Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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A Dec. 19 trial date was set for Michael Assenberg Friday morning in superior court after he pleaded not guilty to four marijuana charges. Assenberg’s arraignment hearing was one of two court sessions Friday involving marijuana suspects who are expected to present medical marijuana defenses in court. Two demonstrators in front of the courthouse carried a “No More Drug War” sign. Before entering his pleas, Assenberg said he would like to ask why he has been charged. He suggested the equal rights provision of the state constitution would allow...
LaCrosse School District is asking voters this November to approve nearly $2.2 million over six years to make major improvements to its campus. “Just like a homeowner would have to replace their heating unit after so many years of use... the age of our facilities are starting to show,” said Superintendent Gary Wargo. Buildings on the LaCrosse campus date back to 1960, and Wargo said they have seen some heavy wear and tear since being built. “Our schools are heavily used by kids. It’s not just mom and dad and the kids at home,” he said. “We...
Make it a record harvest... officially. The long, cool, wet spring resulted in the highest wheat yields ever produced in Washington state. The Washington field office of the Agricultural Statistics Service reported this week both winter and spring wheat set new records for average yields. Area grain brokers told the Gazette last week bumper crops reported by farmers across Whitman County with winter wheat reports exceeding triple digits and spring wheat yields hitting 70 bushels per acre. In the state report, Linda Simpson of the statistics...
Steel-framed flying machines waited on Steve Camp’s “Freedom Field” on Mud Flat west of Dusty early Saturday morning, waiting for the sun to rise. One fires up its engine, moving the glorified winged go-kart across the field. Its five-foot fan fills a rainbow-colored trailing parachute with air to send both operator and machine into the sky. Such was the scene at Camp’s field last weekend, as nearly two dozen powered parachute owners came in for a flying derby, filling the skies of western Whitman County. “It’s really one of the safest, gen...
Whitman County officials Monday approved a new contract for internet service to the county’s courthouse complex. Information Technology Director Chris Nelson presented commissioners with a three-year contract that would increase the county’s internet capacity more than 13-fold. Large projects needing to be done by both her department and the auditor’s department require the county to have more bandwidth. “Our internet is used by everybody on a daily basis, so it’s important that we have something that will support being used by our 200-some...
Residents of Steptoe will host a fund-raising spaghetti feed Sunday, Oct. 2, to save the Steptoe Grange Hall. Steptoe Grange and the Steptoe Community Fund are combining resources to keep up the community’s “Grand Old Girl,” which for generations has hosted wedding receptions, funerals and community parties. Co-organizer Lavonne Hall said Sunday’s meeting will focus on ways to pay the costs of maintaining the 80-year-old building. The building for the past several years has been kept up using money from the community fund, which receive...
New rules regarding electric car charging stations will be the topic of a public hearing before Whitman County commissioners Oct. 17. Planner Alan Thomson submitted proposed zoning amendments to commissioners Monday that outline how electric car charging stations would be allowed to be set up in Whitman County. Thomson said the changes were mandated by a 2009 law passed by the legislature which requires counties and towns zone to accommodate the infrastructure required to allow the expected proliferation of electric vehicles. “The whole o...
Whitman County commissioners Monday gave Public Works Director Mark Storey the go-ahead to begin negotiations to purchase land for a new landfill cell at the county’s Carothers Road transfer station. Storey last week presented commissioners with an engineering study prepared by CH2M Hill that showed construction of a new landfill cell would be the best option for the future of Whitman County’s waste. Storey said, if the county proceeds with building a new landfill cell, it would likely happen in 2016. CH2M Hill’s study said construction of the...
Charges were scheduled to be filed Wednesday in the case of Colfax marijuana advocate Michael Adam Assenberg. Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said Wednesday he planned to forward multiple felony counts regarding marijuana against Assenberg later this week. Assenberg, who claims to be a medical marijuana patient, said Tuesday he is preparing to file a $3.5 million civil suit against the county for what he claims are several violations of his rights under both the state and federal constitutions. “And the only way I will settle for less mon...
Spending by the various departments in Whitman County’s $12.7 million current expense operating fund has been held under year-to-date projections. Administrative Director Gary Petrovich reported Monday the county agencies have spent just shy of $7.3 million through August, about 58 percent of the yearly budget. That total lags behind the $8.5 million total expected to have been spent two-thirds through the year. More than 70 percent of the expenses, $5.1 million, was for salaries and benefits for county employees. Spending may increase, t...
Whitman County must soon decide how it wants to regulate agriculture around environmentally sensitive areas. County Planner Alan Thomson Monday told commissioners they have until Jan. 22 to decide if the county will join a new program - dubbed “Ruckelshaus” after the Ruckelshaus Center that facilitated its creation - to regulate agricultural impacts on wetlands, watersheds, wildlife habitat and steep slopes. If not, the county must address agricultural impacts in its critical areas ordinance. County code does not currently regulate agriculture...
Whitman County could have a new U.S. Representative and have a new legislative district under some of the proposals released Tuesday by the state Redistricting Commission. The commission, comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans, released four separate maps for updated legislative and congressional districts as required every 10 years in response to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Democrats’ plans would move the state’s 9th Legislative District to the Tri-Cities and place Whitman County in the 16th district with Asotin Gar...
Seven schools in Whitman County have been granted a total of $502,712 from the state to make repairs to their buildings. The office of Randy Dorn, state Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced Monday grant awards to Colfax, Endicott, Garfield, LaCrosse, Lamont, Rosalia and Tekoa schools. The local schools were part of a 62-school, $5 million grant award throughout the state. Funding came from the Urgent Repair Grant program, which was created by the Legislature to fund repairs and renovations that relate to student health and safety....
After learning last week the first draft of Whitman County’s 2012 budget is more than $1.5 million in the hole, commissioners Monday began discussing how they want to balance next year’s spending plan. “I think we all can agree we’re not here to micromanage each department’s budgets,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. Department leaders in the county’s current expense operating fund predicted revenues of $12,109,117, which is $1,549,495 shy of the $13,658,612 they expect to spend next year. Administrative Director Gary Petrovich said he doubl...
Oakesdale-area resident Roger Whitten’s opposition to a north county wind farm may be over. Whitten told the Gazette Monday morning he is planning to drop his appeal and move to rural Spokane County. “We wish him well,” said Whitman County Planner Alan Thomson. Whitten’s appeal was scheduled for Monday before Lincoln County Judge John F. Strohmaier who is presiding over the appeal. Whitman County Judge David Frazier recused himself from the hearing because he knew landowners involved in the project. Whitten had appealed in Whitman County Superi...
State transportation officials have endorsed the Port of Whitman County’s $3 million federal rail grant proposal, allowing the application to move forward. Joe Poire, executive director for the port, told commissioners at their regular meeting last Thursday, Sept. 1, that he had received word from state rail director John Sibold that the agency would support the port’s project. The port is applying for $3 million in federal funding to rehabilitate state-owned railroads in Whitman County. The port’s grant request is from the federal Trans...
Gazette Reporters The first compilation of Whitman County’s budget for next year now stands $1.5 million short of balancing. Administrative Director Gary Petrovich Tuesday gave commissioners three-inch thick binders of the county’s 2012 spending plan. Leaders in the county’s current expense operating fund departments predict revenues of $12,109,117, which is $1,549,495 shy of the $13,658,612 they expect to spend next year. Overall, the county’s 2012 budget is expected to total $44,628,157. Petrovich cautioned, though, that these are the ope...
A short-term solution for the St. John/Endicott school cooperative may turn out to be a case study for small school administration throughout the state. Gary Wargo began work as superintendent of St. John/Endicott schools Monday, adding to his duty as superintendent at LaCrosse. “It’s been a big learning curve, trying to understand the St. John and Endicott systems and working with a new principal,” said Wargo. “But I’ve had a couple of months to get up to speed on that. Now it’s just a matter of getting to know all the kids and the staff....
High school athletics are gearing up for fall, with volleyball and football players hitting practice sessions to get ready for a new season. For student athletes at LaCrosse and Garfield/Palouse high schools, the preseason regimen includes weight lifting, wind sprints and brain tests. Those schools are among 4,000 in the nation that require students undergo Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, or the ImPACT test. “There’s no test that can give you a verbal or physical answer to how a kid’s doing after he gets a concu...
Gazette Reporters Rising costs for receiving health insurance through Whitman County may drive away some of the county’s best employees, county officials told commissioners Monday morning. County commissioners are considering leaving the Washington Counties Insurance Fund. The county has offered employees insurance through the fund for several years, but saw rate increases of almost 25 percent this year after the funding pool which pays insurance claims folded and was absorbed by Premera. Some of the new options would increase the o...
Gazette Reporters Officials with the Port of Whitman County may apply for approximately $3 million in federal funding to rehabilitate state-owned railroads in Whitman County. Joe Poire, executive director for the port, said the grant would fund track improvements primarily along the P&L line in eastern Whitman County. Poire said the repairs would be aimed at stabilizing bridges and upgrading rails on the track between the mainline connection at Marshall and the planned unit train loading facility being built by local grain companies at McCoy...
Gazette Reporters Whitman County’s housing market slumped during the second quarter of 2011. The Washington Center for Real Estate Research released its quarterly report earlier this month, showing the number of home sales in Whitman County between April and June fell 5.6 percent from the same period 2010 and eight percent from the first three months of 2011. Only 340 homes sold in Whitman County during second quarter 2011. Glenn Crellin, director of the real estate center, said funding cuts at WSU likely slowed homebuying activity, as f...
Wal-Mart sales tax revenues, farm implement taxes, an extra influx of federal prisoners and a third of a million dollars from cash reserves are being used to put Whitman County’s 2011 operating budget in the black—sort of. “I’m not smiling,” said Greg Partch, chair of the county commission. “We’re still gonna have to burn our cash to balance it.” Unexpected revenue gains erased $213,437 from the anticipated $539,012 year-end deficit. Commissioners have committed to plug in $330,000 from the county’s cash reserves, but at present the tap c...
Whitman County is the third healthiest county in Washington state, Health Department Director Fran Martin told commissioners last month. Martin presented results from countyhealthrankings.org, a report put together by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “What it says is mainly that we do a good job,” said Martin. Counties are ranked based on the number of people who die before age 75, those reporting fair or poor health, the number of days citizens report poor mental health and the rate of low-birthweight inf...
Harry Johnson Plumbing and Excavating of Walla Walla was awarded a $412,655 contract in a crowded bidding market to rebuild Neel Bridge on Little Alkali Road near Dusty. Public Works Director Mark Storey said the firm expects to begin work within a month. Harry Johnson was the lowest of eight firms to bid on the project, with all but one submitting bids lower than the county’s estimated price tag. Storey said the number of bids, which came from as far away as eastern Oregon, is both a blessing and a curse. He said the competition brings in l...
