The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Sometime during the next few weeks, a transformation will take place on my property at the intersection of lower West Seventh Avenue and Coppei Creek. Our house faces southwest, and the driveway runs parallel to the creek. The Coppei channel is deeper here than it is most anywhere else within the city.

As far as I can see, the Seventh Avenue bridge is over fifty years old but still in solid shape (I'm not a bridge expert). According to the city, the "tee-beam" concrete structure has been scoured a bit through the years, owing to any number of things being swept downstream and piling up at the...