2020 One year ago today
After a successful practice run of its new in-house COVID-19 testing capabilities, UI leaders say they plan for all students to be tested before the semester’s start and results of those tests will be available in 24 hours. UI Director of Communications Jodi Walker said every student returning to the UI’s Moscow campus will be required to undergo a nasopharyngeal swab capable of identifying stray particles of coronavirus RNA before they may attend class in person or live in a residence hall. … As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise both regionally and nationally, Palouse Prairie Charter School in Moscow has announced it will begin the school year in a distance learning model it is calling “remote yet connected.” PPCS Executive Director Jeneille Branen said details are still being ironed out but the school will likely adopt this model for at least the first four to six weeks of the semester.
2016 Five years ago today
So many more poor people in Latah County are getting help with their medical costs and hospital bills from other sources that county government has spent only 20 percent of the $187,500 it budgeted this year — and the year’s almost over, county commissioners were told this week. There has been a decrease in indigent applications because of the work of the Latah Community Health clinic in Moscow; Latah Recovery Center; and the Affordable Care Act, said County Commissioner Dave McGraw. McGraw said Latah Community Health has relieved pressure on the indigent hospital and medical budget because it treats people with no insurance. … The Potlatch Food Pantry will soon have a new building but only a slightly different location. Tom Bender, a director on the Potlatch Food Pantry board, said the new building is at 510 Pine St., across the parking lot from City Hall where the pantry now operates. Bender, who is retired, said the goal is to complete construction of the 805-square-foot building by September and open the same month. Bender said the building is all the food pantry board thought it needed and could afford.
2011 10 years ago today
Residents of the area around Moscow Junior High School may see a crane working on campus. The Moscow School District is replacing the school’s 53-year-old heating boiler with two smaller and more efficient boilers, Superintendent Dale Kleinert said. He said workers had to cut the old boiler into several parts so it could be carried out of the school. The new boilers, however, can’t fit through the school’s doorways and must be lowered into place with a crane. A hole has already been cut in the roof of the school’s boiler room to prepare for the installation. … When it rains or snows in Pullman, almost any pollutant on the ground has a chance of ending up in one of the streams that run through town. Washington State Department of Ecology has stormwater runoff listed as the “number one water pollution problem in urban areas of our state.”
