Coulee Recollections

Ten Years Ago

School Board Directors indicated they would hold off on approval of a plan administrators proposed to bring test scores up, at least until they have more information. This was after the board fielded questions for two and a half hours at an open forum meeting with concerned citizens.

A man suspected of a drive by shooting in Omak was arrested by Tribal Police Friday. The 20 year old suspect was witnessed with three juveniles that drove by the home of Colleen Waters and Ronald Louie and fired three to four bullets into the home.

The Grand Coulee Dam Crushers brought home 23 medals from a Wilbur Tournament last week. 5 year olds: Jacob Palmer and Kenneth Lelone. 6 year olds: Gabe Timentwa. 7 year olds: Charles LaPlante and Michael Rounds. 8 year olds: Eli Senator and Alexia Hanway. 9 year olds: Robert Parisien, James Francis, Skye Gregory, Abe Batten, Orrin Gross and S’Niviah Rounds. 10 year olds: Jesse Billups. 11 year olds: Dustin Munger, Randy Gross and Sterling Shephard. 12 year olds: Jared Balthazor and Edward Wolfe. 13 year olds: RJ Thompson, Kasey Green and Brian Stanger. 14 year olds: Austin Bowman.

Twenty Years Ago

Lake Roosevelt High School has earned three Caribou Trail League team sportsmanship awards this year. The girls basketball team is the most recent joining the Cross Country Team and the Football team who received theirs last fall.

Grand Coulee Residents may experience water shut offs during the next few weeks as contractors work to replace the main water between Spokane Way and Weil Place.

Thirty Years Ago

Two important public sessions were held last week. Both were hosted by the Banks Lake Golf and Country Club regarding the construction of a golf course here in the area. It was an open forum session to hear concerns and support from the public.

A parent group of nearly 40 parents came before the Grand Coulee Dam School Board at the last meeting. The parents wanted to petition the board to remove sex education in the new Health Program at Wright Elementary their opening statement was “Sex education needs to be taught by parents not teachers at the elementary age.

Washington Wheat Queen, Lennae Hemmer, was recently in Olympia where she was introduced to the Senate by Lt. Governor John Cherburg. Lennae gave a talk on the wheat industry in the state.

Forty Years Ago  

In an informal meeting held Friday at the Wildlife Restaurant, Commander George Cobb of the U.S. Naval Station at Whidbey Island, told a group of local and Douglas County officials and area farmers of a proposed Naval Bombing Range . The range would be about 5000 acres in Douglas County, mostly farm scab-land and only training bombs would be dropped.

A new business was welcomed into the community this week. A&W Drive In, owned by Jerome Bonneville was opened and a line of cars could be seen waiting for their order. The Drive In is located at the four corners of HW 174 and HW 155.

Fifty Years Ago

The dedication of a new church of the Sacred Heart Mission will take place Sunday in Nespelem.  The occasion marks almost 16 years without a Catholic Church in Nespelem. The last church was destroyed in a fire in 1948.

Herbert A. Bird, machinery repairman third class, United States Navy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold C. Bird of Electric City, is participating aboard the destroyer escort USS Radford in “Operation Backpack” off the coast of Tawian. Bird is one of 40,000 men participating in the maneuvers.