Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Misplaced What’s he doing here, he doesn’t belong Maybe you could argue but I don’t think I’m wrong I pride myself for being tolerant And go along with changes without resentment. But this critter that has moved in has me upset Because his ancestors didn’t ever live here And yet... He has his champions who get serious and pretty grim They’re in charge and issued orders to protect him. So this big black wolf now lives with us And we’re to put up with him without any fuss. He kills for that is his nature It sure doesn’t make you feel very secur...
New snow last week provides a chance to depict the five rock barbs which have been placed along the North Fork of the Palouse River downstream from the Glenwood road bridge. The barbs are made of pillar rocks to deflect water current from the bank at the sharp turn of the river. Rocks excavated from the South Fork Palouse flood debris were used to restore the bank of the river....
The fainting couch doesn’t have the same cachet it did in the 19th century, which is a shame, because it should be more in demand than at any time since the age of corsets and delicate sensibilities. To put it in Victorian terms, 2014 had a case of the vapors. It needed smelling salts and a fan, and a good rest on a fainting couch to restore its bearings. It was a year when the national pastime of taking offense and of fearing that someone might be offended reached such parodic levels that even North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un got in t...
This is the time when we are supposed to discern meaning in the year we’ve survived and somehow find hope for the new one. Sorry, folks. The meaning of 2014 was that it largely was mean, another 12 months of national decline, and 2015 will get off to a horrible start. Even as the statistics show that the recovery from economic near-death is tentatively and finally extending beyond the obscenely wealthy, the country continues its downward trajectory, often a deadly and always dangerous spiral. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the bitter d...
The always fashion conscious University of Oregon Ducks will play for the National Championship in the first College Football Playoffs Monday. Their opponent is Ohio State University. These teams have legitimately won their berths. Their upcoming appearance in the big game was not decided by a bunch of sloppily dressed coaches or rumpled sports reporters as in the past. The now-idle BCS computers had nothing to do with the selection. Four teams were named to the playoffs based on performance, results, strength of schedule and other...
These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated. MORE WORK ON N. PALOUSE ROAD Mayor Todd Vanek Monday night informed the city council that one of the projects for the city next year will be additional work on the North Palouse River Road. Vanek said the road has deteriorated over the years and needs to have gravel applied to build up the surface. He noted the road condition is particularly...
After bagging a December sweep of the south side of the NE, Colfax girls roared past an undefeated Northwest Christian team Saturday night at home and then vanquished the Davenport Gorillas on the road Tuesday. The two wins over tough NE opponents left the Colfax girls at 6-0 and on top of the overall NE race. Colfax girls Saturday in the JES gym at Colfax blistered Northwest Christian with a fast start and had a 31-20 lead at the break. At the start of the second half, the Bulldog girls hit the...
WHITMAN COUNTY ELECTIONS NOTICE OF VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINES FOR the February 10, 2015 Special Election NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT, in order to vote in the February 10, 2015 Special Election, a person who is already registered to vote in Washington may update their registration no later than January 12, 2015. A registered voter who fails to transfer their residential address by this deadline may vote according to their previous registration address. If a person is not registered to vote in Washington they must submit a registration...
For nine games, no team got within 40 points. Then Colton cut it to 31. Garfield-Palouse ran through the Wildcats for their tenth win of the basketball season Saturday, dispensing with the team that ended their 2013-14 campaign. This year, playing in a notably different Southeast 1B league, the Vikings haven’t yet found any competition to speak of. "We know the league is down from years past," said veteran coach Tim Coles. "That doesn’t help. That could hurt us at the end of the year. But I tho...
Colfax boys booked two high drama wins this week in the first two games against teams from the north side of the NE league. The Bulldogs battled for a 56-55 double overtime win at Davenport Tuesday night and fought off a determined Northwest Christian team Saturday night in a game at the Jennings gym in Colfax. The two wins left the Bulldogs at 5-1 in league play, one notch back of the Liberty Lancers. Tuesday against a 3-7 Davenport team, the Bulldogs took a one-point win with Keith Gfeller...
Colfax/Gar-Pal wrestlers placed fifth among 19 teams Saturday at the Warden. tournament. They will wrestle at Springdale on Saturday. The Colfax-G/P team placed third among 18 teams at the annual Pomeroy Christmas tournament last Monday and Tuesday. The two-day meetfeatured a close finish in team points with the Bulldogs just 3.5 points back of the win by Clarkston. Reggie Jones topped the locals with a second-place finish in the 152-pound class with a loss to Zach Freeman of Clarkston on the championship match. Nick McAdams placed third after...
The Colton girls made quick work of two more opponents coming off of Christmas break to extend their winning streak. Elsewhere in the Southeast 1B league this week, St. John-Endicott and Oakesdale picked up wins while Garfield-Palouse lost a close contest to Potlatch. Colton 68, Genessee 22 Junior Zoe Moser delivered 27 points, including five three-pointers as unbeaten Colton defeated two-loss Genesee in a non-league game Jan. 5. Extending their winning streak to 54 games, Colton (10-0, 4-0...
Tekoa/Rosalia girls moved their league record to 3-3 and overall mark to 7-3 with a 38-34 win over Wilbur/Creston at the Creston gym. The Timberwolves trailed by four points at the half but out-scored the Wildcats 14-2 in the thrid quarter to take control. Olivia Pakootas hit 15 at Creston, and Rayna Charles hit eight. Saturday the TR girls stacked 55-39 win over Springdale at Tekoa in the first matchup with a north side team. Pakootas hit 20 points against the Chargers. The two clubs battled for the first three quarters, with TR leading 34-31...
Next Colfax Palouse Direct Seeders breakfast meeting will be Jan. 14 at Colfax United Methodist Church with a hosted breakfast served at 7 a.m. by the Top Notch Café. Tai McClellan-Maaz, PhD in WSU Crops and Soils Department, will discuss the movement of nitrogen in winter canola and winter wheat. Grower Keith Kopf of Pullman will discuss his direct seed system and talk about innovations on his drill, and Tedd Nealey of LaCrosse will discuss the system he uses on his farm on Union Flat. North Farm Credit Services on Main Street in Colfax...
Whitman County Commissioners have accepted a bid for the installation of an Automated Fuel Management System for the Public Works Department. Originally accepting a bid of $44,700 Dec. 29, the bid was later rejected as “non-responsive” by Public Works Director Mark Storey, because of deficiencies, including the wrong equipment specified in the call for bids. In turn, the commissioners rescinded the approval and instead took the second bid of $80,565 from Trak Engineering of Tallahassee, Fla. The work is to put in a computerized system to invent...
The Whitman County Parks Board looks ahead to 2015 with several projects in the working stages. Items to be completed include an update to the comprehensive plan and finishing and installing 16 Palouse Scenic Byway interpretive signs, which will be placed in communities along the route. In addition, two beams and the roof on the shelter are set to be replaced at Wawawai Park, which is also slated for installation of solar power. “Wawawai has lots of sun,” said Whitman County Parks Director Tim...
Official swearing in of county elected officials for the new term was conducted Dec. 22 during the reception honoring retirees Shirley Bafus as county clerk and Bob Lothspeich as county treasurer. Swearing in for new terms follows general election years. New county officials beginning their first terms are Mark Clinton, left, who succeeds Lothspeich in the treasurer's office, and Jill Whelchel, right, who succeeds Bafus. Both were sworn in by Judge David Frazier....
Last week’s Gazette account on the retirement of Bill and Loni Criswell as caretakers for 44 years at Klemgard Park reported on a visit at the park in the 1970s by Lew Alcindor (Kareem Adbul Jabbar), who was driving a Volkwagen. Upon further recollection, the Criswells reported that the famous basketball player they saw step out of a Volkswagen at Klemgard was Wilt Chamberlain, not Lew Alcindor. Also, the correct year for the birth of their daughter was 1967. The date was incorrect in the article....
The wastewater treatment plant in Garfield will continue to see attention in 2015, as work to improve the facility wraps up. Last April, a distribution arm was replaced for a bio-cell filter. The arm, which stretches across the filter’s 20-foot tall cylindrical basin, distributes influent and recycled wastewater, which helps with nitrification of the wastewater. The purpose of the $50,500 project was to maintain compliance with the Garfield plant’s Department of Ecology’s (DOE) discharge permi...
After nine years, dredging in the Lower Granite pool near Lewiston and Clarkston will begin as early as Jan. 12. The project was set to start after Judge James Robart of the U.S. District Court’s Western District of Washington ruled Monday in favor of the federal government and denied an injunction to halt dredging on the Snake River. In a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and the Nez Perce Tribe, the court denied the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction that wou...
Colfax City Council at its Dec. 15 session approved an amended version of the 2014 budget. The annual year-end budget amendment allows for spending and revenue which was not anticipated over a year ago when the city set the budget. Total of the 2014 amended budget was $3,176,141. Largest change on the budget was the bank stabilization project on the North Fork of the Palouse River. The late fall project had a bottom line of $66,364, according to a summary sheet presented to the council for the Dec. 15 meeting. The project involved installing...
The return of a recurring beaver problem is being monitored in Farmington. In December, after a report of a beaver dam causing water levels to rise near private property on the south fork of Pine Creek, Mayor James Woomack called for help. Bill Foreyt, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife certified Wildlife Operator, came out and set traps, soon catching a 42-pound male beaver. He also broke some limbs in the center of the dam, allowing water to flow freely and minimize the flooding hazard. The traps remained in place for three weeks....
The Walla Walla District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is upgrading the Lower Granite Lock and Dam Juvenile Fish Facility. “Fish facility improvements are an important part of the corps’ mission to save salmon and other endangered or threatened species,” said corps spokesman Bruce Henrickson. The overall upgrade includes “daylighting” the current below-ground juvenile fish transportation piping from the dam to the juvenile fish facility. “Adult fish migrate upstream via fish ladders to their spawning grounds,” Henrickson said. “Juveni...
A new $7 million wind energy storage project is underway in Pullman, a joint effort by Avista Utilities and the State of Washington Department of Commerce, in cooperation with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL). Five large battery storage units were lifted into place Dec. 30 in a parking lot of SEL in Pullman. Five more will be installed Jan. 22. The batteries, which are housed in half-size ocean cargo containers, will store power during times of high wind and then distribute it when it...
Whitman County commissioners on Monday voted in a new chairman and vice chairman of the board. Replacing Chairman Art Swannack is Commissioner Dean Kinzer who, along with Swannack, is beginning his third year in office. Kinzer, who covers District II, and Swannack, who covers District I, were voted into office in the November 2012 election, replacing former commissioners Greg Partch and Pat O’Neill. Commissioner Michael Largent, who voters approved for a third term last November covers District III, is the vice chairman of the board. C...
