Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 2676 - 2700 of 5638
DAYTON-Kristie Korslund was hired in February to take over for Vicki Zoller, who took a job in the county's Emergency Management Services Department in January.While Korslund is performing many of Zoller's outreach duties, she is also helping with the after school programs and providing general customer service. Korslund is also in charge of the Bookmobile, and will be taking books to the senior center every month, beginning in April. She said working at the library is a good fit for her. "I...
DAYTON—The first quarter of the year has been busy for the staff at the Columbia County Planning and Building Department. Planning Director Meagan Bailey outlined some of the projects her office is working on during a recent interview. Land Swap The planning office is working on an adjustment to Dayton’s urban growth area, involving a land swap. The plan is to incorporate additional land just outside Dayton’s east city limit into the UGA, which is expected to be developed in the next few years. A comparable amount of land just west of Dayton th...
DAYTON – Bill and Teresa Ayotte grew up in food service. "Teresa's mother ran a café in Garibaldi, Ore.," Bill said. "I worked at a Spudnut shop in Richland as a teenager." Bill and Teresa are the new concessionaires at the Touchet Valley Golf Course, and their new venture, Chicken Bill's BBQ Cafe, is open for business. The café is currently open for lunch from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. seven days a week. The menu includes burgers and sandwiches, as well as daily barbeque specials. "I do my own bar...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg School Board opened bids for the 2017 Bond Project on March 6 and received a pleasant surprise. The project, which includes work on all three district buildings and a new field house at the athletic field, was awarded to DGR Grant Construction, which came in well under the projected cost. Besides DGR, the district received competitive bids from Wellens Farwell Construction and Total Site Services. Base bids ranged from $2,169,000 from DGR to $2,383,897 from Wellens Farwell. “Traditionally, it is considered a very competiti...
WAITSBURG - Para professional Cathy Schirm and students gave a presentation about the morning enrichment program that began in November. Schirm said that six to eight children attend regularly and enjoy help with reading, homework and are building relationships. Secondary Principal Report (Stephanie Wooderchak): -Conferences at Preston Hall and WHS will be completed this month. -National Honor Society inductions will be held March 21. New inductees are Kirsten Miller, Kailyn Lewis, Cason Nichols and Grace Coulston. Current members have been...
DAYTON—Columbia County is currently one of only four counties in the state without an emergency medical services levy. That could change if a proposed ambulance levy is approved by voters in August. The levy would add 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value to county property tax rates in 2019. The proposed levy would affect all property taxpayers in Columbia County, including those in Fire Districts 1, 2 and 3. Fire District 2 residents in Walla Walla County would not be affected. A supermajority of 60% yes votes is required to pass the levy. If p...
WAITSBURG – Unlike last year, the candidacy filing period for Waitsburg's annual elections closed on time this year, with a full slate of candidates. However, the council will look very much like last year, with the possible exception of mayor. And even that is a re-run, as incumbent Marty Dunn will once again run against former city council member Debra Callahan. The deadline for filing Declarations of Candidacy closed March 10 with all of the city council incumbents bidding to re-up their t...
DAYTON--The Board of County Commissioners has signed a two-year lease to rent space next to the Columbia County Courthouse, formerly occupied by Manila Bay Restaurant. The Commissioners will move their offices and meeting room into the new space this spring. The move is designed to make room for Columbia County District Court to move from its current location at the Port of Columbia to the courthouse. "The savings would be considerable, and it will be better for the Sheriff's response time."...
Carolyn Henderson: Talk about Art There is a tendency within a culture saturated with pop art imagery to go for shock value – the gritty – to extol a painting because it is edgy, disturbing, and unsettling. Such has been the "norm" for so long that people associate fine art with depression and anxiety. But if art is anything, it's versatile, and many talented painters opt to use their skills to promote the other side of the spectrum: happiness, hope, joy, and beauty. This aptly describes the wat...
DAYTON--Last week, the Columbia County Friends of the Fairgrounds came before the Columbia County Commissioners with their vision for facilities improvements at the fairgrounds. “This is nuts and bolts. It is a work in progress,” CCFF President Julia Mead told the commissioners. She said around 200-260 hours of research has gone into the document, and 18-20 subcommittees have contributed to it. The CCFF has as its goal to make the fairgrounds self-supporting and generate revenue to the Parks and Recreation Fund, specifically to be used for fai...
DAYTON - Coming off a successful winter season with the fall musical The King and I and the murder mystery Murder on the Rerun, the productions team at Dayton's Liberty Theater is going off script as we move into spring. Every year, TVAC Productions hosts a spring show featuring our favorite Liberty Theater cast members showcasing their talents the way they want. TVAC Productions is the team responsible for the Liberty's successful musicals and plays; these variety shows help that committee...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg FFA and 4-H members, and their parents, spent last week's sunny Saturday taking the first steps in transforming the FFA pig barn and the nearby unused horse stalls into well-functioning pens for pigs, goats and sheep. "We're hoping that by making a space for kids to raise different species, more kids will be interested in joining 4-H and FFA," said Corral Wranglers 4-H leader Lisa Morrow. Morrow and Waitsburg High School FFA Advisor Nicole Abel will serve as the barn superi...
DAYTON – A group, including farmers, wildlife officials and local planning officials, has been meeting for two years to develop a new plan to meet state requirements for a Voluntary Stewardship Program in Columbia County. The program would supplant the current requirements for agricultural land in the county to follow the Washington State Growth Management Act. Don Brigham, a consultant in Clarkston, is the project coordinator and facilitator for the program. He said the new VSP will allow farmers and agricultural landowners to continue the p...
WAITSBURG – At their February regular meeting, the Waitsburg School Board made it official: the new Waitsburg Field House will be named for lifelong Waitsburg resident and WHS star football player Kenneth Marcus Zuger. Several years ago, an anonymous donor made $40,000 available toward building a new much-needed field house at the Waitsburg Athletic Field. The one stipulation was that the building must be named for Kenneth M. Zuger, better known as Kenny. The donor has since passed away, but his...
DAYTON - Rep. Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, announced Tuesday he will not seek another term to the Washington State House of Representatives. Nealey, a former Columbia County prosecuting attorney and coroner, has served the 16th District as state representative since he was first elected in 2009. An attorney with an office in Dayton, Nealey retired from his private practice in 2015. "It has been an honor and a great adventure to serve the citizens of the 16th District and the state of Washington....
DAYTON-The world of virtual medicine was on CEO Shane McGuire's mind during the regular meeting of the Columbia County Health System Commissioners last week. As reported earlier, CCHS already has three tele-health units on site: one in the Emergency Department and one in each of the two outpatient clinics, assisting clinicians in patient care. Now plans are in the works to add tele-psychiatry and tele-hospitalist services to the list. McGuire said he has been working in conjunction with the...
DAYTON-The Dayton Historical Depot Society is currently showing a collection of 10 paintings and drawings that were owned by late Darlene Broughton. They are on display on the first floor at the Dayton Historic Depot until the end of the month. The watercolor, oil, and pen and ink drawings depict a few of the many historic buildings in Dayton. Works created by local and regional artists Vivian Eslick, Richard Hashagen, Mary Ann Nyborg, Gerald Snapp, Patti Eaton, John Remington and Lucy Jones...
During Kenny’s funeral, in 1998, former Waitsburg resident Michael Keifel read a poem he wrote: We would not be afraid to see his spirit, whether he should suddenly be standing at the edge of his driveway. Watching a youngster squint through the twilight at the basket for just one more shot before hustling home for dinner. Or appear on the bleachers, a cup of coffee in his yet strong grasp. Slapping his knee with the other hand and laughing at a Cardinal shooting past the defense for the goal. We would be glad to see him once again, shirt o...
DAYTON-Terry Bartlett is planning an April 1st opening for his new Italian "Trattoria-style" restaurant on Dayton's Main Street, to be called My Dad's Place. Bartlett and his wife Lu Ann have recently moved to Dayton from Corvallis Ore. and are bringing with them some special sauce recipes Terry developed for the pasta, pizza and sandwiches he is planning to serve at the restaurant. Bartlett said he will source local products for use in the restaurant, including the wheat flour for the pasta....
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Waitsburg teens Tom and Seamus House, and Tim Daves, got a firsthand taste of the legislative process as they represented Walla Walla County in the 4-H Know Your Government (KYG) program in Olympia on Feb. 17-21. The teens participated in a mock legislative process, but their results are often considered by the "real" Washington State Legislature. Know Your Government is a civic education program that rotates annually between learning about the legislative system, the j...
WAITSBURG—The Waitsburg School Board voted unanimously Monday night to reverse their previous action not to proceed with the full athletic combine with Dayton. The special board meeting was held after the Dayton School Board last week urged Waitsburg to reconsider its earlier decision. On Feb. 14, the Waitsburg board backed away from the combine, after members and administrators had attended a contentious Feb. 12 advisory committee meeting in Dayton in which several members of the public angrily said they opposed the combine. On behalf of t...
