The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The dark­n e s s behind the windows at Bubbles & Chocolates adds to the quiet on Waitsburg's Main Street this winter.

Karen Gregutt shuttered her fine chocolates and champagne boutique in the Plaza Building recently, at least for the season. It's a development that follows the temporary closure of Betty's Diner the week before.

With about half of the 25 storefronts on Main Street and Preston Avenue vacant or closed temporarily, the air appears to have gone out of Waitsburg's mini renais­sance that reached its peak in the summer of 2011.

But it's not all gloom and doom for the little city'...