Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Garfield’s annual May Day celebration returns Saturday, beginning with breakfast from the Boy Scouts and Awana youth group at the Garfield/Palouse Middle School cafeteria, followed by a “Color Explosion” fun run put on by Garfield Parks & Recreation, from 8 to 10 a.m. At 10:15, the lineup begins for the parade, with a start time of 11 a.m. The kiddie parade starts at 10:45 a.m. Winners for top three costumes will be announced right afterwards. The Garfield city park will be set-up for activ...
Jennings Elementary School first graders celebrated National Nurse's Week with a trip to Whitman Hospital last Friday afternoon. A total of 42 youngsters were able to attend the hospital walk this year. The children were divided into three groups and each group took turns hearing about the different departments in the hospital. "Nurse's Week shows first graders where nurses work," said Laurie Gronning, Whitman Hospital public relations specialist. Students first viewed the helipad used by Life...
Ninth District Senator Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, stopped by the Gazette office Monday afternoon and fielded a few questions. First up was the state's school funding problem, which surfaced after state funding was changed in the wake of the McCleary decision, which has a lot to do with school districts around the state making commitments "beyond their means," Schoesler noted. “Some of these (teachers' pay contracts) were totally unsustainable,” he said. He added the last-minute move by the legislature to tack another dollar onto the loc...
Construction on replacement of water lines in Rosalia commenced last week. Layne Merritt, J-U-B Engineers area manager, said the project received funding to replace water pipes that run from Fairview Street to Fourth Street, and down to the Rosalia School. He said the water line part of the project is on track to be completed in early June, with the total project to be finished by the middle of June. DW Excavating is contractor for the water line part of the project. A contract has not been...
After years of bandaid fixes, the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad is on track for repair and rehabilitation to make it a solid rail system. “It is kind of exciting,” said Bob Westby, PCC rail system manager. The rail line now has $11,333,963 in funding to replace ties, rail, ballast and 10 bridges to support the 110 car unit trains serving grain terminals on both ends of the county. Westby explained that rail is measured by the weight per yard. Heaviest rail is 136 to 140 pounds per yar...
The verdict is in from the land-use examiner on the conditional use permit request for the Dusty grain storage pads project. Land-use hearing examiner Andy Kottkamp delivered his decision May 8 in a 12-page document approving the application by the McCoy Land Company/PNW (Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-operative). The project includes four grain piles, truck scales, utilities and small office space, with an access road off State Route 127, just south of Dusty. The height of the piles would be 65...
Jim Retzer, a member of the Washington State Patrol detachment based in Colfax, filed for the open mayor's seat Monday morning after filing opened for the fall elections. Colfax Mayor Todd Vanek announced April 1 that he did not plan to seek a third term as mayor. Retzer was one of the applicants who applied for the Colfax City Council seat which was vacated by the resignation of Sarah McKnight at the start of 2018. Mark Mackleit was appointed to the seat, and he filed Tuesday for the council 4 seat. Incumbent Thomas Huntwork filed late Monday...
A blood drive in LaCrosse Friday could award the local school a $2,000 grant if 36 donors participate. The blood drive will be from noon to 6:15 p.m. Friday at the LaCrosse Town Hall. “All blood collected will go toward the local hospital to save local people,” said Joe Fairbanks, southern territory manager for Vitalant, formerly know as Inland Northwest Blood Center. The grant would be used for S.T.E.M purposes at the LaCrosse School District, which gives leeway for what the school can use it for, he said. Fairbanks said to receive the gra...
A new veterinary clinic is set to open in Colfax in June. Moscow-based Affordable Veterinary Care will offer a satellite branch with hours announced as Mondays, Thursdays and the second Saturday of each month. The clinic will be run by Dr. Erin McGillic, a Colfax resident, assisted by Alicia Liam and Cindee Carlson, another Colfax resident. AVC Colfax will offer general healthcare for dogs and cats, including examinations, vaccinations, parasite control (fleas, ticks, worms), ear, eye and...
A representative of Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington gave a report Monday morning to Whitman County Commissioners about services provided in 2018. Lynn Kimball, executive director for Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington, said 1,091 Whitman County residents received services in 2018. Those services include transportation, home delivered meals, family caregiver assessments and family caregiver in-home respite hours. Caregiver respite hours were covered completely by...
Colfax Junior-Senior High School principal Carrie Lipe has resigned. The school board approved the resignation Monday night, to take affect after this school year is completed. Lipe’s contract ends in mid-June. The job opening will be posted this week. “It’s a positive transition, made with a lot of consideration,” said Lipe. “I want to be more available time-wise, energy-wise. These decisions can only be made at a summer juncture. My husband and I both have parents living in Moscow-Pu...
The annual Washington state FFA convention took place on campus at WSU last weekend with a list of first-place winners from Whitman County. Colfax junior Cotton Booker took state for top individual and State Star for agricultural business. Cole Baerlocher, another junior, won for state prepared public speaking. In team events, Colfax's Cassidi Shindler, a senior, Gunnar Aune, junior, and Perry Imler, sophomore, took first place in ag sales – a competition in which teams across the state are...
The Colfax school board took in its second-to-last meeting of the shortened 2018-19 school year Monday night, beginning with a work session on new curriculum for elementary science and high school culinary arts. Jennings Elementary Principal Travis Howell spoke in the segment, along with Altaira Bogle, family and consumer sciences teacher at the junior-senior high school, and Brenda Kneeshaw, the district’s curriculum specialist. The regular board meeting began with comments from S...
Pullman and Moscow with host the Inland Northwest Artisan Grains Conference for the first time ever in July. Aba Kiser, project manager for WSU Food Systems, said since 2013 the conference has been held on the west side of Washington. She said Cascadia Grains, the organization who puts on the conference, saw an increase of interest in evolving grain technology on the east side of the state. They decided to hold a pilot conference, and the event sold out with 100 attendees. Kiser also said Cascadia Grains has a partnership with the University...
County Coroner Annie Pillers determined after investigation Haley Aleia Ferguson, 21, died May 4, 2019, at her residence in Pullman from a a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The manner of death was suicide....
Colfax baseball players will head for the state regional round at Ferris High on Spokane's south hill Saturday after pegging back-to-back wins last Saturday in the showdown rounds for NE district play. The Bulldogs defeated Chewelah, the top team from the NE-North, 3-2 in the first round, and then stopped Asotin, the south side champs who topped Colfax in the league double at McDonald Park. "It had a lot of drama," Coach Scotty Parrish commented. The Bulldogs, who were stopped in the regional...
Colfax hammered Davenport Tuesday 13-1 at McDonald Park to advance to the semi-final round of the NE District tournament which will resume Saturday at the Franklin Park complex in north Spokane. The Bulldogs are booked to play Chewelah, an 11-2 winner over the LRS Bronco, in another playoff round Tuesday. Northwest Christian and Liberty, the only NE team to top Colfax this year, will play in the other semi-final round. The final NE rounds at Franklin will offer four tickets to the state...
All three Colfax senior golfers qualified for the state finals next week after the second round of district finals Monday on the par-72 MeadowWood course at Liberty Lake. Seniors Augie Allenbach and Bennett Gray each carded 75s to finish behind Davenport’s Kristoff Pankey who booked a two-under 70 in Monday’s round. The scores were combined with last week’s results from Deer Park which put Pankey in the top state spot with a 139, Allenbach second with a 150 and Gray third at 151. The top 11 NE boys qualified for state which will be at the p...
Playing at Spokane Friday, May 11, Colton beat Selkirk 15-0 and Inchelium 12-4 to advance to a state seeding game. They will meet Almira/Coulee/Hartline at 6 p.m. Friday at Franklin Park in Spokane to decide the no. 1 and no. 2 seed for the state tournament in Yakima over Memorial Day weekend. Josie Schultheis pitched against Selkirk, throwing five innings for a two-hit shutout. She had four strikeouts, one walk, allowing two hits. At the plate for Colton, Rylee Vining went 4-for-4 while Jordyn...
They met for the state 1B championship last year, Almira/Coulee/Hartline winning it 8-4. A year later, last Saturday in Colbert, it was Colton-A/C/H again, the same two pitchers, for a game to decide seedings for the state quarterfinals. On May 11, in the late afternoon sun, Almira/ Coulee/Hartline pitcher Dalton Kentner took the mound to open against Colton's top three in the lineup, its three fifth-year starters. One, two, three, they went down to strikeouts, no contact with the ball. Parker...
The deepest solo ocean dive ever made was to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. It was made in a titanium-hulled submersible on May 1. The depth of the dive was more than 35,800 feet. Four new deep sea species were discovered. Also, discovered on the sea floor was a plastic bag and what may have been candy wrappers. In the Philippines, a juvenile whale was found dying of what scientists thought was dehydration and starvation. After its death, it was discovered that the whale had ingested 88 pounds of single use plastic bags....
