Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 197
The Washington State University Interfraternity Council passed its first executive order of 2020 Jan. 26, which will restrict social events with alcohol following the death of WSU fraternity Alpha Tau Omega member, 19-year-old Samuel Martinez, Bellevue, Wash. Martinez died Nov. 12 from acute alcohol intoxication, otherwise known as alcohol poisoning. The executive order declares that there should be no social events with alcohol present between Sunday 8 a.m. to Thursday 5 p.m. The order states each group is required to hold its members...
Tough As Nails will conduct its first community workshop called “Share the Love” Saturday Feb. 8, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Rosalia Middle School gym to assemble 60 activity kits for hospital donation. “This event is not limited to Rosalia members and we hope to encourage people from other towns to attend the free event,” said Caryn Bothman, one of the founders of Tough As Nails. The activity kits will be donated to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital including the child psychiatric ward in Spokane. Kits that will be created on Feb. 8 are new to...
Homestead Ministries hosted its fourth soup bagging at the First Baptist Church in Colfax Thursday, Jan. 16, where they bagged 3,000 packages of soup for a Central Washington group. The soup packets will be distributed to churches and food banks. Coordinator Tom Riedner said the soup baggings began in 2014 when they became aware of people needing food. "We tried to give peas and lentils and stuff like that to the food bank and the thing is they would give them right back to us because people...
The Mobile Medical Unit will be making its rounds in Whitman County the last week of January and in the last week of March. On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the clinic will be at LaCrosse Library from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and the Endicott Library from 1 to 5 p.m. On Wednesday, Jan. 29, the clinic will be in Garfield from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Currently there are no scheduled visits for February, but the clinic will be making visits in Steptoe 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and Uniontown 2 to 6 p.m. on March 25. On March 26, the clinic will be in Colton from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m....
Whitman County commissioners Tuesday met with members of the Tekoa Parks and Recreation board to discuss a loan the county extended Tekoa parks and recreation that is due Dec. 1, 2020. The loan was originally granted in 2019 to help cover swim pool operating costs after a Tekoa levy was passed, but failed to meet the certification date. “We are in a situation where in 2018 we didn’t have a levy, so we put a levy on the docket for 2019 of February for $150,000 for operations and $50,000 for capital improvements,” said John Hall, vice-...
On Thursday, Jan. 16, the Port of Whitman Community Economic Revitalization Board grant application was approved Jan. 16 with a $750,000 loan and $250,000 grant for the Port of Wilma road improvements. Mark Storey, county public works director, told the county commissioners that he went to present the project to the CERB board with Debbie Snell, port properties and development manager, and one of the tenants at the Port of Wilma. “We did a presentation with questions and answers in front of the board,” Storey said. “It was a successful visit...
Port of Whitman County commissioners approved the re-commitment of matching funds for the Port of Clarkston Economic Development Administration grant. The approval was on a 3-0 vote. Last March, Jerry Klemm, commissioner for the Port of Lewiston, speaking on behalf of the Port of Clarkston, visited with the Port of Whitman commissioners and staff asking for a financial pledge to support an economic study to find and understand the economic benefits of the cruise boat industry to the region. Ports of Lewiston and Clarkston were preparing for...
Port commissioners received an update regarding the fiber-to-the-home project at their meeting Jan. 16. In August 2019, the port received $1 million from Whitman County’s .09 funds to design and construct a fiber-to-the-home network in five rural towns in Whitman County. The first town in this project is Rosalia. “Rosalia's design has been turned in to Avista, and we got feedback from them and the design is being revised,” said Kara Riebold, chief operating officer. Along with designs, Riebold mentioned that some connections will need to go on...
At Monday’s county commissioner workshop, Chris Nelson, county treasurer updated the commissioners on this past tax season. “I am happy to say as of Dec. 31 we, for the first time that I’ve seen in our records, we collected over 98 percent of taxes,” Nelson said. “This is a record.” At the beginning of December Nelson noted that the treasurer’s office sent out approximately 1,500 postcards whose accounts show as delinquent. “I had sent out some postcards at the beginning of December and we collected over $1 million just last month,” Nelson...
The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association recently released a study that states the removal of the Lower Snake River Dams will cost the country $2.3 billion over the next 30 years. PNWA contracted with FCS Group, an economic and financial consultant, to complete the study. The objective was to see what impacts would occur to transportation and infrastructure if dam breaching were to occur and closure of the four Lower Snake River locks. According to the summary of findings from this study, the Columbia/Snake River system is the largest wheat...
The Whitcom finance committee called a special meeting Monday to discuss the budget for this year. Whitcom is the regional emergency dispatch center. Dispatch services cover seven counties in Washington and Idaho. Lisa Strenge, Whitcom employee, said that she closed out the budget for 2019 and came out with approximately $200,000 in its reserves moving forward. “We fared a little bit better than we originally anticipated,” Strenge said. “After going through the budget there were several line items in there that we did not touch what we had b...
On Dec. 5, Bully for You held its first monthly sale in its future home on 220 N. Main St., former long-time location for furniture stores. Austin and Laura Storm, owners of Bully for You and The Storm Cellar in Moscow, debuted their new location after two months of renovating the floors in the warehouse, the former site of Hunter's Furniture. "The top layer was carpet that smelt pretty musty, and that's not something you want in a clothing or furniture context," Austin said. "Under the carpet,...
Whitman County Health Department released a notice informing parents that starting Aug. 1, 2020, it will be required to have medically verified immunization records for school and child care entry. Medically verified records may be a Certificate of Immunization Status (CIS) printed from the Immunization Information System, a physical copy of the CIS with a healthcare provider signature, a physical copy of the CIS with accompanying medical immunization records from a healthcare provider verified and signed by school staff or a CIS printed from...
At the first port meeting of the new year, Kara Riebold, chief operating officer, updated the port commissioners on the status of the new Broadband LLC cooperative. Riebold reported that as of Dec. 19, Port of Bellingham signed on to join the LLC. With Bellingham signing, all six ports including ports of Kalama, Pasco, Ridgefield, Skagit and Whitman County have agreed to the Broadband LLC cooperative. The next step in the LLC is for the Port of Skagit to take the lead on filing the formation documents with the Secretary of State. The now...
At the Monday commissioners' workshop County Information Technology Director Lance Bishop updated the county commissioners on the status of the new county website. “The timeline we are looking at for the new website is April,” Bishop said. “We have started the process of the new website, but it is a good three to five months for the site to go live.” It was previously estimated that the website would be completed in February if the development began in November when the resolution was passed for the purchase of the new website and its service...
Bully for You has started the process of moving from its current location at 103 S Main St. to 220 N Main St., former long-time location for furniture stores. The new site is marked with a FAIR glass mosaic which dates back to the days when the building was used as a department store. "We will completely move Bully for You from its current location to this bigger location, and in the process we'll expand our product offerings," said Austin Storm, owner of Bully for You. While in the process of...
At their Dec. 19 port meeting, Port of Whitman commissioners delayed their vote on a resolution which enables the port’s executive director to sell port property at a value less than $10,000 in 2020, to the Jan. 2 meeting. This authority to sell Port district property must be renewed annually. The commissioners reviewed the draft of this resolution at their Dec. 5 meeting. The motion was brought on the table at the beginning of the meeting by Commissioner Kristine Meyer, but after further discussion, it was removed. The reasoning behind the r...
The Palouse Conservation District’s annual meeting will be Thursday, Jan. 30, in the Gladish Community Center’s View Room in Pullman. This meeting will give a recap of what the conservation district has been doing in 2019 and will also gather feedback on how to improve its services for the new year. There are currently four conservation districts within Whitman county. The Palouse Conservation District covers the southeastern part of the county, dipping down to Uniontown and up to Garfield. The other three conservation districts are Pine Cre...
The tree needles have fallen, the smell of Christmas fades and live Christmas trees begin to become bare as the Christmas season comes to a close. When it comes time for the tree to go there are a few options for disposal in the county. Pick-up: Empire Disposal will pick-up Christmas trees at an additional fee for existing customers. “The fee is the same as a regular extra charge of $4.79,” said Jamie Bretveld, Empire Disposal office manager. Bretvald said the trees out for pick-up can't be taller than six feet. If taller, the tree will nee...
Pullman Planning Commission conducted the continuation hearing for the potential rezone of Port of Whitman property south of the Pullman-Albion Road and west of Highway 27 on Wednesday, Dec. 18. At the previous hearing on Nov. 20, the planning commission couldn’t reach a decision on the rezoning. The previous recommendation for the rezone by Pete Dickinson, Pullman planning director, was not in favor of the change. After the Nov. 20 meeting the planning commission asked Dickinson to draft a new recommendation. Dickinson said that under the p...
At Thursday's port meeting, Properties and Development Manager Debbie Snell, updated the port commissioners on a joint water project between the port and the City of Colfax. The water project between the city and the port is to add a port well at Port of Whitman Business Air Center to the City of Colfax water service area. The port well currently operates under a 5,000 gallon per day limit. Snell said there was a meeting at the beginning of the month among the Department of Ecology, Department of Health and port and city staff to see if there...
A pre-bid meeting session was hosted at the Port of Whitman office Dec. 5 regarding the Port of Whitman County Business Air Center realignment and drainage project at Colfax At the Dec. 19 port meeting, Debbie Snell, Port of Whitman properties and development manager, updated the port staff and commissioners on the project. “We received four bids, which is a lot better than the one bid we received last time,” Snell said. “It's encouraging.” The four bids were submitted by Motley-Motley Inc., M. L. Albright & Sons Inc., Germer Constru...
At Monday’s commissioner workshop, Commissioner Dean Kinzer, who also serves on the Whitcom executive board, reported on the discussions from Friday’s Whitcom finance meeting. Whitcom is the regional emergency dispatch center. Dispatch services cover seven counties in Washington and Idaho. Kinzer explained at the Friday meeting it was suggested to bring in an outside company to do strategic planning for Whitcom. He noted that this most likely would be brought before the full Whitcom Board at its Wednesday meeting. “They are proposing to bring i...
Whitman County Commissioners Monday discussed the possibility of opening the historic preservation fund at their morning workshop. Commissioner Michael Largent reported he has been asked about interest in using the historic preservation fund for a project in Pullman. “The historic preservation fund works the same way as .09 money, you open it up to all the organizations, not just the one,” said Maribeth Becker, clerk of the board. “They will be competing with others.” Currently, the county historic preservation fund totals $60,000. These f...
Forty-four years ago Artis Brannon was hired by Bill Munson to work at the Colfax Grange in the grocery department. Over the years, Brannon has watched the Colfax Grange store turn into the auto center for Four Star Supply Inc., transitioned from grocery to hardware, moved over to the current building for Four Star Supply Inc. and go through seven managers. Brannon Dec. 31 will be closing out her last day at Four Star Supply Inc. where she is now the farm store manager. "It was a hard decision...
