Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 2119
The question of former Tekoa resident Ted Blaszak’s property near the Tekoa trestle – and whether someone could legally live in a houseboat and trailer on site without a water and sewer hook-up – appears closer to resolved, after the city last week completed its work into what the cost would be. Blaszak, a former city council member and president of the Tekoa Trail and Trestle Association, owns three lots at the east end of the trestle, and, according to Mayor Troy Wilson, has allowed a homel...
Luis Alberto Urrea, born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, who beforehand registered him as a US citizen born abroad, will come to the Palouse Nov. 12-15 in support of Everybody Reads. His book "The House of Broken Angels," is the choice for the 19th year of the program, which features one title for readers across the region. "I've been almost everywhere, but not quite there," said Urrea, though he's been to Lewiston and gone to Wallowa Lake multiple times to participate in...
The final week of the regular season for Southeast 1B league football is here, with top teams looking to secure playoff seeds as others vie for a chance to keep playing. Lyle/Wishram, Tekoa/Rosalia and Pomeroy hold the top three spots with Colton and Sunnyside Christian still in consideration for a potential fourth playoff berth. The two teams play at Sunnyside Thursday night at 7 p.m. Lyle/Wishram 64 Tekoa/Rosalia 36 Tekoa/Rosalia played at Lyle – just across the Columbia River from The Dalles...
Early November, nearing the second week and Christmas stuff glares in store windows. Have they no respect for what season it really is? District volleyball playoffs – with the 1B/2B state high school tournament in Yakima seven days away. The Southeast 1B league’s no. 1-seed Pomeroy was set to host no. 4 St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse Wednesday night at 6 p.m. No. 2-seed Oakesdale hosted no. 3 Colton, also Wednesday night. On Saturday, Nov. 9, because Pomeroy drew a higher number at a September ath...
A new town clerk is settled in at Uniontown. Kris Lockie began in June, after joining the Uniontown Post Office in September 2018, and then training at city hall to take over for Lynda Devorak – as she was to go out on medical leave in January. For the first half of 2019, Lockie worked at the town hall in the morning and the post office in the afternoon. Devorak was not able to return to the job. Lockie moved to the Palouse in 2016, from Oregon City, Ore., first working for the post office in T...
K's Bridal opened Oct. 17 near the corner of Main Street and Canyon Street in Colfax to offer sewing, tailoring and alterations. For just wedding dresses? "More than that," said Kim Nguyen. "I do everything, anything, patching, hemming, sewing and seamstress, I'm the woman who can take care of that. Men, women and children. My hobby, also my talent, with 48 years experience." Nguyen, who has owned six buildings in Colfax since 2016, previously had a bridal shop in Seattle's Rainier...
The Palouse Fire Department bought three new oxygen cylinders following an early morning house fire Oct. 21. “So we can bring more air with us,” said Scott Beeson, fire chief. The quick-change cylinders are rated for 45 minutes of oxygen – while that varies depending on how active a firefighter is. A cylinder holds 4,500 pounds of air. Beeson ordered three more $1,000 cylinders to be paid for out of the department’s capital fund, so it will now have six air packs and 12 cylinders. A cylinde...
The Colfax School board met Monday night for its regular twice-per-month meeting and fielded items such as a transfer/home school report. Superintendent Jerry Pugh opened the meeting with comments, noting a district levy committee meeting would be Tuesday night, run by volunteer Wes Claussen, for the district's regular two-year enrichment maintenance and operations levy. The board would need to approve and file to hold the levy by Dec. 13. Next at the meeting was a school construction update,...
The late pulse crop harvest – garbanzos and lentils – continues on the Palouse, with some fields abandoned, some seeded right over the top for next year's wheat and some cut. The delays were due to waiting out moisture; farmers hoping that beans would dry out enough to reach standards at the grain elevators for sale. “It was a testament to the three to four neighbors, five to 10 combines on a field on those few afternoons they could go,” said Allen Druffel, a farmer outside Colton and chairma...
A marijuana grow facility south of Lamont appears to be clear to pursue its operation after consideration by County Prosecutor Denis Tracy on the matter of an I-502 fence being built before the county marijuana moratorium started. Mark Storey, county public works director, noted to county commissioners Monday that the property owned by Zack Kennedy has an I-502 sight-obscure fence, built in 2017, well before the March moratorium on additional marijuana business activity in the county. He...
Whitman County commissioners held off on deciding whether to vacate sections of two dirt roads northeast near St. John after a public hearing Monday. Jim Davis Road and Gene Nelson Road are local access, mostly seasonal roads. A total of five miles would be vacated from both. The roads run north from Sunset Road to the Thorn Creek Road. The Davis Road intersects at Sunset, and the Nelson Road intersects about two miles west of the Davis Road. “We don't have any reason not to vacate these u...
Another of the Pomeroy brothers Gwinn came to St. John Friday, Oct. 18, for the St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse homecoming game and trained the Eagles to land on his shoulder and obey, 62-6. But SJEL did lash back at times, driving for a fourth-and-goal in the second quarter, before scoring right at the end of the half on a smooth pass-and-pitch play for a 57-yard touchdown. Quarterback Dylan Campbell threw to Kameron Greenhalgh out wide, who pitched to Doug Stach, who got a key downfield block from...
The Southeast 1B volleyball standings are Pomeroy still on top at 10-0, followed by Oakesdale at 10-1 – their one loss to Pomeroy - Colton (6-5), St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse (5-6), Touchet (4-7), Garfield/Palouse (3-9), Prescott (0-10). Colton is 12-6 overall, after being swept at home Tuesday by Pomeroy, 25-14, 25-19, 25-21. Josie Schultheis had 18 digs for the Wildcats and Rylee Vining 17 assists. Colton won at Prescott Oct. 17 in a three-game sweep. Pomeroy will meet second-place Oakesdale a...
The McCoy Land Company/PNW grain pile project at Dusty continues in its first phase of construction at the intersection of Highway 26 and 127. The project was granted a conditional use permit earlier this year for four grain piles, truck scales, utilities and small office space, with a driveway off Highway 127, south of Dusty. A site drawing by Keltic Engineering of Lewiston includes nine circles marking grain piles, though no plans are in place for any more than the permitted four. “We planned...
Superintendent Jerry Pugh opened the Colfax School board meeting Monday night saying the Washington State Leadership Academy's first site visit to Colfax will focus on math. “The first day of really mining data,” Pugh said. He later talked about how the intention is to improve Colfax math test scores in statewide assessment data. Jennings Elementary Principal Travis Howell took the board through results for “Smarter Balance” testing grades 3-6 last year. “We continue to be well above the state i...
It started with a flooded museum. The Roy M. Chatters Newspaper and Printing Museum in Palouse had been closed since the flood of 1996, when the building was under two feet of water. It remained shut down five years later, when two people moved to Palouse from Las Vegas, Gary and Deanna Brunton. They got involved with Needful Things, the town-benefit thrift store, which began that year (2001), and came to a Palouse Chamber of Commerce meeting. The subject that night, at the former Family Cafe,...
The McCoy Land Co./PNW grain pads project is underway at Dusty, after a process that brought public comment, attorneys and controversy, ultimately going to a hearing examiner who granted a conditional use permit for the work last spring. A county building permit was issued Aug. 8, after a 21-day period to appeal the examiner's decision expired. The first permit is only for making an access road, as well as concrete work for a culvert to cross a drainage for access to the pads. PNW/McCoy is...
After further review, documents all checked out from M.A. DeAtley of Clarkston’s bid for the Almota Four road project. County commissioners accepted the bid Monday, of $5,561,284. The difference between the bid and the engineer's estimate of $4.9 million will be covered by $600,000 from the county's annual $1.4 million federal general allocation for 2021. “Spending ahead,” said Dean Cornelison, assistant county engineer. The extra money was expected to be added to the $2 million from the state...
A member of the Tekoa High School class of 1992 has self-published a book. Jason Burke, a Washington State Parks ranger for nearly 10 years and Eastern Washington University graduate in journalism, released his first book in August. It chronicles a journey. The title is "Secretly Seeking Sasquatch: A Road Guide to Washington's Bigfoot Country." Burke began the project in Shoreline where he lived with his wife and two boys, in a lull between employment after being laid off by State Parks in...
Two county Southeast 1B volleyball teams met Tuesday night in Colton and went to a 15-15 tie in the fifth game. Needing to win by two points, at 16-15, St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse’s Ashlynn Archer stuffed a Colton kill, the ball dropped onto Colton’s court and it was over. “Then the gym erupted,” said Eagles Coach Jenn Johnson. Archer, a sophomore middle blocker, led the winners with 20 kills, 12 blocks and 24 digs. Roxy Dickerson added 23 assists and three aces. Last week, the Eagles swept P...
The St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse Eagles went to Toppenish Oct. 4 to face a winless Yakama Nation team and came back still with one win of their own. The home team, on their homecoming, beat the Eagles 38-6. "Yakama was pretty jacked up. They took it to us and we didn't respond," said SJEL Coach Rich Hallenius. "They were faster than they looked on video." St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse (1-4, 0-3 league) scored their touchdown late in the first half, when Doug Stach, a defensive back, picked up a...
Two Whitman County Commissioners listened to a request for an advisory vote on the proposed “Liberty State” Monday. Kevin Akesson of Colfax spoke to Art Swannack and Michael Largent on the effort to make eastern and much of central Washington its own state. “We're finding broad support on the east side of the state,” said Akesson. In his comments, he also noted the commissioners' recent matter of how to regulate marijuana may be moot in a 51st state. “If a state in Eastern Washington existed i...
On the side of the U.N. Assembly, a deal was made. “Hey, it’s fantastic. It’s gonna put us back on par with Canada and Australia. That’s what we’ve been shooting for,” said Gary Bailey, a third-generation St. John farmer and chairman of the board for Washington Grain Commission. The deal – announced Sept. 24 from New York by the Trump administration and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — drops tariffs amounting to 55 cents more per bushel of U.S. wheat, including Whitman County western white w...
The Tekoa city council voted to increase its mayor’s monthly salary from $100 to $450 Sept. 16. The matter came on request from Mayor Troy Wilson, who told the council this spring that the job required more time than he originally thought. Wilson and Kynda Browning, Tekoa’s clerk/treasurer, then researched other towns of similar size and how much they paid their mayors and council members. She presented what she found at the July meeting, followed by further information based on towns’ prope...
Tekoa has set new rates for use of its community center after debate at the Sept. 16 city council meeting. The matter began with Mayor Troy Wilson asking the council if they wanted to discuss the matter then or wait until after the November elections – in which five council seats are up for re-election with two contended. The matter went ahead and Alyssa Heagy requested a sliding scale rental rate for non-profit groups and committees, from the previous rates of $25 in summer and $40 in w...
