Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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License plate keys crash linkup A license plate found at one of the WSU sites which sustained damage April 19 is one of the key links to the WSU student who crashed a 1998 Jeep Cherokee on Highway 195 in south Colfax early that morning, according to Lt. Steve Hansen of the WSU police department. The driver of the Cherokee, Patrick Lipsker, 22, Spokane, remains at Sacred Heart in Spokane where he was taken by helicopter from Colfax and underwent surgery. Four different WSU sites, including two fences, were damaged by a vehicle Tuesday night befo... Full story
Asotin showed its track power last Wednesday in the last SE prelim round on the Colfax track. The Panther boys rolled up 132.5 points in the four-team meet and the girls rolled up 141. St. John/ Endicott/LaCrosse girls trailed the Panthers with 65 points. They had wins from Jessica Hardy in the 100 and the long jump, Heather Siegel in the 3200, and in the 4x400 relay team. The Garfield/ Palouse/Colton boys placed second with 74.5 points. Jeff Kent won the 100 and Chad Redman took both hurdle events and tied with SJEL’s Chris Wargo in the h...
Hackers book busy week on the road County golfers booked a busy week, traveling to tournaments all over the state. The road trips began last Thursday, with the St. John/Endicott girls traveling to Yakima for the Wally Johnson Invitational tourney. Michal Schuster placed 10th in the 126-girl tournament with a 96, while sister Erin shot a 103 to finish 24th. The boys traveled to Columbia Point in Kennewick for a District 9 all boys invite. Casey Brown of Tekoa/Oakesdale /Rosalia was the top local duffer, finishing the 18-hole course in 80 strokes...
Still dodging the rain clouds, Colfax baseball players looked like they could get in their first home game of the season Wednesday with Davenport making a stop at McDonald Park. The Gorillas had been booked for Tuesday, and that looked like it might happen until the rain clouds went to work Monday to undo the dry-out days logged at McDonald over the weekend. Davenport, Northwest Christian next Tuesday and a makeup with Springdale are the remaining six league games on the Bulldogs’ league schedule. Colfax rolled to St. George’s during Sat... Full story
Zack Devorak slides into the plate for the Wildcats while SJE pitcher Sam Raynor atempts to cover. Bryce Bennett had the start for the Eagles in the first game at Endicott. St. John/Endicott Eagles Saturday took two wins over the Colton Wildcats at Endicott to move their league mark to 6-0 in the 1B division of the Southeast. The Eagles took the first game 11-3 and the second game 5-3. Colton is now number two in the league at 3-2, and the GP Vikings and Touchet, who split a pair Saturday at Touchet, are third and fourth in the league with one...
Mark Black clears the bar in the pole vault for the Bulldogs. Black and Judd Thompson tied at 9-6 for second place behind the 10-0 logged by Micah Brown of the Broncos. Colfax girls again Tuesday stacked up a dominating performance in the last Bi-County track meet of the season on the Schmuck Park track when they stacked 154 points for a 95-point edge over Waitsburg/Prescott, an invitee from the SE circuit. The WP boys showed their power with a 108 point win on their side of the competition. Reardan, led by veteran Chace Bell, placed 30 points...
THURSDAY Kevin Harpham of Colville, the alleged Spokane Martin Luther King bomber, was newly charged with committing federal hate crimes. An Austrian museum returned a valuable Gustav Klimt painting worth around $30 million to the grandson of its original owner, a Jewish victim of the Nazis. This month, tech firm Greenlight found internet posts about the April 29 wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton have been appearing 9,000 times a day, or about every ten seconds. Spanish soccer team Real Madrid had to make a replica K...
After more than five years of raising funds, the board for the Palouse Community Center project plans to call for bids next month. The board has submitted the final construction design to its building inspector. Once the board receives the inspector’s approval, it hopes to put the project out to bid by mid-May. Palouse contracts county inspector Dan Gladwill to do its inspections. “We expect to break ground this summer,” said Scott Beeson, board member. For years, the group coordinated fund raisers which earned almost $250,000 for a new commu... Full story
The position of athletic director for the Colfax School District opened April 26. After the resignation of former athletic director Mike Morgan, that vacancy will be combined with the job of assistant athletic director. The school board looked over the job description at its Monday board meeting. The list of qualifications says the following traits are desirable but not mandatory: a Washington Interscholastic Activities Association certificate, a state teaching certificate, and previous coaching experience. The position also asks for knowledge...
Farmers are days away from cut-off dates to purchase crop insurance. This cold and wet spring has kept tractors parked, pushing up against federal crop insurance deadlines. If crops are planted after those deadlines, growers face one percent daily reductions on their coverage. “I had several customers in and tell me, ‘I hate to say this, but I wish it would stop raining,’” said Alan Yirak, seed manager for Co-Ag at Rosalia. More than 17 inches of rain has fallen on the Palouse this year, according to the United States Department of Agricul... Full story
Colton/Uniontown Fair will rev up once more this Friday. Fair manager Debbie Niehenke said she and her volunteers were fighting the cold and wind during set up for the fair last weekend and hope the wind and rain will hold off the day of the event. “The only thing new this year is everyone trying to show (animals) in wool gloves and hats,” she said with a laugh. Temperatures Friday are expected to be in the 40s. Students of all ages have been preening and training animals to show at the fair, which opens at 8 a.m. and closes around 5 p.m. Mos...
The St. John Stock Show and Community Fair continues Thursday, with the festival’s name plate event, the stockshow, opening at noon. Raisers of sheep, cattle and hogs will bring their beasts, many of which will be sold at next week’s Spokane stock show. The Cook Shack starts slinging its trademark burgers and dogs at 11 a.m. The Cook Shack will continue to serve up St. John’s finest fare throughout the weekend. Cupcake artists, green thumbs, seamsters and photographers can bring their entries from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday. Judging begin...
With clouds momentarily parted Friday evening, a sunset highlights the textured contours of a field of winter wheat in this vista from Grove Road north of Endicott....
Young Maggie Hames hugs a real Easter bunny after the CHS League’s annual Easter Egg hunt in Colfax’s Schmuck Park Saturday morning. Dozens of young egg finders hit the sunny park for the Easter celebration....
Voters in initial returns Tuesday shot down modernization bonds requested by the Colton and Oakesdale school districts. Colton voters came in with 58 percent approval for its $4,996,000 bond request, short of the needed 60 percent supermajority for capital projects. Oakesdale’s $4.2 million remodel measure failed to gain a simple majority, with 52 percent of voters casting no ballots. Colton Superintendent Nate Smith said Tuesday night the school board was still hopeful late returns would swing the count above the 60 percent mark. ... Full story
County Assessor Joe Reynolds talks with an audience in Oakesdale about the taxing districts most affected by the wind farm. Adding a $170 million wind farm to the tax rolls in northern Whitman County would lower taxes across the county, but some in the neighborhood are asking if it’s worth it. First Wind has proposed a 9,000-acre wind farm of as many as 65 turbines that could produce as much as 100 megawatts of power on Naff Ridge and Steam Shovel Hill west of Oakesdale. County Commissioner Greg Partch and Assessor Joe Reynolds presented t... Full story
An interim Chief Operating Officer, Tom Corley, has been chosen for Whitman Hospital after the resignation of CEO David Womack. The hospital board voted unanimously April 20 to hire Corley who has acted as a liaison under the hospital’s management contract with Providence Health Care (PHC) for the past year. Womack’s last day at the hospital is May 6. He and his wife Julie are moving to Bakersfield, Calif., where Womack has accepted a job as an executive director with a branch of a major medical chain, Permanente. PHC has a management con... Full story
Dr. Thomas Crowley’s retirement from his post as superintendent of Rosalia School District has the St. John and Endicott Districts searching for a new principal. Crowley will leave Rosalia at the end of the school year. He will be replaced by Bill Thurston, current superintendent at Ritzville. Thurston will be replaced by Rob Roettger, principal of St. John and Endicott. And St. John/Endicott will next week interview candidates for the principal’s job. “Yeah, I kind of started a game of musical chairs there, didn’t I?” Crowley said to the Ga... Full story
The skeletal beginnings of Palouse’s first wooden mammoth stand tall on the future site of the town’s community center. By Jeslyn Lemke Gazette Reporter A 15-foot creature of possible pre-historic proportions is lurking in a grass lot in downtown Palouse. It’s skeletal figure will soon get a life-size trunk and tusks - thus completing Palouse’s first community mammoth. Yes, Palouse artists are at it again. For the second time in a year, Thad Froio and his fellow artists are building a giant wooden animal which they plan to set ablaze next mo... Full story
One week after hearing the Whitman County’s 2011 budget deficit had swollen from $660,000 to $1 million, county leaders learned Monday no solid figure actually exists. In December, the county passed a $12.6 million budget that was $660,000 in the red. Commissioner Greg Partch last week said figures from the county’s newly-implemented New World accounting software showed the deficit had grown to as much as $1 million. Gary Petrovich, administrative director in the commissioners’ office, told a gathering of county officials Monday the count...
A wave of young egg hunters rushes onto the Schmuck Park green Saturday morning at the CHS League’s annual easter egg hunt. Prize eggs were hidden in each of the areas designated for each age group. Prize egg finders, pictured at right, were Hunter Dowell, held by the Easter Bunny, in the 1 to 2 age bracket; Liana Vanek, left, 3 to 5 years; and Kendall Clinton, right, 6 to 9 years. Clinton, in the holiday spirit, shared her prize with friend and egg hunting teammate Drew Van Tine, center....
Pullman Regional Hospital and Lydig Construction, the general contractor for the 2004 construction of the hospital in Pullman, reached a $5.5 million settlement agreement of a 2009 suit involving alleged faults in the 2004 hospital construction project. Described as “an arms-length resolution,” the lawsuit was settled through mediation last Nov. 15. A copy of the settlement agreement was provided to the Gazette as the result of a public records request made April 6 to the Pullman Hospital District by Colfax Attorney Gary Libey on behalf of the... Full story
—Arla Stanard photo A mother goose, five goslings and their papa stopped traffic Saturday morning when they paraded across Main Street between Rosauers and Ackerman Heating & Air Conditioning. The flock was believed to be in search of access to a swim site on the South Fork of the Palouse River. Colfax Office Robert Wride received a call to come to the scene at 11:30 a.m. The geese were assisted by two Colfax Boy Scouts who had been working at a sales table in Rosauers. The geese here are traveling westbound across the south end of R...
The Port of Whitman County’s $11.8 million project to expand access to high-speed fiber optic internet connections is moving forward. The agency put out a call for bids for firms to manage the installation of fiber optic cable between Spokane and Clarkston. The cable would run through Whitman County, linking several towns to broadband cable. Executive Director Joe Poire said they hope to select a contractor by June 10 with construction beginning in mid-July. The port originally hoped to have the project started by the first of June, but the c...
What are your plans for England’s royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton? Doug Robinson, Union Flat “I think the attention on it has gone far over board.” How long do you think it will last? “I think if left alone they have a better chance of succeeding.” Diana Hall, Steptoe “I’m going to get up and watch it. I watched Charles and Diana and I’m going to watch this one too.” How long do you think it will last? “It’s going to last forever.” Ruth Myers, Kennewick “I’ll be driving home from Reno.” Jay Hulse, Colfax “I hope to go o...
