Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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WAITSBURG - When you mix turkey bingo, a dash of Christmas shopping, a visit with Santa Claus and a lighted parade you get Waitsburg's favorite way to ring in the holiday season. The annual Hometown Christmas events begin this Saturday and run through Monday night. "The nice thing about Hometown Christmas is that it's the same every year," said Joy Smith, the president of the Waitsburg Commercial Club. The festive events kick off with turkey bingo in Town Hall at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Doors open...
WAITSBURG - At the beginning of this school year, school staff members began hearing complaints that students weren't eat- ing enough to feel full and energized after lunch. Now, some local schools are stepping up to accommodate kids and prevent their tummies from rumbling in fourth period. Susan Wildey, the food services supervisor for the Waitsburg School Dis- trict, said in September the amount of food offered for breakfast and lunch by the district's cafeterias has been reduced this school year. The change in nutritional guidelines for all...
WAITSBURG - Robbie and Mari- lyn Johnson hope the person who buys the Plaza Theatre from them will bring it to life for the community. The couple put the mission-style theater on the market recently for $499,000. "We know that there are people out there (who want it)," Robbie Johnson said. "We hope there's somebody who has the vision." The Johnsons purchased the Plaza on April 1, 2004, from the Sickle Family and have spent the last eight years renovating the apartment upstairs, the bathrooms...
WAITSBURG - A lifelong dream has come true for Waits- burg High School student Beka Adams. Ever since she was a little girl, Adams said she dreamed of being part of the Walla Walla Fair and Frontier Days Royalty Court and now, at age 16, she beat out the competition for a spot. Adams, the daughter of Ann and Lanny Adams, said her big- gest influence in being on fair courts was her older cousin who was Miss Pro West in the 1990s. "She was my inspiration," Adams said. Adams, who has been riding...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg Historical So- ciety recently received a $1,000 grant to make some major headway on a new exhibit at the Wilson- Phillips House. Jeff Broom, the presi- dent of the group, said the Blue Mountain Community Foundation gave the money to the society to help it complete an ex- hibit in the Wilson-Phillips House garage on Waits Mill, the town's namesake. The society applied for the grant last spring, Broom said, and now the group will focus on getting some work done on the ex- hibit this winter. "We'll do it as we find the...
WAITSBURG - The Leos Club at Waitsburg High School is hoping you'll clean out your cup- boards, do an extra grocery run or write a check to help meet its goal of collecting 500 pounds of food on Thursday, Nov. 8. Leos Club President Emma Philbrook said the club will split the community into four equal parts and each part will be assigned a class at the high school and the food drive will be turned into a class competition. "The class with the most - wins," Philbrook said. Each group of students...
WAITSBURG - It has been estimated that as much as 80 percent of childhood learning is done with the eyes, according to the Opto- metric Physicians of Wash- ington. When a child's vision is not functioning properly, education and participation in sports can suffer. This is why Dr. Angela Ferguson, an optometrics physician, brings a small staff with her once a year to Waits- burg Elementary School to provide free vision checks for students. "If you can't see well, you can't learn as well,"...
Hewitt Tops Nettles For Senate Dozier Beats Blackman For Commissioner Talbott Edges Out Bensel For Commissioner WAITSBURG - Mike Talbott edged out a narrow victory over Tom Bensel for Columbia County Commissioner District 1 Position 1. Talbott came out on top of the General Election last Tuesday by a margin of only 117 votes. One hundred thirty-eight ballots are estimated left to be counted on Nov. 9, which could impact this close race. Talbott came out ahead last Tuesday night with 1,029...
CLARKSTON - WP's varsity men's team is off to state! Coach Joanna Lanning said she was thrilled all seven of her varsity men competed together for the first time at the 1B/2B District 7/9 Cross Country Championships last Saturday in Clarkston. "In my nine years of coaching cross country I never seen effort like I did Saturday," Lanning said. "It was exciting and inspiring." The men's varsity teams were led by Tri Cities Prep. WP came in fifth place overall, which qualified the team to compete...
WAITSBURG - The pub- lic works crew for the City of Waitsburg is almost done with a two-year project to remove vegetation from the city's Touchet River levee that would hold back high water and hopefully protect the city from flooding. However, after the veg- etation removal is finally complete, the city still has a laundry list of to-dos ordered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring the levee up to the current requirements. Waitsburg City Ad- ministrator Randy Hinchliffe said there is no...
WAITSBURG - Cans for a penny drive and other fundraisers are popping up around Waitsburg for the Preston Hall students who are trying to pay their way to Washington, D.C. Teacher Maddie Martin said right now she has three kids and three adults who have signed up to raise $2,000 a piece to travel to the East Coast to learn more about the country's history next spring. The group will leave on the trip June 18-22. The $2,000 covers airfare, room and board and the tours the group will take part of. The tour group will spend two days in...
WALLA WALLA - When about 20 women take the stage in harmony the sound sure is sweet. The Blue Mountain Chorus Sweet Adelines have been hitting the high and low notes since 1975 and have several awards to prove their musical chops. Just this year the group placed third for small chorus at the annual contest the group participates in. The Sweet Adelines proved their musical skills to the community in their recent Broadway music con- cert last weekend in Walla Walla. Chorus member and Waitsburg...
PRESCOTT - The Prescott Public Library is offering up a way for community members to make friends and get noses in good books with its second year of book club. Book club will meet once a month, for the first time at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 at the library. Amy Rosenberg, the branch supervisor, said the first book to kick off the year will be "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. At the first meeting, the group will decide on the rest of the books members will read and set a meeting schedule,...
PENDLETON - Two WP cross country athletes came out on top last Saturday and placed first in a large meet in Pendleton, Ore. Both Seth Deal, a senior on the varsity men's team, and Emily Adams, an eighth grader on the middle school team, placed first in their respective races last Saturday at the Kyle Burnside Wildhorse Meet. "I was very proud of all my athletes, said WP coach Lanning. "You could see the determination and effort on all their faces as they came into the finish line chute." The...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council last Wednesday night voted to raise a tax levied when property in the city is sold to raise about $10,000 to help operate the city pool. A public hearing was held last Wednesday be- fore the vote, but no citi- zens commented on the tax. The tax is real estate excise tax that is typically paid by the seller when property in Waitsburg is sold. The rate of the tax was previously a quarter of one percent, or $2,500 on a $100,000 home and is paid with the...
WAITSBURG - The most recent contract proposal the Waitsburg City Council took a look at last Wednesday reduces the amount the city is paying the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office cur- rently by 36 percent and reduces services by 38 percent. Councilman KC Kuyken- dall told Sheriff John Turner last Wednesday that if the city of Waitsburg is already being patrolled in the deputies' daily beat, "I can't figure out for the life of me why we couldn't cut the contract." Kuykendall said for $125,000 a...
WAITSBURG - An un- usual governor-mandated burn ban in all counties followed by a spurt of wet, windy weather has frustrated local farmers who are afraid they won't get their seed in the ground before the cold weather sets in. Both Walla Walla and Columbia counties had been under a local burn ban since early July. These local burn bans are annual bans set by the area fire districts, and farmers must wait every year until these bans are lifted to do any agricultural burning. And at the end of September, when the local fire districts lifted their...
WAITSBURG - Both WP and Dayton showed up on Kison Court ready to play last Tuesday night, but Dayton had more en- ergy and took the win in four sets, 25-23, 25-27, 25-17, 25-17. The Lady Cardinals won the second of the four sets. WP head coach Angie Potts said Tuesday night her team played well because they're work- ing better together on the court. "They're playing as a team now, which I think is the differ- ence," she said. The first set of the night was plagued early on with serving errors...
WAITSBURG - As cold weather sets in, more fami- lies struggle to make ends meet and more families are turning up needing extra food at the Waitsburg Resource Center. Pastor Bret Moser of the Waitsburg Presbyterian Church said the center is now helping 10 more fami- lies than it did at this time in 2011. Bethany Moser, the chairwoman of the board for the center, said as of Septem- ber, the center is providing food and household necessities to 65 families in the Waitsburg area, or a total of 157...
PRESCOTT - A four- alarm brush fire south of Prescott burned about 1,200 to 1,400 acres the evening of Oct. 2, officials say. District 7 Fire Chief Tim Mayberry said the fire start- ed about 7 p.m. and crews were on scene until about 10:30 p.m. The blaze was located off of Brown Road on the hill above the city. "It was a very-fast mov- ing fire," Mayberry said. "The wind took it and spread it out pretty good." No one was injured and no structures were burned, he said. The nearest resi- dence was about three-quar- ters of a mile away and it was...
RICHLAND - WP run- ners kept up with the pack last Saturday in Richland at an invitational against 60 middle school and high school teams full of tough competition. The highlight of the day for WP cross country coach Joanna Lanning was seeing middle school runner Em- ily Adams blaze past the competition in the 2-mile middle school race with first place and a time of 13:06.75. Even suffering from a cold, Lanning said Adams was in it to win it. "Just before the finish line (Adams) passed the runner in first place beating her by less than 2...
WAITSBURG - The WP volleyball team fell to WWVA in three sets last Tuesday night in Dayton. The Knights proved too much for the Cardinals, despite an early rush of energy and a solid second set. The Knights were victorious, 25-17, 25-21, 25-11. In the first set on Kison Court Tuesday night, the Lady Cards were pumped up and keeping up with the Knights. Serving errors on both sides of the net added points to the opponents' scores. Great spikes from WWVA's Megan Gregg helped the Knights clinch...
WAITSBURG - Ta- vis Crittenden, who has coached youth basketball in the Walla Walla area, has been selected as the new WP head men's basketball coach. The previous coach, TJ Scott, resigned last summer. Scott moved to Metlakatla, Alaska, near Ketchikan, to teach physical education, serve as an athletic director and continue his coaching career. Interviews for the coach- ing position were held last week and it was announced Thursday that Crittenden was given the job. "Tavis comes to us with...
PRESCOTT - The Prescott School Board last week appointed a new school board member for area no. 4, Ada Gonzalez- Hernandez. "We look forward to working with Ada as she joins the Prescott School Board representing Director District no. 4," Super- intendent Bill Jordan said. "Ada not only brings the experience and dedication of her involvement in the Vista Hermosa commu- nity, but also brings the important perspective of a parent with four children in the school system." Gonzalez-Hernandez, in her interview with the school board last Thurs- day,...
PRESCOTT - The Walla Walla County Sher- iff John Turner visited the Prescott City Coun- cil meeting last Monday night with ideas to improve the specifics in the city's law enforcement contract as well as suggesting a school resource officer be shared between Waitsburg and Prescott schools. Turner presented crime statistics gathered in Waitsburg and Prescott in 2011 and 2012 and looked at the differences between the city contracts. Waitsburg's is specific, with a set number of patrol hours....
