Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 241
It's been a fixture of Ritzville for as long as many people can remember, and now the Giving Tree enters its fourth decade of service as a way for the community to help aid less fortunate families during the holiday season. The Giving Tree was founded back in December 1989, when George H.W. Bush was in the first year of his presidency, the Soviet Union still existed, the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 was Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," Taylor Swift had just...
The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos basketball team opened league play with a bang on Dec. 12, coasting to a 73-39 victory over the Upper Columbia Academy Lions at home. The Broncos, improving to 3-1 overall on the season, were led offensively by senior Austin Thompson, who scored a career-high 31 points in the victory. It appears to be the most points scored in a game by an LRS player in this decade. Thompson was 4-8 from beyond the arc in the game, and also converted several...
The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague wrestling season is just two competitions old, but head coach Jason Hilzer is liking what he’s seen out of his team so far. Not only was it the opening matches of the season for LRS, but it was also the first matches at the high school level for several of the wrestlers. “I thought there were times we wrestled really tough,” said Hilzer. “I thought the newer kids wrestled as well as they could have.” The season opened with the Ephrata JV Mix & Match on Dec. 10. Hilzer sent seven wrestlers to partic...
On Dec. 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan-backed Farm Workforce Modernization Act on a 260-165 vote. The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), seeks to address immigration issues facing the farming community. The bill was introduced with the support of 26 Democrats and 23 Republicans and has been negotiated throughout much of the past year between legislators, agricultural stakeholders and labor organizations. The bill would establish a program for agricultural workers in the country, as we...
The upcoming regular session for the Washington Legislature doesn’t begin until Jan. 13, but that doesn’t mean work hasn’t already begun for state legislators. Many legislators are already in Olympia getting ready for next year’s session. Part of the preparation for the upcoming session includes the pre-filing of bills that may be considered during the upcoming 60-day session. The 2020 session will be the first session since 1998 where Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) has not held the Speaker’s gavel in the House, after he resigned...
As part of the approval of the 2020 Ritzville City Budget, $220,000 has been set aside for the 110 Tourism Funds. To which organizations that money will go, however, is still up in the air after the Dec. 3 city council meeting. The $220,000 that the city agreed to award in tourism funds as part of the 2020 budget is a 10% increase from the previous projection of $200,000 that was discussed at the Nov. 19 city council meeting. The additional $20,000 is slated to be awarded to the Ritzville Golf Course clubhouse for a variety...
Last Saturday, 17 children and a bundle of emergency responders gathered on a chilly December morning at the H.E. Gritman Senior Center for the Shop With A Cop program, a holiday fixture in Ritzville. Shop With A Cop allows underprivileged children in the community, who may also have a troubled family life, to partner with law enforcement to shop for Christmas gifts at local businesses for themselves and their family members. The annual event is coordinated by Ritzville...
Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Athletic Director Greg Whitmore announced on Dec. 6 that LRS home basketball games will be streamed live this season. Lind-Ritzville High School, with the help of the Bronc Boosters, has partnered with the NFHS Network to invest in new technology that will allow the school to broadcast every game from Gilson Gym. For a monthly or annual fee, family and fans will be able to stream the games live if they’re unable to attend the game in person. Games will not include a play-by-play announcer for the t...
LRS boys basketball head coach Dustan Arlt said his team exceeded his expectations in almost every facet of the game in the 2019-20 season's opening weekend, as his team went 2-0 to start a season for the first time since 2013-14. The Broncos took to the road and dispatched the Columbia-Burbank Coyotes 51-38 in the first game of the season on Dec. 6, and then beat the Riverside Rams--a 1A school--at Gilson Gym 51-42 the next day in the team's home opener. "After last year...
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1146 held its annual essay awards program at the American Legion Hall last Sunday afternoon, highlighting students from fourth through ninth grade who participated in the contest. Students from area schools were invited to participate in the contest, and the first place winners read their essays in front of the audience, which included members from the VFW and American Legion. The program was moderated by Dennis Greenwalt. Fourth and fifth...
Adams County Health Officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny issued an alert regarding influenza activity in the county in a news release on Dec. 9. The Adams County Health Department said it has received an increasing number of reports of influenza cases, primarily influenza B. Karen Potts, the county's Community Health Director, said that about 90 cases of influenza have been lab confirmed through testing in Adams County laboratories to date, most of which have been influenza B. The...
The Ritzville City Council voted to approve the $14.5 million 2020 budget ahead of schedule at its Dec. 3 council meeting, a budget that calls for the hiring of a fifth officer at the Ritzville Police Department. Much of the discussion by the council and city officials about the budget was centered around the proposed hiring of a fifth police officer. Several councilmembers questioned whether the revenue sources being used to support the hiring of the additional officer were being accurately projected in the budget. To fund...
A bipartisan bill aimed toward addressing immigration and farm issues that is co-sponsored by Rep. Dan Newhouse passed the House Judiciary Committee last week, and now moves on to consideration by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, introduced with the support of 26 Democrats and 23 Republicans, has been negotiated throughout much of the past year between legislators, agricultural stakeholders and labor organizations. The bill would—among other things—establish a program in Title I of the bill for agricultural wor...
LRHS health teacher, athletic director and head football coach Greg Whitmore will be holding a presentation next Wednesday that promises to help attendees discover the secret to losing weight. Whitmore is holding the event as the founder of Tyee Mountain Wellness, a website where Whitmore shares his passion for teaching health via blog posts and YouTube videos. On the website, Whitmore covers topics such as vaping, e-cigarette and tobacco use in youth, his own personal health experiences and his experiences as a health...
The Adams County Public Hospital District No. 2 Board of Commissioners approved a revised 2020 budget at its Nov. 21 meeting, which drew scrutiny from one of the board’s commissioners. Chief financial officer Gary Bostrom explained during the meeting that the budget, as is the case in most years, needed to be revised after the district receives more information from the Adams County Assessor’s Office related to the district’s tax levies. The district is allowed to go up to 101% of the levy limitation calculation on its differ...
Discussion surrounding how the city has initially suggested to allocate tourism funding for 2020 was plentiful during the Ritzville City Council meeting on Nov. 19. The 110 Tourism Funds, collected by the city through a bed tax assessed by hotels and motels within the city are disbursed to businesses and organizations in the city for the purpose of promoting Ritzville and investing in infrastructure projects. At the Nov. 19 council meeting, the city unveiled its initial projection for how to allot the funds for next year....
City of Ritzville Clerk-Treasurer Julie Flyckt disclosed partial results to an ongoing city survey that asks about many local issues at the city council meeting on Nov. 19. The results provide a glimpse into where the city's residents and businesses stand on several hot-button issues. The city has dispersed the stakeholder survey via mail and email in an effort to gain public feedback that city officials plan to use when "establishing future budget goals that align projects...
Avista recently announced that it is beginning to install new smart meters in Ritzville and Adams County. Last week, The Journal received a letter from Avista stating that a crew would be visiting our office in the following weeks to install the smart meters. The smart meters, Avista says, are designed to better monitor and manage a building's energy usage, which in turn they say will allow them to "improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of energy delivery for all of o...
The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague volleyball team has won the WIAA Scholastic Awards Program state championship for 2B volleyball teams. The award is given to the team with the highest GPA in the state. According to the WIAA website, the program is "to recognize and reward those teams or groups that maintain a high collective academic standard. It is open to Varsity or Sub-varsity (JV, Freshman, etc.) sports teams, activity squads such as Dance & Drill and Cheer squads, and fine...
Four LRS Bronco football players received a total of six All-Opponent Team honors in the Northeast 2B South Division. On offense, senior linemen Cole Cameron and Spencer Miller were named to the All-Opponent 2nd Team, as was senior running back Spencer Gering. Gering was named to the team for his contributions as a receiver. On the season, Gering caught 41 passes for 430 receiving yards and three touchdowns. His best game of the season was against Asotin on Senior Night, when...
The Washtucna Historical Museum and Community Center received a $5,000 donation from Avista on Nov. 13, which will go toward helping to repair the museum's roof. The donation came via the Avista Foundation, which is Avista Corporation's community investment program. The foundation provides funding to non-profit organizations in the communities that Avista serves in parts of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. The check was presented by Paul Kimmel, the local manager of...
An Adams County resident was injured in a multi-vehicle collision in the early morning of Nov. 14 that has the Washington State Patrol seeking witnesses to the collision. Othello’s Blanca Garza, 50, was travelling northbound in a 2019 Ford Expedition on State Route 17 at Lee Road, about two miles northeast of Othello, when a 2000 Subaru Forester driving southbound crossed the centerline, rotated and struck Garza’s vehicle at approximately 6:35 a.m. The owner of the vehicle driving southbound, Skylar Martin of Sultan, WA, was...
With the holiday season underway, the Giving Tree is making its return to Umpqua Bank as Christmas inches closer. Forms for The Giving Tree are now available to be picked up at Umpqua Bank on 108 E 1st Ave. The forms need to be turned back into the bank no later than Nov. 29. The bank will not accept any forms that are turned in late. The community can start picking tags off the tree the first week of December to purchase gifts for the families. All presents will need to be dropped off no later than Monday, Dec. 16. Presents...
On Nov. 18, anti-tax activist Tim Eyman emailed Adams County Commissioners as part of a statewide effort to have county-level government officials to intervene in a lawsuit against Initiative 976. I-976 is the measure that would, among other things, limit annual license fees for most vehicles at $30 and would result in a projected revenue loss to the state of $1.9 billion and a loss to local governments of $2.3 billion over the next six years. It was approved by the state's vo...
A shed with a woman living inside of it caught on fire in the early evening in a Ritzville neighborhood on Nov. 14, and was quickly put out by emergency responders. According to Ritzville Police Chief Dave McCormick, the shed, located behind a house on E. Alder Avenue, caught fire after 4 p.m. with the woman still inside of it. The woman escaped without harm and the fire had been put out by the time The Journal arrived on scene around 4:30 p.m. McCormick said he was told by a...