Issuu

Easter Egg Hunts

Annual Donkey Basketball

Blue Thunder wins big

Oroville and Tonasket Easter Egg Hunts Saturday, April 7 10 a.m.

PAGE B6

SERVING WASHINGTON’S

OKANOGAN VALLEY

SINCE 1905

GAZETTE-TRIBUNE WWW.GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM | THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012 | 75 CENTS NEWSSTAND PRICE

Hwy. 97, sidewalk work for Tonasket

Hospital looks at space options

Fine day for ducks, not kites

State DOT to do a ‘mill and fill’ on Whitcomb, bring sidewalk ramps to ADA requirements

BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM

BY GARY A. DEVON MANAGING EDITOR

TONASKET – Saving the good news for last at the Tuesday, March 27 Tonasket City Council meeting, City Clerk Alice Attwood informed the mayor and council that the state Department of Transportation plans major improvements to the highway and handicapped ramps next year. “The DOT is doing a chip seal regionwide, but have agreed to do a “mill and fill” of Highway 97 through town. That means rather than just doing a chip seal they will grind out the lanes and fill with hot asphalt, something we have been requesting for a number of years,” said Attwood. “It also includes upgrade of the sidewalk ramps to ADA compliance along Highway 97/Whitcomb to the city limits.” The timing of the project will coincide with other street work the city plans on doing on Third, Fifth and Sixth streets, which are being paid for through a state TIB (Transportation Improvement Board) grant and a pedestrian project to put a crossing at the hospital. “The ADA work on the ramps will also save the city from having to pay to bring the ramps into compliance as the state will pay to have the work done,” said Attwood. “There are also plans for the state to look at the junction of Highway 97 and Highway 20 to try and improve that intersection.” Mayor Patrick Plumb and the council members agreed that it was good news for the town. Plumb also suggested that any improvements to water lines that are scheduled next year be done to take advantage of the streets being dug up. Lee Orr, with the Airport Improvement Club, received the council’s approval of the Father’s Day Fly-in on Sunday, June 17 with the barbecue on Saturday evening. He also informed the council that Big World of Flight, a group of pilots that educate children on General Aviation, would be at the airport on May 23. “They will fly two airports in and we expect to have from 70 to 78 kids. The pilots make it interesting, sending the kids to various stations just to learn about General Aviation,” Orr said. They’re all local fifth- and sixth-graders and some of them really show an interest. Big World will also be making stops at Oroville, Republic, Omak and Okanogan airports.” Orr said that he had been meeting with other local airport representatives and the Okanogan County Planning office to discuss building around local airports. “We meet every other week and are trying to hammer out some zoning ordinances as well as hammering out a moratorium until these ordinances are in place,” said Orr, emphasizing that it was critical to permit building in a way that would not be a hazard to pilots and property around airports. While the seven municipal airports in Okanogan County are each part of the city, they are islands surrounded by unincorporated parts of the county. The county is working on adopting airport protection zones, as required by state statute to “prevent incompatible uses and promote public health and safety,” writes Perry Huston, director of

SEE COUNCIL | PG. A3

Photos by Gary DeVon

Brother and sister Trevor and Alex Lindsay (above) work hard to get their kites to take flight at a rainy Oroville Kite Day last Saturday morning. The brother and sister where among the handful of kids that braved the weather that morning and received a free kite from the Oroville Royal Neighbors group. Trevor, four, and Alex, two, are the son and daughter of Cory and Lisa Lindsay of Oroville. Several people gave it a good try, but the weather – lots of rain, little wind -- won out in the end and Kite Day was over much earlier than normal and people came in to get a cookie and some hot cocoa from the Royal Neighbors. The free kites will probably get some more use during spring break, which began Monday, when the weather will hopefully be dryer.

TONASKET - In an effort to take care of two needs at once, the North Valley Hospital Board of directors is evaluating whether or not to convert several of the rooms in its Assisted Living facility into office space. Assisted Living has been operating at between six and 10 residents below capacity for the last three years, resulting in annual losses of between $66,000 and $100,000 per year. Meanwhile, the hospital itself is short on office space, and reassigning some Assisted Living rooms as they become available could both avoid remodeling costs in the hospital and result in some cost reimbursement for the use of the Assisted Living space. Unfortunately, when word leaked out that some of the rooms were being looked at for another use, some thought it meant that NVH was looking at closing the Assisted Living facility altogether. “We are not in any way, shape or form talking about closing Assisted Living,” said NVH CEO Linda Michel. “The issue is making sure we preserve it for the community.” Michel said that the facility needs to operate at or near its capacity of 32 residents to be profitable, but that hasn’t been the case with census reports that have averaged between 22.6 and 26 residents the past three years. “The discussion is how we can maximize the use of the space,” Michel said. “If we can find a way to use some of the rooms for offices and avoid having to spend more money for remodeling in the hospital, we feel it would be good stewardship. But this is not a matter of us closing.” Michel said it was still in the fact-finding stage. Construction review would be required to determine if it was even possible to use the Assisted Living rooms in that fashion, as well as a relicensing process for the number of beds. “Plus, there are residents in some of the rooms we’re looking at,” Michel said. “We would not move anyone out of their rooms; it is something we would deal with through attrition.

SEE BOARD | PG. A3

Drug Task Force arrests two from Oroville on drug charges BY GARY A. DEVON MANAGING EDITOR

OROVILLLE – Members of the drug task force and local law enforcement arrested a man and young woman Wednesday on suspicion of dealing drugs from an Oroville residence. The North Central Washington Narcotics Tax Force executed a search warrant at 1134 22nd Ave. with assistance from the Okanogan County Sheriff ’s Office, the Special Response Team, Oroville Police Department and Border Patrol K9 Max, according to Sheriff Frank Rogers. Jason C. Youker, 38, and Cassandra J. Vandeveer, 19, were arrested and booked into Okanogan County Jail for delivery of a controlled substance,

OKANOGAN VALLEY GAZETTE-TRIBUNE Volume 106 No. 14

OCSO photo

Jason C. Youker

OCSO photo

Cassandra J. Vandeveer

INSIDE THIS EDITION

according the sheriff. “After a very long investigation the warrant was executed and two suspects were arrested as they tried to flee the residence out the back door,” wrote Rogers in a press release Friday. “Youker and Vandeveer have been selling a lot of drugs from the residence and several arrests have been made prior to the search warrant being executed. “Youker, who also goes by “Iceman,” is very familiar to law enforcement.” At the residence they seized $9,000 in cash, almost a pound of suspected heroin and marijuana in three different containers which was ready for sale, said the Sheriff. They also found mushrooms and methamphetamine. “Excellent job by the Task Force and everyone involved,” writes Rogers.

Community A2-3 Letters & Opinions A4 Movies A5

Valley Life A5-6 Local Sports B1 Valley Life B2

Arts/Entertainment B3 Classified/Legals B4-B5 Valley Life B6