Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1462 - 1486 of 1908
DAYTON – Monty N. Dunn, the 50-year-old Dayton resident arrested at his home on Wednesday, Feb. 25, will enter a plea this week on a handful of drug-related charges. Dunn was booked into Columbia County Jail after local deputies and a special team from Walla Walla executed an early morning search warrant at Dunn's residence last week at 721 S. 3rd St. Deputies were acting on information that led them to believe they might find drugs in the home. "Today's warrant is the result of hard work and d...
DAYTON – Parents and community members met Monday and Tuesday evenings with all four of Dayton’s secondary school principal candidates advanced to stage two of the hiring process by the selection committee last week. The candidates included Paul Shaber, Guin Joyce, Randy Hoover, and Kate Wenzl, who is the district’s interim secondary principal. Following a brief biographical introduction, the candidates answered audience questions for approximately 45 minutes each. The community members prese...
Paul Shaber Paul Shaber currently teaches high school math and science in Idaho at the Fruitland School District and has been there for 13 years. He recently earned his administrative credentials through the University of Idaho. He doesn't have a lot of administrative experience yet, he said, but he often substitutes for his current principal as needed. The principal at Fruitland High School, which has 460 students, told Dayton School Board that Shaber, "thinks outside the box to help students...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Commissioners have formally objected to the granting of a liquor license renewal to Monteillet Fromagerie, according to a letter written to the Washington State Liquor Control Board last week. The current liquor license on file with the state for the Fromagerie will expire soon. Monteillet Fromagerie is a cheese-making facility two miles west of Dayton that expanded its business to include retail sales of cheese, as well as wine and cheese tasting events. As part o...
DAYTON – In less than three weeks the Columbia County Commissioners will decide whether to extend the county moratorium on marijuana, allow marijuana operations in the county, or ban them altogether. In December, they agreed to extend the moratorium until March to allow more time to investigate the issue and make an informed decision. A public hearing regarding the county's moratorium is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. on March 16 in the commissioners' board room. The county's 15-month-long m...
DAYTON – What’s the best way to keep kids out of trouble after school? Give them safe, healthy activities to enjoy, says Dayton’s interim Secondary Principal Kate Wenzl. Members of Columbia Cares, the Coalition for Youth and Families, Columbia County Public Health and county commissioners agree. “The amount we have to pay for juvenile incarceration goes down when we have an afterschool program,” said Columbia County Commissioner Dwight Robanske. The county budgeted $70,000 for juvenile detention...
DAYTON – The Dayton Planning Department is offering a final workshop this Thursday from 6-8 p.m. in the Delaney Building at the Dayton Memorial Library regarding current city regulations for retail signs including permanent signs on buildings and temporary signs such as sandwich boards on sidewalks. Last week Planning Director Karen Scharer and her Whitman College intern Katie Stewart met with several downtown and "fringe" commercial business owners (such as the Port of Columbia) in two w...
Several members of the Blue Mountain Artist's Guild displayed their talent . . ....
Dozens of history supporters turned out Saturday . . ....
DAYTON – Members of Dayton School District’s technology committee are meeting this week to discuss the future of technology for the district. Dayton may consider a technology levy in February 2016 to replace the current levy in support of such equipment in the schools, according to Superintendent Doug Johnson. Capital levy funds are collected each year to support technology purchases in the district, according to Johnson. “Recently we placed an order for 48 Chromebooks. These are laptop compu...
DAYTON – Dayton School District is moving forward with plans to hire a permanent principal for the junior/senior high school by the end of March, and the public is invited to join in the process. The selection committee, which includes members of the school board, teachers, staff, and parents, will meet with the six candidates for an initial interview on Feb. 23 and 24. The district will be looking to advance two to three of these candidates to the second stage of the hiring process, S...
DAYTON – Dayton man Brandon John, 31, was arrested in Clarkston Saturday on a felony warrant out of Columbia County after he walked away from court-mandated treatment following his December conviction of second-degree arson. John, who was arrested by Columbia County deputies in August on suspicion of lighting several wildfires in Columbia County, took a plea agreement and was sentenced to a year and a day with credit for time already served in jail awaiting trial. Now he will serve the remainder of his sentence in state prison, according to t...
DAYTON – Elizabeth Thorn spent her life supporting the preservation of history and educating the new generations in Dayton and surrounding communities. "What she did in the community, lovingly restoring our historic buildings, was how she treated the people as well," said friend and colleague Valerie Kerr of Dayton. "She brought out the best in us. She truly validated you as a person and cared so deeply for everyone. You don't find too many people who you can say that about." Thorn passed a...
DAYTON – Taking action and not just being a bystander to substance abuse in our communities has been a driving force among members of the Dayton Students Helping Each Other (SHEO) club. These local teens set action goals each year, and attend conferences and trainings to learn how to advance prevention in Dayton – supported by the local Coalition for Youth and Families, prevention specialists with Blue Mountain Counseling, numerous grants and the help of members of the community, according to...
Preliminary Results: Yes 497 (71%) No 203 (29%) DAYTON – Voters in the city of Dayton overwhelmingly approved a measure Tuesday that will increase the sales tax rate in the city from 8.1% to 8.3%. More than 70 percent of voters said yes to the measure. Turnout was just under 45 percent. In December, the Dayton City Council approved putting the measure before voters. With its passage, the City expects to collect approximately $69,000 per year in additional revenues due to the increase. Dayton w...
DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners have scheduled a public hearing regarding the county’s moratorium on marijuana businesses for 1:15 p.m. on March 16 in the commissioners’ board room on the third floor of the courthouse. The county’s 15-month-long moratorium on marijuana businesses expires the following day, on March 17. A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will meet with commissioners prior to the hearing, at 10 a.m. The Commissioners extended a year-lo...
Kristine Warren pins an Eagle Scout badge to son Matthew . . ....
DAYTON – The Dayton School Board has scheduled a public informational meeting for Wednesday, March 4, to provide background on the proposed capital-improvement levy planned for an April 10 election. The regular board meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. with the public meeting at 7 p.m. The board had planned to take official action last week and decide on the language of the $800,000 ballot measure; that vote was postponed again after the board requested that the planned projects be described a...
DAYTON – Relay for Life of the Blue Mountains has set the date for this year’s annual fundraiser kick off, which will take place at the Best Western Hotel at 507 E. Main Street in Dayton on Tuesday, March 24, at 6:30 p.m. The Relay for Life event in Dayton will start on Sept. 19 at 3 p.m. and conclude at 7 a.m. on Sept. 20 at the Dayton High School track. The Relay for Life committee hopes to get teams formed and registered in March; the theme for this year’s relay will be announced, infor...
DAYTON – For nearly two years, Columbia County Emergency Manager Lisa Caldwell has reported on her department's failing computer systems, which include the 911 phone system and the computer-aided dispatch software that county public safety communications employees use to track calls for service and the location and activities of emergency services personnel in the field. The phone system is still on hold – at least until July, she told commissioners Monday, at which time the state will det...
DAYTON – Start saving your plastic and set aside April 22 for an afternoon with your kids, because the Best Western Plus Hotel and Suites in Dayton is once again bringing its Earth Day celebrations to town. "Earth Day is a good reminder for us all to focus on recycling," said Dayton's Best Western General Manager Eleanor Specht. "To date, we still cannot recycle plastic in Dayton." And so for Earth Day, Best Western Plus of Dayton, which has won several awards for its efforts at being e...
DAYTON – Dayton resident Andrew J. Churchill, 43, was arrested last week and formally charged Monday with three counts of assault and threats to kill. Witnesses called in the incident on Jan. 27, after Churchill allegedly pulled a gun on an adult male family member in the back parking lot of Blue Mountain Station. Churchill and his wife operate a business that sells items at the Port of Columbia facility. Witnesses stated that Churchill did not fire the gun but did finally put it away; he t...
DAYTON – How many people does it take to run a 9-hole golf course in Columbia County? The logistics and complications relative to this question have troubled county commissioners, public works employees, country club members and local golf aficionados for the last month or so. This week, arrangements were made in a commissioners' workshop to appease the majority of interested parties for at least another season. Operations will not likely change this year, and fees will increase by just over 8...
DAYTON – Dayton criminal defense attorney C. Dale Slack will become Columbia County's new deputy prosecutor beginning April 1, according to Rea Culwell, the county's prosecuting attorney. "I'm excited," Slack said. "I think I can do a lot of good there and continue to serve the county, just in a different role." Current deputy prosecutor, Abbie Broughton-Marsh, is leaving the prosecuting attorney's office at the end of March to take a job in Phoenix, Ariz., as an assistant U.S. attorney for the...
DAYTON – Columbia Pulp plans to break ground at its building site on Highway 261 near Lyons Ferry this March or April, according to Company President John Begley. “And it will be about a year until we’re up and running,” he told The Times last week. Melissa Shumake with the Columbia County Planning Department told county commissioners in their board meeting last week that Columbia Pulp plans to “bring in a check” for its building permits on the first day of February. County Planning Director Ki...
