Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Locke said skilled, but too cautious OUR OWN GARY LOCKE, the first Chinese-American governor, has been sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. Ambassador to China. Well, he should suit President Obama just fine. In his political career, nobody questioned his intelligence or ability, but he was cautious to the point of near paralysis when it came to being a leader rather than just minding the store. Remind you of any presidents you’ve heard of? I always liked Gary Locke despite the fact his image was tarnished by a character flaw few p...
In 1977, farmers, business people and others celebrated the creation of a new, locally funded bank in Colfax. It was a big deal. The new bank was called Bank of Whitman. Its mission was to support and build the local economy by providing loans and financing for local people. It was dedicated to keeping its resources and commitments at home. The bank quickly became the go-to source for financial services and support for community projects. It employed local people at all levels of responsibility. For many, it was the preferred place to bank, and...
#!*! With 300 to 400 trucks a day into Central Ferry, how about $40,000 from the Port of Whitman for a snack shop or restaurant? YYYYYYY The grounds at WHMC. Kudos to the groundskeeper. YYYYYYY The Gazette for keeping the public informed about our elected officers. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 Colfax, Wa 99111 Pet Peeves and Okeydokes should be short. One sentence is usually enough. Please sign longer submissions so they can be run as letters to the editor....
TRIVIA TEST 1. TELEVISION: What was the name of the airline company whose plane crashed in the television series “Lost”? 2. POLITICS: Who is the only person in U.S. history to serve as governor of two different states? 3. GEOGRAPHY: In what U.S. state would you find Fort Donelson? 4. BIBLE: What famous biblical character survived a night in a den of lions? 5. HUMAN ANATOMY: What is the liquid part of blood called? 6. NICKNAMES: What is the nickname of the Indianapolis Speedway? 7. MOVIES: Who wrote the story that was eventually made into the...
STRANGE BUT TRUE • It was American ventriloquist and comedian Willie Tyler who made the following sage observation: “The reason lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn’t there the second time.” • Even flight attendants have their own patron saint, as declared by Pope Paul XXIII in 1962: Saint Bona of Pisa. • Many people believe that the Gutenberg Bible, which came from the presses of Johannes Gutenberg in the 1450s, is the first example of a printed book, but that’s not true; it’s the first book printed usin...
MARRIAGE LICENSES Ryan M. Plunkett, 25, and Katherine L. Bishop, 21, both Pullman, Aug. 4. Matthew W. Gaskill, 26, and Erika L. Bush, 23, both Moscow, Aug. 4. Scott J. Keller, 24, and Andrea R. McIntosh, 26, both Colton, Aug. 5. Manuel F.D. Gonzalez, 26, and Marialuisa Di Stefano, 29, both Pullman, Aug. 5. Wilfred W. Tjiwongua, 32, Colfax, and Keonia N. Evans, 25, Clarkston, Aug. 8. Christopher M. Webster, 35, and Sherri A. Huit, 34, both Pullman, Aug. 8. Philip A. Sweet III, 21, Spokane, and Aryssa Laubach, 18, Pullman, Aug. 9. Jason D....
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. COLFAX SCHOOLS PLAN 7-12 STAFFING Parents of Colfax sixth, seventh and eighth graders were encouraged to attend a meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the high school to learn about the new education staffing model for grades seven through 12. Supt. Michael Morgan said the district is using the staffing system to better coordinate programs with fewer...
The newly named Tri County Patriots rolled up a string of four wins in the Bob Haney Memorial Tournament at Colville over the weekend to get into the championship game. The collided with the Spokane Thunder in the title game and sustained a 2-9 loss to finish in second place. The second place finish netted a team trophy and individual trophies for the players. It also wrapped up the tournament season for the team which played in tourneys at Potlatch, Pullman and Orofino as the Colfax 12-under club. Coach Wayne Gregory, who has headed the team...
A smaller, but still efficient Pomeroy swim team booked their fifth straight win Saturday in the big Jerry Cluckey Memorial meet at the Colfax swim pool. The Pirate strokers stacked 335 points for a winning margin of over 56 points. Garfield/Palouse edged Colfax by a point for the second place honor with 278.5 points. Other team scores were Colfax 277.5, Dayton 210, St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse 200 and Oakesdale/Rosalia 74. Pomeroy had three of the high point individual winners for the meet. Scott Slaybaugh, who won five of six individual events...
It’s for the Times; it’s for the country; it’s for one last time. Bruce Weber, New York Times reporter, passed through Whitman County this week on a bicycle. It’s his second ride across the country and first through the Palouse. “What is the Palouse?” he asked, at a stop in St. John, on a warming afternoon last Thursday with 35 miles to go to Cheney. “The landscape is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” he said. “For a New Yorker, it’s dizzying how much space is out here. It seems you could fit a...
Jet fuel firms want camelina The United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency announced last week new incentives for Whitman County farmers to grow camelina. Under the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, producers could receive financial assistance to plant the oilseed crop. Whitman County FSA Director Kathy Wolfe said in a statement the national FSA has joined with two biofuel companies to raise camelina that could be used in jet fuels. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture has worked to become a leader in promoting alt...
THURSDAY Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who heads a breakaway Mormon sect, was found guilty of child sexual assault for his so-called “spiritual marriages” to two girls, aged 12 and 14. He is later sentenced to life in prison. A group of Tibetan Buddhists released 534 live lobsters into the dark waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts. Ukraine’s Environment Minister Mykola Zlochevsky vowed to free all bears kept in restaurants for entertainment purposes which are often forced to drink alcohol. Jerry Lewis, 85, will not a...
Whitman County’s elections department has scheduled a three-day extended filing period for offices open for election in 2011 which have no candidate. The period will run Aug. 29-31. Elections Supervisor Debbie Hooper said 64 positions on boards and councils around the county lack candidates for new terms which begin at the start of next year. Some of the positions are vacant now. A complete list of positions open during the extended filing period is available by calling the elections office or checking the internet elections...
Pullman’s three-day “Stuff the Bus” school supply drive is this week. Donations will be accepted Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Pullman, Colton and Uniontown. An opening ceremony will be today, Aug. 11, at Dissmore’s IGA in Pullman. “Stuff the Bus” began in 2009 to collect school supplies and distribute them to those in need around the county. The program is a collaboration of Kiwanis Club of Pullman, Pullman School District, Colton/Uniontown School District and Pullman Child Welfare. A list of school supplies needed can be found on the inte...
Wal-Mart sales tax revenues, farm implement taxes, an extra influx of federal prisoners and a third of a million dollars from cash reserves are being used to put Whitman County’s 2011 operating budget in the black—sort of. “I’m not smiling,” said Greg Partch, chair of the county commission. “We’re still gonna have to burn our cash to balance it.” Unexpected revenue gains erased $213,437 from the anticipated $539,012 year-end deficit. Commissioners have committed to plug in $330,000 from the county’s cash reserves, but at present the tap c...
Whitman County is the third healthiest county in Washington state, Health Department Director Fran Martin told commissioners last month. Martin presented results from countyhealthrankings.org, a report put together by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “What it says is mainly that we do a good job,” said Martin. Counties are ranked based on the number of people who die before age 75, those reporting fair or poor health, the number of days citizens report poor mental health and the rate of low-birthweight inf...
Gazette Reporters Brian Maley, Rosalia High school grad who was raised on the family farm, will be principal and athletic director at Tekoa High School. He will start officially Aug. 20, after 10 years teaching middle school and coaching at Rainier, near Olympia. Maley, son of Bob and the late Sally Maley, said he has been attempting to get back to the east side of the state. “The past two years I’ve applied around Eastern Washington and a lot of times was second place,” he said. “I’m grateful...
The spring rains have brought summer bales. Farmers around the county have seen a marked increase in hay after production has been down in recent years. “It’s not quite double the average yield,” said Colfax farmer Larry Cochran of his hay production. In his 25 years growing hay on 75 acres, 1,100 bales was the top mark. This year, he had 1,260. “This year I’m filling every crack in the barns I can find,” Cochran said. Rain was key, but not the entire reason, he suggested. “It never got too...
Harry Johnson Plumbing and Excavating of Walla Walla was awarded a $412,655 contract in a crowded bidding market to rebuild Neel Bridge on Little Alkali Road near Dusty. Public Works Director Mark Storey said the firm expects to begin work within a month. Harry Johnson was the lowest of eight firms to bid on the project, with all but one submitting bids lower than the county’s estimated price tag. Storey said the number of bids, which came from as far away as eastern Oregon, is both a blessing and a curse. He said the competition brings in l...
Judge John F. Strohmaier of Davenport ruled Monday that First Wind can be included as a defendant with Whitman County in the court challenge filed by Roger Whitten against the north-county wind turbine farm project. Whitten, whose Oakesdale home sits in a valley between hills on which First Wind has proposed to locate turbines, is appealing a conditional use permit approval from an independent hearings examiner that would give the Boston-based firm permission to proceed. Wenatchee attorney Andrew Kottkamp presided over a day’s worth of t...
The Palouse Conservation District will host their second annual river cleanup on the North Fork of the Palouse Saturday, Aug. 27. As part of National River Cleanup 2011, the day will include stream cleanup and site maintenance at the Palouse Native Plant Walk. Volunteers will be in action from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Participants will meet at 9 a.m. at Hayton Green Park in Palouse. A celebration barbecue and sign unveiling for the Palouse Native Plant Walk will be at 1 p.m. along the North Fork of the river at the Plant Walk. “Palouse Conservation Dis...
Project to provide high-speed data link from Spokane to Clarkston. Crews were set to begin in Rosalia Wednesday laying the Port of Whitman County’s $12 million high speed fiber optic cable. Joe Poire, port executive director, said Monday the port is wrapping up its permit process but workers from contractor Henkels and McCoy of Coeur d’Alene were going to begin putting conduit through Rosalia. When finished, the 157-mile project will provide a broadband internet link between Spokane and Clarkston through rural Spokane and Whitman counties. Con...
Ballots due back Tuesday Return on primary ballots has topped 18 percent of eligible ballots, with the Whitman County elections officials reporting 1,716 had been received as of Tuesday. The total includes 1,477 from voters in precincts in port district three which has four candidates on the ballot, and 423 from the Colfax city precincts which includes votes for the mayoral candidates and the port district. Total mailout of ballots July 29 was 9,445. Some of the ballots are from the Garfield and Farmington precincts which have levy...
Colfax Councilman David Nails has declared himself as a write-in candidate for Colfax Mayor. Nails told the Gazette Tuesday he decided to run a write-in campaign after one of his friends declared he was going to write his name down on the ballot. That led to several other residents calling and urging him to run as a write-in candidate. Nails, 44, is operations manager at the Whitman County landfill. He was on vacation last week, and when he returned the suggestion picked up its own momentum. “There are a lot of good issues for the city to f...
Columbia State Bank takes over 8 of 20 branches Bank of Whitman was closed by state and federal regulators last Friday night. A team of 111 bank employees and Federal Deposit Insurance agents put in a weekend’s work, and eight of the Bank of Whitman’s 20 branches swung the doors open Monday morning as Columbia State Bank, a subsidiary of the Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System. “What is this place? Is this still a bank?” asked one customer walking into the Colfax branch Monday morning. Once formal notice was served at the Bank of Whitman...
