News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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You can vote for your favorite scarecrow out of 17 total placed outside of local businesses and some residences in the Coulee community. The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce is holding the scarecrow contest, which has had "a great outcome," according to Executive Director Rachelle Haven. Haven said she would like the event to be a regular thing depending on community feedback. "The scarecrows have all turned out awesome and very creative!" she told The Star in an email. The chamber has...
Some workers in Washington state, faced with the ultimatum to get the jab or lose their jobs, have chosen to quit or retire instead of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. With employees in various fields, including school, health care, and state government required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as a requirement for their employment by Oct. 18, many workers in the state have opted to retire early or simply quit their jobs. Locally, council members for the city of Grand Coulee, as well as the mayor, expressed support for city employees to make...
Grand Coulee and Electric City have seen at least five new COVID-19 cases in the past week, while Coulee Dam has seen one more and Nespelem has seen two. According to Grant County Health District data last updated Oct. 26, the Grand Coulee and Electric City area of the county has seen 148 total cases since the pandemic began, up by five in the last week, with new cases being reported on Oct. 20. GCHD reported 103 new cases in the county on Oct. 25, and 65 on Oct. 26, but did not say where the cases occurred. Twenty-six people are hospitalized...
If your Halloween plans include trick or treating, remember these simple safety tips. • Stick with members of your own household and distance from others when in crowded indoor and outdoor spaces. • Wear a cloth mask and remember: a plastic costume mask is not a suitable substitute. • Wash your hands before and after trick-or-treating. • Bring plenty of hand sanitizer. If you give out treats: • Limit candy to individually wrapped treat bags. This reduces the number of people who would typically...
Grand Coulee PTA will be hosting their second Trunk or Treat event on Thursday, Oct. 28, from 5-7 p.m. Services, businesses, and community folks will be passing out treats to kids in cars as they drive around the school on the bus-loading route. No walkers please, say organizers. At the end, in the elementary parking lot, there will be a contest for the best-decorated car trunk. The winner will be decided by donation, and a trophy will be given to the winning car....
Grand Coulee Police 10/19 - A man reported being followed from Coulee Dam by a white Chrysler. He said that when he pulled into Safeway, the Chrysler pulled into the post office across the street and the driver got out and began filming him and his family. He confronted the driver and they exchanged words before the other driver drove off. The man just wanted the incident documented. - Police received permission from the owner of an abandoned trailer on King Street to search it anytime and were told that no one should ever be inside of it....
Taking a brief survey can help pay for 2022’s Coulee area spring cleanup, fall cleanup, and another spring cleanup in 2023. During the cleanups, residents of Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City are allowed to dump yard waste for free at the Delano Regional Transfer Station, and cities sometimes pick up yard waste for you from your street. Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout, on behalf of the Regional Board of Mayors, is applying for a roughly $30,000 air quality grant with the state Department of Ecology to pay for costs associ...
Following the death of a city employee, Coulee Dam is considering requiring all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Councilmember Dale Rey raised the question during a council meeting last Wednesday. Rey remarked on the recent death of one employee and a positive coronavirus test of another, although he said he was speculating on the cause of death. “Our town employees not only interact with each other and with us, but they also interact with and communicate with and are around members of the community,” Rey said, so requiring vaccinat...
Having received several complaints about loud fans at the cryptocurrency mining building owned by Canada-based Atlas Blockchain Group, Electric City is going to use a decibel meter to measure just how loud the fans really are. Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout said the fans on top of the building, formerly the Young’s Welding building on Coulee Boulevard, are loud and running 24 hours a day. She said people have reported having difficulty sleeping because of them, leading the city to look at their noise ordinance. Kohout explained that the c...
Two local counties last week reported 28 new COVID-19 related deaths. Grant County Health District reported nine deaths on Oct. 11, and nine more on Oct. 13 with the deaths occurring in the months of September and October. Of the 18 deaths in Grant County, 11 were men and seven were women; ages ranged from their 40s to 80s; 16 had underlying health conditions; three were fully vaccinated, and 15 were unvaccinated. Of those who died, nine were from Moses Lake, five were from Soap Lake, two were from Quincy, one was from Mattawa, and one from...
Shaeden Capshaw grabs a gob of roasted marshmallow off a stick of the goo held by Gaven White at the first spirit week bonfire held in several years at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School Thursday night after a homecoming volleyball game. - Scott Hunter photo...
Attorney General Bob Ferguson led a bipartisan coalition of 15 attorneys general Thursday calling on Congress to pass legislation supporting local journalism. “High-quality, independent journalism is critical to our democracy,” Ferguson said. “Local outlets have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic — ironically, just when their role as distributors of reliable information has rarely been more crucial. We must do all we can to save local journalism.” The letter calls on key leaders to support and pass the Local Journalis...
Tribal police inspect a car flipped early Monday at the edge of Coulee Dam. The silver car destroyed a longstanding sign in the process but the driver, seen talking with police, apparently escaped serious injury. From Davenport, he initially told police he'd swerved to avoid a deer but later admitted he'd fallen asleep. A redacted police report wasn't clear on whether the driver was a juvenile but omitted his full name. The crash happened at about 7 a.m. A sign advertising the community...
I want to remind our Grant County taxpayers that real, mobile home, personal property 2nd half taxes are due by November 1st. Since October 31 is on the weekend, the due date is extended to the next business day. If you are sending your payment by mail, please make sure your envelope is postmarked on or before November 1st to avoid being considered delinquent. Please verify that all parcels that you intend to pay were included on your statements. Please send the bottom right side coupon of your statements if you are paying by mail for proper...
Grand Coulee Police 10/12 - A man and woman on Alcan Road and Yakima Street were arrested and taken to jail for burglary. The man was known to stay at a residence there, but the owner said he was not allowed in a storage shed where both had stored items without permission. The two had allegedly picked a lock to enter the shed and retrieve their own items. They were found there and arrested. Drug paraphernalia was also found. The man was adamant that the shed was unlocked, and that he didn’t break in. 10/14 - A man was cited for driving under t...
Grand Coulee PTA will be hosting our 2nd Trunk or Treat event, Thursday, October 28th from 5-7pm. Services, businesses and community will be passing out treats to kids in cars as they drive around the school on the bus loading route. No walkers please. At the end in the elementary parking lot there will be a contest for the best decorated car trunk. Winner will be decided by donation and a trophy will be given to the winning car....
Lincoln County volunteer firefighters hose a fire that broke out about 4 p.m. at the elementary/middle school in Almira Tuesday, leading to its complete loss. No one was in the building at the time it started. Students were not in class Tuesday because of electrical issues, KXLY reported. Lincoln County Fire Protection District 8 Chief Denny Pinar told the station the cause of the fire had not been determined, although there were reports of an electrical smell after power was restored and...
It sounded like a good idea at the time: See if there’s a way to gather the Grand Coulee Dam School District’s athletics facilities onto one campus. With that direction from the board of directors, the district hired an architect last spring to look into the possibilities. Anything is possible for a price, but maybe not one you want to pay. When the new K-12 school was built with no local debt, funding was not available to include a new gym, and school leaders have been trying to find a way to build one ever since, plus fix other dis...
Voters in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will be asked next February to replace an expiring tax levy with a new one of the same rate in 2023. The board of directors voted Tuesday night to direct the superintendent to prepare language for a levy question on the coming ballot that would keep the current “enrichment” levy property tax rate at $2.50 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. And they voted to seek a replacement of the district’s expiring capital facilities levy at $1.70 per thousand, the same rate as the current one. Super...
Electric City’s Planning Commission will hold a public workshop Thursday, October 28, at 6 p.m. at city hall or on Zoom (to be determined) to kick off a process to review and revise the city’s Comprehensive Plan, Zoning Code and other “implementing regulations,” the city said in a press release last week. The workshop will give an overview of the update process, existing plans and regulations, and will solicit comments from the public on land use issues. Commissioners hope to build a a “docket” of potential amendments to review during 2022...
Fall is a colorful time to hike Steamboat Rock, nearly as iconic an image to the area as the Grand Coulee Dam. Not only does the state park of the same name offer camping and beaches, but you can also climb to the top of this majestic basalt landmark that stands 800 feet above beautiful Banks Lake, which almost completely surrounds it. In Steamboat Rock State Park, which requires a Discover Pass to park, the trailhead starts in two separate places, both fairly close to each other, across the roa...
Having served on the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors since 2009, Ken “Butch” Stanger would like to serve one last term to see certain things get accomplished. Stanger, who lives in Belvedere, between Elmer City and Nespelem, graduated from Coulee Dam High School in 1961 after attending both Nespelem and Grand Coulee schools before that. Having grandkids, nieces, nephews, and lots of other relatives in the district, Stanger told The Star over the phone that “we all need to pay special attention to general education as it re...
Buffy Nicholson has a vested interest in being a Grand Coulee Dam School District director, having two daughters in the district, a son who will be, and other family members, as well. Nicholson is running for the School Director #2 position against incumbent Butch Stanger in the Nov. 2 election. The Elmer City woman has an eighth-grade daughter who attends Lake Roosevelt, Cora; a fifth grade daughter, Claire; and a son who will attend when school age as well, she told The Star in an email. She also has a large and extended family with many...
Grant County wants to hand out money. The Grant County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) announced Monday that they are seeking grant applications for qualifying tourism-promotion campaigns, events and projects for 2022. The application period is open from Oct. 11-29. All grant applications must be received in the county commissioners office or postmarked no later than 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 29. Late applications won’t be accepted. The application can be found online at: https://wa-grantcounty.civicplus.com/905/2022-Lodgin...
In a move that will both ease monthly cash needs and add needed upgrades, Coulee Medical Center recently refinanced millions in debt it took on to build the new hospital. The original debt for a little over $23 million has been whittled down to a nearly $18.9 million loan, with $1 million of that tagged for upgrading equipment, including all new state-of-the-art patient beds. The move captures a better interest rate less than half of the previous financing package, according to Chief Financial...