Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1190 - 1214 of 1333
Since we took over the Times in late 2009, we've made a number of changes to your newspaper. We hope you enjoy the new look, content and services we provide. Soon, our offerings will include reproduction services and retail office supplies in our renovated historic office on Main Street in Waitsburg. As a newspaper team, we truly enjoy putting together the Times every week because we get lots of encouragement from you, our readers. This is one of the reasons why it saddens us to bring you some bad news with regards to the long-term future of th...
Dear Editor: Starbuck City Council members Ruth Shearer and Fred White have decided that I should have sewer rates raised on the three-space McNeil RV Park and Dump. Ruth leads you to believe that Darver put this RV park and dump in secretly or underhandedly. The facts are that former Mayor Dianne Lusk was working for Darver Tackle and was very much aware and informed on the progress of the McNeil Park, as was the council. Darver asked Clark Posey, Columbia County planner, to lead me through this step by step just so I wouldn't be doing...
A lthough the recent article appearing in the Times, "Eager Beavers Worry Hofers," was written with obvious journalistic skill, I take exception to the headline and leading sentence: "Although Cindy Hofer loves the beavers who visit the family farm on the banks of Coppei Creek, she gets nervous when they settle in." It would be more accurate to say that the beavers cause little or no uneasiness. In fact I enjoy their antics and feel honored to live so close to their chosen habitat. My actual...
The Waitsburg City Council last Wednesday listened to comments during a hearing about the BMX track proposal initiated by Tawnya and Greg McVey. Late last year, the council voted to deny the use of up to five acres of city-owned land to site the track, and it did so again on Wednesday night, after its members heard brought up some old and some new concerns about the land-use proposal. We welcome the council's thoughtful effort to explore the possibility of this youth activity and the research several members did to see if it would be viable...
I was reading about life "being simple" in Dayton in 1902 from a booklet printed in 2002 celebrating Grace Episcopal Church's centennial. "Only 14 percent of the homes in the entire country had a bathtub," it read. I noticed there was no mention of pianos in the homes, but that's what was on my mind. I took piano lessons in the '20s and '30s. It occurred to me that many of my friends or acquaintances did have pianos as well as my family. That was during the Depression. I have felt blessed that my parents kept paying for my lessons, and I...
Editor's Note: This is the fifth and last installment about the work of Clear Path International. Imbert Matthee is one of the organization's co-founders. Its mission is to offer medical and socio-economic aid to survivors of land mine accidents. T he twenty men at the Care Villa may no longer be able to walk, see or eat their food without help. But they still have their voices and they are always eager to sing for any visitors to the Mae La refugee camp on the border between Thailand and...
A few weeks ago, Dayton High School senior Davy Philips was sitting behind a table in the entrance to the gym during one of the Bulldogs' evening basketball games. He had a number of silent auction items laid out for patrons to bid on, including a generously donated season's pass to Ski Bluewood. Philips' goal was to raise funds for Dayton's fifthgrade ski program run by teacher John Lindsey. And he succeeded, bringing in about $1,000 that, if all goes as planned, may be matched by the Pepsi Co. Last fall, a Waitsburg High School senior, Megan...
John Turner, the new Walla Walla County Sheriff, got off to a running start last week when he formally introduced his new team to the media and to area law enforcement colleagues, including newly re-elected Columbia County Sheriff Walt Hessler. The team includes Undersheriff Eddie Freyer, Operations Captain Barry Blackman and Jail Superintendent Keilen Harmon. Turner and his team were sworn in the week before, but at the time he was presented with little opportunity to outline his vision for the office. On Friday, he released more details...
A sk any third grade boy how many types of guns they know, and you'll get an impressive list. Broaden the category to war weapons, and you'll also be amazed. But ask them how many war heroes they have heard of, and you'll probably get a blank stare. And it will shock you that while war and weaponry are "cool" to them, they have no respect for the people that voluntarily man, dodge, and risk getting hit by these weapons on a battlefield halfway around the world, protecting us from the danger they...
I am proud of America, and I believe that is a good way to express my patriotic role as a young United States citizen. I am only in eighth grade, and as I grow up I am sure I will feel even more proud of my country. To be a patriot is to love your country and support its authority that is something we all should do. I am proud of America for what we have accomplished and what we still can do in the future. I believe in supporting our troops and I want to try to do whatever I can to help them. They are fighting to keep us free and I am grateful...
We want to congratulate Waitsburg High School freshman Meara Baker for winning the prestigious Americanism essay contest from the American Legion Auxiliary. Baker's essay, which broadly discusses what she feels her patriotic duties are as a U. S. citizen, was chosen by the organization from among about 10,000 entries in the western region. It should be noted that she became the second winner in a row from the Waitsburg School District. Last year, Emma Philbrook, who was in 6th grade at the time, won the same award for her essay encouraging her...
Dear Editor: In regards to the article "The Library According to Su," in last week's paper, the $600 that has been raised toward new computers for the Weller Public Library was not raised by me. The money was raised from the showing of Karen Stanton's film "A Not So Still Life" at the Plaza last summer. Karen came up with the idea and showed her movie, Robbie and Marilyn Johnson donated the use of their movie theater and lots of people donated money when they came to see the film. I was lucky enough to get to see the film, but I had nothing to...
Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment in a series about the work of Clear Path International, which is based on Bainbridge Island and aids survivors of landmine accidents in Asia. Imbert Matthee is one of its cofounders. I f you ever saw the movie "The Killing Fields," you'll remember the devastation and horror brought upon Cambodia during the four-year Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. An estimated 2 million people died in the small Southeast Asian nation sandwiched between...
We begin the New Year with an apology. In last week's Sports Year In Review, we neglected to mention two important highlights that should have been listed as top stories 8 and 9 for the 2010 Sports Year. The first is the Dayton High School football team making it to the playoffs after an inspiring season that showed much promise for 2011 and an equally exciting mini-qualifying round in which the Bulldogs came out on top. The team was bumped in the first playoff round by the ever-strong franchise by the same name from Colfax, which narrowly...
Recently the Dayton School Board took action to place a supplemental maintenance and operations levy on the February ballot. When the board approved this measure, I estimated the cost per thousand to be 65 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. Due to some miscalculations on my part, the cost is actually estimated to be 45 cents per $1,000. The error occurred when I used the wrong tax table for calculations. When the ballot information was passed on to the county, the error was found and corrected by Chris Miller, Columbia County Assessor. The...
When I first visited Vietnam more than a decade ago, it wasn't immediately obviously to me that this Southeast Asian nation was a war-ravaged country. Certainly, there were crater marks in the landscape as we flew into Hue City, and on our way to Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province, I saw a number of roadside bunkers and watchtowers that stood as a quiet testament to the conflict that had ended a quarter century before I first traveled there. But even the mostly rural province of Quang Tri looked like...
It's been a week since the Times moved back into its historic front office on Main Street. The new quarters still look a bit bare. IT specialist Scott Underwood is still straightening out the computer system, and contractor Ron Smith is still putting the finishing touches on the trim. Otherwise, the brand-spanking-new bullpen (an industry term for the newsroom) is up and running, ready for 2011. Meanwhile, the newspaper collating, stuffing and mailing operation has been moved to the very back of the Mock Building so it can use the alley for...
Lois Mettler invited me to go with Russ and Barb Knopp to The Music Man, produced by the Touchet Valley Arts Council Productions Group. Lois bought the tickets. We were seated in the front row of the Liberty Theater in Dayton. Lois apologized for the location of our seats. Yet I discovered that our seats were the ideal place to watch the performance and be amongst the members of the orchestra. Anyone who knows me will realize how exciting this was for me. I sat by Nicolas Pearson on my left, who played the electric keyboard, and Linda Hermanns...
Editor's Note: This is thesecond in an ocassional seriesabout the work of ClearPath International. KarenMatthee is the organization'scommunications director. In a country like Afghani stan, where many young adults find it tough to get work and disabled young adults find it tougher still, the best hope for landmine accident survivors is to be trained in a skill that generates income. Better yet is for them to use their new skill to help make Afghanistan's countryside safer for others who face...
