Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 451 - 475 of 1905
DAYTON—It was a full house at the March 18 meeting of the Columbia County Rural Library Board as area residents showed up to voice concerns about library policies and practices. Board chair Tanya Patton thanked the community for their willingness to be involved, saying there were more people in attendance at the meeting than she had seen at all the meetings in 13 years prior. The meeting opened with an introduction of board of trustee members, their education and their work backgrounds. Sarah R...
DAYTON—If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then why doesn’t the county have a dedicated human resources manager? Now, issues surrounding Shakira Bye’s termination from the library on Mar. 1 are prompting the county commissioners to take a more active role in library board operations. When the commissioners met with Library Board Chair Tanya Patton and Board Trustee Karin Spann last week, they wanted answers about practices and policies regarding library staff. Commissioner Chuck...
Community members pulled together to support the family of Danica and Michael Gatlin as their young son goes through cancer treatment. Nearly $3,000 was raised at the March 22 fundraiser....
Performers get into character as they practice for the upcoming Show Stoppers spring musical revue at the Liberty Theater. The show features 18 numbers from favorite past productions. See Page 9 for full story....
DAYTON—The Friends of the Dayton Community Pool has revamped its name and purpose. “We kept running into community conversations that talked about how lovely it would be to have a community or multi-purpose center in our county,” said President Vicki Zoller. Zoller said the members of the newly-formed Friends of the Columbia County Multi-purpose Center are researching and planning for a center that could combine a senior center and early childhood education center, and indoor pool into one shared space, and they are talking about adding a lau...
DAYTON—A $7,612 grant from the Wildhorse Foundation has helped enable the Touchet Valley Arts Council (TVAC) to address several safety and energy efficiency needs at the annex building adjacent, and integral to, the Liberty Theater in Dayton. The Wildhorse Foundation grant was combined with a smaller grant of $3,222 from the Sustainable Living Center in Walla Walla to complete energy efficiency and electrical safety upgrades. This project included adding insulation to the pre...
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Urban Growth Area land swap proposal moves forward DAYTON-City of Dayton Mayor Craig George will pass his gavel to Mayor Pro-tem Zac Weatherford on April 30. George read a letter of his resignation to the Dayton City Council during last week's council meeting. "It has been a pleasure and an honor to have served as your Mayor, and I want to thank the council for their great work and support these past years. We have all worked very hard for the betterment of Dayton," he said. George and his...
DAYTON—This year’s annual Liberty Theater spring variety show is “the best-of-the-best by the cream-of-the-crop,” according to co-directors and choreographers Julia Mead and Patti Jo Amerein. “Show Stoppers!” a musical revue highlighting favorite numbers from the past 17 fall productions, hits the Liberty stage March 29-31. Theater veterans Mike Ferrians, Elizabeth Jagelski, Brenda Henderson, Amerein and Mead “picked each others’ brains” to come up with a list of favorite numbers. But they are k...
DAYTON—Representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, shared fish and wildlife habitat updates in a public meeting at the Delany Room in Dayton on Feb. 28. The representatives shared specifically about the stream and upland habitat restoration work the Tribes are conducting near Dayton and addressed questions from the public. Presentations were delivered on management activities in the Rainwater Wildlife Area property as well as multi-year restoration work p...
DAYTON—The Friends of the Fairgrounds committee and the members of the Touchet Valley Golf Board are working together to create great resources for Columbia County. That was the take-away message on Monday when the golf board members met with the county commissioners. Bill Ayotte, owner of Chicken Bill’s restaurant, at the golf course, said there are rumors that the golf course people want to take land from the fairgrounds for a soccer field. “Our golf group has no intention to take over anyth...
Saturday night's Jimmy Durante fundraiser at the Dayton Eagles was a roaring success. The final tally hasn't been totaled but Auxilary member Barbara Fullerton said that the event brought in more than last year, which was $8,000. The Durante fundraiser follows in the steps of philanthropist Jimmy Durante who donated to "Help da kids." Each year the Eagles Auxiliary runs the event and chooses a child-centered group to donate to. This year's proceeds will be split between the 4-H Endowment Fund...
DAYTON-It took just ten minutes of deliberation behind closed doors for Columbia County Commissioners Mike Talbott and Chuck Amerein to select Ryan Rundell to fill the vacant seat on the Board of County Commissioners. The Commissioners also interviewed Kaye Eaton and Thomas Konen on Monday night at the Columbia County courtroom, before heading in to executive session. It's a big responsibility," Rundell said, minutes after being sworn in. "It's an honor to be picked. They had good candidates to...
DAYTON-Ashley Strickland is the county's new E911/Emergency Management Director and he has brought an impressive skill set with him in his new job. Strickland brings the knowledge he gained while working on a statewide radio system for the State of Ohio, along with prior experience in Columbus, Ind., where he oversaw the merger of four dispatch centers and twenty-one agencies into one center. He has also served as a fire captain in Columbus In Ohio, Strickland said he was responsible for one...
Nationwide program aims to improve family engagement and student academic success DAYTON – Dayton Memorial Library's first Prime Time Family Reading event, on March 6, was a great success with 60 people and 19 families in attendance. The nationwide program strives to build thought and conversation between children and families through reading. Prime Time Family Reading is a six-week program funded through a grant from Humanities Washington and is free to participants. Each evening begins with a...
DAYTON – Columbia County Prosecuting Attorney C. Dale Slack said the Benjamin Orozco murder case has been re-set, from March 11 to July 8. Slack said May 8 is the deadline for the exchange of all evidence that is intended for use in the trial. This will be followed by arguments dealing with the admission of certain evidence in the trial, at a hearing set for May 31, at 1:30 p.m. in Superior Court. Pretrial and readiness will be heard on June 5, with the actual trial taking place July 8-19, Slack...
Board members Katie Leid, David Bailey, Justin Jaech and Fred White were present. *Bill Dowdy asked the Board to consider supporting the reinstatement of the High School Fall soccer program, which had been canceled for 2018-19 due to a lack of participants and partial forfeiture of the 2017-18 season. Dowdy believes there may be 25 students in Dayton and Waitsburg interested in playing next year. The issue will be referred to Athletic Director Nicki Luper and the DW Combine Committee. *Discussion regarding classified staff and state...
Pomeroy test plant drives DOE fee schedule changes and increased incentives OLYMPIA – In an effort to encourage innovative approaches to pollution reduction, the Washington Department of Ecology is proposing to offer facilities a three-year, 75-percent reduction in permit fees for engaging in market research and development of products or processes that reduce pollution. The proposal, as presented in a DOE media release, used the Columbia Pulp straw pulp mill as an example of a facility that cou...
DAYTON – During the Columbia County Health System (CCHS) March 5 board meeting,CEO Shane McGuire discussed the University of Washington health agreements which launched a program to bring CCHS $152,000 annually to improve behavioral health care in our local communities. The program is part of the AIMS network, standing for Advanced Integrated Mental Health Solutions at the University of Washington. Advancements in psychiatry availability and counseling are key to becoming a truly patient-centered medical home. More can be learned about AIMS a...
DAYTON – The Best Western Plus Dayton Hotel & Suites, located at 507 E. Main, changed hands late last year. BK Lodging, LLC, out of the Tri-Cities, owned by Kam and Laddi Singh took ownership on Nov. 15, according to hotel General Manager Eleanor Specht. The hotel, which opened in the spring of 2013, was developed and owned by Dr. Derek Duke and his firm, Duke Properties. It was managed by Pacific Inns of Portland, Ore., a management company hired by Duke. “Everything operationally has stayed the same,” Specht said....
A column by Carolyn Henderson It's a long road from working for a contractor making parts for nuclear submarines to painting peaceful landscapes, but acrylic painter Becky Melcher is used winding paths. Nowadays, she especially enjoys painting them. For more than 40 years, the Yakima artist worked in the legal field – from that submarine contractor to attorneys' offices – and painted on the side. Upon retirement, she plunged into the art world, experimenting with techniques, media, and sub...
DAYTON – More than two dozen people gathered in the Delany Building on March 4 to hear concerns about the practices and policies of the Dayton Memorial Library. The meeting was spearheaded and facilitated by former library employee Vicki Zoller and recently terminated employee Shakira Bye. Over the course of an hour-and-a-half, Zoller voiced concerns ranging from lack of training for both the director and employees, safety concerns for library patrons and employees, inconsistency in p...
DAYTON – Among the notable features along Dayton’s well-traveled Main Street are the trees that line the walks from one end of town to the other. These trees provide cool shade in the summer, warm colors as autumn rolls in and they pop green and bright at springtime. Thanks to Bill Clemens, Regional Communications Manager with Pacific Power, along with Trees, Inc., Dayton’s trees are getting a much-needed trimming. Every year, certified arborists from Trees Inc. volunteer one day of their time...
COLUMBIA COUNTY – It should have been quitting time, but a 5:10 p.m. call to dispatch reporting a rock slide on Monday evening, sent the Columbia County road crew back to work. The slide occurred at milepost 10 on Tucannon Road, according to Columbia County Operations Supervisor Wayne Tate. "There were three to four very large, car-size rocks directly in the road and another dozen half that size," Tate said. No one was passing through at the time and the road crew was able to use a grader o...
DAYTON – The local Republican Committee has selected three finalists from a slate of nine applicants in the running to fill the District 1 seat on the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. A special meeting will be held at the Columbia County Courthouse on Mon., March 11 at 7 p.m. to interview finalists Thomas Konen, Ryan Rundell and Kaye Eaton. It will be up to commissioners Chuck Amerein and Mike Talbott to choose one of the three applicants to fill the seat formerly occupied by Norm Passmore, who resigned in January. Amerein and Talbott w...
