Newsbriefs

Supporting the bigger

picture

Electric City’s council agreed to support the work of the Grant County Economic Development Council and voted $500 in support of the group’s work. The agreement is through Dec. 31.

A lot of sludge

Electric City has hauled about eight tons of sludge from its arsenic treatment plant to the Grant County Landfill in Ephrata so far this year. Public works director Ken Dexter said about 24 additional tons of sludge are ready to be hauled to the landfill. The sludge comes from cleaning out a large arsenic treatment tank. The material is bagged and, when sufficiently dry, hauled by the city to Ephrata. The transfer of the material to the landfill has been approved by the state departments of Health and Ecology.

Blood drive next Monday

The Inland Northwest Blood Center, along with the Grand Coulee Community Blood Drive Volunteers, will hold a blood drive Monday, March 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Coulee Medical Center’s Building B. Sommer Hicks is coordinating the blood drive.

Nine busted

in heroin

investigation

Nine residents of Omak, Okanogan and Riverside were jailed in Okanogan last Thursday at the conclusion of a months-long investigation into heroin distribution, the Okanogan County Sheriff announced.

“Heroin has now surpassed methamphetamine as the drug of choice in Okanogan County,” a statement released by Sheriff Frank Rodgers said.

The North Central Washington Narcotics Task Force, Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office, Omak Police Department, Chelan County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Border Patrol executed search warrants at two homes in the Omak area, where five children between the ages of 3 and 7 were also found.

“The condition of both homes searched were atrocious with used and un-used hypodermic needles found throughout the houses with several lying loaded with drugs on the floors,” the statement read. “Large amounts of animal feces were also found on the floors inside both of the houses. No condition for adults to be living in, let alone children.”

Log booms

proposed

up lake

The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking public comment on a Draft Environmental Assessment for the construction of shoreline protection systems on the lower portion of Lake Roosevelt. Comments are due by April 20, 2015.

The proposed project involves installing wooden log booms at Moonbeam Bay and Redford Canyon. The log booms would span approximately 645 linear feet at Redford Canyon and 675 linear feet at Moonbeam Bay, both of which are near Keller Ferry.