Keene voted onto port district commission

Jim Keene, retired school administrator, was named to the Grant County Port District 7 board of commissioners last Thursday.

Keene replaces Jerry Birdwell who resigned last month. Keene will take over his duties when the board meets the last Thursday of April.

Keene has been superintendent of schools in the Grand Coulee Dam School District, in Clarkston and in Pendleton before his retirement brought him and his wife back to Delano.

Keene has also served as president of the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club and is active in a number of local groups.

Keene and Dennis Lohrman had both indicated an interest in serving as a commissioner on the port board.

After an executive session to discuss the two, the board members returned to vote Keene in.

The board expects another vacancy on the three-member board later this year when Commissioner Stan Conklin officially resigns. Conklin has purchased a home where he has been vacationing in the winter and plans to leave the board sometime this year.

In other activity, Mike Parisien, manager of the golf course, reported that the course now has 51 memberships. Chairman Orville Scharbach said the goal is 90 for this season.

The port district operates the 18-hole Banks Lake Golf Course.

Scharbach reported that the district has received $1,800, a new safe, and a repaired door, from its insurance company. The old safe, with $2,800 in it, was taken in a break-in at the golf course earlier this year.