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  • All Lincoln County levies currently passing

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Feb 10, 2021

    DAVENPORT--All five levies on the Lincoln County ballot for the Feb. 9 special election, including four school and one hospital levies, were passing as of press time, according to the Lincoln County Auditor’s website. Proposition No. 1 in the Sprague School District had received 145 "yes" votes to just 60 "no" votes for a 70.73% to 29.27% margin. The replacement levy would be an estimated $1.68 per $1,000 of assessed property value for two years. Total collection in 2022 would be $195,000, and the same number in 2023. The l...

  • No vaccines for health department this week

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Feb 4, 2021

    DAVENPORT – As state leadership in Olympia touts the success of four mass vaccination clinics inoculating thousands in Spokane, Wenatchee, Clark County and Kennewick with shots aimed at preventing COVID-19, the Lincoln County Health Department continues to wonder how many-or few-doses it will receive to give those eligible here. This week, it received zero. Health department public administrator Ed Dzedzy shared that fact with the Lincoln County Commissioners Feb. 1, noting that Lincoln Hospital was expected to receive 100 d...

  • Council approves sewer lagoon contract

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Feb 4, 2021

    By Drew Lawson The Times DAVENPORT – Farmers and ranchers can now officially bid to enter into a contract with the city for the land at the sewer lagoons on the northeast side of town just above the baseball fields. Council approved the contract, where farmers and ranchers will bid a lump-sum for consideration, at its Jan. 27 meeting. Contractors can prepare bids to farm four areas utilizing reclaimed water from city lagoons. The areas include an irrigated, 38-acre north circle, an irrigated, 21-acre south circle, 14-acre i...

  • Graupel topples into town

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Feb 4, 2021

    Dark clouds swiftly blow over Audubon Lake north of Reardan Feb. 2. High winds and graupel, or soft hail or snow pellets, briefly passed over the Davenport and Reardan area on Tuesday....

  • Highlights from Reardan board meeting

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Feb 4, 2021

    REARDAN—A brief discussion surrounding the district’s plans for comprehensive sexual education and approval of several action items were among the notable moments of the school board’s Jan. 27 meeting. Superintendent Eric Sobotta told the board that a stakeholder group of roughly 15 parents and a number of staff will help with developing the district’s sexual education strategy, in accordance with the recently voter-approved Referendum 90 that requires Washington public schools to provide comprehensive sexual health education...

  • Council approves Reardan Heroes acreage

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 28, 2021

    REARDAN – Reardan Heroes, a nonprofit organization with an aim to construct a memorial honoring town native and Medal of Honor recipient Joe E. Mann and other local war veterans, is one step closer to its goal. Without hesitation, council unanimously approved a land use application for a 3.91 acre plot of land donated to Reardan Heroes by town local Susan Eastman at its Jan. 21 meeting. Eastman verbally donated the currently residential acreage in 2019, according to a Nov. 2...

  • New county prosecutor is Lincoln County native, veteran

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 28, 2021

    DAVENPORT – Adam Walser grew up on the family farm in the northeast corner of Lincoln County near Devil's Gap before pursuing a law career that would make him a judge advocate in the Marine Corps. Now, he is the Lincoln County prosecutor, replacing Jeff Barkdull, who was elected Superior Court Judge in the November general election. Walser was in the Marine Corps as an officer, then became a judge advocate full-time. He said the most interesting case he worked on in his t...

  • High school sports pushed to Feb. 15

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 28, 2021

    DAVENPORT – Fall sports may be on the horizon, if COVID-19 metrics cooperate. District 7 athletic directors, which include those in the NE2B and NE1B leagues, met Jan. 22 and approved a move of most fall sports to Feb. 15 in hopes that the East region, which all Lincoln County schools are in, will be in "Phase 2" of the metrics required to compete in most sports. Football, however, would start full practices Feb. 10 if the region is in Phase 2 by that point. In Phase 1, o...

  • NE2B pushes fall sports back to Feb. 15

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 22, 2021

    DAVENPORT--Northeast 2B athletic directors elected today to push back the start of most fall sports to Feb. 15, a two-week delay from the previously planned Feb.1, after COVID-19 numbers in the East region failed to indicate that the region would be in "Phase 2" of Gov. Jay Inslee's state re-opening plan. Football will "hopefully" start five days earlier, on Feb. 10, Reardan co-athletic director Eric Nikkola said, as 10 football practices must occur before games can begin. Other league fall sports are cross country,...

  • Lincoln County left behind?

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    DAVENPORT – Lincoln County Health Public Administrator Ed Dzedzy and other county health staff often receive calls from residents asking when they can receive the Moderna vaccine aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection. Giving those callers a clear answer is difficult, however, because the department now is not sure how many doses the county will receive from the state on a weekly basis until the Friday prior. This has created a frustrating situation for Dzedzy and his staff, he shared with the Lincoln County Commissioners a...

  • City likely to seek new sewer lagoon tenant

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    DAVENPORT – A few hundred yards north of the baseball fields off McInnis Road on the northeast side of town lie four sewer lagoons on premises the city uses as spray irrigation for sewer lagoon water. The lagoons are staggered in elevation. Chemicals are put in the top lagoon, and the water flows from one to the other. The roughly 75-acre area now needs a new farmer to partner with the city through a public contract to maintain and farm the land in exchange for the ability t...

  • Davenport SD part of COVID-19 rapid testing pilot program

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    DAVENPORT-The school district here is one of 12 districts statewide participating in a COVID-19 rapid testing pilot program, where staff members voluntarily test themselves using a swab and receive results within 24 hours of the swabs arriving at a lab. The process involves a few coughs and the ability to summon saliva. "Our district is one of 12 school districts that have been recently selected by the Washington State Department of Health to participate in a state-funded COVI...

  • Longtime Davenport resident celebrating 100th birthday

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    DAVENPORT – Arloine "Barlee" Brown, formerly Boyk, remembers World War II, growing up during the Great Depression and has spent over 80 years of her life combined here. Now, she's celebrating her centennial birthday Jan. 22. Brown, who is called "Barlee" by most who know her, was born in Rocklyn, but grew up on a farm about four miles from Bluestem and eight miles from Davenport. She spent her time riding horses and singing with her parents and three siblings, all of whom s...

  • Reardan launching girl's soccer team

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    REARDAN – Another option for female student-athletes hoping to compete in sports is coming to the school district. The school board approved the launch of a girl’s soccer team at its Jan. 14 board workshop meeting with little hesitation. Superintendent Eric Sobotta said the district hopes the team can launch by Feb. 1, or by the date fall sports are officially a go. Girl’s soccer will be added after a year-plus long process the district went through to add another girl’s sport in order to come to Title IX compliance. The pro...

  • UPDATED: Northeast 2B League tentatively planning Feb. 1 start date

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    DAVENPORT – Many high school sports leagues around the state are making their own decisions about how to proceed with fall sports, which the WIAA had tentatively planned for Feb. 1. The Northeast 2B League decided to aim to start all fall sports that day after an league-wide athletic director’s meeting Jan. 15, with the possibility of another delay coming. Reardan co-athletic director Eric Nikkola, who took part in the meeting, said that a final decision on whether to start Feb. 1 will come Jan. 25. If COVID-19 case num...

  • Area sports roundup-Jan. 21 issue

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 21, 2021

    All-time greatness surrounds the quarterbacks in one game this weekend, while young superstars man the position in the second. I speak, of course, of the NFC Championship game between Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers and Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the AFC Championship game between Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Allen's Buffalo Bills. Rodgers and Brady, two of the most recognizable football names in the last 20 years, square off at frigid Lambeau Field f...

  • Area sports roundup-Jan. 14 issue

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 20, 2021

    Calling four verticals against a two-deep safety look when the opposing defense has a strong pass rush tends to be a terrible play call. Unfortunately for those thousands in the state who root for the Seattle Seahawks, that sentiment didn't appear to affect Pete Carroll, Brian Schottenheimer, Russell Wilson and the rest of the offensive personnel on Saturday. It contributed to the Seahawks' season ending early with a Wild Card round loss at home to the rival Los Angeles Rams...

  • EWU women grab two wins at Portland State

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 20, 2021

    PORTLAND-Two wins may not seem like much, but the Eastern Washington women's basketball team's pair of victories at Portland Stat Dec. 31 and Jan. 2 to open Big Sky Conference road play will surely be a confidence booster for a young team with just one senior that only managed three conference wins all last season. EWU won 73-71 in the first game and 73-67 in the second game. Eastern improved to 2-2 in conference and 3-6 overall with the two victories, and in both games were...

  • Northeast 2B League tentatively planning Feb. 1 start date for fall sports

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 18, 2021

    DAVENPORT--Many high school sports leagues around the state are making their own decisions about how to proceed with fall sports, which the WIAA had tentatively planned for Feb. 1. Today, the Northeast 2B League decided to aim to start all fall sports that day, with the possibility of another delay coming. Reardan co-athletic director Eric Nikkola, who took part in a league-wide athletic director's meeting, said that a final decision on whether to start Feb. 1 will come Jan. 2...

  • Vaccine doses continue to arrive

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 14, 2021

    DAVENPORT-The Lincoln County Health Department received 200 more doses of the Moderna vaccine aimed at preventing infection of COVID-19 Jan. 11. It is a beginning-of-the-week trend the department hopes will continue, and grow, on a weekly basis as the fight to curb the virus continues. "We hope to receive even more than that each week eventually," Health Department Public Administrator Ed Dzedzy said. 700 vaccine doses have arrived in the county so far. 100 of those doses are...

  • Wind storm blusters Eastern Washington

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 14, 2021

    DAVENPORT—High winds swept across Eastern Washington the night of Jan. 12 and throughout Jan. 13, creating power outages and felled trees across several counties. Lincoln County hadn’t been blustered as hard as Spokane County by press time, but effects were still felt. The school district here closed to in-person learning Jan. 13. The district asked students on its Facebook page to check in with teachers by 10 a.m. to get work done, if possible. Meanwhile, the Reardan-Edwall School District has gone remote through at lea...

  • Local law enforcement reacts to Capitol riot

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 14, 2021

    DAVENPORT—A country glued to the news sat in stunned silence on Jan. 6, as a pro-President Donald Trump far-right extremist mob rushed the Capitol building as Congress and Vice President Mike Pence convened to read the results the electoral vote of Dec. 14 that certified the 2020 general election results confirming Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president-elect and vice president-elect. Rioters broke into the Senate rotunda, with one man famously dressed like a buffalo sitting in Pence’s seat. (The vice pre...

  • Where does transfer station recycling go?

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 14, 2021

    DAVENPORT-The explanation of where solid waste goes after being dropped off at the Lincoln County Transfer station is fairly straightforward: It is loaded onto a train, transported to Spokane and then redirected to Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County. However, where does the recycled material go? The answer depends on what type of material is in play. Scrap metal "usually" goes to Schnitzer Steel Industries, which has locations the transfer station gives the metal...

  • Mayors share city outlooks

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 14, 2021

    The calendar has flipped, and a new year is facing Davenport and Reardan. The Times spoke with Davenport mayor Brad Sweet and Reardan mayor Gail Daniels to discuss their cities and towns looking to 2021. Sweet: Locals hopes 2021 is "return to normal" City residents would prefer that 2021 brings a return to life as normal: A time where businesses are open, people can gather and community events can bring locals together. That was the sentiment shared by mayor Brad Sweet when...

  • Greetings from the new(ish) guy

    Drew Lawson, The Times|Updated Jan 14, 2021

    Hello readers of The Times. You may know me as Drew, the scrawny, 14-year-old-looking reporter who has been covering Reardan news and education, Lincoln County preps sports and miscellaneous news and community features over the last seven or so months. You may know me from before that as sports editor and co-managing editor of Eastern Washington University’s student newspaper, The Easterner. And you may know me from before that if you are related to me. For local readers, t...

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