Whatever happened to...

Grand Coulee City Hall

could get painted next year

 Budget time is right around the corner, and money may be set aside for Grand Coulee to paint their city hall building on Midway Avenue which also includes the city police station. 

At their July 19 meeting, the city council discussed painting city hall, deciding simply to look into options but not discussing what color they’d like to see it painted. 

City Clerk Lorna Pearce said in an email to The Star this week that the issue will be looked at more closely at budget time, and that city hall did receive a $14,225 estimate for painting the building, a price that could go up by the time 2023 rolls around. 

Pearce herself suggested, along with a smile emoji, that maybe each wall could be painted a different color. 

What color do you think it should be painted? 

Electronic speed signs ready

to be installed in Grand Coulee

Grand Coulee has solar-powered electronic speed signs, purchased in July of 2021, ready to be installed somewhere on the east and west ends of the city limits on SR-174 for drivers coming into the city.

The signs, purchased for somewhere between $5,000-$6,000, will show a driver’s speed compared to the speed limit.

It took a while for the city to receive the signs, and Public Works Director Dennis Francis has had larger fish to fry in the meantime, City Clerk Lorna Pearce explained to The Star, with a large Federal Avenue street and water project being completed earlier this summer, upgrades being made to the city park on SR-174, and a sewer line issue at city hall that required the parking lot to be torn up. 

Vlachos building demolition back off track

 The demolition of a condemned building on Spokane Way that once belonged to a local inventor still hasn’t happened after about four years of delays. 

In May of 2021, The Star wrote in a story titled “Building demolition back on track” that demolition was reportedly likely for that summer after the city accepted a $8,563.60 bid from ALMAG, Inc, a Chelan-based company. 

The building, once belonging to inventor and mechanic Constantinos Vlachos, has been boarded up and abandoned for years.

In 2018, the Coulee Pioneer Museum recovered some items from the premises, including the bare bones of a car known as the Phibian, which Vlachos had invented, a vehicle that he said could run on water rather than petroleum.

Only the main building on the property, located along the street and in a decrepit condition, declared dangerous in 2018, is to be demolished, with separate buildings behind it not being officially condemned. 

The demolition of the building has been a long time in the works, with the city first going to bid for demolition in 2018, then facing delays, then further delays.

The Star, asking why the demolition still hadn’t taken place, was told by City Clerk Lorna Pearce in an email this week that “several attempts have been made to contact [the contractor] with no response. I will need to speak with the city attorney to see what our options are moving forward,” she said.