Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 180
DAYTON – In June, planning and building employees began the process of updating Columbia County’s ordinances regarding the violation of building codes and the regulation and abatement of public nuisances. County commissioners had asked Planning Director Kim Lyonnais and his team to add “teeth” to the current rules. After a brief look around the county, Lyonnais and his department located more than 40 violations of building codes. Problems include everything from residents running unlicen...
DAYTON – You probably didn't know that the colorful, hanging baskets of flowers that brighten Dayton's Main Street all summer were nearly 30 years in the making. Dayton Development Task Force members Scott Hudson and Betty Lou Crothers have dreamt of, discussed and planned for flower baskets downtown since the late 1980s, when the founding members of the task force worked to restored this city's Main Street. "It's an idea that floated around for a long time," Hudson said. "But the idea never r...
DAYTON – Columbia County has a plan for reopening the transfer station (dump) by the end of August, and citizens won’t have to go anywhere new. The temporary facilities will be located at the current site but away from where contractors will be working to repair and rebuild the permanent facilities. The Columbia County Transfer Station at 500 S. Cottonwood St., where citizens could deposit garbage for transport to a landfill outside of the county, was closed after a July 17 fire destroyed muc...
STARBUCK – Columbia Pulp LLC hasn’t broken ground yet on its 449-acre pulp mill near Lyons Ferry, but “exciting movement” continues to happen behind closed doors, according to Columbia County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais. The company began receiving wheat straw for storage on Monday of this week, board member and LLC manager John Begley told The Times. Columbia Pulp has leased space within two miles of the future site of the mill for the storage of 20,000 to 30,000 tons of straw. “This is all...
DAYTON – Dayton City Council approved an ordinance Monday night allowing wheeled all-terrain vehicles, or WATVs, on city streets. No members of the public spoke at the final hearing regarding this legislation. The new law goes into effect on Aug. 25. The decision was approved by the majority of city leaders, with Councilor Kathy Berg in opposition. Berg did suggest that the council give the new law a one-year trial, examining the statistics and other data on enforcement and violations at that t...
DAYTON – The school year will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 1, for all students in the Dayton School District. New students as well as returning students are encouraged to attend registration on Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the elementary multi-purpose room from noon until 6 p.m. Kindergarten students who have already registered do not need to attend, unless other children in the family haven’t yet registered. Sports physicals will be available from 2-5 p.m. on Aug. 18 in the district office for just $5....
DAYTON – Arson has been ruled out in four of the five suspicious fires here between June 28 and July 22, according to incident reports released by Columbia County Fire Marshal Kim Lyonnais on Monday. "But all of the cases are going to remain open," Lyonnais said. "We hope that eventually a witness hears some kids bragging or overhears something else that gives us a lead." Each report that discounts arson includes the language "at this time." The marshal's office was not called to investigate o...
DAYTON – Leadership changes are in the works for the Columbia County Health System. Board Chair Ted Paterson and interim CEO Jon Smiley will both leave the organization at the end of September. The resignations were announced at the July CCHS board meeting last Thursday after a lengthy meeting discussing the future of the hospital district and planned remodel of Dayton General Hospital. "Jon has done a great job, but it's time to get someone else in here," Paterson told the board. Both s...
DAYTON – Columbia County Health System leaders have selected an architect team for the planned $5.5 million Dayton General Hospital upgrade, they announced last week. Two architects responded to the hospital district’s request for letters of interest last month, according to Chief Operations Officer Shane McGuire. Both were invited to the bidding process with RFQ (request for quotation). Rather than respond individually, the two architects decided on their own to come back to the table as par...
DAYTON – When teachers at Dayton High School ask their students to write an essay on what they did over their summer vacation, more than two dozen will have a ready answer: Teen Scene. Teen Scene is managed by leaders and volunteers with Blue Mountain Counseling, who also run the Summer Youth Program for younger children in the community. Both programs this year took place from the last part of June through July 31. This isn't the first year of this summer recreation program for older youth, b...
DAYTON – Fires are on just about everyone's mind right now. In Columbia County, investigators are struggling to reach conclusions regarding five fires in the last four weeks. "We're just swamped with this," County Fire Marshal Kim Lyonnais said. Many of these officials also have their hands full giving aid to firefighters battling the Blue Creek Fire, which has consumed over 6,000 acres of land and one home in Walla Walla County (see story on Page 10). The series of local fires began on the l...
DAYTON – Three out-of-state, professional archeologists were charged last week in Columbia County Superior Court with theft of prehistoric artifacts from the Umatilla National Forest and Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in 2013. Richard Lee Lyman, 64, is a professor and chair of the department of anthropology at the University of Missouri and holds a doctorate of anthropology from the University of Washington. Lyman was arraigned on Wednesday, July 22, on charges of second-degree theft and s...
WALLA WALLA – Residents of the back country in Columbia County and elsewhere in the Touchet Valley watched the spread of the Blue Creek Fire east of here with unease over the last week. It has been several years since a fire of this magnitude threatened the valley. At press time on Tuesday, the wildland fire on Blue Mountain Road and Klicker Mountain Road east of Walla Walla was 73-percent contained. At its largest, the fire was reported to have burned 6,225 acres. The blaze, which ignited on J...
DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners are considering a request by the Starbuck Town Council to assist with renovations to Starbuck City Hall, following a letter received earlier this month requesting aid. Candice Harrison, Starbuck’s city clerk and treasurer, wrote the letter dated June 30 to county commissioners. The letter was brief and to the point: “This letter is to inquire if there is any funding available for our city hall renovation. At this time, we are restoring our city hall windo...
The Dayton High School class of 1980 made sure the crowd at this year's annual Alumni Parade in downtown Dayton knew who they were. . ....
DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners declared an emergency Friday afternoon following an early morning fire at the county transfer station on South Cottonwood Street that destroyed most of the necessary operational equipment and seriously damaged the integrity of the main building. "Basically we [declared the emergency] because otherwise we'd have to go through the official bidding process to get the cleanup and repairs done," Commissioner Dwight Robanske said. "We're dealing with the h...
DAYTON – Investigators from Walla Walla were on scene last week trying to determine the cause of a fire that seriously damaged a home here early last Wednesday. The house at 119 E. Commercial Ave., owned by longtime Dayton resident George "Bill" Waltermire, was reported ablaze by passers-by just after 1 a.m. on July 15, according to local officials. Waltermire has said he was out at a convenience store when he heard the news, Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller said. The fire, though p...
DAYTON – County residents Julia and Skip Mead implored Columbia County Commissioners at last week’s public hearing to turn down an offer by Portland General Electric to pave a portion of Mead Road north of Dayton. “We are passionate about our freedom and privacy,” Julia Mead told all three commissioners and the boardroom full of listeners last Wednesday. “We don’t have to let PGE impose their liberal ways on us... Please, please, please do not pave Mead Road!” Commissioners Merle Jackson and D...
Dayton resident Alicia Walker helps her 5-year-old daughter, Audrey Walker, tie dye a t-shirt at their booth during Saturday's Foodstock 2015 festival at the Blue Mountain Station just west of Dayton on Highway 12. . ....
DAYTON – Don’t panic, says Dayton Public Works Superintendent Jim Costello. Washington may be locked in a record-breaking snowpack drought, but Dayton’s city wells are at the same level as they have been since 1982, he told the Dayton City Council last week. But don’t get complacent either, Costello added. “We are hammering the heck out of water in this community,” he told council. “And we can’t predict the future of our water. We’re pumping millions of gallons.” And how has our usage looked re...
Members of the Dayton High School class of 1960 rode their float past the courthouse during Saturday's annual Alumni Parade....
DAYTON - Firefighters were called Wednesday night to yet another house fire here, this time just west of town off Highway 12 on Bowman Hill Road. The flames were visible beginning at about about 10 p.m. from the highway, and a train of passers-by stopped their vehicles along the road and at Longs Elevator to view the hilltop as the fire consumed this home. A large crew of fire trucks ringed the structure, preventing the flames from spreading into neighboring fields. This is the fourth home...
DAYTON – Dayton took the first step in a move toward allowing wheeled all-Terrain vehicles, or WATVs, on city streets at a public hearing in the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Parish Hall on Monday night. City councilors approved the first reading, by title only, of an ordinance allowing licensed drivers 16 and older to operate WATVs on city streets with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less. Councilmember Kathy Berg opposed the ordinance. Such a move would put the city in line with Was...
DAYTON – Investigators from Walla Walla will try Thursday morning to determine the cause of a fire that seriously damaged a home here early Wednesday. The house at 119 E. Commercial St., owned by longtime Dayton resident George "Bill" Waltermire, was reported ablaze by passers-by just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, according to local officials. Waltermire has said he was out at a convenience store when he heard the news, Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller said. The fire, though primarily contained t...
DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners declared an emergency Friday afternoon following an early morning fire at the county transfer station on South Cottonwood Street that destroyed most of the necessary operational equipment and seriously damaged the integrity of the main building. "Basically we did this because otherwise we'd have to go through the official bidding process to get the cleanup and repairs done," Commissioner Dwight Robanske said. "We're dealing with the health and safety of t...
