Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 180
DAYTON – The city of Dayton is considering allowing licensed all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, on city streets. City Clerk Trina Cole said she has drafted an ordinance, with input from the council's safety committee, that will go before the city council, and the community at three public hearings, before the council will vote on it. The first hearing will be the Monday meeting next week at 7 p.m. Dayton resident and ATV aficionado Matt Wiens spoke to the city council last month urging city l...
DAYTON – For several months, community leaders have discussed plans for an after school program for Dayton school children. Planning has been a collaborative effort, and funding has not yet been secured, but the ball is still rolling. School officials tried, at the end of the school year, for a grant to help fund the program but were unsuccessful. “I think it would be a good thing to continue planning to meet and discuss options for the future of some type of program,” Superintendent Doug Johns...
Investigators are still searching for the cause of a fire late Sunday night that destroyed two homes on East Washington Avenue in Dayton. "Honestly I don't know if we'll ever find out what started it," Fire Chief Rick Turner, of Columbia County Fire District 3, told me on Monday afternoon. "We're still working on it, but the fire completely destroyed the house, and any little bit of evidence there was is probably gone." Nobody was injured in the fire, which started at 11:25 p.m. in an...
DAYTON – Many people in Columbia County know what it's like to wake to the sound of roosters crowing. Even in some parts of town. For the caffeinated at heart in Dayton, a rooster in the morning means so much more. It means fresh coffee, conveniently located right off of Highway 12 on the western edge of town, served by the chipper, smiling and often psychic Judy Rowland. "People hardly ever have to order," Rowland said, claiming that she has memorized 95 percent of her customers' favorite d...
DAYTON – Executives with the Columbia County Health System are in the final stages of hiring an architect for the Dayton General Hospital upgrade approved by voters with a $5.5 million bond levy last year. Chief Operations Officer Shane McGuire reported to the hospital district board last week that two architects had replied so far to the ad that ran in both The Times and Dayton Chronicle for the last two weeks. The timeline for the project is to have an architect selected before the next b...
WAITSBURG – Waitsburg resident Tysen R. Beckner, 25, was arrested last week in Idaho and now faces a felony charge of child assault in Walla Walla County Superior Court. Beckner was allegedly involved in a fight at the new Whiskey Creek Bar and Grill in Waitsburg on the night of June 17 during which his girlfriend, Waitsburg resident Shaylynn M. Johnson, was arrested on a warrant, according to court documents. According to relatives, Beckner was left in charge of two young children in the h...
DAYTON – Anyone driving Highway 12 can see it. The wheat fields are ripening quickly. Gone are the rolling green plains. In their place are fields of shorter-than-normal, already golden grains. And it's still June. The heavens haven't blessed the Touchet Valley with rain in quite some time. And with temperatures predicted to reach the triple digits over the weekend, any additional moisture to the ground before harvest is improbable. Local farmers have mixed feelings about the drought. The s...
DAYTON – Do you know your county building and permitting rules? Columbia County suggests you reacquaint yourself with them because officials have asked the planning department to brainstorm a way of “adding teeth” to current ordinances. Jake Davis, Greg Abramson and Kim Lyonnais, with the Columbia County Planning Department, presented information last Wednesday to commissioners on a county-wide problem with building-code violations. Dilemmas include everything from residents running unlicensed s...
DAYTON – The cause of death remains unknown in the case of Shirley "Ben" Gano, the 88-year-old Oregon man whose body was found near Starbuck last week, Columbia County Coroner Rea Culwell told The Times on Monday. Preliminary results from Monday's autopsy, however, indicate that the manner of Gano's death was natural, according to Culwell. More tests will be conducted, but at this time the cause of death could not be determined "due to the condition of the body," she said. Gano's body was locate...
DAYTON – Columbia County has filed criminal charges against county resident Darlene M. Savage, 70, alleging that she has been maintaining an unpermitted salvage or junkyard on her South Touchet Road property for over a year. The misdemeanor charge, filed in district court on June 12, followed a report signed by the Columbia County Planning Department Director Kim Lyonnais earlier that week stating that this particular property has been a problem since at least 2011. The junk, vehicles and o...
Dayton WWII veteran Owen Agenbroad (top photo) was the first Everyday Hero to tell his story last Thursday at the Dayton Memorial Library as part of this summer's reading program . . ....
WALLA WALLA – The Department of Ecology has made no official decision yet regarding a request that the Walla Walla Watershed Management Partnership be allowed to lease water from the Touchet Eastside-Westside Irrigation District temporarily. This request has been opposed by several groups locally. “There are some inherent problems with what they’re asking Ecology to do,” said Eric Hartwig, regional water master for the Washington State Department of Ecology. “We received 14 official letters o...
DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners signed the Blue Mountain Station development agreement last week with the Port of Columbia following an uneventful public hearing earlier this month. Little discussion took place regarding the 20-year plan for the property owned by the port just west of Dayton city limits. County commissioners unanimously agreed to the plan, which details how the phased development of Blue Mountain Station aligns with the county’s current comprehensive plan and zoning res...
Updated June 18, 2015 STARBUCK – Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller has released further details on the local search leading to the discovery of missing Oregon man Shirley “Ben” Gano, whose body was located in a ravine several hundred feet from his vehicle near Starbuck on Monday. Gano was last seen in Colville on May 30, driving home to Rainier, Ore, in his SUV – a blue BMW X5. For more than two weeks, law enforcement and citizens across the state aided Gano’s family in searching for the 8...
[Editor's note: Beginning this week, The Times will feature regular updates to the 2015 Drought, including interviews with water experts, farmers, ag specialists, climatologists, business owners, residents and others, to keep you informed on how the record-low snowpack this winter will impact us all in the coming months.] WALLA WALLA – Eric Hartwig is worried about what the rivers in the Walla Walla and Touchet valleys are doing. They are drying up – and fast. "We are setting all-time low flo...
DAYTON – Dayton resident John Garrett Waltermire, 24, was sentenced in early June to 12 months and one day in state prison after a year of multiple arrests, evasion from local law enforcement and months spent in the county jail. He admitted in Columbia County Superior Court several weeks ago to breaking into the Inland Cellular store in downtown Dayton on March 2, not long after his release from jail on bail after a separate burglary at the city dog pound in December. Waltermire was most recentl...
DAYTON – Cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, have been on the rise in Walla Walla County all year; this month Columbia County Public Health has confirmed a case of pertussis in a Dayton Elementary School student. It is the only case of whooping cough reported in Columbia County this year, but the disease is contagious and potentially life-threatening in infants and very young children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And even people who have been previously i...
DAYTON – Summer swimming is in full swing, and city staff have been working to ensure not only a good experience for guests to the Dayton City Pool but also save the city money. The city purchased a new chlorination system that is not only easier and safer to use but much more cost effective, according to pool manager Emily Schlenz. The original system consisted of 50-gallon barrels containing a concentration of about 12 percent chlorine mixed with water. Now workers use tablets that are a c...
DAYTON – Blue Mountain Counseling won't know for another week or so about the $25,000 State Farm grant it hoped to win with community support via online voting last month, but directors are determined not to let the outcome of the grant stop them from providing another year of summer recreation for local children. "Dimita (director of BMC) said one way or another we will have the Summer Youth program because this community needs it," said Laura Tolman, prevention coordinator with Blue M...
DAYTON – Thirty-four new adults venture forth into the world of adulthood this week. They are high-school graduates, award-winning scholars and high-caliber athletes. They are the Dayton High School class of 2015; and they are Bulldog proud. Last Saturday afternoon they received their diplomas, performed their speeches and tossed their caps into the air. They have completed all the many rituals of growing up in the Touchet Valley and are ready to take on the world. "Not to brag, but I think t...
DAYTON – What do knights in shining armor, a fire chief, a Columbia County Sheriff's deputy, a teacher and a World War II veteran have in common? They are all (or were, in their time) everyday heroes. And they will each make an appearance at Dayton Memorial Library this summer. "One of the nice things about living here so long is being able to pick up the phone and call someone to present for our program," said Carolyn Laib, the new children's librarian at Dayton Memorial. Laib has a full s...
Updated June 16, 2015 STARBUCK – Authorities located the body of missing 88-year-old Oregon man Shirley Benjamin "Ben" Gano in a steep ravine not far from his vehicle just north of Starbuck off Fletcher Road on Monday. Family members and law enforcement across the state had been searching southeastern Washington for Gano after he failed to return home to Rainier, Ore., from a trip to Colville at the end of May. During the next two weeks, Columbia County officials followed up on tips that Gano m...
DAYTON – Directors of the Columbia County Health System are moving forward with upgrades to Dayton General Hospital. The board unanimously agreed on Thursday that hospital district executives should secure an architect to draw up plans for the project using the Stroudwater report submitted to the board by an independent consultant firm in April. "It makes sense given the information we have," Director Lisa Naylor said, and other members of the board agreed. Financial reports prepared for the b...
DAYTON – When their son, 41-year-old Dayton High School graduate Robert "Rob" Anderson, died unexpectedly on July 31, 2013, Carol and Andy Anderson wanted to find some way to honor his memory permanently in his own hometown. Those who drive by or visit the Smith Hollow Schoolhouse, on N. Front Street, can now see this memorial – a combination bike rack and hitching post installed on the historic school's grounds. "We didn't want to do some big elaborate thing, but we thought this would work wel...
DAYTON – Watching Roslyn "Roz" Edwards read aloud to a group of children at the Dayton Elementary Library, where she has worked as librarian since the '90s, is like seeing her on the stage of the Liberty Theater, where she has performed in various roles for more than a decade. "She's funny because when she reads a book, she actually sounds like the characters," said Dayton third-grader Cami Martin. Exactly. She does all the voices. She interacts with her audience: "What is happening here? What's...
