Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 149 - 173 of 936
County Commissioner Pat O’Neill told a large crowd Monday that he believes he has found a source of funds to finance the county’s $15 million commitment for the Hawkins shopping mall project at the stateline. However, O’Neill later declined to give any specifics on where he has located the funds. Hearings on the Hawkins deal drew hundreds of people into the Public Service Building Monday and Tuesday nights. Critics said commissioners entered into the agreement without properly analyzing its implications. Supporters said the county must act s...
Number of seats on the Whitman County’s planning commission could be cut because not enough residents have volunteered to serve on the panel. County commissioners are considering reducing the panel from a nine-member board to seven members. The commission, which sets county policy on land use matters, currently has two vacancies plus a seat held by Pete Hertz of Palouse that is not occupied while Hertz deals with illness. Planner Alan Thomson told commissioners Monday those numbers have made it difficult for the commission to field enough m...
Regardless of the outcome of this fall’s election, residents of LaCrosse and Endicott may have a different commissioner next year as Whitman County redraws its district boundaries. Because of growth in Pullman, the number of voters in commissioner district 3 is dramatically above voter counts in districts 1 and 2. As of March, District 3 had 8,285 voters, while District 1 had 5,651 and District 2 had 4,809. To fix that, Whitman County elections officials are considering a plan that would move rural precincts from District 3 to districts 1 a...
Saying he saw “nothing new” to discuss in Whitman County’s development agreement with Hawkins Companies of Boise, Commissioner Michael Largent walked out of a workshop session Tuesday morning. Commissioners were gathered to discuss anticipated changes in the agreement which has the county paying for $15 million of infrastructure at Hawkins’ long-proposed shopping center. County Administrator Gary Petrovich presented commissioners with a summarized list of changes Hawkins is proposing to make to the development agreement. The changes were di...
A revival is taking place in LaCrosse with the town’s Main Street getting back in business thanks to a heaping helping of community support. LaCrosse Community Pride, which formed in 2010 with the goal of bringing back a grocery store to the town, also spearheaded efforts to woo a bank back to town while the remodeling of the store moves toward completion. “It’s been a long road, but it’s all starting to come together,” said Gary Wargo, superintendent of LaCrosse Schools and president of LaCrosse Community Pride. Groceries and finances...
Whitman County’s first budget amendment was approved Monday by commissioners, finalizing a simplification of county accounting practices. The amendment added $1,165,935 to the 2012 current expense budget, lifting expenses from $12,896,617 to $14,062,552. Financial Administrator David Ledbetter explained the total will be unique to 2012, as it includes a loan for major projects on the courthouse complex and reflects a switch in the county’s accounting practices. County officials, in an effort to meet state audit standards, opted to prepare the...
A new deal could be in the works between Whitman County and Hawkins Companies on how much infrastructure the county will pay to build at the company’s proposed 714,000-square-foot shopping center west of the state line. Commissioners Greg Partch and Michael Largent held an impromptu question-and-answer session on the possibility of a new deal with several citizens Tuesday morning in lieu of an announced meeting of commissioners. Commissioners announced during their regular meeting Monday a series of upcoming workshop sessions and public hearing...
Joining an already crowded field of challengers, Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch, 63, Garfield, announced Saturday his plans to seek a fourth term in office. Partch announced his candidacy at the county Republican party’s convention at the CETC building in Colfax. Kirk Suess of Steptoe, Bill Tensfeld of Rosalia and Art Swannack of Lamont have all previously announced their candidacies for Partch’s seat on the county commission. “Having a record to stand on can be an advantage,” Partch said in an interview Monday. “But obviously when you...
First Wind applied Friday for building permits to install 58 turbines at the company’s Naff Ridge wind farm. County commissioners Monday then approved the route by which the company will transport the turbines to the site. “We’re on the cusp of letting them go with everything now,” Public Works Director Mark Storey said of the 8-inch thick package of required compliance matters for the project. The turbines, valued in the permit application at $2 million apiece, will be moved by train from the Colorado factory where they are made to a rail ya...
Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch is the subject of a pair of political signs that have drawn the attention of county residents. The signs are created by a long-time adversary and both refer to him as "Psycho Greg." "I kind of like it. It reminds me that not everybody loves the decisions I make," said Partch. Bill Divine of Garfield created the signs. Divine said he wants Partch to be voted out of office this fall. A stationary sign which has been posted alongside the Dry Creek Road near the Cronk Road intersection for the last couple mon...
Whitman County Commissioner Pat O’Neill, a Democrat from Johnson, announced his plans Monday morning to seek a second term representing District 2. O’Neill, 64, defeated incumbent Jerry Finch of Pullman for the seat four years ago. In a prepared press release, O’Neill pointed to his efforts to make the county’s finances more accountable and said he has asked “hard questions and getting the results the taxpayers deserve for their hard-earned dollars.” “All I know is hard work,” he said. “And I’m going to work just as hard this time.” Because...
Almost a month has passed since the attorney for a citizen group suing Whitman County offered to drop a portion of the suit, and the county has yet to respond to the offer. Timothy Esser, the Pullman attorney for the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct or OVIC, said his clients will drop a charge that commissioners violated the state’s open public meetings act if the county’s legal bills were paid by the developer for whom the county has pledged to build $15 million worth of infrastructure. The open meetings violation is one of three arg...
Sales tax revenue for Whitman County through February totaled for almost half of the anticipated sales tax revenue which has been budgeted for the whole year. The big start derives from taxes off construction purchases for the Palouse Wind project. Gary Petrovich, county administrative director, reported Monday the county has received $1,234,147 in sales taxes through February. Treausrer Robert Lothspeich budgeted $2,795,000 in sales taxes to the county’s current expense fund for all of 2012. That projection is $728,605 more than the actual c...
A blowout bash is planned Saturday to celebrate the 105th birthday of Ruth Henderson, who lived all of those 105 years, except for a few months, at Colfax. "It's a great town. There's just nothing like farm people," Ruth said. She can remember her childhood days on the farm, spending afternoons playing with her sister "in the timber" and pulling rainbow trout and crawdads out of the muddy Palouse River. "It's been a fun life. I wouldn't trade it for anything," she said. Born March 23, 1907, to Asahel and Myra Baldwin, she was the seventh of...
Lamont farmer Art Swannack, 46, announced Sunday his campaign to become a Whitman County commisisoner. Swannack becomes the third candidate to announce a bid for the District 1 seat on the county commission currently held by Greg Partch. Kirk Suess of Steptoe and Bill Tensfeld of Rosalia have both previously announced their intentions to run for the seat. Swannack said he wants to bring the county commission a more conservative spending philosophy and make its deliberations a more “open and honest” process. “The county commission needs to ma...
Whitman County commissioners unanimously signed a new waste disposal contract Monday despite pleas by a local trash hauler to reconsider. Dave Patterson, district manager of Waste Connections which owns Empire Disposal, asked commissioners to delay their decision and review the three proposals submitted to the county. “Please look at it and make sure where the costs and the services are so you can make the best-informed decision you can,” Patterson urged the commission. Public Works Director Mark Storey advised commissioners the proposed con...
Better funding for bridges, a fix for the runway at the Pullman-Moscow Airport and considering road-side erosion in Conservation Reserve Program contracts topped the list of concerns brought by local officials to the regional director of Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers. Mike Poulson, agriculture and natural resource policy director for McMorris Rodgers, met with officials from Whitman County and the city of Pullman during the county commissioners’ regular meeting Monday morning. To much of their concerns, Poulson said deregulation could b...
Whitman County commissioners will next Monday finalize a $600,0000 loan from the Public Works Department’s Solid Waste fund to replace the chiller on top of the jail. The current expense fund will borrow $600,000 from the solid waste fund, which is kept outside of the operating budget. “Well I found $600,000,” said Gary Petrovich, county administrator, pointing to Public Works Director Mark Storey. “The loan shark’s sitting right over there.” The loan will be for nine years at a quarter-percent interest. It will be repaid with anticipated...
A new contract to haul garbage away from Whitman County will save the solid waste department more than $400,000 a year. Public Works Director Mark Storey will present county commissioners next Monday with a contract proposal from Allied Waste. Storey said the deal with Allied provides significant savings over the county’s current deal with Waste Management. Cost to ship waste from Whitman County will be about $53 per ton for Allied, down from the approximately $68 a ton the county pays to Waste Management. On average, the county transfer statio...
Colfax shoppers will soon be able to pick up a bottle of liquor while shopping for bread, butter and milk. Shawn McAdams, manager of Rosauers in Colfax, said his store will swap video rentals for liquor sales when the new state law brought about by Initiative 1183 kicks into effect in June. Stores across Whitman County plan changes in reaction to the voter-approved law which allows private stores to sell liquor while state-run stores are closed. The initiative received 52 percent approval from voters in Whitman County and 60 approval...
State mediators have been called in to help Whitman County negotiate a collective bargaining contract with the deputy sheriffs union. County commissioners Monday called in the state’s Public Employee Relations Commission to settle contract talks with the deputies, who have their own bargaining group, the Whitman County Deputy Sheriff’s Association. “Do we want our unions to define what’s a livable wage or our taxpayers?” asked Commissioner Michael Largent. Kelli Campbell, director of the county’s human resources, said there are several sti...
Cooper’s Corner to remain open into May State and local postal officials cut a red, white and blue-striped ribbon in front of a stack of new mail boxes Friday morning to open the Village Post Office at Steptoe’s Friendly Mart. The Friendly Mart location will eventually take the place of the official post office at Cooper’s Corner antique store. The Cooper’s Corner location will remain open at least through the middle of May, as Congress placed a moratorium on post office closures last year. Carol Rebstock, manager of Post Office Operati...
Truckers will soon have to abide by new rules to cross Whitman County’s Hatley Bridge on the Wawawai -Pullman Road which spans Union Flat Creek near the top of the Wawawai grade. Public Works Director Mark Storey reported to commissioners Monday that Nicholls Engineering of Spokane recommended lowering the weight limit on the bridge, which is affectionately dubbed “the incredible moving bridge.” Storey said Nicholls’ inspection found the concrete bridge deck moved enough off its foundation to require load restrictions. Because it is on a “fair...
Texas Congressman Ron Paul won the straw poll taken of Whitman County Republicans during the party’s caucuses last Saturday. Though former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took the statewide win, Paul posted a close win in the non-binding countywide returns over former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. “He’s a consistent conservative. Unlike his opponents, he never flip-flops,” Carolyn Kiesz of Thornton told her party mates at the caucus session in Colfax. Paul received 98 votes in overall county returns for 31 percent. Santorum followe...
The Port of Whitman County is now part-owner of flavored juice company Ecowell. Port commissioners accepted a settlement offer from Ecowell at their regular meeting last Thursday for unpaid rent that included shares of stock in its parent company. “You might in 10 years get some money out of it. They might turn out to be Apple,” Port Attorney Bruce Ensley told commissioners. “I wouldn’t bet on it, “ he advised. Formed in 2009 by WSU students Brian Boler, Reid Schilperoort and Andy Whitaker, Ecowell makes kiosks that dispenses custom-flavored dr...
