Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Pullman Patriots senior Legion team took both sides of a league opener Tuesday in Spokane against the Northeast 49ers, a new league team based in Chewelah. The Pats booked an 8-0 shutout in the first game with 10 hits, and booked an 8-7 win with 12 more hits in the second game. Nick Scourey had the start in the first game and Mason Van Lith relieved him in the last inning. Jackson Webb had three hits in the first game with a double and a triple. Scourey struck out eight, walked two and allowed three hits in pitching the win. Dusty Lyons tagged...
THURSDAY Sukanya Roy, a 14-year-old eighth grader at Abington Heights Middle School in Pennsylvania, correctly spelled “cymotrichous” to claim the championship in the marathon-length Scripps National Spelling Bee. For besting the competition through a 20-round final, Roy earned a $30,000 cash prize, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, a complete reference library, a $5,000 scholarship, $2,600 in reference works and other prizes. The New York Times named Jill Abramson, 57, as its first woman executive editor. Twenty-four Hmong immigrants were arr...
With its many accessories and blade options, the Swiss Army Knife provides versatility in a compact form. For the past 31 years, Kermit Wigen has been the LaCrosse School’s version of a Swiss Army Knife, useful in whatever capacity needed. “In a small school, you have to be good at something, but sometimes it’s more important to be able to do lots of little things,” said Wigen. He said he has decided to retire from LaCrosse because of personal issues. Since 1979, Wigen taught industrial arts, physical education, speech, drama, social studies...
Palouse parents are now at work creating a non-profit organization to run the day care in Palouse. Members have already been picked to serve on the board that will manage the non-profit. Jens Hegg, president of the new board, said he and other board members are now working to raise funds, become certified by the state as a non-profit and receive a license to run the day care. Secretary of the new board is Andra Edwards. Other members include Brad Loomis, Kim Akin and Dana Anderson, Hegg said. All the board members have children in the day care...
Residents of Steptoe have called a meeting later this month about the future of the community’s grange hall. Members of the Steptoe Grange and the Steptoe Community Fund told the Gazette last month the hall’s doors would close for good this month. Members of the community fund tried for years to purchase the 80-year-old building from the state grange, but could not convince the state Grange to sell. Fund members had since been hit with high repair bills after a storm blew over a chimney in November. They also decided the cost of mai...
During a post-session tour of the Ninth District last week, Representatives Joe Schmick and Susan Fagan summarized a tense state legislative session aimed at closing the $5.1 billion budget gap. Both expressed satisfied with the budget but cited growing concern about the steep cuts made to higher education and K through 12 budgets. Schmick pointed out this is the first budget in many years in which the state will be spending less than it is taking in, but he noted that comes at the cost of cutting education budgets. WSU alone is slated to lose...
Kirby Dailey, who was active in the Colfax school district before and after the 2010 levy failure, is so far the lone challenger to file for a seat on the Colfax school board. He is running against board member Laura Johnson. Dailey filed Monday, and Johnson and three other incumbent board members filed for another term Tuesday. Johnson is finishing her first four-year term. Johnson told the Gazette she and Dailey had already spoken about his decision to file and she favors voters having a choice. Also filing for re-election Tuesday were Kathy...
Colfax will have a race for mayor this fall, as Councilman Thomas Huntwork Tuesday joined Carol Stueckle, who filed last week, as the only two candidates to thus far file for the post. In-person filing began at Whitman County’s elections office Monday and continues through 5 p.m. Friday. Seats on city councils, as well as director seats on the boards of various school, park, cemetery and fire districts are up this year. Races with more than two candidates will be on the ballot for the Aug. 16 primary, with the top two vote recipients a...
Garfield’s Smokin’ Papa’s Restaurant has closed for good but the community organization that owns the building plans to re-open it in July as another restaurant. The five members of the Garfield Public Development Authority are now working on new counters, updated lighting and other interior fixes on the building. The building will either be leased out to a restaurant operator or be managed by the PDA who will hire restaurant employees. “Everyone is really active in keeping it open for the community,” said PDA President Daymon Marple. T...
State Department of Transportation officials have blocked off the sidewalk on the Highway 26 side of the twin bridges at the north end of Main Street in Colfax. Large orange “closed” signs have been posted at each end of the bridge and yellow tape has been used to keep pedestrians off the sidewalk part of the bridge. The state closed off the sidewalk after inspectors discovered the cantilevered supports for the sidewalk are separating from the main support structure of the bridge, according to a report from Al Gilson, DOT spokesman for the east...
A letter in last week’s Gazette about a misspelled veteran’s name in the Memorial weekend flag display incorrectly noted the flag was donated to the American Legion. The flag display was started by the former Colfax VFW post and is now done by the Colfax FFA....
The Jordan World Circus has booked a performance stop at the Palouse Empire Fairground. The circus has booked one show at 7 p.m. June 14. A circus representative distributed free children’s passes at Colfax businesses last week. The Jordan Circus, which is based in Las Vegas, sets up on the carnival lot area of the fairground....
June rains, commonly called million dollar rains in the Palouse country, would normally lighten the step of area farmers. But is there a discount when those rains come after the wettest spring on record? “It’s really not an issue, other than the planting,” said Steve Van Vleet, agronomist at WSU’s Whitman County Extension. Never since Whitman County rain totals were first officially recorded in 1940 has such an unrelenting rain fallen over March, April and May. David Jones at the NRCS in Colfax measured 8.63 inches of rain atop the city’s...
Steptoe may soon lose its post office; the town is on the United States Postal Service’s short list for closure. The postal service sent out questionnaires to the 47 residents of Steptoe who receive their mail at the post office boxes in Cooper’s Corner, an antique store just off the junction of state Highways 23 and 195. “It’s a very small office, and it doesn’t have a postmaster right now,” said Ernie Swanson, communications director for the post office’s Seattle district. Swanson said Steptoe is one of several towns in the area on the l...
Backers of a grocery store and marketplace in LaCrosse asked the Port of Whitman County this week for $42,000. The $42,000 from the port would be used to help fund a $192,800 remodel of the building for the planned store and marketplace. “We’ve got a solid project here that has the chance to revitalize our entire community,” Ed Casey, president of LaCrosse Community Pride, told the Gazette Tuesday. “It marries right up with the port’s goals of job creation.” LaCrosse has a population of 313 and the store could see business from the surrounding...
An 18-teacher rally on Main Street in Colfax last Wednesday preceded the second round of mediation talks between the school teacher’s union and the school district on a contract deadlock. Cars honked and several people cheered as they drove past teachers holding signs that read “Protect Our Contract” and “Keep Our RIF Policy” outside the Public Service Building at 4 p.m. The teachers’ Colfax Education Association and the district administration are trying to resolve a dispute over how layoffs are decided. The dispute is part of an overall con...
Security at the Palouse Hot Rod Show this year was ready for a fist fight or maybe a theft, but no one was expecting the swarm of 12,000 honey bees that descended on a car parked in front of the Green Frog restaurant. “It made its way through the car show,” Palouse Police Chief Jerry Neumann reported on the path of the swarm. “They basically filled up the whole passenger side door panel. It was crazy.” The inside panel of the car door was inches thick with bees surrounding the queen and thousands more buzzed in circles around the vehicle...
LaX Dollars for Scholars awards will top $100,000 over 10 Years This month The LaCrosse Dollars for Scholars will celebrate its 10th anniversary and announce its 2011 scholarship recipients at LaCrosse High School’s graduation on Saturday, June 11. Since it began in 2000, LDFS has awarded $96,130 to LaCrosse High School graduates in pursuit of higher education opportunities. Scholarships earned are applied toward student expenses at the schools they will be attending next fall, including trade schools, two -year colleges, four -year colleges a...
Hooper Jessica McGregor, Gazette coresondent Bill and Della Evans traveled to Walla Walla last Thursday to attend the grand opening and open house of granddaughter Amanda Evans’s new salon, “Face It.” Anna May Tobin hosted daughter Sandy, and family Scott and Johnathon Minnic, of Newport, for the weekend. They all attended the Washtucna High School graduation ceremony and the party for grandson Jacob Blankenship....
Chloe Rambo, daughter of Ryan and Erin Rambo, was named valedictorian of the Oakesdale High School class of 2011 with a grade average of 3.856. She participated in the Spokane Community College running start program and was a Nighthawk cheerleader. She plans to attend the University of Idaho. Victoria Israel, daughter of Dave and Becky Israel, is salutatorian for the class with a grade average of 3.850. She participated in Running Start at Spokane Falls Community College, was a member of the high school equestrian team and National Honor...
Colby Bishop of Colton stands next to the Chrysler 300 he drove to pass the driver’s test at Pullman. The Chrysler was originally purchased by Colby’s great-grandfather and provided by the present owner, his grandfather, Malcom Bishop of Coupeville. Colby drove the Chrysler in the parades at Garfield and Coupeville after passing the test. A big event for any 16-year-old is taking and passing the state driver’s examination, that hurdle which offers a whole new range of independence via the automobile. Colby Bishop, who will be a sophomore at Co...
Whitman County will soon begin construction of nearly $1.5 million worth of federally funded road projects. One project will replace what Public Works Director Mark Storey called the “incredible, jumping and moving” Hatley Bridge on Wawawai Road, which crosses Union Flat Creek just north of the Wawawai grade. Storey said the 120-foot long bridge has moved more than a foot off its foundation since it was built in 1971. Roughly $680,000 of federal bridge dollars will be used to fix the bridge. Another $750,000 will be used to fund safety improvem...
An Unauthorized Autobiography W. BRUCE CAMERON One of the main things I like about the following autobiography is that it’s not written posthumously. Another attractive feature is that, in the spirit of recent memoirs like “A Million Pieces at a Buck Each” or whatever it was called, I’ve been able to take certain “artistic liberties” in order to make me seem more “good.” I was born in 1960. Well, more like 1968. 1970. I was born in 1982. So I’m, what, nearly 30 years old. Actually I’m 25, so whenever you have to be born in order to be 25, tha...
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. COLLISION ON 26 TAKES LIFE A two-car collision on Highway 26 Monday night took the life of a Pullman resident. Sanchita Haldar, 34, died at Providence Sacred Heart Hospital from injuries sustained in the collision. Haldar and the driver of the other car, Jennifer D. Baker, 20, LaCrosse, were taken by ambulance crews to the Dusty Airport. The Lif...
Teachers seek support The teachers of Colfax are asking for community support on a contract issue that has been hanging over us for about a year now. The debate is over a proposed change in the reduction in force policy by the superintendent and school board collectively referred hereafter as the district. The district has proposed more open language that allows for interpretation and subjectivity when it comes to reducing certified staff. Their rationale is it will be better for students. The teachers, who already do what is our very best for...
