Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 570
Under public pressure to resign, Colfax School Superintendent Michael Morgan told the Gazette Tuesday that decision is now in the hands of the school board. “It is the board’s responsibility to choose who they want. If they are interested in me continuing, then it’s back in my ball park for me to decide,” Supt. Morgan said. A faction of the school district called for the resignation of the superintendent next June at a 59-strong meeting Monday night, coupled with another’s groups equally passionate call for him to stay. Board chairman...
St. John/Endicott High School has a bumper crop of foreign exchange students enrolled this year. Six students from around the world are residing in St. John or Endicott homes and attending class at the St. John high school. The 90-student school typically hosts two or three students a year, said Superintendent Rick Winters. Successes of families who have previously hosted exchange students could be the reason more families are participating this year, Winters said. “You know how things can snowball in a positive way sometimes. That’s what hap... Full story
Two-hundred and fifty-five ballots have been received as of Tuesday from Colton/Uniontown voters on the proposal to overhaul the Colton school building, according to the auditor’s elections staff. A 60 percent majority vote will be needed to pass the $5.1 million 20-year bond proposal. The project will include a $5.86 million match from the state. Deadline for return of the ballots is Nov. 2. There are 717 active voters and 36 inactive voters in the school district as of Oct. 26. A strained electrical and worn heating system are among r... Full story
Another year brings another sobering list of needs for Colfax’s F.I.S.H. food pantry. While the pantry is being supplied at a steady pace, it is still in need of basic supplies, according to F.I.S.H. food director Hannah Walker. “We’re treading water and we’re staying even. We can stay even for the rest of the year,” Walker said. F.I.S.H. stands for Friends in Service of Humanity. The group supplies the Colfax Community Action Center pantry. For the second year, staffers at the county treasurer’s office are conducting a food drive for the pan...
"Put your hands on the ground! Put your hands on the ground right now!" barks a voice over the phone. This is the "scary" voice of Terry Snead, reserve officer for the Palouse Police Department and life-long stage and film actor. Snead, 59, is currently acting in the indie film, The River Sorrow, in Spokane. It’s his latest performance in a career that has spanned stage, film and commercial acting around the United States. In a phone interview from Metalline Falls Monday, Snead told the Gazette he and his wife Jennifer live part-time in M...
A candle-light vigil for Mike Carlton, long-time Palouse resident who slipped into unconsciousness Oct. 12, was held last Thursday in Palouse. He was taken off life support Saturday morning and switched to a "comfort care" mode, said Echanove. That comfort care means Carlton is being given medication to treat pain. Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove reported Wednesday that Carlton is still alive, but unconscious. More than 80 people gathered in downtown Palouse to remember a man who drove a school bus, started his own wind-energy company, and...
The two state liquor initiatives on this November’s ballot, if passed, would shift control of the liquor industry from the state into the hands of the private sector. Whitman county government and cities within the county both receive funds from the taxes and profits of liquor sales. Five locations in the county sell liquor; the state-run liquor store in Pullman, and four stores in Colfax, Rosalia, Tekoa, and St. John owned by small-business owners. The city of Colfax in the 2009 received $34,184 revenue off liquor sales. Of those funds, $...
Four Whitman County residents came down with rare, communicable diseases within the past two weeks. County health officials dedicated a large amount of staff time tracing possible sources and contacting anyone who might have come in contact with the patients. Health Department Director Fran Martin said the four people are now back home and no one with whom they have come in contact has shown symptoms. None of the four cases are linked. Martin said they have not found the source of any of the illnesses. Whooping cough, Nicerian pneumonia (a...
Mounds of free clothing, dishes, blankets and suits adorn the tables of the Grange and Legion hall in Garfield. People mosey through the aisles of the clothing giveaway. "Mommy, does this look cute on me?" asked the daughter of Jennifer Low as they pick their way through a pile of merchandise. Last week the LaDow Grange conducted a clothing giveaway for three days. From today through Sunday, Oct. 24, LaDow Grangers will have a winter coat and winter clothing giveaway. Low found several outfits for her two daughters as well as some linens for... Full story
Letters on a weathered, gray cornerstone on the outer wall of the Good Samaritan Episcopalian Church in Colfax are barely legible; “AD 1891.” The cornerstone on the other side reads 1960. The 50th anniversary of the Good Samaritan Episcopalian Church building will be observed Sunday, Oct. 17. Episcopalian services have been conducted in Colfax since 1887. An open house will be at the church with a morning prayer session at 11 a.m. Visitors can tour the church, meet members and partake in the refreshments. A lesson on the church’s history since...
The Colfax school district’s two new math teachers are a month into the school year, having filled the vacancies from the two teachers who resigned in late August. Long-time Colfax substitute Carey Fulfs is teaching junior high math and Louisiana native Kenny McAllister is teaching high school math this year. McAllister is teaching algebra and geometry at the high school. He and his wife moved here from Baton Rouge, La., after his wife was accepted into the WSU program for doctorate studies in neuro-psychology. McAllister worked as a math t... Full story
The newest staff member of the county parks department, Todd Heitstuman, introduced himself to the park board at the Oct. 7 meeting. Heitstuman has been hired to be the ranger at Kamiak Butte, a slot vacated by the resignation of Justus Barton. Heitstuman will live at the ranger residence at the park and manage the campground and trails, along with projects at the other county parks. “There are more pine needles than I know what to do with right now,” Heitstuman joked of his new job. The county parks department employs two rangers; Hei...
Rosalia’s own alleged meteorite got a look-see Monday from a field scientist touring the Palouse this week. Portland State University scientist Dick Pugh gave presentations at Palouse, St. John and Colfax this week, drawing crowds as he talked on how to identify and report on the rocks from outer space. He took a side trip to check out the Rosalia “meteorite.” Pugh identified the Rosalia rock as a fulgurite; a porous rock formed when lightening hits a clot of dirt with enough energy to melt it. A crowd of 27 collected in the Palouse library Mon...
Sizable portions of Uniontown’s famed sausage will be served up Sunday, Oct. 17, at St. Boniface Catholic Church Oktoberfest sausage dinner to raise funds for church maintenance and operation. “The recipe for the sausage has been handed from one generation to the next. They don’t like to deviate from the recipe,” said Rita Moneymaker, one of the organizers of the event and a member of the church Altar Society. The annual German sausage dinner is a direct recipe from the town’s German-American population. “Their heritage is important t...
Most schools in the county shut down Oct. 8 so teachers could attend the second annual day-long conference on learning at Colfax High School. Two hundred and eighty-five educators gathered to learn about Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)—an educational model for teachers learning to work together to boost student performance. Teachers and some classified staff members commuted to Colfax in school buses to attend the session. Palouse Superintendent Bev Fox said the day of learning re-affirmed what her teachers were already working on. O... Full story
Construction crews have finished 85 percent of the work on the three lagoons in Uniontown, with one projected month of work left. One lagoon is still full and will need to be emptied, cleaned and lined. The lining on the other lagoons still needs to be installed as well. The natural vegetation for the three man-made wetlands still needs to be planted, said mayor Joyce Mayer of Uniontown. Mayer said the rain in the past few weeks has put a damper on construction. Once cold weather hits, this too will put a delay on construction, but they hope...
The next step in securing a water system plan for Palouse is hiring an engineer and tracking down the proper city records useful for the plan, according to the water and sewer committee for Palouse. Committee officials met with regional Department of Health (DOH) officials Sept. 21 to go over their options for designing their own plan. The city council voted Aug. 10 to begin working on such a plan under accusations from would-be developer Nicole Wood that their lack of a plan was hindering the placement of water and sewer lines. A water system... Full story
Purple ribbons remembering local women who died from domestic violence are tied up in several Palouse towns. Each of the 20 purple ribbons will have the names of local victims and how they died. Because October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse has several ongoing events geared to educate the public on the issue. Colfax, Pullman, Moscow and Genesee have the ribbons. About 392 area victims and survivors were served by Alternatives to Violence between July 2008 and June 2009. Down the streets of... Full story
Palouse citizen Jim Farr wants to bring a gun to Palouse city council meetings as a visual protest against what he views as incompetent government. He has yet to apply for a gun permit from the county sheriff’s office, saying there are several issues on his record he must have expunged first. Farr said several times in an interview with the Gazette Oct. 1 he had no intention of discharging the gun at a meeting but simply wanted to make an overt visual protest against the workings of the city by wearing it. “I told him [city police chief Jer...
Palouse city council may increase water and sewer rates in 2011, 10 months after activating a six-percent utility tax on those rates last January. “In 2010, both water and sewer are operating at a loss,” said Connie Newman, the new Palouse city council member and new head of the Palouse Water and Sewer Committee. The committee is looking at a raise of no less than $3 a month and no more than $7. Proceeds would boost the city’s water and sewer accounts. The rate raise would start January of 2011. Palouse residents saw at least a $2.30 addit...
Whitman Hospital has several events in the works for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The hospital purchased 35,000 pink gloves for all staff to wear throughout the month of October. Pink is the national color for breast cancer awareness. Hospital staff will give a radio interview on breast cancer in mid-October. They’ll also be passing out flyers at Rosauers with facts on breast cancer. Whitman hospital performed 1,934 mammograms in 2009. From 2000 to 2007, cancer was one of five leading causes of death in Whitman County. Of all the w...
Voters in the Colton/Uniontown school district have less than a month to decide on the district’s proposal for a multi-million dollar overhaul of the aging Colton school building. Approximately 30 people met in Uniontown Sunday to learn about the proposal. Several citizens later said they were undecided on their vote, as they were torn between the high cost of the remodel versus the blatant need for it. “It seems like an awful lot of money at this time. They made some good arguments,” said Ed Garretson, Uniontown homeowner, the day after the m...
Kathy Wride was sworn in as a member of the Colfax School Board Sept. 27. Wride will represent district two of the Colfax School district. She will fill the seat vacated by the resignation of board member Steve Lyon, who has moved to Mount Vernon. Wride served on the Colfax city council for 18 months. Last November, she married city policeman Rob Wride. In February, she resigned from the city council under conflict of interest restrictions caused by her marriage. Wride said she brings no specific agenda to the school board, other than working...
Colfax will burst to life with festivities during the fifth edition of Autumn Harvest Hullabaloo Friday and Saturday. A dash of antiques, pets, poker, Dutch ovens and beer are on the agenda for this year’s festival. Colfax streets are fully prepped with autumn decorations for this weekend’s Hullabaloo. Up and down Main Street, street corners bristle with pumpkins, corn stalks and hay bales, compliments of a corner competition among all the bank staffs in town. New to the festival this year will be the poker tournament and the Dutch oven con... Full story
Colfax will burst to life with festivities during the fifth edition of Autumn Harvest Hullabaloo Friday and Saturday. A dash of antiques, pets, poker, Dutch ovens and beer are on the agenda for this year’s festival. Up and down Main Street, street corners bristle with pumpkins, corn stalks and hay bales, compliments of a corner competition among all the bank staffs in town. New to the festival this year will be the poker tournament and the Dutch oven contest. The Dutch oven cook-off competition among local entrants will run from 9 a.m. to 12 p....
