News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The idea of consolidating Coulee area towns was discussed briefly at a recent meeting of area mayors, with the general opinion expressed being that it is complicated. During the April 6 Regional Board of Mayors meeting, the group discussed at some length how to pull off a spring-cleaning event, a frequent topic with the group. When asked by The Star if they felt consolidation would help simplify what seems to be a convoluted process by having one conversation instead of four between four different towns, a few spoke on the topic. Elmer City...
Four out of seven positions are up for election on the Colville Business Council that will go through the primary process to narrow down each race to just two candidates before the general election in June. 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. There are four positions each in the Inchelium, Nespelem, and Omak districts, and two positions in the Keller district. This year, races going through the primary process include: Inchelium Position #2...
Queen Lelah Mason welcomes you to The Nespelem Junior Rodeo being held at the Nespelem Rodeo Grounds on Saturday and Sunday April 23 and 24, beginning at 10 a.m. both days. There will be 8 all-around saddles, 9 reserve all-around awards, handmade 1st place buckles, and all-around LP buckles. There will be payout to 4th place. This is a CTJRA points rodeo. No entries accepted after April 18. Admission will be $5, with ages 5 and under admitted free. Concessions will be available. For information and entries call Kayce 509.978.9292, Sindy...
A local driver ended up in the water last week when her vehicle veered into Banks Lake about 5:44 p.m. Thursday. Stacey Joe White, 46, of Coulee Dam got out of the car and swam to shore before the Toyota Highlander sank, according to Trooper John Bryant of the Washington State Patrol. The incident happened on SR-155 about five miles north of the junction with US 2 just north of Coulee City. White was reportedly alone in the car. She was taken to Coulee Medical Center with minor injuries. The...
The city of Grand Coulee has launched a new website that has some handy info for residents. The website, which went live in January, is a little hard to find on Google, but is at www.gccitywa.org. There, visitors to the site can find meeting agendas, look things up in the city’s code, find the email addresses for the mayor and council members, and find handy forms such as building permits, demolition permits, and dog license applications. Kristine Thiesfeld, who is the clerk for the Grand Coulee Police Department, put the website together u...
North Cascades Bank donated $2,500 Friday to help the Ridge Riders put on the Colorama Rodeo. The bank, said Branch Operations Manager Jerri Smith, sees the rodeo as "an important event for our local community. Not only does it give us something to look forward to each year, it's also an entertaining, family friendly event that benefits our community financially." Smith noted the bank has helped sponsor the rodeo for many years. This year, she said, "we are very excited to sponsor the...
by Scott Hunter School leaders seemed open to a proposal Monday to add two positions to the athletics department at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School proposed by Athletic Director Tim Rasmussen, one needed to take programs to the next step, another needed to catch up to evolving trends. Girls’ wrestling has gained popularity to the extent that the statewide organization that oversees school athletics tournaments put them in their own state tournament this year, Rasmussen told the Grand Coulee Dam School District directors at Monday’s board meeti...
The annual Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce Triple Fish Challenge drew 50 anglers in 23 boats who caught a lot of fish over two days in highly variable spring weather. Saturday was windy and rough on Banks Lake, but after a day of sunshine Sunday, smiles were everywhere as they lined up for the final weigh-in at Coulee Playland. On day one, Jim Stanley caught the 3.38-pound smallmouth bass in the adult category. Derek Hilderbrand netted 7.97-pound walleye. No one caught a trout. Among...
by Scott Hunter Two people were arrested at the Lakeview Terrace trailer park April 5 and charged with burglary after a property manager reported he’d caught them straipping wiring from an unoccupied unit. The Star reported the development as it was in progress last Tuesday but had few details. Undersheriff Kelly Watkins said Thursday that one occupant of a mobile home had finally come out after initially declaring he would not. After deputies learned of the possibility of a rifle inside, Grant County sent a SWAT team at one point. Watkins s...
GCHD is reporting an influenza outbreak in an assisted living facility, increase of influenza in school-aged children and children under the age of five. The Grant County Health District has issued an advisory to the Grant County healthcare community and media: increased influenza activity in Grant County. Be aware of increasing influenza and influenza-like illness, (ILI) in Grant County and Washington state. GCHD is monitoring an influenza outbreak among residents in an assisted living facility. GCHD has provided outbreak mitigation...
Lake Roosevelt Schools’ proposed 2022-23 calendar went through its final reading by the Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors on April 11 and was approved. The Nespelem School Board approved that district’s calendar for the next school year March 31. The GCDSD calendar shows the first day of the next school year starting for students on Aug. 31, 2022 and the last day as June 16, 2023. When school gets out on Dec. 16, school will be out until Jan. 2, 2023 when school resumes. When school gets out on March 31, 2023. Spring break in...
What do you do in someone just says no? That they are not going to follow the law? That’s a policy issue the Electric City Council discussed Tuesday night after approving new forms the city’s code enforcer will use to inform people when they need to correct a “nuisance” code violation. But the subject of a rooster came up. Someone owns one who lives near Councilmember Brian Buche. The city allows chickens — up to six — but not roosters, which can be persistently noisy. Buche said a neighbor not far from the offending bird in his neighborhoo...
A fire burned 200 acres in trees and grass north of Nespelem on Monday. The Nespelem Creek Fire started at about noon on April 4 according to Public Information Officer Kathy Moses of the Mount Tolman Fire Center. She said gusts of wind knocked down a tree, which knocked down power lines, causing a power outage, sparking up dry grass and starting a wildfire in a field that threatened one home in the area. Wind gusts were at 27 miles per hour, pushing the wildfire through a field of tall grass....
A coalition of tribes has secured over $3 million in funding in the Washington State supplemental budget for salmon reintroduction in the upper Columbia River. The money will go to three member tribes (Colville, Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene) to invest in efforts they are leading to restore salmon, revitalize tribal culture, and strengthen the region’s economy by implementing salmon reintroduction activities in the Spokane and Columbia rivers and their tributaries, the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT) said in a statement Tuesday. The maj...
Getting ready for next month's Colorama Rodeo, the Ridge Riders Rodeo Grounds Tuesday saw workers from Spokane mounting new speakers to the light poles for a better sound experience that should save money in the long run. President George Kohout said the speaker systems that announcers must bring with them are an expensive, added cost of putting on a rodeo. The investment taking shape this week will lessen that bill each year and upgrade other events that have been lacking a good sound system....
COVID-19 rates continue to decline overall as the incidence rate in Grant County had dropped to 26 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week span as of March 31. The rate was at 48 the previous week, 79 the week before that week on March 17, 123 the week before, and much higher, 1,458, on Feb. 11. That said, an additional death was announced in Grant County Health District’s weekly update on March 23, that of an unvaccinated man in his 60s from Moses Lake who had an underlying health condition, bringing the county’s covid death total to 257 s...
Lincoln County Sheriff's Office deputies visited a Lakeview Terrace residence Tuesday evening. Manager Loren Scammahorn said he called law enforcement after he'd caught the two taking copper wire out of the empty trailer. A National Park Service ranger at the scene said law enforcement was still actively investigating. An LCSO deputy referred The Star to a public information officer who could not be reached Tuesday evening. - Scott Hunter photo...
High winds whip Banks Lake in front of Steamboat Rock into a spray repeatedly Monday as a wind event brought sustained winds of around 25 miles an hour, with gusts recorded at least up to 52 mph. - Scott Hunter photo...
Tours at Grand Coulee Dam should start at the end of May, following the end of masking and distancing requirements that made tours impossible last year. The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center is currently open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Bureau of Reclamation plans to resume the “One River, Many Voices” laser light show and the return of the tours of the John W. Keys III Pump-Generating Plant public on May 28, the Saturday before Memorial Day, the traditional opening of the season. Masks are no longer required inside the Grand Coulee Vis...
Easter baskets, put together by volunteers at the Grand Coulee Dam Seniors Center, await purchase Monday morning during the annual fundraiser this week. The seniors put together over 400 baskets, each designed to appeal....
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation workers on Grand Coulee Dam perform maintenance on the drum gates while the level of Lake Roosevelt is low Tuesday, an activity often scheduled in the spring when Reclamation operates the lake lower to make room for runoff. - Scott Hunter photo...
As in most of the country, housing in the Grand Coulee Dam area is in short supply, pushing prices high. “It’s happening everywhere,” said longtime local broker Merle Kennedy of Foisy and Kennedy. Nationally, prices on single family houses are up over 18 percent from a year ago, a trend that hold true in the Grand Coulee area, which Kennedy knows well. Speaking at a Rotary Club online meeting March 23, Kennedy illustrated with a story: A listing came up in the Northwest Multiple Listing Service on a Friday afternoon that he thought would inter...
Incidents of violence and other issues at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High seem to be decreasing after a few measures have been implemented. In her report to the Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors, Principal Sara Kennedy wrote that to address an “escalation in behavior incidents” they have implemented a few new measures. One new measure is that restrooms are now closed between class periods. Students can use the restrooms during class time after signing out of class, one at a time. Kennedy told the board that this has red...
Two drivers suffered a head-on collision in Grand Coulee about 1 a.m. Sunday when one crossed the centerline on SR-155 near Federal Avenue, the Washington State Patrol reported. Amy Glover, 39, of Wilbur was driving north in a 2018 Ford Explorer when it crossed the centerline, striking a 2004 Chevrolet Impala headed north. The Impala was driven by Malia Vogel, 26, of Almira. She told a Grand Coulee police officer first on the scene that she’d had to crawl out and that her leg hurt. The officer noted that front of the car was crushed to the f...
The Colville Confederated Tribes’ Resident Fish Program began stocking Rufus Woods Lake last week with triploid rainbow trout, the tribal Fish and Wildlife Department said. “We encourage the membership to take advantage of this opportunity the Resident Fish Program is providing,” they said. “All anglers are encouraged to provide information associated with their catch (e.g., date, location, boat or shore fishing, and approximate size) to creel personnel or by calling the Colville Tribes...
