Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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DAYTON - The final three candidates for the Columbia County Health System CEO position were narrowed to one this week when two applicants withdrew for personal and finan- cial reasons. The sole candidate left is Dale Polla of Missoula, Mont. "We didn't anticipate this would happen," Board Member Lisa Naylor said. " No one will be hired for the CEO position until after Polla visits Dayton and the surround- ing area on the week of Aug 20, Naylor said. During Polla's visit he will visit local hospitals and clinics to get a feel for the area. With...
DAYTON - Full-day kin- dergarten will not be an op- tion for the coming school year in the Dayton School District. Superintendent Doug Johnson broke the news at a school board meeting Wednesday, July 11. "It was a difficult deci- sion," Johnson later said. "In the end we felt it was impor- tant to continue investing in retaining all of the programs we have and providing some additional support to best serve students." School Board Chairman Steve Martin said full-day kindergarten is one of the highest priorities for the board. The district's...
DAYTON - The Farmer's Market is back for the summer bringing bright produce and baked goods to Dayton shop- pers. "The farmers market is alive and well yet again this year," Dayton farmers market Coordi- nator Zonia Dedloff said. "We had eight vendors (recently)." The market runs on Satur- days from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. but they tend to close early if atten- dance is low or the weather gets too hot or too rainy, Dedloff said. The vendors set up at the Dayton Historic Depot, she said, primarily on...
WAITSBURG - With the first WP football game just five weeks away, School Board Chairman Ross Hamann said he is confident the new light system and press box will be installed by Aug. 31. "Anything we complete in advance of that is a bonus," he said. Colter Mohney, the fa- cilities, transportation and maintenance supervisor for the district, said last Friday the community will soon see progress. Pacific Power & Light was expected to be hanging the lights on the new poles Tues- day, July 24 at 9 a.m. How- ever, Mohney said Tuesday the power...
WAITSBURG - After five months of weighing different options for how to remove the dilapidated bunk house from city land, three parties interest- ed in the property may come up with a solution that puts money in the city coffers and actually could make everyone happy. The bunk house, formerly an apple-packing plant that collapsed in a storm in late 2011, was previously believed to contain asbestos or lead and removing it could have been costly for the city. In March, the council learned there was little or no toxicity from asbestos or lead and...
WAITSBURG - The Waits- burg School District board members and staff had hoped a large project that tore up the track and field to put in a new light system and press box would be completed before track season began this spring. But the project is not close to being done and the first foot- ball game of the season is just six weeks away. The school board approved the new lighting project in February, hoping to get it done before the beginning of track season so the track team wouldn't have to...
PRESCOTT - Changes to the Walla Walla County Library District could mean facility ex- pansions and improvements at the Prescott and Vista Hermosa public libraries. Aletha Bonebrake, the in- terim executive director for the rural library district, said for years the rural district has had a con- tract for services with the public library in the city of Walla Walla. Because recently the city library and the rural district couldn't agree on a payment amount for the city library's services, the contract will expire in December and the partnership...
DAYTON -- The sec- ond annual Mule Mania will mosey its way back into Dayton this weekend for four days of mule-fueled events. The event will take place at the Columbia County Fairgrounds and features free admission and the luxury Cadillacs of riding animals, Chairman of the Mule Mania Committee Les Teel said. "Mules are very comfort- able to ride and they'll never get you in trouble," Teel said. "They're just wonderful ani- mals to be around." Dayton Chamber of Commerce Director Brad McMasters...
For a story on the organizers behind the event, see page 2....
Rick Hamilton, a former WP coach, was appointed by the school board to the athletic director position for the Dayton School District on Wednesday, July 11. Dayton’s former athletic director, Jack Smiley, passed away in early May. Hamilton was the head WP soccer coach in 2010-11 and after the season he transferred to Arizona for a job opportunity. Dayton Superintendent Doug Johnson said Hamilton is notable because he worked closely with Smiley to help form the Waitsburg and Prescott athletic combine. Hamilton begins his new position in A...
STARBUCK - The Starbuck School District may have lost a beloved staff member, Karl Edie, as he moves on to new opportunities, but in his place students and staff members have gained an experienced professional who is ready to take charge in the district. Starbuck School Board members officially appointed Laura Christian as the new principal at the Thursday, June 28 board meeting. School board Chairwoman Carol Wildman said the decision to approve Christian was bittersweet because, despite their...
WAITSBURG - Burn bans have been set for the Touchet Valley, Firefighters are spending extra time training and preparing tenders and trucks with the hope that this summer will be a quiet fire season. The Fire District 2 burn ban for Waitsburg and the surrounding area began on July 1. The Fire District 3 burn ban for Columbia County began July 9. The bans will last through mid- September. Fire District 3 Chief Rick Turner said the Touchet Valley is a very dry and flammable area with lots of gr...
DAYTON -- Blue Mountain Station now has two committed tenants and one potential tenant hoping to move into Dayton's first organic and natural food processing facility, according to Port of Columbia officials. The station, a project of the Port of Columbia, has the potential to be a revolutionary new model for the entire artisan food industry, according to Gary White, the marketing consultant for the station. It is a proposed organic and natural food processing facility and foodie attr...
WAITSBURG - Wheat har- vest in the Touchet Valley area is expected to be a couple of weeks later than usual again this year, but the wheat looks long and robust and should provide some great returns for local farmers, they say. Last year, the wheat harvest took place at the end of July because of wet, spring weather. The typical start date for harvest is about the middle of July. JE McCaw, the Waitsburg branch manager of the Northwest Grain Growers, said this year our rainy June has pushed the s...
DAYTON -- Harvest Christian Center Pastor Tony Sykes said the 25 cents he spent on a book- mark Hosanna Joy Lorang made last Wednesday, June 20, during their youth session was the best pur- chase he ever made. Sykes led seven-year- old Lorang's memorial service Saturday, June 30, in front of an audience of tearful onlookers at the Harvest Christian Center. On Wednesday, June 27, Lorang fell about 20 feet while climbing a tree at her home in Dayton. Her father, stay-at-home dad Jake Lorang,...
DAYTON -- Mike Talbott said if he is elected as Columbia County Commissioner, he intends to bring his experience running a small farm and his love for the city of Dayton to work with him every day. Talbott was born and raised in Dayton. He and his wife have three grown children, the youngest of which recently graduated from Washington State University. After attending Dayton High School and Walla Walla Community College, Talbott intended to continue on to Eastern Washington University, but at...
WAITSBURG - About 50 years ago, five local Waitsburg teens brought long hair and rambunc- tious rock 'n' roll to the Touchet Valley with their band LSD & The Adicts. The band played in Waitsburg, Prescott, Walla Walla, Dayton, Milton-Freewater, Ore., Pend- leton, Ore., and a few members even made some trips to Seattle and San Francisco hoping to score a record deal. Today, four of those original five, Dr. Randy Pearson, Mi- chael Hubbard, Robert Maib and Clint Donley have remained in the...
PRESCOTT - Amid con- cerns that the city of Waitsburg may be further reducing its public safety coverage from the Walla Walla Sheriff's Office under a new contract, some resi- dents say they are ready to start a neighborhood crime watch to cover the gaps. At the Sheriff's Roundtable last Thursday at the Prescott School Library, residents told Undersheriff Edward Freyer they are worried about the crime rate in Waitsburg and what will hap- pen if the patrol coverage drops. "Where is Waitsburg...
DAYTON -- The Touchet Valley community is in mourning after a Dayton family lost its oldest daughter following an accident at home Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, seven-year-old Hosanna Lorang fell about 20 feet from a tree and was rushed to a local hospital. She was next was airlifted by helicopter to a Spokane hospital, according to a source with Columbia County Fire District 3. Lorang later died in Spokane. Lorang's parents are Tara and Jake Lorang. Lorang had two younger siblings, Mandy and Benjamin, according to a video posted on...
VISTA HERMOSA - Forty Prescott students who live in Vista Hermosa take part in an opportunity of six weeks of extra schooling over the summer to help them remember and even improve their skills before the next school year begins. Scott Branson has been with the Prescott School District for three years. His teaching position is fund- ed by the federal GEAR UP grant that partners with Washington State University Tri Cities. "The goal is to get (students) into universities," Branson said. The local school districts that also have GEAR UP pro-...
DAYTON - Columbia County Commissioner candidate Tom Bensel can al- ready tout 18 years of ex- perience working with the county, making him a candi- date with special insight into the position. Bensel, a Dayton resident, has had work experience in many fields, from nuclear energy to street maintenance that he can draw on to help the county in a variety of ways if the public chooses him. If elected to the county post, Bensel said he has no major agenda of change. Although he does have an idea of...
WAITSBURG - The current Waitsburg city contract for services with the Walla Walla Sheriff's Office is too expensive for the city to maintain and city staff and the city council are consider- ing a reduction in services to also reduce the annual price tag. The sheriff's office cur- rently patrols and serves the city of Waitsburg for 47.5 hours per week. This level of service costs the city $125,000 per year. "The city can't sustain it at the rate it's going," said City Administrator Randy...
DAYTON - The number of reported burglaries continues to climb in Columbia County, but the sheriff's office is making some arrests and ramping up patrols, hoping the total of 39 reported residential and commercial burglaries since January doesn't climb higher. With the recent string of burglaries reported in the county, the sheriff's office has arrested six individuals on suspicion of burglary. The three most recent arrests were of 15- and 16-yearold juveniles taken into custody on suspicion of...
WAITSBURG - After 30 years selling liquor on Main Street in Waitsburg, Bonnie Olson closed the doors of her liquor and spirits store on May 21. Olson had obtained a license from the state before the big transition that allowed her to carry and sell liquor, and but she recently decided that running her own store wasn't a priority. "I just decided I really didn't need to do that," Olson said. Initiative 1183 was passed by voters in the last General Election. The initiative took liquor sales in Washington out of the hands of the Liquor Control...
