Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 964 - 988 of 997
WAITSBURG - In another step to reach its readers in cyberspace and to become the Touchet Valley's predominant news source, the Times has launched its own website: www.waitsburgtimes. com. Earlier this year, the Times established its first online presence with a Facebook page which now has nearly 750 fans. On www.facebook.com/waitsburgtimes, fans get updates, discussions and photos from the Times. They can also share comments, but there is no full access to the newspaper's content. The new website, www.waitsburgtimes.com, gives the newspaper,...
DAYTON - When it comes to envisioning a more attractive, more prosperous downtown Dayton, the ideas flowfrom far and wide. Focus on the Green Giant and the history of the cannery, some say. Develop along the Touchet River, our most valuable asset, say others. Concentrate on children - have an All Children's Weekend, they continue. But members of the Dayton Development Task Force, which has been around for over 25 years, say the town already has a theme - "Historic Downtown Dayton." Now...
UMATILLA NATIONAL FOREST - A wilderness raid in the upper Tucannon watershed Tuesday morning earned Columbia County Sheriff's deputies the largest marijuana seizure since 2008. Deputies pulled 4,562 pot plants from a steep slope inside the Umatilla National Forest about fivemiles from a site where 11,000 marijuana plants were seized in 2008. No arrests were made in either case. "We're speculating that it may be the same group that set up this new grow site," said Jeff Jenkins, narcotics deputy...
WAITSBURG - Cardinals T-shirts, Touchet Valley farm truck decals, Kison Court sports banners, Dayton shop signs, Waitsburg High Letterman jackets. The list of items produced by Blue Crystal Screenprinting Signs on Willard could go on and on. Chances are they all look familiar. They're icons of our everyday lives and our every-weekend sports. In the 16 years since it was founded, Waitsburg entrepreneur Elizabeth Cole has supplied the Touchet Valley and many clients in Walla Walla with at...
WAITSBURG - Citizens of Waitsburg could get an opportunity to save on gas and enjoy certain new liberties if Mayor Walt Gobel has anything to say about it. Gobel has encouraged city councilors to take a look at an ordinance that would allow golf carts on streets inside Waitsburg city limits. The proposed ordinance will be discussed at the next city council meeting, on Aug. 18. "Well, it's a bit personal," Gobel said Monday. "My wife has one and we have, in the past, run it around town staying pretty much on the sidewalks." But state...
Volunteer fire fighters in the Touchet Valley spent a weary weekend battling blaze upon blaze as foul weather, careless drivers and faulty machinery conspired to keep emergency personnel on their toes from one end of the valley to the other. Times correspondent Laverne Mayberry, of Prescott, reported that close to 200 firefighters from across the state, 40 engines and a helicopter were called in to help contain a fire that raged over 23,000 acres near Eureka over the weekend. More than half a...
DAYTON - It's Monday afternoon. Auditions are over, and the roles have been cast. Now 48 children in the Touchet Valley have just four days to rehearse for a live, musical performance they'll stage in front of friends, family members and total strangers this coming Friday and Saturday nights at the Liberty Theater. For most of the children, who range in grade level from first through 12th, the annual summer play in Dayton is their only shot at experiencing theater arts - and they welcome the...
PRESCOTT - When Prescott School District Superintendent Dr. Carolyn Marsh announced in June that she wanted to retire in the hopes of being rehired, she knew she was taking a risk. After all, there is no guarantee she'll get her old job back by the time school starts again. Her goal was to resume receiving her pension benefits, which she forfeited after taking the superintendent's job in Prescott three years ago, then be rehired as superintendent and receive the position's salary as well. Such "retire-rehire" scenarios are not unco...
DAYTON - Construction of Puget Sound Energy's Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project in Garfield County started about four months after the company obtained approval for its conditional use permit this year. Don't expect the same for the Columbia County portion of the wind turbine project, a company official said earlier this week. The weak economy in the utility company's Washington state market appears to have taken the wind out of the project's blades. "PSE has no firm plans for the start of construction at this time" said Anne Walsh,...
DAYTON - More than two dozen Dayton residents looked on in interest as friends, relatives and neighbors argued for and against a proposed city law that would allow off-road vehicle users to access mountain roads via city streets. The ORV ordinance was slated for its first reading during Monday night's city council meeting, which took place across the street from city hall at St. Joseph's Catholic Church to accommodate the crowd. But after more than half an hour of testimony and complaints from constituents, Dayton city officials agreed to postp...
WALLA WALLA - Last year, 2.2 million tons of products were shipped through the Little Goose navigation lock near Starbuck - and much of these commodities moving downriver came from farms like those in the Touchet Valley. Wheat, barley, petroleum products (like fuel), fertilizer, hay cubes, peas, lentils, milk carton stock, containers full of merchandise, even wind turbines - 10 million tons of cargo - all travel the Columbia Snake River system each year. Now these companies are making plans t...
DAYTON - Columbia REA has donated $50,000 to the Dayton Development Task Force as part of a local tax incen- tive program that was recently approved by the state. The money will be used in the Task Force's efforts to im- prove the economic health of downtown Dayton. In return, Columbia REA will receive a 75% credit on their Public Utilities Taxes paid to the state in 2014. Columbia REA CEO Les Teal said he felt that the tax in- centive program was an excellent way for the co-op to make a difference in Dayton. "We're part of this community, and...
DAYTON - Cody Snider, 17, of Dayton, was found dead Saturday morning by a Columbia County employee near the Rock Hill Transfer Station here. The discovery was made shortly before 10 a.m., when the employee ar- rived to open the station. According to a press release from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Snider had apparently fallen approximately 150 feet from the top of the cliff above the transfer station. It was unknown when he fell, since the transfer station had been closed since...
WAITSBURG - One of Waitsburg's elementary school teachers got an extra- special early Christmas gift this year. In a press release issued by President Barak Obama on December 20, Kindergarten teacher Pa- mela Nolan-Beasley was named as one of two teach- ers in Washington State to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Beasley won the award for science while Nancy Pfaff of Redmond, Wash. won the math award. Win- ners of the honor receive a $10,000...
DAYTON - Having de- voted 30 years working at the Dayton Memorial Library, Sue Hagfeldt quietly retired as branch manager in March, passing the torch to new manager, Amy Rosen- berg. "Sue insisted on not being honored with a retirement party, but she was so beloved by the community that we still have patrons come to the library and asking where she is," said Columbia County Rural Library Board Chair, Tanya Patton. "Sue has a wonderful way with people, especially children. She will be greatly...
WAITSBURG - Tickets are on sale for a hometown dance concert by a hometown band. The members of the popular Frog Hollow Band have agreed to perform Saturday evening, May 18, during the Waitsburg Celebration mark- ing the 100th anniversary of the Days of Real Sport racing weekend. The concert is a collaboration of the Waitsburg PEO chapter, the Waitsburg Lions Club and the band, whose members live in Waitsburg, Prescott and Walla Walla. It's a fundraiser for PEO, which promotes education for women. "When we learned noth- ing was scheduled for...
DAYTON - Rocky Miller, a Washington State Trooper who has lived in Dayton for 26 years, was appointed Columbia County Sheriff last week. He replaces Walt Hessler, who has resigned, effective June 30. The Columbia County Board of Commissioners made the appointment by unanimous vote, after interviewing Miller and Columbia County Sher- iff's Deputy Jeffery Jen- kins during a special eve- ning meeting on April 11. Miller and Jenkins were the only applicants for the position. Hessler submitted his...
DAYTON -- Feral cats prowled their way into the Dayton City Council meeting May 29 during the public hearing regarding the growing feline nuisance and the impact they have on residents. Mayor Craig George opened the public hearing segment of the meeting by reminding attendees that the decision required the input of the community and it could not be a decision made by the council alone. "We want the city involved in the decision," George said. Dr. Kennie Reeves of the Dayton Veterinarian Clinic took the floor to give hearing attendees some...
