Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 472 - 496 of 936
A dispute between the local FOX television affiliate and the DIRECTV satellite provider may push hundreds of Whitman County residents out of their homes Sunday in search of a televised version of the Seahawks playoff game. The Seattle Seahawks will take on the vaunted Chicago Bears in the NFL playoffs. The game will be broadcast on FOX, as will the Superbowl and the World Series. KAYU, the Spokane FOX affiliate, went dark for DIRECTV customers at midnight Jan. 1, after parent company Northwest Broadcasting and DIRECTV failed to agree on a new...
As she marked her 102nd birthday, Thelma Stratton of Colfax gave a piece of advice to a male Gazette reporter. “Don’t get too close,” she said. “There’s a lot of men who have walked away with broken hearts.” Thelma marked her birthday Tuesday with a party at Whitman Health & Rehabilitation Center where she now resides. A giant purple-rose-frosted cake was set out in front of her, though staffers were kind enough to forego the 102 candles. Thelma proposed taking the cake back to her freezer to eat throughout the next year, but decided in the end...
State auditors said Monday Whitman County gave them a full statement of its annual financial condition for the first time in six years, but noted several instances in which county policy leaves openings for inaccuracies. State auditors Debbie Pennick and Joel Gilrein reported the results of their audit of the county’s 2009 financial statement to a room full of county officials Monday morning in the commissioners’ meeting room. Some county officials were heartened by the sheer fact the county’s report was audited without conditions for the f... Full story
Whitman County’s planning commission gave unanimous approval Jan. 5 to changes in county code that would give Planner Alan Thomson sole discretion to grant certain building permits. Under the changes, applicants looking to erect cell phone towers, build accessory farm buildings or change how their land is used would no longer have to seek permits from the county’s Board of Adjustment which is made up of residents appointed by the county commissioners. Instead, Thomson would be able to issue an administrative use permit. The changes to the cod...
Whitman County has received a $750,000 grant of federal funds for safety improvements on its road system. Public Works Director Mark Storey announced receipt of the funding Monday at the county commissioners’ session. About $370,000 will be used on major projects, while the remainder will fund replacement of guard rails and removal of trees along road sides. The safety projects will include a turn lane from the Pullman Airport Road onto O’Donnel Road east of the airport. Storey said the airport road is being used more heavily, and residents of...
In the next two weeks, nine town councils will be asked to give the Port of Whitman County non-exclusive franchise rights to extend fiber optic cables through their towns. Executive Director Joe Poire said the franchise agreements will allow the port to install fiber optic cable that will bring high-speed broadband internet services throughout the Palouse. Port Director Joe Poire holds up a section of fiber optic cable. Poire said bringing the fiber optic connection to Whitman County could potentially be as beneficial to commerce here as... Full story
Colfax Airport Road, a major bypass route for WSU coast traffic off Highway 26, will be completely rebuilt this summer by Whitman County’s road department. Public Works Director Mark Storey said the $3.3 million project will widen the road, create shoulders, eliminate some of its tight curves and will make better angles on the road’s slopes. He said increased traffic on the road has prompted the need for the improvements. More and more cars have driven the Airport Road route over the last several years, as WSU students and game day traffic fro...
Washington State is adding 29 hopper cars to its Grain Train system. The cars will be used on the Central Washington rail line, one-third of the state-owned Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad. The other two lines run through Whitman County. The Grain Train is a long-standing state program that provides cars for wheat shipments to markets in Seattle and Portland. Mike Rosswell of the state rail and marine office said the hopper cars were purchased used and refurbished by the state. Cost of the cars was $362,500. The 29 cars for the CW line... Full story
Jeff Devoe, project manager for Hawkins Companies’ proposed mall at the state line east of Pullman, paid a visit to Whitman County officials earlier this month, assuring the company is still very much interested in developing its site. “Basically it was a make-contact visit,” said Auditor Eunice Coker. “He had been working with Sharron Cunningham (former assistant finance director) on the bonds, and so he came by to figure out who he would be talking to now.” DeVoe met with Coker, Treasurer Robert Lothspeich, Public Works Director Mark Stor...
With the next legislative session set to open next week, 9th District Legislators Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, and Susan Fagan, R-Pullman, stopped by Whitman Hospital and Medical Center Dec. 22 to discuss the hospital’s needs from state government. Schmick, who will take a seat as the ranking Republican on the House Health Care Commitee when the legislature convenes, said drastic cuts are going to be made in state programs as legislators grapple with an ever-growing deficit. “There’s going to be less services coming from Olympia,” he said. “Period...
More than six years and $600,000 after it was purchased, Whitman County’s New World accounting software will be put to use in 2011. “I’m really impressed with what we’ve been learning in these work sessions with New World,” said Treasurer Robert Lothspeich. For the first time ever, the county will be able to track its financial transactions as they happen, according to Chris Nelson, director of the county’s information technology department. “Everybody’s realizing that it really is coming. And I think people are really enthused about it,” said... Full story
Whitman County’s Board of Adjustment Dec. 16 granted AT&T permission to locate a cell phone tower on Kamiak Butte and granted a permit to Palouse Grain Growers to expand their operations. AT&T is going to erect a 123-foot cell tower on private land in the same location that already holds a broadcast tower for public television station KWSU and a cell phone tower for Verizon. Company representatives were not sure when the tower would be erected. The board unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the tower. Future cell tower sitings w...
Without seeing copies of Whitman County’s 2011 budget proposal, department leaders will spend their Christmas break seeking ways to cut $330,000 from the collective total of their spending plans. County commissioners told a packed room of county officials during Monday’s budget hearing the county will open 2011 with a budget that will be about $330,000 in the red. The deficit was news to county leaders, who have not seen their departments’ budgets since handing them over to Auditor Eunice Coker in September. “I know what I need to run my offi... Full story
All systems are go on the Port of Whitman County’s $12 million fiber optic project after the agency signed a cooperative agreement with the project’s parent company last week. Port commissioners agreed to the deal with Northwest Open Access Network, or NOAnet, at their regular meeting last Thursday, Dec. 16. NOAnet was the main recipient of an $84 million federal stimulus grant in March to lay fiber optic cable across unserved areas of rural Washington. The port received a $10 million slice of that pie to link Clarkston, Pullman and Spo... Full story
Rosie the mouse scampers past the historic clock tower on Whitman Street on a crisp fall day. She pops on over to the Texaco station to meet a new friend before scurrying past a giant mail box back home beneath the town’s post office. Rosie’s adventures through Rosalia, her namesake, are chronicled in the debut children’s book of author Marcy Campbell, Rosie’s Scary Tale. Campbell said Rosie was born out of her effort to relate the story of Rosalia’s Battle Days in a form more palatable to children. “I figured it was a good way to teach them... Full story
The Colfax School Board Monday night decided to sign a resolution in support of a lawsuit against the state of Washington based on education funding. They would not, though, commit funds. The Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, a group of schools and education organizations, sued the state last year, claiming it was not living up to the constitutional mandate that public education funding be paramount among state spending. “That’s the whole point of the suit,” said Colfax Supt. Michael Morgan. “To make the state make educati... Full story
Seeking a warmer climate, Steve Lacy, mayor of Lamont, announced he will resign the position next month to move nearer to family members living in Albuquerque, N. M. “It’s been fun, but it’s time to for me to move on,” Lacy told the Gazette Monday. Lacy’s tenure was not without controversy, but he credited the cooperation of the town council and his neighbors for helping with several improvements. Lacy said he has family in New Mexico and expects to find more work as a computer consultant in Albuquerque’s booming defense industry. “Certainly...
Comments both in support and opposition of the draft environmental impact statement of First Wind’s proposed wind farm on Naff Ridge west of Oakesdale have been flowing into the office of County Planner Alan Thomson. The six-inch thick statement, released last month, was prepared by the CH2M Hill engineering firm. It includes information about the potential environmental and economic impacts the area might see from the installation of 55 wind turbines along the ridge. Naff Ridge runs west of Oakesdale north of Trestle Creek Road and angles nort...
Whitman County’s $55 million 2011 budget took a half-million drop into the red Tuesday after corrected figures worked by Commissioner Michael Largent revealed several miscalculations. Largent’s figures revealed a $629,146 gap between projected spending and revenues; a gap $557,233 wider than the $71,913 deficit in Auditor Eunice Coker’s preliminary budget. The deficit is in the county’s $12,297,066 current expense operating budget and accounts for more than 5.1 percent of the spending plan. “We’re going to have to come up with some magic ideas... Full story
Complete reconstruction of the Colfax Airport Road tops the $4.5 million list of road projects to be done by Whitman County’s Public Works Department next year. County commissioners last week finalized the 2011 construction plan put forth by Public Works Director Mark Storey. The county plans to completely re-pave and widen the Airport Road from the Almota Road junction south of Colfax to the Highway 26 junction at Mockonema. The project is expected to cost $3,380,000. Washington State’s County Road Administrative Board granted the county $2....
Drivers can no longer travel the county’s Mail Route Road, after commissioners Monday changed its name to Cayuse Lake Road. The new name was requested by Jeremy Smith, who owns the only residence along the 6.8-mile road that runs east-to-west south of Ewan. “We were thinking we need a little facelift in the area,” said Smith. “So why not change the road name to something a little more hip?” Smith’s family has lived in the area since his great-grandfather moved there in the late-1930s. He said they have a field named Cayuse Flat, and in that...
Whitman County finance officials had planned a summit Wednesday, Dec. 8, to try to reconcile investments logged in the county’s books with those recorded on bank statements. Earlier this year, Elias Siriani, a contracted accountant from the Anderson Peretti firm in Spokane, discovered county records showed $216,000 more in investments than could be confirmed on bank statements. County officials, wanting balanced books to input into the five-year-old, half-million dollar New World computer accounting software, plan to wipe the $216,000 off t...
A cool Snake River breeze blows chaff back onto the Almota rocks as Ron Dennison moves a spout pouring soft white wheat into a Portland-bound barge. Tuesday marked the last time a barge will leave the Port of Almota for the next four months while locks on the Snake and Columbia Rivers shut down for repairs at four dams. “We’ve still got plenty enough to do around here to keep us busy,” said Dennison, as he operated the barge loading spout at Almota Elevator’s port site. Due to replacement of entire lock gates at The Dalles and John Day dams on...
Whitman County commissioners conducted their first public hearing on the county’s 2011 budget Monday night with one notable absence - the budget. Commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch said they had not received a budget draft from Auditor Eunice Coker that could be used to finalize next year’s spending plan. “You cannot look into the future, or even begin to plan, if you don’t have a good set of numbers,” said O’Neill. “A lot of other counties know they’re deep in the hole and people have got to leave.” Whitman County is not to that poin...
With the future of Central Ferry Park uncertain, Port of Whitman Commissioners last Thursday discussed efforts to save it. The park, owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, now lacks an operator because Northwest Land Management opted out of its lease at the end of the recreation season. “I just wonder if we could start a conversation about redeveloping the park,” Port Commissioner Don Cox said at last week’s regular port meeting. Cox suggested a three-headed management team of the port running the park with help from the corps and the state...
