Huffmans mark 60 years of marriage

MOSES LAKE — Mira and Eddie Huffman celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today. The Huffmans were married on Oct. 3, 1962, in Quincy. Now retired, they formerly owned Perkins Family Restaurant in Moses Lake. The couple has two children, Jackie Huffman of Tarpon Springs, Florida and Kelly and John Hanold of Moses Lake. The Huffmans also have two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Rockin’ the yard

Moses Lake homeowner shows there are more options than grass

MOSES LAKE — There’s more than one way to cover a yard. “I'm not a grass person,” said Teresa Fields of Moses Lake. “I mean, I love grass for the dogs, but, yeah, low maintenance and water conservation is my number one thing. So neighbors have rocks, I take them and I use them. We live here in the Basin, and that's just rocks.” Fields is in the process of turning the front lawn of the house she and her husband Ed own into a big rock garden. She’s already gotten rid of the grass and is staging stones in its place. Some of the rock involved is flat paving stones and gravel, but most of it is just medium-sized roundish rocks that other folks want to get rid of. “I just went near a neighbor's house and they're like, please take them, I'll pay. I said no, I'll take it,” she said. “But little did he know I scored a birdbath in one of the rocks, which is about $2,500.” ...

Pheasant Fruit Stand open near Soap Lake

SOAP LAKE - Pheasant Fruit Stand is open for the season with several types of apples to enjoy.

Gonzaga women’s XC reaches highest-ever USTFCCCA ranking at No. 21

SPOKANE — Gonzaga women's cross country earned its highest ranking in program history in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) Coaches' Poll, coming at No. 21 ahead of the Bulldogs' biggest race of the season so far on Friday at the Battle in Beantown in Boston, Massachusetts. The Zag women were inactive over the last week, but are coming off a dual meet win against Eastern Washington in which the Bulldogs' top six runners all broke the 4K program record, led by a 12:50.7 finish from Kristen Garcia that earned her West Coast Conference Runner of the Week honors.

State of the lake

Improving Moses Lake water quality will be a community effort

MOSES LAKE — Preventing future blooms of dangerous blue-green algae in the waters of Moses Lake is going to take a lot of slow and deliberate effort on the part of everyone who lives, works and plays on and around the lake, according to members of the Moses Lake Watershed Council during a “State of Our Lake” meeting Tuesday night. “We will deal with this on the lake forever, but it can be managed and monitored,” Harold Crose, a resource conservationist with the Columbia Basin Conservation District and the chair of the watershed council. Crose said during the public meeting that phosphorus levels in the lake are the main contributor to the problem of blue-green algae blooms in the lake, but the agencies responsible for the lake like the council, the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District, and even lakeshore residents, can help keep phosphorus levels manageable. Doing so can help people keep boating and fishing on the lake...

Quincy council approves second school officer

QUINCY — The Quincy School District and Quincy Police Department will add a second school resource officer position, beginning with the 2023-24 school year. Quincy superintendent Nic Bergman told Quincy City Council members during the regular meeting Tuesday that QSD officials think it’s time for a second SRO. “Our district has grown such that we have about 740 students in the middle school,” Bergman said. “Our high school, we’re at about 860, and next year we’ll be over 900. So with the population that we have, especially at our secondary school, it really is essential to have two SROs, so that we can have a dedicated law enforcement presence at our high school and at our middle school.” The council approved the request on a 7-0 vote...

Maverick slow pitch off to 4-0 start

Older student-athletes credited with strong leadership

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Mavericks have started 2022 with a 4-0 record in slow pitch softball, with sweeps of Chiawana and Hermiston in the first four games. The Mavericks opened the season with back-to-back wins over Chiawana, winning 4-2 and 7-6 last week. On Tuesday, Moses Lake won both games over Hermiston by a score of 10-0. “It feels good that we came out and played clean on defense,” Moses Lake head coach Mike Hofheins said. “We got the sweep last Thursday against a really good team, and didn’t play tremendous defense – so that’s one of the things we kind of talked about since then.” ...

Grant PUD fish hatchery production will remain unchanged

EPHRATA — The Grant County PUD will not be required to build any new fish hatcheries over the next 10 years. Utility district officials renewed an agreement governing PUD hatchery production for the next decade with other parties involved in salmon and steelhead mitigation.

Zags' Bosselmann earns third Defensive Player of the Week award

SAN MATEO, CALIF. – Gonzaga women’s soccer goalkeeper Lyza Bosselmann was named as the West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, following strong performances against Weber State and Idaho State. The award is the third of Bosselmann’s career, earning the Defensive Player of the Week last September as well as in the Spring 2021 season...

Soap Lake opens new basketball courts

SOAP LAKE - After several years of challenges, Smokiam Park in Soap Lake has a new basketball court for community members to enjoy.

Summer’s work results in new stage, fresh look at Othello Fairgrounds

OTHELLO — Fresh paint, new sidewalks and a brand-new entertainment stage are the visible results of a summer’s worth of work by volunteers, and with the help of local companies and organizations, at the Othello Fairgrounds. “We’ve made a lot of improvements,” said Othello Fair Board Member Katy Stovern. Stovern said volunteers provided a lot of the labor to give the fairgrounds a general sprucing up. They were helped by donations of money, materials and labor from local businesses, and assistance from Adams County. The Othello Fair opened Wednesday and will continue through Saturday. The old entertainment stage next to the fair office was replaced with a brand-new stage, and a concrete pad added in front of the stage. Stovern said that’s the dance floor. The old stage was recycled, being moved across the grounds to the area where competitions are held.

It's getting hard to breathe

Is increased wildfire smoke an early sign of climate change?

With fire season starting to ramp up, smoky skies are filling the Columbia Basin and creating unhealthy air. While fire season isn’t new to those in the Pacific Northwest, it has become more noticeable over the last few years. “I think a lot of folks have been impressed by just in the last 10 years, just how much smokier our summers have been,” said Nick Bond, Washington State Climatologist at the University of Washington-based Office of the Washington State Climatologist, and a UW affiliate associate professor of atmospheric sciences. There are several fires, mainly to the northwest of Grant County, contributing to the smoky air this week.

Cleaning up history

Remote cemetery shows where an immigrant community once thrived

HARTLINE — On a lonely gravel road somewhere between Hartline and Almira, there’s a small graveyard that is the only tangible evidence of a once-thriving community. “The whole Welsh settlement was about a 15-mile strip north of Hartline, Wilbur, Govan and Almira, just kind of a strip right through there,” said Judy Evans Lindhag, whose family homesteaded next to the cemetery. “In the old time, they called it the ‘Welsh township,’ but it was never a town.” Lindhag was one of about a dozen people who gathered at the Welsh Cemetery Saturday morning to clean up headstones and clear away brush. The work day was planned by Mary Lynne Evans, president of the Puget Sound Welsh Association in Seattle...

Visitors fill Quincy

Farmer Consumer Awareness Day draws big crowd

QUINCY — Gigi Lowry was standing with a stack of plates on one side and an equally big stack of hamburger buns in front of her just after noon on Saturday. Lowry was in charge of preparing the plates for the crew on the chow line at the Quincy Rotary chapter’s barbecue lunch booth, a staple that goes back a quarter century or so at Farmer Consumer Awareness Day. It looked like a little bit of work, but Lowry said it was a perfectly good way to spend FCAD. “It is a blast,” she said. The Rotary barbecue was in high demand - the line snaked out the door at Quincy Middle School and stayed that way for at least 90 minutes. Quincy’s annual town celebration returned for the 41st time and drew a crowd for the parade, the quilt show, the dancing horses, the children’s soccer tournament, the tractor pull and the farmers market run by the Quincy High School Future Farmers of America chapter, among other events. Kacey Kiehn, a member of the QHS FFA alumni organization said the proceeds from the produce sale went back to the FFA chapter. “This is one of our two main fundraisers for the year,” Kiehn said...

Sandra Elaine Kisler

With her beautiful, generous smile, Sandra Elaine Kisler, affectionately known as Sandy, welcomed and embraced students, friends and family for over 84 years. In the early morning hours of July 13, 2022, though, heaven’s choir of angels must have needed another voice and called Sandy to join them.

'A best friend who won't tell anyone your secrets'

Horse lovers head to Ritzville for the Wheat Land Communities' Fair

RITZVILLE — Briger Peterson has a short and pithy description of what a horse is. “A best friend who won’t tell anyone your secrets,” the 14-year-old said, ready to demonstrate her bareback riding skills during the second day of the Wheat Land Communities’ Fair in Ritzville on Friday. Phil Peterson, who manages the Iron Legacy Ranch south of Ritzville along with Heidi Tracy, leaned against the wire around the equestrian pen. Many of the horses in Friday’s competition came through Iron Legacy, Tracy explained, as she too leaned on the wire to watch the kids fit and show their animals. “They’re just so good for the kids,” Tracy said. “They teach them how to think outside themselves, teaching them to be selfless.” ...

Grant Co. development remains active

Applications 'ebb and flow' year over year

EPHRATA — Building development in the unincorporated areas of Grant County through the end of August is a little slower than it was through the same period in 2021, but is still fairly lively, according to county officials. “(Development) is still going strong, not only in the county but our partner cities, too,” Grant County Director of Development Services Chris Young said. The development services department provides a monthly update of building permit applications in the unincorporated areas, which Young presented to the Grant County Commissioners Tuesday. As of the end of August 2022, the county had received 144 applications for new residences in unincorporated areas. That compared to 181 applications in the same period in 2021. The report showed some variations in the number of applications received each month, compared year over year. There were 27 residential construction permit applications submitted in March 2022, compared to 21 in March 2021. There were 14 submitted in April 2022, compared to 27 in April 2021...

Bird lovers

Central Basin Audubon Society looking for new members in the Basin

MOSES LAKE — The hills are alive with the sound of chirping - and twitttering, and chittering, and cheeping and hooting. The Columbia Basin is filled with birds, and the Central Basin Audubon Society wants to help folks enjoy them all and is looking for new members to join the birding community. “We have quite a few activities that we do, and we're trying to get more,” said Gayle Talbot of Moses Lake, the organization’s newly-elected president. CBAS is a chapter of Audubon Washington, which in turn is a state field office of the National Audubon Society. The nationwide organization was established in 1950 and named for the 19th-century naturalist John James Audubon, The goal of the society is to protect birds and the environments they thrive in using science, advocacy, education and conservation efforts, according to the organization’s website...

Lands commissioner calls for fire caution during Labor Day weekend

OLYMPIA – Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz is asking members of the public to help prevent wildfires during Labor Day weekend. “Fire season is not over. Over the 2020 Labor Day weekend, more than 500,000 acres of land burned in just 36 hours,” Franz said in the release. “We’ve seen firsthand that a single spark, in the right conditions, can make or break an entire fire season. Let’s all make sure we’re not that spark this holiday weekend.” The release said there have been 445 Department of Natural Resources fires across Washington so far this season – the lowest number of ignitions in the last decade – burning approximately 40,000 acres. However, hot and dry conditions are projected east of the Cascades and parts of the western side of the state over the weekend. “Thanks to a wet spring, and the hard work of our firefighters and aviation crews, we’ve largely been fortunate so far this fire season,” Franz said in the release. “But we’re not out of the woods yet. Washingtonians must continue to be vigilant and responsible.”

Hay King Travis Herring excels despite bad season

MOSES LAKE — There’s always plenty of work to do on a farm.