Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 418
Thompson Is Still Not Done Giving To City WAITSBURG - We thought Bill Thompson couldn't have been more giving. But we were wrong. A longtime Waitsburg resident, Thompson passed away last September. The community truly mourned the passing of Thompson because of how much he contributed to our little community. He was involved in everything - the ambulance board, historical society, Masonic Lodge, Commercial Club, Lion's Club, fire department, Wheelers and spent years on the city council. Thompson...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night in a special meeting to make several cuts across the spectrum that will impact personnel, elective courses, counseling for students and other areas and will hopefully save the district $330,000 in 2012-13. "Everybody (will) feel the reduction," said Board Member Christy House. "It's not just teachers." The budget was recently re-evaluated because the district received new budget projections that showed a drop in student enrollment from more than 300 this year to 279.... Full story
WAITSBURG - A youth choir that has brought many Touchet Valley teens together for a positive purpose is embarking on its last tour after 15 years. Pastor Mike and his wife Melissa Ferrians of the Waitsburg Christian Church have turned 15 groups of local teens into a singing sensation. The final tour of the Salt & Light Music Ministry embarks June 15 and ends with a home performance on June 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Christian Church. "There's something about kids and music and getting them up there...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg city pool is a major operation of the city that drains revenue and the city council and mayor want to get some input on how to turn the cash cow into a money maker. Last Wednesday night, City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe provided the council and mayor with a list of proposed ideas on how the city could cut costs for the pool. It currently costs about $20,000 to run the pool during the summers, Hinchliffe said. Local pools in Prescott and Dayton don't have the same cost burdens for their cities because of dedicated...
DAYTON - Columbia County District Court is moving to a new location to gain some much-needed elbow room. Judge Scott Marinella, who presides over district court, said the office will be moving from its current home at the Columbia County Courthouse to the Port of Columbia Offices. The port had a vacant space and district court is preparing to move in soon. "We are still working on a date, but we are hopeful it will be in mid-May or the first of June, dependent upon the work being done in the building," Marinella said. "We outgrew our current...
PRESCOTT - The WP Tigers baseball team wasn't enough to keep up with the Weston-McEwen Tigerscots and lost, 9-2, at home on Tuesday afternoon. " They weren't ready to play," said WP head coach Dustin Snedigar. Snedigar said his team had a couple of sloppy innings and failed to capitalize on a couple of decent plays. It was a sunny day in Prescott, but it was awfully breezy, with wind whipping against the player's uniforms. The score was held at 0-0 all the way through the third inning, when...
PRESCOTT - Get your cowboy hats, boots and kids and head over to the Prescott Library this Thursday to enjoy a special performance of cowboy poetry by Bruce and Sue Matley, who call themselves, Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue. With the help of Humanities Washington, this special performance "Lasso Your Heritage! Cowboys and Cowgirls in Story & Song" will come to Prescott to honor Cowboy Poetry week, said Amy Rosenberg with the Prescott Library. The performance will be a historical narrative woven...
Green Thumbs And Kids Wanted WAITSBURG -- Rural Green Youth Enterprises, a Waitsburg non-profit focused on giving local teens entrepreneurial skills and focusing on whole, local food and green living, is looking for more volunteers and kids to expand its gardening operation this summer. The organization was created three years ago with the goal of providing our local teens with more activities to do in town, said Kathy Carpenter, the group's treasurer. Local moms and dads wanted to see more recr...
DAYTON - A group of Dayton students spent a day of their spring break to paint murals advocating for respect and the end of bullying. Amer icorps member Brittney Jacobs was assigned to complete a service learning project during her time working at Dayton Middle School and she had the idea to address a problem she has seen at the school - bullying. "It's something I personally see that needs help in the community," Jacobs said. Peggy Gutierrez, a prevention specialist with Blue Mountain Counselin...
WAITSBURG - The city of Waitsburg transportation benefit tax district was widely approved in the Tuesday night Special Election results. The district's approval will mean a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax increase for goods purchased within city limits. That money collected will go into a fund to maintain city streets. At a little after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the results showed 232 voted yes for the district and the tax increase, 75.08 percent, and 77 voted no, 24.92 percent. City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe had previously said the reason... Full story
DAYTON - Blue Mountain Station will soon be a flurry of activity. Blue Mountain Station, a proposed organic and natural foods processing facility and foodie attraction, has just been approved for $750,000 from the state legislature. And the Port of Columbia, which is behind the project, has a big to-do list. The ground was broken at the station's site in Dayton about this time last year. The site will hopefully one day have many buildings full of organic and natural food companies. And now,...
WALLA WALLA - A jury in Walla Walla late last week cleared an elderly Dayton man who hit and killed a Seattle cyclist last year of vehicular homicide. The not guilty verdict for Melvin Bohleen following his criminal trial in Walla Walla Superior Court Thursday drew praise from his attorney, who said the driver will nonetheless live with his regrets for the rest of his life. But the victim's surviving husband said in an interview last Tuesday night that he was disappointed with the outcome,...
MOSCOW - The WP Cardinal track and field team faced some tough competition last Friday and despite missing some key athletes who were competing at the Pasco Track Invite, still came out second overall for the men's team. The women's team placed tenth. WP traveled all the way to Bear Field in Moscow for the Moscow Twilight meet. WP faced Moscow, Grangeville, Lewiston, Logos, Pullman, Kamiah, Colfax, Potlatch, Highland C and Gar Pal/Colton. Head coach Jeff Bartlow said the weather was great on Friday and he was proud of his team. Standout...
PASCO - Last Saturday when the majority of the WP track team was competing in Moscow, a few select athletes were competing in the Pasco Invitational. In this big meet, WP's Seth Deal, a middledistance runner, and Eshom Estes, the Cardinal's all-star thrower, went up against the toughest athletes in the region. Middle-distance coach Joanna Lanning said Deal placed 26th out of 42 of the state's best 3,200 athletes from all classifications. "What was so terrific is that it was a personal record for... Full story
WAITSBURG - The 16th Annual Tour of Walla Walla bike race is returning to Waitsburg and Walla Walla this weekend and area competitive cyclists are getting ready for long rides and time trials. The three-day race event will bring out everyone from hobby racers to cyclists who "take it very seriously," said Steve Rapp, the race director. The race begins Friday on Lower and Middle Waitsburg roads and the cyclists will make two or three 21-mile loops. On Saturday morning in Walla Walla, there is a... Full story
DAYTON - The Studio is up and running at its new home. Patti Jo Amerein, 48, used to have a dance studio on Main Street in Dayton where she had been teaching dance to little ones since 2009. Now, her 22 students are heading to class in a new location over the Hammerdown Fitness gym on Cameron Street. Amerein's husband Chuck opened Hammerdown Fitness recently and built his wife her own studio above it. Her studio on Main Street had been closed for six or seven months during the construction of he...
DAYTON - Regional wireless phone service provider Inland Cellular opened a new office at 151 E. Main St. in Dayton last Monday. A grand opening for the office will be planned sometime next month. Gina Wilson, a regional sales supervisor, will be working out of the office. She had been working in the College Place location. Wilson is a Waitsburg resident who has been with the company for more than 7 years, according to a release from Inland Cellular. She is a graduate of Walla Walla High School...
DAYTON - Within one week of being part of the winning team at the regional robotics competition, Dayton High School's robotics team has raised the necessary funds for them to compete at nationals later this month. The team, led by DHS teacher Steve McLean raised $13,325 within one week to be able to attend the national competition - a competition they never thought they'd get to in their dreams. " The ( generosity) has been phenomenal and it has come from places we didn't know existed," McLean said of the money raised. Six local individuals...
DAYTON - For the first time last weekend, Dayton High School teacher Steve McLean took four of his students to a regional robotics competition and came home with a trophy. "It's something like I've never seen before in my life," McLean said. McLean and his students, Alex Eaton, Demitri Tziouvaras, Lincoln Riley and James Costello, traveled to Central Washington University with their robot last weekend to go up against teams from Boise, California and even Seattle. Local cities Rosalia and...
COLTON - The Lady Bulldogs were no match for the solid team from Colton High School. Dayton lost to the Colton Wildcats in a non-league doubleheader last Saturday, 16-6, and 10-0. In the first game, both were played on Wildcat turf, Dayton earned six runs, six hits and made seven errors. Colton had 16 runs, 10 hits and made no errors. Assistant coach Desirae Jones had said earlier in the week she knew Colton was a tough team and Saturday would be challenging for the Bulldogs. It turned out to be just as challenging as she had thought. " Colton...
PRESCOTT - It was a mixed bag Tuesday for the WP Tigers Softball team that came from behind in both games against Riverside, losing the first by one point, 9-8, and winning the second game, 15-10. "We had a lot of mental errors in the first game," head coach Angie Potts said. "The girls battle back when they're down." The WP Tigers didn't know what to expect from Riverside on Tuesday because they had never played them before, Potts said. In the third inning of the first game, the Tigers started... Full story
PRESCOTT - The WP Tigers blew by the Riverside Pirates Tuesday afternoon, 8-2. It was a pretty easy day for the Tigers. The home team held the Pirates to 0 points on the board all the way until the seventh inning. The Tigers had an awesome day stealing bases and WP pitcher Zach Bartlow was hot throughout and threw many strikeouts. Through the ace pitching and great Tiger offense, it seemed the Pirates couldn't buy a run. Bartlow stole second base after a single in the third inning. A great hit... Full story
DAYTON - Dayton High School senior Paisley DeSiga is bringing an improve comedy show to the Liberty Theater to raise money for the theater's new projector. The show, "An Evening in Improv" featuring The Blue Door Theatre, the Inland Northwest's premier improv group, will be at 7 p.m., Saturday at Liberty Theater in Dayton. Tickets are $10 each or $8 for students. "It has never before been done at the Liberty Theater," DeSiga said of her production . D eSiga, 17, has been working since October...
DAYTON - A Dayton man arrested in February under the charges that he committed two commercial burglaries and two attempted break ins around the city was sentenced last Thursday to 51 months in prison. Glen E. Dennison, 43, was arrested and booked into Columbia County Jail in mid-February. Dennison was a resident of the Patit Creek Congregate Care Facility, an assisted living residence in Dayton, according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. He was held and tried on charges of two counts of burglary of the second degree, two counts of attem... Full story
WAITSBURG - For the second year in a row, there won't be any horse racing in the Touchet Valley. In February, the Washington State Racing Commission asked our local tracks to submit the dates they would like to hold races, but neither Dayton nor Waitsburg put their names in, sources say. The board that organizes Dayton Days and the board that organizes Days of Real Sport cannot afford to host racing events this year because insurance costs have more than doubled from two years ago, said Terry... Full story
