Newsbriefs

Sound system to get tested

The new sound system at Lake Roosevelt High School gym will get tested tonight (Wednesday) at 6:30 when the school band, art department and choir will be performing. The public is invited.

Flags ceremony coming up

The Isle of Flags is again taking flags of deceased veterans for the upcoming Memorial Day dedication at Spring Canyon Cemetery. Call Ben Alling at 509-633-0663 by May 20.

NPS adjusts to mosquito problem

The Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area will adopt “interim measures” this year to combat high mosquito populations in the recreation area.

“While the National Park Service (NPS) considers mosquitoes a natural component of the ecosystem, we also recognize that mosquitoes can pose a risk to human and wildlife health,” stated a press release last week.

The LRNRA staff will work with the public to develop a management plan for the pests. In the meantime those interim measures include surveillance, reduction of breeding sites, possible control of larvae and adult mosquitoes and public education.

In monitoring near Kettle Falls over the last two summers, NPS and state Health Dept. personnel found West Nile Virus only once, in Stevens County.

The NPS also plans to reduce the number of non-native black locust trees and could use prescribed fire to reduce non-native grasses in 2018 to reduce mosquito habitat.

It may also decide to apply larvicide “when disease-carrying mosquitoes are identified and pose a significant health threat,” the NPS said.

Brace for taxes

The Okanogan County Assessor’s Office will mail out revaluation notices May 31 to property owners within the Grand Coulee Dam School District located in Okanogan County, as well as to landowners in the Brewster and Pateros school districts, the Assessor’s Office stated in a press release.

County Assessor Scott Furman noted that the portion of Coulee Dam within Okanogan County has approximately 360 single-family residences, of which 51 have sold during the past four years.