Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 673 - 697 of 997
DAYTON - The Dayton School District is looking at asking taxpayers to pass a $1.3 million maintenance and operations levy in February that would help fund personnel, activities, athletics and other general maintenance costs for two years. Superintendent Doug Johnson said the levy would be on the Feb. 14, 2012 ballot. It is a replacement levy for a current M&O levy that will last collect in October 2012. The new taxes, if the levy is passed by voters, will be collected the following year. The district still has yet to make decisions on the...
WAITSBURG - The welcome many newcomers have received from Waitsburg residents over the years has inspired acts of gratitude in the past. Larry and Deanne Johnson's now-famous and well-attended summer gumbo party at their home on Fifth Street is a case in point. But this week was the first time newcomers ever lit up the entire downtown as a thank you for the way Waitsburgers brought them into their midst. Allison Bond and Bruce Donohue, who bought the former Lybacker home on Fourth Street almost...
DAYTON - Three groups in Dayton are working hard to uncover, document and educate the community on the history of the area. This is a look at each of those three groups and an explanation of their history, what they have already accomplished and their visions for the future. Dayton Historic Preservation Commission In 1992, the Dayton Historic Preservation Commission was created. "Our purpose is to educate and identify historic homes," said Kathy George, the chairwoman of the commission. The...
DAYTON - Because of a company merger, Dayton's Tumac store that sold tractor equipment and parts will close its doors permanently on Friday after about 40 years of service to the community, said President Tim Larkin. The store's closure not only means that Columbia County farmers will have to go to Walla Walla for oil and other small parts for their tractors, but that two jobs will be lost, Larkin said. "The Columbia County community has been very supportive," Larkin said. "It wasn't a decision that was made lightly." Larkin said the closure...
DAYTON - The Dayton City Council Tuesday night reviewed the proposed 2012 city budget that would raise garbage rates and sewer rates to maintain city services amid a tough economy. "It's a very conservative budget knowing things will go south farther than they will go north," Councilman Merle Jackson said. The budget does not include any large projects for the city in 2012, so the city can keep its head above water until the economy improves, Mayor Craig George said. "So when things move forward, we can move forward," Jackson said. For the...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council members are torn between putting thousands of dollars into the city's seldom-used BMX track or removing it. The track was put in by the Lion's Club in 2001 for the children to ride and jump their bikes in a safe place. Dan Katsel, the city's director of public works, said at the council meeting last Wednesday the track has visible large rocks and puncture vine and said the track receives "zero use." Councilman Orville Branson, said the track was expensive for the club to put in and it is an asset to the...
WAITSBURG- Th e Waitsburg High School 2011 Homecoming festivities began with classes decorating their designated spots of the hallways in their own fashion to show off their Cardinal pride. Although the seniors' lights and streamers were a festive addition to the cage, the juniors took top prize with their football field surrounded by red lights, and their hanging volleyball net with cutouts of the class. Monday's dress up was a color-coded theme to show what your status was for the dance....
DAYTON - A propane gas leak at Dayton High School Thursday evening forced the cancellation of a home volleyball game and closed down parts of Second and Third Streets. Rick Turner, the fire chief of Columbia County Fire District 3 in Dayton, said his crews were called to the high school about 5 p.m. The call was for a strong odor of propane in the high school gym, he said. When his crews arrived, high school personnel had evacuated the gym. The fire department found remnants of a gas cloud and the strong smell that was reported. The doors to...
DAYTON - Residential burglaries are on the rise in Dayton, especially in vacant homes, according to Sheriff Walt Hessler. He is urging neighbors call law enforcement as soon as they see any suspicious activity to catch the burglars. "We've never had this serious of a problem before," Hessler said. "This is the first time." The burglaries in Dayton have become more frequent over the past two or three months, he said. This year, there have been six non-residential burglaries, meaning businesses were broken into, and 21 reported residential...
STARBUCK - More than 40 residents of Starbuck packed the small, dimly lit Community Church last Thursday to voice their concerns and disapproval of the postal service's study of whether to close the Starbuck Post Office. "This is a study, it's not a done deal," said Carol Rebstock, a United States Postal Service operations manager from the Spokane area. Rebstock and Doreen Karoly, from the Seattle office of USPS, hosted the meeting to let the residents of Starbuck know their options if the postal service does decide to shut down their post...
DAYTON - Despite efforts by the Columbia County prosecutor to get all three pot-growing suspects half a decade in jail each, only one of the Mexican nationals arrested this summer faces such a term in federal prison. The other two are expected to serve only half a year in county jail before facing deportation by federal immigration authorities. Santiago Orozco Contreras was the first of three Mexican nationals taken into custody after a raid on federal land in mid-July and charged with manufacturing marijuana and being in possession of a...
WAITSBURG - The Henze hunting party got its first deer of the season Monday morning. The five men from Waitsburg and Aberdeen flushed out the 4-point white tail buck by spreading out around the brush on privately owned wheat lands north of town after walking the fields for more than a mile from the nearest road. It was a cool dewy morning, the sun barely up to illuminate the gently sloping landscape around them. It didn't take them long to spot the buck, to make sure it was large enough to...
WAITSBURG - Members of the board of the Days of Real Sport, Dayton Days and other groups affiliated with local Class C race tracks scribbled their signatures on a letter to members of the Washington Horse Racing Commission with the hope that the commission will give the tracks money in 2012 to bring back their horse racing events. The commission's fund balance, a cut of money earned from wagers at Auburn's Emerald Downs, only allowed for six days of Class C racing in 2011. The funding does not come from tax payers. The commission last winter...
DAYTON -- If the number of questions Dayton Chamber of Commerce Director Claudia Nysoe has been getting lately are any indication, there's quite a bit of excitement and anticipation in the valley about a new addition to Dayton's restaurant community. "I've had two or three people a week asking me when's that new place going to open," Nysoe said. "Everyone here in Dayton is really excited about having a new place to eat." The place in question is the Asian Grill and the answer to the much-asked...
DAYTON - The Dayton City Council Monday decided to table a proposed ordinance amendment that would have made homeowners responsible for repairs to sewer lines that connect their houses to the main. After holding a public hearing on the ordinance and receiving comments from two concerned Dayton residents, the council voted to explore a new idea that would add a small fee to residents' utility bill to create a reserve for such repairs in the future. "It's a possibility I hadn't considered," Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Merle Jackson said about...
WAITSBURG -- It has been 25 years since Markeeta Little Wolf has belted out songs with her powerful voice to an audience. Little Wolf performed on TV, in club acts and even on the theater stage in musicals from age 12 to 28, when she gave it all up to sell real estate and have a different kind of life. Little Wolf, now 53, realized about one year ago that she still has one more show in her, she said. And she's been working since on songs, lighting and costumes to give her friends in Waitsburg a...
WAITSBURG - To say Sunny Thompson was nervous when she first performed the role of Marilyn Monroe in "Marilyn: Forever Blonde" may be an understatement. After all, one of the first audiences to see her new show in Los Angeles was made up of die-hard fans of the late "American Goddess," including some of the producers, cast and stylists from the original "Some Like It Hot." These were people who knew Monroe personally or at least knew her style, body language and mannerisms intimately. At least a...
DAYTON - Work was underway this week on beginning the revitalization of Commercial Street in Dayton by coming up with a new master plan that will improve the way the area looks, flows and hopefully draws more tourists and businesses to the area . A group of four specialists was selected to help Dayton's Development Task Force come up with a comprehensive plan for Dayton's Commercial Street corridor from the Touchet River to the Seneca plant. Dougherty Landscape Architects from Eugene, Ore., was...
DAYTON - The new leader of the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association, Marshall Doak, was introduced to business owners and comm unity membe r s at the Economic Development Steering Committee meeting in Dayton on Friday. Doak will also lead the Palouse Regional Transportation Planning Organization. The board interviewed five final candidates for the top job and Board Member Jennie Dickinson said Doak was chosen unanimously because he had experience in a small business development...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council last Wednesday night voted 4-1 in favor of enacting a new ordinance that will give the city the ability to shut off city utilities to citizens who don't pay bills or violate the nuisance codes. This new way to handle violators should help the city enforce its rules better, said Randy Hinchliffe, the city's clerk-treasurer. In the past, the city would give citizens a ticket if they didn't follow the rules, but the Sheriff's Office and the city had trouble following through. "We didn't get anywhere with...
DAYTON - Federal authorities have asked a grand jury to indict the first of three suspected marijuana growers arrested earlier this summer in the Umatilla National Forest, according to the Columbia County Prosecutor's Office. If successful, the grand jury request would take the case against Mexican national Santiago Orozco Contreras out of the state court system and place it on a federal docket, possibly leading to a much longer sentence for the suspect arrested during a raid on federal land in...
DAYTON - In Waitsburg and many other cities in Washington State, homeowners are responsible for any trouble in the sewer line between their home and the sewer main. When the line gets blocked and needs to be dug up, residents are required to hire a contractor or pay the city to do the work. Not so in Dayton, at least not until the city passes a proposed new ordinance that takes away the current "gray" area in the law still holding the city for repairs in the city right of way. The Dayton City Council on Monday passed the first three readings...
WAITSBURG - It took a while for Pastor Mike Ferrians of the Waitsburg First Christian Church to figure out who had just made a very large bequest to the congregation. Few at the church had heard of Charlene Buroker. But after some asking around, it became clear who she was - the widow of the late Fred Buroker, who grew up in Waitsburg before World War II. The gift of $40,810 from Charlene Buroker of Colville was announced during regular church service on Sunday. She also made a large bequest to...
WAITSBURG - It may be another week or so before the Waitsburg-Prescott sports community will see him on the sidelines, but the two school districts have made their choice for their new joint athletics director. JP Thew, a former assistant coach for the Cardinals and the Tigers, who has just wrapped a second tour of Iraq with his National Guard unit from Oregon, will become the new sports programs coordinator for WP. Thew is expected to start his new job when he returns to southeast Washington by mid-September, school officials said. He arrived...
