Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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DAYTON – Dayton teens Katie White and Mary McHaffie have been announced as this year's Columbia County Fair Hostesses. White, 16, is the daughter of Luke and Dawn White. She is a high school student attending Walla Walla Community College this year. Mary McHaffie, also 16, is the daughter of Robin and Bill McHaffie. She is homeschooled. These childhood friends and fellow participants in various 4-H programs, Community Bible Church events, Awanas programs and swim team events will represent C...
WAITSBURG – Debra Callahan, a member of the Waitsburg city council and the fairgrounds advisory committee, has been working hard to organize events she hopes will create a stronger sense of community among locals while drawing visitors to the area. At last week's city council meeting Callahan reported on several event reservations for the Waitsburg Fairgrounds, possibilities for a Fourth Friday music festival during the summer months, and Waitsburg's first National Night Out celebration. C...
BREMERTON, Wash. – Waitsburg native Wyatt Withers, son of Laurie Withers and the late Ian Withers, and grandson of Jack McCaw and the late Laurette McCaw, has done his family proud by receiving recognition as the 2014 Sailor of the Year for Submarine Squadron 5 out of Bremerton. Withers graduated from Waitsburg High School in 2010 and followed in "Grandpa Jack's" footsteps by joining the Navy, where he pursued a career in nuclear engineering. He excelled early on, finishing 13th among 320 s...
WALLA WALLA - The Blue Mountain Lodge #13 Free and Accepted Masons will present awards to top officers from four local agencies in their 2014 Officer of the Year Awards ceremony on Feb. 4. Deputy Richard Schram, Walla Walla Sheriff’s Office; Officer Gunner Fulmer, Walla Walla Police Department; Officer Ashley Daschofsky, College Place Police Department; and Trooper Shawn Williams, Washington State Patrol were selected by their respective agencies for this special recognition. Deputy Schram is a Sgt. Thomas E. Bowman Deputy of the Year award win...
WAITSBURG - Establishing a quorum at Waitsburg planning commission meetings may soon become a bit easier. Uniquely qualified Waitsburg residents Stan Bly and Larry Johnson have each applied to fill two currently vacant seats on the board. Approval of the applicants is on the agenda for Wednesday night’s city council meeting. The six-position planning commission is chaired by William Potolochio and made up of commission members K.C. Kuykendall, who is also a city council member; Karen Gregutt; a...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Health District's board of directors will decide Thursday whether to hire an outside firm to help them determine how best to spend the $5.5 million bond approved by voters in November. "We really need to be good stewards of the public dollar," said Ted Paterson, a member of the board. "That's why we're looking at turning to an outside firm before we race into selecting an architect and a contractor and progress into a final design." In November, voters in the h...
DAYTON – A 2013 report published by the Washington State Department of Health states that one in six adults in Columbia County currently smokes cigarettes. Bearing those statistics in mind, the Columbia County Health System's Wellness Program each January is focused on tobacco cessation. Beginning next week, CCHS is offering a "5 Days to Quit" class that is open to the public. The classes, taking place from Jan. 26-30, will be from 7-8 p.m. in the cafeteria at Dayton General Hospital. R...
DAYTON – Have you ever wondered who pays for those gorgeous baskets of flowers that hang in downtown Dayton through the spring and summer? Or who is responsible for the creation of the new playground located next to the Dayton Historic Depot by the caboose? One part of the answer is the dedicated members of the Dayton Development Task Force and its partner organizations; the other part is – you. The task force, which has been working to improve downtown Dayton over the last 31 years, is a tax...
WAITSBURG - Eastern Washington University broadcaster and Waitsburg native Larry Weir is pleased to join the ranks of his longtime role model, Bob Robertson, by earning the title of National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Washington Sportscaster of the Year. Weir, who has provided the play-by-play for EWU basketball and football games for over 20 years, was selected as the 2014 award recipient on Jan. 7 and will be honored at a ceremony in Charlotte, N.C., in June. The 1979...
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...
