Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 180
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...
DAYTON - Residents of the Touchet Valley and across southeast Washington lost phone and Internet service for several hours on Friday when a CenturyLink fiber line was reportedly cut. Columbia County residents lost the ability to call 911 for over two hours, until the Columbia County Public Safety Communications Center was able to get 911 calls rerouted to an emergency call center in Everett, according to Columbia County Emergency Manager Lisa Caldwell. The outage began at approximately 2 p.m., a...
DAYTON – Although the board didn’t take official action last week, the Dayton School District has announced that it intends to place an $800,000 capital-improvement levy on the April 10 ballot. “The board hasn’t taken action yet because the resolution and ballot measure are still being written,” said Superintendent Doug Johnson. “But unofficially they said, ‘Yeah, this is a good thing to do.’” The board will vote on the official language and timing of the ballot measure at its regular Feb. 4 me...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Health System board of directors decided last week to hire an outside firm to help them determine how best to spend the $5.5 million bond approved by voters in November. The hospital district will contract with Stroudwater Associates, a national firm whose consultants design solutions for healthcare, according to Interim CEO Jon Smiley. “They will evaluate our need and provide us with recommendations,” Smiley said. The assessment conducted by Stroudwater will cost...
DAYTON – Dayton resident Marshall Hernandez, 53, of 605 Country Village Court, has been arrested on suspicion of arson, reckless burning, and possession of stolen property. Hernandez was arrested last Thursday morning without incident, after it was reported that he had set fire to a fifth-wheel travel trailer, a residence and a bag of garbage in the 200 block of South Willow Street in Dayton. Residents at the location were able to extinguish the fires before any major damage was caused. The f...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Health District's board of directors will decide Thursday whether to hire an outside firm to help them determine how best to spend the $5.5 million bond approved by voters in November. "We really need to be good stewards of the public dollar," said Ted Paterson, a member of the board. "That's why we're looking at turning to an outside firm before we race into selecting an architect and a contractor and progress into a final design." In November, voters in the h...
DAYTON – A 2013 report published by the Washington State Department of Health states that one in six adults in Columbia County currently smokes cigarettes. Bearing those statistics in mind, the Columbia County Health System's Wellness Program each January is focused on tobacco cessation. Beginning next week, CCHS is offering a "5 Days to Quit" class that is open to the public. The classes, taking place from Jan. 26-30, will be from 7-8 p.m. in the cafeteria at Dayton General Hospital. R...
DAYTON – Have you ever wondered who pays for those gorgeous baskets of flowers that hang in downtown Dayton through the spring and summer? Or who is responsible for the creation of the new playground located next to the Dayton Historic Depot by the caboose? One part of the answer is the dedicated members of the Dayton Development Task Force and its partner organizations; the other part is – you. The task force, which has been working to improve downtown Dayton over the last 31 years, is a tax...
DAYTON – Although developmental disability services for eligible Columbia County residents are no longer administered locally, Walla Walla County coordinators were "delighted" to share with county leaders last week that a local woman, Mary Ann Ward, will lead Columbia County's employment services program. Ward, who provides employment support at the Lillie Rice Center, in Walla Walla, is well known in Dayton. Columbia County Commissioners were pleased to hear that Ward would coordinate local e...
DAYTON – Matthew Warren is an 18-year-old with a goal, one he has worked hard to realize and is on the brink of reaching. This Dayton High senior hopes to work someday as an agricultural commodities trader with an emphasis in Chinese language and business. "I see a lot of opportunity in studying Chinese," he said. "China is a developing country that has the largest market in the world yet still has a lot of third-world conditions waiting to be improved." Warren wants to study international busin...
DAYTON – More than two dozen Dayton residents have banded together to support the permanent hiring of Dayton Middle and Senior High School Principal Kate Wenzl. They call themselves "Keep Kate," and last Wednesday they appealed to the Dayton School Board to do just that. "As a group, we just want you [the board] and her [Wenzl] to know that we support her and hope you decide to keep her where she is," said Dayton resident Mary-Jeanne Smith. Smith also apologized to the board, on behalf of the g...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Commissioners decided last week to establish regular workshops in addition to their twice-monthly board meetings. The workshops will begin in February and take place from 10 a.m. until noon every Monday in the commissioners’ board room on the third floor of the courthouse. The commissioners will also meet from 1-3 p.m. on the second Monday of each month to tour various county road projects and other major developments. The commissioners did not indicate how long the...
DAYTON – In November, voters approved the Columbia County Hospital District’s $5.5 million bond levy measure for major renovations to Dayton General Hospital. This winter, the district hopes to establish its game plan for the project. On Wednesday, the district’s board of directors will meet with hospital and clinic staff, a Washington Hospital Association facilitator, and interested members of the public at an all-day retreat beginning at 8 a.m. in the Best Western Hotel on East Main Street in...
DAYTON – The Columbia County Commissioners have agreed to "begin the process of switching power providers" for the Columbia County Courthouse and county public works building from Pacific Power & Light to Columbia Rural Electric Association. The unanimous decision to move forward on the change came during a special meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 31, in the commissioner's board room. It was Commissioner Chuck Reeves's last day in office. "I'm ashamed that we've fiddled and diddled for this long and h...
DAYTON – The city of Dayton will ask for voter approval of a sales and use tax increase this February to help maintain city streets. The increase would raise sales tax by two-tenths of 1 percent, or 20 cents for every $100 spent on taxable items in Dayton. The special election ballots will go out to voters on Jan. 23, and voting will be completed on Feb. 10. A simple majority, or at least 50 percent, voter approval is required for the measure to pass. This will be the only item on ballots. What...
DAYTON – Dayton resident Joshua A. Roska, 33, was arrested on Monday, Dec. 29, as part of an ongoing investigation into a 2011 gun theft. The firearm, a Walther P22 pistol, was taken in October 2011 from a tent at the Shangri-La RV Park on Rose Gulch Road, west of Dayton on Highway 12. Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputies, with the help of officers from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, executed a search warrant at 125 W. Patit Avenue, in Dayton, last Monday afternoon aft...
WAITSBURG – A Waitsburg man was arrested Sunday afternoon and is being held in Walla Walla on suspicion of committing a string of recent, local burglaries. Mason James Bates, 31, was charged in a preliminary hearing Monday with two counts of residential burglary, theft in the third degree, malicious mischief in the third degree, and possession of burglary tools. A resident of Waitsburg's W. 6th Street contacted Walla Walla County deputies Sunday after he discovered his home had been b...
DAYTON - Columbia County Commissioner Charles "Chuck" Reeves will attend his last meeting as one of the top elected officials in the county on Dec. 31. After 20 years of attending meetings and making decisions, Reeves is looking forward to "just a regular full-time work week." "You just get tired," he said. "I have things I want to do, and I just don't have time to do them." Reeves, who owns and operates the Dayton Veterinary Clinic with his wife, Kennie, began his Columbia County political care...
DAYTON - The Dayton School District has elected to interview additional candidates for the position of secondary principal at the recommendation of Superintendent Doug Johnson. Last month the school board authorized a series of public meetings aimed at helping them decide whether to offer Interim Principal Kate Wenzl the permanent position or open the job to outside applicants. Wenzl is a top choice, Johnson said following last week's school board meeting, but a thorough and competitive selectio...
DAYTON - Columbia County Commissioners nearly settled the question of which power company to use for its two main facilities in Dayton during the regular board meeting last week. For nearly a year the governing body has been considering a switch from Pacific Power & Light, which currently provides utilities to the Columbia County Courthouse and the Columbia County Public Works building, to Columbia Rural Electric Association. The commissioners have argued that the change would not only save the...
DAYTON - How many of us recall fondly the hot lunches of our early school days? Movies and television shows depicting lukewarm mystery meat and grayish slop dashed onto plastic trays might be a touch melodramatic, but the image is grounded in somebody's reality. Right? Well, Dayton School District has hired a new chef who appears to be dispelling those lunchroom myths, and Superintendent Doug Johnson says the numbers prove it. "Just today we served our highest lunch count of the year - 253 stude...
DAYTON – An advocate is someone who offers public support for someone else, and victims often need this support more than most people. Victims of domestic violence and sexual assault (both male and female) face the additional burdens of sometimes humiliating medical procedures, bewildering and painful court proceedings, and an uncertain future. So in 2003, the Walla Walla YWCA, an organization founded on advocacy, opened an office in Columbia County and brought to Dayton a local victims’ advocat...
DAYTON - Dayton School District Superintendant Doug Johnson has requested that the Dayton School Board consider hiring Kate Wenzl as permanent secondary principal. "Mrs. Wenzl has demonstrated the leadership skills required to be considered for the district's continuing position of Junior Senior High School Principal," Johnson said Thursday. During the regular school board meeting last Wednesday, Johnson proposed a series of meetings, or interviews, between Wenzl and members of the board, the...
DAYTON - Every experience in life is an opportunity for learning, and that's the goal with Lemonade Day, said Dayton sixth-grade teacher Jeff McCann. Friday, in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week and the launching of local entrepreneur-support program Start Up Columbia County, 26 Dayton sixth graders embarked on a journey of business-oriented learning that will conclude on May 2, 2015, with real lemonade stands constructed and operated in the community by the students. "I think it is...
DAYTON - Come early, is the advice for those planning to attend the 28th annual Dayton Kiwanis Turkey Bingo on Saturday. Doors to the Dayton Elementary School Multi-Purpose Room open at 3 p.m., but people begin lining up by 9 a.m., according to event chair Ted Paterson. The first person in line receives a free turkey, but don't worry if you can't get there before the 4 p.m. game start time, because Kiwanis plans to give away at least 130 turkeys to Bingo winners this year before the event ends...
