News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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There have been 35 additional cases of COVID-19 in local towns in the past week. The week’s 35 cases contrast with the week prior when The Star reported an additional 54 cases on Feb. 9, and 68 on Feb. 2. Coulee Medical Center reports that out of 108 total tests performed at the Grand Coulee hospital Feb. 8-14, 16 came back positive for covid, for a positivity rate of 15%, down from 24% the week prior, and 29% the week before that. Health districts in Grant and Okanogan counties have been updating their case counts once a week recently, rather... Full story
The amount of force a police officer uses must be “proportional and reasonable,” a bill approved recently by the State Senate says. The bill also specifies officers will also be allowed to engage in vehicular pursuits as long as there is “reasonable suspicion” when making a traffic stop. The Senate voted 31-18 on Senate Bill 5919 on Feb. 9 with a handful of Republicans joining the majority Democrats. The bill cleans up language adopted last year on the use of force that many in the law enforcement community said was confusing and contradictory....
In the wake of the pandemic, Seattle Children’s Hospital reports an increasing number of children need outpatient mental health treatment, but not enough providers exist to meet the demand. “The devastating consequence of the inability to access outpatient care is that you’re likely to get worse and need emergency department or crisis level care,” said Kashi Arora, from Seattle Children’s Hospital. House Bill 1800, now under consideration in the state Legislature, creates a behavioral workgroup to identify barriers to behavioral health services...
Aijanae Young is a birth postpartum doula, a person who delivers non-medical care after birth. She said she didn’t realize the value she brought to her clients until she was the one in need. Young said before her doula arrived, she felt her pain and symptoms weren’t being addressed, and she had to fight to have the support she needed. “My doula listened to my cries, saw my struggles, she said. “I was afraid and suddenly didn’t know what to ask.” Doulas can provide physical, emotional, and informational support during and after pregnancy,...
Washington State Parks announces its annual statewide recruitment for park aide and senior park aide positions. The available park aide and senior park aide positions are non-permanent. Each summer, State Parks employs around 350 park aides and up to 40 senior park aides to work in Washington state parks from April through September. Park aides register campers, maintain trails, clean campgrounds and comfort stations and perform a variety of custodial maintenance chores. They also may work in park offices, interact with visitors and help with...
Grand Coulee Police 2/7 - Police responded to King Street where a woman was reportedly attempting to break the windows of another woman’s car. The woman by the car told police that the woman at the residence had sold her the car then stolen it back. The woman at the residence said it was her car. Police ran the car’s information through their system and found it was registered to another woman entirely. She told police that she had loaned the car to the woman at the residence and that she was supposed to be getting it back tonight. The wom...
Free passes on public transportation for young people and upgrades to major bridges are all part of a 16-year transportation funding plan approved by the Washington State Senate. The Senate approved the proposed revenue sources for the $17 billion “Move Ahead Washington” transportation investment package on a 29-20 vote Feb. 15. The bill sponsored by Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Marko Liias, D-Everett, now goes to the House for consideration. The plan includes funding for transit programs, replacement of fish passageways and electrificat... Full story
Tracks in the snow tell the tale of which of two dozen or more holes in the ice of Crescent Lake have been most popular with fishermen in recent days, as two of them tend their poles Saturday. Consistently cold weather has made decent ice for the sport on local lakes this winter. - Scott Hunter photo...
Electric City is anticipating building a pathway this year connecting the Coulee Playland area to Banks Lake Park by North Dam and to implement an 800-yard speed limit decrease in the same area. Construction of the pathway, anticipated to be done this summer, will likely reduce the current 45 miles per hour speed limit zone to 35 for about 800 yards. The pathway would narrow the roadway to an extent, and the path alongside it would require the speed limit change. Last year The Star conducted a poll asking how people felt about the speed limit...
Voters turned down two local school levy proposals by a hefty margin yesterday. Grand Coulee Dam School District’s Proposition 1 appeared to fail by about 58 to 42 percent, with 570 voters selecting No on their ballots, 418 selecting Yes across the four counties the district serves. Proposition 2 was also voted down 538-413, about 57% no to 43% yes. “We got hammered bad,” Superintendent Paul Turner said, noting only the Pateros district appeared close to have a close vote at about 50-50 last night. All others were failing in Okanogan Count...
Sunrise Disposal, which empties your garbage cans each week in Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City, is raising the rates it charges those towns by 15%. The rate increase, announced in a Jan. 20 letter to the Regional Board of Mayors, comes in response to the Delano Regional Transfer Station’s 33% rate increase, which is being implemented in response to a rate increase at the county landfill near Ephrata. Sunrise’s and Delano’s increases take effect on April 1. The individual cities will decide, in the meantime, how much...
Four more deaths and 1,515 more COVID-19 cases have been reported in the past week in Grant County, with 54 more cases being reported in local towns. Coulee Medical Center reports that out of 98 total tests performed at the Grand Coulee hospital Feb.1-7, 24 came back positive for covid. According to Grant County Health District’s Feb. 3 update, four more deaths have been added to the county’s COVID-19 death tally for a total of 237 since the start of the pandemic. The deaths include two men and two women, three with underlying health con... Full story
Mental health victims and juveniles can be restrained by law enforcement when responding to requests for assistance from crisis responders. That is the thrust of House Bill 1735, which passed the state House with a 90-5 vote and is now under consideration in the Senate. The bill is intended to end confusion caused by the adoption of last year’s House Bill 1310 which prevented crisis responders from receiving police assistance in detaining or transporting people. “We’re talking about hands-on…whether law enforcement can physically interac...
Raider and Lady Raider basketball fans helped raise $1,469 for Wellness Place in Wenatchee in the fight against cancer. Pink shirts were sold at Saturday’s games as part of the charity drive. “I am truly grateful for the teams and parents who want to donate to Wellness Place,” Executive Director Julie Lindholm of Wellness Place said in an email to Camille Pleasants who helped organize the charity drive. “We have quite a few cancer patients from your area that contact us for our free services. The most requested service is gas cards to get to...
EPHRATA, Wash – Grant PUD commissioners Tuesday unanimously chose Rich Wallen as the utility's new general manager and chief executive officer. Wallen has served as interim general manager since Jan. 1, after former general manager Kevin Nordt stepped down to focus on his health and take on a new role ensuring the utility a reliable energy supply. Commissioners pointed to Wallen's knowledge, experience gained at Grant PUD and benefit of mentoring by Nordt for their decision. "This process with t...
Local photographer Emily Rehn captured life among the frozen recently, as a deer seems to pose in front of the freezing fog and rime-coated brush along the cliffs of Steamboat Rock. - Emily Rehn photo...
Business owners may be finding that they need to renew their business licenses with the Washington State Department of Revenue’s Business License Services department rather than with their city. Licenses purchased for one town are still honored in the other three local Coulee community cities, with Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee D am, and Elmer City all having codes that state as much. In Electric City, for example, the code refers to businesses serving one or more of the four towns as “reciprocal businesses,” and states that those busines...
Homeless people would have quick access to shelters and other facilities under a $815 million, multi-agency plan supported by Gov. Jay Inslee. Flanked by Democratic officials from King County, Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma, Inslee on Feb. 3 pressed the state Legislature to pass Senate Bill 5662. The law would create an intergovernmental coordination office to reduce the number of homeless camps by helping people get into permanent housing. “We have to move more quickly and compassionately to serve the thousands of people who are now living u...
Grand Coulee Police 2/2 - Police spoke to a man staying in a trailer on property on Kelso Avenue and said he was allowed to be there after police received a report of possible trespassing. Police knew that the man had stayed in the trailer in the past. The man called the homeowner who confirmed to police that he was allowed to be there. - Police responded to E Street for a noise complaint and spoke to a man and woman in a car parked in a driveway where they were listening to music loudly. They agreed to turn the music down. Police returned...
It may make sense that a school board would have good communication with students, being that students are the reason schools exist. That need may be addressed in the Grand Coulee Dam School District in the 2022-23 school year by a pair of student representatives, a junior and senior, being chosen to represent the student body at school board meetings. Sophomore Celeste LaPlace, daughter of School Board Chairman George LaPlace, made a presentation to the district’s Board of Directors Jan. 24, leading to the approval of moving forward with t...
Local voters are casting their ballots on two school district levies that would replace three levies expiring at the end of this year, with passage of the educational levy coming with a bonus of $700,000 in "assistance funds" from the state annually for the four-year duration of that levy. On Feb. 8, election day, ballots will be counted for the two levies in the Grand Coulee Dam School District. If passed, the two levies will bring in an estimated $1.4 to $1.7 million to the school district... Full story
With almost four times the population of Washington state in an area a quarter of its size, Taiwan has suffered comparatively little of the economic devastation that has taken hold in this state and nation in general. They never even shut down the bars. Why? They all wear masks, contact tracing is fast, and they follow strict protocols with visitors. Aside from that, life is normal in the island nation off the coast of the People’s Republic of China. Coulee Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sam Hsieh just got back from visiting family t...
The Raiders' and Lady Raiders' Saturday night games in Coulee Dam this weekend will also host an anti-cancer fundraiser. The Raiders vs. Manson Trojans games will, in addition to senior night, be "Pink Out Night" for the Raiders' Fight Against Cancer. "The parents of the boys' and girls' basketball teams have raised $1,000 so far, which will be donated to a local cancer organization," Camille Pleasants, wife of Lady Raiders Head Coach Peewee Pleasants said in an email to The Star. "During the...
Approximately $31,000 in work is being done on a sewer line along Main Street in Grand Coulee and is expected to be done by the end of the week. Public Works Director Dennis Francis told the city council Jan. 18 that about 500 feet of sewer line on Main Street from around Loepp Furniture to around Teepee Burger was collapsing, although not completely blocked, and requires an emergency fix. "Our best bet is to dig it up and replace it," he said. "We need to get it done, real quick." Francis said...
If anyone in the Coulee area has a few hours a week to volunteer at Lake Roosevelt’s junior high school for a good cause, now is your chance. “We are looking for some dependable volunteers who are willing to commit anywhere from two to six hours per week to help in the junior high school,” Principal Sara Kennedy told The Star in a Jan. 28 email. “We need help with lunchtime and hallway supervision, hall monitors, and support in classrooms.” “Support in classrooms would entail being an extra set of hands during activities such as science exp...
