Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 67
After an injection of $1.4 million from the county's .09 sales tax fund, the Palouse Empire Fair has launched a plan to install a new grandstand at the fairground over this summer and have the new facility ready for September's fair. Bill Tensfeld, fair administrator, reported to fair board members Monday night that the project will get underway in May with the aim of getting it in place for the 2019 fair. Tensfeld said the fair is working with an area representative of Southern Bleacher Company located in Graham, Texas. The company has...
School levies to go before voters in Colton and Oakesdale in two weeks are against the law. Last February, the Colton school board approved a levy for 2019 at $3.08 per thousand dollars of assessed property value. In June, the Washington state legislature made a rule to cap the limit at $1.50 per thousand. “We’re in a really unique spot,” said Paul Clark, who was named Colton Superintendent last July. The district has since dropped its asking rate for its 2020 levy to $2.50 per thousand, which...
Chief Operating Officer Kara Riebold reported to Port of Whitman County commissioners Jan. 24 that the Community Economics Revitalization Board (CERB) has increased the Port’s loan and broadband grant. The Department of Commerce CERB program can issue grants and/or loans for projects. The Port last September had received a grant-loan from the CERB Rural Broadband Program for $1 million to fund fiberoptic networks at Garfield, Oakesdale, Palouse, Rosalia and Tekoa. Originally, the port r...
The Colfax School board approved 1,775 pages of bid documents Monday night for a year-and-a-half of upcoming construction, paid for by the $18.9 million bond passed last February. The documents, which add up to an estimate of $14,687,000, were presented by district architects Amy Minden-Browne and Ned Warnick. Minden-Browne, project manager, had sent board members a copy of the documents last Friday to look over, including two sets of drawings, project specifications and a 58-page constructibili...
A report in a recent Gazette noted that a Colton special levy for the ballot Feb. 12 did not make it on the ballot last November “due to timing of its filing with the Whitman County Elections department.” The Town of Colton filed the request on time, and a subsequent mix-up at the elections office delayed its actual filing. Jenni Straughan, Colton clerk, told the Gazette they received an apology from Eunice Coker, former county auditor, who retired earlier this year. The $30,000 levy would go to painting the inside of the town’s water tank....
Port of Whitman County’s Chief Operating Officer Kara Reibold, recently received a phone call for an option to improve the rail inspections and maintenance for the county. A former employee of Watco is just getting started on building a new business and contacting the ports and tenants along the railroad. He is offering services at $300 per site per month, so the Port of Whitman, if they engaged his services, would be charged $600 a month for Wilma and Central Ferry. “We would get more than an i...
Students in grades four through twelve at LaCrosse went on a ski trip Jan. 3 to Bluewood near Dayton. This was the school's third year taking students skiing as part of their Student of Character program. The Student of Character program awards students for meeting criteria, often personal qualities, selected in advance. The school's student body leaders set the criteria for the program in advance, and students who are recognized as having these qualities are awarded, earning a special trip....
The Palouse city council Jan. 22 approved Heritage Park, a small grass space with restrooms next to the Palouse Market on Main Street, as the site for a coming electric vehicle charger. The council discussed other proposed sites as a spot by Palouse Skatepark. At the Jan. 22 meeting, input included a statement from Aaron Flansburg, skatepark board member, saying that the board supported a car charging station while expressing concerns such as the chance a skateboard could accidentally exit the park and cause damage to the charging station or a...
Rick McNannay, who was terminated as Colfax police chief Jan. 17 after serving in the position since mid 2012, Friday said he was told he was fired for dishonesty which related to what he terms hiring mistakes at the end of 2016. McNanny, who was given a green light to talk about his status after meeting Friday with his attorney, Robert Dunn in Spokane, said he actually believes his firing was related to a year-long effort on his part to collect $3,038 pay he believes was due him for working security duty at six 2017 WSU football games. Pay to...
Beginning in December, Colfax Junior/Senior High School Principal Carrie Lipe sent out a Google online survey to an estimated 900 junior/senior high students, staff and parents. It included four Colfax Bulldog designs, all used at one point over the years at the (now) junior-senior high school. She received more than 600 responses, the winning option a full-body bulldog which can be used as the full-body or just the head – with a version looking one way and a version looking the other. "It w...
Colfax wrestlers will head for Pomeroy Saturday with a goal of placing in the top four weight slots to advance on the road to state. Pomeroy will be the site of the southern side of the all-B elims for schools in WIAA districts 7 and 9. The top four finishers will advance to the regionals which will be at Liberty Feb. 9. Top four finishers at Liberty will go to the state Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome. Wrestlers from seven teams competed in three rounds at Colfax Saturday. The aim was to decide...
Going into the last weekend of regular season basketball in the Southeast 1B league, Colton remains at the top followed by Pomeroy, Oakesdale and St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse – which has a secure path to the fourth and final spot in the district playoffs with two wins over Garfield/Palouse. The Vikings are in fifth, narrowly, losing to SJEL 45-43 Dec. 15 and 34-30 two weeks ago. Colton 54-Oakesdale 39 Facing the league-leaders at home Jan. 28, the Oakesdale girls stayed with Colton for much of the...
Colfax boys, now rolling on an 8-1 record in the NE-South league, will travel to Liberty Friday night and attempt to nail down the top slot finish in the league. A number-one finish would put the Bulldogs in a top spot in the brackets for the NE district playoffs which will start a long stand at West Valley next Wednesday. At the start of last week, Colfax and Liberty were tied a 7-1 in the standings, although Colfax held an edge because they defeated the Lancers here in the first league round. The first-place tie vanished Friday night when...
Colfax girls Friday night pegged a 48-29 win over Reardan to advance their NE-South record to 7-2 going into the last league round at Liberty. The Bulldogs, who have lost both of the league games to the LRS Broncos, will attempt to finish in the league’s number-two slot with a win over the Lancers. Colfax defeated Liberty 44-40 in the fist-round league battle on the Colfax court Jan. 4. Liberty girls Friday advanced their league mark a 7-1 with a 71-20 crush of the 1-7 Asotin team at Asotin. They moved to 8-1 with a 71-29 crunch over Reardan i...
A big game arrives this weekend, high stakes and a Roman numeral at the end: Garfield/Palouse-Oakesdale II. The Gar/Pal boys basketball team won 46-34 the first time, at Palouse Jan. 11. On Saturday, they meet the Nighthawks in the final weekend of the Southeast 1B regular season, at Oakesdale, the two teams still tied for first in league. If Oakesdale wins, they take the league championship (regular season), because they beat third-place Prescott twice while Gar/Pal (11-7, 9-1) lost at the Tige...
These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated. DOWNED TREES REMOVED The 21 trees which were cut down and dropped across the RV park at the Palouse Empire Fair were removed by volunteers Jan. 19 in an all-day work session. Up to 25 volunteers participated. A time lapse video of the cleanup, which compressed the day's work down to...
Measles were officially eradicated in 2000 in the United States. The viral disease was a scourge for young kids, killing thousands. Since the concerted effort to vaccinate children, the disease in the states was eliminated, although it remained a virulent danger in other parts of the world. Recently, it has periodically reared its ugly head in the states. Now, multiple states are dealing with outbreaks of the disease. In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee has declared a public health emergency because of the number of cases in the southwest...
Pet Peeves Laws against dwarf tossing. What’s going on at City Hall, and what’s it gonna cost us all? Okeydokes The man putting wood chips along dike between McDonald Park and Golf Course. Colfax PD for continuing to serve us despite slim resources available to them....
Maybe British Prime Minister Theresa May needs to change her country's Brexit focus. Instead of severing ties with the European Union, maybe she should address the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, and disunite them. It would be a Brexit from that so-called "special relationship" with the U.S. Never mind that a majority of the Brits voting chose to leave the E.U. As predicted, it has proven uncommonly difficult, to the point that there is some talk of holding another referendum. The pro-Europe forces might have an e...
The walls supposedly are always closing in on Donald Trump. The end is always beginning. He's going to quit. He's going to be impeached and removed. He's going to decide not to run again. Somehow or other, he's going to relieve everyone of the responsibility of ever thinking of him again, and especially of the responsibility of defeating him in an election. Such scenarios are a constant topic in private conversations. The allure is obvious. It is the promise of deliverance. After tormenting his enemies for so long, Trump's going to make it...
There has been shootings at schools for decades, but none like the shootings of today. The first mass school shooting was at the University of Texas, with 17 people killed, which included the shooter, Charles Whitman. He went to school with the intent to kill as many people as possible. The next mass school shooting didn’t occur until 1999, when two Columbine students killed 13 and wounded 21 others before committing suicide. Since then, school shootings have become much more frequent. Between Columbine and today, there have been 11 school s...
I would like to encourage every concerned Whitman County resident to attend the meeting on Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Steptoe School, when a petition will be reviewed with the county commissioners concerning zoning and ordinances, road conditions, non-running vehicles and trash and garbage in yards throughout the our county. I hope to see you there! --Kristi Kinsinger, Spokane Valley...
Frank Watson (Jan. 24, 2019, "Declaration of a Non-Candidate"), your self-admitted deficits would make you the perfect GOP candidate. Frank, you underestimate your potential. --Mark Olson, Seattle...
