Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 51 - 67 of 67
Mitz’s Cabinets of Colfax is moving to Garfield. After the original cabinet shop burned down last November, owner Craig Mitzimberg has been running his business temporarily out of a space in the former Inland Power Building just north of Colfax on Highway 195. The new shop will be housed in the building which formerly housed the grocery store in Garfield and a former hotel building. “We’re doing a bunch of the work in there right now, getting it ready,” Mitzimberg said. Mitzimberg bought the former grocery store building from his brother, T.J.... Full story
For the first time since John Love defeated Marcia McCracken in 1995, Whitman County will see a contested election for a seat on its port commission. Tom Kammerzell and Alan Morgan of Colfax and Jeff Phelps and Al Sorensen of Pullman all filed for the soon-to-be vacated District 3 seat on the port commission. The seat is now held by Don Cox of Colfax, who was appointed last year following the death of Bob Gronholz. The person elected this time around will serve out the remainder of Gronholz’s term, which expires in 2015. The field for four c...
Water rushes out of the spillway at Lower Granite Dam Tuesday afternoon. With spring river flows unusually high this year, dams along the Snake and Columbia Rivers have had to spill almost as much water as they send through turbines for electrical generation. Rob Lustig, maintenance chief at Lower Granite, said the flow pictured above was rushing through at 45,000 cubic feet per second. Lustig said that flow represents just less than half of the 754 megawatts of power the dam was generating at the time....
Gilbert Ward Pierce, 60, St. John, was arrested on a probable charge of vehicular assault Saturday afternoon after he allegedly backed over a three-year-old boy near the entrance to the St. John sprint boat races. The youngster, Brody O. Brown, was taken by ambulance to Spokane. Pierce was allowed release from jail on his own recognizance Monday in a first appearance in superior court. A formal charge had not been filed against him at that time. According to the deputy’s arrest report, Pierce was attempting to depart the boat races at St. John...
Colfax police June 16 responded to a report of horses running loose on Moller Road on the west hill of Colfax. Chief Bill Hickman said the three horses were moved into a corral at the Collingsworth place. The owners of the horses were identified when they called the police department and reported their three horses were missing. The horses came out of a pasture along Airport Road....
Michael Schaub was allowed release from jail after the court determined Friday morning it lacked evidence to keep him in custody. Schaub told the court he had falsely admitted taking methamphetamine because he had made a pledge with his wife to follow her to prison. Schaub had been jailed after the state reported he was suspected of violating terms of supervision under a drug offender sentencing option. A state probation officer reported Schaub after he discovered Schaub was not residing at the LaCrosse residence where he had registered for... Full story
A Sept. 1 sentencing date in U.S. District Court in Spokane has been scheduled for Alicia E. Napier of Colfax after she pleaded guilty last Tuesday, June 14, to 14 counts of mail fraud and two counts of bank fraud under a plea agreement, according to a press report issued by Michael Ormsby, US Attorney for Eastern Washington. Under terms of the plea agreement, Napier, 47, will be required to pay restitution to Palouse Urology, PLLC, Pullman, in the amount of $538,726. The report said Napier embezzled the funds from Palouse Urology where she...
Port of Whitman County officials Monday awarded a $7 million contract to telecommunications construction firm Henkels and McCoy of Coeur d’Alene to link Whitman County with high speed fiber optic cable. Henkels and McCoy bid $7,365,925 to install fiber optics from Spokane to Clarkston, linking several towns to high speed internet along the way. Estimated construction cost from the port’s engineering firm, CHR, was $9,137,273. The contract for the port project was almost awarded to Ledcor of Vancouver, B.C., which submitted a low bid of $5,...
Traffic on the lower Snake River was halted at Lower Granite Dam this week after floating debris damaged the gate cables on the dam’s upstream navigation lock. Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla District reported Tuesday a routine inspection showed the Kevlar material gate cables, which open and close the gate on the lock, were damaged and needed to be replaced. Lock service for commercial vessels was shut off from 6:30 p.m. Monday through 6:30 p.m. Tuesday while crews cut off the old cables. A floating bulkhead was r...
Another illegal entry into the back of the Thrifty Grandmothers’ shop was reported to Colfax Police last Friday morning. Entry was made through a small space where building blocks have been knocked out along the back wall. The space had been blocked off. Bags of donated items had been disturbed, but police were unable to determine if any of the donated items were missing....
First construction work on Mill Street began Tuesday morning with city crews replacing water service lines under the street. The first block of the S. Mill project, between Island and Uptown Streets, was blocked off while crews began excavations. The city has issued a call for contractor bids on the project with opening slated for the afternoon of July 5 before the city council session that night....
A leak which could have been dumping as much as 5,000 gallons per day from of the Colfax swimming pool system has been discovered and repaired, Public Works Director Andy Rogers reported to the city council Monday night. The leak was found in a one-inch line which connects with the pool’s main supply line and serves as part of the pools chemical treatment system. Rogers said city crew member Chris Clark discovered the leak. The maintenance crew noted the chemical treatment which was supposed to be added to the pool via the line was not g... Full story
In 2004, Connie Brown, school counselor at Garfield, tossed a bottle filled with student notes into the Selway River in Idaho. Seven years passed. This May, the school received all the notes back in an envelope in the mail. Brown said she was surprised when Garfield principal Zane Wells handed the letter to her. “I didn’t think about it again until the principal handed me the letter and said, ‘This is going to make your year,’” said Brown. Justin Stewart of Hamilton, Mont., pulled the bottle out of the Clearwater River in Orofino on a fishing...
Grain trucks headed to the Port of Almota will have a smoother ride after State Department of Transportation crews finally wrapped a repaving of the Almota Highway on Tuesday. DOT spokesman Al Gilson said Tuesday the road was given an “extreme patch job,” at the order of Keith Metcalf, eastern region director of the DOT. After years of heavy trucks hauling grain down the Almota grade to the barge-loading facilities at the port, the road developed severe ruts. Gilson said DOT crews have had to grade down a ridge that continually developed in... Full story
For the first time in years, Whitman County actually knows how much money it has in the bank, and where its budget plan stands. Maybe that isn’t such a good thing. With its first report, produced by the six-year-old New World accounting software which has cost almost a million dollars to get running, county officials saw a budget deficit that is $200,000 over earlier predictions and a treasury which is down almost $1.5 million from last year at this time. “It’s unfortunate what it says, but it’s good to know finally where we are,” said Coun...
A grocery store is one step closer to returning to LaCrosse after commissioners with the Port of Whitman County decided Monday to grant backers of a marketplace proposal $42,000. LaCrosse Community Pride, a group of store backers from LaCrosse and western Whitman County, asked for port funding last month. The group’s plan is to remodel the LaCrosse Market building, which closed down in February, 2009, into a combination grocery store, library and office space. In their proposal, the group envisioned as many as 15 jobs being created at the m...
Colfax hits its summertime society high point Sunday when the Whitman County Historical Society hosts its 39th annual ice cream social from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Perkins House. The social again will feature the Dixieland stylings of Whitman County’s longest-gigging band, the Snake River Six. All proceeds from the event go to the Historical Society for preservation of the Perkins House. The cabin behind the house is circa 1870, while the construction on the home began in 1886. Barbecue hamburgers and hot dogs will be available, and a selection o...
