Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 451 - 475 of 864
WAITSBURG – A horse with an empty saddle will walk in Saturday's Waitsburg Celebration Days parade in honor of Karen (Huwe) Mohney, who has been selected as parade co-marshal, posthumously. Mohney, a lifelong, active member of the community, passed away unexpectedly on March 15 at age 53, following a dog handler's event in Heppner, Ore. Mohney was born to Waitsburg residents Pete and Meredith (Hulce) Huwe on September 5, 1961 and attended school in Waitsburg, graduating with the Class of '80. I...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg resident Kevin Blair and longtime friend Paul Baumgart, of Hayden, Ida., have spent the last seven months working on a detailed replica of Wait's Mill. The partially completed model will be on display behind the Wilson-Phillips House museum following Saturday's Celebration Days parade. Blair (who wants no recognition and required major prodding before he would allow his name to be used) has traveled to Hayden regularly since November, to work with Baumgarten on the mill r...
WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Post Office will be open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 16 to cancel stamped envelopes with a commemorative Waitsburg Celebration Days stamp. Stamped envelopes containing a double-sided document with the city ordinance approving the seal on one side and the Walla Walla County Commissioners' proclamation on the other will be sold in the post office lobby for $1. Those envelopes may then be addressed and taken into the post office where they will be stamped with t...
Gregutt recalls club's history, including giving daisies spot of honor as city flower WAITSBURG – A good-sized group of ladies from the Waitsburg Garden Club spent a recent sunny Saturday morning beautifying the town in preparation for Waitsburg's Celebration Days weekend. Club members filled planters with posies from one end of Main Street to the other. As they worked, Garden Club founder Karen Gregutt chatted with The Times about the club's history. Gregutt, who is celebrating her 10th anniver...
WAITSBURG – For Pastor Mike Ferrians, ministry is as likely to take place around a schoolroom lunch table, while walking to get the mail at the post office or at the Waitsburg Hardware Store coffee klatch, as it is from the pulpit. A true pastor of the people, Ferrians' genuine and enthusiastic interest in the lives of others has had a positive impact on many – both churchgoers and non – in the Waitsburg community. On Sunday, May 17, the community is invited to a retirement celebration honor...
WAITSBURG – Karen Gleason took advantage of her recent medical retirement as an officer at the Washington State Penitentiary to follow her dream of starting an "old school" restaurant in Waitsburg. Gleason's Galley, a mini espresso bar and deli located on the AG- Link service station lot on the corner of Preston and Coppei is set to open on Sunday, for Mother's Day, if all goes as planned. Gleason was hired on at the penitentiary in 2002 but was recently forced into medical retirement. "When t...
PRESCOTT – The WP girls' softball team took a lead into the seventh inning of game 1 of their double-header against Tri-Cities Prep here on April 30, but were unable to hold on. The Jaguars scored four times in the top of the seventh to take the win, 11-9. The game was highlighted by a three-run double by Paige Wood in the fourth inning, that built the Tiger lead to 9-5. Wood had three hits in the game. The big play of game two was a triple play by third baseman Hannah Grant. With the bases l...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg's FFA chapter nabbed a $5,000 first-place check and a trip to the World Fertilizer Conference in San Francisco, Calif. last year, their first time competing in the Nutrients For Life Foundations Helping Communities Grow contest. The chapter culminated this year's contest submission with a Community Night at Waitsburg High School on April 20, where students shared what they had learned and done for this year's project. WHS Ag Science and Plant Science students welcomed c...
WAITSBURG – A recent rash of burglaries may adversely affect numbers for 2015, but crime statistics for Waitsburg dropped in nearly every category between 2013 and 2014. Walla Walla County Sheriff John Turner presented comparison statistics that evidence what he called a “pretty significant decrease” at the April 15 Waitsburg City Council Meeting. The only crime category to show an increase was motor vehicle theft which increased from zero in 2013 to three in 2014. Turner made special note...
WAITSBURG – For foreign exchange student Alex Pietrzyk, leaving his home in Düsseldorf, Germany, with a population of nearly 600,000, to spend a year attending school in Waitsburg was a major adjustment. "When I learned I was coming to a town this size it was a bit of a shock," Pietrzyk said. "'What will there be to do?' I thought." But he has now grown accustomed to small town life and says he anticipates a reverse adjustment in getting used to the noise and bustle of the city upon his return h...
WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Celebration Days Planning Committee has named the Celebration Days weekend ATV ride the “Karen Huwe Mohney Memorial ATV Poker Ride” in honor of Waitsburg native Karen Huwe Mohney, who passed away, unexpectedly, on March 15. “Karen was the idea-woman behind this event and motivated everyone she touched,” said fellow organizer Lisa Naylor. The ride is planned for Saturday, May 16 at 1 p.m. Riders will depart from the Waitsburg Fairgrounds to follow the 35-plus mile cour...
WAITSBURG – After several years of dedicated effort, the Regional Way-Finding System Project has finally entered its final phase: the installation of the road and pedestrian signs that will brand the Touchet Valley corridor. Port of Columbia Manager Jennie Dickinson and Tourism Walla Walla Executive Director Ron Peck presented an update on the project to Waitsburg's city council at their April 15 meeting. With sign designs recently approved, Dickinson asked that Waitsburg keep the project in m...
WAITSBURG – If there's ever a fitting time for double the celebration it is this May's Waitsburg Celebration Days weekend, which also commemorates the city's 150th anniversary. The first-ever Waitsburg Celebration Days co-queens were crowned in a coronation ceremony at the Waitsburg Elementary School multipurpose room on Saturday. In a flashback to 10 years ago, Brittany Artz and Kimberly Smith were crowned co-queens for the 92nd Days of Real Sport in 2005. This year, Devon Harshman and A...
WAITSBURG - A female Tour of Walla Walla cyclist was injured and reportedly rendered unconscious in a bicycle crash that took place on McKay-Alto Road north of Waitsburg during the race Sunday afternoon. Waitsburg Ambulance Service responded to the call and transported the cyclist to Waitsburg Elementary School playground where a Life Flight helicopter landed at approximately 4:25 p.m. to pick up the victim. She was reportedly being transported to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. The...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg’s current mayor and city council members ran unopposed in the 2015 elections this month and were sworn in by City Admininstrator Randy Hinchliffe at the April 15 City Council meeting. Mayor Walt Gobel said he was disappointed to see that Izzy the Camel failed to receive his traditional write-in vote this year. Hinchliffe said 157 voters cast ballots which is 30 shy of the year prior. Gobel was re-elected mayor, for his third one-year term, with 117 votes. The following ind...
WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Historical Society is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the burglar(s) who made three separate break-ins to Waitsburg museum properties last week. The first break-in, to the Bruce House Memorial Museum, was discovered on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning, it was discovered that the adjoining Wilson-Phillips House had also been burglarized. On Friday, board members discovered the thief had made a second entry into the B...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg Touchet Valley Acoustic Music Program (TVAMP) Director Kate Hockersmith joined the ranks of more than 50 deserving individuals – the first being Ernest Kison in 1962 – to receive Waitsburg's Community Service Award. The award was previously known as the Citizen of the Year Award. Hockersmith, who thought she was simply directing her bluegrass band, Switchgrass, in providing the evening's entertainment, was taken by complete surprise when her name was called as the 2014...
WAITSBURG – Shoppers at Waitsburg Grocery are practically guaranteed a first-name welcome if owner Dan Cole, who has operated the community hub for nearly 30 years, is anywhere nearby. It's that kind of personal attention and genuine interest that helped earn Waitsburg Grocery the first-ever, Waitsburg Commercial Club's Business of the Year Award. Cole and his wife Trina were presented with the award at the April 7 Commercial Club award ceremony, where Master of Ceremonies Tom Baker read r...
WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Lions Club is taking a step of faith in offering a $1,000 Waitsburg Lions Club Scholarship, to be awarded to a WHS graduate, for the first time in 2015. The club hopes to be able to offer similar awards in future years. Scholarship fund chairman Todd Wood said the Lions has considered funding scholarships many times over the life of the club and has strongly considered it for the last several years. “The club has not always had the financial wherewithal to fund sch...
WAITSBURG – Local historians are probably aware that the village of Delta (later founded as Waitsburg) grew up around a flour mill, built by Sylvester Wait, which began operations in 1865. But did you know that Wait's Mill set a truly impressive world record in 1908? Or that, on the way here, Sylvester Wait lost the saddlebags containing his life savings – the money he was going to use to start operations at Wait's Mill? To learn more about that world record and to find out what happened to tho...
WALLA WALLA – Several Waitsburg and Prescott locals have shared World War II memorabilia that is part of the new Walla Walla Goes to War display at the Kirkman House Museum here. Walla Walla Goes to War runs from March 18 through Sept. 8 and looks at World War II from a local perspective. Bob Hulce, Jack McCaw, Joan Helm and Pam Conover, all of Waitsburg, and Jerry Hall, of Prescott, have loaned items to the display, which includes everything from a Japanese battlefield flag to wartime r...
WAITSBURG – The countdown is on! With less than six weeks until the big event, Waitsburg Celebration Days is shaping up to be a fun-filled weekend. Waitsburg’s 150th anniversary celebration, on May 15-17, is sure to have something for everyone. Local legislators, including Senator Mike Hewitt, Representative Terry Nealey and Representative Maureen Walsh, along with Lt. Governor Brad Owen, will join in the festivities. The weekend gets an early start with a Classic Car Cruise down Main Str...
WAITSBURG – According to Wikipedia, mortgage burning parties – once a popular rite of passage – are now considered a "gauche" form of bragging, since such payoffs are so rare these days. That said, the Waitsburg Ambulance Service is happy to "brag" that, with the help of the Waitsburg Lions Club, they now own their building on Preston Avenue free and clear. The Waitsburg Ambulance Service (WAS) – a nonprofit 501c3 dependent largely on volunteer effort – was organized in 1970 and just celebrate...
WAITSBURG – Substitute teacher Gene Wilkes completed his student teaching at Waitsburg High School and jumped at the chance to cover for Ag Teacher Nicole Abel while she was on maternity leave. Wilkes, who covered for Abel from the first of the year until last Friday, March 27, made the most of his time working with students in the shop. Wilkes designed several projects that will continue to be used and appreciated by the students of WHS in the years to come. Wilkes is trained as a social s...
PRESCOTT – A $5,000 donation from the Yancey P. Winans Testamentary Trust to the Prescott Joint Parks and Recreation District (PJPRD) will help provide much-needed playground equipment in the Prescott Park. PJPRD co-manager and administrative assistant Yvonne Jackson said the district applied for the grant last year and received $1,000 to upgrade its park and play equipment. She said those funds were used to purchase pool noodles, water pogo sticks and to put a new water basketball backstop a...
