Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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First Phone System Installed Here In 1903 I t was 1877 that Alexander Graham Bell's invention was first installed as a commercial venture. The first successful demonstrations device was in Havana Cuba in 1849! In Waitsburg, the first telephone was installed in 1887. The first rural telephone system was installed in 1903, 4 W. Morgan was Central (John White's Paper). I couldn't believe there were telephones that early in Waitsburg! Laidlaw's book monitor the telephone office located between Mae Combes and the bank -operated by Tina, one of...
A few weeks ago, some 20 plus members of the local PEO chapter came in to have lunch at the Coppei Coffee shop. They enjoyed coffee, sandwiches and drinks from the shop's ever-growing menu, then lingered around their tables in the space behind the Times front office that functions as Waitsburg's community living room. Anita Baker, PEO member and wife of former Times publisher Tom Baker, was on hand to explain some of the equipment on display in the space: the Linotype machine from the 1920s,...
I t was a brief but awkward moment in council chambers Monday night. Council members were in the midst of discussing a proposed amendment to the city's municipal code that shifts the burden of repairing and maintaining the public-right-ofway portion of local homeowners' sewer connection to the city's main line. The first, second and third readings of the amendment had already passed unanimously and the council was getting ready to vote on the ordinance itself when councilman Merle Jackson noted that the proposal represents a significant...
I am writing today to invite everyone from Dayton and the surrounding communities to this year's American Cancer Society Blue Mountain Relay For Life. The family-friendly event is scheduled to begin Saturday afternoon, Sept. 17, at 3 p.m. and concludes Sunday morning, Sept.18, at 7:30 a.m. Location for the event is at the athletic complex (track and football field) in Dayton. Though there are many emotional times at every Relay For Life, I believe the luminaria ceremony is the part of the event that brings everyone together and reminds them...
Heart BEAT About Needs & Good Deeds WAITSBURG -- Not only is the nation focusing on the upcoming 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, but Touchet Valley residents are also thinking about the second anniversary of the big mill fire that destroyed Wait's Mill, Sept. 6, 2009. The mill gave Waitsburg its name and losing it meant the town lost part of its identity. With these two anniversaries on our minds and the recent battle of the Whetstone fire, we can't help but think of our local...
I t was late one Tuesday night. I was putting together the newspaper in our temporary office in what's now the coffee shop. The town was already asleep and I was happily finishing up the layout of the week's edition when I got a whiff of the same smell as I had earlier in the day . Exhaust fumes. Only this time, they were so strong I was starting to get a head ache. There was no logical explanation for the smell. There were no idling trucks on Main Street. The smell couldn't have been from inside the office. There are no fuel-powered...
WALLA WALLA - When it comes to people getting infections such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, Waitsburg's Sharon Clinton believes it's the luck of the draw. With blood transfusions and contamination risks, contracting such infections can happen "to any of us," she said. It's the main reason that Clinton and her husband Larry attended a fundraising dinner in Walla Walla for Blue Mountain Heart To Heart, a non-profit organization that facilitates support groups, case management, education and...
Prescott High School Principal and acting WP combine AD Jody Thew anticipates that this soccer season will be another successful one for the Tigers, who had a magical first year as a WP combine program in 2010. We hope she turns out to be right. But judging from preseason preparations so far, we have some reservations about this prediction. Last year, the program was headed by Rick Hamilton, a very experienced soccer coach, who knew how to take the raw talent many of the players had developed since childhood playing pickup games, street soccer...
Dear Editor: I have been a subscriber to the Times since we bought our house in Walla Walla over a year ago. We love your town; it just didn't work for our situation to live there instead of here. However, I greatly admire the advances you have made in covering local news. Folks like the wheat farmers get way too little recognition for their hard work and commitment, and the past few issues of the Times have highlighted their ongoing efforts. It was interesting to me to read numerous articles about neighbors helping each other in a variety of...
Heart BEAT WAITSBURG - The first thing you see is a pan of the wheat fields, followed by a drive through town: the stately early-century homes, campus-like sidewalks and the downtown Main Street core. Then suddenly, Paul Gregutt and Karen Stanton Gregutt are greeting you from the kitchen aisle of their new Three Maples Cottage on Third and West. "You," that is, if you happened to be among the hundreds of guests attending the Auction of Washington Wines' Gala at Chateau Ste. Michelle in...
Last week, we carried a story about the KUOW series on the "Cascade Curtain," the idea that the state and its residents are somehow culturally divided by the mountain range that separates them geographically. We found it interesting how the story about Waitsburg made it sound like our town is somehow a prime example of East Meeting West in a contest of visions and wills over the future of our community. The local reactions to the radio segment, which can be heard and read online at KUOW.org, were equally interesting. Some thought it was fair...
To the editor: I support Mike Fredrickson's reelection to the Walla Walla Port Distrcit #2. Both Mike and Port have had a good year -- in fact several good years. The Port was named state "Port of the year," cited for the Rail X Project, their role in the Highway 12 extension, and received an environmental award from the Department of Transportation. As an appraiser, Mike makes important contributions to the Board. Mike has served six years on the Walla Walla Planning Commission., one year as chair. He is a member of a 4th generation farm...
Seattle Mariners slugger and 10- time All-Star Ichiro Suzuki is a career .327 hitter. So far this season, he is batting a respectable .269. To the casual observer, that's a pretty consistent and impressive record. But a close fan of the game would also suggest that this year, Ichiro is in a bit of a slump. Sports columnist Les Carpenter even points out that over a few weeks this spring, from May 19 to June 9, he was especially cold - hitting only .149. Fans would likely say that Ichiro is...
Paved Or Unpaved, Area Roads Have Always Been A Joy To Explore I was going through some old Waitsburg Times, dated March 13, 1885, in a letter to the editor: "Last Saturday, it was so delightfully pleasant to "take a drive --- We, accompanied by Mrs. Times, made a brief visit to the beautiful little city of Prescott. We found the roads in apple pie order, and the town of Prescott showing abundant evidence of animation, owing to the excellent farming weather, but 'few tillers of the soil were in town; still evidences of thrift were manifest in a...
Heart BEAT About Needs & Good Deeds P RESCOTT - Perry Dozier remembers going into the Prescott Lions Club building when he was a kid. The wheat grower and county commissioner whose farm is close to town would go there for Boy Scouts meetings, while his parents would attend dances on the second floor during New Year's Eve. "The Lions hall has been a part of my whole life growing up," he said. So when members of the club approached him with a novel fundraising idea to pay for a new roof and other...
Since Coppei Coffee opened, lots of people have met each other in front of the shop or inside. Some ran into each other by chance, while others said "let's meet at the coffee shop on Main." We've seen handshakes, hugs and kisses in these encounters, so the subject of greetings was already on our minds when a segment came on National Public Radio during a recent drive home from Walla Walla. It was about a German organization proposing a ban on kissing in the work place. The Knigge Society, a German group that advises on etiquette and social...
The well-publicized triple grand opening and Classic Auto Show weekend added up to a festive event for Waitsburg. Not since the Days Of Real Sport has the downtown area seen so much traffic. Some visitors came for the car show itself, bringing their classics to Preston Park from all over the region. Some came because they were intrigued by the new 1950s diner and had heard about it on Facebook. Of course, anyone who likes cars likes the 1950s, by some standards, the peak of automotive creativity and esthetic abundance. Some came from the Tri...
DAYTON - The Green Giant has a hole, a giant hole. It's squarely in the center of his tunic, which the jolly big guy dons with wreath and leafy boots on the steep hill overlooking the edge of Dayton like the town's own "Hollywood" sign. Gary Lowe wants to fill the hole and if you're a strapping high schooler, he'll want your help late next month to complete the green tunic on the football field-sized figure, marking the last phase of a project that started almost two decades ago. "We'll finally...
WAITSBURG - She worked all day every day. Chop the wood, haul it into the woodshed, split the rounds into useable chunks, haul it into the house, feed the stove for cooking or warmth, clean out the ashes, pump water from the well, haul it into the house, heat the water in buckets for washing or bathing, make candles or buy them, buy kerosene and lamp wicks if available, fill the lamps, trim the wicks, store the milk, cream, potatoes or apples in the cellar, smoke the meat, salt the pork, dry...
