Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 589
DAYTON - More than seven years ago, Bulldog senior Heather (Lambert) Clarys tore her ACL in a state tournament basketball game in Spokane that ef- fectively ended her school athletics career. But it didn't dampen her passion for sports. After graduation, she went on to get a Bachelor's of Science in Exercise with a minor in coaching from Eastern Washington Uni- versity. She then worked as a personal fitness trainer in Tri-Cities. And now she's back, as her alma mater's new athletic director. Dayton's sports community couldn't be happier. "I...
WAITSBURG – For those who are familiar with Markeeta Little Wolf’s unique personal style, the way she views her garden should come as no surprise. “It’s like the way I dress,” she said during a recent interview at her home on Fourth Street. “Cowboy boots and a silk dress. Not everyone would dress like that. But I know what looks good on me.” As part of their monthly meeting Saturday, 20 members of the Waitsburg Garden Club toured the former entertainer’s lush landscape a few doors down from t...
WAITSBURG - Inspired by the metal work Dayton artist Yancey Yost did on the letters for the Times building, Coppei Coffee owner Allison Bond had him make a sign for her shop next door. The shapely cup in arrested rust was to be mounted above the door at a 90-degree angle to Main Street, much like the sign above the jimgermanbar a few doors up the street. By the time it was done, she had already invested about $1,000 in the sign's creation and was ready to put it up, so she went into City H...
WAITSBURG – When it comes to equitation, Doug Phipps has just about seen it all. For some three decades, the smiley, wiry figure you may have seen around town in his broad hat, jeans and boots has trained as many as 100 riders and as many horses around the world. From countries like Austria, Holland, Germany, Spain, France, Israel and here at home, he has led a number of them to world titles in Western Pleasure, Reining, Showmanship, Trail, Hunter Under Saddle and English Pleasure. But there’s...
When Gail Gwin was still a water color painter, her imagery was almost photorealistic. She would paint small granite rocks so perfectly defined you can almost hold them in your hand. In one composition, they are whimsically linked to finely ren- dered miniature furniture by lines and symbols reminiscent of a road map. In short, she had complete control over her objects and where she placed them in a three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional painting. Nowadays, as a printmaker, she still has...
DAYTON - Patricia Becker remem- bers the smell like it was yesterday. On an early fall morning three years ago, she went to her son's home to get it ready for his return from a week at the hospital in Walla Walla. When she opened the door, an unpleasant odor struck her nostrils and she discovered that raw sewage was coming into the house on East Patit through two floor drains in the basement. "It went all the way up to the wall," Becker, who owns 306 East Patit, said in an in- terview this...
DAYTON - Reactions to the unexpected departure of Columbia County Health Systems' CEO Dale Polla late last week were mixed. Less than a year on the job, Polla resigned on Thursday following a special executive session of the hospital district's board. Board Chair Lisa Naylor said the parting of ways was mutual. "There was agreement on both sides," she said. "He was a great person to keep things nice and steady, but in this changing world we wanted someone on the cusp of things." In the i...
WAITSBURG - Is the movie on your laptop freezing up? Can't have more than one person in your house gaming or watching videos at one time? Dropping too many Skype calls? Help is on the way as home and business owners can finally hook up to the NoaNet high-speed fiber optics cable that now runs through the Touchet Valley. Waitsburg's Touchet Valley Communications and Dayton's Touchet Valley TV offer download speeds so high applications for it have yet to be invented. But for now, speeds of up to 50 megs will help make streaming a lot more re...
WAITSBURG - In a town like Waitsburg, the start of fire season has an unmistak- able sound. It's not the tone of the Main Street siren, it's the frequency. If composer Claude De- bussy was right about music being the silence between the notes, the composition that announces the most ignitable time of year picked up sev- eral beats this weekend. And if local fire fighting officials are right about the conditions that can feed the flames, this summer could be more wor- risome than previous ones....
DAYTON - If this year's National Night Out at the Dayton City Park sounds like business as usual, it's true for the most part. About 1,000 people, almost half Dayton's population, are expected to turn out next Tuesday, Aug. 6, for the anti-crime, anti-drug event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch and local law enforcement. Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., some 40 exhibits will be on hand on the park lawn. There will be food, prizes and a movie as in years past. But one important a...
WAITSBURG - Megan Mor- rison found her prince long before she became a Princess. The member of the 2013 Waitsburg Court who hails from a household of few means, received 'Tex' as a gift three years ago from an older family friend who no- ticed the 12-year-old was the only one who could handle the feisty old rodeo horse. "Tex was picky," Mor- rison, now 15, said through her tears during a recent interview at an equestrian event in Walla Walla. "If he didn't like you, he'd let you know." The...
WAITSBURG - In his recent "Crops" column, Waitsburg writer and mar- ket analyst Gary Hofer noted that concerns over ge- netically engineered wheat found in an Oregon field are receding into recent memory. "No further presence of GMO wheat has been detected despite vigorous investigation," he wrote in his column published in the Times on July 11. And "Pa- cific Northwest white wheat growers are at least able to think about something other than the Monsanto GMO wheat controversies." But if growers...
STARBUCK -Thanks to more than a dozen vol- unteers who rolled up their sleeves at Lyons Ferry Ma- rina Thursday, the project that gives wheelchair users waterfront access is one step closer to completion. "It will be good once it's all said and done," Lyons Ferry Marina manager Jim MacArthur said. "This will be a nice addition." MacArthur said the facil- ity for persons with disabilities is still waiting for some additional funding to install a transition strip and safety barriers before it can...
WAITSBURG - From a distance, the giant steel structure north of Highway 124 between Waitsburg and Prescott looks like just an- other ag building going up. Other than its unusual size, there's nothing particu- larly different about the new shop, which is expected to house the big fleet of com- bines and semis belonging to 4MC, the McCaw family's farming partnership - or at least shelter the vehicles in need of repair. But its contractor and owners will tell you it turned out to be a bit more...
OKANAGAN - The Waitsburg Elite seeded second going into the playoffs after beating the Okanagan Commandos 27-6 in their last game of the regular season Saturday. They ended their first Washington Football League season with Waitsburg as their home with a 4-2 record. The orange home team will play the Spokane Wolfpack, which also ended the season 4-2, in the semifinals at Cardinal Field on Saturday at 7 p.m. "The season has flown by," team owner and quarterback George Martinez said. The Wolfpack, a team that has gotten its act toge...
WALLA WALLA - Beethoven's "Harp" is a feast for the ears and the eyes that elementary school kids in Dayton will soak up at the Columbia County Rural Library Friday as the annual Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival kicks off this week. The quartet composition, which has four movements, showcases the range of emotional and tonal adventures just a small group of players can take its listeners on. Each of the instruments - three violins and a cello - go off on their own musical journey before comi...
YAKIMA - There are two ways to look at the outcome of the state softball tournament for the WP Tigers: they went further than last year and ended up in the top 12, but they also traveled all the way to Yakima to get knocked out of contention by league rival DeSales. Despite high hopes that they could repeat their narrow upset of the Irish during the district playoffs, the Tigers went down against the Walla Walla team 5-1 on Sunday before the Irish themselves were rolled from the tourney by...
YAKIMA - It wasn't a championship game, but it felt like one. Up against the team that ended up winning the 2B title, the Dayton softball team's tenacity pushed the Saturday evening game against Toutle Lake into extra innings. It wasn't until the 9th that the Ducks finally pierced the Bulldogs' defense and broke the tie in what home spectators described as one of the best games of the state tournament. In the end, Dayton went down 5-1 against Toutle Lake but won against Asotin on Sunday b...
OLYMPIA - Thanks to a small Dayton delegation making the case before the state's Department of Com- merce here last week, Blue Mountain Station will get new funds to hook up to Dayton city sewer and en- sure that its largest prospec- tive tenant can operate in the business park. While construction of the first 6,900-square-foot build- ing began last week, Port of Columbia Manager Jennie Dickinson, future BMS tenant Reggie Mace, Dayton Chamber Director Brad Mc- Masters and Pacific Power's Bill Clemens traveled to the state capital to present...
DAYTON - Hoping to shake off its rocky past, the Dayton Farmers Market opens this Saturday with more vendors, a longer season and more marketing support than ever before, organizers said earlier this week. "I'm super optimistic," chamber director and board member Brad McMasters said. "Everybody seems ready and positive." Organizers and vendors are so geared up this year, they're starting the seasonal outdoor market early to take advantage of crowds expected to come to town for the Day...
SPOKANE - If the Lady Bulldogs' last two games of the regionals tournament Saturday were a struggle, the first matchup against Colfax showed them at their best. The 9-6 victory over the other "Bulldogs" secured a seed at state and placed Dayton fourth in District 7 & 9. In the end, a three-run homer from Jessica Tate ac- counted for the three-point margin that put the Lady Dogs over the top in their game against Colfax. "It was really cool," Tate said with an "H" smeared on both cheeks for her...
SPOKANE - While their home town celebrated 100 years of horse racing Saturday, the WP Tigers had a "real sport" celebration of their own 135 miles away. Fresh from wining the District 9 title in Walla Walla the previous weekend, the Waitsburg Prescott softball team proudly held up a second place regionals trophy at Merkel Field in Spokane. The Tigers placed high in the pre-state District 7 & 9 tournament after beating the Mary Walker Chargers 11-3 in the first game and cross- valley rivals Day...
WALLA WALLA - After their narrow 10-9 loss against district title winner WP Friday, the Lady Bulldogs could have hung their heads. They did come out a bit sluggish in the next game against Asotin and by the sixth inning, they were down 5-2. But they rallied when it was their turn in the sixth. When the game was tied in the bottom of the seventh and it was make or break, the Dayton girls' bats came through as well as their spirit. With some additional help from Asotin errors, Dayton won the...
WALLA WALLA - If there was one moment that sparked the WP Lady Tigers' momentum Friday, it was Sam Moss' catch on the fence in the third inning that shielded them against a third Dayton home run and marked the beginning of her team's comeback against the Bulldogs. Already behind 8- 0 against a Dayton team that obviously came to play, it was exactly the kind of catch the Tigers needed to retrieve their passion, find their groove and settle into the game. Moss caught the hit, then fell back...
PASCO - After their Monday night tie-breaker win over St. John-Endicott/ LaCrosse-Washtucna 8-5, the Dayton Bulldogs seemed ready to take on TriCities Prep Tuesday but "shot themselves in the foot" with errors, head coach Sal Benavides said after the game. "We weren't mentally ready," he said. "I thought we were. But we just didn't get it done today." The 10-1 loss was a disappointment to the young team. But the players, who nonetheless made it to the playoffs despite the odds, felt they l...
