OROVILLE CRUISE NIGHT COUNTY FAIR RESULTS
Saturday, Sept. 20, Meet at Tonasket Eagles at Noon
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RUNWAY READY AFTER RENOVATION
Firm on board for school projects BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
TONASKET - The Tonasket School Board voted Monday, Sept. 8, to accept Superintendent Paul Turner’s recommendation to hire Design West Architects to guide the district through the facilities expansion construction project that still has yet to be funded. The bond measure intended to fund additional space in school buildings, construction of space to replace the dilapidated Alternative School, as well as upgrade portions of the outdoor athletics facilities, narrowly failed at the ballot box last winter. The board has been meeting with community members to reconfigure the measure before putting it back on the ballot at a date still to be determined. Turner said that of the eight architects that completed applications, three were interviewed. Those three - Design West of Pullman, Architects West of Couer d’Alene, ID, and Forte Architects out of Wenatchee, rose to the top. Turner said the Design West’s pre-bonding process and philosophy were the deciding factors. “As we talked with each firm, we had specific questions about pre-bonding,” Turner said. “Bottom line is, we need the bond to move forward and wanted to know what they could do for us. “Design West was very intentional about that. They even brought a process that was not requested, but they were
The runway renovation at Oroville’s Dorothy Scott International Airport was completed last week and the airport is back open for business, according to Airport Services Manager Steve Johnson. The runway received crack repair, seal coating and the approach numbers and lines were repainted. The municipal airport was closed for much of last week while the work was being done. “Having the airport closed wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated – the city sent out letters and Customs was on board letting people know,” said Johnston, who adds only one Canadian aircraft came in to land; it was amphibious and landed on the lake and U.S. Customs did their inspections there. “The paving company did a wonderful job... I don’t think I’ve been as pleased with something since I got up there. And the minute I opened at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning the airport was back in business and we had people waiting to use it.” The airport services manager said friction testing was also done on the airport prior to and after the paving project. He said the new seal coat will give the runway “good friction” and it also makes it much easier to see from the air in contrast to the surrounding ground. Johnston also thanked the city for installing a new 144-inch long orange wind sock and said another large wind sock will go on top of Bill Nicholson’s hanger. “Like they say, build a mile of road and you can drive a mile, build a runway and you can go anywhere,” said Johnston.
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Tonasket seeks more info from emergency management Clarification desired about rights, planning BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
TONASKET - The devastating wildfires that scorched much of the southern half of Okanogan County this summer highlighted the need for managing emergencies that are larger than what local resources can handle. The Tonasket City Council recognizes this, but was unwilling to sign off on Okanogan County Emergency Management’s plan for Tonasket without first meeting with Scott Miller, the county’s Homeland Security Coordinator. City Clerk Alice Attwood said she’d been told that Miller would be unable to attend a council meeting to discuss the plan, and wanted the city to adopt the plan at its next meeting. Though, as Mayor Patrick Plumb noted, there wasn’t exactly an option to “shop around,” council member Scott Olson expressed reservations about approving a plan without first sorting out all the implications. “When I look over the plan, we give up a fair amount of our rights and responsibilities in an emergency,” Olson said. “I want (Miller) to hear from us that we want it to be pretty drastic when that happens, and that we want certain things
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Willy Inez/submitted photos
Canadian company shelves Similkameen River dam plan Proposed 541 foot dam is not financially viable, says Fortis Inc. BY GARY A. DE VON MANAGING EDITOR
PRINCETON, B.C. - Fortis Inc. will not move forward with their proposed Similkameen River water management and hydroelectric project at this time, according to an announcement made by the company on Sept. 4. Fortis said it made the decision based on the results of its most recent project feasibility studies. Fortis Generation Similkameen LP proposed a 541 foot (165 meter) concrete facility that was expected to have usable water storage and deliver between 45 to 65 megawatts of electrical capacity along with the associated water management benefits. The dam would have cost between $350-$400 million to construct and provide power to tens of thousands of homes in the Canadian South Okanagan and potentially across the border in the U.S. According to detractors it also had the potential to greatly change the amount of water flowing into Osoyoos Lake. “We believe that building a water storage hydroelectric facility on the Similkameen River would create many benefits for the area,” said project manager Joseph
OKANOGAN VALLEY GAZETTE-TRIBUNE Volume 110 No. 38
Sukhnandan. “However, based on the results of our latest engineering and economic studies, we determined the project is not financially viable at this time.” Fortis Generation Inc. had been doing public consultation, First Nations engagement and feasibility studies for the construction of a water storage/hydroelectric generation facility located on the Similkameen River approximately nine miles south of Princeton, B.C., according to Fortis Inc. In January, Fortis was granted a two-year investigative use permit to explore the feasibility of the dam on the Similkameen River near the Copper Mountain Mine site, according to the Penticton Western News, a sister publication of the Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune. The Western News went on to report, “According to Fortis’ land tenure application, the dam would have been up to 200 metres (656 ft.) tall, 477 metres (1665 ft.) long, and created a 750-hectare (1853 acres) reservoir behind it to help it generate 45 to 65 megawatts of electricity. “Company officials said previously that electricity generation alone wouldn’t make the dam financially viable, so they’d also been in contact with groups downstream in the U.S. who would have benefited from ‘flow control’ of the Similkameen River.” The dam could have benefited the Enloe Dam project proposed by Okanogan County PUD, but is not vital to the success of that project, according to John R.
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Grubich, General Manager of the public electric utility. If approved, Enloe Dam, which has not generated electricity since the 1950s, would be renovated and the height of the spillway increased and a new powerhouse constructed. Enloe is located on the Similkameen about four miles west-northwest of Oroville. “The Princeton project would have allowed a more coordinated operation that may have benefited the Enloe project. However, since Enloe is a run of the river project, having the Princeton project shelved does not impact the operation or economics of Enloe,” Grubich said. Various groups have investigated the feasibility of a water storage and hydroelectric facility in the area since the 1990s. Fortis Generation Similkameen LP may reevaluate the viability of the project in the future based on customer demand and market conditions, writes the company in their announcement. Fortis Inc. is the largest investor-owned electric and gas distribution utility in Canada, with total assets approaching $25 billion and fiscal 2013 revenue exceeding $4 billion. Its regulated utilities account for serve more than three million customers across Canada and in the United States and the Caribbean. Fortis owns non-regulated hydroelectric generation assets in Canada, Belize and Upstate New York. Additional information can be accessed at www.fortisinc.com or www.sedar.com.
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