to shoot one of the scenes, following the route the two lead characters take as they get to know the state and each other. The story starts in Spokane and continues across Washington, ending up in the Hoh Rainforest on the peninsula....
Only one person applied to be mayor when it came open this spring. But the council will have a few more choices for the open Grand Coulee City Council seat and may appoint a new member as soon as next week. Those seeking the spot were asked to write a letter explaining their interest, which was due Monday. The council will interview candidates at their regular public meeting at City Hall on Aug. 20, 6 p.m. They may take a vote to appoint the new council member at the same meeting. Four people applied, and all four will be interviewed. The candi...
Grant County Health District is asking families to “set your child up for a successful and healthy school year by keeping their vaccinations up to date.” Children in private and public schools, home and childcare centers, or other early learning programs are required to have certain vaccinations before they can start. These requirements are put into place to protect children, families, and communities from vaccine-preventable diseases. Parents may choose to opt out of certain vaccinations for their children, but families must have an app...
STCU is working to acquire a bank that serves communities in Oregon and Washington, adding 10 new branches and $550 million in assets to the organization that merged with Coulee Dam Credit Union in 2021. If approved by regulators, STCU said Tuesday, the purchase and assumption agreement would add all of Community Bank’s branches to STCU’s roster in the communities of Hermiston, Pendleton, La Grande, Elgin, Baker City, Enterprise, and Joseph in Oregon; and College Place, Walla Walla, and Clarkston in Washington. Upon closing the deal, the Spo...
A Granite construction crew works on patching up the worst spots on Coulee Dam's Stevens Avenue at Douglas Avenue Tuesday. Crews are also working on the $1.9 million, multi-city, combined project in Grand Coulee and Electric City, where they started sealing cracks in the blacktop Monday. Chip sealing (an oil slurry and gravel) should occur over the next couple weeks, twice, a crew boss said. - Scott Hunter photo...
At the chamber's First Friday event Aug. 2, we asked people who visited our booth to write down their "One Wish for this place" - something that would make the Grand Coulee Dam Area better, safer, healthier, or more fun. We got some good responses from people who jotted their wish on a card and dropped it into our little makeshift wishing well. "Fix potholes," "clean up the neighborhood," and "more boat docks" were each on at least somebody's wishlist. Two people wrote down the same thing:...
Pavement maintenance and road repair jobs will mean detours and parking restrictions over the next six weeks in Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee and Electric City. The $1.9 million project, funded entirely by a state grant from the Transportation Improvement Board, or TIB, begins on Monday, Aug. 12. The contractor has 30 working days – until the end of September – to substantially complete the job. The exact order of which street segments get completed when was not available by press time, but Granite Construction Company will have multiple crews wor...
Snow cones and cotton candy were police business during Coulee Dam's National Night Out event on Mead Avenue Tuesday night as Officer Josh Watkins hands an icy treat to a boy while Chief of Police Paul Bowden helps an assistant with the cotton candy production. The national event on the first Tuesday in August annually is designed to get police and community members together in a positive way. It also featured tribal police, firefighters, a city hall booth making root beer floats, Reel...
Around one in five Washington households qualify for a $200 credit toward their power bill–including residential customers in the Coulee area. It is fast and free to apply online, but applications must be in by September 15. The credit is available to customers served by Grant County PUD, the Town of Coulee Dam, Nespelem Valley Electric Co-Op, Ferry County PUD, Avista and some 40 other utilities across the state. More than 675,000 households in Washington will qualify, according to a press release from the Washington Department of Commerce. T...
Central Washington’s longtime man in Congress, Rep. Dan Newhouse managed a majority in Grant County in last night’s primary, but that was the only county he won of the eight that the 4th Congressional District reaches into. Newhouse was bested by challenger Jerrod Sessler, one of three fellow Republicans seeking to oust him from his seat following Newhouse’s vote in 2021 to impeach then-president Donald Trump. Newhouse was leading by a nose in Grant, according to unofficial results at the Secretary of State’s Office, but overall, the distric...
It wasn't supposed to be in the cards this year. But an unexpected cash injection from a Medicare lump sum adjustment led CMC's board of directors to earmark funds for demolition of the four grain bins across Highway 174 from the hospital, probably this fall. At the CEO's request, the board authorized up to $275,000 to pay for the work, necessary for "employee safety and creating room for expansion," according to the formal resolution. "We decided, in keeping with the idea of hopefully getting...
Grand Coulee Police 7/29 - Police were unable to locate a girl who had kicked her mother’s bedroom door on Weil Place, causing damage, before taking off on foot. The mother didn’t wish to press charges. 7/30 - A woman reported her house on Dill Street had the door forced open and that pots were missing from the kitchen. She requested that a man seen cutting a fallen tree in her yard earlier be banned from the property. 7/31 - A man reportedly threatened to shoot someone at Steamboat Rock State Park. A State Parks ranger requested ass...
Firefighters plumed the area in smoke for a few days over the last week, but their prescribes burns paid off. The Swawilla I Fire encompasses 53, 462 acres and is 94% contained as of about noon Tuesday. The Bridge Creek Fire is 100% contained at 3,998 acres. Its 50 firefighters were to be transferred to the Swawilla I Fire. There are still 556 personnel on that fire, and a change of incident management teams has transitioned to the next phase of fire management. The Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 6 handed the fires off to the Souther...
