Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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An indication of whether Whitman County will receive loan funding from the state to build infrastructure at Hawkins Companies long-proposed stateline strip mall will come next Friday, Aug. 17. The state’s Public Works Trust Fund’s board of directors will rank projects for funding from a pool of hundreds of millions of dollars. Infrastructure at the 714,000-square-foot shopping center is one of those projects. County Administrat-or Gary Petrovich reported Monday that staff in the Public Works Trust Fund have advanced the county’s appli...
Students begin returning to Washington State University this weekend, and construction on Highway 195 from Colfax south toward Pullman can be expected to slow their migration back to campus. “I think we’re just going to be messed up for rush week and the early kids,” Sgt. Brad Hudson of the Washington State Patrol’s Colfax detachment. Crews from Central Washington Asphalt at Moses Lake have been on the job for the past two weeks for the project which included traffic delays as work advanced on more than eight miles of the project between Colfax...
Kinzer tops O’Neill Voters in District 1 ousted Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch by a wide margin in initial returns from Tuesday night’s primary. Though more ballots are set to be counted later this week, Partch placed a distant third behind Art Swannack of Lamont and Bill Tensfeld of Rosalia in the three-way preliminary round Tuesday. Swannack and Tensfeld will likely advance to the general election ballot in November. Swannack received 614 votes for 41 percent, Tensfeld 532 for 36 percent and Partch 325 for 22 percent. The number-thre... Full story
New owners took over the last two Bank of Whitman buildings in Whitman County last week after purchasing the Endicott and Rosalia branches from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Spokane-based Rosacott, LLC, purchased the former branch building in Endicott for $500 July 6 and bought the former Rosalia branch for $3,000 July 5, according to real estate affidavits on file in the county treasurer’s office. Tom Power of Spokane said he and partner Robin Rohwer submitted bids on the buildings under a sealed bid sale conducted by the FDIC l... Full story
$11,500 raised through community fundraising drive, raffle and German dinner Endicott officials have begun the process of remodeling the town’s library building. The town issued a call for bids this week for the job, which entails moisture control in the basement, installation of an air filtration system, new windows, insulation, sheet rock, carpet and doors and restrooms that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The library, once the town’s city hall and jail, is the busiest per hour library in the district, said Kri...
Almost 16 percent of votes have been cast in the primary election which ends next Tuesday, Aug. 7. Whitman County elections officials reported Tuesday afternoon that 3,027 ballots of 19,376 had been returned to the elections office in Colfax. The primary ballot includes 18 offices that voters across the county will decide who advances to the November general. Ballots must be turned in to the elections office or postmarked by next Tuesday in order to count in the final tally. More than 18 percent of voters in the three-way primary for County... Full story
Future of the city’s support of its Neill Public Library and city parks brought a standing-room-only crowd to the Pullman City Council chambers Tuesday night. “I can’t explain how much the library means to the community, to the students and to everyone around here,” said Claire Carden of Pullman. “Parks and recreation has a marvelous mission of helping us get out and active,” Bill Condon commented on the value of the lap pool at Reaney Park. “Dozens of us use those lap lanes every day.” The pool and the library are on the Pullman’s possi...
HLT Construction was the low bidder to pave over the runway apron at the Port of Whitman County’s airport outside of Colfax. HLT quoted a price of $531,935.50 on the project, to top bids from Western Construction of Spokane, $575,238.75, and Half Moon Construction of Spokane, $597,058. The project will create a layer of pavement in front of and between hangars up and down the airport. In addition, there will be nine new, paved public tie-down areas instead of the three current tie-downs that are on gravel lots. Debbie Snell, port properties a...
Signs denoting the newly-renamed Senator Eugene Prince Road were unveiled in a ceremony in the Whitman County commissioners’ meeting room Tuesday morning. Friends, family and dignitaries attended the ceremony for the late legislator, a native of the Sunset area, who was remembered for his bipartisan leadership style and his commitment to transportation. “I just wish he was here,” Patsy Prince, Sen. Prince’s widow, said before pulling a black cloak off the six-foot sign. Sen. Prince died in October, 2007, at the age of 77. The road, previou... Full story
A spring salad with broccoli and green and red grapes made by Larry Ellis of the Courtyard and Hog Heaven Potatoes made by Hill-Ray’s Betty Edinger tied as the best dishes at the first ever Top Chef cook-off Sunday at Hill-Ray Plaza. Nine local chefs cooked up their best dishes for some 80 diners who feasted on and judged their work at the contest, a feature of the Pullman Art Walk and the area Art Drive, put on by the Pullman and Colfax Chambers of Commerce. The nutritional content of the two winners could not be further apart. Ellis’ lig...
The farm operation of Leonard and Stacy Aune rolled its combines into the wheat field Tuesday afternoon and took a first cutting at Riparia to kick off Whitman County’s harvest. Wheat proved too green to continue, though, and plans were to get the full cutting underway Wednesday, according to Stacy Aune. “Get it cut and get it in the bin,” she said. Stacy said a good price and a good-looking crop have mode those regular evening lightning strikes of late even more scary. “That lightning,” she said. “I look at it and just hope it finds somet...
Campaign donors have chosen their sides over the Hawkins stateline development controversy in the coming primary election for Whitman County commissioners from District 1. The county’s deal to fund $15 million worth of infrastructure at the company’s long-proposed stateline shopping center and the lawsuit that followed by the citizen Organization to Void Illegal Conduct, or OVIC, is the top issue of this year’s primary election, as witnessed by this week’s debates. Now both sides, Hawkins and OVIC, are putting their money behind their chosen ca...
Skywatchers have been treated to a dazzling though unusual display of evening fireworks every night for more than the past week. “How many times here in the northwest have we seen this many consecutive days of lightning?” asked Dan Harwood, a resident of north Whitman County and coordinator of the Palouse-Rock Lake Conservation District. Along with the lightning have come freak bursts of severe weather. Tuesday night saw a torrential downpour in the northern part of the county. Harwood said he had just crested Malden Hill on his way to Spokane...
Estimated costs went up this week for Whitman County’s financial obligation to help Boise-based Hawkins Companies build a 714,000-square-foot shopping center in the Pullman-Moscow Corridor. County Prosecutor Denis Tracy advised the county commissioners in a memo last week the county will have to pay upwards of $100,000 to form a utility district to run a new water and sewer system at the stateline shopping center. “While the board has never asked what it would cost to form such a water district, I am informing you anyway,” wrote Tracy. The pros... Full story
Whitman County is reconsidering the roster of its citizen planning commission. Because of difficulty in attracting volunteer members, commissioners are considering reducing the nine-member board to seven members. The volunteer commission sets land use policy for the county. In recent years, the planning commission has dealt with a number of controversial issues, including zoning laws for wind farms, housing in the agricultural zone and development rules for the Pullman-Moscow Corridor. The planning commission currently has three vacancies.... Full story
A blast of wind Monday morning left a trail of destruction in the Clear Creek Road area east of Colfax. Witnesses said the high-powered blast sounded like a low-flying jet plane when it traveled north to south at about 7:20 a.m. Approximately 20 feet of a barn at the Todd and Roxanna Scholz farm on the S. Palouse River Road was destroyed. The wind blast distributed debris from the barn along an airplane landing strip. The blast also took out eight trees, power lines and corrals when it hit. Roxanna Scholz said their horses, which normally...
The Martin Hall juvenile detention center may be in its last three months. Nine counties voted June 28 to keep the cooperative juvenile detention center open until the end of September while they determine if they will keep the Medical Lake facility operating, according to Commissioner Pat O’Neill. “We’ll decide if we’re going to close Martin Hall or not,” said O’Neill, who represents Whitman County on the detention center’s joint board of directors. Martin Hall houses about 19 juvenile offenders a day. To recover operating costs, the fa... Full story
Whitman County has begun the difficult process of finding how to pay for its operations next year. County commissioners put out the official call for department budgets for its roughly $14 million current expense fund last Monday, June 26. Expectations are spending proposals will outpace revenues by more than $1 million. This year’s spending plan was ahead of baseline revenues, but the budget was balanced by eliminating some capital expenses, like replacing heating and air-conditioning systems and upgrading information technology from the c...
Empire Disposal trucks hauled their last load of Whitman County trash to the Waste Management landfill in Arlington, Ore., Friday as the county’s new waste disposal contract kicked in July 1. County commissioners in March signed a contract with Regional Disposal Company to dispose of the county’s garbage. The new contract drops cost to the county from $68 a ton under the current contract to $53 a ton. With an average day loadout of more than four 23.5 tons trucks, Whitman County expects to save more than $400,000 under the new contract. Was...
Washington wheat growers are expected to harvest less wheat this year according to new estimates from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Based on a survey last month, the agency believes winter wheat will be down three percent from last year’s crop, while spring wheat acreage will be down nearly 25 percent. Dave Losh with the ag statistics service reported this year’s smaller wheat crop was due to a combination of crop rotations and fears over the stripe rust outbreak of the past two years. “I think a lot of guys got scared by the ba... Full story
The first of 58 towers for First Wind’s $170 million Palouse Wind power farm is slated to be erected Friday, as tower parts come in from Colorado. Ben Fairbanks, western region business development manager for First Wind, said three turbines were sitting in Pasco at press time waiting for superload permits from the state Department of Transportation to make the trip to the Naff Ridge wind farm. Workers on site said they anticipate putting one tower up shortly after it is received Friday. From Pasco, the components of the Vestas V100 turbines w... Full story
The $3.5 million project to rebuild Colfax Airport Road will indeed begin this year, Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey reported Monday. After a lengthy effort to acquire the right-of-way for the project, the county finally secured all its necessary property last week, Storey said. The project will widen the road, add shoulders, open up some of the road’s tight curves and better angle its slopes. Colfax Airport Road, a major bypass thoroughfare for WSU traffic off Highway 26, was originally slated to be rebuilt last year, but a... Full story
State highway crews jumped a gun on the dedication of the renamed Senator Eugene Prince Road by posting new signs Monday, a month ahead of a planned dedication. “They got the sign up?” asked a surprised Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch upon hearing the news. “We had a big unveiling in the works, but I guess it’s a little anticlimactic now.” The road was named after the late Sen. Prince by county commissioners last November. Partch led the effort to change the name of the road, which runs west toward Prince’s home near Sunset from Highwa... Full story
The schedules of a number of attorneys stand in front of a decision on the amended development contract between Whitman County and Boise-based Hawkins Companies. County commissioners had slated Monday afternoon to decide on the company’s proposed amendment to the $15 million development deal signed in January. As has happened with similar scheduled meetings over the past month, it was called off because attorneys are still reviewing the deal. Milton Rowland of the Spokane firm of Foster Pepper was contracted to represent the county in a l...
The Port of Whitman County again was denied federal funding to upgrade bridges on the state-owned railroad which runs down the east side of Whitman County. The port had asked the feds for $8.5 million to repair 25 bridges on 29 miles of the P&L rail line, part of the 300-mile state-owned Palouse River and Coulee City Rail system. The port is part of the four-county PCC Rail Authority which oversees the line. The repairs were intended to fix up the track to support larger trains at the $17 million McCoy unit train loader, now under construction... Full story
