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Articles from the June 3, 2010 edition


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  • Resurfacing construction in full swing on SR 195

    Jeslyn Lemke|Jun 3, 2010

    Construction on Highway 195 is mostly wrapped up through Uniontown and crews are now focusing on resurfacing the rest of the state highway to the state border. Drivers can expect more delays of up to a half-hour on the highway as the project continues. Monday, flaggers were scheduled to operate at three different locations along the stretch of highway. The total project runs south from the north Colton city limits eight miles to the Washington/Idaho state line, a distance of more than eight miles. Crews along the highway are grinding off the...

  • County starts order to okay building on buttes

    Joe Smillie|Jun 3, 2010

    Whitman County commissioners are moving forward with plans to remove restrictions on building homes atop the county’s 15 buttes. Commissioners during their regular meeting Tuesday directed Planner Alan Thomson to begin the public process to change the code. Building higher than 2,000-feet in elevation on buttes was declared off limits in the 2007 revisions to the county’s code regulating home construction in the agricultural zone. Commissioners opened up the idea of removing those restrictions in April, after receiving an application from Walte...

  • Salary panel holds the line on pay for officials

    Joe Smillie|Jun 3, 2010

    For the second year in a row, Whitman County’s elected officials will receive no pay raises. The county’s citizen salary commission decided Tuesday night to keep 2011 salaries of elected officials at the same levels as 2010, which is the same level as 2009. County Commissioner Greg Partch wrote a letter to the commission, asking salaries to remain frozen. That letter almost caused some members of the pay panel to give elected officials a raise. “This is purely a political move on his part,” said Susan Weed, salary commissioner from Pullman...

  • Edgemons picked to marshal Battle Days celebrations

    Joe Smillie|Jun 3, 2010

    After driving many Rosalia celebrities down the Whitman Street route of the annual Battle Days parade, Glenn and Janean Edgemon are left with a problem this year. Who will drive them - this year’s Battle Days Grand marshals - down through the parade? “I guess I’ve got to drive my own car,” said Glenn, who has taken previous marshals down Whitman Street in his limo. “One year, we took Bob Goldsworthy through the parade, and he sat out through the roof on top of the car,” he recalled. The Edgemons are life-long residents of Rosalia and for 31 yea...

  • County wage freeze to thaw

    Joe Smillie|Jun 3, 2010

    Whitman County commissioners Tuesday delayed a decision to unfreeze tenure-based raises to non-union employees. Commissioners were set to re-institute the raises, known as "step" raises, that have been frozen since November. County employees normally receive "step" raises of three percent when they are upgraded in the county’s classification system every 18 months. Commissioner Greg Partch said Gary Hunt, who the county hires to negotiate union contracts, advised him to lift the freeze. Union bargaining units refused to sign contracts that i...

  • Battle Days blasts off with 250 Spartan grads

    Joe Smillie|Jun 3, 2010

    Hundreds of bygone Spartan grads will return to Rosalia this weekend to help the town celebrate its 41st Battle Days. In conjunction with the annual Battle Days traditions, the school has invited all graduates and all those who attended to return for an all-school reunion. Leslie Gunnels, school secretary and co-organizer of the reunion, said more than 250 confirmations have been booked for the reunion. “It should be quite something,” said Gunnels. “We’ve had a lot of people call and say they’re going to come for the reunion.” A reunion lun...

  • County to graduate 343 students

    Jeslyn Lemke|Jun 3, 2010

    A new tide of Whitman County seniors steps off into the real world over the next two weeks. A total of 343 seniors will graduate from Whitman County, 13 more than last year. Pullman High School accounted for half of this year’s class, producing a graduating class of 164 students. The graduate count in 2009 was 330, and 2008 saw 337 graduates. Aside from Pullman’s plentiful tide of graduates, Colfax has the next highest graduation count. Fifty-six students will graduate from Colfax this year during the June 5 ceremony, which will be held in the...

  • Veterans’ flags line cemetery entrance

    Jun 3, 2010

  • County finance director fired

    Joe Smillie|Jun 3, 2010

    On a bitterly split vote, Whitman County commissioners Tuesday voted to fire Bev Divine as the county’s finance director. After more than two hours of intense and heated discussion, some in closed executive session and some in an open public meeting, commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch voted to dismiss Divine. Commissioner Michael Largent cast an adamant “no” vote. Partch said Divine’s firing was prompted by a series of missed deadlines, incomplete financial reports and the failure to implement the county’s New World accounting...

  • Wildcats defend title

    Jun 3, 2010

    Colton Wildcat girls celebrate after finishing a three-game run to keep the state 1B fastpitch trophy in Colton for another year. Coach Brad Nilson watches at left while Megan Heitstuman and Megan Grassl exchange hugs. Senior pitcher Kelsey Moser gets a hug at right, and Peyton Meyer joins the celebration in the background. Colton finished the title run with a 21-3 record. —Jerry Morse photo...

  • Legals - June 3, 2010

    Jun 3, 2010

    MEETING CANCELLATION NOTICE The June, July and August, 2010 regular meetings of the Whitman County LEOFF I Board have been cancelled. The next regular meeting of the Board will take place Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in the Whitman County Commissioners’ Chambers. Maribeth Becker, CMC, Clerk of the Board 19324 22/2c 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, Was...