Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 180
DAYTON – They say that only a planner understands what goes on in the planning office. Columbia County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais has managed planning and building departments most of his life. But this month he’s really learning the ins and outs of daily management of his department. He’s had to – he’s been running the office on his own. “I’ve really been enjoying it actually,” he said in an interview with The Times last week. “I like getting in and doing the work, being hands on. I’m rea...
DAYTON – It's hard to find the right person to ask about the juvenile fish pond at the Dayton City Park. Technically the city owns the pond and the water right that allows it to exist. The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife operates the pond because it's stocked by the state with trout annually. And Steven Martin, with the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board, has sometimes had a hand in managing it because his agency seeks to ensure we always have fish in our waterways. When citizens...
DAYTON – On Monday, March 16, Columbia County Commissioners will meet with the public to decide on the future of recreational marijuana businesses in the county. The board has scheduled a public hearing for 1:15 p.m. in the commissioners’ board room. A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will meet with commissioners prior to the hearing, at 10 a.m., in a meeting also open to the public. The county’s 15-month-long moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses expir...
DAYTON – John Garrett Waltermire, 24, was arrested Saturday after a short foot pursuit near East Jackson Street in Dayton. Waltermire was a suspect in the burglary of the Inland Cellular store on East Main Street here last week. Early on the morning of Monday, March 2, a burglar broke into the cellphone company’s retail store at 151 E. Main St. A witness reported hearing what sounded like a loud crash at approximately 4:30 a.m. Shortly thereafter the witness saw a male with a backpack run...
DAYTON – Members of Columbia County Fire District 3 are getting excited about the new fire station on Patit Road, with its 13,500 square feet and 16 truck bays, brand new living quarters for five firefighters, and enough offices for all the command staff. General contractor Joe Christensen, with G2 Construction out of Tri-Cities, is planning to have the $850,000 remodel of the old Columbia Rural Electric Association building complete by the end of this month. New Assistant Fire Chief Jeromy P...
DAYTON – Columbia County Prosecutor Rea Culwell spoke to the Dayton School Board last week during their regular board meeting in support of interim Secondary Principal Kate Wenzl. The district is in the hiring process right now for a permanent junior high/high school principal. Wenzl is one of four candidates for the position under consideration. "For the very first time in the eight years and two months I've been here, I have no new juvenile cases on my docket," Culwell told the board. She a...
DAYTON – Rick Turner has been the face of Columbia County Fire District 3 for nearly 20 years, but as of January 1, 2017, the chief will return to full-time farming and leave firefighting to the next generation of heroes. Taking his place as chief will be lifelong Dayton resident Jeromy Phinney. Monday was Phinney's first official day as assistant fire chief. He will shadow Chief Turner for the next 22 months, learning the full-time job of running this 45-person department with its four paid sta...
Sunday was opening day for the 2015 trout fishing season, and hundreds of fishermen, fisherwomen, and fisherchildren flocked to the Tucannon River valley for the event. By sun-up, the banks of Spring Lake, Blue Lake (pictured here), Rainbow Lake, and points further south into the Blues were lined with patient guests quietly - and not so quietly - casting and reeling in their lines. At Rainbow Lake, most of the vacant sections of shore were still frozen over on this cold morning. By 9 a.m....
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 – 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...
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 – 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...
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...
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 – 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...
