Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 376 - 400 of 418
STARBUCK - More than 40 residents of Starbuck packed the small, dimly lit Community Church last Thursday to voice their concerns and disapproval of the postal service's study of whether to close the Starbuck Post Office. "This is a study, it's not a done deal," said Carol Rebstock, a United States Postal Service operations manager from the Spokane area. Rebstock and Doreen Karoly, from the Seattle office of USPS, hosted the meeting to let the residents of Starbuck know their options if the postal service does decide to shut down their post...
WAITSBURG - The Henze hunting party got its first deer of the season Monday morning. The five men from Waitsburg and Aberdeen flushed out the 4-point white tail buck by spreading out around the brush on privately owned wheat lands north of town after walking the fields for more than a mile from the nearest road. It was a cool dewy morning, the sun barely up to illuminate the gently sloping landscape around them. It didn't take them long to spot the buck, to make sure it was large enough to...
About Needs & Good Deeds WAITSBURG - With plenty of fanfare on Friday night on Waitsburg High School's football field, students from Dayton High School and students from Waitsburg stretched paperlink chains across the field. Each link in those chains represented one dollar raised for the American Cancer Society. The society fundraiser was the first Dayton versus Waitsburg money-raising battle in recent memory, said Denise Winnett, an administrative assistant at Waitsburg High School. Winnett...
WAITSBURG -- It has been 25 years since Markeeta Little Wolf has belted out songs with her powerful voice to an audience. Little Wolf performed on TV, in club acts and even on the theater stage in musicals from age 12 to 28, when she gave it all up to sell real estate and have a different kind of life. Little Wolf, now 53, realized about one year ago that she still has one more show in her, she said. And she's been working since on songs, lighting and costumes to give her friends in Waitsburg a...
WAITSBURG - For the first time, Dayton and Waitsburg high schools are in a paper war. Both schools are raising money for the American Cancer Society and constructing paper links into long chains to represent each dollar they have raised. The big revealing of the chains is at halftime at the Waitsburg-Dayton football game on Oct. 7 at Waitsburg. Whoever's chain is the longest will win bragging rights for one year. "This has raised school spirit and pride and both schools are earning money for a good cause," said Shannon Turner, the ASB adviser...
DAYTON - Despite great weather, the Columbia County Fair held Sept. 9-11 in Dayton didn't bring in the amount of visitors that organizers had hoped. Fair Manager Shane Laib said the happiest person during fair weekend was the ice cream man because the hot weather boosted his sales. Overall, ticket sales were about the same as last year, not reaching the 5,000 person goal Laib had described before the fair. Laib said the fair sold more single day passes than season passes and the fair will look at changing the cost structure next year to get...
DAYTON - Dayton had its moment in the sun on Saturday as it displayed the best it has to offer including historic homes, flourishing businesses and plenty of local art for its event Dayton On Tour. Visitors had a chance to pick up a guidebook and walk into historical homes in town that had recently been renovated. Jennie Dickinson, a volunteer for the Dayton Historic Depot, said the home tours are her favorite part of Dayton on Tour, especially the Broughton Mansion this year. "It's like a...
DAYTON - Colleen Sproul and Jeff Monyak, two Dayton residents challenging current Columbia County Health District board members in November's election, will host meet and greet events on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Monyak is challenging incumbent Jack Otterson, of Waitsburg, for position 5. Otterson has held the seat for eight years. Sproul is challenging incumbent Blaine Bickelhaupt, of Dayton, for position 2. Bickelhaupt has been on the board for six years. The first meet and greet event will be held...
Heart BEAT About Needs & Good Deeds W AITSBURG - Walking past the schools in Waitsburg last week, I heard squeaking and honking. It wasn't ducks or geese in town, it was the school children. I figured it must have been band day or music class at the middle school. The kids were laughing and blowing their instruments as hard as they could. I smiled ear to ear because I do not find this obnoxious, but wonderful. It reminded me of my first time picking up my flute in fifth grade band and trying to...
DAYTON - Work was underway this week on beginning the revitalization of Commercial Street in Dayton by coming up with a new master plan that will improve the way the area looks, flows and hopefully draws more tourists and businesses to the area . A group of four specialists was selected to help Dayton's Development Task Force come up with a comprehensive plan for Dayton's Commercial Street corridor from the Touchet River to the Seneca plant. Dougherty Landscape Architects from Eugene, Ore., was...
DAYTON - The new leader of the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association, Marshall Doak, was introduced to business owners and comm unity membe r s at the Economic Development Steering Committee meeting in Dayton on Friday. Doak will also lead the Palouse Regional Transportation Planning Organization. The board interviewed five final candidates for the top job and Board Member Jennie Dickinson said Doak was chosen unanimously because he had experience in a small business development...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg City Council last Wednesday night voted 4-1 in favor of enacting a new ordinance that will give the city the ability to shut off city utilities to citizens who don't pay bills or violate the nuisance codes. This new way to handle violators should help the city enforce its rules better, said Randy Hinchliffe, the city's clerk-treasurer. In the past, the city would give citizens a ticket if they didn't follow the rules, but the Sheriff's Office and the city had trouble following through. "We didn't get anywhere with...
WALLA WALLA - Melvin Bohleen, 73, on Monday pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of vehicular homicide for his involvement in a carbicycle collision on Middle Waitsburg Road last May that resulted in the death a Seattle cyclist. Bohleen, of Dayton, would face 15 to 20 months in prison if convicted of the crime. His trial date is set for Dec. 6 and 7 at the Walla Walla County Courthouse. A second legal challenge in Walla Walla County was filed against Bohleen last week. The civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of the cyclist, Sara Eustis',...
WAITSBURG - I was sitting on the bleachers at the first WP home football game chatting with Jan Cronkhite and she and I watched as Billy Brown made an amazing run for the Cardinals. She knew Billy from around town and told me his history and what a great kid he is. It was amazing to her that he has been so successful even though his life has not been easy. I heard how he left Waitsburg and wanted to return, with the community rallying around him and finding him a new home. In working on my...
WAITSBURG -- Wai t sburg High School junior Billy Brown is exactly where he's supposed to be, playing football with the Cardinals each Friday night, selling his hog at the Fair Livestock Auction and in Oma Harting's kitchen looking for cookies. At this time last year, Brown had been transferred from Waitsburg to a foster family in Walla Walla and was playing football for Walla Walla High School. He was well-liked by his new peers in Walla Walla, but after the football season ended, Brown...
DAYTON - The Dayton community will show the best it has to offer and honor on Oct. 1 with its annual fall festival, Dayton on Tour. "It's a celebration of our local talent and our local history," said Ginny Butler, one of the organizers of the event. The festival is a joint project by the Dayton Historical Depot Society and the Dayton Chamber of Commerce. The festival began in 1976 and included only historic home tours, said Cheryl Ray, also an event organizer. For the past five years, the...
DAYTON - The Columbia County Health System is asking residents, employees and patients for feedback so it can better serve the community, said Charlie Button, the district's CEO. "We really want to know what they're thinking," Button said. "We want to hear from them and we want to do a better job." The survey, proposed and executed by the district's promotions committee, will run for about three more weeks. The district has been handing out paper copies of its 10-question survey to large employers and service organizations in the area....
Heart BEAT About Needs & Good Deeds DAYTON - On Saturday at the high school track in Dayton, men and women and boys and girls, pitched tents, laughed with their friends and prepared to spend the whole night walking or running around the track to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Relay For Life was held this weekend for the fifth time in Columbia County, said Cheri Stoker, a staff member and community relations manager lead. Twenty-one teams and about 300 people had raised some...
WAITSBURG - It was a day of Victorian fashion, museum tours, buffalo, corn on the cob and Butlers at Waitsburg's Fall Festival on Sunday. The attendance was anything but sparse. The community filled benches and wooden chairs on the front lawn of the Bruce Memorial Museum for a church service. Pastor Mike Ferrians, dressed as though he were from the old west in a long black coat and hat, led the congregants in singing traditional hymns and spoke about an old-fashioned farm tool he had found....
DAYTON - Tucked away behind a barn and a race track at the Columbia County Fairgrounds, whiskers, floppy ears and cold noses were making kids and judges smile. Kittens meowed loudly from their cages, not wanting to be at the fair at all, while dogs rolled in the grass, sniffed other dogs and left "presents" for their owners to clean up. Dayton's 121st fair that ran Friday through Sunday incorporated traditional elements like 4-H and FFA kids showing sheep, cows and hogs, a long line at noon Satu...
WAITSBURG - Waitsburg resident Jane Butler, age 90, has deep family roots in the Touchet Valley through her husband Bob. Butler has lived in town about 50 years, non-consecutively, and is being honored for her family history with the Pioneer of the Year award from the Waitsburg Historical Society. "I feel honored," Butler said of the award. She learned she was to be the honoree at the upcoming Pioneer Fall Festival on Sept. 18 through a letter from Bettie Chase, a member of the historical...
DAYTON - It will be a building year for the Dayton High School cheer squad and the team has a new coach who wants to focus on building the program. "I just really want to build the program and make it strong," said A.J. Walker, the team's coach. Walker, a newcomer to Dayton's program, is no newcomer to cheerleading. He said he cheered in high school and was on a competition all-star cheer squad called Northwest Elite. He spent the summer coaching part-time at an all-star cheer gym in the...
DAYTON - The Dayton girls' volleyball team has set the bar high this season after winning the title of district champions in the league and competing at the state level last year. Coach Shannon Turner said the team is excited to start competing this year with some new blood in the lineup. The team wants to best its 9-3 win-loss record from last year. Thi s year, the team has 10 players on varsity, and six players are ret urners, Turner said. The team is most excited to play Waitsburg-Prescott...
WAITSBURG - The Waitsburg-Prescott cheer squad will soar to new heights this football season because of a larger squad and lots of returning veterans. "We have a lot of athletic girls and a lot of experience," Coach Vickie Hamann said. "The girls are very enthusiastic." The football cheer squad totals 13 girls this year, nine on varsity and four on junior varsity. Hamann is taking on her fifth year as coach and says she is thrilled by the larger turnout. For the football teams, this means more c...
DAYTON - This summer, it was uncertain whether Dayton High School would have a cross country team this fall. But, Coach Dan Nechodom and the district found ways to save money and found six students who were interested in running as fast as they can for 3 miles. Nechodom, back for his eighth year as coach for the Bulldogs as a volunteer, has three high school seniors and three middle school-aged athletes. He had 10 runners last year, but he said this year's smaller team boasts dedicated athletes who have the potential to place in the top ranks...
