Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 805
DAYTON-Incumbent Dayton Mayor Zac Weatherford received a strong show of community backing in last week's primary elections for city mayor, with a 66 percent support vote. Weatherford garnered 504 of the 759 preliminary votes cast with Mayor Pro-Tem Delphine Bailey receiving 168 votes, or 22 percent. Both Bailey and Weatherford earned spots on the November general election ballot. Third candidate, city council member Michael Paris, received 10 percent support with 82 votes and has been...
DAYTON-—A trial in the case of the State vs. Benjamin Orozco is going forward, with jury selection taking place on the morning of Tues., Aug. 20, in Columbia County Superior Court, according to the County Prosecuting Attorney Dale Slack. Orozco was taken into custody in San Francisco, Nayarit Mexico in March, 2016. He was brought to the U.S. and served at the Tri-Cities Regional Airport on Dec. 15, 2016. He was arraigned in the Columbia County Superior Court, on Dec. 21, and charged with second degree murder, in the July, 1996 shooting death o...
I have long thought about fly fishing on the Wenaha River but hadn't had the opportunity until last week when my husband and I camped at Fields Spring State Park for a few days. Fields Spring State Park is an 826-acre forested camping park located in the Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington, 30 miles south of Clarkston on Highway 129. Named for early settlers, Ben and Mary Fields, who developed the spring and used the water for their ranch and home, the park is on one of the routes...
COLUMBIA COUNTY—When they met last week, the Columbia County Health System (CCHS) District Board of Commissioners signed off on medical privileges for physicians associated with Providence St. Mary’s Hospital in Walla Walla, for the purpose of providing telehospitalist services at Dayton General Hospital, during the hours of 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. CEO Shane McGuire said that adding telehospitalist care at night will give Dayton General Hospital physicians some relief and rest from their duties, during those hours. “It was becoming overwhelming for t...
DAYTON-Tamara Demean ARNP has been hired to provide medical care to Columbia County Health System patients in both primary care clinics in Dayton and Waitsburg and in the Emergency Department. "They are working on getting a template into place for me to be able to have my own patient load," Demean said. Demean will be taking some walk-in patients starting on Aug. 1. Plans call for her to work three days a week in the Dayton clinic and one day a week in the Waitsburg Clinic. She said that...
DAYTON-When Levi Sowerby was given the news that he wouldn't walk again he got to work exploring alternative methods of healing, and within one year of receiving that diagnosis, it no longer applied. In 2005, 17-year-old high school gymnast Sowerby was representing the state of Texas at the National High School Gymnastics Invitational in Orlando, Fla., when things went awry for him. Sowerby was warming up for floor competition with a double back flip when he felt something in his spine slip....
DAYTON-John Laib is a third-generation Columbia County farmer. He and his wife Carolyn farm the 2,500 original acres on his grandfather, Albert Laib's, home place, and they lease and farm an additional 2,500 acres, growing mainly dry land wheat and alfalfa. They also raise cattle. Laib said the challenges facing farmers today are many, but the biggest frustration for him is that the state legislature is setting policies without understanding how rural communities in eastern Washington live. "It'...
DAYTON— At last week’s Dayton City Council meeting Christine Broughton was selected by the council to fill the remainder of Zac Weatherford’s city council term, which was created when he became Dayton’s Interim Mayor. The council interviewed Broughton and two other applicants, Cara James and Charity Herren. Mayor Weatherford thanked James and Herren for their interest in serving on the city council and encouraged them to apply for the seat recently held by Kathy Berg. Berg has submitted her resignation from the council effective June 30. Art...
DAYTON—“Once a Bulldog, Always a Bulldog” is the slogan for the 43rd Annual Dayton High School Alumni Weekend which takes place on Sat., July 20. Alumni will gather from near and far for Saturday’s 10 a.m. parade, for the 11 a.m. annual meeting at the Dayton Historical Depot, and at the block party to follow the meeting. Parade entrants must include the crimson and gold colors in their designs, said Dale Groom, who along with Roseann Groom, are the Parade Committee Co-chairs. Participants are asked to have their floats ready prior to the jud...
DAYTON—The Touchet Valley Golf Club board has developed an aggressive five-year strategy, and is now working on implementation of one of its first priorities, which is to raise money for an underground irrigation system at the golf course. Golf course concessionaire Bill Ayotte said the June 22 First Annual Gene Crothers Memorial Golf Tournament was hugely successful in raising money for the irrigation system. “This is the first time there has been a project to benefit the club,” he said. But i...
DAYTON—Columbia, Asotin and Garfield counties will share an award in the amount of $110,000 from Greater Columbia Accountable Communities of Health to be spent on social determinants of need, said Columbia County Public Health Care Director Martha Lanman, last week. Lanman said Columbia County’s share is $58,763 and the award will be split between the County Health Department and Columbia County Health System (CCHS). Of that share, $10,013.96 will benefit the public health department’s insur...
Starbuck has given a warm welcome to Spinners Tackle, Grocery & Deli owners Mike and Jackie Lattimer, in Starbuck. The store fills a large void, serving locals, travelers and pulp and straw mill workers. See story on Page 12....
DAYTON-Since Charles Eaton and Ashley Strickland have stepped into their respective roles as the county's Public Works Director and Emergency Management/E-911 Director, they have been busy assessing and tackling the issues in their departments. Eaton told the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), on Monday, that his department is seriously understaffed. He said Public Works Lead Inspector Robert Yates announced his retirement from the department that very morning. Yates has worked for the...
Last Thursday, Dayton Hospital Auxiliary Treasurer Dorothy Croft and President Laura Thorn presented Bob Hutchens with a check in the amount of $1,500 for the Dayton Waitsburg Community Health Foundation Fund. The fund was established by Bob and Anita Hutchens and Dolores Hutchens Cole in 2016 and is managed through the Blue Mountain Community Foundation. Interest in the fund is withdrawn annually to be used specifically for Columbia County Health System facility and equipment improvements in...
DAYTON-Since it was built in 1882, the building at 211 East Main Street has been a mercantile, drug store, bank, survived a fire, and has been an International dealership, a Pontiac car dealership, and a tavern called the Frontier Too, until that closed in 2008. For eleven years it has been an eyesore, now sandwiched between Snapdrag Floral and Gifts, and Winter Rose Café and Boutique. But it has a promising future, according to Kim Lyonnais and Blaine Bickelhaupt, who were on hand at last...
DAYTON— On May 28, City Administrator Trina Cole attended a meeting with representatives from the state Dept. of Ecology, the Washington Water Trust, the Confed. Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), local water resource officials, and Jake Hollopeter from Anderson Perry & Assoc., to talk about a new direction for the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Wastewater Treatment Instead of offsite application, which is currently being proposed and planned for by the city, the Tribes wou...
DAYTON—The Dayton City Council voted last week to terminate interlocal agreements with the county for Planning Department and Code Compliance Services. City Administrator Trina Cole said the reason behind last week’s decision is so the city can hire a full-time planner to focus on growing the city and increasing the tax base. Mayor Zac Weatherford noted that when the City initially contracted with the County for services, the County had three full-time planners. They now have one planner that is providing all services for both the City and the...
DAYTON-Personnel from the Pomeroy and Walla Walla Ranger Districts of the Umatilla National Forest hosted a public meeting in Dayton last week to share information about the Districts and discuss upcoming projects during the 2019 field season. The meeting was facilitated by Tyson Albrecht Fire Management Officer with the Pomeroy Ranger District. "Both Pomeroy and Walla Walla are unique in the Pacific Northwest, in that we manage land in both states, Oregon and Washington," said Walla Walla...
DAYTON-Family and friends crowded the Dayton High School gymnasium on Saturday to hear Class of 2019 Valedictorian Neylan Bryan and Salutatorian Tatumn Laughery deliver their speeches, and to cheer as their loved ones graduated from Dayton High School. "This class, over four years of high school together, has seemed to bond in an incredible and almost unheard of manner," said Bryan. Bryan talked about the many unique qualities of her classmates including the diversity of talent, the diversity of...
DAYTON-Dayton High School 2019 graduates will receive their diplo- mas in a commencement ceremony on Sat., June 8 at 1 p.m. in the Dayton High School gymnasium. Neylan Bryan The Dayton High School Class of 2019 Valedictorian Neylan Bryan said she plans on studying wildlife biology at Montana State University in the fall. Following that, Bryan would like to at- tend Stanford University, where she would pursue a Master's in Wildlife Bi- ology, specifically in Mammology. "I've always been really...
DAYTON-For high school students, having the opportunity to meet with people from many walks of working life is important as they begin their journey into life after high school and the arena of the world of work. Students in grades eight through twelve at Dayton High School had that opportunity when adults representing twenty-seven different careers were on hand at Dayton High School on May 24 to help them explore the possibilities. The building trades, business, medicine, law, agriculture,...
DAYTON—Region 1 Director of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (DWFW) Steve Pozzanghera, came before the Board of County Commissioners last week to present a Periodic Status Review for gray wolves and to share information about the state’s Wolf Conservation Management Plan. He also discussed the process for delisting wolves from the state’s Endangered Species Act. Pozzanghera said wolves are moving in from the Northern Rocky Mountain ecosystem, as well as from Canada, and across the s...
DAYTON—At last week’s regular city council meeting, City Administrator Trina Cole spoke about a meeting that recently took place between city officials and representatives from Washington Water Trust and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The entities discussed the city’s proposed Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWT), water quality issues, and a willingness on the part of WWT and the Tribes to pay for improvements at the current wastewater facility, to keep water, in, or ne...
DAYTON-In his report to the Hospital Board of Commissioners on April 23, CEO Shane McGuire talked about how a recent legislative ruling limiting nurses to eight hour shifts in a twenty-four-hour day, and providing for mandatory breaks and meal times, could impact patient care as well as the Hospital District's finances. McGuire told the commissioners, "Nurses work 12 hour shifts by design. That's what they want. They want to work three days and have four days off." He said nurses are saying...
DAYTON-At the Fairgrounds Pavilion last week, Columbia County Engineer Charles Eaton and Kirk Holmes, an engineer with consulting firm PERFEET, spoke about the intention of the Board of Columbia County Commissioners to form a county-wide flood control zone district (FCZD). The City of Dayton and the Town of Starbuck have passed resolutions in support of the BOCC's intention. "It's always fun to go back in time," Holmes said about the 1996 Touchet River and Patit Creek floods. "In 1996 there was...
