Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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One and a half years ago the Greenwalt family began refurbishing a building located on Main Avenue in Ritzville, to process a crop into an oil largely unheard of. The venture started the marketing and producing of camelina oil, which can be purchased through the family’s business: Ole World Oils. Production of the oil, seeds and soap takes place in Ritzville. These items can make great stocking stuffers for the cook in one’s life. The oil and soap also have great benefits for...
A Public Hearing was held Monday, Dec. 7, in regards to approving the proposed six-year transportation improvement plan, which encompasses 2016 through 2021. This plan, presented by Public Works Director Todd O’Brien and County Engineer Scott Yaeger, includes six projects with funds already secured and four proposed projects that are yet to be funded. The funds for the secured six projects are either from the State or Federal money. This improvement plan begins with McManamon Bridge reconstruction. The bridge is comprised o...
During their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m., the Ritzville City Council made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 2091 adopting the budget for the City of Ritzville for 2016 in the amount of $8,408,780. Within this budget lies a breakdown of the specific allocations of the City’s funds for the year. The Current Expense fund boasts $1,136,200 for the next fiscal year. With the approval of the budget came the approval of the 2016 Fee Schedule, which was listed as Exhibit C of the budget. There were a f...
Last weekend marked the beginning of another Lady Broncos basketball season with a nonleague game versus Columbia-Burbank. The Lady Broncos fought hard the entire game against the Lady Coyotes but ultimately lost 47-48. This game held many insights for the team though. Their new head coach, Gary Kelly, was able to see how his new team held up against frustration. With a close score he said his team was, “down by eight but they held their composure and made a big comeback.” The first quarter ended with the Lady Broncos lea...
Eight graduate students from the University of Washington School of Public Health will be in Adams County from Dec. 7 through Dec. 8. These students are working on their Master’s degrees in public health practice. During their time here they will be working on an assignment at the Adams County Health Department as part of the county’s Community Health Improvement Plan. The student’s specific assignment will be to develop a clearinghouse of activities for teens in the county. This includes current activities as well as a listi...
The Lind Town Council held their first Public Hearing in regards to the 2016 budget on Nov. 24, at 6:45 p.m. This meeting served as an opportunity for the public to voice their opinions in regards to specific proposed changes. This first item discussed was in regards to the election fee. This fee is charged per registered voter in each area as determined by the Washington State BARS Manual. In the past this fee was $0.75 per person and will now be increased to $3, which will encompass an estimated charge of $1,052.68 for the...
Ritzville businesses experienced a very successful Shop Local effort on Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28 and are now preparing for the Christmas Kickoff Weekend. The Christmas Kickoff Weekend begins on Friday, Dec. 4, in Ritzville. Local businesses have teamed up to provide specials and coupons for the weekend in order to promote shopping local. A list of the businesses and specific coupons available for this weekend can be found on Page 10. Ritzville’s very own Main S...
In a recent Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) meeting in Olympia, Adams County was chosen to receive a $50,000 Planning Grant to study the feasibility of an industrial wastewater facility at the Port of Othello. At this meeting, held on Thursday Nov. 19, Adams County Economic Development Director Stephen McFadden presented to CERB requesting this grant to be awarded to Adams County. Also in attendance were the Port Commissioners Gary Weaver and Terry Thompson, Port Director Doyle Palmer, Adams County Development...
Approximately 75 community members arrived at the Legion Hall at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19 to show their support for Eagle Scout Peyton Kiel. The ceremony began with all of the Boy Scouts reciting the Boy Scout Oath in front of the crowd. This was followed by Scout Master Bill Banner reciting the Twelve Points of the Scout Law. A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. The climb to Eagle Scout...
At the recent Lind Town Council meeting, held on Nov. 10, multiple motions were made with only some carrying. This meeting held many decisions tabled from the previous meeting, as well as several new motions and information. The first topic discussed regards the Lind Park irrigation project which has been a topic at previous meetings. Alan Gay, engineer with Stantec, received a bid for the project totaling $9,192.87 from Skone Irrigation Inc. This is almost $1,200 over the engineer’s estimate. Gay stated the piping the c...
Community members, legislators, and those representing not only themselves but also organizations, met in the Lind Union Elevator meeting room to discuss the future of the John Wayne Pioneer Trail. Approximately 50 people gathered at 12 p.m. on Nov. 16 to speak their minds to the legislators. Representative Joe Schmick began the meeting with a welcome and a wish to hear from each and every person in the room who chose to share their thoughts. Representative Mary Dye, who was also in attendance, quickly reiterated this sentime...
A new nonprofit organization has been created in Ritzville. SNYP, Spay Neuter Your Pet, will assist low-income families in Ritzville, Lind, Sprague and Washtucna to have their pets spayed or neutered. Their aim is to provide a family with a coupon to offset or cover the cost of a pet’s spay or neuter procedure. Janet Bowman, Leslie Greenwalt and Mikki Kison have been involved in animal welfare for many years. They saw a need in the area and decided to create this organization so as to make a change for the better in their c...
The Ritzville Public Library recently received a grant from Humanities Washington to partner with the Ritzville Grade School to host a family-oriented reading program for third and fourth grade readers and their families. This program is called Prime Time Family Reading and has been provided by Humanities Washington since 1996 and there are ten libraries currently participating. The Prime Time program focuses on third and fourth grade students due to findings from a study rele...
The 2B Regional Volleyball Tournament took place over the weekend for Districts seven and nine. The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Lady Broncos began the tournament ranked as number four. Their first match was Wednesday, Nov. 4, versus Tri-Cities Prep. The Lady Broncos fell to Tri-Cities Prep with set scores of 11-25, 10-25 and 22-25. This match held two kills and 18 digs with eight blocks at the net, which were met by eight serving errors and 18 hitting errors. These errors held the team back in the first two sets. Head Coach Cari...
The U.S. Bank branch located on Main Street has hired a new Assistant Manager. Shawnee Rodriguez began working in Ritzville on Oct. 1. Rodriguez is originally from Moses Lake and currently lives there with her two young sons. Rodriguez graduated from Moses Lake High School in 2008 after completing Running Start classes though Big Bend Community College. She attended Central Washington University where she pursued a double major in Accounting and Finance. Before she finished he...
For some, enlisting in the armed forces is a choice; others are drafted and made to represent their country during times of need. For Deni Atkinson the decision was made in 1966 when he realized he and college were not getting along very well and he chose to enlist in the Navy. He began training as an aircraft electrician in San Diego, California. He then spent a year and half in training on the Grumman A-6 aircraft at Whidbey Island. He lived on the island for three years...
Due to recent complaints in regards to door-to-door solicitors, the Ritzville City Council is discussing adding to the current ordinance to create new restrictions for future solicitors within Ritzville. This year the police department received complaints circling around two specific groups of salesmen; vacuums and cleaning products salesmen. At the Oct. 6 council meeting, Police Chief Dave McCormick brought to light recent complaints in regards to the issue. There have been discussions between community members on a local...
During the recent Lind Town Council meeting held on Oct. 27, Mayor Jamie Schmunk brought forth several ideas for the council to decide upon. The first being to create a resolution in order to give the citizens of Lind a break on their normal $1 or 1.87 percent increase on their water and sewer bill. In order to bring this to fruition she proposed to raise the cost of the tank water from Well No. 6 by $1. This would compensate for the $3,000 the town gains from raising the water cost for citizens. The original ordinance was...
The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently released the 2012 Giving Profile for the State of Washington and named Adams County the most giving county in the state. The data for this conclusion came from the Internal Revenue Service information combined with the census data. The study took into account Americans tax returns, which itemizes their deductions including charitable gifts. Adams County’s giving ratio was 4.71 percent as compared to the state average of 3.08 percent. The county accounted for $4,778,000 total c...
The Ritzville Fire Department received a Hazard or Fire Insurance rating of six this year from the Washington State Rating Bureau, which is one point lower than last year’s rating of seven. In this instance the lower the score the better the rating. With a score of seven the residential cost of insurance could be raised as much as 10 percent and 25 percent for commercial. With this lower rating of six any structure in the City of Ritzville can receive a lower insurance premium. Ritzville is number two in the county with t...
For one year now the Ritzville Public Library has been running a library branch out of Lind-Ritzville Middle School. This began in October 2014. The Library Board implemented this branch to provide more services to the Lind community. In 2000 the Ritzville Library District No. 2 officially formed, transferring the Library from the City of Ritzville to the District so as to ensure library services for the areas surrounding Ritzville. This branch is open every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and offers books, DVDs, magazines and...
The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Lady Broncos played three very different matches last week. They have one final league match before they head into districts on Saturday, Oct. 31. The team is very focused on the “clean slate” mentality. Head Coach Cari Galbreath said, “I don’t like to get too caught up into seeding as in my eyes every team starts fresh and even and it’s the team that brings it all and executes that will win.” Their week started last Tuesday when they played the...
The Friends of the Library are having their annual meeting on Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Ritzville Public Library. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. and at that time the Friends of the Library will conduct their normal business to be followed by a reading from S. M. Hulse. At 6 p.m. those in attendance will hear from Spokane author Sarah Hulse, whose debut novel Black River hit the shelves in January of this year. This meeting is free and open to the public and will feature some refreshments in the form of local wines from V...
The Lady Broncos played two hard fought games on the road last week with both ending in losses. The teams stayed in the games with close scores in both matches but were unable to secure wins mostly due to serving errors. In the first match of last week on Thursday against Davenport they fell to the Lady Gorillas with set scores of: 25-18, 17-25, 17-25, 9-25. This game was a true battle in the first three sets with 19 kills and 32 digs from the Lady Broncos. By the fourth and final set the team was unable to come together and...
The Lady Broncos fought hard to beat the Wilbur-Creston Lady Wildcats on Thursday, Oct. 8, but were unable to secure the win. The game came to a close with set scores of 10-25, 25-19, 14-25 and 19-25. The Lady Broncos did their best to stay in the game with intensity for the duration of the match. Head Coach Cari Galbreath stated that she “believes we lost because we would get in a drought for too long.” These droughts are shown in the stats, the Lady Broncos had a total of 15 hitting errors and seven serving errors. The seco...