Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 388 - 412 of 997
The Columbia County Fair Board has announced its theme for the 2013 Colum- bia County Fair: "SEW IT, GROW IT, SHOW IT". The fair will be held September 6, 7 and 8. During a recent meeting, three new board members were introduced. They are Tim Quade, Lee Ann Litteral and Richard Jones. They join Dave Molesh, who was elected board President, Debbie Bailey and Jeremy Cox. The 2013 Fair Kick-Off event will be held at the Fair- grounds Pavilion April 20, at 6 p.m. with dinner starting at 6:30. Dinner will be the 4-H BBQ made and served by the 4-H...
WAITSBURG - A stu- dent fundraising project for Waitsburg Elementary School has turned into a big disappointment for students, a giant headache for school administrators and fodder for a Tri-Cities TV newscast. The school has conducted its annual cookie dough fundraiser for many years. This year's drive was par- ticularly successful: students sold about $13,000 worth of the gooey stuff and added $6,500 to the Waitsburg El- ementary's ASB coffers. The money will be used for such things as...
WALLA WALLA - A Prescott man remains a key suspect in a recent spate of Touchet Valley burglaries, after the Walla Walla County Prosecutor dismissed ear- lier charges in the hopes of building a bigger, better case against him. The case against Jimmy Mathews, 33, identified in court records as a resident of Prescott, is part of an ongoing investigation into one of the biggest property theft and trafficking operations in the area's history. It recently yielded hundreds of stolen items at a residence in Walla Walla. Mathews was arrested in mid-Dec...
KENNEWICK - Four contestants each from Prescott, DeSales and Connell high schools sat at round tables in the lobby of the South Hills Church in Ken- newick last Wednesday. In front of them was a metallic strip wired to a box near the moderator who sat across from the players. She fired off a question: "Name the Egyptian president who was assassinated by extremists in 1981 for ne- gotiating peace with Israel." Several students slapped their hands on the strip to make the buzzer go off and signal...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg Grocery Store fell victim to a thief in the early hours of Sunday morning. The thief made away with $226 and was in and out in less than a minute, grocery store owner Dan- ny Cole said. The store does have an alarm system, but un- like the last two robbery attempts targeted at the locally-owned grocery store, the thief was not de- terred by the sudden loud siren sounding through the store. Cole said he is thankful for his Stryke alarm sys- tem because it has proven...
WAITSBURG - The city of Waitsburg received two grants totaling about $700,000 to update Seventh Street between Main and Arnold Streets. One of the grants is $615,000 and is supplied by the Department of Transportation and the remainder of the $700,000 is funded by the state Transpor- tation Improvement Board. City Administrator Randy Hinchcliffe said the bid for a contractor will be awarded at the March City Council meeting and the project will begin on May 1. For the first week of May, the contractor will remove trees and prepare for the...
DAYTON - The City of Dayton and the Columbia County board of commis- sioners have begun discus- sions regarding the possibil- ity of once again combining planning services. Last fall, Dayton ended an agreement in which it contracted with the county for planning. At the time, city council members said they felt city residents weren't receiving effective planning services from the county planning office. Columbia County continues to provide building inspection within the city. Former Columbia...
DAYTON - Senior Bull- dog Samantha Harting saw several of her friends get scraped up in motorcycle spills, so when it came time at her high school Youth & Government club to propose a new law in Olympia, she crafted a bill that might protect them better. Junior Cardinal Meara Baker, a member of Waits- burg's Youth & Government club, chose a different issue for her bill. She feels that as a state of immigrants, Washington should have a law requiring high school students to graduate with foreign...
WAITSBURG - Before Martha Mason moved to Thailand for two years in the early 1960s, she had her sights on music for her creative journey through life. But when she returned to the U.S., ready to pursue a college degree in the field, she couldn't do it. "It was too emotional for me at the time," said Mason, who now lives in Dayton. "It just wasn't working." And while in Thailand, she had discovered some- thing else that would lead her down a different path. "I had an epiphany," she said. "On a...
DAYTON - Joseph Shu- ba, who pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, Suzanne, last year, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on January 30 by Columbia County Superior Court Judge William Acey. Shuba, 59, was ordered to serve 180 months for murder plus 60 additional months because the crime involved a firearm. Suzanne Shuba was killed April 29 after she and her husband argued while preparing dinner. Shuba said he went to a bedroom in their house, got a pistol, and then returned to the kitchen and...
DAYTON - The largest gun dealer in the Touchet Valley has seen a huge in- crease in demand in the last few weeks. And local gun registrations are on the rise as well. "The rush this time is four times what it was four years ago," said manager Brad Hatfield of Dayton's City Lumber and Coal Yard. He was referring to the sale of guns and ammunition since mid-December, compared to the level of sales after the 2008 elections. Hatfield said the 2008 rush was nearly four times the typical sales volume...
WAITSBURG - Kate Hockersmith, the instiga- tor and, some might say "mother," of Waitsburg's bluegrass scene, remembers the first local jam night. It was some time in December at the old Carmen's Deli on Main Street. She put the youthful Troublemakers, fresh from their musical exchange in Ja- pan, in the same room with several veteran bluegrass musicians from Walla Walla and created a Touchet Valley tradition marking its fifth an- niversary this winter. Together with bluegrass lessons...
PRESCOTT - After serving as its "accidental" superintendent for three years, Dr. Bill Jordan announced last week he will be leaving the Prescott School District at the end of the school year. "Our district is strong, good things are happening," Jordan said in a telephone interview. "It's a good time for someone to come in and take over this district." Jordan, who has been universally praised for turn- ing around a school dis- trict struggling with enrollment, morale and academic achievement,...
DAYTON - Columbia County Health System CEO Dale Polla said he is optimistic, if a bit wary, about the or- ganization's financial future. On the plus side, one of his most important goals - a positive operating margin - was reached in two out of the last three months of 2012. As for his wariness, he said, "I'm nervous about what the legislature's going to do." He referred to the potential for cuts in Medicaid and other funding CCHS receives from the state, which faces a $1 billion budget...
DAYTON - Columbia County Sheriff Walt Hessler told county commissioners last week that he will retire, effective June 30. Also an- nouncing her retirement in June is Carole Sleeman, who is administrative assistant and chief civil deputy in the Sheriff's Office. Hessler is currently serving his second term, which ends in 2014. He was origi- nally elected sheriff as a write-in candidate in 2006. He was re-elected in 2010. Hessler declined an interview request from The Times. In a written...
When you have a moment check out our new Touchet River Valley Visitor's Guide website. You can find the full guide online at TRV Visitor's Guide...
Prosecuting Attorney Rea Culwell said in an interview that she made a strong effort to settle the murder case against Joseph Shuba in part because trials, especially murder trials, are so expen- sive for the county. According to Columbia County Clerk Lynn Lese- man, court costs and legal defense costs for the Shuba case have already added up to more than $14,000. That doesn't include jail costs incurred by the Sheriff's Of- fice. Shuba has been in cus- tody for nearly nine months. Columbia County Com- missioner Dwight Robanske said that each...
DAYTON - Joseph Shuba, charged with killing his wife last April in Dayton, pleaded guilty to second degree murder at a hearing in Columbia County Superior Court on January 16. Shuba was originally charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, Suzanne, and was scheduled to stand trial January 28. Last year, Shuba entered a plea of not guilty by reason of selfdefense. His attorney, Dale Slack, had hired a psychologist who was to testify as an ex- pert witness that Shuba...
WAITSBURG - Waits- burg Mayor Walt Gobel has invited the Confeder- ated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to join in the 100th anniversary of the Days of Real Sport this spring in Waitsburg. And one idea for their participation is an Indian relay event, often described as one of the most exhilarating equine sports. The idea drew immediate enthusiasm from a race coor- dinator for the Umatilla tribe, who said Native American relay racers from all over the west would welcome such a...
DAYTON-Five small food processing businesses are expected to be up and running when Blue Mountain Station opens its first building in Dayton later this year. Gypsy Girl Granola, Big Kahuna Hot Sauce, Grass Roots Goats (cheese and yogurt), Roubideau Artisan Cheese and Mace Mead Works (wine and mead) have all signed leases for the building. With those tenants in place, all of the leasable space in the Building 1 at the Port of Columbia's new artisan food processing facil- ity is spoken for....
PRESCOTT - Residents of Prescott are rallying behind the family that lost nearly everything this week- end in one of the town's worst structure fires in three decades. Jason and Christine Steele and their four children were forced from their home at 410 Touchet St. on Sun- day after a fire that started in their garage spread quickly through the four-bedroom one-story structure. Walla Walla fire districts 7 (Prescott) and 2 (Waits- burg), along with other area stations, responded to the...
