Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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The first time we drove into Waitsburg, I knew there was something missing on Main Street. Someone in Walla Walla had recommended the Whoop ' Em Up Hollow Café for dinner, and once downtown, we discovered Waitsburg also had a charming hardware store, a great bar, a friendly pub and even a homegrown brewery. But we could find no place to get espresso. Other than John and Marilyn Stellwagen's table at the Waitsburg Hardware and Mercantile, there was no place to get together during the day, there...
When longtime Waitsburg resident Bert Aylward and his wife Linda were getting ready for his family reunion at Fort Walla Walla last summer, they rummaged through a trunk full of old photographs. The couple had stored the keepsakes after his parents passed away but had not gone through all the old pictures yet. Every one of the 88 Witt descendants coming from across the country to Walla Walla was supposed to present or recite an item of family history. As Aylward went through the photos, it...
WAITSBURG - The Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office is requesting local residents' assistance in locating Adam Hermanns, whom they call "a potential witness" to last Tuesday night's fire at his parents' residence on West 2nd Street in Waitsburg. "We are attempting to locate Adam as a potential witness related to the fire," Undersheriff Eddie Freyer said in an interview Wednesday. Freyer, who came to the scene of the fire after midnight last Tuesday and again on Wednesday morning, said his office...
WAITSBURG - The Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office is requesting local residents' assistance in locating Adams Hermanns, whom they call "a potential witness" to Tuesday night's fire at his parents' residence on W. 2nd Street in Waitsburg. "We are attempting to locate Adam as a potential witness related to the fire," Undersheriff Eddie Freyer said in an interview Wednesday. Freyer, who came to the scene of the fire after midnight Tuesday and again on Wednesday morning, said his office is taking the incident very seriously, investigating it as...
WAITSBURG - Saying they support Waitsburg's youths but couldn't see the viability of Tawnya and Greg McVey's BMX track concept, the city's council voted for a second time to deny the use of up to five acres of city land for the project last Wednesday. "I don't think it's fiscally responsible for this council," Councilman Orville Branson said . After a relatively short public hearing at which a handful of local residents (including Tawnya McVey) and a Walla Walla man formerly associated with the track there spoke about the pros and cons of the...
WAITSBURG - The Cardinals were already looking ahead to Saturday's tough away game against Asotin. But first there were the Touchet Indians Tuesday night, by now a mere bump in the road to one of the two teams' best-ever basketball seasons. The Lady Cardinals demolished the Touchet team 53-18 with many younger Cardinals taking part in the victory against the Indians, who struggled from the getgo. The score was 27-8 at half time and 42-14 by the end of the third when Samantha Moss, Katie Hofer,...
WAITSBURG - Neither Cardinals basketball team had much trouble with the Liberty Christian Patriots, beating them handily at Kison Court Friday night. But the wins had their significance since they marked the end of the first round of league match ups with WP still undefeated in the league. The Lady Cardinal s topped the Patriots 64-34. The points spread was already large enough during the first half to allow head coach Jerry Baker to bring out some of his younger players. "That was our best...
WAITSBURG - The Cardinals Booster Club needs to raise at least $19,000 if it wants to break ground for a new press box and equipment storage building in late spring, according to members of the Waits- burg sports community. But the good news is that they have a plan for their goal and support seems to be building in the rest of the community. The proposal is already backed by the Waitsburg Booster Club, the WP Quarterback Club and the Waitsburg Lions Club. A group of coaches, boosters and fans...
DAYTON - The big question in the Touchet Valley this weekend: Could the Bulldogs trip up the Cardinals' unbroken winning streak in round two of league match-ups? Try as it might, Dayton was unable to take away either WP varsity team's undefeated status. Both Bulldogs teams succumbed to a stronger WP combine that has dominated the league since the start of the season. In a closer game than their first encounter at Waitsburg, the Lady Bulldogs lost to the Lady Cardinals 58-37 on their home court....
WAITSBURG - Under the new mayor and city council, Waitsburg has continued to invest in its basic infrastructure and avoided the kind of budget woes other communities face. That was the message Mayor Walt Gobel shared with members of the Commercial Club in a speech at the group's evening meeting last Tuesday. Gobel gave credit to the previous mayor and city council, city clerk Randy Hinchliff and city staff for setting a steady course for the town that he and the new council could build on when they were elected last year. "We are so fortunate...
DAYTON - Former Columbia County District Judge Charles Thronson was vindicated Tuesday afternoon after he spent more than two years defending himself against a civil lawsuit filed by his neighbors Gale Acers and Robert Hollingsworth. In a verdict opposed by just one of 12 jurors, Thronson was found "not liable" for damages to commercial timber owned by Acers and Hollingsworth who claimed it was damaged in a backfire set by Thronson on his Cahill Mountain property in August 2006. The backfire,...
WAITSBURG - It all started just before Christmas. The first topic of Andie Holmberg's conversation with B. A. Keve was the food baskets program run by the Waitsburg Ministerial Association. Holmberg's employer, AmericanWest Bank, was about to participate as a donor in the program for disadvantaged local families for the first time. But small town chats meander, and so did this one. Soon, the women's discussion turned to the subject of the Waitsburg Food Bank. Holmberg learned from Keve that the...
WAITSBURG - Volleyball coaches Jessie and Katie Buehler said they felt exonerated Tuesday night after the Waitsburg School District took the formal step of "vacating" their suspensions at a special meeting of its board. "The Board has determined that, in the best interest of all parties concerned, the coaches and, particularly, the student athletes and their families, the suspension be vacated," according to a statement prepared by the district. "The Waitsburg School Board believes that this result puts this matter to rest." The board members a...
Editor's Note: This is the fifth and last installment about the work of Clear Path International. Imbert Matthee is one of the organization's co-founders. Its mission is to offer medical and socio-economic aid to survivors of land mine accidents. T he twenty men at the Care Villa may no longer be able to walk, see or eat their food without help. But they still have their voices and they are always eager to sing for any visitors to the Mae La refugee camp on the border between Thailand and...
WAI T SBURG - The conversation didn't last long. Ross Hamann recalls how he was helping a Cycle Oregon official in the food line under one of the giant tents set up near the Cardinals football field when some 2,500 cyclists and support staff passed through town late last summer. The president of the WP booster club was passing out plates and silverware when the Cycle Oregon official pointed to the sports storage shack right outside the tent and asked what it was. It's worth describing the shack...
DAYTON - Reid Helford, the popular and award-winning manager of the Liberty Theater, has announced his resignation and will leave his position by the end of April. In other news involving the theater, former Dayton Chamber Director Lisa Ronnberg also submitted her resignation as a board member of the Touchet Valley Arts Council, the nonprofit that oversees the Liberty and its cultural programs, saying her life simply got too busy. Recognized for growing attendance at the historic theater and...
WAITSBURG - What's a patriot? One of the answers you might expect to get from a member of the American Legion Auxiliary is "service in the U.S. Military." But that was not the first thought that came to mind when Meara Baker wrote her piece for the organization's "Americanism Essay Contest" last spring. When faced with the question, "What Is My Patriotic Role As A U.S. Citizen?," the first obligation that popped into the head of the Waitsburg middle schooler was the duty to vote and participate...
DAYTON - The contract for the fairgrounds has been signed, the chuck wagons have been lined up, the judges have been booked, a title sponsor has been found and the schedule for four days of activities has been set. Get ready for Mule Mania. The show "is a go," the event's initiator says. Bobbi Chambers of the Coyote Mule Company in Cottonwood, Idaho, was in Dayton Monday to meet with local organizers, government agencies and businesses in preparation of this first-ofits kind summer festival for...
WAITSBURG - Don't let the hats fool you. These ladies, all on the staff of the Waitsburg School District, aren't chicken. They'll be taking the Polar Plunge and will be "Freezing For A Reason" on Saturday, Jan. 22, after they dip into the Columbia River to raise money for Special Olympics. WP track coach Joanna Lanning, special ed teacher Patty Hazelwood and paraprofessional Vickie Hamann will be sporting their onepieces at the dock of Columbia Park in Kennewick at noon as the Waitsburg...
DAYTON - The Lady Bulldogs may have lost against Liberty Christian Saturday, but they now know they can win games because they did so twice in a row: against WWVA 41-37 on Thursday and against Lacrosse Washtucna during the holiday tournament. "I know we can play with any of them," head coach Scott Hudson said after Thursday's game against the Knights. "It wasn't pretty, but it was a win." For the men, the picture is different. They're a skilled team, know how to stay in the game despite some...
SEATTLE - You may have missed it over the holidays. But almost three weeks after the football season ended, the 2010 Waitsburg-Prescott team reeled in more recordsetting recognition for their historical performance during the season. One Dayton Bulldog, Colton Bickelhaupt, also received statewide recognition for his efforts on a team that made it to the first round of the playoffs. Sports writers across the state voted to include six Cardinals in the Washington All- State poll, with two winning...
WAITSBURG - Both Cardinals basketball teams succeeded this year where they failed last year. They beat top-ranked Asotin Friday and remained undefeated in the league this far into the season. They continued their winning streaks Saturday by trouncing the Mac-Hi Pioneers. The biggest test and first real challenge for the Lady Cardinals came at the start of the weekend against league rival Asotin. They edged out the Panthers 52-50 in a cliff hanger of a game that could have easily gone either...
John Turner, the new Walla Walla County Sheriff, got off to a running start last week when he formally introduced his new team to the media and to area law enforcement colleagues, including newly re-elected Columbia County Sheriff Walt Hessler. The team includes Undersheriff Eddie Freyer, Operations Captain Barry Blackman and Jail Superintendent Keilen Harmon. Turner and his team were sworn in the week before, but at the time he was presented with little opportunity to outline his vision for the office. On Friday, he released more details...
WAITSBURG - When you walk Taggert Road with Waitsburg City Councilman Scott Nettles, he can point to all the changes that have taken place here over the past seve ral de- cades. After all, he grew up here. There used to be an orchard to the north and asparagus fields to the east and a wrecking yard across the street. There are scattered homes on both sides now. Highway 12 is a good stone's throw away. Not too long ago, there were plans to build 26 homes on a parcel of vacant land. The road is...
WALLA WALLA - If there were ever a "bird whisperer" in the Touchet Valley, Huntsville's Joanna Lanning would be it. For 16 years, Lanning has devoted her weekdays to the Pioneer Park Aviary in Walla Walla, where she manages the daily affairs of 200 feathered friends and dotes over them like a mother over her toddlers. Her office at the compound has depictions of birds on every imaginable item: posters, tiles, pillows, place mats, carvings, trays, clocks, T-shirts, paintings and drawings. The...
