Newsbriefs

Chelan barrels champ from

Grand Coulee

At the 2013 Lake Chelan Rodeo Aug. 3-4, Denene Douglas of Grand Coulee won the Barrel Racing event with a final time of 17.694, the Lake Chelan Mirror reported.

Back To School nights planned

The Grand Coulee Dam School District will hold a Back to School Night for all students on Thursday, Aug. 22. The schedule is as follows:

Center Elementary

5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

GCD Middle School

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Lake Roosevelt High School 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Calling all

Triathlon volunteers

A meeting for volunteers for the upcoming Grand Columbian Triathlon, Sept. 21, will be held at 6:30 tonight at the LaPresa Restaurant in Grand Coulee. Dana Barkdull of TriFreaks, the sponsoring organization, stated that it takes a lot of volunteers to put on a triathlon and asked for anyone interested in being involved to attend the meeting.

Change can

be good

Nancy Carlson appeared before the Grand Coulee City Council last Tuesday night to ask that the city change its ordinance on how board members are selected for the library. Carlson explained that it is difficult to get board members and that if the ordinance was changed so board members could come from Coulee Dam and Electric City, it would strengthen the board. The city is looking into changing the ordinance.

Author will

sign books

Arnie Marchand will hold a book signing at the Colville Tribal Museum in Coulee Dam from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, museum personnel stated. His first book, “The Way I Heard It,” retells stories from Okanogan Country as you travel through time and includes stories of places and events in Indian Country.

New location

for chamber

The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce will change its office location from Grand Coulee City Hall to the Starkey Professional Building at 17 Midway Avenue, Sept. 1.

When the subject came up at the Grand Coulee council meeting last Tuesday evening, it was suggested that the former Chamber office be used as a police interview room. Previously the police department used the council chambers as an interview room. This would allow more privacy, it was reasoned.

Lit us up

The U.S. Forest Service stated more than 18,000 lightning strikes hit throughout Washington state last Friday night and Saturday with more than 60 fires reported, most of them minor and not involving very many acres.

However, five fires started on the Colville Indian Reservation. The Westside Complex comprises all five, totalling 250 acres. The fires were considered 64 percent contained Tuesday, when a spike camp was set up to allow crews to reach the remote fires faster. Some 115 personnel are involved in the fire, based at the Nespelem Community Center, which was closed to the public.