Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 174 - 198 of 936
An economic study commissioned by Boise-based Hawkins Companies found its proposed shopping center at the Idaho state line will create 938 to 1,069 new jobs. C. Paul Wazzan and Joseph K. Tanimura of the Berkley Research Group in Los Angeles used retail economic models to determine the amount of employees that should be at the 714,000-square-foot shopping center and how much they will be paid. County commissioners, who face a legal suit on their commitment to the project, last week released the report on the center. Commissioners also hope the j...
It wasn’t as bad as they figured. Whitman County’s various departments spent $102,356 more than they received in revenue in the finalized version of the 2011 books. Kind of. Financial Adminstrator David Ledbetter gave department leaders final figures at a meeting last week. Those figures showed departments within the county’s current expense budget spent $11,761,022 while revenues generated $11,658,666. Both totals were nearly $700,000 below the figures projected in the budget. The deficit reflects a marked improvement from the $330,000 defic...
All local funding measures received official approval after Whitman County’s canvass board certified the Feb. 14 election results Tuesday morning. School funding measures for Colfax, Colton, Endicott, Oakesdale, Pullman, Rosalia, St. John, Steptoe and Tekoa all received final tallies well above the 50 percent approval mark. The town of Rosalia’s street levy request also passed with 65 percent approval, over the 60 percent required passage rate. Final count included 8,046 ballots of the 17,001 sent out to voters for a 47 percent turnout. The...
Gazette Reporters Three is the magic number. In honor of this Saturday’s date, 3/3, the Look Around art collective in Palouse is hosting its first ever Super-Short Film Festival, which will feature dozens of home-made movies, all clocking in at under three minutes. “Even the most terribly shot movie in the world, you can sit through for three minutes,” said Mary Rothlisberger, a member of the Look Around and one of the orgnizers of the film festival. Rothlisberger said the inspiration for a three-minute limit came from a three-minute egg timer...
Rare for Republicans in Whitman County, the party’s caucus Saturday will be a part of the national presidential pre-season. “With the 2010 elections, things kind of made a bit of a turn,” said Sharon Hall of Pullman, chair of the county GOP. “Now, given where the presidential race is, Washington could be a state that makes a difference in the way this all shakes out.” Results from the Saturday caucus will not bind GOP delegates to candidates. The vote will, though, give candidates a sense of who is preferred by voters in Whitman County an...
Superior Court Judge David Frazier late Tuesday night gave Whitman County commissioners the authority to hire an outside attorney to represent the county in the injunction suit filed over the Hawkins shopping center. Tuesday’s ruling removes Frazier’s rejection of the lawyer proposal last week. In his reverse decision, Frazier said the question of Prosecutor Denis Tracy’s ability to objectively defend the county was a “complicated and reasonably debatable issue.” Commissioners also revised their proposed contract to hire Spokane Attorney...
Steptoe's Friendly Mart is the town's one-stop shop for coffee, smokes, beer, groceries and slices of beef jerky. Friday it will also become the town's Village Post Office. Now, the Friendly Mart will sell stamps and flat-rate packages in addition to renting out mailboxes. Post boxes were installed Tuesday, as was a mailbox on the Friendly Mart's front step. Postal officials will have a ceremony to christen the agency's new office at 10 a.m. Friday. Ed Patton who works at the Friendly Mart said Tuesday he was still unsure what the new duties...
Muddy fields along roadsides means construction on the Port of Whitman County’s $14 million fiber optic network will have to wait awhile. Joe Poire, port executive director, reported to port commissioners at their regular meeting last Thursday, Feb. 16, that work was set to finish the following day inside Pullman city limits. That section, he said, is the last construction crews will be able to complete before the ground dries and state permits are acquired. With a $12 million federal stimulus grant, contractors for the port are laying 170 m...
While much of America is caught in the grips of Linsanity, students from Colfax and Palouse high schools went Bot Crazy for the first time Saturday afternoon. For the past several months, the Palouse Area Robotics Team (PART) Sci-Borgs, as they have dubbed their team, have been working to figure out computer programs and engineering designs for their robot which will compete in an April contest in a battle with other robots built by students from around the country. “We’re rookies. We’re rookies of the rookies,” said Dave Tharp of Palouse...
Judge David Frazier last week rejected the request by Whitman County commissioners to hire an outside attorney to defend them against an injunction suit filed by the citizen Organization to Void Illegal Conduct. Prosecutor Denis Tracy Tuesday said he was ready to act as the county’s counsel, but commissioners said they had already asked the judge to reconsider his decision. “I don’t think he could represent us fairly,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. In a letter sent last Thursday, Frazier said the legal questions in the lawsuit did not require...
With construction on the high speed grain train loading facility at McCoy expected to begin this spring, the Port of Whitman County is again vying for $8.5 million in federal funds to fix up the track leading to the site. Joe Poire, port executive director, said the port sent off another grant application to the federal Department of Transportation. Funding would be used to replace tracks and rebuild 25 bridges on the state-owned P&L shortline railroad. The shortline connects the Palouse to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline at...
Residents of the Courtyard assisted living center in Colfax received a helping of a special pre-Valentine’s Day ambience with lunch Monday. Amidst the valentine-decorated walls of the Courtyard’s dining area, Daniella Clark of Pullman filled the air with a touch of romance by plucking the many strings of her harp. “It was so cute, with the hearts on the wall,” said Clark. “It had sort of an old-fashioned charm about it.” Clark said she has been bringing her harp into the Courtyard on a monthly basis to play for elderly residents through the...
Workers in Whitman County’s road department will receive 1.5 percent pay raises for 2012, retroactive to Jan. 1. County commissioners Monday unanimously approved a collective bargaining contract with the road employees union. The pay raise was the only substantial change to last year’s contract. The 39 county road workers in the union are represented by the Teamsters Local Union 690 out of Spokane. The Teamsters also represents workers in the jail and solid waste departments, and some courthouse employees. Courthouse employees earlier this yea...
Whitman County commissioners selected Spokane attorney Milton Rowland Monday to represent the county in the injunction suit filed by the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct. “He’s very well respected in Spokane. I think he could represent us quite well,” Commissioner Greg Partch told his fellow commissioners Pat O’Neill and Michael Largent in a workshop session Monday morning. Commissioners met with Rowland Monday morning to prepare a petition to superior court for approval to have Rowland represent the county instead of Prosecutor Denis Tracy...
Voters handed Whitman County schools and the town of Rosalia a nice little Valentine Tuesday night, easily approving all 11 funding requests in election night returns. “It’s a perfect Valentine’s gift,” said Supt. Michael Morgan, of the Colfax School District. Colfax, along with Colton, Endicott, Oakesdale and St. John asked voters for increased maintenance and operations levies for upcoming school years, hoping local funding would stave off cuts expected to come from state funding. “I think people know how important our levies are, and that...
Using insurance money from a damaged trailer park formerly at Boyer Park and Marina, the Port of Whitman County is going to site a log cabin for overnight stays at the park. Port commissioners at their regular meeting last Thursday, Feb. 2, authorized executive director Joe Poire to pursue the purchase of the cabin. High winds in November of 2010 damaged a mobile home that had been used to house workers at the park. The roof was ripped off, leaving the building destroyed. Workers now stay in the apartment-style unit of the Almota Inn hotel....
Whitman County set a new slate of fees in place Monday for permits to build farm structures and wind turbines. County commissioners unanimously approved the new fees proposed by Dan Gladwill, county building official, during their regular meeting. The state legislature in 2009 limited fees counties could collect to inspect farm buildings. Before Monday’s approval, farm buildings were charged permit fees that were calculated by figuring Gladwill’s actual expenses to inspect the building; his time, travel and fuel costs. Now, Gladwill will cha...
Three local art teachers asked Whitman County commissioners Monday to let them use the courthouse halls to display their students’ art. Teachers Patty Mills of Oakesdale, Sean Moss of Rosalia and Cheryl Lothspeich of Colfax pitched the idea of having art displayed in the courthouse and judged by county officials. “You can see it all on its own for their own aesthetic value,” Mills told commissioners. All three said the display would provide students a different perspective on the impact of their art. “The great thing is, this gets their a...
Members of the LaCrosse community gathered last weekend to replace the roof on the town’s former and soon-to-be grocery store building as contractors proceeded with inside work. “I think we’ve got a good crew, a good team assembled here to work on it,” said Tedd Nealey. Nealey is a member of the citizen LaCrosse Community Pride group which formed to bring a grocery store back to town. That area of Whitman County has been without a store since Jerry Chastain closed the LaCrosse Market in 2009. “It’s the little things. You can’t even buy an a...
Dean Kinzer, a 28-year farmer from the Ewartsville area, announced Friday his plans to run for the district two county commissioner seat currently held by Pat O’Neill in next fall’s election. Kinzer, 57, said he decided to run after last month’s decision by county commissioners to up the county’s obligation to the Hawkins project from $9.1 million to $15 million. “My understanding of county money is that it’s to be used to benefit all the people, not to be spent on risky investments,” said Kinzer. “If there’s risk being taken, it should...
County commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch voted Monday to ask the superior court to approve hiring an outside lawyer to defend the county in the civil suit filed last month to stop the county’s commitment to the Hawkins project. If approved, the move would remove Prosecutor Denis Tracy from defending the county in his normal role as county attorney. Commissioner Michael Largent voted no. “I’ve had a real tough time thinking that our prosecuting attorney can keep his personal views out of the mix of the legal side representing the cou...
Gazette Reporters Columbia Bank, the financial institution that took over much of the assets of the failed Bank of Whitman last August, reported $48 million net income in 2011. Columbia’s 2011 financial statement, released last Thursday, showed profits were up 86 percent from the $25.8 million the bank made in 2010. In response, the Tacoma-based bank announced it would pay its stockholders a cash dividend of eight cents per share, plus a special one-time cash dividend of 29 cents per share. At press time, Columbia’s stocks were trading at $21...
Construction of a high speed grain train loading facility at McCoy should get underway this spring. Sam White, chief operating officer for PNW Farmers’ Cooperative, told a lunchtime crowd at the Chamber of Commerce’s Farm City Day Tuesday that his firm expects to go “full speed ahead” with construction this spring. PNW, along with Rosalia-based Cooperative Agricultural Producers, plan to build a $16 million facility that would transfer grain from trucks to tanks and into 110-car unit trains that would ship grain straight to Portland. White s...
“It sounds like they’ve got a rough road ahead of them,” - Marty Brown, Budget Director for Gov. Chris Gregoire Gazette Reporter Whitman County leadership set up an outpost on the west side of the Cascades this week, when several local officials lobbied lawmakers in Olympia for $15 million to fund the county’s pledged portion of the Hawkins project. They returned, as of press time, empty handed. “We had some really good meetings. The meeting with the governor’s office was productive,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. “Only he said, basically...
Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker presented county commissioners Monday with a contract to hire Courtney Thompson, a GIS (Geographic Information System) technician for Lincoln County’s public works department, to chart a redistricting plan for Whitman County. The county will pay for Thompson’s time and travel and for the use of Lincoln County’s GIS equipment. Whitman County has no GIS equipment. The county must have its finalized plan approved by the Secretary of State’s office by May 4, which is one month before filing opens for politic...
