Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Battle Days blasts off Friday, as Rosalia’s 43rd town festival takes hold of the city this weekend. Events are marked up and down Main Street this year. Kelly Brown of Malden has painted old-timey Battle Days-themed scenes on windows of businesses up and down Whitman Ave. Battle Days coordinator Sarah Birrenkott noted Brown’s work is part of the heavy influence of arts on this year’s Battle Days blast. Commemorative posters featuring a design by Rosalia student Tyler Mundt will be available, as will buttons designed by student Alexandra Naugh...
Central Ferry Park will be out of commission for another year this Memorial Day weekend and for the whole season. The river park will be closed this summer, as it has the past two summers, while officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continue to mull options for the site. “Unless our budget changes, nothing’s going to happen down there,” said Gina Baltrusch, press agent for the corps’ Walla Walla office. Central Ferry closed down after the firm that operated it cancelled its lease with the corps. The park was built as one of the cor...
Economists’ report says workers have nowhere to spend salaries Firms set up at the Port of Whitman County’s facilities account for almost one-fourth of the private sector economy in southeast Washington, according to a report issued last week by University of Idaho economists. The report issued by Dr. Stephen Peterson and Stephen Pool found 2,414 people have jobs associated with the port’s sites, almost exclusively being employed in high-tech industries. However, the report said, a dirth of retail options in the area sends about $170 milli...
A three-candidate primary for Whitman County Commissioner will be the lone local decision facing voters on the Aug. 7 primary ballot, and that will only be on ballots for commissioner district one. Candidate filing finished Friday, with two challengers running against District 1 incumbent Greg Partch of Garfield for the north county seat on the county commission. Partch officially filed for a fourth term last Thursday, May 17. Art Swannack of Lamont and Bill Tensfeld of Rosalia filed earlier in the week. All three are Republicans. District 2...
Bringing forth a replacement to a salary structure they said was “not functional,” Whitman County’s classification committee brought commissioners a new pay plan Monday. “I think it’s very reasonable, and I think it’s something that can be done,” said Sheriff Brett Myers, a member of the classification committee. The plan would change how employees receive their regularly scheduled raises. It would also provide longevity raises for long-term workers. Currently, employees receive “step” raises of three percent every 18 months. Employees move up...
Group seeks permanent home for MC memorial Fifty-five white crosses adorn Steve Humphrey’s hill overlooking Dry Creek just off Danaher Road near Steptoe. Each memorializes a deceased friend, relative or lover who was passionate about motorcycles. “It’s definitely a solemn place. A place of spiritual reverence,” said Humphrey in an interview on his Black Cat Ranch. “This is all in honor and respect for fallen riders.” Now, he and a group of his friends and fellow riders are planning a bigger memorial to riders from across the nation. Hum...
Home sales in Whitman County picked up quickly during the first three months of 2012 compared to the prior year. A report issued last week by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research showed 520 homes sold in Whitman County during the year’s first quarter. The report showed home sales picked up 49 percent from the first quarter of 2011. The quarter also showed a 16 percent increase over the number of homes sold during the last three months of 2011. Glenn Crellin, director of the center, pointed out the number was still well under high s...
Local cattlemen are looking at their water to find out how their operations impact their land. More than a dozen and a half gathered on the bank of the Palouse River beneath a railroad bridge in Colfax Monday morning to learn proper techniques for sampling their water for fecal coliform content. Tom Kammerzell, who organized the event for the Whitman County Cattlemen’s Association, said he began a regular regimen of testing a creek that runs through his property two and a half years ago after ecology officials “blamed” high fecal colif...
Citing personal reasons, Kirk Suess of Steptoe announced Tuesday he had decided not to run for Whitman County Commissioner in District 1. Suess was the first candidate to declare a campaign for the seat when he made a formal announcement of his challenge to incumbent Greg Partch of Garfield last December. Suess this week threw his support behind Lamont farmer Art Swannack, who was the first candidate to officially file for office with the county elections department when the season opened Monday. Candidate filing runs through tomorrow, Friday,...
Changes to affect Pullman residents County commissioners swapped about 4,000 constituents in Pullman under the redistricting plan approved Monday. The county was required to equalize population in each district following the U.S. Census every 10 years. Monday’s formal approval of the plan came a week after the state deadline for county’s to balance their districts. Auditor Eunice Coker blamed the delay on the lack of a county-owned mapping software and a time-taxed elections department. Commissioners had agreed to contract with a mapping expert...
Whitman County has upped the warning level on a curve on Rock Lake Road in response to multiple motorcycle accidents, two involving fatalities, that occurred at the spot within eight months. County sign crews posted last week a more explicit warning of a curve on the road just south of the Dewey Road intersection weeks after a second fatality motorcycle accident. Public Works Director Mark Storey said the county was planning to post new signage on the curve this spring. That job was hastened after a two-bike wreck April 22 that took the life...
Colfax is going to be awful dry for the next month after the liquor store shut down for good Tuesday night. “Last call, Colfax,” said Theresa Knighten, who has manned the counter at the liquor store for the past two decades. Prices were not discounted. The Colfax store was a contract operation through the State Liquor Control Board. Don Stine, the contract vendor for the store, opted not to continue operation after a voter-approved initiative privatized liquor sales. State liquor officials have been scheduled to pick up the store’s lefto...
Whitman County commissioners agreed to issue a reduced loan request from the Port of Whitman County Monday. The port last month asked to borrow $1 million in .09 economic development funding reserves to provide liquid cash for projects that may soon be in the works. After balking at that initial request, county commissioners agreed Monday to lend the port $750,000 from its stash of .09 economic development funds. Port director Joe Poire said the port is currently short on cash because of ongoing large projects like the fiber optic connection fr...
Prosecutor Denis Tracy continued his review of the contract amendment proposed to Whitman County by Boise-based Hawkins Companies for the development deal of a stateline shopping center. Commissioners had a possible vote on the amendment to a $15 million development deal scheduled for Monday. That passed, though, as they decided to wait for Tracy’s review. The amendment changes a deal approved by the county in January which obligates the county to fund $15 million worth of infrastructure at the company’s long-proposed 714,000-square-foot sho...
Though the deadline for changing commissioner district boundaries has passed, Whitman County plans to vote next week to approve new districts. Commissioners in a public hearing Monday were presented with three differed proposals from the elections department of the county auditor’s office. Each of the plans is intended to equalize the number of residents in each commissioner district. Pullman resident Dave Gibney pointed out at the hearing that the new district map was supposed to be finalized by Monday which is 14 days before candidates can f...
After stiffing Whitman County’s elected officials for the past three years, the county’s citizen salary commission upped their pay more than seven percent Tuesday night. “It’s time for this commission to do its job,” said Paul Eichenberg of Palouse, chair of the salary commission. The wages of elected officials are now on par with those paid elected officials in the five counties the commission uses for comparison: Stevens, Okanogan, Kittitas, Douglas and Jefferson. Pay rates lagged because the commission did not give electeds raises the last...
Dignitaries from around the Palouse gathered atop a windy Naff Ridge Tuesday to break ground on Palouse Wind’s wind power farm - the most expensive project in Whitman County history. “Palouse Wind represents really a major investment in Whitman County,” said Ben Fairbanks, Northwest Development Manager. “Really, the largest in decades.” At a value of $160 million, the 58-turbine wind farm will produce as much as 105 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 30,000 homes. Turbines will be placed on Naff Ridge, Steamshovel Hill and Grani...
Odds of federal funding to upgrade track on state-owned railroads through Whitman County are likely nil until the North-South freeway is built in Spokane. Port of Whitman County commissioners got an update on funding for the railroad it oversees from Bob Westby, the newly-appointed overseer of the state-owned shortline system for the state Department of Transportation. “I didn’t even know we owned a railroad,” said Westby. The port applied for a federal grant from the Transportation Improvement Generating Economic Recovery program (TIGE...
An amended deal for Hawkins Companies’ long-proposed shopping center in the Pullman-Moscow Corridor could be inked by Whitman County commissioners as soon as next Monday. Jeff DeVoe, Hawkins’ project manager for the stateline shopping plaza, asked commissioners Monday to approve an amended development deal proposed by his firm April 12. “This is probably the best that it could possibly be,” he said. Three days of public hearings were held on the amendment, though very little of the citizen testimony centered around the actual agreeme...
Tekoa is looking to form a new hospital district as a way to preserve its health clinic. Town officials are looking to put the formation of a new hospital district with five directors and a property tax levy of $.50 per $1,000 assessed value on the August primary ballot. Mayor John Jaeger said the measure is aimed at ensuring the clinic will be able to recruit health care providers into the future. “When you’re used to having somebody right downtown...you don’t want to lose that,” said Jaeger. County Coroner Pete Martin currently owns the Tekoa...
Four new rental cabins will be placed at Boyer Park and Marina this summer by the Port of Whitman County. Port commissioners approved construction of four cabins at their regular meeting last Thursday, April 19. The 12 x 16-foot cabins will be purchased from Sturdy Built Sheds of Crestline. Debbie Snell, properties and development manager, said they will now determine where to place the cabins to best avoid the park’s high winds and sprinklers and where they could best be in the shade. They will be purchased out of $24,683.54 in insurance m...
A grant to replace Zarbach Bridge at Thornton would cost Whitman County almost twice the cost of replacing it out of the county’s road budget, Public Works Director Mark Storey reported Monday. Storey got permission from commissioners to begin a project to replace the 24-foot bridge with county crews at a cost of $114,000. The county had been awarded a federal grant, but the additional permits and paperwork would have cost the county as much as $280,000, he said. Storey said state bridge experts decided the replacement should cost about $...
Worried about tying up funds saved for the Hawkins mall, Whitman County commissioners questioned Monday whether or not to grant a $1 million loan request from the county port district. Port commissioners requested the county lend them $1 million to help provide cash liquidity for potential economic development projects that may be soon in the works. The port requested funding from the county’s stash of .09 economic development funds. Debbie Snell, port properties and development manager, said the port is now short on cash because of ongoing l...
Whitman County elections officials Monday unveiled a new redistricting plan that balances out populations in three commissioner districts by a revision of the general pie carving pattern for Pullman. The plan calls for re-assignment of Pullman precincts to new commissioner district. Fourteen precincts will be consolidated. The new plan replaces the plan that was proposed last week. It would have created a massive rural District 1 and concentrated the population in District 3 in Pullman. “It would make more sense to just weight it in P...
Just in time for spring planting, the price of ammonia fertilizer went on a wild roller coaster ride to start this week. Monday, the price of ammonia rose 50 percent from $650 to $990 a ton. The rise was an unprecedented single day spike in prices, said Fred Morschek of McGregor Co. Tuesday, the price dropped 20 percent. Though application rates vary based on crops and soil profile, a typical application rate of ammonia on spring crops is about 100 pounds per acre. “Ammonia had a bit of an - adjustment,” said Ron Wachter of Nu-Chem. “It was v...
