Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 427
COLFAX – While not everyone wants or has the space for beehives, anyone can help support native pollinators and bees by providing feed, water and/or shelter. "What you do for the honeybees helps our native pollinators," said Charlene Purtee. Purtee is a backyard beekeeper and pollinator enthusiast who has made several stops at Whitman County libraries to share programs on beekeeping and native pollinators. Purtee noted that while honeybees are fantastic pollinators, the native pollinators do b...
Next week the fair board will make its recommendation and then the county commissioners will decide whether or not there will be a Palouse Empire Fair. The outcome will basically be one of three options: business as normal, cancel or continued in an altered form. Regardless of the outcome, the community needs to support the people making this decision. Absolutely no one on either board wants to cancel anything. Not a single person agreed to sit on the fair board thinking they would ever be...
COLFAX – The cancellation of the Perkins House Ice Cream Social, set for June 21, was announced April 20. Yet plans are still in the works for Colfax Crazy Days July 11. Why are the fates of two events so close together so different? The answer has to do with the people behind the event and the planning that goes into it. “You have to look behind the scenes,” said Colfax Unified Executive Director Val Gregory who is involved in the planning of both events. The big difference is there is a vast...
WHITMAN COUNTY – With the ban on hunting and fishing lifted May 5, sportsmen are already able to finally get outdoors to engage yet again in the struggle of man versus nature. This time of year, the most plentiful option is for fisherman with five county waterbodies already stocked or scheduled to be stocked with rainbow trout. Rock Lake is the largest year-round water body in the county. Located northwest of St. John, it was scheduled for catchable trout plants in May and October, but has not r...
For anyone familiar with geocaching, the May 5 lifting of the ban on outdoor recreation is like a late anniversary gift as it was May 3, 2000, when the original geocache was placed in Beavercreek, Ore. Now this union of treasure hunt and great outdoors has grown to include more than one million caches worldwide – some even in the towns and country roads of Whitman County. With the right devise and coordinates, anyone can turn a walk into a treasure hunt, whether they are hiking Kamiak Butte o...
COLFAX – Bruce Blood has worn one uniform or another the majority of his adult life. Now he is donning another as the interim Chief of Police. Blood was born and raised in Spokane. When he graduated high school in 1972, the Washington State Patrol had a requirement that troopers be at least six feet tall. At five feet, seven inches, Blood could not apply and joined the Air Force. He served as a navigator on a B52 bomber, including one year with the United Nations serving in Israel and Syria a...
COLFAX – The Palouse Empire Fair Board voted Monday night to postpone a decision on whether to have a fair this year or not until the May 18 meeting. The vote passed with two opposing. “It’d be a tough decision not to have the fair,” said Fair Director Bill Tensfeld at the start of the discussion. While there was strong desire to keep the fair, there were also many factors against it discussed. Public Health recommended postponing or canceling the fair. It is unknown what carnival workers...
COLFAX – Three candidates are set to be interviewed today, April 30, for the position of principal at Jennings Elementary School. “We’re looking for a fit for Colfax,” said Superintendent Jerry Pugh. “We’re after the best qualified candidate.” The position initially drew interest from 11 people with nine applying. The district narrowed it down to the three being interviewed. The candidates are Andrew Borders, Sarah Dinkins and Jordan Jennings. While the candidates will be in town for the interviews, the process will be different from how it w...
WHITMAN COUNTY – Last fall chickpeas were sitting in the fields, uncertain if they would even be cut due to low prices. In recent weeks, pulse crops have been flying off grocery shelves across the United States like toilet paper. "The demand has come at a feverish pace," said Spokane Seed President Andrew Fontaine. Fontaine recalled his grandfather, who was president of the company in his day, telling him their product did well in times of war and recession and they are seeing both now. P...
Chopsticks make great eating utensils. If you know how to use them. Same with roundabouts. Pullman is looking at putting in its first roundabout. Installation of roundabouts have been breached in Colfax as a possible solution to traffic concerns on both ends of town. There are strong opinions for and against. Often cited is the effectiveness of roundabouts in Europe and other places. On a trip to Germany there are some driving points you pick up quickly: 1) Every road leads to Ausfahrt. Instead...
COLFAX – With the state under stay home orders, it seems a prime environment for anxiety and depression. But the current situation is only laying the ground work for mental health issues which may not manifest themselves for months down the road. "The place we're in now, people are just hunkered down," said Mike Berney, director of Palouse River Counseling, the main community behavioral health organization in Whitman County. "We're starting to see a few requests come in," said Berney. Those c...
COLFAX – Whitman County Library Director Kristie Kirkpatrick announced she will retire after 33 years with the library district. Having served 21 years as the director, Kirkpatrick is set to retire Oct. 1. Kirkpatrick started her library service as the manager of the Rosalia branch in 1988. Over the years she saw and helped spearhead major improvements in technology, especially internet connection. Library partnerships included First Step Internet, St. John Telephone, Pioneer Telephone, the P...
COLFAX–Four weeks after the original ending of Gov. Jay Inslee’s order to shutdown dine-in restaurants, eateries in Colfax are still limited to take out and delivery, but thanks to local support, they are staying afloat. Gov. Inslee announced March 16 that he was banning restaurants, bars and large gathering to combat the spread of COVID-19. At the time, the ban was for two weeks, set to expire March 31. A week after the first announcement he came out with the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order whi...
COLFAX–While the Governor's order has Colfax City Hall doors closed to the public, business inside continues with plans for things to come and filing and updates that have been waiting in the wings. "A lot of work we couldn't get through before we're doing now," said Mayor Jim Retzer. Staff at city hall has been cut down to one or two, at most, with employees rotating who is in the office. Some are working from home. Staff and officials are able to stay connected via email and phone. "It's b...
COLFAX–While every industry wants to get back to work, hair stylists and barbers have started a petition to get them back behind their chairs and provide their services. "We were one of the first non-essential businesses to shut down," said Kelli Broeckel. Broeckel has been a stylist in Whitman County for more than 10 years, working at salons in Tekoa, Rosalia, St. John and LaCrosse. "It's quite frustrating for us right now," said Broeckel. She and other stylists have signed a petition to G...
COLFAX–Last month Garfield Meat Shop processed 10 pigs. In the past three weeks it has processed 10 to 19 pigs a week with more calls coming in every day. "It's pretty amazing," said owner and butcher Tom Tevlin. Tevlin has seen a sharp increase in requests for custom butchering since the COVID-19 crisis hit full swing. He has been working to find the animals to fill the demand while more people call his shop looking for product. In the past 10 days alone he has received three to four calls a d...
COLFAX–When Whitman Hospital and Medical Center OB nurse Vicki Bolton left for deployment in New York City, her co-workers asked what she needed. Her reply was just knowing she had their support was enough. "Within 12 hours of her getting there, it was, 'I know what I need,'" said WHMC OB/Clinical Informatics Nurse Manager Cristi Shindler. Bolton is a nurse practitioner deployed through the Navy to help provide medical care in New York during the COVID-19 outbreak. She is serving as an ICU n...
Only one new positive case was reported in the past week for COVID-19, bringing the total to 13. The first four patients have fully recovered and are cleared from isolation. While most people focus on the number of positive cases reported, Whitman County Public Health also reports another number that is often overlooked, but can be very telling. Just below Public Health's number of positive cases is the number of negative cases. Tuesday afternoon that number was 441 with the words "at least"...
One of the positives to come out of the current crisis is that people are realizing what the most important things are. When you only have resources for the top priorities, those priorities have to be more clearly defined. As the model for schooling has drastically changed, the curriculum has been stripped bare, reminding us of the true purpose of schools and what their function is meant to be. Parents have been thrust to the front-line of eduction for their children. While it has been a shock,...
COLFAX - In June 1965, newly-hired reporter Jerry Jones went to cover his first City Council meeting. "Here we go again," he would think every June thereafter when he would sit down to cover yet another meeting. Jones won't be thinking that this year as health issues have forced him to retire after 55 years covering the news, sports and crime in Colfax and Whitman County. After graduating from Central Valley High School in 1960 in the present day city of Spokane Valley, Jones deferred being...
The the stay-at-home order, keeping people isolated from one another, assisted living facilities in Whitman County are taking steps to assure seniors stay connected with loved ones and the world outside while keeping them safe. “The whole goal is to keep this virus out of our building,” said Bree Pfaff, administrator at LaDow Court Assisted Living in Garfield. The only people coming and going at LaDow Court are staff, home health workers, occupational and physical therapists and hospice. Eve...
COLFAX–With Gov. Jay Inslee's order for hospitals to suspend non-essential services, local hospitals are tightening their financial belts in preparation of the shutdown impacting their bottom line. "Just like everybody, we're going to have to take a hit," Whitman Hospital and Medical Center spokeswoman Laurie Gronning said. Rural hospitals are seeing very few coronavirus cases. Elective medical procedures have been shutdown. And rural residents have been told to stay away from clinics and h...
Moderation in all things is a pretty good code to live by–even in politics. Or maybe it should be especially in politics. Citizens should constantly be checking themselves and their elected officials, regularly questioning actions and asking, "Is this going too far?" Some cases are blatantly obvious. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban received authority to rule by decree indefinitely and without any parliamentary oversight to handle the COVID-19 crisis last week. It may be the s...
In a time of self-isolation, staying engaged physically and mentally is still important to health. While Dee Bryson was out walking the family dog with two of her children, a car approached, slowed, rolled down the window and then yelled at them to get six feet apart. "It was kind of aggravating and funny at the same time," said Bryson. The driver's concern may be understandable – Bryson's children are both about 20 years old, so the situation may have been perceived as three adult friends o...
The total of positive tests for COVID-19 is now up to eight in Whitman County Tuesday as testing capabilities increase in the county. Whereas the first two cases were determined to be infected outside of the county, the third was a case of community spread and the others are being investigated. All those who have been found positive are stable and self-isolating. None have needed hospital care. Last Thursday, March 26, a teenage female became the third case. Positive tests continued to come in...
