Bulletin Column: September 19, 2019

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.

McCOLLUM JOINS POLICE

Officer Joey McCollum was introduced at Monday night’s city council session as a new member of the Colfax Police force. He joins the department after serving for the Airway Heights Police department and is now undergoing two weeks of field training.

McCollum is a graduate of West Valley High School and Eastern Washington University where he majored in interdisciplinary studies.

He and Melissa Shepler plan to be married next month. She is a Washington State Patrol dispatcher.

Officer Dennis Yunin, who served the police department for the past nine months, has resigned from the Colfax department and is now serving as a deputy with the Stevens County Sheriff’s department.

Yunin’s wife, Yelina, is the artist who this summer painted the Koi fish design on the Colfax swim pool building.

COUNCIL SETS BUDGET SESSIONS

Colfax City Council Monday night slated special meetings for preparation of next year’s city budget. The public works department budget session has been slated for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30.

The work session for the general administration part of the budget has been set for Oct. 14 at 7 p. m., and the first council review of the proposed budget will be at the Oct. 21 meeting.

FACES EIGHT CHARGES

A total of eight charges were filed against Jason T. Bright, 39, Moscow, after Pullman Police Sept. 8 responded to two calls at Providence Court. One of the charges against Bright was theft of a motorcycle.

According to the report by Pullman Officer Nathan Prada, officers first responded at about 4 p.m. to a report of an argument in the parking lot at Providence Court. They later responded at 7:51 p.m. to a report of a man who appeared to be looking into cars in the lot. Bright was allegedly observed by a witness on a motorcycle which didn’t belong to him.

He was charged with theft of the motorcycle, possession of heroin and four counts of second-degree theft and two of third-degree theft involving credit cards and access devices belonging to another person and found in his backpack.

He was booked into jail here early Sept. 9 and his bond for pre-trial release was set at $15,000 surety or $1,500 cash.

Bright was slated for arraignment Friday in superior court, but it was continued to this Friday.

Friday’s criminal court docket was conducted in the county commissioners’ room at the courthouse while the Hargraves jury trial was underway in the regular courtroom with Judge Gary Libey presiding.

PATROL CAR ANALYSIS PENDING

Police Chief Rick McNannay reported to the city council Monday night that analysis on the ailing Ford Taurus squad car is still underway. McNannay said he anticipates the damage to the engine in the car will turn out to be not as serious as first reported. The downed Taurus has left the department with just two operating patrol cars.

TEKOAN SENTENCED FOR DRUGS

Krista Condon, 26, Tekoa, was sentenced to up to 24 months of residential chemical dependency treatment Friday in superior court. Condon was charged with possession of heroin and possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

The case against Condon began July 5, 2018, when Coeur d’Alene Tribal police notified the sheriff’s office that they suspected Condon was selling drugs in Tekoa.

Two days later deputies went to Condon’s residence in Tekoa. A search of the residence turned up $2,340 in cash and a lock box containing drugs. The report said 14 grams of methamphetamine and 25 grams of heroin were found.

Friday’s sentencing noted Condon will be required to undergo detox treatment before she can enter the residential treatment.

PULLMAN DRIVER HURT

Hussien M. Zbib, 60, Pullman, was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane early Sunday morning after he was injured in a one vehicle accident on the Pullman-Moscow Highway. According to the Washington State Patrol, he was driving a Tacoma Toyota pickup westbound at 12:54 a.m. when it left the roadway near the Sunshine Road intersection. The pickup struck a rock wall, rolled and came to a halt on the westbound shoulder.

GAME DAY CHANGE FOR FREEMAN

The Colfax-Freeman football game date, originally scheduled for Friday night at Colfax, was changed to Saturday at the request of Freeman school officials.

Friday’s date, Sept. 13, marks the second anniversary of the Sept. 13, 2017, shooting at Freeman High School which led to the death of Freeman student Sam Strahan.

Freeman school officials requested the day to be free of extra-curricular activities, and Colfax readily obliged.

A Spokane superior court judge ruled July 23 that Caleb Sharpe, the Freeman student suspected of the shooting in the school, will be tried as an adult. If convicted in juvenile court, Sharpe would have been released at age 21.

The judge ruled evidence showed Sharpe, now 17, planned the Freeman shooting in which three girls were also wounded.

Sharpe pleaded not guilty to 55 charges Aug. 23 and has been scheduled for an Oct. 7 trial in Spokane. He is charged with first-degree murder of Strahan, attempted murder of the three wounded girls and second-degree assault of 51 others at the school that day.

A segment of Highway 27 which runs past Freeman has been named in memory of Sam Strahan who was 15 years old when he was fatally shot two years ago.

EXPECT BIG ENTRY FOR REGIONAL

The NCAA Regional cross country race which will be hosted Nov. 15 by WSU on the Colfax Golf Course could bring up to 500 runners to compete for slots in the national finals. Actual number of qualifiers will depend on how the finishes pan out in the previous week’s qualification races in the region.

The regional run is one step up the ladder from the Pac 12 race which WSU hosted on the Colfax Golf Course four years ago.

Colfax Golf Club Manager Craig Gronning has been working with WSU Assistant Athletic Director Benton Clark in preparation for the big race.

Gronning reported two changes have been made at the golf course to accommodate mens and womens regionals in November.

One was removal of a tree along the first fairway. The tree was believed to have been too close to the course layout where the runners will fill most of the width of the first fairway going off the starting line.

A second change was widening a bridge which crosses the small creek on the course. The bridge was considered too narrow for the number of collegiate runners who could still be in a crowd at that part of the race.

The course tryout was Friday when WSU hosts the Cougar Classic run starting at 5 p.m. Runners from nine schools are expected to compete.

DOWNPOUR RAIN TALLY

Precipitation measurement from the Sept. 10 downpour at the NRCS gauge in Colfax totaled .38 inches. The storm reportedly made a big hit on the south side of Pullman and overloaded street drains to cause flooding in the downtown area.