Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Allie Cofer is a busy woman. This mother of two works for the Colfax Chamber of Commerce, helps with the Colfax Downtown, is a hairdresser and a volleyball coach. Allie comes from a long line of Whitman County residents. Her grandfather has lived here all his life, and her aunt and uncle still live in the house her grandparents built. Allie enjoys having such strong ties to the area. "I always thought that was kind of cool." Allie has spent most of her life in Whitman County. She was raised...
Raised as one of the Browns in Farmington, Shelly Ausmus has returned to Whitman County after living in the greater Seattle area for more than 30 years. "We love it, we're so happy to be back," said Shelly. In 2018, Shelly moved to Tekoa with her husband, Mike Ausmus, to be closer to help her mom, Alice Brown, who has been living in Tekoa for the last 20 years. After four decades in the rain, they are enjoying the snow. Shortly after they arrived, Shelly was offered a position at the Whitman Cou...
Route 26 Vintage Market will return this spring to the Palouse Empire Fairground April 12 and 13 after its first two years in the Jenning’s Elementary School Gym and moving last October to the fairground for its first fall show. The event will be in two buildings which will have antiques and vintage items, plants, specialty foods and more. This is the market’s fourth event and will coincide with WSU’s Mom’s Weekend. Vendor numbers at the market have almost doubled, which is a part of the rea...
I just wanted to say a little something about opportunities. They are out there; try not to miss them. Second, they are all over the place; don’t overlook them. My biggest regrets in life can be categorized in one of two ways: lies and opportunities lost. Never tell yourself, “I’m not gonna get it anyway, so I shouldn’t even try.” Always try. Even if you know 100 people better and more qualified than you, try. Those 100 people might not be interested in taking that opportunity, you might hav...
Washington State FFA Officers attended the the Port of Whitman board meeting last Thursday in Colfax. They included President Sadie Aronson from White River, Treasurer Kyle Johnson from Yelm, Secretary Naddile Widner from Walla Walla and Sentinel Zachary Schilter from Chehalis. Not in attendance was the State Reporter Karlee Hansen from Ellensburg who was at the Nevada State Convention in Reno. After the regular business of the meeting was finished the port commissioners invited questions from...
Cherry Alice Van Tine and Jim Lemon, the local coordinators for Wreaths Across America, have been working at Bruning Funeral Home to look up records of veterans who are buried in the Colfax cemetery. The Colfax Cemetery has graves that go back to 1895 and more than 10,000 people have been buried there in that time. Van Tine and Lemon have already found more than 630 veterans in the records and believe many more are there. Back in December, Van Tine, as the coordinator for Wreaths Across America...
Kaitlyn Nave and Joel Larson from the Endicott/St. John Science Olympiad team placed third in the Density Lab, earning a medal. They were the highest placed finishers from the school at the regional Olympiad March 9 at Spokane Falls Community College. The team was missing a few of its members and had less than half the number allowed, too few to be able to make it to each of the 23 competitions. The team ranked in last place of the 20 teams, but they didn't place last in a single competition...
The Palouse Scenic Byway group Monday discussed funding for updating the Dan Walker production videos. About six years ago, Dan Walker Productions of Lewiston recorded 17 videos of communities and sites along the Palouse Scenic Byway. Fourteen of those videos were from places in Whitman County. Some of the locations mentioned are Kamiak Butte, Steptoe Butte, the Codger Pole, Dahmen Barn and Palouse Falls. Currently the group is gathering the funds for the project to update the videos on the...
Washington Trust for Historic Preservation conducted a focus group at Perkins House in Colfax hosted by Val Gregory, the executive director of Colfax Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Association and Historical Society. Washington Trust for Historic Preservation is a statewide nonprofit for historic preservations throughout the state, not to be confused with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, though the two groups share similar missions. The representative from the Washington Trust...
Re/Max home and land real estate will open in Colfax with an open house from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 11. “We’d love to show off what we’re doing,” said Stacie Olson, the Colfax office administrator. The Colfax office is located in the former HUB Insurance building at the north corner of Golgotha and S. Main. Some of the Re/Max agents already live in Colfax and will work mostly out of the new office, though all the agents will be able to work from either the Colfax or Pullman office. Jayci C...
Whitman County offers opportunities to sell Cottage Food products at farmers markets, festivals and other similar bazaars. Cottage food operations is an opportunity to sell up to $25,000 of food in a home-based business. A cottage food permit allows vendors to sell low-risk food, such as breads, candies, jams, jellies, fruit butters, seasoning, coffees, soup mixes and vinegars they have produced through cooking, baking or otherwise. These can be sold from home, over the web, at farmers markets...
According to County Commissioner Art Swannack, Washington Labor and Industries will soon publish changes to the executive, administrative and professional wage rules. In the state of Washington, the Minimum Wage Act exempts individuals employed in executive, administrative, or professional and outside salesperson capacities from being paid overtime so long as they fit certain criteria with their salary. This rule has remained largely unchanged since 1976. There are now more exempted workers...
Steve Salzman has been appointed in a unanimous decision by the town council to serve as mayor for Endicott for the remainder of this year. He has served on the Endicott city council since 2013. Salzman takes the position vacated by Dave Bilow, who resigned due to health issues at the end of February. “I thought that I could provide some service to the town,” said Salzman. “When our previous mayor had to resign, I thought I should step up.” The change has opened up a seat on the town council...
Pass Marijuana Moratorium resolution County Commissioner Michael Largent motioned a resolution to the marijuana moratorium. This resolution expresses legislative intent on the adoption of the moratorium. The purpose of the resolution was to more fully explain its intent in allowing non-conforming uses to continue while the moratorium is in place so long as the use was already extant when the moratorium began. Only the businesses that were already in place, licensed by the State Liquor and...
Experience International is a non-profit educational international work-study program that has partnerships with 26 other countries for development in agricultural and natural resources related fields. The program allows foreign students and graduates to have internships in the USA and provides study tours in the USA, Europe and Latin America and work experience in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada for students, teachers and professionals. The program is looking to expand more host...
LaCrosse Café opened under its new management March 5. Beth and Steve Beck of Endicott have taken over the business which had closed Dec. 29, 2018. "It's a little weird," said Beth. "It took a little longer to get going than we expected." Beth said she is both excited and nervous about this new adventure, but not focusing on moving the business in any particular direction. Not much has been changed from when it was last opened. The menu is a little different, and the Becks hope to try some new...
Buildup of snow plow berms along runways at the Colfax Airport has become a concern, particularly for airplanes with low wings. Plowing of the runways has been somewhat restricted because of landing lights which run along the sides of the runways. Operators have to take care not to damage the lights. At last Thursday's Port of Whitman meeting, Port Attorney Bruce Ensley asked Linda Fender, owner of Fender Air Service with her husband Darrell, if anyone was trying to use the airport. She said...
Port of Lewiston Commissioner Jerry Klemm, and the CEO of Valley Vision, Karl Dye, attended last Thursday’s Port of Whitman County commissioner’s meeting. Last November, Commissioner Klemm visited to request, on behalf of the Port of Clarkston, a pledge of financial support for an economic study to find and understand the economic benefits of the cruise boat industry to the region. For this study, the ports of Lewiston and Clarkston are seeking a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Eco...
The Natural Resources Conservation Services at the USDA Service Center in Colfax has a new face. Stephen Johnson is Whitman County's new resource conservationist, filling in a position that has been vacant for more than a year. Johnson joined the NRCS in a move from the Palouse Conservation District. While working in the Palouse Conservation District, Johnson was a planner who worked with farmers. "Ultimately, I'm just excited to step into this new position," said Johnson. He is looking forward...
The 15th annual benefit bowling tournament at Zeppoz in Pullman brought in a record high return this year at the games last Saturday. “It was awesome!” said Ron Morgan, who, with his wife Heather, started the benefit event in 2004. The proceeds from the event are split between the Whitman County Humane Society and the Northwest Cancer Foundation of Hope. They were awarded the checks at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening at Zeppoz. That first year the event had 13 teams sign up and raised $650 dol...
Monday afternoon the commissioners' room at the courthouse was packed and overflowing for the 2:15 p.m. session to consider a marijuana moratorium. Board President Art Swannack allowed for public comment after the ordinance was introduced by County Prosecutor Denis Tracy. Tracy had been asked by the board to write up the moratorium calling for a six month stop on issuing licenses for producing, processing and sale of marijuana products or recreational marijuana. The moratorium is meant to mainta...
With a light sprinkling of snow here and there throughout the winter, snow-days didn't seem like something to worry about this year in Whitman County. January stayed close to average both for temperature and precipitation. Then February hit. While far from the coldest on record, this past February, according to the National Climatic Data Center, with its monthly average temperature of 24.6 degrees, was more than 10 degrees colder than average. It was almost 10 degrees colder than January. Add...
“It’s important that our people know that we’re spending a lot of money to try and keep that river open,” said Port of Whitman Commissioner John Love at the Feb. 21 port meeting. The port pays $9,000 annually to Inland Ports and Navigation Group, a subgroup of Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. The money is for litigation to support keeping navigation routes open. There are eight locks and dams on the Columbia Snake River System that IPNG tries to protect. The group is trying to keep a...
Three Whitman County school districts received grants from the Washington State Department of Ecology to replace old buses with new ones with an idle reduction system to lower emissions. The state Department of Ecology allocated $12 million of the $28.4 million it received as settlement from Volkswagen for violating Washington’s Clean Air Act. The grant is to replace buses 17 years old or older that emit far more pollution than today’s options. The old technology in the buses is par...
Two proposed agreements to assist the Port of Garfield with its fiber optics project were approved at the Feb. 21 meeting of the Port of Whitman board. The service agreement is expected to take effect on March 1, 2019. The proposed agreements were presented by Kara Riebold, the Port operations officer. The Port of Garfield approved the proposals at its Feb. 19 meeting. The project and agreement are the result of funding received by the Port of Garfield from the Community Economic Revitalization...