Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1985 - 2009 of 2505
Editor's Note: This letter references a letter to the editor that ran in the Union-Bulletin on July 16 from David G. Carey. I agree with Mr. Carey. The position of county commissioner for Walla Walla County is a full-time position. It's too bad that not all of our county commissioners believe in this. If you attend the weekly commissioner meetings, or like me listen to them online, you would quickly realize this is a huge problem for some of the commissioners. In Mr. Carey's letter, he indicates that the county commissioners meet two days a...
As a retired fireman and former deputy coroner, I un- derstand how important it is for families to know that services will be available in times of need. I appreciate those in our community who are willing to advocate for those important services, which is why I am voting for Chris Blackman for County Commissioner District 2. Only Chris has the back- ground as a true public servant, serving children and families for over 20 years. With this diverse background she un- derstands firsthand the needs of small towns like Waitsburg, Prescott, Touchet...
Thank you for your cover- age of the "One of a Kind" Fourth of July, vets and flags observance, in the July 12 is- sue of the Times. It was com- posed of long-time friends and neighbors joined together to celebrate the day. It wasn't a commercial event, or a political one. It was just pure American. It wasn't the Rose Parade - but the colors were bright. Bettie Chase Waitsburg...
Proven ability in the law is the paramount requirement for a Superior Court Judge. Scott Wolfram meets and surpasses this requirement. Civil law cases comprise ap- proximately 40 percent of the Superior Court docket, crimi- nal cases approximately 40 percent. As the active court commissioner, Scott Wol- fram has been sitting as judge for the past nine years on both civil and criminal cases. We have the opportunity to elect THE EXPERIENCED COURT COMMISSIONER as Superior Court Judge. Remember to vote for this non-partisan position on the primary...
WAITSBURG - One Waitsburg property and business owner decided not having the city pool open on Saturdays was negative for the commu- nity and he has ponied up the cash to keep kids and families cool in the pool for every Saturday the rest of the summer. Charles Smith, who owns the Anchor Bar in Waitsburg and Charles Smith Wines in Walla Walla, said at the city council meeting last Wednesday he will pay for the Saturday pool costs to keep it available to the community on the week- ends....
Harvest is late again this year. There's been rust in the fields. A series of recent thunder storms has done its damage to some area acreage. So why are Touchet Valley farmers smiling? It's because another great crop is just on the horizon for 2012. The yields may not be quite what they were last year. Wash- ington growers expect to cut 1.7 million acres of winter wheat this year, down 60,000 acres from last year, while the number of acres in spring wheat is down 140,000. Spring wheat yields are projected at 55 bushels per acre, down seven...
As I compared the candidates for Walla Walla County Commissioner District 2, I noticed that only one candidate has never stopped learning and never stopped trying to improve on what she already knows. To me, that's an important fact because as county com- missioner, there is a lot to know. Every job has a learn- ing curve, but some jobs are just harder to learn because they are so complex. When you look at Chris Blackman's resume, I have no doubt that she has the intelligence and the determination to learn everything possible about the job....
In tough times we can't get everything we want, but how much time do we have to wait before our county commissioners learn to get along, cooperate, and work as a team? Teams take trust. If you read the Union-Bulletin or listen to the county commis- sioners' meetings, it's not hard to figure out that there's no trust with certain elected officials. And that's not how we are going to get things done in Walla Walla County. For example, what if there's a budget shortfall, yet the service or safety equipment is still needed? We need to know that...
Our First Anniversary E arly next month, it will be a year since we opened Coppei Coffee Co. As readers will recall, it was in early August when the café, Betty's Diner and the Anchor all opened at the same time following months of renovations and preparations. It was an exciting week- end. Switching hats from running the till at the Coppei nonstop to covering the news for the Times that first Satur- day, I wandered over to the diner to take pictures of the crowd there and stopped by the new...
Okay, we're taking two risks here. First is the risk of repeating ourselves because we've opined about local business support on this page several times before. Second is the risk of offending those Waitsburgers who get it and do exactly what we're hoping more local residents will do. But we're willing to take those risks because entrepreneurs in town, like myself, took a chance when they located their businesses here and we believe we deserve the community's support. The lo- cal businesses create jobs, generate city tax revenues, support...
The drought and crop losses occurring in the Midwestern United States have reached the mainstream headlines. There are feature stories running in national publications and on prime-time television with photos of devastated corn crops in Il- linois and Indiana. The dry heat of the last few weeks has cut potential corn pro- duction by at least a third overall, but radically more in some states. As a result of this harsh weather pattern, prices for all grains have risen. Corn is up $2.12 per bushel (+41 percent), Soybeans jumped $1.60 (+11.6 perce...
Residents Organize An All-American Parade Second Annual Fourth Of July Parade Brings Out A Modest Crowd To Honor The Holiday And Veterans W AITSBURG - As the fire siren sounded on top of the Waitsburg Fire Depart- ment last Wednesday, the former soldiers and some friends and family members began to march. Cougar Henderson kept the pace on the drum and the veterans honorably held their flags high in the air as they paraded at a slow, reverent pace down Main Street. For the small Fourth of July...
This week, we're carrying Morgan Smith's front-page story about the first prospective tenants for Blue Mountain Sta- tion on the outskirts of Dayton. Even though Port of Columbia officials are understandably careful not to release the names of the tenants until leases are signed, at least two of the three prospects appear solid after com- mitting verbally to the unique new business park. This is exciting news for the Touchet Valley and we want to take this opportunity to congratulate Port of Columbia Man- ager Jennie Dickinson, Port...
United States wheat prices, on a big run, are showing no sign of exhaustion, even after a move up of $1.90 per bushel in just 12 trading days in Chicago, reaching $8 for September futures on Tues- day morning. Portland white wheat has captured well over $1 per bushel for new crop in the same period, reaching $7.80 Tuesday morning. Virtu- ally all of this price enthu- siasm has been generated by drought conditions in the Eastern corn belt (Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee), but the heat has now begun to stress the entire Midwestern row- crop area. A...
Summer Food Program Feeds Students For Free DAYTON -- For many students the end of the school year means no more homework or tests, but for some, it also means the end of accessible breakfast and lunches. The Dayton School District summer food program was created with the aim to help these students. It provides free breakfasts and lunches to anyone younger than 19 years old and they don't even have to be enrolled in any pro- grams. This year, the pro- gram started on Monday, June 18 and serves...
I n the span of little more than a month and a half, the emergency room in Dayton General Hospital is expected to be completely remodeled bringing a new, improved, and most importantly, up-to-code facility. The remodel should be completely finished by July 23, according to Shane McGuire, the Columbia County Health System director of operations. The remodel will have more than aesthetic benefits. One late-project alteration included updating the nurse call system from a single-level of alert to the state mandated multi-code alert system. McGuire...
In the last week, the market has added $14 million or more in value to this summer's Walla Walla County wheat crop. White wheat for delivery to Port- land, Ore., at harvest was worth $6.65 to $6.85 just more than a week ago on June 15. As of Tuesday morning June 26, bids for the same wheat were between $7.45 and $7.50. Who to thank? The hot weather in the Midwest that is stressing the corn crop. Weather models con- tinue to forecast hot and dry weather for much of the Midwest. Parts of the Eastern corn belt -- Illinois, Indiana, and Ten-...
Huxoll's Service Won't Stop After High School Editor's Note: This is the third of a three-part series of profiles on the winners of this year's Times $500 com- munity service scholarships given to Waitsburg, Prescott and Dayton students. These three seniors were chosen for our scholarship based on community service, grades, need and their bright futures. Kayla Huxoll is the scholar- ship winner from Waitsburg High School. W AITSBURG - For Waitsburg High School graduate and class of 2012...
In the past, we've lamented the fact that parents' control over their children's choices in life seems to be dwindling. As parents, we are confronted every day with the power of marketing, the appeal of visual electronics (read: video games and television) and a legal system that leaves us with fewer and fewer means to resist the poor choices our kids make. But at least in our Touchet Valley communities, children, parents and educators seem to be making choices that are paying off for stu- dents, for the reputations of our school districts and...
There are a couple of noticeable influences in the wheat and other market atmo- spheres this week. Grain prices are being driven upward by - surprise! - hot and dry summer weather. Crop size forecasts that had been consistently ratcheting higher week-to-week through May are now giv- ing back. The swift plant- ing progress for corn and soybeans in the Midwest earlier this year set up high expectations, but now the plants are in a relatively advanced stage of develop- ment that calls for more moisture even as the sum- mer furnace goes...
