Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 551 - 575 of 2119
Their first opponent was drifting snow. Their second was Tulalip Heritage, which Oakesdale beat in a first round elimination game at Spokane Arena on their way to a four-game run at state, finishing sixth, five years after concerns the school may have trouble fielding a team after the breakup of the Tekoa/Oakesdale cooperative. On Wednesday morning, after another overnight snowfall, the question became how to get players and coaches into town to meet the bus. Coach Carl Crider drove his Suburban...
A shifting lineup and a late push by Garfield/Palouse to re-take the lead – coming from 10 points down – ended in a 54-51 loss to Naselle, eliminating the Vikings in the first round at state at Spokane Arena. With under two minutes left, after Gar/Pal re-took the lead at 50-49 on an Austin Jones drive to the basket, two Blake Jones free throws kept them up by one when a three-pointer from Naselle's Kolby Glenn, a sophomore guard, put the Comets up by two again with 35 seconds on the clock. Gar...
Whitman County Commissioners will schedule a session for Monday afternoon to consider a moratorium on new marijuana-related businesses after being briefed by County Prosecutor Denis Tracy Monday in front of another packed crowd. No time has been set for next Monday’s afternoon session, which will include an opportunity for public comment. Also March 4, commissioners will conduct a public meeting in the morning on a related zone change request at 11:30 a.m. This will also include public c...
The quest by the City of Palouse to meet new requirements of the Washington State Department of Ecology for its wastewater treatment system took another turn two weeks ago as a plan for a lagoon will require a change in county code. The realization came two months before an April deadline. “Nothing about this project has been easy,” said Michael Echanove, Palouse mayor. “Of course a lagoon’s not permitted. Why would anything go right on this? We will be asking for another extension.” City Admi...
Whitman County Public Works is now in its fourth week of consistent snow operations, its main costs coming from sand, salt, de-icer and overtime wages for plow drivers. The county road department budgeted $629,000 this year for snow removal, with no figures yet available on what's been spent. "We got to early February and thought winter was not gonna show up, and then it did," said Mark Storey, Public Works director. The snow fund is part of the county's $6 million roads budget for the year,...
The Colton girls met the Concordia Christian Hawks in Spokane Valley Saturday evening and led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter. It went from there, Colton and its stable of three-year starters, defending state 1B champions, on the road back to state at Spokane Arena. After a Maggi Pluid drive and score late in the third quarter, they led 52-22. Concordia Christian of Tacoma brought 13 cheerleaders, a mascot and a band. Colton's Dakota Patchen hit a three-pointer from the corner for 55-25....
It opened with Van Halen's “Panama” before the tip and Garfield/Palouse pressed. Ely Hawkins denied a Lopez Island shot under the basket for no foul. Blake Jones scored on a long drive and it was quickly 11-2 Vikings. Another Blake Jones steal and pass to Tanner Anderson on the fast break and it was 13-2, timeout Lopez Island. “Summer of '69” played next on the gym speakers and Hawkins hit a three-pointer for 17-7, then it was 20-7 at the end of the first quarter. It was not yet 10:30 a.m. Fe...
It started tight and loud. Concordia Christian led 13-11 at the end of the first quarter after Matt Hockett got the ball stolen from him, stole it back and drew a foul. On Saturday night, Feb. 23, in Spokane Valley, Oakesdale and the Tacoma academy were to decide the last 1B slot to state. Nighthawks' center Kieron Anderson tied the game with an inside move and scored with three defenders on him. Then Concordia's Kyle Wells answered with a three-pointer to put them back up three, 16-13. Evan...
The Oakesdale and Garfield/Palouse boys and Colton girls will all play at the state 1B tournament at Spokane Arena this week. At regionals Feb. 23 at West Valley High School in Spokane Valley, the three teams won to advance, Gar/Pal and Oakesdale staving off another elimination game. The Vikings beat Lopez Island easily in the morning game. Then the no. 1-state seed Colton girls took out Concordia Christian before the Oakesdale boys, a no. 12 seed, held on to beat Concordia's boys team. Colton...
The Town of Farmington will consider what to do with a 4.5-acre parcel of land at the southeast edge of town after a local resident made a proposal at the town council meeting Jan. 21. Brett Lisenbee seeks to lease the parcel, which was leased to the late Ron Johnson for hay ground for many years. Lisenbee would use it for ag purposes as well. “Kind of a spotty stand, not a real prized piece of ground as far as ag purposes,” Councilman Mark Hellinger, who is also mayor pro-tem, said. Mayor Dav...
Justin and Lindsay Brown, owners of the St. Elmo’s building in Palouse, appeared before the city council Feb. 12 to discuss plans for the 1888 former hotel on Main Street. The Browns bought the building last year with plans to refurbish it. At the meeting, they told the city council, representatives of the Palouse Chamber of Commerce and an estimated 20 more residents, that the project is too big. Last summer, they hired workers to strip out plaster surfaces on the inside. “The more they str...
Whitman County Commissioners took comment from a crowd Tuesday after setting a date of March 4 for a public meeting on a proposed zone change to allow a marijuana research facility at the intersection of Flat Road and Country Club Road outside Pullman. Tuesday's regular meeting actually had no comment slated for the agenda, but commission president Art Swannack nonetheless opened it for comments, asking anyone who would like to speak to keep it under two minutes. He called on the front row...
The City of Palouse has been turned down on its grant application to the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board to build a pedestrian bridge to cross the Palouse River from Heyton Greene Park to near Ancel Jeffers Lions Club Park. The denial stated that the park is not eligible because it does not connect directly to a street. The footbridge would have started at the park near the swimming pool and crossed to the other side of the North Fork of Palouse River about 50 yards down from...
Oakesdale did it. After a 24-hour delay and canceled school due to snow, on Thursday night, Feb. 14, with snow piles on the streets leading to the Colfax gym, the Nighthawks and Garfield/Palouse played king of the hill. In their third meeting of the year, this time for the championship of the Southeast 1B league/District 9 tournament, Oakesdale won 50-42. Garfield/Palouse had beaten them three consecutive times going back to last year. But not this time – perhaps one the Vikings would trade a...
Nervous moments made no appearance in two regular season games between the Colton girls and Pomeroy. They arrived, however fleeting, on the night of the district championship game, as the Pirates cut Colton's lead to four points, 40-36 with 1:08 left in the game. Before this, Jordyn Moehrle drove to put Colton up 40-33 and then Dakota Patchen got surrounded for a shot-clock violation. Pomeroy hit a three-pointer and it was a game. Patchen soon drove for a score to put Colton back up by six....
On a snow-draped seventh annual Palouse Cabin Fever Brewfest Feb. 2 no beer lines froze. Organizers for the colder-than-usual indoor/outdoor event in Palouse made concessions for weather, adapting the layout of the brewers' canopies in case of wind, and sending a pickup to retrieve three kegs and taps from Bellwether Brewing Co. in Spokane. Once underway, the evening went as planned. "We just had to keep the beer flowing so it won't freeze," said volunteer Janet Barstow, a member of the town's...
The Colfax School board met Monday night with a modified agenda due to snow, postponing a Jennings Elementary board appreciation event at the school library. Board members instead gathered in their regular meeting room and Superintendent Jerry Pugh opened by thanking city and county snow-plow crews. “Even the gravel roads got it today,” he said, as snow continued to fall outside the window, after a two-hour school delay earlier. “You won’t be able to tell in the morning.” Pugh noted that Mark Br...
The local chapter of Habitat for Humanity will build its 2019 house in Palouse, its third there since the chapter formed in 1992. It has also bought land in Uniontown for its 2020 project. In Palouse this spring, volunteers will break ground on Illinois Street for a 10-month construction schedule. Recipients will be Richard and Roberta Kruger, currently Troy residents. Richard is a veteran and Roberta has a disability with Multiple Sclerosis. The house will be paid for by all local money, in...
The No. 1 seed Colton girls advanced to meet No. 2 Pomeroy for the Southeast 1B league/District Nine championship game Wednesday night in Colfax, with the winner going to regionals. The two teams have been first and second all season in the league standings, with Colton beating the Pirates twice handily. The winner of Friday’s district tournament title game will be one step away from state at Spokane Arena. The loser drops into a game against the winner of No. 3 seed Oakesdale and No. 4 seed S...
Garfield/Palouse and Oakesdale have been the class of Whitman County 1B boys basketball for the past two years. Last season, the Vikings beat Oakesdale at Oakesdale in the district playoffs to send the Nighthawks into the loser’s bracket where they met Touchet in Walla Walla and their season ended in upset. Gar/Pal went on to take the second league slot into regionals (behind Pomeroy) and came within a basket of Spokane Arena and the state tournament. This year, with senior-laden rosters, G...
After being damaged by an August 2017 lightning strike, the commercial scale has been repaired and tested for a return to service at the county landfill. The scales were added in 2015 with the new recycling building. County staff conferred with the original contractor to fix the system that automatically weighs commercial loads and makes a bill. “We’re almost there, after a year and a half of the lightning strike putting ghosts in our machines,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director. The s...
It takes no advertising. If you have to ask how to get in on it, you are likely too late. It is the seventh annual Palouse Cabin Fever Brewfest Feb. 9 at the Palouse Community Center. Each year, tickets go on sale the day after Thanksgiving at four breweries from Moscow to Spokane. For 2019, the 650 tickets sold out Jan. 8 for the event Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. “Six hundred-fifty seems to be about right for the space,” said Janet Barstow, one of an eight-member Palouse “Brew Crew” which o...
It came down to two deep shots from Austin Jones, the last of which left his hands with 4.8 seconds remaining. In the crowded Oakesdale gym Saturday night, Feb. 2, with double-doors behind the stage curtains propped wide open to cool it down, Garfield/Palouse and Oakesdale met for the second time this season, the two teams tied for first-place in the Southeast 1B league all year. The Vikings broke the tie, winning 41-39 after Jones, a Gar/Pal sophomore guard, hit a last three-pointer from near...
School levies to go before voters in Colton and Oakesdale in two weeks are against the law. Last February, the Colton school board approved a levy for 2019 at $3.08 per thousand dollars of assessed property value. In June, the Washington state legislature made a rule to cap the limit at $1.50 per thousand. “We’re in a really unique spot,” said Paul Clark, who was named Colton Superintendent last July. The district has since dropped its asking rate for its 2020 levy to $2.50 per thousand, which...
The Colfax School board approved 1,775 pages of bid documents Monday night for a year-and-a-half of upcoming construction, paid for by the $18.9 million bond passed last February. The documents, which add up to an estimate of $14,687,000, were presented by district architects Amy Minden-Browne and Ned Warnick. Minden-Browne, project manager, had sent board members a copy of the documents last Friday to look over, including two sets of drawings, project specifications and a 58-page constructibili...
