Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 72
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...
After 50 years as part of the Main Street business scene in Colfax, Scott Pittman of Colfax Body Repair will undergo a change of status. As of the first of the year, Pittman has turned over the business to his son, Bud Pittman, who has worked at the business for more than 10 years. "It happens Jan. 1. I'm out, and he's in," Scott Pittman said in an interview last week. He expects the transition will take about a month, and he plans to remain at the shop where he will undertake a series of...
David W. Long, 28, Moscow, has been summoned to appear in court here Jan. 10 after being charged with seven counts of second-degree burglary for allegedly taking items from Walmart in Pullman. The arrest report said Long committed the seven thefts from Walmart in Pullman over a three month span. The report alleges he sometimes took stolen items back to Walmart and exchanged them for gift cards. The alleged charges took place between Aug. 23 and Nov. 23. Value of the items taken was rated under $750. The report said Long had previously been...
The first of three public workshop dates on the governor's Lower Snake River Dam Stakeholder Engagement program has been scheduled for the Quality Inn at 700 Port Drive in Clarkston Jan. 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. Ninth District State Representatives Joe Schmick of Colfax and Mary Dye of Pomeroy urge residents in the district to attend. In the 2019 legislative session, at Gov. Jay Inslee's request, $750,000 was included in the state operations budget to study possible breaching of the four Snake River Dams. The 113-page report was released by the...
The six-weeks snow deluge of February and March led to county expenditures of $850,000, including a few dollars in January. The county averages a yearly expenditure of $300,000-$400,000 for snow and ice removal. "The big caution now is, we still have November and December in front of us," said Mark Storey, Public Works director, at the time. The January to March total did not include the cost to replace a section of fence near Rock Lake taken out by a road grader at the edge of a county road rig...
The “unfiring” of Colfax Police Chief Rick McNannay topped the city hall news list for 2019. McNannay was put on administrative leave in October of 2018, and was subsequently fired by Colfax Mayor Todd Vanek Jan. 17. The firing was announced at the Jan. 22 city council session. Cause of the firing was cited as “findings of dishonesty” on McNannay’s part which allegedly involved shortcomings in hiring certified officers for the police department. The findings were reported to have been made by an independent investigation by Clear Risk Solu...
A project which has loomed for years became a reality in 2019, with the debut of a new grandstand. The 2,483-seat facility was assembled at Mockonema during the summer and was the site for two special evening shows during the fair in September. The new structure replaced grandstand bleacher seats which were purchased from the defunct Spokane Grand Prix and brought to the fairground as a temporary solution in 1987 after two special levy proposals were rejected by county voters. The temporary...
Cameras snapped and Colton girls basketball players and coaches held up all 10 fingers. In the first week of March, at Spokane Arena, the Wildcats won their 10th state 1B championship in 11 years. Coach Clark Vining's team, led by three seniors and three-year starters, Dakota Patchen, Jordyn Moehrle and Emily Schultheis, beat league rival Pomeroy 51-43, after trailing by 18 points at halftime. Colton finished the year 24-2. Pomeroy went 22-4, all of their losses to Colton....
The late winter of 2019 threw a pointed punch at the PCC railroad system when heavy runoff Jan. 23 caused a slide which closed down the line along Highway 26 near Pampa. The runoff slide along the bank of Willow Creek left a sheer face of earth next to the railroad and made it too dangerous to continue to run trains in the line. The shutdown cut railroad service to the west side of the county. Grain shipments could not get out, and farm chemical shipments for spring work could not get in on the...
Averting what may have been a major hit to Whitman County wheat exports, the United States and Japan announced Sept. 24 drops in tariffs that would amount to 55 cents less per bushel of U.S. wheat, including Whitman County western white wheat and hard red winter and spring, which Japan selects for its millers. The reduction came after an increase in April, after the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) went into effect, without the U.S. joining. In turn, American wheat-export rivals Australia...
The Almota Four road reconstruction project set for the summer of 2019 was delayed completely for a year after a series of setbacks, mainly eight months in negotiating right-of-way payments to landowners along the 3.5-mile stretch. The project is set to widen Almota Road from Union Flat Creek to the intersection of State Route 194 near Onecho Bible Church. Acquiring right-of-way meant the county made payments to 12 landowners’ groups to use some private ground along the roadside. Delays were also attributed to code changes that required the c...
A summer of construction concluded at Colfax Junior-Senior High School with a delayed start to the school year – after the Palouse Empire Fair – and a full push Sept. 8, the night before the first day of school, to cover final details before students filled the building again. Last items included washing floors and windows, hauling in desks and chairs from storage and dusting them off for use. A planned volleyball jamboree for that Saturday at the junior-senior high school was cancelled, as the...
The deep snows of February and March meant wet fields for weeks afterward, then lingering rain followed, which led to late planting for crops across the Palouse. In September, the traditional time when garbanzos, lentils and chickpeas are harvested – following wheat cutting in late July and August – rains returned as weather turned colder. It all meant the legumes harvest itself was threatened, limiting chances to cut what was grown and have it still be a quality crop. The issue was excess moi...
Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove adjourned a city council meeting for the last time Dec. 10, after 18 years as mayor and eight as a city councilman. He began as mayor in 2001, appointed to the office before he first won election in 2002. Echanove and wife Paula also marked their final year in 2019 of direct involvement in Haunted Palouse, the annual two-weekend fundraiser for which the couple was part of the the original incarnation and all 17 years since. As the city council’s streets and sidewalks chair, Echanove worked on the reconstruction o...
12 debuted the ending of a three-year construction project and month-long closure of the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport. The award at the end was a new 7,100 foot runway. The airport was closed for a month to transition to the longer runway equipped with an Instrument Landing System to create a more reliable all-weather airport. Pilots can now land with an instrument approach which uses radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays. The ribbon-cutting event was held on the former runway...
Whitman County Commissioners put a six-month moratorium on new marijuana businesses in the county in March, then extended it another six months in September. In a series of standing-room only meetings, commissioners Art Swannack, Michael Largent and Dean Kinzer took in public comment and ultimately sent the matter to the planning commission, to draft a possible ordinance to regulate existing operations – including retail, growing and/or processing. The planning commission started their work soon after the initial moratorium and continued t...
The extended Port of Whitman County debate on forming a Port Broadband LLC ended at the port’s Sept. 19 meeting when the port commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of making the move. Last year there was a potential Port cooperative project, with Broadband LLC, that did not advance. “This business model is a win-win for the Port of Whitman and the cooperative’s member ports, but, most importantly, the resulting work of the cooperative will be a huge win for those in rural, underserved areas of our state, including Whitman County,” Port Executi...
Whitman County Coroner Annie Pillers Dec. 24 reported the death of Samuel Martinez, 19, WSU student, was caused by acute alcohol poisoning. Martinez was determined to be dead after Pullman medics responded to a call Nov. 12 at the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity on Linden Street in Pullman. He was a WSU freshman from Bellevue. Pullman police initially ruled out hazing as a possible factor in the student's death, but later noted it could have been a factor after conducting interviews with members of the fraternity. The first report by Pillers in...
Whitman County Association of Wheat Growers will meet Monday, Jan. 6, at Eddy's Restaurant in Colfax at noon. Drew Lyon, WSU endowed chair in small grains, will discuss resistant weed management. For further information contact Randy Suess at 509-413-2043....
