Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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WAITSBURG - On one of the nights of the Salt & Light youth choir's state tour last week, the group of 23 young singers from the Touchet Valley came together in a circle to share what they felt was special about the Christian ministry. The theme of this year's tour was "Got Hope?" Kyla Ihle, a senior from Dayton High School, was already in tears before it was her turn to share. " I've been struggling with hope throughout my life," Ihle said. "Salt & Light helped me find that hope." Feeling safe...
Editor's Note: This is the first in an occasional series about Columbia County Health System serving patients in the Dayton and Waitsburg areas. The series will focus on changes and developments since last year's management study and review. D AYTON - More than a year after Columbia County Health System's board of commissioners called in a consultant to help the hospital district with its management issues, the controversy over staffing has largely blown over. In some departments, such as the...
WAITSBURG - Half a lifetime ago, Danny Cole made a gutsy move. He was only 25 when he got the help of two silent partners, his dad Ken and Bob Jamison, to buy the grocery store from Jim and Joan Helm. It was called Jim's Market and it needed a big investment in new inventory, new produce coolers and a bank of walk-in freezers that would be so big Cole feared he might have trouble filling it. "We jumped in with both feet and took off running," he said. A quarter century later, Cole is celebrating...
WAI T SBURG - When Robert Potolicchio closed Poto's Small Engine Repair for health reasons earlier this year - thanking his many loyal customers for all the business they gave him over the years - the last mechanic left standing disappeared from Main Street. The closest place you could take your lawn mower (let alone your car or truck) was Dayton. But wait! The dust hasn't settled yet. Troy McCambridge, once a Mr. Fix It on Main Street himself, wants to bring back the convenience of local...
WAITSBURG - Su Alexander, who took over as manager of the Weller Public Library when Jan Cronkhite retired last fall, has resigned. Alexander, who had been an assistant to Cronkhite since March 2009, notified the city and the library board late last month that she would leave her position by the end of June. "It was the right decision for my family," she said. "I really enjoyed getting to know people in Waitsburg through this job. I'll miss the kids a lot." Although she declined to comment...
Ethiopia. The birth place of arabica coffee. According to legend, shepherds in this north African land noticed how their goats danced and burst with new life after sampling the fruit from a bush that grew wild. They tried the beans from this bush and found themselves invigorated. Ethiopian coffee still grows wild across the green hills and roasters say it's known for its gamey and spontaneous flavor profile. Many Ethiopians offer coffee to visitors in an ancient ceremony that makes it much more...
DAYTON - One Main Street merchant noted that on Saturday morning, All Wheels looked more like Christmas Kickoff than the hot- tarmac Father's Day weekend car show Daytonites and visitors have come to expect. But even though the number of families coming to the mobility extravaganza was down this year, the number of cars on Main Street was as big as ever and very few participants complained about the weather. They just dressed for it or spent more time inside shopping their hearts out. "I was so...
DAYTON - Columbia County Sheriff 's Deputy Mark Franklin, who is under investigation for allegedly being untruthful in his report about an incident that happened in Waitsburg in February, has resigned. "It's increasingly difficult to work in the atmosphere at the (Sheriff 's) office," Franklin said in an interview with the Times. He insisted he didn't quit because of the investigation, blaming the office's "toxic" work environment instead. His resignation, which occurred last week, delayed...
PRESCOTT - Amanda Beckman plans to study pre-law. Iris Batalla wants to become a dental hygienist. Nora Almanzar may enroll in a police academy and become a professional sniper. Cesar Munguia will attend WSU to study business and accounting. Joe Purdin and David Brock plan to enroll in Walla Walla Community College's welding program. The Tigers in the Class of 2011 all have a vision of their future which began at their commencement on Friday night, capping high school careers as athletes, honor...
WAITSBURG - Being off the grid had a whole different meaning in the 1860s, when early settlers founded a community that later became Waitsburg. Nowadays, some homeowners and communities pride themselves on being independent of large utility networks for their resources, but back then pioneers didn't have a choice and became very adept at keeping their households going by hand. That was the message to several groups of Waitsburg elementary school students who came to Waitsburg's historic Bruce Ma...
Cutting-edge La Marzocco Espresso Machine Will Help Us Serve You The Best WAITSBURG - Ron Smith, our contractor on the coffee shop, opened the door to the Times office and could barely contain himself. We stared at him in suspense. "The espresso machine is here," he said with a big grin on his face. I dropped everything and rushed outside with him. A big rig from Peninsula Trucking was double-parked in front of the future Coppei Coffee Co. store on Main Street and its rollup door revealed the...
WAI T SBURG - Jean Bruno Beaufume' s mission is simple: combine the best characteristics of French and British wheat seeds with those of the Pacific Northwest and come up with superior varieties that farmers in this region will buy. The French-born breeder who will take up his new station in Waitsburg in late July said the mission here for the giant French cooperative Group Limagrain is much more challenging than it sounds. But it's a challenge he is looking forward to. "I'm very excited to...
DAYTON - Columbia County Sheriff 's Deputy Mark Franklin, a former candidate for sheriff in the county, has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into an incident that occurred in Waitsburg in February while he was off duty. "I'm concerned about the information we've received," said Columbia County Sheriff Walt Hessler, the incumbent sheriff who was re-elected over Franklin last fall and has called in the help of the Asotin County Sheriff's Office to conduct the inves...
WAITSBURG - Steven Long, a Waitsburg resident who lost his home to a fire late last year, was arrested in the aftermath of a motorcycle accident in east Waitsburg on Saturday afternoon. A Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office report indicates he was taken into custody on suspicion of riding a motorcycle while under the influence, of riding with a suspended license and of possession of marijuana. Quoting eye witnesses, Sheriff's deputies said Long was riding his off-road motorcycle eastbound on E. 8th Street from Walnut Street when he accelerated...
DAYTON - Sometimes, the most important observations about the past come in the form of a footnote as did this one from Bulldogs' head baseball coach Sal Benavides about the spring sports season: "In all my 20 years here as a coach," he told the Times after Wednesday's sports banquet had wrapped up, "this is the first time that none of the players were ever ineligible to play because of their grades." In many ways, this post script to his earlier speech at the dessert banquet summed up what all...
WAITSBURG - Ten minutes before the women's relay race at the Carnival of Speed in Milton Freewater began that fateful weekend, head track coach Jeff Bartlow knew the team was in a pickle. One of the four runners, Kayla Huxoll, had just been struck in the foot by another competitor's javelin in a freak accident and Yesenia Escalante, a hurdler, was the only alternate. While the relay runners from the other 19 teams were already warming up, Bartlow, who was at the scene of Huxoll's accident, told...
WALLA WALLA - As the sun angled in from the west, casting its golden evening warmth over Borleske Stadium, Sweets fans began to fill the bleachers, food courts and beer gardens for the first game of the 2011 season Friday. Waitsburg eighth grader Shayla Tsosie was there with her aunt Christina Record from Walla Walla and Record's boyfriend David Wahlstrom on leave from Iraq. " There's nothing like opening night in baseball," Wahlstrom said. "I don't care if it's the major league, the minor...
DAYTON - Violinist Timothy Christie, flutist Sarah Brady and harpist Amy Ley apologized as they walked through the door at Sky Book & Brew in Dayton Monday morning. A small audience had gathered around the tables in the restaurant. The store front stage under the book cases and balcony was eagerly awaiting its performers. "I'm sorry we're late," said Christie, founder and artistic director of the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival. "We got stuck behind a windmill transport." He didn't really...
Editor's Note: This is the last of our profiles about the winners of this year's Times $500 Community Service scholarships to students from Prescott, Dayton and Waitsburg. Senior Christy Poirier is the scholarship winner from Waitsburg High School. WAI T SBURG - For Christy Poirier, giving back started when she was about five. She would accompany her dad, Roy, on service projects for the Christian Church of Waitsburg. Handing him tools or nails, or helping him put in an elevator for elderly memb...
PRESCOTT- Summer vacation starts Friday for hundreds of kids in the Touchet Valley. It will be a time filled with family outings, youth programs, sports camps and many other activities, but one summer pass time still is more popular in the valley than any other: swimming. "Our swimming pool is extremely important," Dayton City Clerk Trina Cole said. "This is something the children look forward to." Valley pools are even popular with families in Walla Walla, which no longer has a functional outdo...
WAITSBURG - When it comes to food, the Touchet Valley has its French connections. There's Spring Valley winemaker Serge Laville. There's Waitsburg's Christian Chemin, the chef for Bon Appetit at Whitman College. And there's Pierre Louis Monteillet of the fromagerie near Dayton. Now, get ready for a big new tie to France in the valley's most traditional culinary pursuit: growing wheat. Group Limagrain, the biggest plant breeder and seed company in Europe, has chosen Waitsburg as the site for one...
WAITSBURG - As he accepted the well-deserved recognition as an athlete scholar during the track and field awards ceremony at the high school auditorium Tuesday night, lone Cardinal golfer Dakota Baker didn't have much to say. Principal and athletics director Stephanie Wooderchak said the said the sophomore is a bit shy around large crowds. But, she warned, get him one-on-one and he'll talk your ear off about golf, the sport he loves. Just how much Baker loves golf became apparent this season as...
YAKIMA - Bulldogs may go down, but they don't go down easy. Led by the likes of pitcher Kayla Turner, catcher Miwa Umeda and first baseman Rowene Huwe, the Dayton softball team didn't place but made it one round further than any of their state-bound predecessors in recent years. The feisty team won its first game against Reardan Friday morning but took it in the chin from Adna that same evening at the Gateway Complex in Yakima. Adna ended up taking the tourney crown of the state 2B softball...
CHENEY - The WP men's track and field team placed fifth in state this weekend, honoring their schools, Waitsburg and Prescott, with the second-highest placement in recent memory. Students from the Jubilee Youth Ranch, more specifically the Thompkins brothers, made significant contributions to the achievement. The women's team, much smaller in size than many of its competitors, placed 29th with Kristin Potter and Ronnie Hulce placing in the top 10 for sprints and hurdles. "It was fantastic,"...
WAITSBURG - Nearly 200 people showed up under clear and breezy skies to mark Memorial Day at the Waitsburg cemetery Monday. Young and old from near and far gathered around the Memorial Wall to remember local fallen heroes, send off high schoolers enlisting in the service and add new names to the monument that stands as a testament to the courage and sacrifices of those who served. Saddles & Spurs 4H members Tristan and Devin Newman, and Joe and Scott Leamy were on hand to raise the flag,...
