Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 851 - 875 of 2119
The City of Palouse approved an eight percent across-the-board raise for city employees Nov. 14, after extended debate at that night’s city council meeting. Proposals discussed included rates for specific employees, such as police officer Joe Handley, who will move up in seniority after officer Joe Merry retires. Other varied raises batted back and forth were for Police Chief Jerry Neumann, Clerk/Treasurer Kyle Dixon, Public Works Superintendent Dwayne Griffin and Don Myott, waste treatment o...
The Colfax school board met Monday night and heard an update on Smarter Balance testing data, formally approved February's levy and bond proposals, updated a state-mandated policy and reviewed part of a book given to them by Superintendent Jerry Pugh. After a work session on the testing data presented by Jennings Elementary principal Travis Howell and high school principal Carrie Lipe, the regular meeting opened with comments from Pugh, who went to the state volleyball tournament in Yakima and s...
With a dominant win over Republic to open the 1B football playoffs Nov. 10, Garfield/Palouse advanced to the state quarterfinals, to play unbeaten Odessa Friday in Royal City. The same matchup happened three years ago in the playoffs, Garfield/Palouse winning at Odessa, against a team that was then Odessa/Harrington. They have since returned to being just the Odessa Tigers and played in last year’s state championship game, losing to Neah Bay at the Tacoma Dome. Gar/Pal has made the playoffs t... Full story
Colfax High advisor Tina Scholz and yearbook co-editors Zoe Burt, middle, and Jullene Sager head a group of five students producing the school’s annual. The Colfax High School yearbook staff faces its first deadline just after Thanksgiving for the 2017-18 edition, looking to follow last year’s book which was named a first-place recipient in the American Scholastic Press Association’s annual competition. Co-editors Jullene Sager and Zoe Burt are back for their senior year, advised by Tina Schol... Full story
Jarrod Pfaff will return as mayor of Garfield in January, winning last week’s election over incumbent Ray McCown. The challenger totaled 129 votes to McCown’s 84. The results are not yet certified. “I never concede,” said McCown. “On December 31st, I’ll concede.” Does that mean he expects to? “I assume, when it’s official,” he said. Pfaff’s election grants him a third term as Garfield mayor, previously serving from 2006-13, when McCown beat Larry Hunt for the seat. McCown, 84, will now conclude... Full story
The business that spurred new investment into Uniontown over the past 15 years is no longer. New Sage Bakery closed in late September, after four years in operation. Previously known as Sage Baking, it opened in 2002 in the Uniontown Community Development (UCDA)-owned former brick saloon building on Main Street/Highway 195. Supplying various wholesale bakery accounts across the Palouse – from Colfax to Moscow — the company also ran a café 3-4 days a week. Del and Amy Stillwaugh of Unio...
On Monday, Oct. 30, three days after the last game of a second consecutive winless football season, the St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse players returned to the practice field. They divided up, choosing sides – red and gold – by schoolyard pick, as coach Ken Gering handed out old Eagles jerseys from the equipment room. He set a hand clock to four 12-minute quarters. The kids ran their own plays, decided their own positions. “All I did was ref,” said Gering. One of life's simple joys is playing... Full story
The Washington state 1B high school football playoffs begin this weekend with the Southeast 1B league’s three seeds all in action. No. 1 seed Sunnyside Christian, who won at Garfield/Palouse last week to finish an unbeaten regular season, will play at home Friday against Pateros. Gar/Pal, the Southeast 1B’s No. 2 seed, will host a first-round game against Republic (6-3, 5-1) at Palouse Friday. Kickoff is 6 p.m. No. 3 seed Colton travels to Coulee City Saturday for a 3 p.m. kickoff against Alm...
A blown end-cap from a water main at the Tekoa School District administration building caused a mudslide early Sunday morning. Water from the main cut a trench through an embankment, sending a wall of dirt into the city pool located downhill from the building. It broke through two building-block retaining walls and a chain-link fence, knocking down a pool light pole. Tekoa school Maintenance Supervisor Scott Pruitt and engineers from their insurance provider, Clear Risk Management Group, Monday...
Whitman County commissioners approved the 2018 budget Monday, a month and a half before it was due, for a total of $64,069,000. The deadline was Dec. 31. Last year’s budget was $64,734,129. “Quite frankly, the reason why it was passed this early is the fact that there weren’t any major changes,” said Gary Petrovich, county administrative director. In June, county commissioners sent a letter to each department outlining what they hoped to see. Through the summer, the departments worked on it and... Full story
A prison guard, a riot, a one-motel Montana town, an only child in north Spokane. They all come together in Colfax Tuesday, Nov. 7, with a visit from author S.M. Hulse and her “Everybody Reads” selection “Black River.” The 12 p.m. luncheon at Colfax library is part of four days of events from Nez Perce to Pullman for the program in which people read the same book in the tri-county area. One title is featured each year. For 2017, it is Hulse’s debut novel (2015), written as part of graduate...
The yellow grid of an 18-wheeler on the dark highway, the red and white markers of a car, the white backs of the cleats of Evan Weagraff. The Gar-Pal quarterback repeatedly broke loose into open field Oct. 27 at Colton, running as if parallel with vehicles on Highway 195 passing the school. In an 82-40 win, Weagraff ran for 343 yards on 26 carries with six touchdowns. Daniel Orfe added another 152 yards on 16 rushes. For Colton, Parker Druffel had 14 carries for 169 yards and Reece Chadwick...
Northwest Public Radio/Television hosts Greg Mills and Sueann Ramella, left, listen across from retired Marine colonel Bob Wakefield, middle, and former Army green beret George Stockton at the Center in Colfax Veterans in attendance stand near the conclusion of the event, telling where and when they served. A large crowd gathered in the Center in Colfax Thursday night, Oct. 26, for “Vietnam: Sharing & Preserving the Stories of Local Veterans.” Put on by Northwest Public Radio and NWPTV, in con...
A trail of research, construction, writing and recording leads to a performance Saturday at the Dahmen Barn by Paul Smith of Palouse, whose album, “American Akonting” came out last year, the culmination of a study of the West African instrument understood to be the precursor to the banjo. Smith, a Palouse resident since 1991 and former instructor of world music and world history at WSU, first considered the akonting in 1992 as a graduate student at the University of San Diego. With the fir...
It is down to McCown and Pfaff for mayor in Garfield, the incumbent and the former. “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” said Ray McCown, mayor since 2014. “It’s up to the citizens.” He seeks re-election to his second term of his current office, a third chapter after McCown served as Garfield mayor from 1972-1987, followed by another term in the early 2000s. Jarrod Pfaff held office from 2006 to 2013. In the Aug. 1 primary, Pfaff received 89 votes, McCown 74 and Terri Linderman was elimina...
Chad Hansen makes tracks for the Vikings with Caleb Shanks of Touchet attempting to close ground. The second of a pack of key games has arrived at the conclusion of the Southeast 1B football season: Garfield/Palouse vs. Colton. After Colton lost to Sunnyside Christian Oct. 13 for their only league loss, Gar/Pal (5-1, 2-0 league) holds the edge over them without a league loss, but they haven’t played unbeaten Sunnyside Christian. They will face-off next week. It will all decide the order of t...
A new store is taking shape in an old building on Main Street in Colfax, expected to be an extension of a path that has seen success in Moscow. Austin Storm and wife Laura bought the gray and maroon 103 Main Street building in August with plans to open a new venture in the spirit of their Storm Cellar in downtown Moscow. Storm Cellar, the second-hand consignment clothing-and-more operation, first opened eight years ago, and then led to the opening of another business, Hansel and Gretel, in...
The Colfax school board approved Monday an $18.9 million bond proposal to go before voters in February. Designated for facilities improvements at Jennings Elementary and Colfax High School – from rooftops to classrooms and the auditorium – the nine-page bond filing will now be submitted to the Whitman County elections office. The $18.9 million final figure comes after refining a $19 million estimate that arose from a series of discussions earlier this year with staff, consultants and com...
More history The names of former workers at the Brotherton Seed Co. building in Tekoa are exposed as the tear-down work continues this fall. Progress continues on demolition of the former Brotherton Seed Co. building in Tekoa. Larry Heaton a year ago purchased the building from Brotherton Seed of Moses Lake and hired Butch Drott of Tensed last fall to take down the 10,000 square foot, three-story building at the west edge of downtown. “We’re gaining on it,” said Heaton. “It’s probably 85 percen...
Pasha Pavlo Rudenko, left, founder of Tribotex, stands with Vladimir Borisov, Tribotex research and development engineer, at the company's display in Tampa, Florida. A local company was named a winner of a Defense Innovation Award at the 2017 Defense Innovation Technology Acceleration Challenge in Tampa, Fla. Held Oct. 3-5, the technology-prospecting event draws representatives from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, NASA, Air Force Space Command, Department of Energy and more. Tribotex,... Full story
It was night. A sound came from the closed firehouse. The printing museum was dark, and something had happened on the dirt road by the river. The 16th annual Haunted Palouse begins Friday in which the city becomes an eerie place. People 12 and over pay $20 to gain entry into a transformed gauntlet of a firehouse, an unrecognizably haunted printing museum and a cold, tense ride on the back of a farm trailer down Shady Lane. The two-weekend event benefits a varied list of town organizations. “Ever...
County commissioners continue to work on the 2018 county budget after a revised preliminary general fund expenditure list was presented Monday during the second part of a public hearing led by County Administrative Director Gary Petrovich. Noting that the numbers have changed since the Oct. 2 first session of the hearing, Petrovich pointed out the new general fund spending total is $15,902,000, a decrease from $15,960,000. The budget deficit has been reduced from $102,714 to $44,673. The budget... Full story
A new school bond proposal is taking shape in Colfax. At a school board work session Monday night, members heard the parameters of what would be a $19 million bond for facilities improvements at both Colfax High School and Jennings Elementary. Worked out over meetings going back to January when a committee was formed by Superintendent Jerry Pugh and lead by volunteer Wes Claassen, the measure would focus on what is needed for the next 20 years of the schools. Any bond proposal would have to be...
Whitman County Port commissioners fielded several topics at their Oct. 6 meeting. First off, commissioners John Love, Tom Kammerzell and Kristine Meyer asked for added time to review a process for people who want to get on the agenda to discuss an issue – and in the process revised a mechanism for how the port staff works with commissioners. “This will tell people a timeline to work around,” said Joe Poire, executive director. “I appreciate the clarity.” At the commissioners’ next meeting, pu...
The Garfield Grange will close at the end of the year after falling short of attracting new officers which were needed by Oct. 1. In July, existing officers voted to close the chapter if they did not reach the deadline. The minimum required by the Washington State Grange office in Olympia is to have a President or Master, an Overseer or Vice President, a secretary and a treasurer. “No progress of people stepping forward to take offices,” said Master Penny Martinez. “Thirty-one December will...
