Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 713 - 737 of 997
DAYTON - It was a bright day in early August. The National Guard helicopter hovered several hundred feet above the canyons in the Eckler Mountain area of the Umatilla National Forest when the spotter in the cockpit first noticed the pattern on the steep hill: a terraced slope with carefully spaced plants of a slightly darker color than the surrounding vegetation. It was just the beginning. Upon closer inspection, the spotter noticed more "grows" spread out along hundreds of yards on two...
WALLA WALLA - Dayton resident Melvin Bohleen, 73, is scheduled to appear in Walla Walla Superior Court Sept. 12 for charges relating to a vehicle-and-bicycle collision that killed a Seattle woman on May 21 on Middle Waitsburg Road. Bohleen was charged Friday with vehicular homicide, a class A felony, that could carry a sentence of life in prison, a fine of $50,000 or both if he is found guilty. Prosecuting Attorney James Nagle filed a report of an investigation by the sheriff's office and argues that Bohleen operated a motor vehicle that...
WAITSBURG - It was never Wyatt Withers' sole inspiration for going in the Navy, but once he had decided to join it certainly helped having a grandfather who had served in the same branch many decades ago. Choosing to be "seasick over digging a fox hole," longtime local farmer Jack McCaw went to amphibian training school in preparation of the Allied invasion of Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He became part of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's occupation force in Japan...
DAYTON - A fire believed to have been sparked by a lawn mower threatened two homes and burned 250 acres near the county line off Whetstone Road north of the Touchet River valley Sunday. It destroyed a garden shed, scorched the side of a pickup truck and burned 50 acres of standing grain. It was the first serious fire of the summer in the territory covered by Walla Walla County Fire District 2 based in Waitsburg, even though the blaze started on the Columbia side of the county line. Dozens of...
The Times DAYTON - Law enforcement agents this week removed more than 28,000 marijuana plants from the Eckler Mountain and Hartsock areas of Columbia County and arrested two more Mexican nationals in what one local official calls the largest pot bust in the state this year. Columbia County Sheriff's deputies, U.S. Forest Service agents and Washington State Troopers seized 25,765 marijuana plants with a street value of about $25.7 million on Thursday after making two arrests and destroying 2,300...
Former Nurse Leads Primary Results DAYTON - This fall's general election runoff for Board of Commissioners Position 2 of the Columbia County Health District will be between Colleen Sproul and Blaine Bickelhaupt. With all ballots counted in the Waitsburg portion of Walla Walla County and Columbia County Tuesday night, Sproul led Bickelhaupt 41.25 percent to 37.9 with Garry Snyder, the third candidate trailing at 20.86 percent. Sproul, a former nurse, performed particularly well in Columbia...
WAITSBURG - Rick Smith claims he started his non-stop yard sale a few months ago, after he found work as a logger in upper Michigan and decided to get rid of some surplus household goods before moving there. What better way to sell them than in the yard in front of his trailer situated at the very visible corner of Warren and Second (Highway 124). The stuffed animals were in the front row this weekend, seated together on a bench not far from a variety of shop tools flanked by furniture, books,...
WAITSBURG - Hundreds of Touchet Valley residents and visitors descended on Waitsburg for its annual Classic Auto Show and its opening of three new food & drink establishments this weekend. All new businesses reported big crowds at their establishments, stretching their venues and staffs to capacity, but all startups received rave reviews for their high standards in quality offerings and service. The three days of startup celebrations marked a new wave of business activity downtown, leading some...
DAYTON - Kevin Carson must have been about 12 when his parents introduced him to books about Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. He devoured the l ike s of "Hear Me My Chiefs" by Lucullus Mc- Whorter and "I Will Fight No More Forever" by Merril Beal. Growing up in a household that admired the Native leader and sympathized with his plight as the last holdout of his tribe, the irony of his own ancestry wasn't lost on the teenager. As the great great great grandson of Dayton Volunteer Lieutenant Levi...
DAYTON - Imagine downloading a music album in five seconds or a one-hour TV show in half a minute at home or the library. Or picture going to Dayton General Hospital and having your doctor share your X-rays with another medical expert in Walla Walla or Spokane so you don't have to drive all the way there. Such conveniences aren't too far into the future because plans are in the works to make Waitsburg and Dayton stops on a new fiber optic super highway that will bring high-speed broadband to rural communities throughout the state. Some compare...
WALLA WALLA - Former Waitsburg resident Adam Hermanns, who pleaded guilty earlier this week to armed robbery and residential burglary, was sentenced to 13 ½ years in prison, the maximum term possible under state sentencing guidelines. A fierce protector of the idea that one's home is one's castle, Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge Donald W. Schacht said he took seriously victim impact statements, particularly from 81-year-old Dorothy Schneider, whose residence was invaded by Hermanns and...
DAYTON - Harvest is barely underway and it's still a month before the new school year starts, but in the Touchet Valley it's never too early to start talking about upcoming high school sports. The 2011-2012 season will see some big changes for students, parents and coaches who meet in Dayton this Thursday and in Waitsburg on Aug. 15 to prepare for fall sports. The biggest shift at the top comes from the resignation of Jack Smiley as Athletic Director for Prescott High School after two decades...
WAITSBURG - Jillian Beaudry, an editor and reporter for the Daily World in Aberdeen, Wash., will become the new managing editor for the Times based in Waitsburg, the newspa - per's publisher announced on Monday . S h e will re- place Dian McClurg, the previous managing editor who left the newspaper in May. Beaudry will assume her position as day-to-day news manager for the Times on Thursday, Aug. 18, just in time for the busy school year and sports season. "We are lucky to be able to welcome...
STARBUCK - The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing money and looking for ways to save. It recently announced that it may close about 3,700 of its 32,000 offices around the country, including the one in Starbuck - which has offered service since 1883. Starbuck, population 130, is one of 39 retail outlets in Washington state are on the list for possible closure, along with Wallula in this area. Under the proposed plan, which will take several months to implement and be subject to a community...
WAITSBURG - Foodies and car buffs from throughout southeast Washington will have at least four good reasons to be in Waitsburg on the first weekend of August. The first is the annual Classic Auto Show & Swap Meet, which starts with its traditional gathering and cruise at Preston Park on Friday, Aug. 5, followed by the show and meet on Saturday. The second is the triple grand opening the same weekend of three new food establishments, representing a second wave of gourmet eateries as part of the...
DAYTON - Columbia County residents are invited to the Dayton City Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 5-8 p.m. to join forces with thousands of communities across the country for National Night Out. National Night Out is an annual anti-crime and anti-drug event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), and co-sponsored locally by the Columbia County Friends of 9-1-1 and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Last year's National Night Out campaign involved citizens, law enforcement...
WAITSBURG - The Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office is considering bringing a program to Waitsburg that would dispose of residents' prescription and illegal drugs to keep them out of sewer systems and landfills, but an inability to fund and staff the program could prevent its fruition. The possibility of a oncea year pickup of prescription and illegal drugs was discussed at the Waitsburg City Council's meeting last Wednesday. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), run by the sheriff's office, runs these projects around the country. The drug pickup...
DAYTON - Federal, state and local law enforcement officials on Monday seized 2,000 marijuana plants with a street value of $3 million from a grow in the upper Tucannon River drainage in the Umatilla National Forest after they arrested a suspect at a nearby location last week. Santiago Orozco-Contreras, 41, a Mexican national with a last known address in the Tri-Cities, was booked into Columbia County jail on Thursday on suspicion of possession of a firearm and of manufacturing marijuana. The arrest was made in the same general area of the...
DAYTON - Jitters may be closed, but the Underwoods remain on Main. Scott and Yara Underwood, who started Jitters more than a year ago, closed the coffee shop at the end of May citing an overload of work for their young family. But the household still needed a place to relocate their PC Solutions operations, which had been in the back of the building, so they got the store front that's popularly known as the "Snowflake" building. "This is the first space we've set up exactly how we wanted," said...
DAYTON - The Times based in Waitsburg has been qualified to bid on the contracts to publish legal notices for Columbia County and the City of Dayton. The newspaper based in Waitsburg and circulated throughout the Touchet Valley can now also publish legal notices for private law firms that run probate notices, foreclosure sales or other legal notices. Attorneys with these matters for publication are encouraged to call the Times for rate information and other details: 509-337-6631, publisher Imbert Matthee said. Columbia County Superior Court Jud...
WAITSBURG - The Travel Section of the Seattle Times has selected the roads in the Waitsburg-Dayton area as one of the best five routes in the state for riding or driving. In a piece called "Five Roads To Nowhere: The Best Of Washington's Boonies," guide book author Mike McQuaide selected " the roly-poly Dr. Seuss-esque hills surrounding charming Waitsburg and Dayton in the southeast corner of the state" as one of his favorite paddling and wheeling loops. The others include Bad- ger Mountain-Waterville northeast of Wenatchee; Tanasket-Oroville n...
DAYTON - Former Columbia County Sheriff 's Deputy Mark Franklin violated three aspects of his employer's policies and procedures, a misstep that would have triggered his suspension if he were still working in that capacity, Sheriff Walt Hessler said Tuesday. Franklin resigned in early June pending an investigation by the Asotin County Sheriff's Office into allegations that he conducted himself less than professionally during an incident at and near the Midway convenience store and fueling station in Waitsburg in February. Investigators, who...
WALLA WALLA - Former Waitsburg resident Adam Hermanns was sentenced late last week to five months in Walla Walla County Jail as part of the first of several cases against him in Superior Court. Two more trials that could lead to much longer sentences await Hermanns, the first of which begins on Wednesday, July 13. The second has been set for July 18. Hermanns, who pleaded guilty to the charge of theft in the second degree last month for taking automotive parts from the Waitsburg property of Todd and Beth Ann Wood on Jan. 21 this year, was...
