MLSD board president to continue talks with Meek
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 3 months AGO
Moses Lake School District Superintendent Josh Meek.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald
MOSES LAKE — At a special meeting Friday, Moses Lake School Board voted to give its president the power to continue talks with Moses Lake School District Superintendent Josh Meek that will lead to his resignation.
Meek has been the subject of an investigation since early August into use of his school district credit card, reporting of leave time, and claiming project-related stipends without board approval.
The decision to authorize Vickey Melcher to continue talks was made after a two-hour, closed-door executive session called at 9 a.m. According to the motion, if Melcher believes she is successful in reaching terms acceptable to both Meek and the district, she will call another special meeting for the board to vote on the deal.
Melcher is also to call a meeting if she believes her efforts have been exhausted and a deal cannot be reached.
No timetable was set for this meeting, and no details were given. In a press release issued late Wednesday, MLSD said terms of Meek’s departure, including severance pay, were under discussion.
Board members made no comment about Friday morning’s meeting. Board member Elliott Goodrich, however, said he had concerns about the statement issued in the board’s name late Wednesday.
“I support this with one caveat, that I feel there was an inaccurate statement in the press release,” Goodrich said.
Goodrich would give no details, either during the meeting or after.
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.” ...