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Whitman County commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch have dodged the bullet. They faced a recall action, in part for alleged violations of the Open Public Meetings Act. At the recall hearing Monday Judge William Acey declared that there was not enough evidence to proceed with the recall. The next step would have been collecting enough signatures to get the recall on the ballot. This, of course, will not happen. The recall action is over. The commissioners are on the job, and the legal cloud which was hanging over their heads is gone. L...
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. Road vacation hearing A Sept. 20 hearing date has been set for the proposed vacation of a steep, unused segment of a city street running from E. Fairview downhill to the highway exit to Pullman on the city’s south end. The segment of street came to the attention of the city when a large poplar tree at the top the hill was blown over and hit t...
Heads turned on Main Street in Colfax last Thursday when Ron Nardone of Maltby parked his classic hot rod school bus during a breakfast stop at the Top Notch. Nardone was on his way to a hot rod show in Lolo, Mont. He found the bus in a junkyard at Powell, Wyo., and spent three years building the rod. The bus is on the chassis of a 1978 three-quarter ton pickup. It is powered by Chevrolet 454 engine. He painted it as a Bothell High School bus in honor of his alma mater. It also features the names of now deceased Bothell sports stars of the...
Seven-year-old Gavin Shrope, front, offers up a glass of cold lemonade as sister Madison, left, 10, makes up another batch and 12-year-old cousin Dorian Jaeger, Wilbur, behind Gavin, watches for new customers. The cousins made more than $40 selling lemonade at 25 cents a cup outside the Oakesdale home of their grandparents, Mel and Claudia Louk....
1. ADVERTISING: What product did Tony the Tiger sell in advertisements? 2. GEOGRAPHY: What is the highest waterfall in the world? 3. LANGUAGE: Who coined the phrase “wild-goose chase”? 4. BIBLE: Which book of the Bible contains the longest name mentioned — “Mahershalalhashbaz”? 5. MOVIES: What was the name of the male lead character in “Love Story” (played by Ryan O’Neal)? 6. ANATOMY: About how long is the human small intestine? 7. TITLES: What is the abbreviated title of a veterinarian? 8. COMICS: What comic-book superhero is sometimes known... Full story
* It was librarian and essayist Frederick Saunders who made the following sage observation: “Pride, like laudanum and other poisonous medicines, is beneficial in small, though injurious in large, quantities. No man who is not pleased with himself, even in a personal sense, can please others.” * Earthquakes occur at a rate of roughly one every minute around the world. About eight of those every year are considered to be major, registering above 7.0 on the Richter Scale. * Statistics show that the average 5-year-old boy today weighs about 10 perc...
A long-time friend/foe of Colfax sports will mark a return to Colfax this fall for homecoming week. The Kettle Bulldogs, who competed against Colfax from the opposite end of the NE-A league, have been allowed permission to drop town into the WIAA’s 2B division for the next two years and will be back on sports schedules. The homecoming game will be Oct. 29. It will also be senior night and the last scheduled date for the Bulldogs who have booked playoff rounds for the grid dates in November, according to the annual preview letter sent out by C...
Pacific Tech, the Longview-Kelso team which bumped the Pullman Patriots in the last qualifying round of the regional tournament here last week, went on to take the AAA Legion state title Sunday at Selah. Pacific stopped the Spokane Bandits 17-14 in the final game at Carlon Park in Selah. Brandon Middleton, who started against the Patriots in the last game here, got the start in the state title game against the Bandits. Twin City Titans, the Kennewick-Richland team which won the regional round at Colfax, was stopped 14-2 by the Bandits in a...
Colfax Boy Scouts in Troop 595 landed this six-foot sturgeon last week during a fishing trip in Hell’s Canyon on the Snake River. The river fishing trip was led by Dr. Mike Frostad of Pullman. From the left are Jared Thompson, Michael Clinton, Daniel Thomas, Brady Wuestney, Nick McAdams, Cody Miller, Dr. Frostad, A.J. Garcia, Christopher Koenig and Austin Neu. The site was about two miles downstream from the Salmon River confluence with the Snake. The sturgeon, and a smaller one which was also landed, were released....
—photo by Tim Stamper Warren Miller clears the bar at state 2B meet. St. John/Endicott grad Warren Miller moved through two qualification rounds to earn a slot in the USA Track & Field Junior Olympics at Sacramento last week. He wound up finishing 12th in the nation. Miller started the summer campaign after placing second in the 2B track finals at Cheney to wrap up his career in Eagle Athletics. Miller cleared 6-6 in the state meet to finish an inch behind Reardan’s Grant Schulz in the 2B match. The Eagles moved into the state 2B bracket thi...
Racers from Colfax, Dayton, Pomeroy and SJE take the mark just before the start of the 12-under freestyle race. The meet last Thursday was a preview for the big league meet which will finish out the swim race season at Colfax Saturday. Pomeroy’s swimmers, who pegged a close win in a four-team meet here last Thursday, July 29, will take a shot at a fourth straight win of the Jerry Cluckey Memorial Cup Saturday at Colfax. The big finale to the novice swim competition will bring in swimmers from seven teams in search of special medals sponsored b...
A plan for bicycle races at Schmuck Park and the N. Palouse flood control levee Sept. 26 advanced Monday night when city council members approved a preliminary proposal from Joel Jones of Colfax. The race will include roped off areas of Schmuck Park with a long run along the levee next to the park. Jones said the date of the race will be the weekend before the start of a 10-event Inland Northwest Cyclocross series which will include stops in Spokane, Walla Walla, Coeur d’Alene, Ephrata, Liberty Lake and Moscow, a new stop on the race series t...
Bill Frye, Colton’s public works director for 17 years, has resigned to take a job with the city of Asotin. Frye has managed maintenance for Colton’s water, sewer and other city maintenance requirements. Colton is now reviewing applications to hire a new public works director. Frye will help maintain some of the town services until the new director is hired. “I hated to lose him,” said Colton Mayor Jerry Weber, adding Frye was an excellent employee with skills in many areas....
Fire crews responded to a field fire at the Dick McNeilly place above Union Flat Road north of Highway 26, August 2. Approximately 15 acres of grain were razed by the fire which is believed to have started off a pickup truck. Fire crews reported the field was really roaring when they arrived on the scene, but an adjoining field of summer fallow stopped it. The alarm was logged just before 6 p.m. Crews from Diamond, Colfax, Albion, Steptoe and Dusty responded....
A flock of Canada geese fly overhead at sunset Monday, as one of the Uniontown lagoons lies drying in the sun. Once dry, crews will scrape out the layer of dried bio-solids and pile it in the sun to dry. The repair of Uniontown’s three lagoons is now well under way. Construction crews have now drained one of the main lagoons and will in the next few weeks drain the second lagoon. Goal of the project is to replace clay lining of the lagoons with impermeable rubber lining. The lagoons were leaking at an accelerated rate, according to state D...
Former Colfax School superintendent, Joel Aune, has been elected as president-elect of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA). Aune will step in as president in July of next year. Aune served as superintendent in Colfax for seven years before he was hired as superintendent of the Snoqualmie Valley School District in 2005, where he currently serves. He started his career as a teacher and then assistant principal at Cashmere, and then went to Walla Walla where he was in elementary principal before he was hired to head Colfax...
Two little-used ag roads in the Oakesdale area are being proposed for abandonment by Whitman County officials. Phil Meyer, maintenance and operations manager for the county road department, told county commissioners Monday they intend to abandon Crow Road and a segment of the File Road off the county grid. Crow Road is due west of Oakesdale. The short stretch of road provides a connection between Trestle Creek and Eckhart roads. There are no homes on the Crow Road, but an abandoned farmstead sits on the hillside above it. Land around the road...
A Landrover rolled on SR 195 two miles south of Uniontown August 2, shortly before 7 p.m. Four people were in the vehicle when driver Maria Faustorilla, 48, Mountlake Terrace, crossed the rumble strips, veered off the highway to the right, overcorrected and then rolled. All passengers were wearing seatbelts; alcohol was not listed as a factor in the incident, according to a report from the Washington state patrol....
THURSDAY Montana wildlife officials tested the DNA of an adult female grizzly bear to see if it was the one that killed one camper and injured two others in attacks near Yellowstone National Park. Two of the grizzly mother’s three cubs were also trapped. The mother bear will almost certainly be destroyed once positively identified. The cubs may also have to be euthanized. A New York judge overturned an officer’s citation to Julio Martinez of the Bronx. The arresting officer wrote that Martinez’s fashion style was in itself disorderly since...
With little of the controversy that surrounded previous debate over the issue, Whitman County commissioners Monday removed home building restrictions atop Whitman County’s 15 named buttes. Commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch voted 2-0 to remove the restrictions from the county’s rural residential zoning code. Commissioner Michael Largent left Monday’s meeting early to drive combine for harvest. “I support removing the elevation restrictions on the buttes,” Largent said before leaving. He added he viewed the rules a violation of the proper... Full story
The Colton town council is considering a new road that would be built to lessen the number of cars that drive past the school. A new road may soon be built in Colton. The town council is considering creating a paved road from Highway 195 south to Rimrock Road to divert farming traffic away from the Colton school and open up land for commercial use. The Colton council is a month away from the deadline to apply for a state grant to fund the street which would be west of the Colton School. Estimated cost is approximately $500,000. The site for... Full story
Public vanpooling may soon be a reality in the county. A recently formed public transportation district for the county has received a $41,600 grant to partially fund two vans for pooling transportation. County commissioners learned of the grant award this week in a letter from the state. Whitman County’s Unincorporated Transportation Benefit Area (UTBA) was formed last October for the purpose of starting a vanpooling program. Commissioner Pat O’Neill said COAST formed the program with an eye on creating a vanpooling route from the Gar...
Arrow Machinery on Highway 195 was hit again by burglars, July 29. Glass entrance doors on the building were shattered for entry into the front building north of Colfax. Undersheriff Ron Rockness said the break-in at Arrow was a repeat of the heist investigated a week earlier, Thursday, July 22. He reported another truck was taken from the neighboring Department of Transportation lot and later located on the Hume Road at the same location where a missing truck was located last week. Rockness said the first missing DOT truck was scheduled for a...
Brett Carson Hanks, 47, Oakesdale, was summoned to appear in court Aug. 20, on three drug charges which were filed against him July 28 in superior court. The investigation report filed with the charge said Hanks has a medical marijuana permit but the number of plants allegedly discovered during a warrant search exceeded 15, the number permit holders are allowed to possess in the state. The report said during the search they found eight potted plants in a bedroom with grow lights, four plants in the basement, and seven more growing in the back...
Pictured is the front of the newly remodeled Whitman County Library building at Colfax. The plaza in front of the library now features three new flower boxes with automatic sprinklers on a new surface. Doors of the Whitman County Library building in Colfax will open Monday after a nine-month million dollar remodeling project. Doors will be open at 10 a.m. The dedication ceremony will be next Wednesday, Aug. 11, at 7 p.m. A new elevator, skylight, handicap accessible doors and windows, children’s reading area and other changes are the f...