Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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The 15th annual Spring Hot Rod Gathering will come to Palouse Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The show caters to pre-1965 traditional hot rods, choppers and kustom cars. The free event is hosted by the Knuckle Skrape’Rs car club, based in Palouse, which focuses on owner-built and driven vehicles. Rolling Hills Derby Dames will do a “demo bout” in the early afternoon. The Palouse Lions Club burger trailer will be on-site and the Palouse Caboose will be open throughout the day. T-shirts will be on sale, too. Eligible entries for the no-pr...
Rosalia will celebrate the 50th edition of Battle Days with a wide variety of events this weekend. To kickoff the weekend, members of the Rosalia Float committee will host a talent show in the Rosalia High School gym at 7 p.m. Friday. Saturday’s festivities will commence at 7 a.m. with a breakfast sponsored by the Rosalia Boy Scouts, which will be at the Fire Station until 9:30 a.m. The Battle Days 5k/10k Fun Run will start at 8 a.m. Participants will be required to sign in at the fire station. A kids parade will begin at 10 a.m. with the t...
Over the next two weekends, high schools in Whitman County will hold commencement ceremonies to mark the graduation of 329 students. This year’s class of 2019 totals 10 students less than last year. Other numbers from past years include 299 in 2017, 287 in 2016 and 306 in 2015. Four schools – Oakesdale, LaCrosse, Pullman and St. John/ Endicott – increased their senior enrollment numbers by a total of 16 students compared to last year. Rosalia, Colfax and Garfield/Palouse saw their number of graduating seniors decrease by 26 since last year. Gra...
St. John School District board of directors at a special meeting last Thursday approved a funding measure to replace roofing at the school, using a special non-voted bond. In 2018, St. John voters approved a two-year capital levy for the school with $250,000 to be collected in 2019 and again 2020. Because contractors will need to be paid sooner than 2020, the board approved a $480,000 bond that will be paid off as the levy money is collected, according to Dana Crider, district business manager....
One Rosalia community member saw the need and stepped in to continue the Rosalia royalty program. Tanya Charles, USPS employee and long-time Whitman County resident, in Nov. 2016 created a nonprofit called the Rosalia Community Float and Royalty Association. The Rosalia Chamber of Commerce had sponsored the program before, but in 2016 the coordinator went on maternity leave and was unable to lead it. "I saw the need; someone had to do it," she said. Charles said the nonprofit continued the...
County commissioners discussed Graphic Informational Systems in Whitman County and heard an update about the Hawkins development Tuesday morning at their workshop session. Whitman County will work throughout the summer to update GIS in the county, Public Works Director Mark Storey said. GIS is a data mapping system that is used to map out fire hydrants, school zones, town and city limits and election zones, Lance Bishop, Whitman County IT Director, said. Storey added GIS also collects data on roads and bridges. Bishop said GIS is very precise...
First Thursdays will returns to downtown Colfax June 6 with the music of Sammy Eubanks headlining at 6:30 p.m. Eubanks has been voted best male vocalist in Washington state 12 times and is a member of the Inland Empire Blues Society Hall of Fame. Sammy’s playlist ranges from country to blues. The beer/wine garden will open at 5:30 p.m. at Spring Street at the second stoplight in town. Additional activities will begin at 3 p.m. with street vendors, restaurant and local merchant sales and a Fish Painting Party from 3 to 5:30 p.m. in The Center a...
The Washington State Board of Education honored several Whitman County schools for the 2017-2018 school year. In the first phase of the school recognition system, 216 schools across Washington were recognized for three different categories: closing gaps, growth and achievement. “This is a new recognition program,” Jake Dingman, Oakesdale superintendent and principal, said. “They haven’t done this before.” Dingman said Oakesdale was recognized because the large amount of ninth graders on track to graduate, high attendance records and the schoo...
Whitman County residents should expect to hear from Avista about installing a new smart meter in their home. Paul Kimmell, Avista Palouse regional manager, said smart meters are an advanced metering technology. They provide more information to Avista and the customers. Kimmell said installation of smart meters started in Spokane, and crews are now working in Zone 7, which includes Spangle, St. John, Endicott and all the way down past Pullman. Customers can see instantaneously how much power they are using that day, he said. Smart meters...
City of Tekoa will delay a summer-long streets project after bids came in too high. The work was for road reconstruction and new sidewalks on sections of Crosby Street and Park Street, to be paid for by the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board. In addition, while the road was to be done, Tekoa was set to replace water and sewer lines on one block of Crosby. The city went out to bid in April for the road reconstruction and the three bids came back at least $300,000 higher than the engineer’s estimate, based on what Tekoa was f...
Pullman Fire Department responds to several cottonwood fluff fires this time of year, especially on College Hill. From about mid-May to mid-June, cottonwood trees produce fluff that floats on the slightest breeze. This fluff accumulates, up to six inches or more under bushes and in tall grass with dead organic matter. This increases the chance of a fire. “We’ve had people, without thinking, drop their lighted cigarettes in a pile of fluff and then watch helplessly as the fire takes off through the grass and up a hillside,” Deputy Fire Marsh...
Port commissioners convened at Boyer Park and Marina last Thursday for a regular meeting prior to the park's Memorial Day weekend season opening. Mike Olmstead, park manager, gave the commissioners a tour of the park to highlight current and future projects and repairs, including the new cabin, which replaces the one that had burned, landscaping and roofing. Camper spots were already occupied by pike minnow fishermen while the main camping area had been groomed in anticipation of Memorial...
A dog-bite incident in Tekoa in April has been addressed by the city council May 6, in a 5-2 vote to allow the owner to keep the animal in town with certain conditions. City council representatives John Guidice and Roy Schulz voted no. The owner will be required to buy dangerous dog insurance, display a “Beware of Dog” sign at the home, muzzle the dog when out of the yard, build a second fence inside the yard and go through further training. Tekoa Mayor Troy Wilson reported last week that code enforcement officer Mike Bogenreif has ver...
As the Colfax High School class of 2019 prepares to graduate Saturday, one particular class has a stake in what happens next. Altaira Bogle, a six-year teacher at Colfax, leads Senior Transitions – a required year-long class for 12th-graders which covers career investigation, scholarships, writing cover letters, college applications and resumes. Also, it covers how to rent an apartment, buy a car, live with roommates, read a lease, budget for groceries, handle personal finance, utility bills, f...
Fourteen people participated in the Paint & Sip program at the Eagles May 10. Participants painted a sunflower in acrylic on a 16 x 20-inch canvas. Some branched out and tried different backgrounds. The assembled included a foursome from the new credit union, another from the Eagles and a group of four friends with a "mother" participating as a Mother's Day present. Despite the event name, most drank bottled water. The Paint & Sip session is a fundraising event for the Colfax Arts...
The public is invited to attend the 2019 Snake River Family Festival Saturday, June 8, at Boyer Park & Marina, upstream from Almota. The free event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature free food (while supplies last,) activities for kids and live music performed by Sammy Eubanks. Attendees will be able to meet with area experts to discuss and learn more about clean hydropower production, navigation systems on the Columbia and Snake rivers and how the dams address the needs of salmon. Exhibitors Bonneville Power...
Oakesdale girls collected points all over the Roos Field complex at Cheney Friday and Saturday to roll out a dominant win in the 1B state track finals. The Nighthawks finished with 107 points, the highest tally for the six divisions at the meet which included 1B, 2B and 1A boys and girls division. Second highest team tally was an 82 stacked by Mt. Vernon Christian in their 1B boys division win. Colfax boys finished with 24 points to tie for 12th in the 2B division, and the Tekoa/Oakesdale boys...
Colton opened the tournament with a first round win over the Loggerettes of Wishkah Valley, 13-2. They advanced to meet Southeast 1B league rival Pomeroy in the semifinals, winning 11-6. They made the state final, a team lead by five seniors, to play defending champions Almira/Coulee/Hartline, which beat them in a seeding game a week before. This would be for Colton's eighth state 1B softball championship since 2009, the last title in 2016, when the seniors were freshmen. The game was Saturday...
Colfax seniors Bennett Gray and Augie Allenbach finished second with a team score of 31 May 22 on the Tumwater Valley course. Crosspoint Academy of Bremerton took the team trophy with a score of 41. Gray placed fourth overall with a 153 (76-77) and Allenbach finished eighth with a 159 (81-79). Blake Kukula of Ilwaco was medalist for the all-B final with a 144 (73-71). Crosspoint’s Ethan Heydal placed second at 150 and Alex Weirth fifth at 156 for the team point edge. Davenport’s Kristoff Panke finished third at Tumwater behind Kukula and Hey...
Colfax softball players finished the season with a 1-2 run at Yakima to fall short of the trophy round. The Bulldogs started the run at Gateway Complex with a marathon 20-18 win over Ocosta in the first round. The opener featured a total of 38 hits for both sides. Colfax scored three runs in the last inning to pull out the win after Ocasta rallied for eight runs in the sixth inning. Helina Hahn hit for the cycle with a home run, triple, double and single, and Perry Imler tripled, doubled and singled. Anni Cox had four hits with a double. The wi...
