Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Properties along Mill Street will be the focus of the next survey inventory of the Colfax Historic Preservation Commission, Debbie Snell, a member of the commission, reported to the city council last night. The group is completing an inventory of the downtown buildings and previously completed an inventory of properties at each end of the downtown section of Main Street. Snell said the commission is also working on packets which can be given to property owners who are considering renovation projects. The packets will provide information of...
Bids for construction of the Palouse Community Center, a goal of many fund raising efforts over the past four years, will be opened June 21. If all goes as planned, the exterior of the building could be finished before winter, said Scott Beeson, president of the community center. However, the plan is still tentative and much depends on the bid amounts, he cautioned. Once the bids are opened, the group will decide if they want to take out a loan to cover the difference between the cost and the amount of funds now available. After four years of...
After a week of review, Whitman County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to restore scheduled pay raises for non-union employees. The decision, which affects salaries of nearly one-third of the county’s employees, will cost the county’s operating budget $19,379.35 over what has been budgeted for 2010. The overall move will cost the county $23,062.34, but $3,682.99 had already been budgeted for the raises. Employees receive “step” raises of three percent for every 18 months they are employed by the county. Step raises for non-union employe...
On Friday, June 4, winners of the Bikes for Books contest from Tekoa, Oakesdale, Garfield and Palouse went to Wal-Mart in Moscow to pick out their new bicycles. The program is sponsored by Oakesdale Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Washington. Students in grades 1-6 in each of the schools participated by reading books throughout the nine months of school. Each time a student read five books, they qualified to put their name in a box for the drawing at the end of the school year. The more books they read, the more times their name went into...
Videos spotlighting Whitman County may constitute an endorsement of the CGI Showcasing production company of Rochester, New York. So feels the county’s web committee, chair Michael Baker told commissioners last week. “Our concern is that this could be taken as an endorsement,” said Baker, who also noted the web committee was not consulted when commissioners decided to proceed with the project. CGI will produce a series of promotional videos about the county. A link on the county’s website will direct users to the videos on CGI’s website....
Gazette Reporter The county’s principals’ association was tapped for a state award this year, one of eight given out by a private, state-wide organization, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. The Whitman County Principals’ Association won the award for coming up with and executing a professional teaching day last year. On Oct. 8 last year, roughly 275 educators and school support staff took to the hallways of Colfax high school to swap education tips and learn more about teacher collaboration. Because the day went so well,...
When the Hunter Meets the Gatherer As George Santayana famously said, those who fail to study history are condemned to repeat it — unless they get lucky on the final. This is especially true for “pre-history,” which is a combination of the suffix “pre,” meaning “before,” and “history,” meaning “what has occurred” — so “pre-history” literally means “things that happened before they occurred.” Pre-history tells us that our species used to be a hunter-gatherer society. This means that the job of raising a family was split 50-50 between the men...
Diphthongs After reading the article about the firing of the county Finance Director, I found I was faced with two choices. I could do like most and say, “Why am I not surprised?” and carry on. Or I could voice my displeasure about our three commissioners and how they are doing their job. I have chosen the second option, as it is apparent that they are not fully committed to doing our work that they were elected for. But are engaged in some kind of struggle between themselves. It is also easy to see that by their own words, they do not tru...
Massachusetts health care is a bellwether If you want a glimpse of what health care will look like under Obamacare, look at what is going on in Massachusetts. In 2006, state lawmakers passed the Massachusetts Health Reform law. It was touted as a wave of the future and was the model for the new federal health reform law. But after a few short years, the law seems less like a wave and more like a sinking ship. Like Obamacare, the Massachusetts law requires individuals and employers to purchase private health insurance or pay a fine. Like Obamaca...
A lesson for political candidates WELL, HERE comes another one. The Republican candidate for President Obama’s old Senate seat has admitted to inaccurately claiming he received the U.S. Navy’s Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO’s conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s. Translation: U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a Navy reservist elected to Congress in 2001, lied about an honor for outstanding service that went to his unit and not him individually. Source: A story by the Washington Post in the Seattle Times. The “erro...
County government is in a mess, and the mess is of its own making. The current crisis is swirling around the New World software purchased for its finance department years ago. It has never been used, despite having cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is just the hard cash. The total cost of the software, including all the disruptions, delays and turmoil it has caused, may never be known. And now there is nobody to operate it. The financial services department has been gutted. The New World software and the difficulties of...
Rule breakers in Lamont will now make the hour-long drive south to Colfax. Whitman County commissioners Monday approved the town’s request to have violations of city code heard before the county’s district court. Prior to Monday’s decision, violations of city rules governing such things as pets and too many cars parked outside a house had been judged by the city council. Mayor Steve Lacy said having Judge Douglas Robinson hear the cases will remove disputes among neighbors in the state’s second smallest town. Lacy said hard feelings have oc...
A Colfax Fire Department truck is scheduled at Eells Park in Colfax June 17 at 1 p.m. to kick off Whitman County Library’s Summer Reading focus, “Make A Splash-Read!” All 14 library branches host a six-week session designed to encourage youngsters to read. Branch managers from each community are gearing up for special promotions and programs for all ages. Reading 10 books or 10 hours qualifies youngsters to a prize bag following the last program. Studies have shown that children who read just four books during the summer score higher on compr...
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. City water bill settlement Joyce Stookey, former Colfax resident now of Spokane, paid off a long overdue water/sewer bill for $204.68 after a vote by the Colfax city council approved the settlement sum. Stookey’s last bill was $505.10, but she was allowed to write off the $300.42 difference, most of which was the result of month-to-month o...
This vintage school building on Fugate Road has surrendered a few more degrees from vertical over the past year. Commonly known at the Kamiak School, it was officially named the Skeen School. The name derives from a pioneer family in the area. The school is located on the Jim Askins place on Fugate Road which runs along the north side of Kamiak Butte. Last classes at the school were in the mid 1930s....
The smell of horses and leather tack blew along the streets of Malden Thursday. More than 100 horses, riders and drivers were camped out in the city park, taking a rest day on their cross-state journey of the John Wayne Trail. Temporary pens filled with resting horses dotted the blocks of the city park. Horses lolled in patches of sun beneath pine trees. Pickups, trailers and RVs were parked in the grass. Beginning at Easton, the collection of riders, teamsters, horses, mules and bicyclists has been riding across the state on the John Wayne...
The third annual Peter Zornes Memorial Golf Tournament will be June 26 at the Colfax Golf Club. The tournament is the primary fundraiser for the Peter A. Zornes Memorial Neuroscience Scholarship at Washington State University. Lots of spots still available for individuals and teams. The cost to register for golf is $80. Zornes, an Oakesdale native and 2003 honors graduate of WSU’s Neuroscience Program, was pursuing a medical career at the time of his death in 2005 at the age of 25. The family has established the scholarship in his memory to b...
Four players from Colton’s championship softball team were named to the SE all-league team for 1B softball at the end of the season. They included Kelsey Moser and Megan Grassl, seniors; Molly Kramer and Mikayla Mygreen, juniors. Kirsten Stubbs and Galdys Martinez, LaCrosse/Washtucna seniors, and Kelly Van Lith, SJE senior, were also named to all-league honors. Other players on the all SE team were Zoe Weaver, Tierra Kessler, Nicole Brown and Meghan Cantrel, Touchet; and Haylee Koller, Pomeroy. SJE’s Gretchen Van Lith, Alli Winters and Trisha L...
The 35th edition of the Colfax Junior Rodeo will be at the Palouse Empire Fairground this weekend. Start times will be at 1 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Contestants will compete for EWJRA year-end points in five age groups, beginning at five and under and going through high school. Buckles and cash awards will go to the top three finishers and all-around awards will be presented in each class. Funding for prizes derives from donations made by local businesses and supporters of the Colfax Junior Rodeo...
Warren Miller of St. John/Endicott placed fifth in a state decathlon event Friday and Saturday at Lake Sevens High School. Miller was one of about four competitors for the east side of the state to compete in the state event. Total entry was 48 with most of the competitors from the west side schools. Miller picked up points in about half of the events which he had never entered during his high school track career. Included in the prep work was some training in the pole vault from Colfax Coach Jason Cooper. Miller, who hopes to see some actions...
First-year Coach James Blesoe paid special recognition to five seniors who led the Colfax fastpitch softball team this year. The team advanced to the state 2B semi-final round at Yakima after winning the District 7 regional in Spokane the previous week at Franklin Park. Coach Bledsoe said he planned to initiate a $250 scholarship program for seniors in the Colfax softball program. Team seniors from the left are Brooke Waldo, Carmen Hall, Danielle Herne, Brittney Burke and Kayleigh Maltone. Colfax sophomore pitcher Amy Hickman was named to the...
Ten Colfax players were named to the Bi-County’s all-league team. From left are Kellen Morgan, Joe Johnson, Will Hatley, Dustin Huber, Tanner Gay, Tyler McNannay, Brandon Hoadley, JJ Robinson and Tyler Morse. Alex Teade, not pictured, also earned all-league honors. Bulldog baseball players wrapped up the end of the season with the annual awards banquet Monday night. Coach Mike Parrish’s squad combined to hit better than .500 and brought home a second place trophy from the state championships in Yakima. “But second place doesn’t cut it in Colf...
Pullman Patriots took both sides of a doubleheader over the Spokane Bandits Tuesday at Bailey-Brayton Field to start their season in the Spokane Senior Legion competition. The Pats took a 5-2 win in the opener with Colfax grad Brandon Hoadley pitching a five hitter. The Pats scored three runs in the second inning and added two in the third. Chase Druffel of Colton and Jackson Webb of Asotin rapped doubles in the opener. Hoadley and Nick Scourey of Pullman also had hits. The Pats pounded the Bandits 12-3 in the second game with Scourey throwing...
Coach Matt Johnson and the Whitman Cougars started the new summer Junior Legion season with a split at the top of the week. The Cougars pulled out a one-run win over Pullman Posse at McDonald Field Monday and then bowed 13-3 to Asotin on the road Tuesday. Johnson returns to Colfax after finishing another year at Pacific Lutheran University where he will complete undergraduate studies at the end of the fall semester. He will be coaching the team for a second year. The Cougar roster now includes 14 players from the Colfax, Colton,...
Rider Michael Vance of Dayton hangs on to a Bar X bull in the bull riding portion of Saturday’s Battle Days rodeo. The only rider to stay on a bull for the full eight seconds, Mike Boswell of Lewiston claimed the top spot in the annual bull riding event at Rosalia’s Battle Days. Bull riding brought in eight riders from around the state, while five competed in the bronc busting event. Boswell was given a 76 score for his ride to claim the $1,200 purse. Riders sat atop stock brought up from Asotin by the Bar X Ranch. The Bar X beasts proved to...
