Newsbriefs

GC fire and

ambulance

busy

The Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department and Ambulance Service reported five fire calls and 28 ambulance calls during August.

Fire calls included four mutual aid responses and one vehicle fire. Eight ambulance calls were in Coulee Dam, and 11 in Grand Coulee. The ambulance also had eight transport calls, reported fire Chief Rick Paris to the city council.

Seeking clarity on building

issue

Hospital elected officials may attend an upcoming city council meeting en masse next month, seeking explanations for a seeming ambivalence toward a new hospital day care Coulee Medical Center is planning to open for its employees.

Work has been continuing on a refurbishment of the former clinic building after earlier problems getting the project OK’d by city building code enforcement. But hospital commissioners were told last night a fire marshal’s research was halted because he was told the city would be denying a permit for the facility.

Day care for its employees’ children has long been an issue for the hospital, a major challenge to the recruitment of health professionals with young children to a community without enough opportunities for day care placement.

Commission President Jerry Kennedy said he thought CMC’s employees had done what they could to work with the city. He urged commissioners to attend the Oct. 18 city council meeting to seek clarity on the issues if they are not worked out beforehand.

“It seems to be a continuing reservation on the part of the city, with no understanding why,” Kennedy said. “It seems, perhaps, that some public discussion would be warranted at this point.”

Smoothing move

Coulee Medical Center will pave the parking lot its employees park in across SR-174, near its laundry facility, as a result of a quick vote Monday night. Hospital District 6 commissioners agreed to the need to pave the area now, rather than later, to take advantage of a paving company already working in the area, thereby avoiding costly deployment charges. The work will cost $26,400, including asphalting a walking path on the hillside just below the hospital.

River closure planned

A portion of the Columbia River above Vernita Bridge will be temporarily closed to boating traffic on Sept. 28 and 29 and Oct. 3 and 4 while a contractor for Grant PUD performs maintenance to power lines that cross over the river, the PUD says. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office river patrol will be enforcing the closure of about a 400-yard corridor of the river 2.5 miles upstream from the Vernita Bridge.

The closures are expected to last between 30 to 60 minutes at a time, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., while the work is taking place. When the closures are in effect, watercraft operated by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office will have their emergency lights on and will be approaching boats before they enter the closed area. For more information, please call

Grant PUD Public Affairs at

509-754-5035.