Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1101 - 1125 of 5665
WAITSBURG—The Waitsburg City Council met July 15, via conference call. The council discussed two resolutions and held a public hearing regarding flood control funding. City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe started the discussion on Resolution 2020-704, which awarded the Taggart Road Extension project contract to Sharpe and Preszler Construction of Kennewick, WA. The contracting company presented the City with the most affordable bid to finish the ongoing project, coming in at $623,000. The c...
DAYTON-Guy Strot presided over his first school board meeting last week. Strot is the new superintendent for the Dayton School District, replacing Doug Johnson, who retired on June 30. Strot told the Board of Directors the Dayton schools would reopen on August 29. He said the goal is to have all the students back for all five days. He has met with and will continue to meet with, Public Health Director Martha Lanman, regarding COVID-19 requirements. "She is going to be a great partner for us. I...
Comet Neowise was discovered on March 27, 2020, by the infra-red Neowise telescope placed in orbit in 2009. It promises to be one of the more visible comets for viewing in a quite a while. A retrograde comet (it moves around the sun in the opposite direction of the Sun's rotation), Neowise orbits the sun once every 6,766 years - which means that no one will see it for a very long time. Don't miss it this time around if you want to see it! Comets are rather large frozen snowballs composed of...
WAITSBURG-If you need a good book this summer, look no further than the Weller Public Library. Librarian Rosie Warehime has gotten creative and with the help of her granddaughter/assistant, Jaidyn Brown has crafted a way to get books into readers' hands once again. Libraries across the nation have been closed since the coronavirus pandemic emerged earlier this year. Visitors are still unable to go in the building, so Weller Public Library is now offering curbside pickup for books, complete with...
DAYTON—The Port of Columbia Board of Commissioners is seeking interested candidates to submit applications to fill the District 1 position vacated by Dan Aschenbrenner. Dan and his wife have moved to a new residence in Columbia County that is not located in District 1. Commissioner Ashenbrenner was elected to the District 1 position last November. According to Port Executive Director Jennie Dickinson, Washington State RCW 42.12.070 states that the remaining commissioners of the Port District have 90 days to fill the vacant position with a q...
WAITSBURG—Waitsburg School District Superintendent Mark Pickel held a second public input meeting on July 8 regarding the reopening of schools this fall. The virtual meeting was attended by 16 parents, guardians, and district staff members who had concerns and questions about the upcoming school year. The first public meeting held on June 30, was attended by four parents and caregivers. Superintendent Pickel started the second meeting by stating that all of the recommendations and guidelines t...
DAYTON—Dayton residents can phone the Dayton City Hall with non-emergency animal control complaints, and leave a message for staff in the city shops, who will be handling those calls said Mayor Zac Weatherford at last week’s meeting of the Dayton City Council, He said staff have been trained in handling those types of calls, and complaints will be investigated the following business day, including calls that come in after hours, or on weekends. The number to call direct is 382-4571. Wea...
Waitsburg School District’s board of directors spent last Tuesday at a three-hour-long retreat and training at the school’s library. The training was facilitated by Dr. William Jordan from Northwest Leadership Associates. Dr. Jordan has more than 50 years of educational experience, including serving as Walla Walla Public Schools superintendent, Prescott School District superintendent, and various educator positions. He is now a consultant at Northwest Leadership Associates. The board mem...
PRESCOTT—Pool Manager Kyra Hartley is happy to announce: “We hope to be open by the 23rd of July, I am very excited!” Due to the Stay Safe proclamation there will be some new rules at the pool: 1) all patrons must wear a mask when they are not in the water, 2) all staff will wear a mask unless they are on a high guard chair with a 6-foot perimeter, and 3) there can be no more than 25 people in the water at a time and no more than 5 in a section of the pool. Open Swim: The pool will be split into...
WALLA WALLA—Becoming a new parent often brings a mix of emotions: among them, joy and stress, in the best of circumstances. Caring for a newborn when you lack basic resources can be particularly challenging and lead to health risks for both babies and parents. A new program called Care Crates aims to bridge this gap by sending new families home with bassinet boxes filled with the basic items needed to care for a newborn at home. The project is being funded through a new partnership between t...
WALLA WALLA—The Walla Walla City Council held the first of three Town Halls in response to a large community outcry over-policing policies and the issue of a police officer’s tattoo which incorporates a symbol which is firmly linked to Nazi Germany. City Mayor Tom Scribner welcomed citizens to the Zoom event, noting that “after the first two Town Halls we will consider what we have heard and what you have told us and we will respond and tell you what we aim to do and what we will try to do to...
WAITSBURG-Summer BBQ menus are going to be a little less sweet in Waitsburg this summer. After 30 years of growing a secret variety of sweet corn, Ed and Cathy Lambert are retiring to focus on family, Ed's lumber milling, and their own family garden. "We started growing corn when we moved here in 1988," Cathy said. "Our kids would load up a wagon with fresh vegetables and walk around the neighborhood, selling the veggies to neighbors. Everyone loved it!" Cathy said it didn't take long for local...
DAYTON—Garry Snyder, owner of Christy’s Realty in Dayton said local home sales remain strong, in spite of the state mandated restrictions on in-person meetings, put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 . “I’ve had a very good year,” Snyder said. “It has been very busy. We’ve had a lot of sales under contract.” Snyder said there are fewer current listings, but that was true for this time of year even before the COVID-19 restrictions. Snyder has thirteen active listings with home prices...
WALLA WALLA—The Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla is happy to announce that the Cepheid platform for rapid testing has arrived at the hospital. The Cepheid can produce a COVID-19 test result in 45 minutes. The equipment now is undergoing approximately a week of validation testing, then will be put into use. Initially, it will be limited to patients at the hospital due to continuing national shortages of testing supplies. As more test kits become available, they will be able to e...
WALLA WALLA—City of Walla Walla officials have finalized plans for a three-part virtual town hall series to address topics relating to local policing including a local officer’s tattoo, police practices, policies, and funding. The meetings will be conducted online via Zoom, and the schedule will be as follows: Thursday July 9 at 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Presentations by City Manager Nabiel Shawa on City budget and police funding; City Attorney Tim Donaldson on legal issues surrounding Officer Nat Small’s tattoo; and Police Chief Scott Bieber on Wall...
DAYTON—County officials are dealing with projected shortfalls, state required cuts, and are trying to maintain adequate funds to cover expenses. In her second quarter financial report to the Board of County Commissioners on Monday, County Treasurer Carla Rowe offered a dire forecast for state revenue collections over the next few years due to the COVID-19 situation. She said the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council announced an estimated decrease in revenue collection for the 2019-21 budget of around $4.5 billion. “It is rep...
In the wake of February’s flooding event, the Blue Mountain Long-Term Recovery Group (BMLTRG), a multi-state, multi-county organization, has been formed to reflect the structure of similar long-term disaster recovery groups across the nation. The new group will continue the work taken on by multiple community groups in our region including the Waitsburg Flood Mitigation Group. BMLTRG’s Executive Committee is co-chaired by Christy Lieuallen from the United Way of the Blue Mountains and David Reinholz from The Community Action Program of Eas...
DAYTON—The Dayton School Board met July 1 for a regular monthly work session via Zoom. The board reviewed the middle and high school principal contract, and the 2020-2021 budget. This work session was Superintendent Guy Strot’s first regular meeting for the district. The board reviewed the middle and high school principal’s contract. Board member Fred White noted that there was one area with non-inclusive language within the contract, and the board agreed to fix the language to read ‘his/...
OLYMPIA—On Monday, June 6 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Washington state’s “faithless elector” laws. The Office of the Secretary of State won the lower-court rulings in both the state Superior and Supreme courts, and these decisions were supported today by the U.S. Supreme Court. Secretary of State Kim Wyman was confident that Washington state’s laws would be reaffirmed. “I am pleased to see that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld our role to ensure the popular vote of the people is represented in the electoral votes cast,” she said. The...
WAITSBURG—Waitsburg School District held a virtual public hearing on June 30 to discuss the upcoming school year. No more than four families attended the informative hearing to discuss concerns regarding classroom structure, face shields and masks, and other education concerns arising with the longevity of the coronavirus pandemic. Superintendent Mark Pickel started the meeting off by expressing that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has been revising in-classroom t...
WALLA WALLA—Recent survey results, representing feedback from nearly 2,000 Walla Walla Public Schools parents, provided district staff critical guidance as they begin finalizing Fall 2020 reopening plans. Results from this recent survey, in addition to three prior surveys representing thousands of respondents, a focus group interview with students, and 10 different workgroups consisting of dozens of staff and community partners, have provided a path forward as the district modifies in-person instruction this fall. The strict, 6-foot social d...
As stay at home orders persist, and nearly every aspect of daily life is impacted in some way, it is no surprise that mental health problems are increasing across the country due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that significantly higher shares of people who were sheltering in place (47 percent) reported negative mental health effects resulting from worry or stress related to coronavirus than among those not sheltering in place (37 percent)....
Take me out to the ballgame In Chronicles #2 and #3 I introduced you to Mr. B, Cookie's lifelong companion, ward and wing man. And I may have mentioned that Mr. B generally hits the sack earlier than the rest of us, the 'sack' being an empty slot in the kitchen spice drawer. Cookie is quite fond of this routine, and though we sometimes forget to put Mr. B to bed right after dinner, she will leave him on the kitchen floor, just below the drawer, as a gentle reminder. And that is where she will...
Mom made yet another quarantine mistake. Actually, Mom and Dad were both in on this one. It didn't involve shaving cream and the Roomba, but a TV show called "Shark Tank." Mom thought she was going to deter little me from the TV by watching a 'big kid' show, but boy was she wrong! I'm hooked, everyone. "Shark Tank" is a show where entrepreneurs pitch an idea, an invention or a business to billionaires like Mark Cuban (Mark is one of my favorites). Sometimes, the presenters have a great plan and...
Last summer, my first in Waitsburg, I planted three tomato plants and harvested enough tomatoes to keep Heinz making ketchup for years. I was so proud, I sent pictures back to everyone in Los Angeles, bragging about my abundant tomato crop. Then came the frost, and all I had were limp dead plants, and planters loaded with green tomatoes. Experienced gardeners advised me " don't be discouraged, pick them, put them in a box in the pantry or laundry room and you will have tomatoes through...
