Coulee Recollections

Ten Years Ago

Random Heroes to rock the Coulee. Corey Hilson, Brian Edwards, Brandon Ricks, Clancy Dieser and Mike Harden, five local boys will give their first local rock concert Friday night.

Security upgrades at Grand Coulee Dam continue with the recent contract of $4 million dollars to Adesta, LLC for upgrading and installation of video surveillance equipment, intrusion detection, access controls and communication systems.

Raider Basketball presented their awards this week to both boys and girls teams. Steve Breeze is first team all Caribou Trail League plus took home many of the team voted on trophies. Nick Barnaby was named second team all Caribou Trail League and Omar Fercha, Jared Erickson and Neil Johnson were honorable mention. For the ladies, Jessica Loe was named all League, first team. Rhonda St. Pierre was named to the second team and Amanda Marchand and Heather Circle were honorable mention. Dana Egbert, girls coach, was named CTL coach of the year.

Twenty Years Ago

About 150 residents of the Grand Coulee turned out last week to a meeting held on the subject of consolidation. This meeting was a culmination of the Grand Coulee Chamber of Commerce three year study on bringing the four towns together as one. 

Lake Roosevelt Track earned seven first places and eleven second places in a three way meet in Quincy Saturday. Jeff Mintle won the 100 meters. Marty Malone won the long jump. Jackson Louie won the pole vault. Sarah Lockenvitz won the triple jump. Mae Monsanto won the 100 meters. The 400 meter relay team won for the boys and the 1600 team won too.

The Lake Roosevelt Junior class took on the all alumni team in a fund raiser Tuesday. The Junior class pulled out a victory 56-52 in the highly contested contest. Randy Jackson(17) was the high scorer in the loss for the alumni team. Chuck Simpson had 17 point to lead the junior class. Also in competition that same night the juniors challenged the community in a Donkey basketball game. This time the community took down the class 38-35 with Ben Logue, Jerry Stanford and Larry Hall all having 6 point to lead the team. Simpson again led the Juniors with 14 point but his was not enough.

Thirty Years Ago

Grand Coulee City Council had a large list of work to do Tuesday night at their council meeting. The night started off with a large manilla envelope delivered to each council member by local businessman Bennie Zlateff. The contents referred to a parking problem in front of his business that had been going on for years. The issue was turned over to the street and police committee. Also on the agenda was approving an old ambulance as the new animal control vehicle, a complaint about rabbits and chickens, holes in Mead street, repairs to the city park restrooms, cracks in the sidewalk in front of Loepp’s, crosswalk issues, drainage improvement, new waste water plant, rezoning a residential area, a fee for notary services, remove old signage and business license renewals. 

Raider Baseball erupted for seven runs in the third inning and went on to beat Wilbur 10-7 Saturday. Rob Bower went 3-3 at the plate with Kelly Snow and Charlie Wendt each collecting three runs batted in a piece.

Forty Years Ago  

The Crow Rock Products contractor has been busy with the job of modifying the area in and around where the old Green Hut used to sit, all part of the new Tour Center planned by USBR. Restrooms and new tour building, including a new road are all included in the improvements. 

A baby daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Hal Rauch Friday, March 22nd in Brewster. Shayla Jennifer was 8 lbs 12 ozs. 

The fifth class of operator trainees at Grand Coulee Dam recently graduated and reported for duty. This includes the first ever woman, Kathy Webb, to be a part of the training. The other graduates are: Bob Mattson, Steve Stewart, Richard Flink, William Dunlap, Wayne Bunker, Rett Hubbard, William Tuescher, Tim Alling, Doug Esch, Morris Barnaby and Warren Koontz.

Fifty Years Ago

The 28th Annual Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by the Grand Coulee Lions Club will be on Sunday at the Grand Coulee High School Field. All children are welcome and there will be lots of prizes.

Safeway is offering Easter Lilies this week for 33 cents a pot and whole hams for 45 cents a pound. Skaars Variety has Easter baskets for 89 cents each and ladies easter hats for 1 dollar a piece. Coulee Dam Stores,Inc. are offering a contest if you can guess the weight of the giant bologna you will receive a five dollar gift certificate. They are also offering store wide sales for Easter.

A small group of concerned citizens turned out at all council meetings this week to convey their concern over dying small towns all over the state and a desire to see the councils look into consolidation for everyones benefit. 

Sixty Years Ago

A news report from Wenatchee reveals that Hu Blonk has been named managing editor of the Wenatchee World Daily paper. Blonk began his career as a news reporter at Grand Coulee Dam when the construction first began. At that time he wrote for the World Paper and the Spokane Chronicle. Later he accepted a position as the information officer at Grand Coulee Dam and was quickly promoted to the regional office in Boise.