Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 418
WAITSBURG - The wheat prices are soaring and local farmers are anticipat- ing harvest, getting ready to get the work done fast to take advantage of this historic high. J.E. McCaw, the Waits- burg branch manager of Northwest Grain Growers, said from July 2 through July 18, farmers have seen the price of white wheat raise from $7.13 to $8.38 per bushel. This $1.25 increase over 15 days is good news to local wheat farmers, McCaw said. Harvest has already started in the western part of Walla Walla...
WALLA WALLA - Walla Walla Attorney Scott Wolfram has always wanted to be a judge. Early in his career in 1982 he ran for Walla Walla County judge against a longtime incumbent. "I got slaughtered," Wolfram said with a laugh. "But it was a good experience." Now, 30 years later, Wolfram is running again for a judge posi- tion. With Judge Donald Schacht retiring, he said it is his time to move onto the bench for good. The decision to run for Superior Court Judge for Walla Walla County Department 2...
WAITSBURG - One Waitsburg property and business owner decided not having the city pool open on Saturdays was negative for the commu- nity and he has ponied up the cash to keep kids and families cool in the pool for every Saturday the rest of the summer. Charles Smith, who owns the Anchor Bar in Waitsburg and Charles Smith Wines in Walla Walla, said at the city council meeting last Wednesday he will pay for the Saturday pool costs to keep it available to the community on the week- ends....
WAITSBURG - With the first WP football game just five weeks away, School Board Chairman Ross Hamann said he is confident the new light system and press box will be installed by Aug. 31. "Anything we complete in advance of that is a bonus," he said. Colter Mohney, the fa- cilities, transportation and maintenance supervisor for the district, said last Friday the community will soon see progress. Pacific Power & Light was expected to be hanging the lights on the new poles Tues- day, July 24 at 9 a.m. How- ever, Mohney said Tuesday the power...
WAITSBURG - After five months of weighing different options for how to remove the dilapidated bunk house from city land, three parties interest- ed in the property may come up with a solution that puts money in the city coffers and actually could make everyone happy. The bunk house, formerly an apple-packing plant that collapsed in a storm in late 2011, was previously believed to contain asbestos or lead and removing it could have been costly for the city. In March, the council learned there was little or no toxicity from asbestos or lead and...
WALLA WALLA - Richard Wernette, who is running for Superior Court Judge for Department 2 in Walla Walla County, believes he would best fill the position because he has been in front of juries for 26 years. "I'm at my prime right now," Wernette, age 52, said. "I'm go- ing to go for it." Wernette, who grew up on a potato farm in the Southeast Idaho town of Firth, said he has wanted to be a lawyer since he was in high school. Even though he is very familiar with agricul- ture and rural cities, he...
DAYTON - For plead- ing guilty to squatting in vacant homes in the city of Dayton and eluding police for months, Daniel Baxter has been sentenced with 40 months in prison. Baxter, age 34, pleaded guilty in June and was sen- tenced last Thursday to give victims to his burglaries a chance to make comments. Baxter pleaded guilty to seven of the 28 total burglary- related charges in June. Those charges were making false or misleading statements to a law enforcement officer, five counts of...
WAITSBURG - When music teacher Rebecca Wilson was cleaning out some space in her closet she came across Waitsburg Marching Band uniforms that had been in retirement for nearly 30 years. Those red, cream and gold uniforms had been worn by hundreds of students from the 1950s through the mid- 1980s when the polyester and nylon formalwear was traded in for matching polo shirts. Part of the reason the band students no longer wear fancy uniforms is because marching bands aren't popular at small...
WAITSBURG - The Waits- burg School District board members and staff had hoped a large project that tore up the track and field to put in a new light system and press box would be completed before track season began this spring. But the project is not close to being done and the first foot- ball game of the season is just six weeks away. The school board approved the new lighting project in February, hoping to get it done before the beginning of track season so the track team wouldn't have to...
WAITSBURG - Nearly one year after a miniature-Main Street revival, some of Waits- burg's restaurants aren't getting enough local customers to keep their doors open. At least one is on the verge of closing its doors this summer, owners confirm. Last August, three new res- taurants had their grand opening and received an enthusiastic reception: Betty's Diner, the An- chor Bar and Coppei Coffee Co. (owned by the Times Publisher Imbert Matthee). Another eatery, La Monarca, also opened last summer. It's clear from talking to the owners that not...
PRESCOTT - Changes to the Walla Walla County Library District could mean facility ex- pansions and improvements at the Prescott and Vista Hermosa public libraries. Aletha Bonebrake, the in- terim executive director for the rural library district, said for years the rural district has had a con- tract for services with the public library in the city of Walla Walla. Because recently the city library and the rural district couldn't agree on a payment amount for the city library's services, the contract will expire in December and the partnership...
WAITSBURG - The Friends of the Weller Public Library have a bit of a prob- lem - there are few members and the current members are ready to move on. The friends members who are left are spreading the word about the library's needs hoping to gain more community support and new members who can commit to keeping Waitsburg's little library stocked with new books. Rosie Warehime, the li- brary's manager, said the friends have only held a couple of meetings this year and there's not much interest at the present time in new people joining the board....
PRESCOTT - Two Prescott School District mothers received some much-deserved praise last month for their vol- unteer work. Berenice Mendoza and Maria Sanchez are two mothers who live in Vista Hermosa and have children who attend school in Prescott. Mendoza and Sanchez were honored as outstanding parent volunteers at the Southeast Washington Association of School Administrators Honor- ary Awards Banquet on June 16 at the Meadow Springs Country Club in Richland. "I don't think there are enough word...
WAITSBURG - For those who love the amber waves of grain in Waitsburg, you may be interested in staying a weekend in a grain elevator turned home. The grain elevator on Lewis Peak Road outside of Waitsburg has become a landmark for the area when it was turned into a home 10 years ago by Bob and Jan Ash. Jan Ash said her husband is both an artist and a builder and when the 1942 grain elevator came up for sale, he believed that he could turn it into a won- derful home. "He has vision," Jan Ash...
WAITSBURG - Chad and Nicholas Pearson say they view the world differently after a recent trip performing missionary work, building houses and fixing toilets in the South American country of Guatemala. The Waitsburg High School incoming juniors, both age 16, visited Guate- mala City, Antigua, Panaja- chel and a couple of small villages from June 17 through June 30. Traveling outside of the United States the first time and seeing poverty up close, made the Pearson brothers more grateful for what...
Residents Organize An All-American Parade Second Annual Fourth Of July Parade Brings Out A Modest Crowd To Honor The Holiday And Veterans W AITSBURG - As the fire siren sounded on top of the Waitsburg Fire Depart- ment last Wednesday, the former soldiers and some friends and family members began to march. Cougar Henderson kept the pace on the drum and the veterans honorably held their flags high in the air as they paraded at a slow, reverent pace down Main Street. For the small Fourth of July...
WAITSBURG - Burn bans have been set for the Touchet Valley, Firefighters are spending extra time training and preparing tenders and trucks with the hope that this summer will be a quiet fire season. The Fire District 2 burn ban for Waitsburg and the surrounding area began on July 1. The Fire District 3 burn ban for Columbia County began July 9. The bans will last through mid- September. Fire District 3 Chief Rick Turner said the Touchet Valley is a very dry and flammable area with lots of gr...
WAITSBURG - Wheat har- vest in the Touchet Valley area is expected to be a couple of weeks later than usual again this year, but the wheat looks long and robust and should provide some great returns for local farmers, they say. Last year, the wheat harvest took place at the end of July because of wet, spring weather. The typical start date for harvest is about the middle of July. JE McCaw, the Waitsburg branch manager of the Northwest Grain Growers, said this year our rainy June has pushed the s...
WAITSBURG - Despite some recent cold, wet weather, attendance numbers at the public swimming pools in Prescott, Waitsburg and Day- ton are holding steady. Len Conlee, the manager at the Prescott pool, said the facility opened on June 9 and "we've been doing pretty well." The pool offers swim les- sons and water aerobics and is open seven days a week. The pool is averaging 15 to 20 swimmers during open swim each day, he said. And on a hot day, the pool has seen as many as 125 swim- mers. "It...
YAKIMA - Being head coach for the East football team in the Earl Barden Classic all-star football game on June 23 was a career highlight for WP head football coach Jeff Bartlow. The annual game, which puts East side athletes against West side athletes in one all-star event, was six months in the making. After leading WP to the state football title in December, Bart- low said he found out he was selected to be the head coach of the East side team for this year's big match-up in Yakima. But, he...
PRESCOTT - WP's head boys basketball coach and assistant football and baseball coach TJ Scott is moving on to a new job in Alaska. Scott completed his student teaching at Prescott and has been teaching phys- ical education and work- ing as a para educator for the past three years while coaching for all seasons. On Aug. 10, he is off to Metlakatla, Alaska, near Ketchikan, to teach physical education, serve as an athletic director and continue his coaching career. Scott said he loves the Prescott...
WAITSBURG - Waits- burg graduate Fletcher Bak- er's senior project delved into one of the reasons why Waitsburg is "One-Of-A- Kind" - its unique territorial charter the city continues to abide by. Baker, age 18, served as the student representative on the Waitsburg City Council for one year. He said it was advised that he work on a senior project that he was interested in and that was government. Baker has participated in Youth and Government through Waitsburg High School and was part of the...
PRESCOTT - The Prescott School District grew by 132 students in the 2011-12 school year, and with the extra money from the state because of the higher enrollment, the district's 2012-13 budget remains solid. Superintendent Dr. Bill Jordan said the budget for next year will be very conservative because the district does not know how the enrollment in the district will continue to fluctu- ate. The school board unani- mously passed the new, status quo budget last Thursday. In 2012-13, revenues are projected to be $4,071,908, which is $3,272 more...
WAITSBURG - About 50 years ago, five local Waitsburg teens brought long hair and rambunc- tious rock 'n' roll to the Touchet Valley with their band LSD & The Adicts. The band played in Waitsburg, Prescott, Walla Walla, Dayton, Milton-Freewater, Ore., Pend- leton, Ore., and a few members even made some trips to Seattle and San Francisco hoping to score a record deal. Today, four of those original five, Dr. Randy Pearson, Mi- chael Hubbard, Robert Maib and Clint Donley have remained in the...
PRESCOTT - Amid con- cerns that the city of Waitsburg may be further reducing its public safety coverage from the Walla Walla Sheriff's Office under a new contract, some resi- dents say they are ready to start a neighborhood crime watch to cover the gaps. At the Sheriff's Roundtable last Thursday at the Prescott School Library, residents told Undersheriff Edward Freyer they are worried about the crime rate in Waitsburg and what will hap- pen if the patrol coverage drops. "Where is Waitsburg...
