(By Staff Reports/Chewelah Independent)

The Chewelah Bowling Center has leagues and offers open bowling for $4 a game. (File photo)

Bowling is back in Chewelah after hiatus…

The Chewelah Bowling Center is back in action, thanks to community support. Officially opened back up on Sept. 5 after a hiatus dating back to Chataqua, the center will now be open seven days a week.

The center hosts league bowling nearly every day a week and actually had to add leagues due to community response after the Chewelah mainstay’s future came into question because of funding last year.

“A big thanks to the community pulling together,” Chewelah Bowling Center’s Tami Gouge said. “Donations were made because people in the community care and want to see the bowling center open. This needs to keep happening.” More

(By Stevens County Prosecutor Tim Rasmussen) 

There is some good news to report. A new mental health treatment facility will soon open in Colville. Before this facility opened, treatment of persons with mental health problems was very complicated due to the fact that the nearest mental health facilities were in Spokane or Airway Heights. This meant logistic problems for patients and families and treatment providers.

Through the diligent efforts of several individuals and entities, Dr. David Nielsen is happy to announce, “A 16 bed Residential Treatment Facility – Adult Mental Health Inpatient Evaluation and Treatment Unit will be opening in Colville.  The facility will be housed within Providence Mount Carmel Hospital, (the landlord), funded by Spokane County Community Services, Housing, and Community Development Department and operated by Stevens County dba Northeast Washington Alliance Counseling Services. With Capital Project funds from the Washington State Department of Commerce, Spokane County and Stevens County, nearly $3 million of renovations have been completed to a section of the second floor of Mount Carmel Hospital that will house the E&T Facility.  More

(By Chewelah Chief of Police Mark Burrows)

Fifty four calls including over twenty traffic stops; a threats complaint; several assist calls to surrounding agencies; a misc complaint; and an officer took a report regarding a missing person. A citizen turned in a cheap, inoperative, bicycle that had been abandoned for months. The bicycle was disposed of after it was determined it had not been reported stolen. An adult female was booked into jail on DV charges; harassment; a welfare check; a report of possible child abuse; a report of a suspicious person; and officers responded to an intrusion alarm that was accidentally tripped by a contractor. An animal complaint; a cashier reported suspicious circumstances; an incomplete 911 call; and the hospital reported a man yelling outside the ER. A young man was booked on warrants; several K-9 deployments and assists; officers contacted several suspicious people during night shifts; and a concerned citizen reported that small children were playing in the street without supervision. Suspicious circumstances; an abandoned vehicle was towed off the street; and a citizen asked for a welfare check. Another agency assist; a lost & found call; another intrusion alarm; a disturbance call; another DV suspect was booked into jail; another disturbance call; a burglary/trespassing report; and a few young people quickly wore out their welcome at a fast food restaurant by being rude and exhibiting their limited sign language vocabulary. And last, but not least, hello to a few readers on a medical team in Zambia!

(By Jamie Henneman/Chewelah Independent)

Paul, Nichole and Clara Walker stand in front of their new tiny home. (Jamie Henneman photo)

Home changes renters to owners…

Earlier this year, Paul and Nichole Walker decided to embark on a project that would change them from renters to home owners by building their own tiny home with help from the Hope Street Project. The project is the second tiny home that the Hope Street Project has assisted with this year in an effort to address homelessness and affordable housing in Stevens County.

The Walkers said they decided to build a tiny home due to rising rent, making ongoing rent payments but not gaining on owning an asset and the needs of their growing family.

Paul Walker researched the materials he would need and the couple began building their tiny home from affordable materials, including a refurbished camping trailer frame, windows and other materials from Craigslist, and some help from Hope Street.

“I helped build just about every part of the home,” Nichole Walker said, pointing to a picture of her on the roof wielding a circular saw and another of Nichole on a step ladder with a pneumatic nailer. “That thing was heavy. I lost 70 lbs. building this tiny home. Paul lost 60 lbs.”

Every evening and spare moment the Walkers had was dedicated to completing the tiny home. The home features a mini kitchen, a living area with television, bathroom with a tiny home tub, a child’s bedroom for their daughter, Clara, and loft bedroom for the adults. The ladder to the loft is retractable and slides out of place when not in use.

The completion of the home heralds a second success story for the Hope Street Project that also helped a homeless family transition into a tiny home earlier this year. The first tiny home was built with volunteer labor from a local contractor, Keith Wilder, and donations of materials from local businesses like Haney Lumber, Columbia Cedar, Blue Mountain Plumbing and Home Town Flooring. Furnishings and other materials were donated by Home Suite Home and Colville Sign. The family is purchasing the home from the Hope Street Project via a zero interest loan that will help to fund future housing projects.

To learn more about Hope Street and their work to help those who do not qualify for conventional housing, contact: baconbarry@juno.com.

Here are upcoming events in the Chewelah area for Aug. 31, 2017…

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(By Jamie Henneman/Chewelah Independent)

The “Fresh Bucks” program available at the Colville and Chewelah Farmers Markets gives families state assistance via EBT. (File photo)

Colville, Chewelah markets offer ‘Fresh Bucks’…

For some low income families, the thought of a farmers’ market means expensive food or tables full of fruits and vegetables they may not be sure how to cook. But a number of programs are working to change that perception, both by increasing the amount a family can get by shopping at the market and ideas about how to cook seasonal produce.

The “Fresh Bucks” program, available at the Colville and Chewelah Farmers’ Markets gives families using state assistance via EBT cards the opportunity to earn $2 additional dollars to spend at the market for every $5 purchased with their EBT card. The program, sponsored by the Catholic Charities Food for All Program, applies to any fruit, vegetable, herb or vegetable starts at the market. More

(By KS Brooks/For The Chewelah Independent)

Clothes, hygiene and first aid items brought to firefighters by volunteers…

With large fires blazing throughout the United States right now, many people don’t realize that 50 percent of those are raging in the Pacific Northwest. One of them is the Bridge Creek Fire in Ferry County, which has already claimed 2670 acres and is only 33 percent contained as of Aug. 24.

Northwest Incident Management Team 6, from Oregon, is running firefighting operations in Keller, with over 500 personnel. Like many fire camps, they’ve turned the small area into their own city. Some services, however, like laundry, are not available. This is why one of the most needed items at the fire camp is underwear.

“There is a laundromat, but the firefighters don’t come in until late, sometimes 11 p.m. – and at that point, they’re too tired to do laundry,” Kathy Moses, Public Information Officer for Mt. Tollman assigned to Team 6, explained. New underwear, socks, and tee shirts are commonly requested by firefighters, as are hygiene and first aid items like eye drops, saline nasal spray, lip balm, cough drops, and more. Food items like beef jerky, Slim Jims, and other snacks high in protein are also great for the firefighters. While those are included in their lunches, firefighters burn quite a lot of calories each day, so donations from the community are welcome.
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