Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Palouse Days will be back Sept. 14-15 with no blade of grass unclaimed for the annual Palouse Days Show and Shine in Heyton Greene Park. With the perennial comes the new, the first annual lip sync battle to be held at Palouse Caboose at 6 p.m. Friday. Rounding out the night, Eric Jessup will play live music at The Congress. On Saturday, the full day’s schedule begins with the Lions Club Pancake Breakfast ($5 donation) at West Main Street from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. At 8 a.m., the Palouse River Run s...
The Palouse Empire fair Monday tallied up an increase at the gate after four days of run in solid fair weather. The tally at the gate, including wristbands and other advance sales totaled $65,116 this year compared to $63,687 last year. Those numbers numbers equate to 13,622 paid attendees this year compared to 13,277 last year, according to Fair Manager Janel Goebel. The fair has yet to determine a payout for premium points which will be paid to fair exhibitors. The fair will compute the total number of points awarded and plug that into the...
The Tekoa School District has a new superintendent. Mark Heid began Aug. 7, coming to the district after 11 years as superintendent in Goldendale and continuing a career in education that started at age 31 as a kindergarten teacher. He began his career after he left the apple industry to go back to college at age 29. Heid succeeds Connie Kliewer, who now works as the Director of the Center for Special Education Services for Educational Service District 101 in Spokane. She served as Tekoa...
Whitman County commissioners approved Sept. 4 what Public Works has listed for its latest Rural Arterial Program (RAP) final prospectus. Done every two years, the prospectus has a limit of five country road projects to submit for state funding. Whitman County has listed two nominees. Pullman Airport Road is named for addition of a turn lane running its whole length. Johnson Road and Johnson Cut-Off Road are listed for two-and-a-half inches of hot mix asphalt overlay. The county competes among nine other counties in Washington’s northeast r...
Winners were named for market stock classes after the first day of judging at the fair. The FFA and 4H entrants had 329 animals on the auction block for the Junior Market Sale Saturday with Butch Booker of Colfax as auctioneer. On the sale bill were 78 sheep, 150 hogs, 33 goats and 68 beef. Sheep champions were shown by Alexander McHargue of Tekoa for FFA and Deborah Fongteijn of Pullman for 4H. Reserve winners were Cole Baerlocher of Colfax for FFA and Ashley Taylor-Farr of Pullman for 4H. Hog champions were shown by Gage Holling of Fairfield...
The grain mosaic entered by Pomona Grange for the Palouse Empire Fair was covered over in the first day of the fair after it was determined to be in violation of a fair policy to avoid promotion of drugs, alcohol or narcotics in fair displays. The grain mosaic featured a large marijuana leaf with a variation of this year's “Let's Get Growing” theme. The mosaic posted a "Let It Grow?" with a question mark and provided fairgoers a chance to vote yes or no by placing beans in a jar. The fair board requested early Thursday, the first day of the...
Friends of Whitman County Library members Mikki Tague, left, and Wanda Alderman, draw the prize winners for the wrap up of the summer reading program. Attendance at children's programs topped 2,375 with 502 completing the reading challenge. Also, 81 teens and 323 adults completed the program. During last Tuesday's Friend's meeting, grand prize winners were drawn. Teen winners were Edyn Roberts from LaCrosse, Ben Pritchett from Rosalia, and Joshua Appel and Abigail Huber, both of Colfax. Adult...
Superior Court Judge Gary Libey was the "winner" of this year's Kiss the Pig contest which was announced at noon Sept 7 at the Palouse Empire Fair. The winner is determined by donations which go into contribution jars that have been placed around Colfax. The Libey collection jars totaled $220.44. Other totals were $69.50 for Colfax Police Chief Rick McNannay and $13.26 for Whitman County Treasurer Mark Clinton. After he was announced as the winner, Judge Libey attempted to don a horse mask for the smooch, but the move was disqualified. The...
Colfax school board met Monday night and fielded several items in their second meeting of the new school year. They approved the September enrollment report of 544.16 full-time equivalent students in the district, its lowest September number of the past five years. Last year’s first count was 582, with 589 in 2015-16. This year’s number comes in after a large senior class graduated and a kindergarten class of less than 30 students arrived, “It’s not common, but it does happen,” said Superinte...
Adult flu vaccines have arrived at Whitman County Public Health Offices ahead of the 2018-2019 flu season and they are now administering vaccinations in Colfax and Pullman, according to Community Health Nurse Deanna Claybaugh, LPN. The department expects children’s vaccines will arrive near the end of September. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 2017-2018 flu season was classified as high severity overall and high severity for each age group with record hospitalization rates and high numbers of i...
A parent of students at Jennings Elementary School, Eva Marie Dhillon, spoke to the school board Aug. 27 saying there were three incidents last spring on a Colfax school bus which her three children ride to and from Thorn Hill. “What is going to be different this year?” she asked . She told the board she thought the bus was overcrowded. “As a parent, I felt my kids were not safe,” said Dhillon, who took her kids to a different stop to get on and off the bus at one point last spring. “What c...
The Port of Whitman County will host a public input session on proposed upgrades to the Boyer Park Marina near Lower Granite Dam at the Colfax library Monday, Sept. 17, from 4 until 7 p.m. The port is redesigning the Boyer Park Marina and is looking for public suggestions on what the design should include. The initial focus is to modify docks 1 through 7, improving access and overall dock condition. The Port will submit the design to the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office as part of a future grant request. Project information and...
The former St. Ignatius Hospital building in Colfax has again been listed for sale. City council member Crystal Christopherson, who is an agent with Windermere Realty in Pullman, announced the building is again on the market with the price listed at $199,000. The listing agent for the building is Doug Byrd of Spokane. The last public chapter for St. Ignatius was its listing for a foreclosure sale by a Spokane law firm which was serving as trustee for a sale agreement. The public foreclosure sale was slated because the purchaser had failed to...
Whitman County commissioners passed a resolution Sept. 4 to establish the project for a 1,100 to 1,200 square foot building to go up at the waste transfer station to house space for two offices, a training room, break room, restrooms and small storage space. Training now takes place in Colfax at the Public Works building or elsewhere. The two new offices will be for David Nails, solid waste and recycling director, and Craig Sines, foreman. Nails’ office is now in the former hazardous waste facility. Sines does not currently have an office. ...
Jerry Klossner, chairman of the Farmington State Bank board of directors, reports that Tanya Thygeson is Farmington State Bank’s new president. Tanya has worked at the bank for 25 years, rising from cashier to bank operations officer, to her present, recently appointed position as president. She has lived in Farmington for all but four years of her life. She has served as commissioner for Whitman Hospital District No. 2 for 13 years and on the audit committee. She has also been a Families Together board member and treasurer for five years. S...
An advertisement in last week’s Gazette listed Sept. 18 as the starting date for the Grief Support Group, but the next session actually begins Sept. 25 and runs through Nov. 13. For more information, contact Annie Pillers at 332-4414 or griefsupport @palouse.com....
Colfax Bulldogs clicked for two scores in the third quarter at Freeman Friday night to erase the Scotties' first half lead in the way to a 21-14 win over the A division hosts. "We hung tough for the first half, and came out and showed a lot of improvement in the second half," Coach Mike Morgan noted. He said the Bulldogs at halftime adjusted their offense to spread out the Freeman defense and that opened up the field for the Bulldogs' offense to get in gear. Down 6-14 at the half, Colfax tied...
Moses Lake's Jacob Stacey posted wins in two events, saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling, at the Sunday session of the Palouse Empire Rodeo at the fair. Stacey led winnings in both of those events in the Pro-West rodeo standings as of Monday. Stacey's wins Sunday capped a three-day event which brought in 198 competitors and totaled $17,550 in total purse payout. Special events in the Sunday event included a 9/11 tribute at the start of the session and an appearance by Katherine Merck of...
In their home opener Tuesday, Colfax volleyball players waged another battle with a powerful GSL team and sustained a loss. Gonzaga Prep, pegged to be a top tier team in the Greater Spokane League this year, put the young Bulldogs down in three straight, 25-12, 25-16, and 25-17. Colfax Coach Molly McNeil rated the Prep squad as a little tougher than Lewis & Clark which edged Colfax in three straight last week for the season opener. Gonzaga hit town with five seniors on their team and with...
Working livestock in the morning at the Palouse Empire Fair switched to working the line of scrimmage in a big opening game for the Garfield/Palouse football team, which beat Sunnyside Christian, 30-20, at Palouse Friday, Sept. 7. Sunnyside Christian, the state 1B runner-up last year, led 12-8 at halftime before Gar/Pal took the lead on an 8-yard run by Ely Hawkins early in the fourth quarter. Tanner Anderson later blocked a Sunnyside Christian punt and recovered it in the endzone for 24-12,...
Playing at St. John Tuesday night, Oakesdale moved their record to 3-0 on the season 25-14, 25-12 and 25-10. Logan Reed rapped a league-high 18 kills in the round and had three block. Brooklyn Henley hit eight kills and had seven digs, and LouEllen Reed lofted 17 assists. Glory Dickerson led the SJE team with an ace and nine assists while Archer had four kills, Riley Lamb three blocks and Allyn Harder five digs. Oakesdale last Wednesday defeated Garfied/Palouse in three straight at Palouse. They edge the Vikings 25-19 in a slow start and then...
The St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse volleyball team has begun a new year with first-year head coach Jenn Johnson, who began as an assistant when her seniors were freshmen. “I'm loving it but extremely sad about it,” said Johnson. “It's a great group of girls.” The team began with the jamboree in Colfax over Labor Day weekend followed by a home loss to Pomeroy and a non-league win over Davenport. Against Pomeroy, the Eagles went down 11-25, 20-25, 21-25. “Now we know what we need to work on,” said...
Last week was tough on President Trump. Advance copies of Bob Woodward's new book were released. Then an anonymous letter was published in the New York Times criticizing Trump and declaring that some of his subordinates were actively trying to thwart his agenda. Woodward's book has been roundly attacked by some. Others declare that it is a truthful depiction. As for the anonymous letter, published as an op-ed in the Times, criticism is strong over some of the assertions and the fact the author is undeclared. A wild chase is on to name the...
