Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Driver of the laundry service box truck which collided with a Motley & Motley truck and trailer unit Thursday, March 14, on Main Street in Colfax, has been cited with inattentive driving. The investigation report of the collision said the driver of the northbound box truck crossed the Main Street centerline when he reached for a cell phone while at the wheel. The northbound truck crossed the centerline and collided with the semi truck which was towing a heavy duty trailer with an extended...
According to County Commissioner Art Swannack, Washington Labor and Industries will soon publish changes to the executive, administrative and professional wage rules. In the state of Washington, the Minimum Wage Act exempts individuals employed in executive, administrative, or professional and outside salesperson capacities from being paid overtime so long as they fit certain criteria with their salary. This rule has remained largely unchanged since 1976. There are now more exempted workers...
Steve Salzman has been appointed in a unanimous decision by the town council to serve as mayor for Endicott for the remainder of this year. He has served on the Endicott city council since 2013. Salzman takes the position vacated by Dave Bilow, who resigned due to health issues at the end of February. “I thought that I could provide some service to the town,” said Salzman. “When our previous mayor had to resign, I thought I should step up.” The change has opened up a seat on the town council...
Whitman County commissioners Monday approved two road vacations. The first is for Sauve Road, a field road of 0.21 miles south of Uniontown. It was once part of the old state highway up until the 1930s. The second is Randell Road, north of Johnson, a dirt field approach for farm ground of 0.18 miles with a cable gate on it. Vacating a road is when the county no longer acknowledges it as a road and ceases to maintain it....
Whitman County engineer Mark Storey went to Washington, D.C., earlier this month representing 11 western states, as one of nine executives for the National Association of County Engineers (NACE). Storey was elected to the position last April. In Washington, D.C., Feb. 27 to March 4, he and the eight other representatives from across the country met with a series of congressional staffs and federal departments including the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure committee led by Peter Defazio...
Repair of the embankment slide which has closed the railroad serving the west and north sections of Whitman County is expected to cost in the range of a half million dollars. Larry Rasmussen, engineer at the Spokane DOT district office in Spokane, this morning reported a contract bid with Shamrock Construction to make the repairs has been accepted by the DOT. Exact amount of the contract will be reported when the document is signed. Shamrock submitted the low bid for the job. The railroad service was knocked out Jan. 23 after heavy rain caused...
Pass Marijuana Moratorium resolution County Commissioner Michael Largent motioned a resolution to the marijuana moratorium. This resolution expresses legislative intent on the adoption of the moratorium. The purpose of the resolution was to more fully explain its intent in allowing non-conforming uses to continue while the moratorium is in place so long as the use was already extant when the moratorium began. Only the businesses that were already in place, licensed by the State Liquor and...
Experience International is a non-profit educational international work-study program that has partnerships with 26 other countries for development in agricultural and natural resources related fields. The program allows foreign students and graduates to have internships in the USA and provides study tours in the USA, Europe and Latin America and work experience in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada for students, teachers and professionals. The program is looking to expand more host...
Nearly half of the world’s cereal crops are grown in zinc-deficient soils. As an essential element found in several plant growth hormones such as auxin, zinc is absolutely critical to plant growth and development, according to Cat Salois, director of research for the McGregor Company. This is particularly true in the early growth stages when zinc micronutrients are responsible for initiating germination, speeding emergence, and improving drought tolerance. Crops must have readily available zinc when plants are young and growing rapidly in o...
This Friday and Saturday, March 22-23, 30 high school robotics teams from around the northwest will compete at West Valley High School for this year's challenge, "Destination Deep Space," presented by Boeing. Each team designs and builds a 120-pound robot, which they use in matches against the others – the robots maneuver to place balls and disks into slots and climb a platform on an arena game field. Teams must fix problems along the way. Admission is free. The Sciborgs, a 4H Palouse Area R...
Ninth District Representatives Joe Schmick of Colfax and Mary Dye of Pomeroy will conduct a telephone ‘Town Hall’ meeting tonight, Thursday, March 21, from 6 to 7 p.m. They will open the meeting with updates on the legislative session before taking questions. To attend the meeting, dial 1-800-610-6290 just before 6 p.m. The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance lists 509-394-4742 as a number that can be called if someone wants to join the meeting after it has started....
The annual fundraising basket for the Colfax & Community Fund is back April 2-7. The basket will be on display at Rosauers in Colfax from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. The funds from the basket’s raffle are to help the many non-profits in the community such as Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse, Boy Scouts of American, Council on Aging & Human Services and Palouse River Counseling. Tickets for the basket raffle are one dollar each or six for $5. Route 26 Vintage Market will return to the Palouse Empire Fairground April 12 from 9 a.m. to 7 p...
Longtime Palouse Public Works employee Don Myott has announced his retirement as of April 30 after 34 years with the city. He serves as the waste (water) treatment operator and assists Public Works superintendent Dwayne Griffin in all matter of street work and other projects. “Don’s a walking encyclopedia of infrastructure in Palouse,” said Michael Echanove, Palouse mayor. “No one can replace him. He’s gonna be a hard person to live without.” The city began advertising the position March 12, and hopes to have a new employee ready for Myott t...
The City of Palouse is in the midst of an interview process for a new police officer. The candidate, from Wasilla, Alaska, went through a Skype interview last week with Palouse Police Chief Jerry Neumann, and the city council’s police, fire and safety committee and the civil service commission. The candidate this week was set to go through a polygraph test and psychological evaluation. “So far, so good. Stay tuned,” said Michael Echanove, Palouse mayor....
Return of spring temperatures made life a little easier for geese along the North Fork of the Palouse River. This scene was along the bank about a mile downstream from Glenwood....
Second-year coach Scotty Parrish this week said the late snow which put a dent in the start of baseball means a lot of things still need to be sorted out for the season's campaign. Players have been working indoors, and the Bulldogs finally took to a field in Asotin Saturday to book a win and a loss. With its low elevation, Asotin likes to host early baseball action, but this year they actually had to pump 1,700 gallons of snow water off the field to make it playable. Grangeville topped Colfax...
Colfax softball team stacked a 19-9 win over Pullman in the late season opener Monday at the cleared-off Valley playing fields in Pullman. Freshman Jorga Koerner started on the mound for Colfax, and Justice Brown, also a freshman, relieved her in the fourth inning. Colfax trailed 5-8 after three innings and then scored 14 runs in the next three frames to shut the game down on the 10-run rule after six innings. The Bulldogs totaled nine hits, but also had nine errors in their season opener. Perry Imler had three hits for the Bulldogs, and...
Everyone is back. Many are seniors and they finished out of the placing last year at state in Yakima. The Colton girls softball team returns for another spring guided by 13th year coach Brad Nilson, looking to push the result from 2018. “Got to finish what we started last year,” said Nilson, who has won seven state 1B championships with Colton since 2008. All nine starters return for 2019, including four-year starters Abby Kelly, catcher; Jordyn Moehrle, shortstop, and Emily Schultheis, the...
Final chapter of Colfax hoops for the boys team ended Monday with six seniors at the head table. The senior crew played a big role in the year's campaign which saw the Bulldogs take the NE-south title race and battle into the final rounds of long district playoff at West Valley. Recalling a glum 0-3 summer run against three NE teams, Coach Reece Jenkin said he was proud of the way the Bulldogs learned how to battle. "They learned how to come back," Jenkin said. He noted the Bulldogs were still b...
Despite past voter rejection of similar proposals, Senate Transportation Committee chair Steve Hobbs rolled out a comprehensive funding package that would impose a carbon pollution fee and gas tax increase to fund transportation projects statewide. Under the proposed package, which is moving through the Senate, consumers would pay an additional 6 cents per gallon in state tax at the pump. The money would go into a new Forward Washington Account to fund specific projects. Sen. Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bills 5970,...
Washington residents could vote to make daylight saving time year-round under a bill state senators passed on Tuesday, March 12. Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5139 was approved in a 46-3 vote, just two days after clocks were set forward. The measure is co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of five senators and was introduced by Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside. This is the third year in a row Honeyford has pitched the daylight saving bill. “With the time change, we find there's more auto accidents, more heart attacks, more strokes and c...
