Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 276 - 300 of 2119
It starts when it is hot and ends when it is cold. For 2020-21, it will start when it’s cold and end when it’s warm. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) announced July 21 a four-season sports schedule which moves football to the spring. The changes, to account for increasing COVID-19 cases, keep cross-country in the fall, and basketball and wrestling in a shortened season beginning after Christmas. Football and volleyball will run from March to early May with a fin...
COLFAX – The Colfax city council met by Google Meet computer and phone access Monday night, covering a few items in a brief meeting while taking no action. Police Chief Bruce Blood mentioned that Colfax's third officer, Joe McCollum, will return to the job July 27 after a deployment with the U.S. Air Force (aiding COVID-19 testing in Yakima). Blood noted that this will make it so the department can put a city officer back on the night shift. The city contracts with the Whitman County S...
COLFAX – After about three hours of deliberation, a Whitman County jury Thursday found Phillip Hayes guilty of one count of Drive-By Shooting, a class B felony; one count of Reckless Endangerment, a gross misdemeanor, and one count of Reckless Driving, also a gross misdemeanor. Hayes, who lives outside Lamont, was alleged to have drove past a farm shop and recklessly fired a .44 handgun, striking a pickup near the shop. The farmer, Rowdy Brown, stood 15 feet away from the truck when it was h...
COLFAX – The Fonk’s fire investigation has entered a new phase as items from the building are now being analyzed in a private forensic laboratory in Seattle. These include wiring, an oven, a dishwasher and a meat slicer from the back of the ground floor of the building, where the March 17 fire is suspected to have started. The partially-taken down structure was turned back over to its owners Tuesday. The current investigation is being conducted by representatives of insurance companies which hav...
COLFAX – The Port of Whitman County commissioners July 16 approved a donation of $50,000 to LaCrosse Community Pride for its rock house project. The non-profit plans to restore the deteriorating structures built during the Great Depression, to convert them into bunkhouses, along with converting a service station to a heritage museum and an Ice Age Flood Center. Total cost is estimated at $392,000. At the Port's July 2, meeting Alex McGregor and Peggy Bryan from LaCrosse Community Pride joined b...
COLFAX – The Palouse Coyotes 17 & under independent baseball team played a team named Northwest Natural at McDonald Park in Colfax Saturday, July 20, losing 4-2. The Coyotes' Brady Wells hit a double to lead Palouse batters, while Carson Coulter, Ryan Bickelhaupt and Kolby Sisk each had base hits. A second game was played against the Kirkland Merchants on Sunday, the Coyotes winning 3-2 in nine innings. Braden Wells led with three hits and Mitch Lavier and Coulter each had two hits. On July 15,...
The drop in state gas taxes coming to Whitman County because of less driving during the virus shutdowns appears to be lower than previously thought. Citing a monthly report from the state CRAB (County Road Administration) board, Mark Storey, Public Works Director, estimates the local shortfall at $800,000, compared to the previous $1.2 million. The estimates, drawn from traffic counts in the Puget Sound area, turned out less than the actual driving that took place. Overall, statewide gas taxes...
COLFAX – A public hearing will be held Monday, July 20, for an annual update to the county's six-year plan for roads and bridges. “If there's anything people want us to look at, we would like the input,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director. County commissioners took in the subject July 13 during a workshop. The state legislature-required Transportation Improvement Program calls for each county to lay out its intentions for projects to come. Storey noted highlights from the Whitman Count...
JOHNSON - In the late spring of 1995, a Druffel farmhouse near Johnson received a knock at the door. A production company was in the area location-scouting for a music video. The visitors said they liked the look of the house and porch, and wondered if they may film a young singer on it, from Tennessee, by the name of Kenny Chesney. The Druffels agreed and the video was shot for the song "Me and You." It would be years before the artist's name would register across the country. Included in the...
Jody Opheim, CARES Act funding coordinator, gave a report to county commissioners Monday, July 29. She has been hired to help administer the program in Whitman County; including paperwork, reporting and ultimately, recommendations to county commissioners for how to spend $2,757,100. Whitman County was awarded the federal aid for the period of March 1- Oct. 31. Local towns and cities have also received a minimum of $25,000 each. CARES stands for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security...
WHITMAN COUNTY –Whitman County's GIS project continues, since its start last fall, to create a layered database for county geography; from roads to streams to private land parcels. Jeff Marshall, project engineer, a 22-year Whitman County Public Works employee, leads the Geographic Information Systems project. “A little over 40 percent through now,” he told county commissioners Monday, referring to the first phase. A total of 12,500 private property parcels have been mapped so far. “They a...
Work is underway on the Seltice-Warner bridge replacement project seven miles east of Oakesdale. The county Public Works bridge crew of Bob Sevedge, Dawson Messersmith, Lorn Steen and Robby Johnson began June 29, first taking apart an old timber bridge – infested by carpenter ants – and assembling to one side the county's temporary bridge, which the crew hauled to the site on a low-boy trailer in two parts. The workers marked the detour to the temporary bridge and began to prepare ground to dri...
PALOUSE – The City of Palouse continues its discussion over whether to adopt a flag policy – and what kind – after an estimated 70 people gathered at Hayton Greene Park June 23 for a public forum. Two days later, the city council's policy and administration committee met again. They will present a policy recommendation to the overall council at its next meeting, July 14. The flag issue came up in early June when the Palouse Lions Club prepared to hang flags for Flag Day on Main Street on light...
COLFAX/PALOUSE – A plan to resume senior meals in person July 6 in Colfax and Palouse has been held back, with the county needing to be in Phase IV before the change would be allowed. Instead, delivery of the weekly or twice-weekly meals will continue around the county. The service, since March, has increased. Council on Aging and Human Services meals have gone from 1,100 per month to 2,500, using drivers from COAST Transportation and other volunteers. The Council expanded their delivery area t...
WHITMAN COUNTY – Another week of rock work was on the schedule for Almota Road south of Colfax last week, nearing the opening of the road to passenger cars by the Fourth of July. “Then the contractor pulled all of his trucks for a week,” said Dean Cornelison, assistant county engineer. “To go work on another project.” The road is still closed to most traffic, with rocks as large as 12 inches scattered on the surface. “It’s traversible in a four-by-four pickup,” Cornelison said, as he sat betwe...
A funeral for Kenneth Robert Hames, who died at age 91 in April, was held Friday, June 26, at the Rosalia Veterans Park, which he helped bring into existence. At Hames' request, the service took place at the park and afterward his ashes were taken to the IOOF cemetery at the edge of town in a procession led by the Rosalia Fire Department's 1937 Ford pumper truck. Hames, who grew up in Lamont before moving to Rosalia, was a 40-year member of the Rosalia volunteer Fire Department. He served in...
COLFAX – Friendly damage ensued on Almota Road last week. "Did you get the scrapers unstuck?" asked County Commissioner Art Swannack Monday morning during a work session. "Yes and no," said Mark Storey, Public Works director. "Scrapers blew out a portion of the road that had not been blown out." On June 17, 45-foot long scraper vehicles from contractor M.A. DeAtley were cutting soil from one part of the road-widening project south of Colfax and hauling it to another part. In the process, the h...
COLFAX – The re-bids are in for the remodeling/expansion of the Moderate Waste Building at the county landfill. The new lowest bidder is $812,278 from Mangum Construction of Clarkston, for the project that originally went out to bid in March. The county received just two bids then – during the initial virus shutdowns – one well over the engineer's estimate and the other with irregularities. On June 15, County Public Works Director Mark Storey opened four new bids for the project, which will...
COMPUTER SCREENS – A couple dozen county officials gathered by teleconference Thursday night, June 18, for a Whitman County Mayors' Virtual Roundtable. Hosted by Paul Kimmel, regional business manager for Avista, the two-hour session covered topics from 4H animals to WSU in-person education this fall to the state of the county economy with virus restrictions. The event began with comments from County Commissioner Michael Largent. “Thirty-one today” he said, about total COVID-19 cases in Whitm...
WHITMAN COUNTY – The Palouse Empire Fair's stock sale committee will meet Monday night, June 29, to discuss options for 4H and FFA kids raising animals for a county fair that will not take place. In a usual year, youth buy and/or raise animals to show at the fair, be analyzed by judges and go up for sale at the conclusion. Because the 2020 fair has been canceled, the livestock committee has already committed to buying the animals at the floor price – a fluctuating base market price. "We wou...
Port of Whitman County Commissioner John Love has announced his retirement after 24 years on the board. He is a retired/retained Navy Reserve Rear Admiral Flag Officer. Retained? "If something comes up and they need me, I will be underway," Love said. He enlisted in 1950, beginning in the Navy Air Reserve while a student at Whitworth College in Spokane. After graduating in economics/business administration, Love was commissioned as an amphibious officer in Coronado, Calif., boarding underwater...
WHITMAN COUNTY – County school districts are working on plans to re-open in the fall after State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal announced last week the intention from state officials. Reykdal laid out required changes to make it happen, including requiring masks and other modifications to normal operations. "I am very thankful, we want to see our kids back in the building," said Paul Clark, Colton superintendent. "I think (Reykdal) is the Superintendent of Public Instruction...
COLFAX – The Colfax city council gathered Monday night on Google Meet for the last time, with two representatives missing, until COVID-19 guidelines for public meetings revert June 17. City Councilman Tom Huntwork was absent while Mark Mackleit was listed as connected to the meeting, though no response was given in the opening roll call. The meeting began, the council approving minutes from the last time, followed by a motion to excuse Huntwork's absence. Another roll call came for the vote, f...
PALOUSE – The Palouse City Council's policy and administration committee was set to meet Tuesday night after flags flown over the weekend capped days of discussion about whether one particular flag should have been. The Palouse Lions Club has put up American flags and those of the five military branches and more, in recent years on Memorial Day, Flag Day and Veterans Day. In the past five years, they added the Thin Blue Line flag – which was created to honor fallen police – and has since been...
The Southeast 1B League is in place for 2020-24 as a 12-team league divides into East and West. The East division will be largely what the league has been the past four years, with the addition of Tekoa/Rosalia dropping back to 1B from 2B. The East will included Oakesdale, Garfield/Palouse, Colton, Pomeroy, Tekoa/Rosalia, Touchet and St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse. The Southeast 1B West will be DeSales – coming down to play sports at the 1B level after historically going up to play in 2B – Liberty C...
