Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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The Palouse Arts Council is on the verge of making another offer on buying the Palouse Grange hall, citing problems working with the state Grange, official owner of the building. The council has maintained the aging community building for the past eight years and wants to legally own it in order to apply for public funding for needed repairs to the structure. The Arts Council believes the price quoted by the state Grange is exorbitant, but the state grange property manager said their price is greatly reduced for the value of the building site....
A visiting actress entertained grade school students at nine schools in the county last week on an educational tour. The Living Voices program, here on a grant awarded to Whitman County library, offered students a choice of four program; Young People During the Holocaust, the Journey to America, Becoming American in the early 1900s and Fighting for Women’s Right to Vote. A video on immigrating to the U.S. plays in the Garfield school gym. Actress Brit Boyd with Living Voices out of Seattle presented the programs. Boyd narrated the life of an Ir...
Letting dogs run free on the slopes of Kamiak Butte is becoming an issue. County park rangers last month discovered a blog with multiple photos of dogs running loose on the butte. The blog was on a northwest hikers Web site which encourages hikers to post details about local hikes. The pictures on nwhikers.net depicted dogs running free along the Kamiak ridge, with users leaving supportive comments. Dogs run free in a photo from the nwhikers.net web site. The blog has listed Kamiak Butte as a leashless dog park. Even in the winter, the area is...
Two months before the Colfax school district faces a deadline on teacher layoffs, the school board Monday received a letter from the teachers union which objects to the district’s proposed approach to layoffs. The teachers urged the board to stick with the present practice of making staff cuts on the basis of seniority. Cary Cammack, president of the Colfax Education Association, delivered the letter to the school board. It was signed by 39 of the district’s 42 teachers. The letter said the teachers reject what it calls the district’s “regr...
Carpets of silky primroses and pansies, with their brilliant reds and velvety blues, line the counters of the spacious conservatory. They have an herb garden growing on the roof of the gift shop. Solar panels power the energy needs of the business. Welcome to Living in the Garden, a seasonal garden supplier located just outside Pullman. Owned by Scottie and Suzanne St. Pierre, the “green” business sells yard plants and has a hand in many community-oriented events on the Palouse. A gift shop, conservatory, display gardens and a private greenhous...
The town of Palouse is now selecting an engineer to tackle the town’s comprehensive water system plan. The town seeks to develop an extensive water system plan that will map out water infrastructure, pinpoint future city water projects and detail past water projects. Torrence Engineering from Cashmere, Anderson Perry from Walla Walla, Taylor Engineering from Pullman and Keltic Engineering from Lewiston are the final candidates for the job, said Connie Newman, head of the council water/sewer committee. The committee will make its final r...
The 58th annual Uniontown sausage feed Sunday filled the tummies of hundreds once again, despite a brief and heavy snowstorm just hours before the event. Volunteer Ken Oenning said he and other volunteers watched the squalls of snow storms throughout last week nervously, hoping the weather would let up the day of the feed. The last squall hit heavy at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning of the feed, but let up after just one and a half hours. “The first of last week when it was snowing and snowing and snowing, I was really scared. I thought, ‘Oh my gos...
An outbreak of flu hit dozens of students in the St. John and Endicott School districts the first week of March, prompting school officials to close the school March 3. “We aired out the buildings and disinfected as much as we could,” said Superintendent Rick Winters. Eighty-five of the 260 students were absent Wednesday, with roughly 90 percent of the calls related to flu-like symptoms. Students or their parents began calling in sick Monday, Feb. 28, with more calls later in the week. Winters said he and other school officials decided at noo...
Tekoa’s Café Artisan halted its regular business hours at the first of the year and is now two months into its new business model, opening only for special events. “We didn’t close, we just completely changed our concept,” said Amber Giebeler, who owns the business. The café in downtown Tekoa now opens for meals on certain holidays and on nights when there are shows at the Tekoa Empire Theater. The restaurant also serves specialty meals for events like business luncheons. Another show will be at the Empire March 26 and the café will open for a...
Whitman County 4H members Brenden Jacobs (far left) and Patrick Jacobs (far inner left) pose in a group with 9th District Sen. Mark Schoesler (center). The Jacobs brothers, along with nine other 4H members, visited Olympia for four days for a 4H conference. WSU county extension manager Janet Schmidt (right) helped coordinate the conference. Eleven teenagers from Whitman and Asotin counties hit the road Feb. 19 for a whirlwind 4H conference in Olympia. What followed for the students was a four-day lesson on media and a little fun on the side....
I hope you enjoyed arriving in Colfax 1.67 seconds faster than I did. Whatever you do with that precious time, that was worth risking my life and yours, I hope you use it well. It goes like this. I’ll be driving back to Pullman from Spokane on a Sunday evening, driving peacefully behind a line of cars ahead of me. We have all picked a speed that works for us, because we have all been driving at that same speed since Spangle. We’re okay with it. Then you appear in my rearview mirror, a dot on the horizon. Within seconds, you are less than 10...
A new council member was sworn in to the Palouse city council at its council meeting Tuesday. Tim Jones, an architect at WSU, accepted the position after the council met in executive session for five minutes to discuss his qualifications. Jones was the only applicant for the council position. He told the Gazette he was encouraged by council member Connie Newman to apply. Jones has a career-long background in architecture, largely in municipal and public buildings. Jones has been an architect for the past five years at WSU with the capital plann...
Teachers from around the county attend training in Colfax. Teachers became students for a day this week during a county-wide conference as part of a Professional Learning Communities program. The Monday session was at Colfax High School. “I’m excited about some new strategies I learned for math interventions,” said Bobbi Mackleit, fourth-grade teacher at Oakesdale elementary. Educators from the White River School District led many of the sessions. The Whitman County Principals Association came up with the idea for a training day in light of dwi...
History will come alive for county youth this March 8, 9 and 10 with the arrival of a traveling actress of history. Living Voices, a multi-media education program, will visit nine schools with a 50-minute presentation on several aspects of history. Grades five through eight will see the presentation. Schools have their choice of four programs: Young People During the Holocaust, the Journey to America, Becoming American in the early 1900s and Fighting for Women’s Right to Vote. Through a film and live acting, the students will learn about the t...
Tekoa’s superintendent for the last five years has been hired as superintendent for the Shelton School District north of Olympia. Wayne Massie will be leaving the district of 200 students for a district of 4,000 students. In an interview with the Gazette Monday, Massie said he is looking forward to the responsibilities of a bigger district. His move was announced at a Tekoa school board meeting Feb. 22. High school Principal Wayne Roellich said the school board will next open up the position of superintendent and begin taking applications. H...
Audie Guidi of Colfax is tearing up and hugging people she has worked with for years. Friends hold her in their arms and wish her well. A counter full of flowers and gifts lines the side of the Whitman Hospital cafeteria. Audie Guidi receives a hug from a co-worker. Guidi is leaving the hospital after 34 years in its kitchen. Her retirement party Monday culminated a career of preparing healthy meals and maintaining the small-town hospital cafeteria. “It’s time to hang up my apron and do something else,” she told the Gazette. Retirement means...
Colton school district voters will see a revised bond proposal for the remodeling of their school on the ballot April 26. School district officials have dropped the overall cost of the project approximately a quarter of million. The bond proposal has been reduced by $164,000, from $5,160,000 to $4,996,000. The proposal calls for a 20-year issue for the bonds. November’s bond measure fell 40 votes short of receiving the required 60 percent approval rate for a funding measure. School officials in January conducted two public meetings to ask c...
Wawawai River Road will be closed for seven hours Saturday for the 32nd annual Snake River Canyon Half Marathon. Roughly 500 runners will take to the road for 13.1 miles. The race begins at Wawawai Landing. Entrants go upstream for six miles, turn around and come back. County public works director Mark Storey said so many people signed up for the run this year they decided to close the road. “We didn’t realize there would be that many. It grew by several hundred,” Storey said. Palouse Road Runners hosts the event each year. “It’s the same half...
Next Christmas may bring a new fire truck for Pullman Rural Fire District 12. The district was awarded $279,000 from the federal government which will be used to purchase a new fire truck. Fire Chief Lester Erwin said if they order a brand new engine, the district can expect to have it by Christmas. The grant from FEMA Emergency Services requires the district must supply five percent of the funding, bringing the total for the truck to $300,000. “[We’re] hoping for it before this time next year, maybe around Christmas time,” Erwin said. Distr...
After a season-long wrestling match with winter weather, a family outside Palouse has finally erected a wind turbine. Only able to work on still, cool, dry days, crews have spent the past few months putting up a 100-foot turbine atop a hill south of Palouse. “We fought the weather for a long time and finally found a nice little window to get in there and get it done,” said Craig Dillard. The turbine is dedicated to the late Mike Carlton, an advocate for wind energy on the Palouse. The turbine sits on the land of Tony Kettel and will supply her...
The first results are out on the Colfax school survey, with a majority of school staff saying they are seeing marked improvements to the school district and the leadership of Superintendent Michael Morgan. The majority of staff lauded the work of Principals Tom Arlt and Gary Weitz and pointed to an education system that was more or less united in its goals. Different surveys were provided to school staff, Colfax students, parents, and the community at large. Supt. Morgan presented the results to the school board at its regular meeting Monday...
Even antique stores need some spring cleaning once in a while, or so say four dealers in downtown Palouse. The four antique shops are sorting out wares for a sale March 12 at the former Small Towne Quilts building downtown. Heidi Kite, owner of the two Open Eye Consignment Shops in town, said Palouse lacks a town-wide event in March and that means a slump in sales for businesses. “Jackie (Strack) and I said ‘Lets do something!’” she said. She is organizing the March Madness sale in the hopes of drumming up business. Kite added she will be givi...
A 10-year review of mortality and infectious disease in Whitman County was published earlier this month by Dr. Tim Moody, county health doctor. The review compares the health statistics for the county against the rates of the whole state population. County commissioners saw copies of the review at the county health meeting Feb. 15. The leading causes of death in Whitman County, in order, are heart disease, cancer, emphysema, Alzheimer’s and accidents. The top four types of cancer, starting with the most common, are prostate cancer, breast cance...
David Wold (left) and Claire Echanove (right) perform Wild Thing. To a grange hall full of giggles, the girl in the green dress sung “Wild Thing” into the microphone, backed up by some silky bass. Claire Echanove, star singer for a few moments Sunday, was accompanied by David Wold for one of 13 acts for the 14th annual PEO variety show held at the Palouse Grange Hall building. A gaggle of little boys and girls performed a dance with colored scarves. “There were three and four and five-year-olds doing scarf dancing- it was pretty sweet...
Colfax Chamber of Commerce members and guests learned the ins and outs of the Lower Granite Dam at a presentation Feb. 15. Sara White, Environmental Compliance Coordinator, spoke to about a dozen people in the Whitman Hospital cafeteria. Sara White points to a slide of a fish ladder at the Lower Granite Dam. Through an hour-long power point presentation, the audience heard statistics on the power generated by the facility and its environmental impact. White also spoke about the flow of endangered fish through the dam. Judy Liddle, secretary of...
