Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 4801 - 4825 of 5694
WAITSBURG -- With January's designation as School Board Appreciation Month in the state of Washington, Waitsburg board members were honored at the Jan. 14 school board meeting. Elementary students sent handmade cards, flowers and photos and representatives of the high school National Honor Society served the board punch and cookies. High school ASB members presented each member with a card of thanks from the high school. FFA members had honored board members in December with handmade Christmas...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg Planning Commission met with a full quorum Monday to receive public comment and discuss the proposed Whoopemup Meadows housing development in northeast Waitsburg. Tones were tense as first the developers and then the Port of Walla Walla discussed the main sticking point - ownership of water and sewer lines installed by the Port but maintained by the city. Mary and Gene Warren, of Warren Land Company, submitted an application for the 114-unit development on November 17....
DAYTON – Although developmental disability services for eligible Columbia County residents are no longer administered locally, Walla Walla County coordinators were "delighted" to share with county leaders last week that a local woman, Mary Ann Ward, will lead Columbia County's employment services program. Ward, who provides employment support at the Lillie Rice Center, in Walla Walla, is well known in Dayton. Columbia County Commissioners were pleased to hear that Ward would coordinate local e...
DAYTON – A Dayton man will serve up to 41 months in prison after agreeing to a plea deal on charges relating to sexual photos he took of an underage girl in 2013. Robert Bridwell, 65, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor last week, which is a class B felony. According to Columbia County Prosecutor Rea Culwell, Bridwell is scheduled to be sentenced in Columbia County Superior Court on Feb. 18. He is currently being held in the Columbia County jail. Bridwell was arrested on Sept. 1...
DAYTON – Matthew Warren is an 18-year-old with a goal, one he has worked hard to realize and is on the brink of reaching. This Dayton High senior hopes to work someday as an agricultural commodities trader with an emphasis in Chinese language and business. "I see a lot of opportunity in studying Chinese," he said. "China is a developing country that has the largest market in the world yet still has a lot of third-world conditions waiting to be improved." Warren wants to study international busin...
DAYTON – More than two dozen Dayton residents have banded together to support the permanent hiring of Dayton Middle and Senior High School Principal Kate Wenzl. They call themselves "Keep Kate," and last Wednesday they appealed to the Dayton School Board to do just that. "As a group, we just want you [the board] and her [Wenzl] to know that we support her and hope you decide to keep her where she is," said Dayton resident Mary-Jeanne Smith. Smith also apologized to the board, on behalf of the g...
DAYTON – The Dayton School Board will likely decide at their regular meeting on Wednesday whether to put its proposed capital levy before voters in April or wait until the November general election. The board plans to have an unrelated executive session at 6:30 p.m., its usual start time, and expects to begin the regular board meeting at 7:30 p.m. (Check the district website for any changes or additional information at www.daytonsd.org.) After voters defeated a $25 million school bond measure in November, the school board came up with a much s...
WAITSBURG – “I didn’t know what a heart attack was supposed to feel like,” said Waitsburg Presbyterian Church Reverend Bret Moser, who now knows all too well what to expect. Following his own recent heart attack, Moser is loudly singing the praises of the Waitsburg Ambulance Service and strongly encourages all Waitsburg residents to take advantage of the service’s unique donor program which assures swift and free service. Nothing was out of the ordinary when Moser went to bed the night of...
WAITSBURG - Members of the Waitsburg Celebration Days Committee have been working hard the last several months to make sure this May’s celebration - honoring Waitsburg’s 150th anniversary - is a truly memorable event. With the framework in place, they are now in need of helping hands and financial support to make their May 16 Celebration Days plans a reality. “What we want is to create one or two signature events that we become known for and that grow every year,” said Mayor Walt Gobel. The comm...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Commissioners decided last week to establish regular workshops in addition to their twice-monthly board meetings. The workshops will begin in February and take place from 10 a.m. until noon every Monday in the commissioners’ board room on the third floor of the courthouse. The commissioners will also meet from 1-3 p.m. on the second Monday of each month to tour various county road projects and other major developments. The commissioners did not indicate how long the...
DAYTON – In November, voters approved the Columbia County Hospital District’s $5.5 million bond levy measure for major renovations to Dayton General Hospital. This winter, the district hopes to establish its game plan for the project. On Wednesday, the district’s board of directors will meet with hospital and clinic staff, a Washington Hospital Association facilitator, and interested members of the public at an all-day retreat beginning at 8 a.m. in the Best Western Hotel on East Main Street in...
WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Planning Commission has rescheduled its public hearing to receive comments from the public on the proposed Whoopemup Meadows housing development in Waitsburg’s northeast corner. The hearing will be held Monday evening at 7 p.m. in the Lions Building at the Waitsburg fairgrounds. As The Times reported last month, the public hearing was originally set for December 15, but two members of the commission didn’t attend. The hearing was cancelled due to lack of a quorum. Once...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Commissioners have agreed to "begin the process of switching power providers" for the Columbia County Courthouse and county public works building from Pacific Power & Light to Columbia Rural Electric Association. The unanimous decision to move forward on the change came during a special meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 31, in the commissioner's board room. It was Commissioner Chuck Reeves's last day in office. "I'm ashamed that we've fiddled and diddled for this long and h...
WAITSBURG – Construction of the Whiskey Creek Sports Bar & Grill on Waitsburg's east side is moving ahead right on track, and owners expect to open the doors in late March or early April. The recent hire of the Grill's first employee, General Manager Gary Bales, will help to speed that process along. Whiskey Creek, located on the former site of the White Stallion Restaurant at 701 Preston Avenue, is a joint effort of investors Dan Cole, Ken Cole, Jr., Guy McCaw and Byron Seney, along with w...
DAYTON – The city of Dayton will ask for voter approval of a sales and use tax increase this February to help maintain city streets. The increase would raise sales tax by two-tenths of 1 percent, or 20 cents for every $100 spent on taxable items in Dayton. The special election ballots will go out to voters on Jan. 23, and voting will be completed on Feb. 10. A simple majority, or at least 50 percent, voter approval is required for the measure to pass. This will be the only item on ballots. What...
DAYTON – Dayton resident Joshua A. Roska, 33, was arrested on Monday, Dec. 29, as part of an ongoing investigation into a 2011 gun theft. The firearm, a Walther P22 pistol, was taken in October 2011 from a tent at the Shangri-La RV Park on Rose Gulch Road, west of Dayton on Highway 12. Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputies, with the help of officers from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, executed a search warrant at 125 W. Patit Avenue, in Dayton, last Monday afternoon aft...
DAYTON – Walla Walla Community College offers community education courses in all sorts of subjects, but did you know you can now take courses in Dayton? Beginning this winter, the Dayton Historic Depot and Blue Mountain Station are hosting four WWCC community education courses including quilting, memoir writing, soup making, and coffee appreciation – each course taught by talented locals: Aileen Warren, Tamara Fritze, Tami Miller, and Rey Weldert. Community education allows local residents to take up a new hobby, study another language, set...
DAYTON – Patience paid off for local skiers, who enjoyed an awesome opening day at Ski Bluewood on December 26. A pre-Christmas storm dumped nearly two feet of snow at the ski area 20 miles south of here, with more falling as The Times went to press Monday. At 5 a.m. Monday, Bluewood was reporting light powder, with 29 inches of snow at the base and 40 inches at the summit. Temperatures have been in the low 20s, and are expected to fall this week. Bluewood will be open daily through January 4...
WAITSBURG – A Waitsburg man was arrested Sunday afternoon and is being held in Walla Walla on suspicion of committing a string of recent, local burglaries. Mason James Bates, 31, was charged in a preliminary hearing Monday with two counts of residential burglary, theft in the third degree, malicious mischief in the third degree, and possession of burglary tools. A resident of Waitsburg's W. 6th Street contacted Walla Walla County deputies Sunday after he discovered his home had been b...
WAITSBURG – Losing a public works director with 40 years on-the-job experience is bound to be a big blow to a city, but that hit is softened significantly when the incoming director has 20 years experience of his own. At the Dec. 17 city council meeting, the council approved a recommendation from the personnel committee, consisting of Walt Gobel, Randy Hinchliffe and Marty Dunn, to promote city crew staffer Jim Lynch to public works director. Lynch, who replaces longtime director Dan Katsel, b...
DAYTON - As 2014 winds to a close, we look back on a year that brought increased economic strength to the Touchet Valley, and some momentous voting results at the ballot box. Dayton and Columbia County again put on a great string of community events. Here we go with a look back at some major stories out of Columbia County: Columbia Pulp Moves Ahead In our Dec. 19, 2013 issue, we broke the news that a new straw pulp plant was in the works for Columbia County. It was to be built near Lyons Ferry,...
WAITSBURG - Council members include: K.C. Kuykendall, Marty Dunn, Kevin House, Debra Callahan, Mayor Walt Gobel. Karl Newell was absent. Delores Nettles expressed concern about the tipping Christmas trees along Main Street during public comment. Council briefly discussed the recent planning commission gathering and asked why there weren’t enough commission members present to establish a quorum for the meeting. Approved the early payoff of playground equipment which will save the city approximately $1,200 in interest. Approved the promotion o...
