NEWS UNBROKEN
DAILY NEWS 7-30-2024
We've made it to Tuesday. Good day. You went to zero on the radio. I'm Eric Carpenter and this is K-C-V-L-K-C-R-K. Over in Republic yesterday, their air quality was in the unhealthy category throughout the middle of the day. Republic is having a moderate air quality today. The Colville air quality, hovered in the moderate rains throughout yesterday. Over night, the Colville air got to the good category. So far, Colville air quality is in the good category. Of course, we're going to still be talking a lot about fires all around the area. And of course, that is going to contribute to the particulate count and the air quality. Hey Colville, ready to transform your sleep? Discover the all-new Tempur-Pedic mattresses at Saunders Furniture, downtown Colville's sleep experts. Take the test dress and let our sleep experts fit you for the perfect mattress. Whether you're looking for a firm support or luxurious softness, Tempur-Pedic adapts to your body like no other. For over 15 years, I've trusted my sleep to Tempur-Pedic through every stage of my life. It's been there for me. Visit us in downtown Colville today and experience the Tempur-Pedic difference at Saunders Furniture. Your best night's sleep awaits. Take the first step towards better sleep. Visit Saunders Furniture in downtown Colville and let our sleep experts guide you to the perfect Tempur-Pedic mattress. Saunders Furniture, where comfort meets expertise. The countdown to the Northeast Washington Fair has begun. This year, the change in date for animal entries back to July the 1st resulted in more animals than ever. In fact, this year, they need to create expanded accommodations. We talked with Lori Matlock on an update with, again, some of the fair deadlines. Hi, this is Lori Matlock from the Northeast Washington Fair. I just want to give you a quick update. We had closed the animal registrations as of July 1st, and that went really well. We had very few that didn't make the deadline, and we were able to squeeze them in. Just remember that if you do have an animal, there was quite a few that did not submit their poster registration. And we need to make sure that you do that because all animal entries are required to have a poster in order to show. So all you kiddos, remember to get that done, take them down to WSU, they'll laminate them, and they'll be all ready to go. And another thing to remember for dates is August 12th. That's for anything else that you want to enter into the fair. So if you've got something that you want to show off, we'd love to have it here at the fair. We can always find room for anything. A lot of our registrations have the word "other," and that's where you enter your stuff that does not fall into a category. But just enter it. We love to have exhibits. We are right now at almost 3,000 exhibits and a little over 1,000 exhibit tours. And that's great. That's right on the mark for putting on a really nice fair. So we also want to remind you that if you want to be a vendor, please call my office 684-2585. We don't do duplications, but we do always look for something new and fun. And if you want to be in the parade, call that number. I'll get you a parade app. I can email it to you. You can send it back, but we always like to have a nice, big, full parade for the fair. The other thing that we've got going on is animals. We have all of our barns are pretty full right now. The beef barn has about 25 p-wees coming this year, which is awesome to get those little kids started early. And the pig barn is probably the one that will be the most exciting because we used to have about 60-some pigs in that barn, and then it jumped to 80-something. And this year, we're at 123 pigs, and we are finding ourselves having to finish off the rest of the pig barn in concrete in the next few weeks and getting some pens made. So when you walk into the barn, it'll look a lot different than it has in the past, but I grant you that pig barn still rocks. They're a fun brunch. We have a lot of wool sheep in them this year, which is a fiber entry, and we have a special judge that does just that. So if you've got something to enter, please polish it up, clean it off, bring it in. We'd love to have the entries. You can pick up a book at North 40. You can pick up a book at the country store, the library, the lobby at the fairgrounds, or you can go online. Just go to the Stevens County website, scroll down to the middle of the page in the blue, click the fairgrounds page and the book and the online registration are all right there for you. And again, call my office if you've got trouble. 684-2585. Thanks. Kids posters and other entries are due by August the 12th. Now, don't forget to register for the parade. That's coming up on Saturday, the 24th, be 10 in the morning, the Northeast Washington Fair. It gets underway August 22nd and runs through the 25th. The pioneer fire, it has burned for the past 51 days, right now at 33,276 acres in size, still only 15% contained, started off as a 300 acre fire when it first came to be back June the 8th. The fire, 31 miles northwest of Chelan, it's in the Okanagan Wenatchee National Forest, really challenging firefighters due to the steep mountainous terrain and very remote location. The fire officials previously declared the pioneer fire by Lake Chelan a disaster. The official disaster declaration frees up resources for local departments to try and wrangle the wildfire. Well, they have been improving fire lines protecting the town of Stehecan. They did get a level 3 evacuation notice on Sunday that evacuation order going from Stehecan to more point. However, some of the local business owners say they are not leaving, not all, but most of the people that live there year round are staying there. They're not leaving. They're there to defend their homes and their property. If it comes to that, the town, they say, is surrounded by water. And many have water pumps and hoses set up to fight any flames that reach their property. They also have boats ready to go just in case if they need a quick escape. They've been watching the wildfire come for quite a while. Some days they see smoke coming up behind the mountains, behind their office. Investigators believe it started as a building fire growing by igniting nearby trees. Well, the tourists, they have left, but most of the full time residents are staying put. Technically, there's no law that says that they can force people off their properties. It's their homes, their property. The expectations are this fire might continue to smolder all summer and could take until Halloween to really be extinguished. Heavy aircraft, they've been managing to drop 100,000 gallons of water onto the flames. They have put out some spot fires also cooling other areas that are actively burning. The Cattlefall School District is currently seeking a skilled and reliable bus driver for the 2024 2025 school year. Accelerate your career in this high demand field. As a bus driver, you will be transporting students and staff on regular school routes and extracurricular activities, such as field trips. Be a part of our team and help us continue to provide safe and efficient transportation to our community. Apply online at kfschools.org or call 509-738-6625 for more information. State fire assistance has been mobilized under the state fire resource mobilization. This the lower granite fire in Garfield County near the town of Pomeroy. This authorization yesterday afternoon, about 3 o'clock, the lower granite fire started yesterday, mid-day. The fire quickly grew to 2,000 acres, burning in grass and brush. It is threatening primary structures, crops, rangeland and infrastructure. Also, there are level 3 evacuations in place. The Department of Transportation reporting US 12 is still closed from Rimrock retreat, milepost 151, to the state route 410 junction, this due to the retreat fire. In that fire, several thousand feet of guardrail have burned along with several highway signs. Department of Transportation does not have an estimate for reopening the highway due to the ongoing fire activity in the area. Well, there is a white building that once served as a schoolhouse on top of a hill in Valley. The building was relocated about four years ago after nearly facing demolition. Well, now at its new location, now they're getting the inside, the final phases of restoration. This building, built back in 1916, the little white schoolhouse, it will be Valley's first museum and an art gallery. The Valley School District, the Valley Historical Society and the community all came together to preserve the building and the history following an endangered historic place nomination back in 2017. The main goal is to teach the youth of our history. George Craig, the restoration assistant director, he says, "We got so many new people moving into the community. They have no clue what our local history is and why the town was put here." Like Craig and others in Valley, a lot of people had attended the schoolhouse in one way or another, whether it was for a class or even for housing. The little white schoolhouse was a grade school. They had music there. In the basement was the locker room. It was called the Eagles Nest, the co-president of the group and the grandson of Jackie Franks, the founder of the Valley Historical Society. Franks, now 93, attended the school as a kid, started the group back in 2008, started the plans to restore the building. She donated land in 2015 at the fairgrounds so the building could be relocated. This was before the schoolhouse was nominated in 2017 by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation as the most endangered historic places. Well, the little white schoolhouse is being preserved, a museum, a big motivation for starting the historical society in Valley. In July of 2020, they moved the schoolhouse to the town's fairgrounds and they've been working kind of year round to restore and rebuild parts of the building. They just finished the roof. A big roof raised the roof fundraising campaign. It helped raise $50,000 funding in grants and donations. Well, the Valley Historical Society, they will open the little white schoolhouse, 10 a.m. to 2 in the afternoon, August the 9th, and 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, August the 10th. They'll give community members a chance to walk in and read through history, as well as they hope, donate and participate in their raffle. Those little emergency shut-off valves under your sink, the ones you probably have trouble getting to because of soap, window cleaner and dog shampoo hiding them, and can you even turn them off if you need to? Fogo pump and supply has the new quarter-turn valves that use a brass ball seal and not a crusty washer. In fact, Fogo pump and supply has all the modern plumbing supplies you need in plastic, iron, copper, pecs and more. Stump by and check them out at their North Highway location. Fogo pump and supply the water professionals. The Boston Red Sox scored seven runs in the third inning on the way to a 14-7 victory over the Mariners last night. The Red Sox had a season-high eight doubles. Cal Raleigh did hit a solo homer for the Mariners. The Rams had their three-game winning streak come to an abrupt halt. Seattle's Logan Gilbert, now six and seven, was tagged for seven runs in two and two-third innings. The 27-year-old Reide had held opponents to one or no earned runs in 11 of his previous 21 starts against Boston. Well, the night unraveled really quickly for Gilbert. Two outs in the third innings and things went downhill really fast. Game two of the three-game series with Boston coming up this afternoon on 92-1 KCRK. Today's local weather forecast brought to you by LMK floors at 1175B South Main in Colville. The tent sale, it is right around the corner, August 1st, 2nd and 3rd. LMK offering 10% off all their stock inventory that's in their outside warehouse, and there's going to be some crazy savings on all the overstock inventory. This is a once a year sale. You don't want to miss this one. Do something amazing. 79 the high, the little rainfall near thunderstorms today, 47 overnight, 85 on Wednesday, 93 Thursday. And then we go back to triple digits, 101 Friday, 102 Sunshine Saturday, still sunny, hot and dry, 97 Sunday, 96 on Monday. Let's be really careful not to have any man-made fires. We'll be watching and see if any thunderstorms give us problems with new fires. Tuesday, good to have you with us here on the radio. I'm Eric Curpender at KCVL, KCRK.