Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Hannah Sims of the Spartans sends an outlet pass out of the paint over Medical Lake's Megan LaJeunesse in the championship game at Rosalia. Briann Maley (20) and Kristin Paulson are in back for the Eagles. Cassi Nilles of ML is behind Sims. A big battle looms this weekend when the girls SE loop cranks up after adventures during the Christmas break. The two league leaders, Colton and St. John, are slated to collide Saturday night at St. John. The Wildcats, who were dominating foes before the break, will face a tough Rosalia club on the Spartans... Full story
Rosalia brought in the big boys for its 10th annual Holiday Classic and proved size really doesn’t matter on the hardwood. The classic brought in 2B foes Asotin and Liberty and Medical Lake from the 2A ranks. In Friday’s champion final, the 1B Spartans rolled over Medical Lake 50-39 to claim the classic title. The Spartan offense put the game in the bag early and their oppressive defense never let the Cardinals close the gap. Guard Flash Hodges pushed the Rosalia attack, finishing with a game high 17 points. Post Nathan Richards added 11. Gun...
Whitman County has received a $750,000 grant of federal funds for safety improvements on its road system. Public Works Director Mark Storey announced receipt of the funding Monday at the county commissioners’ session. About $370,000 will be used on major projects, while the remainder will fund replacement of guard rails and removal of trees along road sides. The safety projects will include a turn lane from the Pullman Airport Road onto O’Donnel Road east of the airport. Storey said the airport road is being used more heavily, and residents of...
Palouse’s downtown quilt shop has moved uptown. Owner Bev Pearce is now operating Small Towne Quilts from her home in Palouse. “She’s just had a wonderful store front and awesome clients. All the traffic and all the vitality she has helped add to downtown Palouse will be missed,” said Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove. “I really accomplished a lot,” Pearce told the Gazette in an interview Jan. 4, a day after the downtown shop closed. The shop sold dozens of colorful bolts of quilting fabric, quilting supplies and had a quilting machine. Pa...
Natural Resources Conservation Service has announced a Jan. 21 cut-off date for applications to enroll in its Conservation Stewardship Program. The program provides payments to farmers who maintain high levels of conservation on their land and who agree to adopt higher levels of stewardship. Such practices include crop rotation, tillage minimization, prescribed grazing, wind barriers, filter strips and wildlife habitat enhancement. Since 2009, the NRCS has accepted 118 contracts on more than 260,000 acres of land in Washington state. Those... Full story
In the next two weeks, nine town councils will be asked to give the Port of Whitman County non-exclusive franchise rights to extend fiber optic cables through their towns. Executive Director Joe Poire said the franchise agreements will allow the port to install fiber optic cable that will bring high-speed broadband internet services throughout the Palouse. Port Director Joe Poire holds up a section of fiber optic cable. Poire said bringing the fiber optic connection to Whitman County could potentially be as beneficial to commerce here as... Full story
Colton school officials are seeking public comment on the $5.1 million school remodeling bond proposal which failed to gain voters’ approval last November. District residents are encouraged to attend meetings tonight, Thursday, and Jan. 13 to give their feelings on the proposal. The bonding measure was aimed at providing local funding for an overall $10.2 million remodeling project. School officials would like to put the measure back on the ballot April 26. District Superintendent Nate Smith said the two meetings are for the “sole pur...
Shane St. John, 35, Farmington, life-long county resident, was killed in an avalanche 20 miles northeast of Calder, Idaho, last Wednesday, Dec. 29. Searchers recovered St. John’s body under an estimated nine feet of snow at about 11:30 p.m., eight hours after receiving the report that he was missing. According to the report from the Shoshone County Sheriff’s office, St. John was snowmobiling with a friend last Wednesday on the Mastodon Road. Around 1:30 p.m., the other rider noticed St. John was missing and turned around to find him. He loc...
Arguments in a suit involving unpaid contracts for Kentucky Bluegrass production in 2010 were presented before a standing-room-only crowd of growers and others Monday in Whitman County Superior Court. The court hearing lasted more than 90 minutes. Growers alleged the Scotts Company owes them millions after the company did not pay for contracted seed because of a depressed grass market, brought on by the collapse of the national housing market. Scotts contends growers overstated production volumes and did not provide them seed that met quality...
The Arctic weather front which dropped temperatures on the Palouse late last week also resulted in blue skies over new snow-covered fields and trees. This photo in Oakesdale was taken on the back side of the former Barron’s Flour Mill. Vintage farm equipment awaits a possible call for spring work in the foreground....
NOTICE TO VENDORS AND CONTRACTORS Whitman County, Washington is soliciting vendors and contractors for placement on the following lists: 1) General Government - Office/Data Processing Equipment 2) General Government - Building Maintenance/Park and Recreation 3) General Government - Professional Services 4) Public Works Department - Materials, Equipment, Supplies, Etc. 5) Public Works Department - Contractors 6) Public Works Department - Professional Services Whitman County maintains current rosters of vendors and contractors from which...
Cody Evans of Colfax took the top perch last Wednesday for the 125-pound class in the Pomeroy awards ceremony. Todd Marshall of Potlatch took the second-place medal, and Wyatt Hyer of the host Pirate club took the third-place medal. Colfax wrestler Cody Evans won the championship medal for the 125-pound class at the Pomeroy wrestling tournament Wednesday. Evans moved down from the 130 class and took the first-place medal with third-round pin of Todd Marshall of Pomeroy in the championship round. Ben Cochran placed third in the heavyweight... Full story
Uniontown is rebuilding its city staff following the resignations of several city employees last month in the midst of a heated budget struggle. Casey Green of Moscow was hired as the town’s new police officer at the Tuesday night’s council meeting. He will now patrol the town of 330 part-time as the only Uniontown officer. The town is also looking to hire a part-time clerk treasurer. A hiring committee has received 25 applications which they will narrow down to 10 qualified candidates by the end of this week. In the midst of a heated struggle... Full story
This 1999 Chevrolet Astro van slid out of control Dec. 30 on a slick sheet of ice, coming to a halt on its side along the Dry Creek Road. Ambulance and rescue crews were dispatched at 12:40 p.m. to the scene after initial reports said the Astro had landed partially in a waterway along the road. This turned out not to be the case, according to Deputy Tim Cox. Deputy Cox said the Astro was driven by Wilma Bober of Oakesdale. She and a passenger were not injured. The Astro went off Dry Creek Road about three miles west of Highway 27 outside...
Marriage Licenses Devin Casey, 22, Steptoe and Deanna Gimmey, 19, Steptoe, Jan. 3 Real Estate Sales John Goyke, Rosalia, to Sandra Goyke and Mark Goyke, quit claim on property in Mumm’s addition to Rosalia, $10,000, June 23. Barbara Schriber, Clarkston, to Sanjay and Sonal Sisodiva, Pullman, house on NW Nicole Court, Pullman, $317,500, June 23. Michael and Melania Thompson, Pullman, to Benjamin and Rachel Cowan, house on SE Bellevue, Pullman, $268,000, June 24. Varyl Bingeman, Colton, to Jerrad and Jenny Saligumba Graham, house on McKinley, C... Full story
Palouse Direct Seeders will hold another breakfast meeting next Wednesday, Jan. 12, at 7 a.m. in the Methodist Church in Colfax. Speaking will be Steve Swannack, a Lamont-area farmer, who will present his direct seed farming system and share his experience growing rotation crops. Also speaking will be Dan Harwood, coordinator of the Palouse Rock Lake Conservation District. Harwood will speak about the direct seed mentoring program run by the Rock Lake and Spokane conservation districts and the state Department of Ecology. The program pays...
A few users of the recycling facility at Palouse are leaving trash behind, so city officials are trying to get the word out about better facility maintenance. City crews took 12 hours, instead of the usual four hours, this month to dispose of the mound of debris left behind by citizens. Public Works Director Duane Griffin said they had to dig through the material designated for the compost chipper to pick out trash that can’t be put through the blades. Nails, Christmas lights and barbed wire are just some of the materials that can’t go thr... Full story
The ambulance at the right is new to the Tekoa Community Ambulance and was purchased in 2010. The ambulance on the left was purchased for the organization in 2009. Tekoa’s independent ambulance service this fall has added a new ambulance which will help the staff of four EMTs and five drivers cover Tekoa and the surrounding area. Addition of the ambulance this fall provides the Tekoa service with an updated fleet. Tekoa Community Ambulance operates as a non-profit, private service that is independent of Tekoa’s fire department, said Jim Gor...
I offer as my kissoff to 2010 a review of some of the columns I wrote for you during the year. Hope you enjoyed them. 5-31-10: A video showing two Seattle police officers kicking a prone detainee prompted minority organizations to form a coalition aimed at police accountability. On April 17, police detained three men suspected in a robbery. One of the officers kicking a Latino man lying on the sidewalk said, “I’m going to beat the (expletive) piss out of you, homey. You feel me?” A woman officer stomped on the man’s hand while other officer... Full story
Virginia M. Luther Memorial services for Virginia M. Luther, 87, will be Tuesday, Jan. 11, at 11 a.m at the Colfax United Methodist Church. Pastor Stephen Johnson will officiate. She died of cancer last Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, at Whitman Health and Rehab where she resided for the last five months. Born Dec. 3, 1923, in Winchester, Idaho, to John and Geneva Brooks, she graduated from Clarkston High School. She married Bernard Luther who farmed in the Colfax area. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997. They resided in Colfax, later... Full story
Colfax Airport Road, a major bypass route for WSU coast traffic off Highway 26, will be completely rebuilt this summer by Whitman County’s road department. Public Works Director Mark Storey said the $3.3 million project will widen the road, create shoulders, eliminate some of its tight curves and will make better angles on the road’s slopes. He said increased traffic on the road has prompted the need for the improvements. More and more cars have driven the Airport Road route over the last several years, as WSU students and game day traffic fro...
Pure gift Aside from the obvious sanity considerations that come from being the mayor of the second smallest town in the State for the last 5 years, having that honor, and honor it was, has given me a rare insight into the system that we all say we support but often kick to the curb when we don’t like this or that. Rarely are the greater principles that this Republic is founded upon in more peril than in a very small town setting – where history and ‘Old Boy Networks’ and all the bad clichés one would expect in a second-rate B movie bear rea...
Just because we are enveloped in Arctic conditions does not mean all Whitman County residents must spend the winter twiddling their thumbs indoors. No. You can get out. Here is proof. Take last Wednesday’s whiteout driving conditions. Chaos for driving, but great for sledding the day after. We have 73 days of winter as of this publication date (spring starts March 20), so get out there for some sledding before it is too late. Despite several spine-cracking sled accidents I had as a kid, sledding is still a fantastic way for me to kill an aftern...
I am a wonderful uncle, even though my nieces and nephews always pretend otherwise. I’m currently visiting Jakob (16), Maya (13) and Ethan (8), who celebrated my arrival by joyously phoning their friends and begging to be allowed to spend the holidays at their houses. At 9:00 a.m., I announce that we’re all going on a hike. Jakob, on the couch, rolls his eyes, Maya doesn’t react, and Ethan throws himself dramatically on the floor as if shot in the stomach. “A hike?” he shrieks, writhing around. “Not a hike!” “Get your hiking boots on, let’s...
Remember the old saying: The only things certain in life are death and taxes? You need to add global competition to that list. Increasingly, American businesses are competing with companies around the world. No one has a captive market any more, not even Boeing and its European rival, Airbus. Since 1970, Boeing and Airbus have been the only major players in the large commercial jet market — airplanes carrying from 125 to 580 passengers. That will change in the next few years as competitors around the world salivate over a highly promising m... Full story
