Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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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...
Colfax school board Tuesday night approved a base bid of $12,551,923 for school construction work from Wellens Farwell Construction of Enterprise, Ore. The number represents a base bid, which was submitted along with a list of 17 alternate bids, ranging from football field lighting to high school chiller replacement. The board approved the bid package unanimously, after listening to Amy Browne-Minden, project manager, and Ned Warnick, principal, of Design West in Pullman give an overview of the...
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...
The 66th Uniontown Sausage Feed went off Sunday, March 3, with an estimated 1,300 people served a meal of sausage, sauerkraut, rolls, applesauce, potatoes, pickles, cross-cut green beans and pie at the Uniontown Community Center. "Everything worked out really good, like we usually do," said co-organizer Ken Oenning in his 16th year at the helm. "Most of the time it works like a clock." All proceeds go to the community center, its next project will be structural work on the front side and...
Selway Holdings, LLC, Pullman, notified the county planning department at 11:30 a.m. last Wednesday, Feb. 27, that they were withdrawing their application for a zone change from agricultural to light industrial on Country Club Road. Subsequently, the scheduled meeting for commissioners to consider the application set for Monday at 11:30 a.m. was cancelled. “No public comment at this time,” said Paul Mihalyov, co-founder of Dewey Scientific, a company founded Jan. 1 by two WSU alumni from the...
Two Rosalia residents were taken by ambulance to Whitman Hospital after they were injured in a rollover accident Monday night on Highway 195 approximately six miles north of Colfax. According to the report by Trooper Rob Aucutt, a 2006 Nissan Trooper being driven northbound in blizzard conditions at 9:20 p.m. by Markham R. Campbell of Rosalia slid out of control on the ice-covered highway, crossed the centerline and rolled onto its top. A passenger, Lynee C. Campbell, was also injured. Colfax and Steptoe volunteers responded to the...
As snow has fallen and fallen again throughout February, Colfax school district's summer construction calendar has remained despite a series of late session starts. The schedule, which puts the start of school next year after the Palouse Empire Fair, and other adjustments, was set last year to allow time for the $18.9 million bond construction to begin with the first phase during spring break in April. "We'd have to go to an extreme number of late starts or cancellations to affect the...
A car-semi truck collision on Highway 26 three miles east of Washtucna Wednesday morning. Feb. 27, took the life of a Soap Lake driver. The deceased was identified at Kaylyn F. Bossert, 29, Soap Lake. According to the Washington State Patrol report, she was driving a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek westbound on Highway 26 at 8:24 a.m. The car went out of control on the icy surface of the highway, slid into the oncoming lane of traffic and collided with an eastbound semi driven by Andrew J. McCarty, 29, Vancouver. He was driving a 2015 Freightliner...
Whitman County Association of Wheat Growers will meet at noon March 11 at Eddy’s Restaurant in Colfax. Michael Pumphrey, WSU spring wheat breeder, will be in attendance....
Another trustee’s sale on the courthouse steps has been scheduled for the former St. Ignatius Hospital building in Colfax. The sale has been scheduled for April 12 by Elizabeth Tellessen who has served as trustee for the sale agreement for the hospital. A trustee’s sale had been slated by Tellessen for last June 8, but never took place, reportedly because assets of the sale were involved in a bankruptcy filing. Tellessen is a member of the Winston & Cashatt law firm in Spokane. According to the assessor’s records, Anthony Girges, Bellflower, Ca...
Two county bridge replacement projects are in the works for June or early July. A crew will replace the 1900 wood Bonnie Bridge on Siegel Road north of Pine City and another wood bridge at Thornton depot, on Sunset Road. Permits are expected in the next two weeks. The Bonnie Bridge will be replaced with a culvert. The bridge is to be taken out due to age. The deck was replaced in 1991. The Thornton depot bridge will be taken out and replaced with a concrete span, to gain a foot in clearance over the Thorn Creek channel, which has become...
Not a word was said during the shootaround before the second half. The Colton girls were down 31-15 to Pomeroy in the 1B state championship game at Spokane Arena. The mission was set, the four senior starters, if not someone else, had to get them back in this game. Emily Schultheis started it, on the first possession of the third quarter, with a three-point swish from the top of the key. Then it was Dakota Patchen for two and Schultheis again for three. It was on. What Colton could not do in...
Their first opponent was drifting snow. Their second was Tulalip Heritage, which Oakesdale beat in a first round elimination game at Spokane Arena on their way to a four-game run at state, finishing sixth, five years after concerns the school may have trouble fielding a team after the breakup of the Tekoa/Oakesdale cooperative. On Wednesday morning, after another overnight snowfall, the question became how to get players and coaches into town to meet the bus. Coach Carl Crider drove his Suburban...
A shifting lineup and a late push by Garfield/Palouse to re-take the lead – coming from 10 points down – ended in a 54-51 loss to Naselle, eliminating the Vikings in the first round at state at Spokane Arena. With under two minutes left, after Gar/Pal re-took the lead at 50-49 on an Austin Jones drive to the basket, two Blake Jones free throws kept them up by one when a three-pointer from Naselle's Kolby Glenn, a sophomore guard, put the Comets up by two again with 35 seconds on the clock. Gar...
President Donald Trump has vowed he will soon release an executive order on free speech. Ostensively, the mandate would, among other things, deny federal funding to institutions deemed in violation of it. It has not yet been released, but reportedly the administration has been working on it for months. Free speech is the bulwark of American democracy. There are limitations. The classic and simplest is not to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. They go on from there. It is said that the reason for the order is to stop harassment of con...
Pet Peeves Misplaced priorities: Colfax School District more concerned with construction dates than student safety. Other schools closed. Okeydokes Those who clear snow from their sidewalks and those who clear their neighbor’s walks....
Let's be fair to Donald Trump. No, seriously. That's not a joke. When it comes time to judge the presidential candidates, we should remember what they say about geese and ganders, and apply the same standards to all members of this growing gaggle. Both males and females of this species should get equal treatment, in other words. That's where the fairness to the biggest goose of all comes in. A presidential campaign by anyone should be a brutal trial by fire. We hear nonstop from those who want Trump out of the White House that anything goes,...
Robert Kraft's name will now long be associated with one of the most despicable scourges of modern life, and rightly so. The New England Patriots owner is charged with soliciting prostitution at a Florida massage parlor busted as part of a sex-trafficking ring. Kraft denies it, although the police in Jupiter, Florida, say they have video evidence. The charges against him, and two other high-flying men from the financial world, represent an important front in the fight against sex trafficking. Authorities should be doing everything they can to...
November’s Camp Wildfire was California’s deadliest, killing 86 people and destroying 14,000 homes along with more than 500 businesses. The financial fallout is forcing PG&E, northern California’s electric utility, to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It is a catastrophe we all hope to avoid. The fire’s probable cause was overhead power lines coming into contact with nearby trees which is an ongoing problem for power lines attached to poles and metal towers. While we have located the ign...
I normally watch the news as I brew my morning cup of tea. As we were experiencing a significant winter storm, I was anxious to check school closures and road conditions. I was disappointed to find all news channels filled with Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony. I could either turn off the TV or watch the proceedings as I prepared my scrambled eggs with toast. I thought I could at least find out how Mr. Cohen got into so much trouble. After three cups of tea, I was left wondering why all the hype. I still don’t know what Cohen did wro...
MARRIAGE LICENSES Edward Max Nellis, 53, and Lennore Jean Huff, 51, both of LaCrosse, Feb. 19. Chandler Dane Hartley, 21, and Jennifer Oleta Crawford, 26, both Pullman, Feb. 20. REAL ESTATE SALES Michelle Beach and Ryan Schu for the estate of Nancy Schu to Ryan and Jenna Lynn Schu, ag land northwest of Oakesdale, $168,750, Feb. 20. B & T Station LLC, Pullman, to Jill Creighton and Simon Vollmer, house on SW Crithfield Court, Pullman, $290,000, Feb. 21. Katie Bunch and Ben Emerson, Pullman, to Morgan Linderman, Pullman, 1958 48x10 mobile home...
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. McNANNAY HEARING SET FOR JULY 29 A July 29 date for the civil service appeal of former Colfax Police Chief Rick McNannay was scheduled in a noon meeting of the city commission Tuesday. The hearing is expected to last three or four days. Leslie Cloaninger, retired Colfax attorney, presided at the...