Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 973 - 997 of 997
PRESCOTT - When Prescott School District Superintendent Dr. Carolyn Marsh announced in June that she wanted to retire in the hopes of being rehired, she knew she was taking a risk. After all, there is no guarantee she'll get her old job back by the time school starts again. Her goal was to resume receiving her pension benefits, which she forfeited after taking the superintendent's job in Prescott three years ago, then be rehired as superintendent and receive the position's salary as well. Such "retire-rehire" scenarios are not unco...
DAYTON - Construction of Puget Sound Energy's Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project in Garfield County started about four months after the company obtained approval for its conditional use permit this year. Don't expect the same for the Columbia County portion of the wind turbine project, a company official said earlier this week. The weak economy in the utility company's Washington state market appears to have taken the wind out of the project's blades. "PSE has no firm plans for the start of construction at this time" said Anne Walsh,...
DAYTON - More than two dozen Dayton residents looked on in interest as friends, relatives and neighbors argued for and against a proposed city law that would allow off-road vehicle users to access mountain roads via city streets. The ORV ordinance was slated for its first reading during Monday night's city council meeting, which took place across the street from city hall at St. Joseph's Catholic Church to accommodate the crowd. But after more than half an hour of testimony and complaints from constituents, Dayton city officials agreed to postp...
WALLA WALLA - Last year, 2.2 million tons of products were shipped through the Little Goose navigation lock near Starbuck - and much of these commodities moving downriver came from farms like those in the Touchet Valley. Wheat, barley, petroleum products (like fuel), fertilizer, hay cubes, peas, lentils, milk carton stock, containers full of merchandise, even wind turbines - 10 million tons of cargo - all travel the Columbia Snake River system each year. Now these companies are making plans t...
DAYTON - Columbia REA has donated $50,000 to the Dayton Development Task Force as part of a local tax incen- tive program that was recently approved by the state. The money will be used in the Task Force's efforts to im- prove the economic health of downtown Dayton. In return, Columbia REA will receive a 75% credit on their Public Utilities Taxes paid to the state in 2014. Columbia REA CEO Les Teal said he felt that the tax in- centive program was an excellent way for the co-op to make a difference in Dayton. "We're part of this community, and...
DAYTON - Cody Snider, 17, of Dayton, was found dead Saturday morning by a Columbia County employee near the Rock Hill Transfer Station here. The discovery was made shortly before 10 a.m., when the employee ar- rived to open the station. According to a press release from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Snider had apparently fallen approximately 150 feet from the top of the cliff above the transfer station. It was unknown when he fell, since the transfer station had been closed since...
WAITSBURG - One of Waitsburg's elementary school teachers got an extra- special early Christmas gift this year. In a press release issued by President Barak Obama on December 20, Kindergarten teacher Pa- mela Nolan-Beasley was named as one of two teach- ers in Washington State to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Beasley won the award for science while Nancy Pfaff of Redmond, Wash. won the math award. Win- ners of the honor receive a $10,000...
DAYTON - Having de- voted 30 years working at the Dayton Memorial Library, Sue Hagfeldt quietly retired as branch manager in March, passing the torch to new manager, Amy Rosen- berg. "Sue insisted on not being honored with a retirement party, but she was so beloved by the community that we still have patrons come to the library and asking where she is," said Columbia County Rural Library Board Chair, Tanya Patton. "Sue has a wonderful way with people, especially children. She will be greatly...
WAITSBURG - Tickets are on sale for a hometown dance concert by a hometown band. The members of the popular Frog Hollow Band have agreed to perform Saturday evening, May 18, during the Waitsburg Celebration mark- ing the 100th anniversary of the Days of Real Sport racing weekend. The concert is a collaboration of the Waitsburg PEO chapter, the Waitsburg Lions Club and the band, whose members live in Waitsburg, Prescott and Walla Walla. It's a fundraiser for PEO, which promotes education for women. "When we learned noth- ing was scheduled for...
DAYTON - Rocky Miller, a Washington State Trooper who has lived in Dayton for 26 years, was appointed Columbia County Sheriff last week. He replaces Walt Hessler, who has resigned, effective June 30. The Columbia County Board of Commissioners made the appointment by unanimous vote, after interviewing Miller and Columbia County Sher- iff's Deputy Jeffery Jen- kins during a special eve- ning meeting on April 11. Miller and Jenkins were the only applicants for the position. Hessler submitted his...
DAYTON -- Feral cats prowled their way into the Dayton City Council meeting May 29 during the public hearing regarding the growing feline nuisance and the impact they have on residents. Mayor Craig George opened the public hearing segment of the meeting by reminding attendees that the decision required the input of the community and it could not be a decision made by the council alone. "We want the city involved in the decision," George said. Dr. Kennie Reeves of the Dayton Veterinarian Clinic took the floor to give hearing attendees some...
DAYTON -- The 131st class to graduate from Dayton High School recessed from the gym and into the rest of their lives on Saturday with thousands of dollars in scholarship money in hand and an upbeat Kenny Chesney country song filling the room. Valedictorian Carter Currin said any bad moments in high school were ultimately tiny blips on the radar and many happier moments await the group. "We, the class of 2012, are ready to make that future bright," salutatorian Keisha Phillips said. The future do...
WALLA WALLA - Frank Brown wants to be clear about why he wants to be a Walla Walla County Commissioner - and that's to serve people. "I want to work for the people," he said. Brown, who is 58 and lives on Blue Creek Road, is a 1973 graduate of Walla Walla High School and has lived here most of his life. He did leave the area for college in St. Louis and Seattle to study forensics and engineering, but since 1989 he has lived on his current 20 acres in the Mill Creek area. Brown is the third...
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...
WAITSBURG - You know it's that time of year again when you hear the continual pop-pop hellip; pop-pop of Harleys in low gear passing through town on their way to the Fairgrounds. Memorial Day weekend. Time for the annual Pig Roast when motorcycle riders (and not just on Harleys) come from far and wide to join in this annual three-day event that began 25 years ago in a Waitsburg backyard. Because it is governed by the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, it is a clean and sober event, one that has long since outgrown the backyard of its original...
Joel Dean Smith loved Waitsburg. It's where he spent many boyhood summers, visiting his grandparents - fishing, hunting, trapping and searching out morel mushrooms. And when he returned stateside from Vietnam in 1970, a double amputee at 22 years old, it was Waitsburg that welcomed him home. It was the local newspaper and the community who followed his progress as he was transferred from a field hospital in Saigon to one in Japan, and eventually to the U.S. For all those reasons, his wife,...
DAYTON - A state inspection of Booker Rest Home this spring turned up plenty of issues and potential problems that must be addressed, but none of them posed actual harm or were "life threatening" to residents. "There are some issues the facility needs to work on, that's quite obvious," said Shirlee Steiner, a regional administrator for Residential Care Services under the state Department of Social and Health Services, the agency that conducted the inspection. The survey of Booker Rest Home took place over a six-day period in mid-April and a...
DAYTON - The director of nursing services for the Columbia County Public Hospital District has resigned following months of controversy over staff management and low morale at Dayton General and the Booker Rest Home. The resignation this weekend of Virginia Romine, whose last day will be June 10, came just days after a meeting of the district's board of directors on Thursday in which former and current medical employees and members of the public pleaded for changes in nursing personnel treatment and management practices. In an interview on...
When longtime Waitsburg resident Bert Aylward and his wife Linda were getting ready for his family reunion at Fort Walla Walla last summer, they rummaged through a trunk full of old photographs. The couple had stored the keepsakes after his parents passed away but had not gone through all the old pictures yet. Every one of the 88 Witt descendants coming from across the country to Walla Walla was supposed to present or recite an item of family history. As Aylward went through the photos, it...
