Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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One of Colton’s own traveled to Washington D.C. last week for a week of touring the nation’s capital. “I liked the Lincoln Memorial the most,” said Nick Niehenke, who was nominated by Colton science teacher Eric Nordquist for the national People to People World Leadership forum. Nick, son of Pat and Debbie Niehenke, stayed in a hotel in Virginia with fellow attendees and commuted a half hour to the capital each day for sightseeing and classes. After seeing the different monuments, he took classes that examined the strategies of nationa...
Survey responses of praise, anger, distrust and admiration focused on the operation of the school district were picked over by the Colfax school board July 7 when they publicly discussed the results of a survey of school employees. The board pinpointed better communication and more trust as places where the district needs help. No official action was taken at the special board work session. The board also shot down a number of survey comments they felt irrelevant or too obscure. Colfax school district has 98 employees who all received the...
Faced with a steep drop in revenue, Colfax school board Monday passed a budget for the coming school year that is $286,000 less than last year. The 2010-2011 budget also has a $237,840 deficit, which will be balanced out of the district’s reserves. Total charted for the 2009-2010 school year was $6,549,262. The total projected expenditures for next year are $6,263,835. Biggest boost for the budget was the departure of four employees, whose combined salaries totaled $198,075 plus more than $50,000 in benefits. Business Manager Reese Jenkin said...
The 1919 barn creaks in the steady blow of the Palouse wind. Wind rushes through its corridors, blowing across old shingles, wheat grinders, 1950s era dairy stalls and an original hay cradle dangling high above the loft. Outside sits a stack of new cedar shingles. David Buri examines the exposed beams of the roof of his historic 1919 barn. The barn on the Colfax -Palouse highway just east of Colfax is a 1919 Gothic style relic, which is listed on the state’s historic register. For the past year, David and Becky Buri have been restoring the a...
Jerry Shea doesn’t have an airplane on his property east of Colfax and the company that launched his flying career is long gone. But for retired pilot Shea, the memories of his 35 years flying for Pan American Airways and United Airlines are still alive and well. The 80-year-old still remembers the day his uncle took him, at the age of five, up in the sky in a small plane. “You can imagine what that did to a five-year-old,” Shea said, pointing out he was hooked on aviation from then on. Shea lives several miles outside Colfax with his developme...
Nelson Duran Fiery hues of yellow, dark rouged veins, fragrances only nature is capable of, velvety blues that put Solomon to shame, scarlet ribbons curling around rockets of white- these characteristics of flowers have not escaped the creativity of Palouse artists. The kickoff dinner of this year’s annual Palouse Art Walk is a dinner that heavily relies on the delicate flavors of flowers. And upstairs will be a two-month-long exhibit of Art and Floriad, in which artists will combine natural flowers with artwork. Art Walk begins July 10, w...
Hunter’s Furniture of Colfax is closing. Owners Mary and Lee Higginson have cut prices on new wood furniture, dining tables, leather couches and other furniture. Mary Higginson, 65, told the Gazette Monday she is closing up shop because she’d like to retire and the economy has been rough on their sales. “It’s a little bit of everything,” she said, noting the furniture store has been open for about 15 years. The couple also owns Hunter’s Appliance Center and the Sleep Shop in Colfax, which will remain open and staffed by Lee. Mary said she di...
The county Tuesday signed the purchase of a single acre of land outside Lamont for a site that houses a radio tower in the county’s emergency communication network. Price of the acre was $10,000. “It’s a done deal. The papers are signed,” said Steve Krigbaum, communications system manager for the county. The site now holds a single, aging radio tower which the county is looking to beef up to make it usable in a new, county-wide emergency radio system. Patricia Nelson, a woman from the west side of the state, owns the land which is about a...
Whitman County school districts had, on average, a higher percentage of students pass the state WASL last year than other districts in the state. In a survey of 2008- 2009 WASL scores for the 10th graders in the eight county school districts, the district scores averaged 93 percent of students passing the reading test, versus 81.2 percent average for all the districts in the state. The average county district had 57 percent of students pass the math test, versus 45.4 percent average totaled from all the districts in the state. The state this...
A regularly scheduled public hearing on the Colfax school’s tight budget will be Monday, July 12 during the district board meeting. The board session begins at 7 p.m. The district for the third year is scaling back through nickel and diming many district funds, the result of a gradual loss in state funds through declining enrollment. The district is looking to pass a budget that has roughly $300,000 less projected for next year. Total expenditures charted for the 2009-2010 school year were $6,549,262. This year’s total projected exp...
On the wall in Shelly McMasters’ Colfax home hangs a sign; Never, Never, Never Give Up. McMasters, 54, is emerging from her third bout with cancer in 13 years, a struggle she said was made easier with the help of proceeds from Relay for Life and a supportive church group. In 1996, she was diagnosed with uteran cancer and in 1997 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Then, in late 2008, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, a diagnosis which later ended in a mastectomy in 2009. That same year, she was diagnosed with heart disease after she d...
Curtains shining with real gold. A bear-hide coat. Necklaces made from real human hair. An ice-box from pre-1910 fitted to house a modern refrigerator. An 1892 mansion on a hill outside Oakesdale has been slowly furnished for the past 20 years with pre-1910 Victorian era items. Now big, glittering glass chandeliers, pre-1910 silver-plaited tea kettles, silk ladies night caps, massive wooden cabinets, bed frames and thousands more antiques pack each room of the home. Terri Gravelle and Paul Matthews have made a lifestyle of searching out and res...
The echo of hammering pings through the hillside pine forest above the flat part of Klemgard Park on Union Flat Creek. A half mile hike up the trail through the steamy, green undergrowth reveals county park ranger Dave Mahan working on a long, wooden bridge. Mahan and park volunteers have been packing supplies uphill for a half mile to repair this bridge for the past two weeks. Park ranger Dave Mahan drills in a hole on the new bridge at Klemgard, with the help of volunteer, Justin Juneau. Most supplies for the 24-foot bridge were hiked in....
The position of Colfax school activities director may be split into two positions or redefined before the start of the next school year. After a classified staff employee was transferred last year, shifting duties eventually stretched hours thin for Mike Morgan, the current activities director. Morgan also serves as the director of instrumental music and head football coach. Superintendent Michael Morgan said the district was concerned they had actually “dumped too much” on Morgan’s plate when they shifted secretary Barb Strevy to the eleme...
A survey of Colfax school employees showed while most are satisfied with the inner workings of the school, some found communication and trust between administration and staff lacking. Colfax’s five-member school board has had several weeks to digest results of the two surveys school staff took evaluating the district and now has plans for a public meeting to process that feedback. Results of the survey were given to the Gazette this week. Board members and the school administrators will meet next Wednesday, July 7, at 7 p.m. in the school b...
A 30-year-old log foot bridge on the trail at Klemgard Park is being replaced by county park crew members and volunteers. The bridge tilted over during the winter. It crosses a creek about a half mile up the trail. Klemgard park is a 69-acre county park on Union Flat Creek. Park ranger Dave Mahan has been working with park board members and other volunteers to haul in the materials needed to repair the foot bridge. Last Friday, eight people packed in lumber and other supplies on the Klemgard trail. “Just put it on your back and power up t...
Paving for the second Almota Road rebuild segment is expected to start next week. Crews will surface more than three miles of unpaved road June 28, 29, and 30 in a move to finish the road project before the start of harvest. The paving will finish the second phase which extends from the Duncan Springs Road intersection south to the Wilcox Road intersection just north of Union Flat Creek. This phase of the project is one of four slated for Almota Road, with the next two planned in the next five to 10 years. Aim of the project was to widen the...
The county next week will finalize the purchase on an acre of land outside Lamont, a site that houses a crucial radio tower in the county’s emergency communication network. “In open session, the commissioners will sign the deed for a radio site,” said Steve Krigbaum, communications system manager for the county. The site now holds a single, aging radio tower which the county is looking to improve to make it usable in the new, county-wide emergency radio system. The system is now used by 911 Whitcom dispatchers to communicate with police, fire...
Another turn of events for the Palouse Brownfields project last week moved the site that much closer to completion. Crews finished testing the oil, diesel and gas pollutants saturating the ground of Palouse’s Brownfields site last week. The site, an ongoing environmental clean-up and re-use project for the city, was also awarded $48,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency last week. The funding will help supplement the larger Department of Ecology grant of $200,000 awarded last year. The federal bankruptcy court out of Spokane also last we...
After two pit bull attacks that bloodied a woman and nearly crippled a 31-year-old mare, Tekoa city council Monday night outlawed new pit bulls in town. “When that dog got loose, he went up the street and tore into the first breathing thing he saw,” Doug Sienknecht told the council Monday. The Sienknecht’s mare was attacked by a neighbor’s pit bull June 4, which ripped apart the horse’s front legs. The council also approved a new code enforcement officer position who will enforce Tekoa city codes, especially any more issues with pit bulls. In...
Sixty-eight of the 98 Colfax school employees, just under 70 percent, responded to survey questions rating their supervisors and the school board. The results were announced at Monday’s school board meeting by Kirby Dailey. The results were from one of two surveys requested of staff members in the final weeks of the school session. Results of the second, longer survey were distributed to school board members Monday night by Supt. Michael Morgan and not shown to the public. The shorter survey asked district employees to rate performance of d...
Penny and Ken Niles are wrapping up careers that placed them in several positions around Oakesdale school. Penny has served as the Oakesdale secretary since 1984. Ken has served as the maintenance director since 1995, and taught at the school for 10 years in the 1970s. He figures in his time on the maintenance crew there is no corner of the school he hasn’t touched. They were honored at a retirement party June 14. Penny and Ken both hail from Hoquiam, on the Pacific coast. Their career paths began much the same; they both graduated high s...
Photos of the Palouse past are now being preserved for the future. With approximately $30,000 in public money, Whitman County Library put together 30 poster images and 1,300 digitized photos for the state’s Rural Heritage project. Patti Cammack and Janet Nastasi (right) hold a tintype, a historic photo preserved on metal. A group of officials gathered in the courthouse hallway early Monday morning for the official dedication of the photos. Citizens wandered past image after image, taking in the rich, historic scenes. Aim of the project is to pr...
The state-wide ban on using cell phones while driving has been in effect a week now and local law enforcement officers are on the lookout. Starting June 10, talking on a cell phone while driving became a primary offense for which an officer can pull over a driver. Texting was already illegal. Washington State Patrol Sergeant Brad Hudson said troopers have already noticed a drop in the number of people they see on their phones while driving. “Since the law became a primary law, myself and my troopers have noticed that there’s been a sub...
Library director Kristie Kirkpatrick gazes up at the library’s new skylight. The skylight is one of several renovations to the library. Pieces of blue tape spot the walls, carpets, and doors inside the remodeled Whitman library, each marking a small ding in need of a final touch-up. A small sign in the women’s bathroom reads, “This door hits floor when fully opened.” This is the state of the $1 million remodeling project on the Whitman County Library building in Colfax, one week from completion. A new elevator, a skylight, handicap accessi...
