News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
A state Dept. of Transportation worker stands amid stopped traffic at the intersection of River Drive and Roosevelt Way on the east side of the Columbia River Bridge in Coulee Dam, which was closed for nearly five hours Thursday as a troubled man sat atop the bridge. - Scott Hunter photo
A young man came down from the top of the Columbia River Bridge in Coulee Dam Thursday evening, coached down by a Nespelem Valley Electric worker with a bucket truck.
Police had called for the truck earlier in the day from the Rural Electric Authority utility, which also contracts to do line repairs for the city utility in Coulee Dam and was nearby.
Police were looking for a way to communicate with the man and planned to have a cell phone delivered with the bucket truck.
But the man in the truck, who has asked not to be identified, knew the young man. His boss thought he'd be the right person to talk to the young man.
That was apparently a good call.
A little before 6 p.m., the man, after sitting atop the steel bridge in the sun and heat for hours, then drinking water the NVEC worker brought and talking with him, got into the bucket and took the ride down.
The Nespelem employee said he wants us "to start focusing on our kids' metal health in our community" and that he was "glad to be in the situation to help at that moment."
At about 1:15 that afternoon, a city employee told Coulee Dam Police Officer Josh Watkins that he was concerned about a man who had been pacing back and forth on the bridge for over 15 minutes.
Watkins recognized the man on the bridge, who was having a smoke. He said he was OK, and not intending to hurt himself.
Watkins left, knowing the man didn't like law enforcement people, and returned to the police station nearby. But immediately a Bureau of Reclamation worker called to say the man had climbed to the top of the bridge right after Watkins had left.
Watkins called in the state Dept. of Transportation to close the road, so that family could try to talk with the man, who still signaled a thumbs-up to Watkins from the top of the bridge.
Watkins contacted Grant Mental Health for counseling the man. And after a long time, he figured the man had to be getting dehydrated in the heat, so he arranged for the NVEC bucket truck help to get water to him, plus a cell phone to make communication possible. The man declined the cell phone, but eventually decided to get into the bucket truck and ride down to the surface.
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