Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Judge John F. Strohmaier of Davenport ruled Monday that First Wind can be included as a defendant with Whitman County in the court challenge filed by Roger Whitten against the north-county wind turbine farm project. Whitten, whose Oakesdale home sits in a valley between hills on which First Wind has proposed to locate turbines, is appealing a conditional use permit approval from an independent hearings examiner that would give the Boston-based firm permission to proceed. Wenatchee attorney Andrew Kottkamp presided over a day’s worth of t...
Project to provide high-speed data link from Spokane to Clarkston. Crews were set to begin in Rosalia Wednesday laying the Port of Whitman County’s $12 million high speed fiber optic cable. Joe Poire, port executive director, said Monday the port is wrapping up its permit process but workers from contractor Henkels and McCoy of Coeur d’Alene were going to begin putting conduit through Rosalia. When finished, the 157-mile project will provide a broadband internet link between Spokane and Clarkston through rural Spokane and Whitman counties. Con...
Columbia State Bank takes over 8 of 20 branches Bank of Whitman was closed by state and federal regulators last Friday night. A team of 111 bank employees and Federal Deposit Insurance agents put in a weekend’s work, and eight of the Bank of Whitman’s 20 branches swung the doors open Monday morning as Columbia State Bank, a subsidiary of the Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System. “What is this place? Is this still a bank?” asked one customer walking into the Colfax branch Monday morning. Once formal notice was served at the Bank of Whitman...
After 32 years serving as pastor to the Lutheran community of southwest Whitman County, the Rev. Dennis Bay will have to find a new identity in his upcoming retirement. “Someone called the other day and asked for Dennis. I had to think for a second before I realized I was Dennis,” said Pastor Bay. “After so many years I’ve just been Pastor Bay. I may have to get used to Dennis again.” Since 1979, Pastor Bay has presided over funerals, weddings and Sunday services at the domed Selbu Lutheran Church on Mud Flat. He will give his last sermon to...
Youth Outdoors Unlimited crew sets up blind. A wooden box was set up and covered in camoflauge outside Colfax Saturday to prepare the first hunting blind for the Youth Outdoors Unlimited program. Youth Outdoors is a Moses Lake-based organzation formed to give youth with life threatening illnesses or physical disabilities the opportunity to hunt and fish. “Our goal is to just teach them that even though you have some challenges, you can still get out there and hunt and have a good time,” said Cindy Carpenter, founder of the organization. “Yo...
Three short Whitman County roads will be on commissioners’ chopping block in the next three weeks. The county’s public works department has been working for the past two years to rid the department of small roads that serve only one property owner. Public Works Director Mark Storey said doing so gets the properties back on the tax roll and reduces the county’s costs for maintenance like plowing and grading. On the block at a hearing later this month will be Emerson Road by Uniontown, T.W. Walters Road in Colfax and a piece of land by the Winon...
Grain bins can now be built as tall as possible in Whitman County, though many already are. County commissioners Monday approved changes to the county’s ag zone ordinance that removed a statutory 50-foot height restriction on grain bins. Commissioners and planning staff noted many elevators have already been built taller than that restriction. “We have lots of people that are out of compliance already,” said Commissioner Greg Partch, who asked rhetorically why the restriction had not been removed decades ago. Had the restriction not been in pl...
Only two new homes were permitted for construction in rural Whitman County during the spring of 2011, according to a report issued Monday by Dan Gladwill, county building official. One of those permits was for a stick-built home. The other was for a manufactured home. The 2011 permit rate represents a six-year low in Whitman County home building. Over the previous five years, an average of nine homes were built in rural Whitman County during the second quarter. “It looks like the recession has finally gotten to our doorstep,” Gladwill told com...
Washington State University students left local charities almost 43 tons of food and housewares when they left town for the summer. Judi Dunn-Gray, Whitman County’s recycling coordinator, reported Monday the “Move Out, Pitch In” campaign collected 40.12 tons of furniture, clothing and assorted sundries from students in off-campus housing. “Anything that doesn’t fit in the car usually gets left behind,” said Dunn-Gray. Local charities sponsored areas around campus and set up dumpster-style collection bins. Goods dropped off were taken back to lo...
Whitman County Commissioner Pat O’Neill briefed some two dozen constituents on the future of road funding, sexual harassment allegations and the county’s finances in a unique meeting at Pullman Tuesday night. O’Neill invited residents to the meeting at the South Fork Public House in Pullman’s Wheatland Shopping Center to tell them his views on county government. “I’m not campaigning, this is not political,” he said. “I wanted to get more information out to the people I serve.” He said the meeting, which included appetizers for attendees, wa...
Whitman County commissioners Monday granted the rural library district $5,800 to further its project to post historical documents and pictures from the area on the internet. Library Director Kristie Kirkpatrick said the library did not this year receive the federal grant that had been funding its Rural Heritage Project for the past several years. “We’ve got notebook after notebook of people that want to participate,” said Kirkpatrick. “Our program has been so poular, we just hated to see it stop.” The grant has paid to send a library staffer fr...
A live Palouse Earthworm stretches across the hands of a University of Idaho researcher in this file photo from the UI. The Giant Palouse Earthworm will continue to live without protection. The United States Fish and Wildlife service Monday denied a second petition to list the worm as an endangered species. Robyn Thorson, fish and wildlife’s Pacific Region director, said in a statement Monday that the agency needed more information before it could act on the request. Citing confirmed sightings of the worm near Leavenworth, the federal agency s...
Mill Street residents wrote to the Whitman County commissioners this week, asking them to quiet the neighborhood around the jail. Ann Marra and Tim Ely said the rattle and hum from the jail’s air conditioning unit is putting out a “constant roar” that has made living in the neighborhood “intolerable” and e-mailed commissioners to fix the problem. Marra and Ely said Bob Reynolds, county facilities manager, quieted the system last winter when a roar from the heater filled the north Mill Street air. Commissioner Pat O’Neill said Reynolds ha...
Work on the Port of Whitman County’s $12 million 157-mile project to string high speed fiber optic cable through Whitman County was set to begin Wednesday morning. Crews with contractor Henkels and McCoy of Coeur d’Alene were to begin laying a conduit for the cable to run through a portion of rural Spokane County. Joe Poire, port executive director, said the approximately 3,000-feet of work will be done in advance of the rest of the project so it can be done in conjunction with a chip-seal of Smythe Road in south Spokane County. The pro...
Combines began cutting Whitman County wheat fields out west this week, bringing in a long-delayed crop that could make a lot of farmers very happy. “It looks promising. This could be a good crop,” Tom Cauley at Ritzville Warehouse’s LaCrosse plant said Tuesday. Cauley began unloading trucks from wheat fields south of LaCrosse in earnest Monday, about two weeks later than usual. Harvest has been delayed by this year’s record soggy spring. In the eastern part of Whitman County, Ben Barstow, president of the Washington Association of Wheat G...
Just months after taking over postal duties for Washtucna, the Hooper post office could also be closed. The United States Postal Service released Monday a list of post offices it is studying for closure. Both the Hooper and Malden post offices made the list. Hooper’s rural carrier has been delivering Washtucna mail to a cluster of postal boxes installed earlier this year. Washtucna’s post office was closed in April after officials determined mold levels in the building created an unhealthy work environment. Ernie Swanson, press agent for the...
Whitman County commissioners Monday unanimously eliminated a plan to increase the county’s rainy day fund this year by 1.5 percent. Created in 2009, the reserve fund, initially set aside 7.5 percent of the 2008 current expense budget, which amounted to $1,119,029. The restricted account was scheduled to ramp up by 1.5 percent each year until 2014. That would have put it at nine percent of the 2009 budget. Because of the county’s budget deficit, the increase has been delayed each of the last two years. The reserve was created to counter une...
Grain bins may soon be able to be built sky-high if Whitman County commissioners approve proposed changes to a county zoning ordinance. The county planning commission last month approved revisions to the laws governing building in the county’s ag zone that would remove a statutory 50-foot height restriction on grain bins. Current law prevents the construction of non-residential buildings more than 50 feet tall in the ag zone. Planner Alan Thomson said many bins currently stand higher than that. “We’re not going to be tearing down any buildings...
Steptoe area Randy Suess was named chairman of the board of directors of U.S. Wheat Associates at the organization’s board meeting Monday in Tulsa. The position will primarily require Suess to travel overseas to sell users wheat grown in the United States. Rising food prices have caused many global buyers to seek out suppliers with the lowest prices. While transportation costs often increase the cost of U.S. wheat, Suess said buyers prefer the stability of the American product. “Sometimes, there’s cheaper wheat in the world than what we’ve...
Renovation of the Endicott library could begin as soon as this fall, after the town received a $76,500 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development division. The grant brings the town’s fund for the remodel to $125,500, well over the anticipated cost of $118,000. “Isn’t that wonderful? I’m so excited,” said Librarian Caroline Morasch. Plans call for moisture control in the basement, installation of an air filtration system, new windows, insulation, sheet rock, carpet and doors and a restroom that are compliant w...
Whitman County retailers sold 19 percent more goods between January and March of this year than the same period of 2010. A report issued Friday by the state Department of Revenue showed Whitman County booked more than $111 million in sales during the first quarter of 2011. In the first quarter of 2010, Whitman County logged $93 million in retail sales. “You can attribute it to just quite a few things going on,” said Whitman County Treasurer Robert Lothspeich. “But there’s no question Wal-Mart’s had a lot to do with it.” Wal-Mart opened the...
The United States Postal Service posted in the lobby of the Steptoe post office Monday its plans to close the office and cancel the Steptoe zip code. After receiving questionnaires and polling residents at a forum last month, the postal service has decided to ask the Postal Regulatory Commission to allow it to close the Steptoe office and move services to Colfax, with Steptoe residents receiving mail with a Colfax zip code. Steptoe’s zip code is 99174. “Taking all available information into consideration, the Postal Service has determined tha...
Members of the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association, or SEWEDA decided to hire a new full time executive director for the agency after learning Columbia County will remain in the agency. Whitman County Commissioner Pat O’Neill reported the decision to the Gazette Tuesday after a meeting of the four-county agency’s board of directors at the Pataha Flour Mill near Pomeroy. “Everything is going to be like it always was,” said O’Neill. “We’re going to just keep moving forward working with them.” Jeanne Dickinson, Columbia County...
Whitman County leaders may have to lay off employees to meet this year’s spending target. The “crystal ball prediction,” as Commissioner Michael Largent tagged it, from the beginning of the year has the county’s government spending $570,000 more than it will collect in revenue. “I get a feeling it’s going to rise,” Commissioner Greg Partch said after a workshop session on the year’s first budget amendment Monday afternoon. Increases in the county’s contribution to employee retirement, health insurance and disability benefits could add as much a...
Between them, Curtis Scholz of Colfax and Dave Charles of Rosalia have climbed almost half-a-million feet into the sky to sneak a mountain’s view of the world. “There’s nothing like getting up at 10,000 feet,” said Scholz. “I could sit up there all day, just watching stuff.” “You get in a plane at 30,000 feet and you can see everything, but it’s all just little specs,” said Charles. “But being on top of a mountain gives you an entirely different view of the world.” As of Thursday, the two were packing up for a trek to California, where they wil...
