Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 726 - 750 of 794
DAYTON—The Port of Columbia is just days away from signing a lease agreement with a new rail operator. Port officials plan for Frontier Rail, LLC to take over rail operations from WATCO, the current rail operator. Frontier will repair the lines and bridges so that the Port-owned short line between Dayton and Walla Walla can be reopened and begin moving Columbia County products to distant markets, Port officials said. Paul Didelius, the Commercial Director of Frontier Rail, attended last w...
DAYTON-Dayton High School seniors Angie Dedloff and Kobie Sunderland-Herrin were chosen as the recipients of this year's Philanthropic Education Organization Citizenship Award at a reception, honoring them in Dayton, last Thursday. Dedloff said she will attend the University of Hawaii at in the fall, majoring in marine biology, and studying marine conservation and dolphin behavior. "I want to make the ocean a better place," she said. Sunderland-Herrin said he will attend the Northwest Lineman...
DAYTON-In his report to the Port of Columbia commissioners at their meeting last week, Economic Development Coordinator Brad McMasters talked about several changes at the Blue Mountain Station – changes Port manager Jennie Dickinson characterized as "entrepreneurial churn". Mary's Candies is poised for growth, McMasters said. Because Suzi Tasker is closing Aardvark Granola on May 31 to enjoy more time with her family, and attend to her health, Mary's Candies will be moving into the 1,100 ft. s...
DAYTON-A group of canine lovers had their fourth meeting at city hall last week to continue talks about creating an off-leash dog park in Dayton. The City is turning over .65 acres to the group for the dog park, and has set aside $2,500 out of the 2016 budget for a matching grant. That money could also be used for construction, with approval from the city council, according to City Planner Karen Scharer, and City Administrator Trina Cole, who, along with council member Christine Broughton, were...
DAYTON—On May 4 an agreement was reached between business owner Jim MacArthur and Columbia County officials regarding the timing of road construction on the Lyons Ferry Road. The project start date will be moved from June to August 15, according to Andrew Woods, the county engineer. Recently MacArthur has been vocal about the impact the Lyons Ferry Road project would have on his business managing the Lyons Ferry Marina, and running the Snake River Grill Restaurant and KOA campground. The $ 1...
DAYTON-Local hairstylists Bridget House and Melissa McCowen have designed a product called Embee Meche, that makes adding highlights to customers' hair much easier than the traditional method of using foil. Much to their delight, the Embee Meche is being marketed internationally, along with their other product called Solaris, a clay-based lightener and developer. "I'm not a huge fan of using foil," House said about the usual process to achieve highlights in hair. "I researched tons and tons of...
DAYTON-On April 21 officials from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife presented the public with a progress update on implementation actions for the W. T. Wooten Wildlife Area Floodplain Management Plan. Tracy Drury, the principal engineer from Anchor QEA in Bellingham, Wash., presented an overview of the goals for the Tucannon Lakes. Drury said that, with the exception of Spring Lake and Blue Lake, all the lakes constrict the floodplain. Also, six out of the eight lakes violate the...
DAYTON—Matt Zanger and Mike Smith from the Dayton Historic Preservation Commission, along with Byron Kaczmarski from the Dayton City Council, met at City Hall on Monday night to count advisory ballots from property owners in two historic districts in Dayton. Ten validated ballots were submitted from the Washington Street Historic District. Seven of those ballots were cast to dissolve the WSHD, two were cast to retain the WSHD, changing the process to advisory review, only. One vote was cast t...
DAYTON-Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dale Slack is happy. "I have a door," he said, showing off his new office. The Columbia County Prosecuting Attorneys, and their office staff, have been busy moving from their old digs at 116 North Third Street, where Slack's office had no door, into their new digs at 215 East Clay Street. Prosecuting Attorney Rea Culwell said the move is not only good for her staff, but is a good one for the community. She pointed out that the new building is ideally...
DAYTON—At their regular meeting in April the CCHS board of commissioners heard from Tom Dingus, an independent auditor who talked about the financial health of the Columbia County Health System based on his report of April 16, 2016. Dingus, a certified public accountant with the firm Dingus/Zarecore and Associates, PLLC in Spokane Valley, told the commissioners the financial goal for the 2016 end of year cost report is to break even, and he went on to outline some of the liabilities and goals f...
DAYTON— An organization in Walla Walla called the Community Council is meeting to work on strategies for enhancing outdoor recreation opportunities. Based on their 2015 report, Enhancing Outdoor Recreation Opportunities, the Council is recommending development of a network of connected trails for hiking and biking. Their focus is on Burbank to Dayton and from the Snake River to Milton-Freewater. “Trails are getting more popular and we want to tie in to that,” said Columbia County Senior Plann...
DAYTON-Stephanie Wamble's K-1 class science project was the star attraction for Show and Tell at the Dayton School Board meeting last week. Wamble's students have teamed up with Kristina Knebel's high school ag-science students to investigate the lifecycle of a duck. The students had to provide written and oral documentation about their observations, while learning new words like waddle, and webbed, she said. "The coolest part was using a flashlight to see the inside the egg," Wamble said. The...
DAYTON—The Dayton Historic Preservation Commission held a meeting last week to provide a forum for property owners in the South Side Historic District and the Washington Street Historic District. Commission members were to answer questions about an advisory ballot asking property owners to state their preferences to the Dayton City Council about the future of the two districts. There were about nine property owners in attendance. The ballot asks property owners to choose from among three o...
DAYTON--Since their arrival in Dayton on April 15, forty-four juniors from Yamate High School in Yokohama, Japan, have been living with host families in Dayton and experiencing life in rural eastern Washington. In July, ten to fifteen Dayton High School students will travel to Yokohama, live with host families and attend Yamate High School, according to teacher Kristine Warren, who is the Yamate Program coordinator. Activities planned for the students from Yokohama while they are in Dayton were...
Mom looks outside system to get help for her son DAYTON-Sherri Huwe said she will be forever grateful to the many people who helped her wage a long and complicated battle to help her developmentally challenged son, Ben, keep his business intact. Ben lost the funding for his job coach in January 2015, when his greeting card business at Elk Drug in Dayton was deemed unviable by developmental disability services experts. "We were upset about that, of course," Huwe said. Huwe said she tried for...
DAYTON—Port of Columbia County commissioners heard from Port Manager Jennie Dickinson and Economic Development Coordinator Brad McMasters about their recent trip to the 2016 Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, Calif. There they spent three days with over 70,000 other attendees, looking at products and learning about the connection between producers and distributors. Most people at the expo were seeking distributors for their products, Dickinson said. “Many natural and organic food labels have bee...
DAYTON-Ken Leiske calls Colville, Wash. his home, but his work as a signmaker takes him pretty much everywhere, he said. Last week Leiske was in Dayton to paint a mural on the wall outside the Moose Creek Café and Bakery for business owners Aimee McGuire and Paul Mackay. With a degree in Fine Arts and Communications from Walla Walla University, a master's equivalent from Western Washington University, and various certifications including a Washington State Teacher Education Certificate,...
DAYTON-A new HVAC system is going in at the pavilion building at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. The project is on target for completion by May 26, according to Public Works Director, Andrew Woods. Contracts have been awarded to two firms, Woods told the county commissioners at their meeting last week. "The bids were great. Bids came in pretty much what we expected," he said. Woods said College Place Heating and Air Conditioning will be supplying the heat pump and ducting, at a cost of $21,400....
DAYTON-At their meeting last week, the Columbia County Hospital District commissioners gave the go-ahead for Jeff Jurgensen, from OAC Construction Management Services in Spokane, to move forward as the construction manager for the hospital remodel/redesign project. Jurgensen was on hand to talk about his role on the project. He told the commissioners that the general contractor/contract manager project delivery method the hospital officials have chosen for the project makes the construction...
DAYTON-You have heard it said that it takes a village to raise a child, and this is true for 48 students in the Dayton School District who were enrolled in the after school pilot program during March. Blue Mountain Station, the Dayton School District, Columbia County Health Department, the Dayton Memorial Library, and the Coalition for Youth and Families, are just a few of the partnering agencies donating time, money, and talent to make the program a success. Since the program started on March...
DAYTON—Last week four students in Mrs. McGhan’s multiage, grades 2-3, classroom came to the Dayton School Board meeting to share with board members a recent writing activity they did in the classroom. “Safari Guides” is the first of many “show and tell” type programs that will be presented by students and teachers at future board meetings, according to Superintendent Doug Johnson. The assignment for Mrs. McGhan’s students was to pick an animal to research and write about. The students pres...
DAYTON-You've likely seen these chocolate Easter eggs at various venues around town over the years. You have probably indulged in them a time or two. Have you wondered who makes them, how they are made, or why? The fudge Easter eggs are a fundraising project sponsored by the sixteen members of the Skyline Juniors, a local women's fraternal organization. "The Skyline Juniors are a community service club," said member Joy Brown. "We do projects and give back to the community." Brown said the club...
DAYTON-Brad Barton, a certified drug prevention specialist and a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, appeared at the Liberty Theater on Thursday to delight the crowd with a number of what he called "cheap, cheesy magic tricks." This included levitating cards, turning bubbles into marbles, and performing "the torn and restored newspaper" illusion. Barton also offered some sobering statistics about alcoholism. According to the Utah Department of Substance Abuse Prev...
DAYTON – At their meeting on March 9, Port of Columbia Commissioners heard from port manager Jennie Dickinson that progress is being made to turn rail operations for the Palouse and Coulee City short rail over to Frontier Rail, LLC. Dickinson said the current rail operator, Watco, is completely willing to turn rail operations over to Frontier, but that the process is still in legal review. Dickinson said there are 39 miles of rail, with eight bridges and their approaches, for the new railroad o...
DAYTON - "Fresh-picked," "sour," "leafy," "crunchy," "spherical" and "spikey" are just a few of the adjectives students in Ms. Wamble's Kindergarten/first grade classroom used to describe the smell, appearance, taste, and sound of a variety of salad greens and oranges they sampled at last week's presentation by Vickie Hodgson, a health educator with the Columbia County Health Department. Since the fall of 2015, Hodgson has been making interactive presentations every six weeks, in all four K-1 cl...
