Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 501 - 525 of 610
WAITSBURG - During a call-in session with constituents on Monday, State Representatives Terry Nealey and Maureen Walsh expressed the opinion that horse racing is not likely to return to southeast Washington. According to the two, there is no legislative support to provide the funding that would be needed. Cory Hewitt, manager of the Walla Walla Fairgrounds, echoed that opinion. She also said that there are no longer the horses and jockeys in the area to put on the races, even if money were...
DAYTON - The Dayton Chamber of Commerce's board of directors voted last week to give up an economic development role it has long held. The board agreed that the Port of Columbia should assume the position of associate development organization, or ADO, which is the lead agency in the county for economic development. According to Chamber officials, the ADO contract provided approximately $30,000 to the Chamber last year, and it has been a major source of its annual funding. The new arr...
DAYTON - According to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, only two incidents of thefts of items from cars were reported here between December 1 and January 10. That compares with more than 50 car prowls that were reported to have taken place in Dayton between September 1 and November 30 last year. And for one of the two recent reports, the vehicle's owner was unsure of when the theft took place. The sudden decline in car prowl reports coincided with the arrest of three men at the end of...
I don't know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher; I just try everything I can think of. ~Charles Foster Kane, from the movie "Citizen Kane" W hen Blue Mountain News stum- bled out of the gate in 2007, I noted in the first column I wrote there that my main qualification for the job of newspaper publisher was that I had been an avid reader of newspapers for a long time. (That, and I learned how to type in the ninth grade - on a typewriter.) Over the past seven years, I've thought of lots of ways...
DAYTON - When Co- lumbia Pulp announced plans in December to construct a multi-million dollar straw pulp plant near Starbuck, the company said it would take about a year to complete the permitting process before construction could begin. The Times spoke with Co- lumbia County Planner Kim Lyonnais this week to learn more about the hurdles the company must overcome this year. "From what I've seen so far, there haven't been any red flags," Lyonnais said. "But that doesn't mean there might not be so...
COLLEGE PLACE - In their first Southeast 2B league game of the season, the WP Cardinals escaped with a 62-56 victory over Walla Walla Valley Academy here Saturday night. Chance Leroue and Owen Lanning both had big offensive games, scoring 17 points each. Lanning was nine-for-10 from the free throw line. Leroue added 10 ten rebounds, to secure a "double-double." The Cardinals started off slow and trailed 14-6 at the end of the first quarter. However, they exploded for 28 points in the second q...
WAITSBURG - The Associated Press announced their 2B football all-state player selections last week, and the list included two WP Cardinals each on the first and second teams. Kicker Antonio Benito and defensive back Talen Larsen were named to the first team and wide receiver Devon Acevedo and Offensive Lineman Nate Bartlow were named to the second team. WP Coach Jeff Bartlow was understandably proud as he discussed the winners. "This is just another example of how hard our kids work and ho...
DAYTON - Cody Snider, 17, of Dayton, was found dead Saturday morning by a Columbia County employee near the Rock Hill Transfer Station here. The discovery was made shortly before 10 a.m., when the employee ar- rived to open the station. According to a press release from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Snider had apparently fallen approximately 150 feet from the top of the cliff above the transfer station. It was unknown when he fell, since the transfer station had been closed since...
DAYTON - A group of developers officially an- nounced plans this week to construct a large facility in Columbia County, near Starbuck, to produce pulp for paper products from wheat straw. Their company, called Columbia Pulp, hopes to have its pulp mill up and running in the fall of 2015. It would produce more than 400 tons of pulp per day and would likely employ more than 130 full-time workers. According to lead partner John Begley, Columbia Pulp has secured a 450-acre site along Highway 261 nea...
WAITSBURG - The Dayton jumped out to an early lead in Saturday night's game here, with nine quick points, and led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. But the Bulldogs were unable to sustain their offence, as the WP Cardinals pulled out a 38-25 win. WP coach Tavis Crittenden said early foul trouble hurt his team in the first half and caused his team to switch from man-to-man to zone defense after the intermission. "With the zone we were able to hold them to one field goal and four points in t...
DAYTON - During their November 25 meeting, the Dayton City Council adopted a budget for 2014 which included slight utility rate increases for water, sewer and garbage. Water rates increased two percent, sewer 2.5% and garbage 3%. Council member Dain Nysoe cast the lone dissenting vote on each increase, claiming he felt that existing reserve funds could cover any increased costs the city faces in delivering utilities to residents. In an interview this week, Dayton Mayor Craig George said he f...
DAYTON - The Dayton School District plans to introduce two new programs next year to enhance students' understanding of human rights and civil rights issues. These efforts come after two highly publicized incidents involving racial and ethnic slurs. In January, a program called "Living Voices," on the topic of civil rights, will be presented to Junior and Senior High School Students. The program is scheduled to coincide with the Martin Luther King holiday, according to School Superintendent...
DAYTON - The Co- lumbia County Board of Commisioners voted 2-1 last week to not move forward with renovation of the youth building at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. Dur- ing their regular meeting on December 4, the motion to stop the project passed, with Commissioners Mike Talbott and Dwight Ro- banske voting in favor of the motion, and Commissioner Chuck Reeves voting against. Talbott and Robanske both said they were con- cerned, not only about the cost of the renovation, but also about the...
DAYTON - The Dayton Schools and the Columbia County Sheriff's office will hold a joint public forum next week to provide information about school safety and law enforcement, and to invite public input on those issues. The forum will be held De- cember 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Dayton High School. Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller said the forum is part of his effort to encour- age public input on how the Sheriff's office is doing and what improvements are needed. " I ' ve been walk...
DAYTON - Three men were arrested here last week and charged with posses- sion of stolen property and various drug offenses. All three are suspects in a rash of burglaries from vehicles that have been reported in Day- ton in the past three months. On September 27, Ryan P. Timmons, 26, was ar- rested at a home on E. Commercial Street and booked into Columbia County Jail on charges of possession of methamphetamine, vehicle prowl and possession of sto- len property. On September 30, Ken- neth...
DAYTON - At Lyons Ferry Marina, near Star- buck, the boat slips are in need of repair. In Day- ton, the swimming pool is closed all winter. Out in the farmland around Day- ton, it's hard for hunters to know where one property ends and another begins. These are some of the concerns that local residents lining up to attend Turkey Bingo on Saturday were presented with as they prepared to buy their bingo cards. There were several others. Two students from East- ern Washington Univer- sity's school...
DAYTON - Schools here started two hours late Mon- day morning after a threatening note was discovered on the entrance to the high school by a custodian at about 6:30 a.m. The hand- written note is reported to have threatened harm to the schools and its students if the schools held classes this week. According to Columbia County Sheriff's Of- fice spokesperson Dian Ver Valen, sheriff's deputies, local fire fighters and other responders secured district buildings by 10 a.m. All streets with...
PASCO - The Adna Pirates' ground game proved too much for Waitsburg- Prescott in the first round of the state football playoffs. Adna rushed for 367 yards, beating the Cardinals 33-17 Friday night in Pasco. WP tailed 19-0 at the end of the first quarter and was never able to get back in it. "We just got off to a slow start and I feel bad about that," said WP coach Jeff Bartlow. "That has happened a few times this year." Bartlow said the Cardinals' struggled to get their passing game going. "...
DAYTON - One of the lead stories on Tri-Cities TV station KEPR's eve- ning news broadcast on November 13 was about two potentially racist incidents that occurred in Dayton reently. The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin reported on the same stories on its front page that day. On the night November 6, firefighters from Colum- bia County Fire District 3 responded to a small fire that was set in the lawn near Day- ton Elementary School. The fire had been burned into the grass in the shape of a swas- tika,...
WAITSBURG - Call it a triumvirate. Or football's version of the "triple-double." Waitsburg-Prescott running back Chance Leroue ran for a touchdown, caught a pass for a touchdown (twice actually) and threw a pass for yet another touchdown, as the Cardinals cruised to a 41-14 victory over Liberty here Friday night. On top of all that, Leroue also rushed for 167 yards, putting him over the 1,000 yard mark for the season. He also had 40 yards receiving. The win puts the Cardinals into the WIAA...
DAYTON - Dayton Chamber of Commerce Execu- tive Director Brad McMasters announced his resignation last week. He will leave his position no later than January 15, 2014. In an email to chamber board members, McMasters said he is moving to a new home near College Place, and hopes to re-enter the education field. "Sometimes our lives lead us in directions we didn't necessarily expect," he said. "That has certainly been the case for me in the past few years." Chamber Assistant Linze Purcell, who...
DAYTON - Dayton na- tive and former Seneca ex- ecutive Duane Dunlap was named "Citizen of the Year" by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce last week at its 67th annual awards banquet. The Chamber also awarded courthouse maintenance supervisor Dave Finney as employee of the year, the Weinhard Hotel as Busi- ness of the Year and Dayton High senior Carlos Oribio as Youth Citizen of the Year. Dunlap has been a long- time volunteer as a board member of the Dayton Historic Depot and has led the effort to...
DAYTON - The Dayton Bulldogs made themselves proud Saturday in their first- round playoff game here Saturday, losing to #2 seed Valley Christian 1-0. The game was scoreless for 79 minutes before the panthers scored in the last minute, to avoid the upset. "As a coach, I could not ask more from a team," said coach DJ Frame. "It was an amazing game to watch. All 11 players on the field worked as a team." Frame said he is particularly encouraged that eight of his 11 starters will return next...
DAYTON - Voters in the Dayton School District will likely be asked in April to approve a major bond levy measure to finance the first comprehensive school reno- vation here in 30 years. The District's facilities review committee last week decided to proceed with a plan that is projected to cost $24.2 million. About $19.5 million of that would be funded by the bond, to be repaid by local property taxes. The remain- der would be covered by state matching funds. Dayton School Superintendent Doug Jo...
PASCO - At the end of regulation play in Friday night's game here between Waitsburg-Prescott and Tri- Cities Prep, the score was tied 35-35. That's ten total touchdowns. And, just as importantly, that includes ten successful PATs (points after touchdown, or extra points). WP kicker Antonio Benito and TCP kicker Hogan Jones were each perfect through 60 minutes. In the overtime period, each team had a chance to line up on offense at the opposition's 25-yard-line and attempt to score. WP won t...
