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Articles from the February 13, 2013 edition


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  • Bulletin Column

    Feb 13, 2013

    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. Benefit set for Anderson family A spaghetti dinner and silent auction in memory of Brandon Anderson, who suddenly passed away Jan. 31, is scheduled for Friday, March 8, at the Pullman Moose Lodge, SE 150 Kamiaken. Dinner is $7 per person. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the dinner served from 6 to 7 p.m. A silent auction will be held from 5 to 7:30 p....

  • For a good cause

    Feb 13, 2013

    Last Thursday at the Colfax Rotary meeting, Laura DeYoung gets half her head shaved as an advance for this week’s St. Baldrick’s fundraiser. Elaine “Maynard” McClintock does the honors. The main event was yesterday (Wednesday) at Colfax High School. St. Baldrick’s head shaving benefits childhood cancer research....

  • Bulldogs to face Reardan in Walla Walla semifinal

    Jerry Jones|Feb 13, 2013

    Gazette Editor Colfax girls will face Reardan Friday night in the semi-final round of the sub-regional playoff when the girls side of the action moves to Walla Walla Community College. Colfax junior forward Taylor Larsen takes the ball up for a shot in district playoff action. The girls’ lineup will also feature an all-NE guard after a sweep for the northerners in the first round games at Dayton and Waitsburg. Colfax goes up against Reardan after a 50-36 win over a Dayton team which put up a scrap before their fans on the home court. Colfax a...

  • L/W boys to meet Pomeroy for title

    Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    Rosalia ends Colton’s year, 61-49, Gar-Pal stays alive There will be no Jake Straughan and Dalton Patchen in the state 1B boys’ basketball tournament. The Colton junior combination and their team’s season is over after losing to Rosalia 61-49 Tuesday night in the district playoffs in Colfax. Colton shot 13-for-56 from the floor. Meanwhile, Gar-Pal stayed alive Tuesday night with a 54-44 win over Touchet. Junior guard Jesse Lopez led the team with 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assis...

  • Colton to meet Tekoa-Oakesdale for girls’ title

    Feb 13, 2013

    Colton will play Tekoa-Oakesdale in the 2013 District 9 championship game Friday night at Colfax High School. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m. The Wildcat girls advanced to the final with a 72-25 win over Rosalia last Friday while Tekoa-Oakesdale narrowly beat St. John Endicott 42-40. The winner of the championship game will move on to Regionals while the loser will play Saturday against the winner of the loser’s bracket. Whoever wins that game will go to Regionals as the District 9 No. 2 seed. Losers bracket The girls 1B District 9 tournament took u...

  • Northeast 2B All-League Selections

    Feb 13, 2013

    Colfax senior Brandon Gfeller was named most valuable player for the NE boys at the last round of the district playoffs Monday. Coach Reece Jenkin was named Coach of the Year. Coach Corey Baerlocher was named Co-Coach of the Year for the girls. Amelie Bruya, Nicole Sheer and Taylor Larsen were all named to the girls all-league first team. Brady Ellis was named to the second team....

  • Five Colfax wrestlers onto state at Tacoma Dome

    Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    Up against opponents who beat them before, three Colfax High wrestlers won redemptive matches to make the state tournament at the Tacoma Dome. Thomas Newton, Mitch Barney, Kevin Knauff, Evan Lord and Ray Compton go to state. None of the three have made it there before. They join two other Colfax qualifiers for state along with one alternate. Senior Thomas Newton of St. John had missed making state for the past three years by one match every time. This year, his last, he fought to beat Josey Ande...

  • L/W outlasts Gar-Pal, makes district final

    Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    Pomeroy beats Colton on the road to meet Tigercats in Friday’s final LaCrosse-Washtucna senior forward Jed Zimmer looks for the ball to come to him Saturday night in a 48-44 playoff win. Zimmer and the Tigercats advance to play Pomeroy for the title. When asked what the difference was between the playoff game they just won in Gar-Pal’s gym and the one on Jan. 19 which they lost 55-42, L/W’s Jed Zimmer gave his answer. “Well I wasn’t there, so,” he said. He was just stating a fact, indicating it...

  • Colfax advances to subregional semis

    Jerry Jones|Feb 13, 2013

    Gazette Editor Colfax boys hammered DeSales in Dayton’s gym Saturday afternoon to advance to the semi-final round of the eight-team sub-regional basketball playoff this weekend at Walla Walla. Cofax senior Bryce Kamlich looks for an outlet pass along the sideline vs. DeSales. The 69-39 Colfax win over the Irish was part of an SE sweep by the NE teams who will pair off in semi-final rounds Friday with a title game Saturday and elimination games Friday and Saturday. The boys’ side of the playoff will move to Whitman College, and the four sem...

  • Farr questions planning commission legitimacy

    Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    The results of a Palouse Planning Commission survey were released in January. It was the first of its kind since 1995. The public release came about in part because of a public records request by Jim Farr, a county resident who lives down creek from Palouse. In turn, the planning commission consulted city attorney Stephen Bishop, who advised them to release the document without any redactions. “Nothing we do is private,” said Palouse Planning Commission chairman Corey Laughary. “It’s public...

  • Antique bottle hunters dig old county outhouse sites

    Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    In an era of Whitman County with no garbage service, no dumps and no recycling, where would you dispose of a bottle? A few of the thousands of bottles Jeff Mitzner has dug up in and around Tekoa. One is a Tekoa Pharmacy bottle more than a hundred years old. There was also no indoor plumbing in rural areas before the 1920s and ‘30s, so outhouses dotted the towns. They turned out to be a place to dispose of bottles. Today, a group of antique bottle hunters dig the old outhouse sites, retrieve v...

  • Community Bank opens Pullman office

    Feb 13, 2013

    Community Bank, headquartered in Joseph, Ore., opened its doors at 594 SE Bishop Boulevard, Suite 101, in Pullman Friday. Since 2011, the bank has loaned more than $10 million to farmers and businesses in Pullman and Colfax from its Clarkston branch. That level of loan demand created a need for a local presence. The new loan office will offer a location for the bank’s current business and agricultural loan customers and potential customers in the region. Aaron Johnson, Community Bank’s vice president/commercial loan officer, will head the Pul...

  • Public comments wanted: State to select cleanup plan for Colfax Site

    Sally Ousley, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    The Washington State Department of Ecology is inviting public comment about the Colfax Petroleum Contamination site. This map provided by the State Department of Ecology shows the contamination site. The site lies along the east side of North Main Street at the intersection of East Tyler and East Harrison streets. It is approximately 1,000 feet south of the Palouse River and east of the south fork of the Palouse River. The site includes several parcels, currently or previously occupied by gasoline stations. Petroleum leaks from operations at th...

  • Welcome wagon idea proposed in Oakesdale

    Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    A welcome wagon may be coming to Oakesdale. Dolores Haley, who moved to the town three years ago, proposed to the city council in January that they put together welcome baskets for new residents. The council discussed it at their Jan. 22 meeting and offered support but it was deemed inappropriate, due to state law barring “gifting.” The term refers to a practice in which a city may not give gifts paid for by public resources. Haley, who is a trustee on the McCoy Valley Museum board, und...

  • Pullman bond passes; districts pass levies

    Sally Ousley, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    Although votes lagged a bit before the election deadline, voters in the Pullman School District pulled through and the bond passed comfortably with more than 78 percent approval. The general obligation bond is for $53.5 million over 20 years and will allow the district to build a new Pullman High School and new classroom at Franklin Elementary. Homeowners will pay $1.60 per $1,000 assessed value or if a home is assessed at $200,000, the owner will pay $320 more a year. The bond needed 4,048 votes to validate the election . As of 8 p.m....

  • Ambulance transports three

    Feb 13, 2013

    Two vehicles were involved in a collision eight miles west of Colfax on State Route 26 on Feb. 8. Caleb C. Benson, Ridgefield, was driving a 2003 Toyota Tacoma pickup westbound when he lost control on the ice-covered roadway and his vehicle slid across the eastbound lane broadside. Deanna A. Summerhill of Loveland, Colo., was eastbound in a 2012 Toyota Camry when the pickup struck the Camry on the passenger side and both vehicles came to rest in the eastbound ditch up against an embankment. Benson sustained cuts and bruises. Summerhill had...

  • Concealed gun permits increase in county

    Sally Ousley, Gazette Reporter|Feb 13, 2013

    Concealed pistol license applications have skyrocketed in both Whitman County and the city of Colfax, and it appears to be a nationwide trend. Colfax Police Chief Rick McNanny demonstrates fingerprinting as one component of getting a gun permit. Colfax Police Chief Rick NcNannay said he is processing concealed pistol licenses as fast he can these days. The chief said his office has processed more than double the number compared to last year. “Last year at this time, we had processed 11 permits,” he said Monday morning. “This year we’ve processe...

  • Lazcano termed ‘vigilante’

    Feb 13, 2013

    Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy Monday began his opening argument in the trial of Daniel Lazcano with terms “vigilante” and “vigilantism.” He outlined the state’s case by describing how Daniel Lazcano became upset when he discovered guns, DVDs and other personal items were taken from a residence where he had been staying in Rosalia in December of 2011. The prosecutor told a jury of seven women and five men the state would prove that Daniel and his brother later learned Marcus Schur, the alleged murder victim, had taken items from the...

  • 2/14/13 - Legals

    Feb 13, 2013

    MEETING CANCELLATION NOTICE The February 19, 2013 and March 26, 2013 regular meetings of the Whitman County LEOFF I Board have been cancelled. The next regular meeting of the Board will take place Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. in the Whitman County Commissioners’ Chambers. Maribeth Becker, CMC, Clerk of the Board LEOFF 7/1 NOTICE OF HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of County Commissioners of Whitman County, Washington will meet in its office in the Whitman County Commissioners’ Chambers, in the Courthouse in Colfax, Washi...