Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 439 - 463 of 2119
Colfax schools started at 8:20 a.m. Sept. 9 for the 2019-20 school year, as planned. Final cleaning from a summer of construction lasted into Sunday night, Sept. 8, with Superintendent Jerry Pugh, Maintenance Director Mark Brown, Business Manager Reece Jenkin, Technology Director Carter Comito, and a group of other volunteers washing floors and windows and hauling in desks and chairs from storage, dusting them off for use Monday morning. "We wouldn't have been able to do it, between Mark and...
The City of Palouse approved a retroactive $5 per hour on-call stipend for its Public Works Department Aug. 27 to match what they did previously for the police. Both stipends ended Sept. 1 as the city council and administrator Kyle Dixon now work on revisions to the city’s personnel and policy manual. The matter stemmed from the Palouse Police Department – which also covers Garfield – being reduced to two officers after officer Leighton Cox was terminated June 20 for violating department polic...
A pathway to the river project funded by county .09 funds is expected to begin in Palouse this week with contractor Jesse Parkins and Palouse Hills Excavation. The $30,000 project will cut two pathways to the Palouse River from Shady Lane across from downtown. The switchback, gravel paths – about 200 feet apart – will reach the river where landings/viewing areas will be built, an estimated 15 X 15 feet, with benches. The work is expected to last three weeks. “If all goes according to plan,...
At the fair’s main gate, wasn't it strange not to see the late John Henry of the Colfax Rotary Club taking tickets? Friday night's rodeo ran late, with an extended list of barrel racers, and Wylie and the Wild West was supposed to play at about 9 p.m. It was past 9:30 p.m. and they would still have to bring out the flatbed stage and get everything ready. How long would it take? After the last barrel racer, the Jones Truck & Implement semi rolled through the end gate, parked in the dirt just i...
The St. John/Endicott/ LaCrosse volleyball team opened the season with a comeback win at home over 2B Davenport Tuesday, 19-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-17, 15-4. The team lost six key seniors to graduation and returns a mix of two seniors, five juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. “We are young, but we are good,” said second-year Eagles head coach Jenn Johnson. The team went to a four-day team camp in July at University of Idaho and lost in the championship round to 4A Chiawana, in the eight-t...
The Eagles opened with a victory for the 2019 football season. St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse beat Colton 48-26 at Colton Sept. 6. The win matched the Eagles’ total wins for last year (not counting a forfeit). “It was nice,” said coach Rich Hallenius. “Understatement of the year. This is the start we wanted.” St. John/Endicott/ LaCrosse ran the ball most of the game, passing just 14 times. Senior Chais Anderson led with 190 yards rushing on 18 carries with two touchdowns. Doug Stach, a junior, h...
Following a contentious public hearing, Whitman County commissioners voted Tuesday to extend the county marijuana moratorium for six more months. The vote was unanimous. Commissioners Art Swannack, Michael Largent and Dean Kinzer previously stated their intention to extend the moratorium to allow time for the county planning commission to finish work on a proposed ordinance to regulate marijuana operations in the county. The hearing started with Public Works Director Mark Storey, who oversees th...
Fair entertainment this year will include a mix of veteran Palouse Empire Fair acts along with some new faces. Perennial hypnotist Jerry Harris will again perform at the fair for 2019. He aims for a family-friendly, educational nature to his shows, teaching on the power of our subconscious minds. He has performed as a hypnotist for more than 30 years, including audience participation at each outing. For music, the Auf Gehts German band will appear again this year at the fair. The off-shoot act...
Kyle Johnson pushed the ball up the floor for Coach Reece Jenkin as a starting guard for Colfax High School on the 2012 2B state championship basketball team. He then played a year for Spokane Community College and earned a business management degree from Whitworth. Now he works a different kind of stage as a singer/songwriter, under the name of Kyle Richard, a folk-pop act, a guy with an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal. Richard is Johnson's middle name. He has played around Spokane/Coeur d'Ale...
The St. John/Endicott/ LaCrosse Eagles are back on the football field, set to open the 2019 season at Colton Friday at 7 p.m. Practice started on Aug. 21 with harvest taking players away at various times. "Some kids still with a little acreage that they're cutting," said second-year varsity coach Rich Hallenius. The team has 21 kids on the roster, a group which went to a team camp in Ephrata over the summer. "A lot of kids didn't know where Ephrata was," Hallenius said. They slept on the floor...
The Colfax Mercantile business incubator will hold a grand opening Saturday, Aug. 31, with free frozen yogurt from 11 a.m to 3 p.m., paid for by an anonymous donor. It may be open before, too. "If we're ready before we'll open the door and turn the 'open' sign on," said Allie Cofer, project coordinator from Colfax Downtown Association. "But we just don't know." The free frozen yogurt will be from Home Sweet Home Treats, one of the eight businesses inside. Others include Wild Woman Western Wear...
As the number of vehicles parked outside have increased, the number of workers inside Colfax Junior-Senior High School has also as construction enters the final stretch before students return for a late start of Sept. 9. An estimated 35 subcontractors were on site Monday; drywall, flooring, cabinets, HVAC, electrical and the piercing sound of concrete cutters. “A little bit behind,” said District Superintendent Jerry Pugh. “But not anything that would stop us from getting school start...
The Colfax School Board met Monday night and approved a new athletic director, set plans for the coming school year and heard an update on school construction. The construction crew has 48 regular workday hours remaining until the Sept. 9 opening day for school. The new athletic director named to replace Nathan Holbrook is Gina Hopkins, a Steptoe school science teacher, who will now teach P.E. in Colfax and oversee CHS sports scheduling. The board also approved the resignation of Dean Hall, bus...
Colton returns to the football field this fall with new faces – a coach, aassistant and a quarterback after its slated starter, senior Jon Bean, moved to Nampa, Idaho with his family two weeks ago. The team lost 13-year coach Clark Vining from last year, and for players; Luke Vining, Parker Druffel and Reece Chadwick, all to graduation. The Wildcats’ new coach is Jim Moehrle, Colton’s athletic director, who stepped in after the school received no applications for the open job. Moehrle, thoug...
Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey briefed county commissioners Monday on a decision he and Prosecutor Denis Tracy made on whether a marijuana operation outside Pullman is allowed to grow the crop – amidst a six-month moratorium placed in March on further marijuana business in the county. At the end of May, Selway Holdings, LLC, sent a request to the county to re-examine if Selway has a “vested interest” in growing marijuana, due to their county permit from last November for a spe...
Whitman County commissioners expressed approval Monday for a new criminal justice services agreement with the City of Pullman. Commissioner Art Swannack met with Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson and City Administrator Adam Lincoln to work out the terms of a $450,000 payment from Pullman to the county for one year. The district court will remain in Pullman’s city hall for 2020. After the first year, the two sides will have to work out another agreement for the coming years. The contract is now b...
Whitman County commissioners Monday set a hearing on the intent to adopt state house bill 1406, passed May 9, to take part of the tax collected in the county to be used for affordable housing. The held back state sales and use tax could amount to $100,000 - $115,000 per year. The hearing is Sept. 3 at 11:15 a.m. The program would take a credit against the state sales tax of 6.5 percent – which would amount to the county holding back .0146 percent – to create this fund. “Just a hold back of ta...
New high school coaches are set for Oakesdale for the coming school year, following the departure of Brandy Brown, girls volleyball coach, and Dan Brown, girls basketball coach, earlier this summer. McKinzie Turner returns for the volleyball team, the coach of the 2014 Oakesdale state 1B champions. “We’re pretty excited to have her back,” said Jake Dingman, Oakesdale superintendent. Originally from Pomeroy, Turner spent the past three years teaching and coaching at West Valley High School in Sp...
The Oakesdale and Colton school districts have both been awarded $25,000 grants from a Monsanto-Bayer ag education program, announced earlier in August. Oakesdale applied for the grant specifically to add another greenhouse, for use by Jessica Moore's FFA/ag classes. The 30x40-foot structure, to go up on the old tennis courts, will be at least triple the size of the existing greenhouse. Colton will use the $25,000 for three purchases – a classroom set of laptops more capable than the s...
The Whitman County board of adjustment approved a conditional use permit Aug. 8 to allow St. John Hardware and Implement to open a location on the former Hawkins property just west of the Washington-Idaho border. No one spoke against the project at the public hearing. The approval is the latest step in St. John Hardware’s plan to relocate from their site in north Moscow, which will become the location for a new building to house EMSI, a Moscow-based software company. St. John Hardware plans t...
The 31st annual Lentil Festival returns to Pullman Friday and Saturday with events to span the weekend. It begins Friday at 9 a.m., with the Tase T. Lentil Mini Golf Tournament at Airway Hills Golf Center. Friday’s main events start at 5 p.m. at Reaney Park and Spring Street with free lentil chili from the signature jumbo gray bowl and poured from beverage pitchers. Live music starts at 5 p.m. with Eric Shedd playing on the Cooking Demo stage. Main Stage music starts at 5:30 with Aaron Cerutti f...
Nearing the end of the six-month moratorium on new or expansion of marijuana businesses in Whitman County, commissioners set a hearing on whether to extend it for Sept. 3 at 10:30 a.m. Board chairman Art Swannack noted that commissioners await a proposed ordinance now being created by the county planning commission. “We’ll give them all the time they need to craft an ordinance that’s well thought-out and has been subject to public testimony,” said Commissioner Michael Largent. The ordinan...
Whitman County commissioners Monday approved $1 million from the .09 economic development fund to go to the fiber-to-the-home and rural fiber extensions to transmitter sites project for the Port of Whitman. Another $600,000 was approved for the Moscow-Pullman Airport runway realignment. The $1 million will go to design and construction of a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network in five rural towns in Whitman County. The project will also bolster an existing transmitter network with mid-mile fiber...
The Palouse city council voted July 23 to postpone a compliance date from Aug. 7 to Oct. 9 for Palouse Welding & Machine, a longtime local business which drew some complaints to city hall for things laying out on its lot near Main Street/Highway 272 at the east edge of town. The complaints regarded outdoor equipment storage in violation of Palouse Municipal code. City Administrator Kyle Dixon sent a notice to Alex Anderson, proprietor, June 6, noting the violation, with a stated compliance date...
A three-week, county-wide rumblestrip and striping project was to begin Wednesday on Hume Road, part of a list of roads to get new rumblestrips followed by re-painted centerlines and white fog lines along the the edge of lanes. The work is funded by $610,000 in grant money received last year from the Federal Highway Safety Improvement program. Dean Cornelison, assistant county engineer, estimates five to seven working days for rumblestrips, then a day to seal the strips’ 28 miles with a l...
