Quincy voters support one-year hospital levy
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 5 months AGO
MOSES LAKE — Grant County election officials continue to count ballots and post unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary election.
In Quincy, 64% of voters, or 751, in Grant County Hospital District 2/Quincy Valley Medical Center approved a one-year, $825,000 levy to support the medical center.
In the contest to occupy Quincy School Board Direct District 5, Chad Lower remains in the lead with about 49%, or 516 votes, and is slated in November to face Liliana Garcia with 29%, or 309 votes. Enrique Henry Hernandez came in third with 22%, or 230 votes.
In the Moses Lake School District, about 54% of voters, or 2,256, firmly rejected the proposed three-year, $7 million per year replacement levy. To pass, the levy needed 50% plus one in favor.
The three-way contest for Director District 2 is still led by incumbent school board member Vickey Melcher with 51%, or 2,056 votes, followed by challenger Paul Hill with 33%, or 1,302 votes. Noah Zemke came in third with 15%, or 611 votes.
Vying for MLSD’s Director District 4 seat, Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr maintains a lead with 40%, or 1,650 votes, followed by Rachel Roylance Gallacci with 36%, or 1,466 votes. Both will face off in November.
Coming in third was Matt Paluch with 16%, or 644 votes, with James Liebrecht a distant fourth with 7%, or 290 votes.
In the city of George, the three-way vote for the Council Member 4 seat sees Julia Schooler in the lead with a two-vote lead with 13 votes, 39%, ahead of John Ammons with 11 votes, 33%, followed by Katrina Rodriguez with nine votes, 27%. Schooler and Ammons will face off in November.
In the city of Grand Coulee, Ben Hughes maintains a huge lead in the race for Council Member 1 with 79 votes, 68%, with his nearest rival Tracy Justice Wright garnering just 20 votes, 17%, followed by Frank Jones with 13 votes, or 11%. Hughes and Wright will face off again in November.
In the town of Hartline’s race for Council Member 2, Goldye Moyer maintains a solid lead with 18 votes, 55%, against competitors Brian Sayler with 13, 39%, and Mark Frye with two votes, or 6%. Moyer and Sayler will face off in November.
Finally, in the two open city council seats in Moses Lake, Karen Liebrecht maintains a slight lead in the close race for Council Member 2 with 36%, or 695 votes, followed by Eric Eleazar Salgado with 32%, or 602 votes, and Dustin Swartz with 31%, or 597 votes.
Judy Madewell remains ahead in the count to win Council Member 5 with 45%, or 858 votes, ahead of incumbent David Curnel with 43%, or 802 votes, and Devin Deitrick came in third with 11%, or 207 votes.
The Grant County Auditor’s office reports it has counted 5,576 ballots countywide and has 1,425 remaining to tabulate. The turnout is about 18% of the county’s 31,750 registered voters. The next ballot count will be released late Monday, with final results set to be certified on Aug. 17.
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...