Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 267
WAITSBURG/LYONS FERRY-This weekend saw medieval sports and crafts at Preston Park in Waitsburg and an open swim across the Snake River at Lyon's Ferry. Residents and visitors to Walla Walla and Columbia counties enjoy a wide range of intesests and skills. Lisa Naylor, an accomplished open water swimmer, brings her love of the sport to her community by volunteering at the annual Swim the Snake event. Swimmers and paddle boarders are given the opportunity to safely swim across the river from...
It is a wrap, but not. Unlike digital art printed on mylar or polyestor and applied to outdoor walls, this is a painting. Dayton's newest mural was created using brushes and paint by a muralist. Painter Don Brown and his wife Janice from Kennewick are familiar faces in Dayton, having restored several historic murals downtown. This mural, on the east side of the Weinhard parking lot, is Brown's original design and was commissioned by The Weinhard Hotel and the Dayton Development Task Force....
The Port of Columbia County and tenants of Dayton's Blue Mountain Station held its annual Foodstock event on Saturday, July 16. Port manager Tracy Clark, with the help of administrative assistant Kelly Hinds, took the lead in organizing the event this year. The set-up and tear-down of the stage, tents, and seating areas are done with the help of friends, family, and BMS tenants. Local handyman Tim Bren makes himself invaluable each year by delivering, setting up, and taking down the towering wat...
WAITSBURG-The Royal Block in Waitsburg hosts Open Mic nights on the first Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. July's event highlighted the comedy of local stand-up comedian Deanna Tipton. Backed up by Ken Taylor on cello, Tipton shared some Texas humor with the audience. Owners Tiina Jaatinen and Joe Roberts invite musicians, comedians, poets, and spectators to come out and bring their talents and interests. The Royal Block hotel is open seven days a week, the wine bar is open Thursday through...
WAITSBURG—After recent Dayton City Council actions delaying compliance with Department of Ecology guidelines for effluent release, residents of Waitsburg brought concerns to Waitsburg city officials. City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe contacted the Department of Ecology’s Water Quality Program manager Llyn Doremus for guidance. In an email response, Doremus stated that the effluent from the Dayton Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) meets the required permit limits for fecal coliform. “The fecal coliform content measured (weekly) has been signi...
The Bruce Mansion is getting much needed work this year thanks to a grant from the Sherwood Trust. Maurilio Lara is preparing and painting the historic home over the next few weeks....
WAITSBURG-The Waitsburg Historical Society was excited about the visit of three Sherwood Trust representatives on Tuesday morning, June 7, at the Bruce Mansion on Main Street. The plan was to welcome the visitors and arrange a photo accepting the recently awarded grant from the Trust. The Historical Society had applied for a grant to help pay for painting and repairs to the Bruce Mansion. Before the traditional check presentation photo, Sherwood Trust Project Manager Julia Leavitt gave the...
WAITSBURG—Waitsburg residents may, or may not, notice a slight increase in sales tax starting July 1. The Transportation Benefit District (TBD) has been in place for the last ten years. It funds transportation improvement projects, including sidewalks, road maintenance, and major reconstruction projects like the millrace grade crossing improvements completed in the previous year. The city council approved a resolution on November 17, 2021, to put a ballot measure for the February 2022 special election asking voters to authorize a sales and u...
DAYTON – Actions taken by the Port Commisioners at the April 13, meeting may have ended years of work on the Touchet Valley Trail Project. The meeting at the Columbia County Fairgrounds Youth Building was standing room only and well attended on Zoom. Director Jennie Dickinson, Chair Gene Crowe, and Council Members Seth Bryan and Johnny Watts were present. The meeting began with public comments focused on the Touchet Valley Trail Project (TVTP). Concerns from those against the project included f...
PRESCOTT-Kimberly Smith grew up working with horses and cattle in Prescott, Wash. She spent ten years participating in 4-H showing animals, arts and crafts, and photography. Many will remember her days in the Days of Real Sport royalty in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Recently, Smith has become involved with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse and burro program. BLM manages and protects wild horses and burros on close to 27 million acres of public lands across western states in the U.S. The g...
Waitsburg Commercial Club is holding its Annual Awards Dinner at the new restaurant on April 12. WAITSBURG-A pizza maker and a Bloody Mary mix master walk into a bar. No joke, the bar was the empty Anchor Bar located in the American Legion, post 35, building on Main Street in Waitsburg. Tom and Judy Bennett have embraced the building's history and want to incorporate the essence of the American Legion post and what it once was; good company and good food to their new business American 35. The co...
DAYTON-The Port of Columbia has changed the location for the April 13 regular meeting of the port commissioners. Anticipating an increase in the number of community members who will attend, the port moved the meeting to the Youth Building at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. The meeting will still begin at 5 p.m. The meeting will also be held on Zoom to encourage further community involvement. One reason for the increased public interest is that the Touchet Valley Trail is on the agenda, and the...
WAITSBURG—Next week is the Waitsburg Commercial Club Awards Dinner on April 12, at American 35. Since the club could not hold its annual event during the pandemic, it will be three times the fun this year. The club will be presenting awards for outstanding service from community members and businesses for the past three years. The last winners were awarded the 2019 Service Awards for their work in 2018. This year the honorees will receive 2020, 2021, and 2022 awards. The 2022 dinner is dedicate...
Is it Cake Netflix, 2022 I love a good baking show. Baking is either magic or science, maybe both? And for me, it is usually disastrous. This show challenges bakers to first identify baked goods from the actual items they are made to look like in the Find the Cake round. Three winners move on to choose one of the items to replicate in their own hyper-realistically decorated cake. Each of the three bakers presents their creation hidden within a display of their mimicked items. The bakers use a...
WAITSBURG-This year, residents across the country have noticed some streetlights are turning purple. There have been theories that they scan for COVID-19 vaccinations, wards off vampires, or are just better for the environment. None of this is true. We still have to take our chances with vampires. The change to purple is due to a manufacturer's defect. It could be an issue with the coating or a chip in the LED bulb. There are quite a few in this area. The power company has replaced some only to...
Recently I was introduced to a local police chief who is also a classically trained musician. Doug Boedigheimer is the Police Chief in Milton Freewater, Oregon. He makes the trip out to Orchard Street Studio in Waitsburg to bring his guitars to be set up by my brother-in-law, Joe Patrick. He also comes to talk music. "The first guitar I brought him I had for 31 years, I didn't know about setups and guitar care. I was a music teacher, so this thing has been drug through everything. He turned...
One of the first couples I met in Waitsburg was Sandra and Lupe Torres. They owned the building next door to the commercial property I bought in 2015. They owned Nothing New Antiques, one of only a few businesses open on Main when I arrived. After moving to town in 2004 and looking for a new adventure, the Torres bought and restored their building, including lodging upstairs. They embraced the history of their building and incorporated many of the original features into their remodel. Sandra...
Station Eleven Book by Emily St. JohnMandel Series Produced by HBO "Because survival is insufficient," a message from Star Trek that is spray-painted on the lead wagon of a post-apocalyptic traveling Shakespeare troupe. Station Eleven is not about pandemics. It is about family, community, art, and loss. It is not the typical post-apocalyptic story; there are no zombies or mutants to fight. Just regular people who survived a deadly swine-flu pandemic that wiped out 99% of the world's population....
The Wrestler's Daughter by Markeeta Little Wolf The locally anticipated and internationally renowned memoir by Markeeta Little Wolf is now available on Amazon. Years ago, decades ago, I found a postcard of a wrestler with clenched fists and a beautiful headdress. The attitude of confidence, with eyes full of humor, made him the perfect talisman for my studio. The card has lived on my easel ever since. After moving to Waitsburg, I met Markeeta Little Wolf, who has confidence and humor, a...
The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel By Richard Osman Meeting in the Jigsaw Room at a retirement village, four friends take up the tradition of amateur sleuths in murder mysteries. It does become apparent that each brings their own strengths and experience to their work. Elizabeth is the founder of the group and digs through cold cases from the files of her friend, Penny Gray, a former police officer who is in a coma at the village’s nursing home. Joyce is a retired nurse who serves as the principa...
The Return by Nicholas Sparks Published September 2020 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with a book in the tradition of his best-selling books Dear John and The Lucky One. The story follows an injured Navy doctor, Trevor, to his family home. He returns to a dilapidated cabin he inherited from his grandfather to regroup from devastating injuries sustained in Afghanistan. Of course, there is a complicated love interest, Natalie, who keeps him at a distance even though...
I first ran across this series while scrolling for something to watch this fall. I assumed Why Women Kill was a reality show about murderesses. I wasn't interested. However, after a recommendation from my brother-in-law, I decided to give it a try. Luckily it is not a reality show but fiction and scripted. The series is a darkly comedic drama, reminiscent of the 1955-65 television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It has plenty of murderers. Some kill by accident and some very deliberately. Not...
This week I went to Walla Walla to see Wes Anderson's new movie The French Dispatch. The film was entertaining and one of Anderson's best. In each production, he brings back members from his eccentric troupe of actors, this time including Bill Murray, Adrian Brody, Tilda Swinton and Edward Norton. He also surprises us with some new faces, Benicio Del Toro and Timothee Chalamet. There is also an army of extras, with many cameos from Hollywood. The story is close to my heart, it focuses on a...
Dead Like Me Some of the scariest characters in afterlife lore are grim reapers. Shadowy skeletal figures, in hooded black robes, carrying a scythe who take souls to their final destination. Dead Like Me offers a very different take on these dark characters by portraying reapers as ordinary, though dead, people stuck in limbo. They are tasked with guiding souls to their afterlife before they themselves can move on. The main character, George (Ellen Muth), is killed after being hit in the head...
