Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 377 - 401 of 997
"At 1:54 p.m. dispatch received the emergency call. At 1:56 p.m. the city fire whistle was sounded. At 1:59 p.m., the City ambu- lance arrived on the scene," read EMS technician Sharon Brooks. Glancing up from the report, she added, "That's when I realized the house fire we were respond- ing to was my own home." By 2:22 p.m. the fire was out and "mop-up" had officially begun. For the Brooks fam- ily, "life as usual" will be some time coming. March 22 started out as a typical Friday afternoon...
WAITSBURG - Touchet Valley football fans who can't get enough of their favorite sport don't have to wait until fall to see action on Cardinal Field. For the first time in nearly a decade, a minor league team will bring the pigskin game back to Waitsburg with some former high school stars on the new team to boot. The Waitsburg Elite will make its first appearance at the high school field this Saturday with a team scrimmage starting at 3 p.m. The first game of the eight-game season will follow on...
WAITSBURG - Long- time Waitsburg resi- dent, activist and tireless his- torian Jeff Broom received the prestigious Commercial Club Community Service award on Tuesday, a recog- nition some said was long overdue. "Jeff has done more than his share to see that Waits- burg is on the map and de- serves our thanks for all his volunteer work to support our wonderful community," club members Larry and Deanne Johnson wrote in their nomination letter. Broom, who received a standing ovation from...
PRESCOTT - A group of teachers in the Prescott School District has created a scholarship fund in honor of former athletic director Jack Smiley, with the first recipient expected to be a 2013 graduate. The initiators of the Jack Smiley Memorial Scholar- ship, the Prescott Education Association teachers' union, hope the popular sports fig- ure's reputation and his as- pirations for young studentathletes will inspire Prescott alumni and residents of the Touchet Valley to help sup- port it with...
DAYTON - In late Febru- ary, a local resident arrived at Dayton General Hospital's emergency room in a state of psychiatric crisis. After being examined by medical personnel, he was transferred out of the ER into a hospital bed, and placed under the supervision of a crisis spe- cialist from Blue Mountain Counseling. It was the first case han- dled under a new agreement between Columbia County Health System, which oper- ates the hospital, and Blue Mountain Counseling, who is contracted by the...
The Truth and Trust ticket returns to the elections this year with one opponent for a council seat, Deb Callahan. Callahan and her husband, Lester Callahan, moved to Waitsburg 32 years ago to live on Lester's fam- ily's land. Deb Callahan oc- cupies her time with garden- ing, sewing, canning and lots of cooking, she said. "I feel that if you're going to be on council or represent your community, you can't just represent yourself, your family and your immediate friends," Callahan said. "You have to represent everyone who touches your life in...
WAITSBURG -- The annual Shamrock Bingo fundraiser returns this year. The classic game will be hosted on Saturday, March 9. The doors will open at 4:30 p.m. and games will begin at 5 p.m. The event will run until 8 p.m. in the Waitsburg Elemen- tary School multi-purpose room. There will be 20 games during the evening at $1 per game for Bingo cards and prizes for the winners. There will also be a chili feed for $3 per person. The event is hosted to rais money for the annual Relay for Life event held locally in two locations. The event will take...
The Dayton Chamber of Commerce’s biggest fund- raiser of the year is coming March 15. This year’s organizers say the auc- tion items are better than ever. The premier package is a week stay in a beautiful five-bed- room farmhouse in Provence, France. Oth- er items up for auction include WSU Cou- gar football packages, romantic getaways, golf packages, Seattle Mariners baseball packages, jet boat trips, original artwork and wine packages. A special silent auction table will feature many ite...
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...
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...
