Great stuff

I appreciate our local towns working together on the massive chip seal street project. It looks great and was needed. Now we all need to work together with expertise from Ryan Fish, Nic Alexander and others knowledgeable to make our emergency services more efficient and effective.

Also, thanks to the Coulee Dam Shop crew for cutting back the overgrowth at the corner to the police station. I have seen many close calls there and worried about vehicles colliding. Now visibility is better for traffic flow.

I’m thankful for the tremendous leadership from the Coulee Medical Center’s Board of Directors. The long-term CEO transition plan they worked on with Ramona Hicks built capacity for Kelly Hughes to flourish and be successful. Ramona will thrive in any position she is in. By example she took over a very complex, critical organization with tremendous challenges. She and her team of multi-taskers did more with less so front-line workers could be successful and provide better patient care.

Speaking of good people, Herb Sherburn was spot on with his comments about Jim and Rose Keene. People don’t get any better than them and their wonderful kids. Jim was super as our local school district superintendent years ago. He was a true professional and servant leader with a quiet, calm, collaborative style who put others first and wanted to be in the background. He knew there was no “I” in the word TEAM. He is always so kind and humble, reminding me of Bashful of the Seven Dwarfs. Jim has a great sense of humor, giggles and turns red when given a compliment. However, I never heard him say “Oh, shucks,” like Bashful did. I knew he would do great things as one of our commissioners, and he did with the Banks Lake Golf Course. He’d be the first to tell you all the commissioners were involved to share the praise. I envisioned him working the course, like in Caddy Shack, in his bucket hat whacking gophers. The Colville Tribes with all their resources will be good stewards of the course and take it to a new level. All of those who very creatively, with their won fiscal and sweat equity, brought the course to life through thick and thin should be very proud.

Great to see Amelia Moses Marchand be appointed by Joe Biden as chairman of the Advisory Council of Historic Preservation. This is amazing, and we are very proud of her. We look forward to the work that she will do.

My wife and I are very excited about the new secondary assistant principal for the Grand Coulee Dam School District. Selena Carlson has local connections that run deep. She will be a great role model. Natalie Kontos is the best administrator in our entire school district. She will be an exceptional mentor for her. We wish Selena the best!

Jason Jackson was a former student-athlete that I and my wife worked with in school. He was a great kid and now an even better adult. He is an extremely hard worker with a witty sense of humor. Recently, he did a couple major projects for us and did a timely, amazing job. We’re thankful to have his local expertise. It’s fun that his son was a state champion wrestler as a Raider.

I’m very excited that Larry Hernandez is bringing the theater in Coulee Dam back to life. I grew up in a family of thespians, so I’m all for plays, movies, community events and whatever it will be. Great to see the venue function again.

Last spring, an adult from our community involved with Oral Boards for our graduating class gave a very nice compliment. When one senior was asked by the Board what they wanted to be in the future, the senior said, “I want to be Mrs. A. I want to teach and coach cheerleaders.” This meant the world to my wife, who currently has 20 cheerleader hopefuls turning out for Raider football cheerleading. This program is thriving.

I always look forward to articles from Roger Lucas and appreciate the recent track & field one. As a track & field groupie, I was on the ultimate high this summer. In person, I told Tara Davis-Woodhall to “Go get ’em!” and she gave me a fist bump! She went on to win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics in the long jump. Our fist bump brought her good Karma. I have a permanent smile on my face.

Great people and times.

John M. Adkin