Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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KETTLE FALLS – Last Thursday night’s high school football game between Lind-Ritzville/Sprague and Kettle Falls canceled due to COVID-19 issues at Kettle Falls. “Our kids were disappointed obviously. We were ready to play and needed to play,” Lind-Ritzville Coach Greg Whitmore said, after being reached by email, “The lesson is that ‘life happens and we can only control what we can control.’ We focused on getting better during practice.” The Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association adopted rule 17.30.0 as part of its...
RITZVILLE – A local man was arrested early Friday evening, September 10, after allegedly trespassing at Ritzville Golf Course. Brian Massey, age 33, of Ritzville, was arrested on a probable cause of trespassing at the Ritzville Golf Course and numerous warrants issued by Adams County District Court. The warrants stem from a July arrest and a Sept. 7 arraignment, records show. The warrants involve alleged harassment, malicious mischief and possessing a dangerous weapon, r...
RITZVILLE – The City Council will host a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, for an ordinance amending Chapter 2.28 of the city code, concerning fireworks. The ordinance, was drafted July 1. It addresses emergency restrictions on the use of fireworks during periods of extreme fire danger. During a Sept. 7 council meeting, City Clerk Julie Flyckt shared partial results of a recent community survey, specifically two questions pertaining to fireworks. Flyckt said approximately 75% of respondents said a fireworks ban d...
RITZVILLE – The Odessa Tigers and Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos both left the Ritzville Invitational Volleyball tournament on Saturday, Sept. 11, unbeaten. That means they did not play each other, setting up an interesting non-league match in October. On the way to their unbeaten day, Class 1B Odessa and Class 2B Lind-Ritzville never lost a set while playing Rogers (Spokane), Royal City and Columbia (Burbank). The other team participating was St. Georges’s (Spokane). In their final set of the day, Odessa faced off aga...
OTHELLO – Adams County has a new emergency manager. Sandi Duffey, 60, has been hired as Adams County Emergency Management Director. She succeeds Jay Weise who was elected county commissioner of District No. 2 in November. The position pays $5,394 monthly. She will be responsible for maintaining the county emergency management plan, provides preparedness and coordination among fire departments and districts, law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services and other f...
RITZVILLE – A Public Works broadband project to be funded by a grant from the state Department of Commerce and intended to bring high-speed Internet to Ritzville has undergone a change of direction. Initially, the plan was to have the fiber-optic infrastructure installed by NoahNet. But that would have left the city to operate the broadband network as a public utility, similar to water and sewer, with no staff or expertise, officials said. Now, the city is working on a plan to include a publicly owned corporation, P...
RITZVILLE – Andrea Russell became the new Lincoln County District Court Judge on July 19. A 1997 University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University) School of Law graduate, she is a member of the bar associations in Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Washington. While in Alaska, she worked as clerk, deputy district attorney, assistant attorney general and magistrate. When her husband's occupation took them to Montana, she passed the bar exam there, and practiced family law and c...
RITZVILLE – In a defensive battle, the Lind-Ritzville-Sprague Broncos beat the Liberty Lancers 18-7 on Friday night. "These were two evenly matched teams", said LRS head coach Greg Whitmore. Ashton Strobel #2 scored a Liberty touchdown in the first quarter and the Lancers took a 7-6 lead to the locker room at halftime. But the Lancers were shut out by the LRS defense in the second half. With 35 seconds to go in the third quarter LRS scored on a 10 yard pass from #15 Chase Galb...
RITZVILLE – A local chiropractor has been selected Ritzville Community Parade grand marshal. Dr. Warren Kragt, 60, will be the honored guest at the parade this weekend. "I want to thank the community for choosing us to be Grand Marshals, Kragt said Friday. A 35-year resident of Ritzville, he and Joleen, his wife of 37 years, came to Ritzville in 1986 In addition to his chiropractic practice, Dr. Kragt has been very active in the community. He was on the Chamber of Commerce b...
RITZVILLE – Combines are finding their end-of-season parking spots as harvest winds down in the area. "Harvest is pretty much over around Ritzville" said Stacy Hunt, Grain Division Manager at Ritzville Warehouse Co. Harvest started early due to little or no rainfall in the spring, and extreme heat in early summer, he said. A year ago, the 2020 wheat harvest was considered above-average. But 2021 is down 40-50% over the previous year, he said. Regarding quality of the crop, H...
RITZVILLE – Adams County Integrated Health Services Administrator, Vicki Guse, met with the Adams County Board of Commissioners, by video conference, to discuss vaccine mandates announced by Governor Jay Inslee August 9. The Governor’s emergency proclamation requires most public and private health care workers be fully vaccinated against COVOD-19 by October 18. Guse and the board agreed the mandate applies to Adams County employees working at Adams County IHCS facilities in Othello and Ritzville. Board Chairman Dan Bla...
RITZVILLE – The LRS Bronco football team got a taste of live action Saturday, August 28, in a football Jamboree against teams from around the region. Under the scrimmage format offenses take the ball on the opponent 40 yard line, and run 10 plays. If they do not make a first down (gain 10 yards) in 4 plays the ball is returned to the 40, and a new drive begins. After 10 plays the teams switch sides of the ball, and the defensive teams goes on offense. In the varsity portion o...
RITZVILLE – The Ritzville Water Park closed for the season Sunday, Aug. 22. Manager Donna Kessler described the season as "hot." She went on to say the park had "pretty consistent attendance all season." The park operated five days a week, instead of the usual six days, due to staff shortages, she said. The park was also closed for five days during the summer due to unhealthy air quality, she said. Closing comes a week early this year. "We are down to six guards" Kessler s...
RITZVILLE – After a year absence, the Ritzville Golf Course was once again the site of the annual Danekas Invitational Golf Tournament on Sunday Aug. 22. More than 50 golfers competed in "DIGs," divided into three flights by handicap. Flight 1 included golfers with handicaps of 1-11. Flight 2 was a group of relatively evenly matched golfers, with handicaps bunched from 12-16. Flight 3 was the largest and included golfers with handicaps from 17-30. The Flight 1 gross winner w...
RITZVILLE – The City Council held show cause hearings, Aug. 17, related to six alleged nuisance properties in the city. The properties are alleged to be in violation of provisions of the nuisance ordinance. Resolutions were passed on three of the properties requiring cleanup of the conditions by the city, or its designee, at the expense of the property owner. Those properties are 304 E. Dogwood Ave., 205 Turner St. and 508 E. First Ave. No property owners or occupants appeared at the hearings. Ralph Elmes, a renter at 109 W....
RITZVILLE – After a year hiatus, the Ritzville Community Parade returns to Main Street on Saturday, Sept. 4. The festivities begin at 10:45a.m. with the Kiddie Parade. The main even steps off at 11 a.m. Journal sports columnist Dale Anderson will announce the parade from a reviewing stand at the intersection at Main and Washington streets. At press time, a grand marshall(s) had not been named. Ritzville’s Distinguished Young Woman representative, Dakota Killian, will be on hand, along with various emergency vehicles from loc...
RITZVILLE – Adams County Health Officer Dr. Alex Brzezny updated Adams County Commissioners on the resurgence of COVID-19 during a meeting Aug. 11. “Adams County was late to the delta (COVID variant) surge,” but it is now in Adams County, D. Brzezny said, noting case rates for the last 14 days are 300 cases per 100,000 population and expected to rise. That makes Adams County a “high-transmission area,” he said. The district was tracking 55 active cases, with 1 in 4 tests for coronavirus coming back positive, Brzezny s...
RITZVILLE – It’s been a series of fits and starts for the local branch of the Adams County library. After being closed to indoor service for more than a year due to coronavirus shutdown orders, the library reopened for public access in late July, only to close a few days later when the air conditioning system failed and outdoor temperatures soared to 100 degrees. Now, the Library is open, again, with fans running, and still waiting for the air conditioner to be replaced. “Our patrons want to be here” Library Director Venesia...
RITZVILLE – Adams County Human Resources Manager Amalia Perez met with the Board of Commissioners on Monday, Aug. 9, to discuss updates to the COVID-19 Operations Plan for departments and employees. The updates are intended to move away from language like "shall" or "must" and instead use softer language such as "may" or "recommend" in the COVID plan. Since the start of the pandemic, employees have been self-screening for coronavirus symptoms and keeping their own log of those screenings including temperature. C...
RITZVILLE – With an additional 400 late-arriving ballots counted Thursday, Aug. 5, the general election picture is clearing up. Meanwhile, most of the maintenance and operations levies for parks and recreation and cemetery districts are passing. In the Ritzville mayoral race, incumbent Mayor Linda Kadlec will move on to the general election, having received 55.02% of the vote, or 307 votes, as of the most recent tally. Her opponent appears to be Dennis R. Chamberlain, who received 142 votes, or 24.45%,, and leads t...