Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council last Wednesday did not approve a new utility hike that would have charged customers more for water and sewer. A recent study showed the city's water and sewer rates are not covering the cost to provide the services. A previous proposal was for a $14 increase spread out over two years with each $3.50 increase occurring in April and October of 2012 and 2013. The city council asked for a new, one-year proposal that would charge residents less. Currently, for water the city is currently charging $27.10 a...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg School Board last Thursday approved a project for the district's football field that would install three-phase power, new lights and provide enough power for a press box and future projects. Colter Mohney, the facilities, transportation and maintenance supervisor for the district, had come to the board Feb. 8 with the knowledge that the current electrical system on the field and the poles, all of which are almost 40 years old, are not only insuffi cient, but a fire hazard as well. Last Thursday, the board decided...
DAYTON - Dayton High School students don't have to wait for the new skills center to be built at Walla Walla Community College to gain employable skills before they graduate. They can, and many do, enroll in the high school's welding class to satisfy credit requirements and learn a trade they can use as a career or as part-time work to pay for other education. Steve McLean has been teaching welding at Dayton High School for 33 years. His uniform is dirty blue coveralls with "Boss" stitched to...
DAYTON - A Dayton High School freshman who was reportedly expelled last fall for carrying a pocket knife to school after allegedly making a threat to another student has been allowed to return to campus. The school district itself is tight-lipped about the incident and about the student's return at the start of this semester, citing privacy laws. But the freshman's renewed presence on campus has created concerns and discomfort among some students and parents who say he should not have been allowed to return. One family has decided to transfer...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg School Board has a big question to answer and it needs to be answered soon - what to do about the lights and power? Colter Mohney, the district's facilities/transportation/ maintenance supervisor, and Board Chairman Ross Hamann, told the school board and the district personnel last week that the power for the lights on the district's football field is lacking to the point that it is a fire hazard. Mohney said last fall, employees from Pacific Power and Light reported...
DAYTON -- A transient man who is suspected of breaking into a Dayton church preschool and may also have broken into several homes in town during the past two months is in custody. Daniel Baxter, a 34-year-old drifter with ties to Montana, California and Pennsylvania, was arrested by Columbia County Sheriff's deputies late last Thursday afternoon after the officers discovered his hiding place in the basement of an empty home owned by Dayton's Community Bible Church on South Second Street....
DAYTON - A transient man who is suspected of breaking into a Dayton church preschool and may also have broken into several homes in town during the past two months is in custody. Daniel Baxter, a 34-year-old drifter with ties to Montana, California and Pennsylvania, was arrested by Columbia County Sheriff's deputies late Thursday afternoon after the officers discovered his hiding place in the basement of an empty home owned by Dayton's Community Bible Church on South Second. quot;Baxter is the primary suspect in the ongoing investigation of a...
DAYTON -- Eric Van- Zandt, a 28-year-old Dayton man who was arraigned in Columbia County Superior Court last Thursday on 12 felony charges including theft of firearms and residential burglary, could be sent to prison for many years if convicted of these crimes. VanZandt was arrested on a warrant from Walla Walla County after a neighbor reported a fight at VanZandt's residence at 1531 S. Second St. in Dayton just before 4 a.m. on Jan. 29. According to the certification of probable cause, "three m...
WAITSBURG -- Three teenagers who attended Preston Middle School in Waitsburg are suspected of vandalizing and removing a Baby Jesus doll from the front of the First Presbyterian Church in December, according to law enforcement and school district officials. Two of the three have admitted to the acts against the Christian symbol that upset many in the community and both have written letters to the Rev. Bret Moser expressing their remorse. "I wasn't thinking," Moser quoted one of the letters to...
DAYTON - Former Columbia County fair manager Shane Laib disputes claims he was let go after his contract with the county expired last November, insisting instead that he chose not to continue with the organization because of personal differences with board members. But county commissioners are sticking by their version of events, saying Laib never expressed his desire to resign or to let his contract run out. Meanwhile, a revived fair board is trying to pick up the pieces and is working hard to...
WAITSBURG - In one of the liveliest Touchet Valley rivalry games in recent memory, the WP Cardinals handed the Dayton Bulldogs their first loss of the season at a packed Kison Court Monday night. Despite reaching deep to preserve their undefeated status, the visiting Bulldogs fell, 51-44, to the home team. A fourth-quarter rally brought Dayton within five points of evening the score, but it wasn't enough to catch up with the Cardinals, who were much improved since the two teams met in Dayton earlier in the season. "We worked our butts off,"...
WAITSBURG - To say the city of Waitsburg is stumped by the future of the collapsed bunk house east of the McGregor plant is putting it mildly. No one came forward to put in a salvage bid for its materials. The fire district doesn't want to burn it as part of a training exercise because it contains hazardous materials. And now it appears the city is in violation of its own code by just letting sit there. "It's been a worrisome issue," said Mayor Walt Gobel. "We may need to bite the bullet and get it squared away." The council voted unanimously...
WAITSBURG - Entertainment like Waitsburg has never seen is coming Feb. 4 to the fairgrounds. Mixed Martial Arts fighting is making its debut and organizer Rob Dodgin hopes to make this a monthly event if the turnout is as good as his two previous fights, which averaged 650 to 700 people. "The city of Waitsburg was really inviting and open to it," Dodgin said. The event will take place at the blue community building at the fairgrounds. Tickets are $25 if purchased in advance, and $30 at the...
WAITSBURG - If approved by the state Legislature, the Walla Walla Valley will get $10 million to build a center for high school students to get hands-on vocational training in construction, welding and manufacturing, natural resources and health care services. "It's another opportunity for kids," said Mick Miller, the superintendent of the Walla Walla School District. "It's a place for kids to go into greater depth in certain areas (they're interested in). " The Skills Center would be a new building at Walla Walla Community College. It would...
DAYTON - A recent shakeup in volunteers and personnel at the Columbia County Fair has generated a fair board with new members, a big fundraising challenge and without a fair manager. Former fair manager Shane Laib's contract expired in November for lack of a decision to renew it by a board reeling from resignations last fall, according to a county commissioner. Laib had served as the manager for two years and reportedly failed to turn over key documents necessary to run the organization,...
WAITSBURG - Despite reaching deep to maintain a perfect record this winter, the Dayton Bulldogs men's basketball team fell to the WP Cardinals 51-44 in one of the liveliest upsets of the season. The Cardinals, who pulled ahead early but fought in the end to hang on to their lead, managed to keep Dayton top scorer Garett Turner to just 9 points - far below his average. The other Bulldogs also had an off night, shooting dismally, but rallying in the last quarter to come within 4 points of evening the score....
DAYTON - Dayton School District's after-school program is losing its grant funding at the end of the school year and may be at risk for not being continued by the district because there's no way to fund it, Superintendent Doug Johnson said. For the past five years, Washington State University has funded Dayton's afterschool program through a 21st Century grant. The grant ends with the last day of school this year, Johnson said. The district wasn't in charge of the finances for the program, but Johnson estimates it cost about $75,000 a year to...
DAYTON - The Touchet Valley Arts Council will have crowds roaring with laughter in its newest musical theater comedy "Nunsense." The show, about five nuns who must raise money to bury fellow nuns who accidentally died of food poisoning, sing and dance and crack jokes the whole way to prove that nuns really can be funny. The show runs Friday, Jan. 27, through Sunday, Jan. 29, at the Liberty Theater. The show is not recommended for children under age 10. Bev Startin directs the show, her first...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council last week unanimously voted to deny its support of the revitalization of a flood control district that would use taxing powers to help prevent flooding in the Touchet and Coppei rivers. "If our people don't like raising out water bill $3.50, they're sure not going to like this," said Councilman Orville Branson. City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe said the city had previously two flood control districts, but both went defunct because of a lack of volunteers. Recently, a group of citizens, Allison Bond,...
WAITSBURG - Snow hit the Touchet Valley Monday morning and was expected to last through Wednesday evening worrying commuters and giving hope to kids that school will be delayed or canceled. Meteorologist Robert Cramp with the National Weather Service said a winter storm warning is issued from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 7 p.m. Wednesday, meaning residents should expect snow and freezing rain through Thursday. Cramp said the area may see 3 to 6 inches of snow between Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. High...
DAYTON -- One year after Shawn Kemp became the first former NBA star to visit Ski Bluewood, another basketball celebrity is destined for the mountain this season. A.C. Green, who started his career at the L.A. Lakers and retired from the Miami Heat with detours through Dallas and Phoenix, is expected to spend the day at the resort on Saturday, Feb. 4. "He's not really into the cold," said Brenda Ford, the Walla Walla-based co-founder of the 3BA International basketball league for which Kemp and...
DAYTON - This journey seemed simple enough. I found an interesting piece of information on the Columbia County website about its jail. Not only is it in the longest-operating courthouse in the state and turning 125-years-old in 2012, but the jail cells in the basement are from the brig of a ship. This is the way many great newspaper feature stories begin. We take a tidbit of interesting or weird information and we expand on it. And as journalists work, we ask for help all the time. We need help...
WAITSBURG -- As clear as day, Craig Funabashi remembers the first time he saw his grandmother's Story & Clark Victorian pump organ. He was six and visiting the Seattle area with his parents from Long Beach. As they would for many years to come, he and his family traveled up to Whidbey Island for his grandmother's Sept. 5 birthday and family reunion. They would meet at the cabin where Vangee Johnston kept the ornate wooden instrument and played many old- time Ragtime favorites for her grand kids...
DAYTON - State funding for the Drug Task Force that helped bust last summer's big marijuana grows and helped reduce the availability of drugs in the Touchet Valley was eliminated last month. The drug task force ceased operations Dec. 31. It began in 2005. Walla Walla and Columbia counties were part of the South Eastern Narcotics Team that also included Asotin and Garfield counties. The state provided $1.5 million per year to different agencies through a grant for the task force. About $ 5 7 , 4...
