Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 53
The Northeast football league will mark a big change next year with the possible addition of Chewelah to the league lineup. The Cougars have been playing in the A division, but a decline in enrollment has dropped them close to the 2B ranks. Regardless of where Chewelah lands, NE league officials have decided to split the league into north and south divisions. Teams in the two divisions will not play each other during the regular season, but will face off in some type of a crossover mode to determine who qualifies for the state playoffs. Colfax...
Jenna Moser of Colton returned to the Palouse as a member of the Washington Huskies women’s basketball team Dec. 1 and led her team with a career high in a win at Idaho. Moser, a 5’6” senior guard, scored 21 points in front of friends and family in Moscow. The Huskies won 81-69. She shot 6-of-7 from the field, including 4-for-4 in three-point attempts and five-for-five from the free-throw line. On Sunday, Dec. 3, Moser scored 11 in a win over University of Portland to take the Huskies to 4-3 o...
Colfax wrestlers tied with Post Falls at 110 points Saturday to finish fourth in the big Dick Griswold Memorial Tournament at Potlatch Saturday. Clearwater Valley won the meet with 175 team points. Other top team finishers in the big meet were Orofino 140, St. Maries 131.5 and McCall 107.5 Colfax senior Dane Hall booked 3-0 in the 170 class to take the title. Hall scored a one-point decision over Kenon Brown of Potlatch for the title. Travis Knauff of Garfield/Palouse booked 3-0 in the 160 class for first. He won the title with a 23-8 decision...
Liberty’s Lancers finished a point short Saturday at the Tacoma Dome in the 2B state championship game against Kalama. The title game marked the end of the NE League football season, which also saw Asotin and Davenport advance to the state playoffs from the NE league. Kalama and Liberty both went into the title game with 13-0 records after advancing through the first three state playoff rounds. GTh Chinooks prevailed 28-27. Liberty, which stopped Asotin last week in the semi-final round, battled back after trailing Kalama 0-14 in the first q...
Colfax boys Friday will host Reardan on the home boards as the NE hoop season gets underway The Bulldogs will host after sustaining two defeats in non-league action last week. The Bulldogs were bumped 57-55 by Pomeroy Friday night in the Pirates gym after Pomeroy put together a strong second half. Saturday on the home court, Lakeside bested Colfax 68-53. Colfax, which logged a 17-7 record last year started the season without grads Jason Robinson, the team’s top scorer and Jared Kneale who often dominated the inside game for the Bulldog R...
Colfax girls, who return to the hoops campaign with four senior grads off last year’s team, will host Reardan Friday in the league opener on the Bulldogs court. Colfax will host the league launch after booking a split last weekend with a loss against a strong Pomeroy club on the Piraters’ court Friday and a win over Lakeside on the home boards Saturday. Coach Corey Baerlocher starts the season with a core of players who just finished a title run on the volleyball court and converted overnight into hoops mode. Carmen Gfeller, Abbie Miller, Gre...
1B basketball season began around Whitman County last weekend with boys and girls teams in action. The Colton girls welcomed Tenison Woods Academy from Australia Friday, Dec. 1, for their opener at home while, across the county in Garfield, freshman guard Austin Jones led the Garfield/Palouse boys in a non-league loss to Lakeside. Colton got a narrow girls’ win over the Australians before blowing out Genesee Saturday. League foes Garfield/ Palouse opened the senior season of Katie Arrasmith a...
Special award winners for varsity at the football banquet were, from the left, Dane Hall, Blake Bodey, Ben Ahmann, Brett Kuncaid, Leo Huels and Chris Jones. Speaking to parents and players at the season football dessert last Thursday, Colfax Coach Mike Morgan noted the Bulldog football campaign had another frustrating finish when they again failed to make the state playoff round after again being stopped by Asotin in the crossover round. Morgan pointed to the strong competition and noted the...
Whitman County commissioners formally approved the yearly agreement with WSU Extension Monday, which includes a three percent cost increase for 2018. Janet Schmidt, county WSU Extension director, was on hand and thanked the commissioners. “A great place to be and a greater place to work,” she said. The total the county pays for 2018 is $46,964, up three percent from last year. The county provides office space for Whitman County WSU Extension, which acts as a connection to the university, with educators in the county offering programs from 4H...
Wilbur-Ellis Co. received a ResponsibleAg certification at its Central Ferry branch. This is the first ResponsibleAg certification for Wilbur-Ellis in Washington and its 11th ResponsibleAg certification nationwide. Members of the fertilizer industry launched ResponsibleAg in 2014 to promote public welfare by assisting agribusinesses in complying with federal environmental, health, safety and security rules regarding the safe handling and storage of fertilizer products. Under ResponsibleAg, retail fertilizer dealerships have access to...
Sisters Katie Smith and Kara Bates, left to right, with a picture Smith made for Bates’ book which she wrote while blind. When complications from eye surgery plunged Kara Bates into blind darkness, pain and depression, she found relief and hope in writing the stories of a family pet cat. “It kind of gave me purpose, something to focus on instead of the searing pain in my eyes,” she said. Bates’ blind writings have turned into a book, Gordon Pumpkin Smith the Second, which she is already in the...
Whitman County commissioners approved Monday a 2017 budget amendment for $219,000 worth of adjustments in non-general fund monies and a $6,000 net revenue increase in the general fund (current expense). The overall change is made up of varying reasons in separate funds. One example is reimbursements coming in from a grant that does not operate on a calendar year....
The City of Tekoa approved a 2.5 percent raise for all employees as part of discussions of their 2018 budget Monday night. The rate was decided on by the city council after looking at current Consumer Price Index numbers. “The council did this so we wouldn’t have to hassle with individual salaries,” said Mayor John Jaeger. The proposal was approved unanimously and will be included in the 2018 final budget vote Dec. 18. “We’re frugal, but we’re not broke,” Jaeger commented....
The City of Tekoa is seeking a tenant for its former city shop building which has been the home of Melton’s Fabrication since 2012. The operation’s lease expires Jan. 1. The building has been pitched by the city as an incubator, with reduced rental rates set by the city council. “It’s really an opportunity for a young entrepreneur,” said John Jaeger, Tekoa mayor. After the city used county .09 economic development funds to re-vamp the former shop it was rented by Cliff Melton and Melton Metal Fabricating and Precision Millwrights, LLC, whic...
While discussing ideas to attract tourism at their November meeting, the Palouse Scenic Byway committee came up with a new draw idea: a month-long Palouse Scenic Byway Historical and Art Tour for next June. According to Carol Cooper, tourism director from Pullman Chamber of Commerce and co-chair of the byway committee, several ideas were going around the meeting and this was the one that gained the most traction. Cooper has stopped advertising to draw photographers to the area, so they were...
Tundra the snowy owl visited the Gazette office Friday with Kalayha Cochran and Lahari Kankar, members of the WSU Raptor Club. The trio was visiting Colfax businesses in search of items to be donated to the Raptor Club’s auction which takes place during Mom’s Weekend. According to Cochran, the donations are tax-deductible and all proceeds from the auction go to provide for the birds in the club’s care. Tundra is believed to be have been injured when he was hit by a car. He was rescued in 2006,...
Whitman Conservation District was among 14 project applicants the Department of Ecology has named to receive almost $450,000 in water quality improvement projects. Six of the projects are in eastern Washington. Ecology evaluated 27 different project proposals totaling about $945,000. The department weighed each proposal’s expected environmental benefits, local support and involvement, cost effectiveness and readiness. The grants are funded through Ecology’s Terry Husseman account which derives from payments from penalties the department iss...
The St. John town council went through some changes Nov. 27 to fill positions after the passing of Mayor K.B. Trunkey Nov. 20. “He is going to be greatly missed,” said Lynda Hays, town clerk/treasurer. Former mayor pro-tem Mike Webb is now filling the rest of Trunkey’s term which is up for re-election in 2019. Councilman Frank Watson is the new mayor pro-tem. Lydia Smith was appointed to fill the vacant council seat. Trunkey was originally elected to the town council in 2004 and served in that...
Whitman County commissioners set Dec. 18 at 11:15 a.m. for a hearing on a request by Whitgro, Inc., for a zone change for their location at Lancaster. The change would take it from an ag zone to a limited heavy industrial. The new categorization would make it so Whitgro is not required to get a conditional use permit each time they make a change to the property, such as adding a scale, according to Alan Thomson, county planner....
After 23 years in the licensing department, Chris Mikalson celebrated her last day in the auditor’s office Nov. 30. Mikalson started in the position in 1993 when Jim Repp of Colfax was auditor. She recalled that at the beginning, the office used surplus WWII counters. The office received its first computers the year before she came on board. “It really has been a privilege,” she said of working with the people of Whitman County. While sitting in the licensing department chair, she has been...
The December meeting of the Whitman County Library Board of trustees has been changed to Friday, Dec. 8, at 1 p.m. at The Center at Colfax Library. This meeting will be abbreviated, but as always, library board meetings are open to the public and community members are encouraged to attend. The board will not meet on Dec. 18. For more information, contact Shirley Cornelius, library business manager, at 509-397-4366....
Uniontown has reached an agreement with the owners of an abandoned house to be torn down behind town hall. Known as the pigeon house, the structure was vacant for more than 10 years, as its owner, Margaret Huggins, listed it for sale. Roach Construction of Genesee, Idaho, will tear it down this winter, to be paid for by Huggins, who lives in Weston, Ore. “It’s all off the city’s hands,” said Brent Lane, Uniontown building inspector. At a town council meeting in July, Marv Entel, the town’s...
Tekoa building owner Keith Andersson has until Dec. 9 to file an appeal of the city’s ruling that the red-brick former Cohn Motor Co. building is unfit. The designation was made in early November, decided by a three-member volunteer committee selected by Mayor John Jaeger, who said he chose the first three people to step forward, in order to avoid any charge of favoritism. An estimated 1,200 square foot section of the Crosby Street building’s roof and part of two walls collapsed under snow las...
Pastor Don and Peg Moore On Sunday, Dec. 10, at 10:45 a.m., the Colfax Church of the Nazarene will conduct a special service to honor Pastor Don and Peg Moore for 30 years of service to Colfax and the surrounding communities. The church will host a potluck and reception after the morning service, at around 12:15 pm. While in Colfax, Pastor Moore has been involved in the Colfax Chamber, including being president for several years, as well as a chaplain for Whitman Hospital, a member of the...
Since December of 2016, “E. Coker” has been tweeting under the Twitter name @SnortingCoker. The tweets were written in first person, leading readers to assume the account was tended by Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker. Coker did not learn of the account until last month and took steps to have it removed as it never stated it was not Coker actually writing the tweets. “All the things that are in there insult my integrity,” she said. Initially, Coker visited with the county’s prosecutor about taking action, but chose to follow Twitter’s...
