Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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[Editors Note: The following history (we’ve edited it slightly) originally appeared in the September 30, 1965 edition of The Times. We bring it back for your enjoyment. Unfortunately, this paper will cost you more than a dime.] 1881 – Washington flour mill enlarged to double present capacity. Single copies of The Times, 10 cents. Wheat market unsteady at 55 cents. Pres. Garfield assassinated. 1882 – W. P. Bruce erects home on Main Street. Wheat selling at 60 cents a bushel. Much of Waitsburg flooded by high waters of Touchet. 1883 – Waitsbu...
I’m getting to be a “short-timer” – At least that’s what my grandmother says. That means, were I to use both my hands and my toes, I could count the school days I have left. That number’s 19 as of Monday – Nineteen days of high school remain! Nineteen mornings of dragging myself out of bed With the fog of sleep still in my brain. Eighteen hurried cold-cereal breakfasts And one student parking-lot brunch Eighteen ‘leventh-hour dashes to reach school on time – ‘Cuz on the last day, what’s the rus...
Those of us lucky enough to call Southeast Washington home know what a special place it is. The verdant Palouse hills producing abundant crops of wheat and peas to feed a hungry world take one’s breath away with their May beauty. The Blue Mountains and the foothills offer unique sporting opportunities for hunters, hikers, bicyclists and nature lovers of all strips. We enjoy an uncrowded and mostly peaceful lifestyle that urbanites envy. We are also home to a lot of honey bees. Go anywhere in the world and say you are from Washington state a...
Dear Editor, On the front page of the April 20, 2015 edition of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, the headline read “4 Area High School Reap Awards.” It stated that Waitsburg High School received the Overall Excellence award from the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It went on to discuss the 2014 High Progress awards received by three other area schools and explained that “only 10 percent of high schools receive the High Progress award.” What the WWUB article failed to explain was that Waitsburg High School,...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: I wish I had better news to share with you. State lawmakers were supposed to finish their work on April 26 and conclude the 2015 legislative session. Instead, the Legislature adjourned two days early and the governor called for a special session to begin on April 29. This is a disappointing outcome. I am frustrated and I can understand if you are too. This will be the 11th special session in the last 10 years. While there is still a lot of unfinished business, the...
As graduation draws near, the term “future” gets bandied about more and more, and I increasingly find myself wondering what life will hold for me a couple decades down the road. The following scenario, while highly improbable, is ideal: Emma is a high-powered attorney and bestselling author who lives in a nice-but-still-easily-cleanable home in the suburbs of a larger city. She owns three corgis – Scout, Mimi, and Benedict – and is married to a gentle man with a sparkling intellect and a Natio...
OLYMPIA - Rep. Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, and Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, co-sponsored a House resolution honoring the city of Waitsburg’s 150th anniversary. The resolution was adopted by the full House April 6. “Waitsburg is one of the gems of the 16th District,” said Nealey. “From its people, to its businesses, to its rich history, Waitsburg is a quintessential rural community in our part of the state. I am proud to sponsor this resolution and offer Waitsburg the recognition it deserves.” Waitsburg is the last Washington city to operat...
Roughly a week from now, your mailbox will start to fill up with graduation announcements from the high-school seniors in your life, which means that as you read this, some senior somewhere is busy licking envelopes and hunting down addresses. Depending on how much parental input is offered during the guest list formulation process, preparing invitations for mailing can be fairly time-consuming. The following is a list of tips that I wrote up for my little brother on this topic. I’ve seen his r...
U.S. grain markets, including wheat, corn and soybeans are reflecting some volatility, as they bounce in a 30-40 cent range, but essentially they have no direction. Wheat in Chicago has accomplished nothing since late January this year. Tuesday’s closing price was within two cents of the same level as the first day of February, nearly 3 months back. The world always waits to see if spring weather in the northern hemisphere will create a crop-scare. So far the prime ingredient, moisture, has shown up enough to at least prevent a disaster in m...
When you read what I’m about to say, you’re going to think I’m a sore loser. So I plead guilty right up front. But I write on anyway because I think it’s important for taxpayers to know how their money is being spent. Last month, The Times was invited to bid on the contract to publish legal notices for Columbia County for the 12-month period beginning July 1. Our bid was $4.95 per column inch, and our text size is 8 point font. With this bid, we would easily cover our costs make a reasona...
It’s human nature to want to leave a legacy of some sort after spending any extended period of time in a given place. For example, after bidding adieu to my beloved Knowledge Bowl in March, I did so knowing that my team and I were responsible for two new additions to the state rules – the one about the audience keeping well away from the teams (aka the Onion Breath Amendment of 2014), and the one that says that if the question asks for a last name, a first name is offered, and the first name is...
Dear Editor, IT’S TIME: It takes a lot of community members to make the right decisions regarding how we live and accomplish tasks within Columbia County, its cities and Waitsburg! In most instances this is accomplished by individuals that step-up and accept a challenge, either as an elected official or as a volunteer. For several years I have been either elected or a volunteer and it is now time to pass the challenge to the younger members of our community. As I move into the mid-seventies it is becoming more difficult for me to make the d...
As I write this early on Tuesday morning, it’s snowing at my house. But I’m not discouraged. Yesterday was in the 60s and more warm weather is on the way. Baseball is up and running, and the Mariners are 3-4 after losing to the Dodgers last night. (Interleague games already? I miss the old days.) On Friday, cyclists from around the northwest will converge on Waitsburg for the annual Tour of Walla Walla bike race. (See the article on Page 9.) The race schedule is a little different this yea...
It’s eight o’clock in the morning. The commons area is all but empty, but no wonder – it’s the first day of school after spring break, and nobody is exactly rushing back. The floors are clean, almost impossibly so. They will be their usual rubber-scuffed and mud-splattered selves in 20 minutes, but for now they shine in the April sun. There is a pile of cloth crumpled on a table near the far end of the room. Somebody notices – a staffer, perhaps, or a student struck by its incongruity with its...
Organic farming may be as important to the farmers who practice it as to those who purchase and eat the food they grow. This year, researchers with the National Institute of Health completed a landmark, 20-year study of the connection between pesticides and depression in farmers. According to Dr. Freya Kamel, the study’s lead researcher, scattered reports in the literature about the association between pesticide use and depression led to the desire for further research. With much more detailed information available, researchers were able to d...
Dear Editor, Thank you for the great coverage of the historic displays being prepared for the Waitsburg sesquicentennial. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Clyde Burdine to this effort. His company did the initial clean-up of the site, compensated by the scrap metal he picked up. I monitored this activity, and indicated any items of historic value, which he set aside and donated to the Historical Society. Since then, he has moved many of the items several times including taking the large turbine to McGregor’s. It is gratifying t...
A little over a year ago, voters in the Dayton School District soundly defeated a $25 million bond levy measure that would have funded a major renovation to Dayton’s school facilities. The message was clear: taxpayers weren’t willing to pay for a project that they deemed much more luxurious than what the schools needed to do their job of educating our kids. This month the Dayton schools are again asking voters to approve a levy measure, but on a much smaller scale. The district is asking for...
Artistic types go through “phases.” Picasso is the most famous example. He had his Classical Period, then his Blue Period, then his Red Period, and then several others whose names I have forgotten since my second-grade art class. I consider writing a sort of art. You do your best to make it pretty, it takes obnoxious amounts of time, and people who do it for a living are generally broke. I believe that that’s all the qualifiers which one needs to declare something “art.” In any case, a few weeks ago, I entered what history will remember...
There is a partisan disagreement in the grain markets. Wheat called for a low and reversal to the upside on March 6. Some observers commented that it was too early in the spring debate season to make such a decisive point. Corn and soybeans, opposing the point with many negative pledges coming in from Latin members, briefly filibustered, then moved to push lower in direct opposition to wheat. Argentine corn was seen in the lobby at $8 per metric ton below U.S. offerings in the export markets. Soybeans were seen to be organizing a massive...
Washington, What a State! Jeff Foxworthy is best known for his “Redneck” jokes, but he actually wrote several “Washington” jokes as well. One of them was: “If you sometimes switch the thermostat from ‘Heat’ to ‘AC’ and back again on the same day, you live in Washington.” This is accurate. I’m one of those naturally cold-blooded people. My baseline temperature is closer to hypothermia than it is to the standard 98.6 degrees. I am somewhat notorious in the Waitsburg school system for wearing a large silver coat every day between the start of...
Dear Editor, The family of Karen Huwe Mohney wish to express our appreciation for the kindness, support, and messages of sympathy concerning the loss of our beloved wife and daughter, Karen. To all those who joined in the celebration of her life, we thank you. We especially want to thank Sandy Baker for the poignant and informative eulogy, The Reverend Bret Moser for leading the service and for his comfort and prayers, pianist Randy Pearson and soloist Bethany Moser for providing the special music, and all who shared either thoughts or...
By Cooper Inveen WNPA Olympia News Bureau OLYMPIA—It’s been almost eight months since the largest wildfire in Washington’s history scorched the Methow Valley, and criticism over the official firefighting response by the state’s Department of Natural Resources continues to rage. What began with four individual fires quickly expanded into the 268,764-acre Carlton Complex fire. Over the course of a month, the fire engulfed more than 300 homes and caused more than $65 million in damages, according to the DNR. Many victims have filed lawsuit...
I was recently informed that I am something called a “co-valedictorian.” This confuses me on multiple levels. Take the word itself. That’s seven syllables, my friends. SEVEN. It’s like one of those Knowledge Bowl questions where they give you a complicated Latin word and you’re supposed to decipher it based on your knowledge of smaller Latin words. So here goes nothing: Co = Company. Valid = Authentic and useable, as with a coupon or passport. Ick = An interjection expressing disgust Tori = A...
My Dad gave me an old router awhile back – it’s a wood router, not an internet router. (I have a couple of those, too.) There’s a shop next to my house. I call it that, though it also serves as a home office and a storage unit. I recently decided that, to go along with the router, I needed a router table in the shop. I knew you can build one (if you have a shop) but I wasn’t sure how. So I turned to YouTube. I also knew that people put videos of themselves up on YouTube showing how to do things,...
WNPA Olympia News Bureau Olympia—A political thriller earns its debut March 23 at Olympia’s marble palladium when the Legislature’s leading producers-directors—Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond, and Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina—take the stage to introduce their awaited and unreviewed drama they claim will keep their fellow political thespians out of jail and solve the constitutional quandary hovering over them: full funding for basic K-12 education. The Washington State Supreme Court is holding those political actors accountable for a solution to its ma...
