2021 One year ago

The Port of Whitman County last week secured a $200,000 grant fueling an early step in the potential renovation of Washington State University’s old steam plant on the southwest corner of the school’s Pullman campus. Awarded by the Washington Department of Ecology, the grant will fund a feasibility study investigating steps necessary to repurpose the 94-year-old, mostly defunct steam plant. Uses described in the port’s application include a ground-floor restaurant that would collaborate with WSU’s School of Food Science and two mezzanine floors that would be the site of a “commercialization center” with office and lab space where researchers and graduate students could work on marketable concepts. ... Pullman has made significant progress in conserving water but it must continue to make strides in slowing the decline of the local aquifer, according to a presentation made during Tuesday’s Pullman City Council meeting. Ryan Withers, a consultant from RH2 Engineering, discussed ways Pullman can continue to increase water savings.

2017 Five years ago

Although classes are still in session — at least for the time being — summer was in the air at Moscow Middle School’s annual World Expo. Hot dogs were gently barbecued outside the entrance and the cafeteria was nearing capacity as hundreds of students, parents, grandparents and siblings filled the tables and the halls, anxious to admire the masterpieces of learning a year in the making. In Angie Bailey’s history classroom, handmade miniature castles and Roman coliseums stood alongside models of Stonehenge and a sitar in perfect harmony. ... Moscow Police Department Forensic Detective Eric Kjorness was awarded the Missing Children’s Child Protection Award for his role in investigating 15 cases that involved the possession and distribution of child pornography. The award was presented to Kjorness by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein from the United States Department of Justice. The award is given to law enforcement officers who make extraordinary efforts to protect children from abuse or victimization.

2012 10 years ago

Ken Pedersen had long stared at the old building just south of his office at the Moscow Cemetery and dreamed of renovating it to become something more than a place for storage. Until 1985, it had been used as the cemetery’s office, and before that it is believed to have been used as a chapel, but records explaining its history don’t exist anymore. Documents were lost in a fire at City Hall in the early 1900s, and existing documents only go as far back as the 1930s. It is located in the oldest part of the cemetery, and Pedersen said he believes it was constructed by the families of the first people to be buried there. ... The Pullman School Board approved a general fund budget extension for this fiscal year, with administrators reporting the move was necessary due to an increase in enrollments. “In the last three years we’ve gone from 2,202 students to 2,300,” said Dan Hornfelt, Pullman School District executive director of support services, during an interview Wednesday afternoon. “We need to make sure we can meet the needs of the program and students as they arrive.”