Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 97
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Jan. 16 announced effective on that date through March 31, the daily limit of hatchery steelhead caught on the Snake River has been reduced from three to one. Hatchery steelhead are identified by their clipped adipose fins on the lower back. Steelhead with those fins left unclipped are to be released immediately. The catch limit reduction is due to concerns for the run returns being lower than expected and how they impact the wild fish. “We’re mak...
Of the $28.4 million the state received from Volkswagen for violating the state’s Clean Air Act, $12 million of it was allocated to be used to help pay for clean emission school buses throughout the state by replacing old school buses. Joe Thornton, the Director of Operations for the Pullman School District, learned about the grant for new school buses through the Office of Superintendents for Public Instruction which sent out a bulletin to all the school districts. Pullman received a grant t...
At the Whitman County planning commission's hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, it was decided that the request for rezoning for a marijuana operation would be sent on to the county commissioners. Selway Holdings, LLC applied to have their three-acre site on Country Club Road southwest of Pullman rezoned from an agricultural zone to a light industrial zone. The change is to accommodate a site for growing and processing marijuana. Since growing marijuana is prohibited in light industrial zones,...
Head track coach and Spanish teacher at St. John-Endicott High School, Paul Johnson, is working to expand the school's track program. “Athletes here are only missing the pole vault, but they have no track, only a grass field on which to practice,” said Johnson. The official go-ahead to add pole vaulting this spring came, and Johnson was able to order the equipment needed; pole vault landing pits, standards to hold the crossbar, poles for the student athletes and a pole vault planting box, whi...
Debbie Snell, properties and development manager for the Port of Whitman County, reported on the Boyer Park and Marina project at the port meeting Thursday, Jan. 10. “The design drawings are going to be submitted to the permitting sub-consultant by Friday, and then the sub-consultants will be discussing things with the U.S. Army Corps,” said Snell, “Things are moving forward in terms of getting the drawings to the permitting.” The port has received a $275,000 grant to design and receive a permi...
Rosalia is one of three local school districts that have received a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology to help pay for new buses. The buses must include an idle reduction system to lower emissions. Funding for the grant came from the $28.4 million settlement of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal. Rosalia received $35,000 to replace one bus 2001 or older for a new, more efficient bus. Other local school districts to receive related grants are Garfield and Pullman....
Eric's Auto Body in Colfax has become the first "solar" collision repair center in the area. Another one of the few shops is located in southern Idaho. "We capitalize on the sun," said proprietor Eric Heise, "We are producing our own power!" The solar panels and a 24 kilowatt system were installed starting in late October and started producing power in December. Forty solar panels, each capable of generating up to 300 watts of direct current (DC), have been installed on each of the two shop buil...
Port of Whitman Executive Director Joe Poiré attended a Washington Public Ports Association session on telecommunications in Tacoma Jan. 9. In a report to the port here last Thursday, Poiré noted good participation both by large ports like Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellingham, and Vancouver as well as the smaller east side ports such as Whitman and Tri-Cities. “It was a really dynamic group of people in that room,” Poiré commented. Port of Whitman County is among the few ports already doing...
Beverly and Guy Spencer, mother and son who are owners of the Runner Bean Ranch outside Palouse, are building a large 'cool-bot', a cold storage unit to store food for local pantries. The Spencers already provide fresh produce for most of the food pantries in Whitman County. Their vision for 2019 is to build a large storage space to keep produce for the local food pantries fresher, longer and to be able to have even more produce delivered to the pantries. "The cool-bot will help us keep produce...
Chris Nelson, new Whitman County treasurer, presented a contract with Spectrum as a holdover from her former position as IT director, saying she was “going to slightly re-wear the hat of my prior existence.” The Whitman County Public Health Department’s Pullman office off Bishop Boulevard has spent the last several years using a wireless internet connection. During the summers, foliage on the trees around the building disrupts the wireless connection. Nelson called the connection “Flaky at best...
COAST Transportation drivers in 2018 logged an 11 percent increase in miles compared to 2017. They totaled 550,000 miles compared to 469,555 miles driven in 2017. "It's been a crazy busy year, but that just shows what a huge need we have in this area," said Paige Collins, executive director of the Council on Aging and Human Services. COAST drivers marked the increase despite having an 11 percent decrease in funds. They also had a 14 percent increase in the number of individuals served. The 2017...
Christmas and New Years are over, and now neighbors are taking down their Christmas decorations. But in every neighborhood there is always someone who doesn’t participate. Maybe they were late getting their decorations up if they put them up at all. Maybe they don’t feel they have the time or energy to go through the work of taking down the decorations each year and so they leave them up all year. Maybe they don’t understand what all the hoopla is to get the decorations down in a hurry. Some...
Commissioner Art Swannack Monday commented in a workshop session that he believes Pullman's mayor and city council did not fully understand all the requirements and facts involved in their decision to not allow district court sessions in its new city hall. Swannack reported on a luncheon meeting he had with Mayor Glenn Johnson last Thursday. Pullman's current plan for its new city hall is to not include use of the city council chamber as a district court room. “I just think this is something t...
Whitman County has been the nation’s top producer of wheat since 1978. Washington state is the fourth largest producer of wheat, following North Dakota, Kansas and Montana. According to the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS), in 2018, Whitman County produced an average of 93.3 bushels per acre of winter wheat and 56.9 bushels per acre of spring wheat. Combined, almost 42 million bushels of wheat were harvested in the county. In 2017, Whitman County averaged 85 bushels per acre of w...
Port of Whitman County commissioners received an update at their Dec. 20 meeting following a request for services which were issued in November for the fiber to the home projects. The port has received grants and loans from the Washington State Department of Commerce for $1 million to be combined with a $2 million match from the port to extend fiber to houses in Garfield, Oakesdale, Palouse, Rosalia and Tekoa. The port also issued requests for proposals for a design contractor for the project....
A policy change occurred at the commissioners meeting Monday, Dec. 31, due in part to the new County Treasurer, Christina Nelson. Earlier in December Nelson, who has been the IT director for the county, requested the commissioners to donate some of her remaining sick leave hours to the sick leave bank for general use. “I didn’t want to see those hours [accrued] moved off the books,” said Nelson, especially when others might have a need for those hours. Elected positions do not accrue vacat...
Port of Whitman County has new fiber mapping software, VETRO FiberMap, which was demonstrated at the Dec. 20 port meeting by Kara Riebold, the chief operating officer at the port. A viewer version of the program is available to companies that Riebold shares the viewer password with. VETRO will help Riebold keep track of the fiber systems as the port continues to get orders and the fiber networks grow and are built. Before VETRO, Riebold used Excel spreadsheets. If any splicing was done, she had...
Nathan Weller, co-coordinator and Pullman City Council member, has announced that the Pullman Warming Center will have a Volunteer Orientation Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. before the warming center’s reopening in the basement of the new Pullman City Hall building, the former Encounter Ministries, at 190 SE Crestview. The shelter will open from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. on nights with temperatures below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The warming shelter is a temporary emergency shelter for homeless persons to have a safe...
Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad has received a $5.7 million Federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grant. Three of PCC rail’s branch lines will be improved to allow them to carry 286,000-pound rail cars. The project includes replacing, refurbishing or rebuilding 10 bridges, replacing about 4.6 miles of rail and rehabilitating nearly 16.3 miles of track structure. The funding award was announced at last Thursday’s Port of Whitman meeting by Port Commissioner Tom Kam...
Year after year, Endicott has a fantastic Christmas lights display at one house in particular. Camels are making their way down a hill to a nativity; carolers are singing outside a lit church; soldiers are saluting; Snoopy is flying and Santa is driving a golf cart. All are created by Dan Helt. Helt has lived in Endicott his entire life, except for his time serving in the U.S. Army in 1968. Even while he was teaching in Cheney, Helt came down to help his parents on the farm over the weekends...
Family Promise of the Palouse is looking for volunteers to help at the warming shelter in Pullman through January 31, 2019. The warming shelter this year is in the basement of the new Pullman City Hall building, the former Encounter Ministries at 190 SE Crestview. The warming shelter is a temporary emergency shelter, open from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. on nights when temperatures reach below 30 degrees. It will provide a place for homeless people to be safe and warm in extreme cold weather. The...
Jennings elementary students collected 2,150 lbs of food for their annual food drive this year. The food bank requested more top ramen, cup o' noodle soup and cereal. They collected close to 3,000 items. The food drive lasted a week. At the end of the drive, each student is allowed to participate in the can race which involves rolling cans down a ramp. The fastest cans in each grade compete in a final race on the last day of school before Christmas break. This year's race was Dec. 20. If the...
Pullman has no plans at this time to put a courtroom or district court offices in its new city hall building, leaving the county commissioners to debate whether to move all district court sessions to Colfax, or rent out space to continue to hold some district court sessions in Pullman. Whitman County District Court for several years has been conducted at different venues depending on the day of the week. Three days a week, court sessions are at the courthouse in Colfax, the other two days...
The grant of $42,000 from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office's Salmon Recovery Board will help add post and log structures to a section of Steptoe Creek to make the area more habitable to steelhead. Each of the 76 structures the Palouse Conservation District plans to put in the creek costs $570. The Pomeroy ranger district of the U.S. Forest Service is providing $7,000 of wood material for the project. The structures will help back up water to nourish shrubs and trees and...
Endicott has received a $150,000 grant/loan from the Department of Ecology to study the inflow and infiltration issues in town. The city knows there is a problem due to spikes in the treatment plant following heavy rains. Rain or ground water seeps into the sewer lines and makes treatment less effective. It also puts a strain on the system. Of the $150,000 from the Department of Ecology, Endicott only plans to use $69,000 on half grant, half loan format. To offset the loan the city plans to use...
