Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 579 - 603 of 997
WALLA WALLA - A Walla Walla mother of two and educator has always known she was going to run for public office and has set her sights on current County Commissioner Perry Dozier's seat. Chris Blackman, 42, is ready to bring new ideas and perspectives to the table. She filed with the county to run against Dozier for the District 2 seat in the August primary. Dozier is also running to maintain his seat. "She's very driven," said Blackman's campaign committee chairwoman, Tracy Custoldi. "She hasn't...
PRESCOTT - Two Prescott High School students spent their class time in Home Economics to sew dresses for needy children in Africa. Their teacher Susan De- Ruwe is part of the educational sorority Alpha Gamma, which provided $50 for materials and fabric if students spent their time on creating the dresses. DeRuwe said the dresses are very simple, made of fabric she purchased at St. Vincent De Paul or even pillow cases. Her two students Adriana Benito, 18, and Eva Esquivel, 16, made 10 dresses...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council has a new council member, KC Kuykendall, after Monday's annual election. Results from the election were posted at Waitsburg City Hall and show that of the 320 ballots turned in, the council members didn't change much but for the spot vacated by former councilman Orville Branson. In the results, the most votes went to Kevin House, with 262, followed by Karl Newell, 245, Kuykendall, 243, Marty Dunn, 226 and Scott Nettles, 216. "I'm just really pleased to have...
DAYTON - The Columbia County Health System board meeting last Thursday was a call to staff and board members to communicate positivity about the hospital district and to leave the past in the past as it hunts for a new CEO. Current CEO Charlie Button announced his resignation earlier this month to take on a high-level position at a larger hospital. The board members of the district spent four hours March 22 in a retreat to talk about the search for a new CEO. At the general board meeting later...
DAYTON - - Dave Finney is the new courthouse maintenance supervisor for Columbia County. But he was the previous one too. Actually, Dave Phinney maintained the courthouse for more than 30 years and retired about two years ago. The position had been filled in the interim by a couple of different people. But, at the beginning of 2012, the county opened the position fulltime and a new Dave Finney applied and was selected. Finney began his new job at the courthouse earlier this month and he is...
WAITSBURG - Those who use more water this summer may be paying more out of pocket. The Wai t sburg Ci t y Council last Wednesday night heard a proposal that would tack on an extra 20 cents to the current overage rate for those who use more than the base amount of water provided to residents. And this proposal may actually be approved. The council had already considered two proposals to increase water and sewer rates. But the council members could not support either and both died for lack of...
WAITSBURG - Perry Dozier didn't want to be a farmer, nor a county commissioner. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics, Dozier, a Touchet Valley resident all of his life, wanted to be a pilot. In 1986, he worked for a bit of time as a commercial airplane pilot. But, there was an influx of pilots at that time and some new rules in the industry. After pursuing that dream for about three years, Dozier gave up on that career and continued his family's tradition of farming. Dozier's c...
STARBUCK - Recent burglaries in Starbuck and Dayton are creating a feeling of insecurity in Columbia County. According to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, it has taken 13 reports of residential burglary and 13 reports of commercial burglary in 2012 as of March 15. Two of these commercial burglaries occurred in Starbuck. This number is high so early in the year compared to the annual numbers of burglaries reported in 2011 and 2010. In 2011, the sheriff's office received a total of 34 reports of residential burglary and 13 reports of...
PRESCOTT -- Deb Tiedemann was so young at the time, she doesn't even remember exactly when she first started singing songs. The household she grew up in Livingston, Mont., in the late 1960s was always filled with her parents' favorite tunes. Her dad, who was a trucker, would play Jim Reeves, Tammy Wynette, Hank Snow, Hank Williams and Dolly Parton at the house. Tiedemann herself was partial to Mel Tillis. "There was just something about his voice," she said. "I just loved to hear him sing."...
WAITSBURG - With the April 2 election right around the corner, Waitsburg residents Bart Baxter and Tiffany Laposi are throwing their hats in the ring for city council. Baxter, who has lived in town for 7 years and owns Betty's Diner, has already completed one year on city council and made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2011. Laposi, who has lived in Waitsburg for 31 years and is a real property appraiser for Walla Walla County. She is a candidate in Waitsburg for the first time. Laposi has served on boards related to her profession and has...
DAYTON - Community members reacted with mixed emotions to the announcement that Columbia County Health System CEO Charlie Button has resigned from his position for greener pastures in May. The district released a statement Monday saying Button, whose contract was up for renewal in early April, is moving on to take a top job at a larger and undisclosed critical access hospital in another state. Button, whose tenure as CEO has been controversial, has held the position for the past four years...
WAITSBURG - City of Waitsburg staff members have spotted some playground equipment on sale and they're hoping the city council approves the purchase to make Preston Park more fun for kids this summer. "Most of the equipment (at the park) is fairly old," said City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe. "We always put it on our list for things we would like to do." Hinchliffe and Clerk Kelly Steinhoff saw a piece of playground equipment with tunnel tubes to crawl through a slide and a gazebo on sale and...
DAYTON - There's a new ranger at Lewis and Clark Trail State Park and she's got a big job ahead of her. Melinda Owens, 38, began her new position at the state park on March 5 and she's chain sawing trees, burning and clearing trails to get ready for the park to open April 1. Owens had been stationed on the Columbia Plateau Trail State Park and the Palouse Falls for the past 7.5 years. Unfortunately because of drastic cuts to the state parks budget, her position was eliminated. She was able to...
WAITSBURG -- Waitsburg voters, who elect their mayor and council members every year under the town's territorial charter, are expected to have some options on and off the ballot this April. Mayor Walt Gobel and four of the current five council members are running again after a caucus meeting at Larry and Deanne Johnson's house last week for the Truth & Trust slate that was first elected to office two years ago. Ballots for the election will go our Friday or Monday for the April 2 election. As...
WAITSBURG - Local Republicans are thrilled by the impressive turnouts at the two Republican Caucuses in Walla Walla and Dayton last weekend. At the Wal la Wal - la County Fairgrounds last Saturday, Waitsburg resident Tom Baker said about 700 to 1,000 people crammed into the commutiy building to give their preference for the Republican Party candidate. In Dayton at the Delany Building, about 75 people turned out, said Marilyn England, the treasurer of the Columbia County Republican Central Committee. The results, as reported on Monday, put...
WAITSBURG -- To bud as a musician, it helps to have good mentors. Ann Lehman and Daniel FitzSimmons had them. For Lehman, it was Rye Grass String Band guitarist Jon St. Hilaire. For FitzSimmons, it was Nashville musician Skylar Wilson and Old Crow Medicine Show member Cory Younts. But mentors merely plant the seed. The rest comes from within, fed by life stories and audiences that appreciate what they hear, as they do when Lehman and FitzSimmons take the stage as the duo DNA (short for Daniel &...
SPOKANE -- The Dayton Bulldogs themselves may not have registered how far they got into the Hardwood Classic Final 8 last weekend, but for their coach and hometown fans it certainly did register. After their 57-41 Saturday morning loss against the Wahkiakum Mules, the players were subdued and disappointed they didn't place higher. But their coaches and members of their community showed up in big numbers applauded them for being the best high school basketball team in a generation. They placed si...
WAITSBURG - An eyeopening forum on underage drinking and drug abuse in the Waitsburg community is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., March 12, at Waitsburg Elementary School. Peggy Gutierrez, a prevention specialist at Blue Mountain Counseling, and Dr. Carol Clarke, the Waitsburg School District superintendent, will give a one-hour presentation highlighting statistics from a Healthy Youth Survey taken by Waitsburg High School students in 2010. The survey was 100 percent confidential and really shows our kids' perceptions of drugs and alcohol, Clarke...
DAYTON - The Columbia County Health System may be facing a 10 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursement funding from the state that would reduce the hospital's budget by $55,000 to $60,000 each year. Usually, the state gives about $38 million to critical access hospitals like Dayton's each year to fully reimburse these hospitals. Based on how much the state gives these hospitals for Medicaid, the federal government also matches some of that money. District CEO Charlie Button said a large proposed cut last November of 76 percent of Medicaid...
By Imbert Matthee the Times SPOKANE - The Dayton Bulldogs are guaranteed a state trophy after defeating the La Conner Braves in a riveting 39-37 come-from-behind victory. They now advance to the 4th/6th place game against Wahkiakum, which beat Lake Roosevelt 65-60 in an equally tight playoff Friday afternoon. After trailing 0-8 in the first quarter against the Braves, the Bulldogs appeared to wake up from their slumber and began firing on all four, evening the score 16-16 at the break and surpassing LaConner 29-20 in the third. The Dogs, who...
WAITSBURG - The creation of a digital super highway through the Touchet Valley made some big strides this winter and the conduit for its fiber optics cable may be completed as soon as early spring. Crews have been trenching and boring their way from Walla Walla to Waitsburg through Dixie since the beginning of the year. This week, they are mobilizing to start in Dayton and head in the opposite direction to connect the route to Waitsburg, then on to Clarkston. If all goes well, the 1,600- mile...
DAYTON - If it shoots like a duck and dribbles like a duckhellip;it's a Fighting Duck. The Dayton Bulldogs will face a team from Toutle Lake at the Hardwood Classic in their first Final 8 game in Spokane on Thursday. This phase of the playoffs is double elimination. Even if they lose, the Dogs will face at least one more team at the arena on Friday. The Dayton players are still pinching themselves after putting away Riverside Christian in a convincing, 59-41, victory at Wa Hi Friday night, but...
