Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 492
Roy Lord and Charles Klaudt told Whitman County commissioners Monday morning that they objected to the proposed update to provisions for the county’s Veterans Relief Fund practice. The fund’s revised policy includes a cap of $2,500 per veteran paid once a year. The county’s Veteran’s Advisory Board has approved the policy and forwarded it to the commissioners for their approval. “This will impact 100 percent of the veterans who have been serviced by cutting back to once a year,” Lord told commissioners. Lord, adjutant for the Codd-French...
David Benscoter continues hunting for extinct apples in Whitman County. Benscoter, who lives in Chattaroy, spoke to a crowd which packed the McCoy Museum in Oakesdale Saturday. “I’m finding potentially lost apples of Whitman County,” he told the audience. He made the presentation courtesy of the Friends of the Oakesdale Historical Society. He began his presentation by describing how apples, which originated in the Middle East, migrated from the East Coast to Whitman County. He said Penaw...
“I draw cartoons to piss people off. That’s what I do. That’s my job description.” These were editorial cartoonist Milt Priggee’s opening remarks last Thursday, Sept. 18, when he appeared at the United Methodist Church in Colfax. Priggee’s presentation was sponsored by the Whitman County Library and Colfax Rotary Club. Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau partnered with the library and Rotary Club to bring Priggee to Colfax. He also appeared at the Neill Library in Pullman that night. Prig...
A former pastor from Deer Park is thanking Colfax first responders for the kindnesses he experienced after a car accident. Pastor Stewart Mackey and his wife, Kathy, were traveling on a snow covered Highway 195 near the Rosalia rest stop Dec. 12, 2013, when an oncoming car hit black ice and slammed into them. Mackey will be at Main Street Books Saturday, Oct. 4, from 1 to 4 p.m. signing books. For every book sold, he will donate $10 toward the Colfax Volunteer Firefighters. “I regained consciousness after the air bags deflated,” he said. Mac...
Port of Whitman County commissioners Sept. 18 approved a capital improvement plan for the port’s Business Air Center at Colfax. The $2.3 million project slated for 2015 includes runway construction, lighting and taxiway rehabilitation among other improvements. Debbie Snell, port properties and development manager, said the FAA will pay 90 percent of the cost of the project, state DOT five percent and the port will pay the remaining five percent. Teri Hielsburg, port accountant, told commissioners that state auditors submitted the audit r...
The Cold Storage building in St. John may finally be seeing its last days. St. John city officials are advertising for someone to tear down the building which has become a liability, according to town Clerk Linda Hayes. She said not only is the building full of asbestos, the roof is close to caving in. Paul Sands of Spokane donated the building to the city of St. John in April of 2013. Sands acquired the building from Bob Thompson, the last operator of market. “We were hoping to sell it, and there was a guy who was interested in buying it, b...
Customers filled the small cafe to the brim when the newly established Route 26 Cafe in LaCrosse opened Sept. 10. Barb Curtiss, proprietor, said only two seats were empty during lunch time on opening day. Curtiss said people seemed happy to have the cafe open again. Owned by LaCrosse Community Pride, the cafe closed in late May after Joe and Dionne Evans operated it as the Grillbilly Cafe for a year. Curtiss signed a lease with the Pride group in July. Curtiss and husband, Keith, are newcomers...
A piece of Whitman County history was sold Tuesday afternoon. The Manning-Rye Bridge was part of farm property that was sold at auction in the Community Building at the Palouse Empire fairground. C.D. “Butch” Booker of Kincaid Real Estate in Colfax auctioned the property which has about 194 acres that included pastureland and timber, CRP and farmland, and also included a house. Daryl and Karen Lowe owned the property for 22 years. They purchased the property from Ruth Lowe, Daryl’s aunt. The b...
With the help of LaCrosse Community Pride and some Washington State University students, the old stone houses in LaCrosse could see new life. At a Sept. 9 LaCrosse Community Pride meeting, member Peggy Bryan reported the H.D. Owings family of Lapwai, Idaho, recently donated the buildings to the organization. Bryan said there are two rock houses on one side of Main Street with three bunk houses and a service station stone building across the street from them. The houses and buildings are made of...
Whitman Hospital and Medical Center has applied for a $500,000 USDA grant to upgrade its MRI services at the hospital. Interim Hospital Director Gary Peck said they expect to get word about the grant application in about six weeks. Almost half of the grant proceeds would be used for 3D imaging equipment for breast evaluation, Peck said. The rest would be used for development of a space in the hospital for installation of the MRI equipment. The present MRI unit is a former mobile unit located along the north side of the hospital. Entry to the...
Whitman County commissioners on Sept. 2 approved starting negotiations with the Government Finance Officers Association of Chicago for a contract to review the county’s financial management procedures. County commissioners opted to proceed with GFOA after getting two responses to a call for professional services to review the county’s procedures. The commissioners issued the call after receiving an initial proposal from GFOA in June to conduct the review. Commissioners have considered hiring a professional assessment because state auditors rep...
Fair attendance to top 25,000 for 4-day run Record sales and increased attendance plus favorable weather added up to “Endless Summer Nights” at the Palouse Empire Fair. Although the weather was cool on Wednesday, Sept. 3, by Thursday, skies had cleared and temperatures warmed. “We’ll bust 25,000 (attendance) by all financial indications,” Palouse Empire Fair Manager Bob Reynolds said Tuesday morning. Reynolds said Saturday’s attendance was the “largest crowd we’ve had in the last seven year...
Whitcom, the area dispatch center in Pullman, is in the midst of training new dispatchers because almost half of the dispatchers departed earlier this summer. County Commissioner Dean Kinzer, who represents the county on the Whitcom board, said seven dispatchers turned in two-week notices on the first of June. He said the dispatchers all said they were quitting because spouses were leaving the area. Whitcom ideally has 20 to 21 dispatchers on call. Kinzer said it takes five to six months to train dispatchers. Five dispatchers are in training...
In 1991 when the Codger Pole was built in Colfax, Paul Cocking had a carving of his own created for his residence on S. Main in Colfax. The Codger Pole was made to commemorate the Codger Bowl football game in 1988. The game was a rematch of the 1938 football game between Colfax and St. John. Cocking said he was involved in getting the Codger Pole and he traded some scaffolding and other materials for the pole to the wood carver and the carver made the car. Cocking’s carving is a half-scale repli...
Monica Haugen will begin her senior year at Pullman High School with a whole new attitude. Haugen was chosen for the FFA to Haiti program and traveled to the Caribbean country July 20-30. She is the Pullman FFA president, District VI FFA treasurer and the Albion 4H president. Haugen said an FFA chapter in Iowa started this trip three years ago and then opened it up to any FFA member in the U.S. She said she had no expectations of the trip, but knew she would be going into an area hardest hit by...
Whitman County commissioners approved the Capital Improvements Committee Project Ranking Monday morning. According to commission Chairman Art Swannack, this is a list submitted by Whitman County departments and the county is required to have a ranked list each year. Projects are dependent on funding, but if the county can build up enough reserves or other sources become available, over time the projects could be accomplished, Swannack said. Total amount for the projects listed is $3,801,444. The list in order of the ranking includes...
After the cafe in LaCrosse closed in May, the new operator, Barb Curtiss, in July signed a lease with LaCrosse Community Pride, the organization which owns the building. Although Curtiss originally planned to open by the first of September, she hit a couple of snags along the way. She now plans to open next Wednesday, Sept. 10. The new business is known as Route 26 Cafe, Curtiss said. Curtiss and her husband, Keith, moved to LaCrosse in 2005. They are building a house near Hay. Curtiss, who is o...
Whitman County commissioners Monday were informed of the state Liquor Control Board approval of the county’s first licensed marijuana producer. The marijuana producer approved is RL Farms on Highway 26 near Colfax. The license is submitted to Garrett Lunders of Asotin for marijuana production. When Lunders’ application was submitted to commissioners, they chose to take no action as they have with all 12 applications that have come across their desks. The license allows a maximum of 2,100 square feet of production of marijuana for wholesale to...
With most of the grain harvest complete and in grain bins, farmers are now moving on to garbanzos, according to local farming agents. Stephen Van Vleet, WSU Regional Extension Specialist, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resources, based in Colfax, said the spring wheat was surprisingly good in most areas of the county, getting average yields. He said that about 60 percent of the crops were lost in areas that went through hail storms. Winter wheat yields decreased 15 to 30 percent, mostly because of disease, Van Vleet said....
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers made the last stop on her “Conversations with Cathy” tour in Colfax Aug. 22. She started her Fifth District tour in Walla Walla Aug. 19, then stopped in Dayton and Clarkston on Aug. 20 and finally Colfax. She stopped at the Gazette office, where she sampled some rhubarb bread, and then spent about an hour in the Public Service Building auditorium. McMorris Rodgers said when Congress gets back in session members will have a lot of work to do. She said the app...
Port of Whitman County commissioners Aug. 21 saw and heard about problems at the Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in the port’s industrial park in Pullman. In a PowerPoint presentation, Jana Schultheis of SEL showed commissioners photos of the streets, focusing on the Terre View entrance to the industrial park. She pointed out cracks and weeds growing along the curbs and implied the port should be maintaining the streets and sidewalks. Also she showed photos of five sandwich boards advertising various businesses, along with weedy areas, a...
County Treasurer Bob Lothspeich Monday received approval from the county commissioners to purchase new computer software that will track investment funds made in his office. In July, Lothspeich informed the commissioners that the software which tracks investments is no longer working. The software is not compatible with the current accounting system. Lothspeich said when the mainframe died in January, the portfolio and statements for investments disappeared. He said there are 129 investments for a variety of local government entities the...
Whitman County on Monday received the 12th application for marijuana producing and processing. After the county commissioners looked it over, they again decided to take no action on the application. DP Farms at 13301 Pine City-Malden Road are the latest applicants. Patrick and Drew Gordon were listed as the partners of DP Farms. The application will now go back to the state Liquor Control Board for further processing. County commissioners have taken no action on any of the marijuana producing and processing applications which are relayed to the...
The Onecho Bible Church’s harvest bee attracted guests from all over the world this year. Besides the farmers and families who participated in the bee, 40 international students from Washington State University and a group of photojournalists led by Jack Lien attended the bee on Long Hollow Road about six miles south of the church. Lien’s tour group included photographers from Canada, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Darrel Claassen told the story of how the church received the donation of...
The Cougar creamery has done it again. Washington State University Creamery’s Apple Cup Crisp won a second national award, the 2014 Progressive Dairyman magazine’s Flavor Faceoff. The creamery’s entry topped ice cream entries from 12 other universities The WSU Creamery and Ferdinand’s Ice Cream will be featured in the Sept. 12 edition of Progressive Dairyman. Last year, the creamery’s Huckleberry Ripple topped a national contest, according to creamery assistant manager John Haugen. The creamery ran out of that flavor after the award was annou...
