Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Whitman County’s elected officials will go a third year without a pay raise. The county’s citizen commission charged with setting elected officials’ salaries decided Tuesday night to keep their 2012 salaries at the same levels as 2011, which is the same as 2010 and 2009. Noting sagging wages across the nation, salary commissioners said they could not agree to raise those salaries. “I think the feeling in the neighborhood right now is things are just so tight,” said Dennis Hatley of Pullman, a new member of the commission. Chair Paul Eichenber...
#!*! Qwest communications downward spiral of phone service. We need Phone Jack back. YYYY Colfax Rotary for sprucing up the little league park. #!*! County commissioners’ failure to enforce Title 6.08 of the Whitman County Code. YYYY The Pennicks for rebuilding the flower bed at the golf course. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111...
Schools: First in, last out? It is a tough time for rural Whitman County schools. Between declining enrollments and state cutbacks, it may get even tougher. Small, local schools are finding they can no longer operate as they have in the past. Cuts are becoming increasingly necessary. In fact, several local schools are facing reductions in force. That means some staff may have to be cut to meet the new limitations of budget. When those cuts affect the teachers, the decisions can be difficult and traumatic. Nationally, public education is under...
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. RAM TRUCKS COLLIDE ON HIGHWAY 26 Five people were hurt Friday when two Dodge Ram pickup trucks collided on Highway 26 at 9:22 p.m. According to the Washington State Patrol report, Charles A. Cross, 83, College Place, was driving a 2003 pickup westbound when he crossed the centerline and collided with a 2007 model of the pickup being driven...
Four SE 1B softball teams have been booked at Colfax next Tuesday for the district qualifier, first elimination step on the road to state. Colton’s Wildcats, who booked two wins over Garfield/Palouse last Thursday, will lead the pack with a 7-0 record posted before the weekend. The playoff slate matches Colton against number-four SJE, and Touchet against Garfield/Palouse. Losers of those games will be done for the season. The two winners will collide for the one and two seeds for the regional show Saturday at Medical Lake. Pomeroy, which went w...
Spartan third basement Joe Tampien takes a throw in the first game Saturday at Rosalia in an attempt to stop TCP's Troy Redmann. The Sparts won both games in the battle which was delayed by rain and win. Second round of the SE 2B baseball playoff will be at Colfax Saturday with the TOR Spartans booked in the number-two slot. The Spartans finished their league run with two wins over Tri-Cities Prep on the Rosalia hill Saturday. The pair of wins left TOR at 10-2 in the 2B standings. DeSales, which split with Asotin Saturday, also finished at...
Pig Putt teams finish in tie First Low Gross - Tie 65- Bill Parrish, Wayne Gibson, Beau Duff, Mike Harrison and team of Al Martin, Dave Johnstone, Dave Fitzgerald, Bob Cole. Second Low Gross - Tie 68- Scott Jensen, Matt Webb, Murray Powell and team of John Quinton, Dakota White, Kaleb Simon, Cole McCanna. First Low Net - 39 Doug Schuster, Robert Schuster,Joan Schuster, Suzanne Schuster. Second Low Net - 44 Austin Danielson, Blake Bailey, Brandon Schauble, Michall McLain. Third Low Net - 46 Kathy Schneider, Michal Schuster, Erin Baley, William...
Colfax girls are all smiles Tuesday after taking topping the big 21-team meet at Valley Christian with over 189 points. The District 7 meet brought in 10 1B and 10 2B teams from the Bi-County and Panorama. Also competing was Pomeoyr, lone 1B team in the SE district. Colfax girls rolled up more than 189 points Tuesday to lead a giant District 7 meet which brought in 21 teams to Valley Christian and the former U-High track facilities. The meet mixed the District’s 10 2B schools with the 10 1B schools. Also at the meet was Pomeroy, the lone SE e...
A pack of bike racers take advantage of the good weather as they race north into Plaza on the old Highway 195....
THURSDAY British-born Claude Choules, 110, believed to be the last WWI combat veteran, died in his sleep in an Australian nursing home. Choules was born in 1901 and signed up with the British Navy for the Great War at just 15 years of age. The only other surviving WWI veteran is believed to be Britain’s Florence Green, also 110, who served with the Royal Air Force in a non-combat role. Days after the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama met with New York firefighters and police and visited Ground Zero. The stately Chicago home whe...
Almost five years after fire wiped out rail service from Colfax to Pullman, a number of local officials have begun discussions to turn the rail bed into a recreational trail. In a joint meeting last Wednesday at Pullman City Hall, officials with the county and both cities authorized Pullman Supervisor John Sherman to write a letter to request the state to “bank” the railroad right-of-way if and when the railroad is abandoned. The rail connection was destroyed when the South Palouse River fire of August 2006 consumed a trestle just east of Col...
Whitman County emergency communicators switched on to new radio signals Monday. Steve Krigbaum, Whitman County’s emergency communications coordinator, said the first run of the new signals was successful. “Our test pages went out to fire departments last night and nobody called to say they didn’t get their page,” Krigbaum said Tuesday. To meet mandates from the Federal Communications Commission, emergency radio traffic switched from a wideband signal to a narrow band. Krigbaum said the switch is a big deal, though it may not grab anybody...
More than 20 teachers appeared at the Colfax board meeting Monday night in a show of support for their position 10 months into contract negotiations. Cary Cammack, president of the Colfax Education Association, the teachers’ union, told the board that teachers were frustrated with the negotiations taking so long and reiterated the union’s stance on the certified staff contract. At stake in the dispute, now in mediation, is the way teachers at the Colfax school district are laid off, the Reduction in Force procedure. The union wants staff lay...
Athletes will get a first-hand tour of Palouse this weekend as they jog and bike a sometimes-hilly, sometimes-flat 14-mile route for the first-ever Palouse River Duathlon Saturday, May 14. Starting time will be 10 a.m. Organizer Mark Sawyer put together the duathlon to help raise funds for Moscow, Pullman and Palouse youths to attend a Young Life summer camp. “It’s not just a running race- it’s a multi sporting event,” Sawyer told the Gazette. Racers in all divisions will take off from the Palouse park at 10 a.m. Saturday. Timing will be done...
Water pools on the floor of the Colfax elementary school library. A hot water hose broke inside the ceiling of Colfax’s Jennings Elementary Library Saturday morning, filling the room with enough water and steam to destroy all the electronics, many books, six tables and other items in the room. Library classes have been closed all week, with the school librarian Pam Becker instead visiting students in their classrooms to teach. Colfax Superintendent Michael Morgan reported on the hose break to school board members at their Monday night s...
Marijuana Officers seized 82 marijuana plants from the home of Michael A. Assenberg, 51, last Wednesday, May 4, on suspicion he was manufacturing and delivering marijuana. Assenberg, a medical marijuana patient, told the Gazette in subsequent interviews he has been openly operating a medical marijuana dispensary named Compassion 4 Patients and Adam’s Incredible Mededibles. His dispensary is registered with state authorities. “I’m very up front with what I do,” he said from his home in south Colfax. “Everything I do is allowed by state law.” Mem...
Most school districts around Whitman County passed out layoff notices this week, meeting the May 15 state deadline for Reductions in Force (RIF) notification. An uncertain state budget for education led many school districts in eastern Washington to make estimates on the amounts of layoffs needed to balance their budgets. However, when the final education budget from the state emerges in another few weeks, many of the staff members who received a RIF notice could be hired back. “I don’t know if I can say a majority, but many of our school dis...
Officers seized 82 marijuana plants from the home of Michael A. Assenberg, 51, last Wednesday, May 4, on suspicion he was manufacturing and delivering marijuana. Assenberg, a medical marijuana patient, told the Gazette in subsequent interviews he has been openly operating a medical marijuana dispensary named Compassion 4 Patients and Adam’s Incredible Mededibles. His dispensary is registered with state authorities. “I’m very up front with what I do,” he said from his home in south Colfax. “Everything I do is allowed by state law.” Members of...
Sunlight hits the early morning calm of the South Fork Palouse River enough to produce a mirror image of this tree which fell from the bank into the river before a bend by Lankey Road east of Colfax....
Appellants Roger Whitten and Marcia Wagner, left background, listen as First Wind Attorney Erin Anderson, in foreground, speaks at the SEPA appeal hearing Monday. Whitman County will know by May 24 if First Wind will be able to proceed with its plans to build a 65-turbine wind farm Naff Ridge, Granite Butte and Steam Shovel Hill west and north of Oakesdale. Proponents and opponents discussed the project throughout six hours of testimony in the CETC building Monday before hearings examiner Andrew Kottkamp, a Wenatchee attorney. Twenty-two...
Whitman County’s emergency communications network is one step closer to completion after commissioners last week finalized a land use agreement with property owners that will allow for construction of a tower on Tekoa Mountain. Under a joint operating agreement signed last month, the tower will be built by Spokane County and will be maintained by Whitman County. Deputies, fire volunteers, and other emergency responders from both counties will use the tower. Steve Krigbaum, Whitman county’s emergency communications coordinator, said the fin...
Spring reveals itself in the lush green grass and blooming bushes that line the South Palouse River in this early morning scene from east of Colfax....
Garfield’s May Day grand marshals this year will be honored for their decades of work. They are long-time Garfield residents Ramah Archer and Theresa Hasenoehrl. The two women, who have been friends for more than 40 years, will ride through the May Day parade in Hollis Jamison’s convertible May 21. In an interview with the Gazette, Archer said she was happy to be chosen for the annual position. “I’m very honored,” she said. Hasenoehrl said she too was delighted to ride through downtown in the town she loves. “They are just lovely women. They...
The Long, Long Passport Form Bruce Cameron A loyal reader recently wrote to inform me that the federal government has some inefficiencies. I was shocked to hear it. As proof, he attached a copy of ds5513, the proposed “long form” passport application that the U.S. Department of State may soon be deploying in order to reduce government paperwork by ensuring it never has to issue another passport. On the new form, you must list all of your blood relatives, plus any step-parents, plus whether your birth was recorded (the “Donald Trump quest...
Pullman High Boosters and Jess Ford are combining for a fund raiser in the Zeppoz parking lot next Saturday, May 21. Every participant willing to test drive a new Ford, Jess Ford of Pullman will donate $20 to the boosters. The fund-raisers go from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participants must be 18 or older with a valid drivers license. One driver will be allowed per household. The same event last year raised $2,000 for the Boosters club....
