Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Grocery stores and their employees have become front-line services in these stay-at-home times. The Waitsburg Grocery Store on Main Street has been busy during the quarantine. Supply-chain challenges, stocking products customers are used to, and increased delivery and curbside service has required long work weeks from owner Jamie McMillen-Smit. One of her first supply issues involved the price of eggs, which at one point reached three dollars a dozen while McMillen-Smit's cost was $3.21 a dozen....
OLYMPIA-Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Monday, April 27, a partial re-opening of some outdoor recreation activities. Scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, with approriate safety precautions in place, the public can enjoy: fishing; hunting; playing golf; and day use at state parks, state public lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources and at state Fish and Wildlife areas. Boat launches will also re-open. The public is cautioned that it may take several days for gates to be unlocked and sites...
As of Tuesday, April 28 at 10 a.m. Walla Walla County had 61 positive cases for COVID-19, with five individuals currently hospitalized. Columbia County has one positive case, Benton and Franklin Counties have 853 confirmed cases with 43 deaths. Walla Walla County is linking nine positive cases to Tyson Fresh Meats, five to FirstFruits, Inc. and seven cases to long term care facilities (employee or resident). Benton-Franklin Counties link 130 cases to long term care/senior living residents, 101 cases to long term care/senior living staff, 114...
DAYTON-Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Port of Columbia and Dayton Chamber officials have been working to gather, distill, and impart information that will help the business community as well as sidelined workers weather the COVID-19 storm. Part of this information gathering includes trying to decipher the programs they are looking into so they can help answer questions, reaching out to local foundations that have emergency funds, and then getting that money into the community....
OLYMPIA—The Department of Ecology’s spill responders are seeing an increase in the number of illegal dumpings of chemicals and other waste. While many collection sites are closed due to COVID-19, Ecology is reminding everyone not to dump household waste. Abandoning chemical waste can have lasting effects on human health and the environment. Waste oil, paint, household chemicals or other hazardous materials should be safely stored until waste collection facilities reopen. For a list of facilities that will accept waste from households and bus...
Third grader Carter Barron has a message he would like to share with Waitsburg School District teachers and employees....
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated the governmental organization’s website with additional symptoms for the coronavirus. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms or combinations of symptoms may have COVID-19: •Cough •Shortness of breath or •difficulty breathing •Or at least two of these symptoms: •Fever •Chills •Repeated shaking with chills •Muscle pain •Headache •Sore throat •New loss of taste or smell The site states that “This list is not all inclusive. Please...
During the last month (March 21 to April 18) BMAC has directly provided 9,653 people with 93,678 meals worth of food. On average that is 3.5 day’s worth of food per person served once per week. In Walla Walla County, BMAC is now directly providing 3.5 days of food assistance to 5% of the population every week . Three other pantries are also operating in Walla Walla County and receiving food from BMAC. In Columbia County, BMAC is now directly providing 3.5 days of food assistance to over 10% of the population every week . On April 18th 2020, B...
DAYTON—The Dayton Chamber’s annual fundraising event, Brix and Brew has been moved from May 8, to Nov. 6, according to the Dayton Chamber Manager Molly Weatherill-Tate. This is the second time the fundraiser has been moved because of concerns around the COVID-19 situation. Weatherill-Tate said the Dayton Days parade, scheduled for Memorial Weekend, has been cancelled. “Social distancing will likely be around for several more weeks and with the parade scheduled for May, the board didn’t want to bring a large group to town,” she said about the...
WALLA WALLA-Joel Christiansen and Julian Saturno have been elected to the Board of Directors for Blue Mountain Humane Society, despite the indefinite postponement of the annual membership meeting which had been scheduled for Monday, April 27 at 7 E. George Street in Walla Walla. The postponement is in adherence with Governor Inslee's Stay Home, Stay Healthy order. Joel Christiansen moved to Walla Walla from Portland, OR in July 2018. Joel lives with his partner, Dr. Sarah Carter, and their two...
PRESCOTT-The Prescott Joint Park and Recreation District has maintained a park and pool that is well known around our valley for being clean, family friendly, and just plain fun. After more than a decade of volunteering as a commissioner for the district, Patsy Welch Adams Warnock is hanging up her sunhat and retiring from the job. A former school teacher, Patsy has a deep love for helping others. Her family has been in the area for more than a decade where she says volunteering has become a...
OLYMPIA—Gov. Jay Inslee, in consultation with the state’s construction industry, announced a plan on April 24 that would allow current construction projects to be completed. The recommendations were informed by workers, contractors, health and safety experts, and local government officials, for safe construction standards. “I thank all those involved in the construction work group in helping us get to this decision in a responsible way that supports workers, businesses, and communities in a way that protects the health of all of their famil...
Tyson Fresh Meats closed its Wallula plant on Friday, April 24 to begin working with the Walla Walla Department of Community Health (DCH) to test all 1,400 employees for the COVID-19 virus. Over 110 workers have tested positive for the virus as of April 24. Nine employees who reside in Walla Walla County are among those who have tested positive. The Walla Walla Department of Community Health (DCH) obtained test kits from the State of Washington Department of Health (DOH). It will take about three days for test results to come back. Results will...
April 30: Janice Wills, and Patti Eng. May 1: Josh Smith, Jennifer Jameson, Adam Erikson, Troy Larsen, Corinne Atkinson and Barbara Saxon Abbey. May 2: Kevin Davis, Patsy Fredericks, Bill Hopwood, Roger Hillis and TerriLynn Stensgar. May 3: Alexander Reese, Hanna Becker, Dorothy Wolfe and Andrew Peterson. May 4: Liya Senter, Tom Land, Anna Ray, Kathryn Fry and Ashley Janovich. May 5: Jim Tuttle, Dian McQuade, Pamela Parsons, Todd Wood, Rhiannon Chapman, Kin Hofer, Kelly Thomas Ward, Jim Crawford. May 6: Scott and Ellie Johnson, Betty Mosley,...
OLYMPA-Gov. Jay Inslee announced on April 27 that Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak are joining Washington, Oregon and California in the Western States Pact -- a working group of Western state governors with a shared vision for modifying stay at home orders and fighting COVID-19. "In Washington state, our decisions are guided by public health data and science and this is a principle we share up and down the West Coast. Governor Polis and Governor Sisolak are taking...
On Friday, April 17, 2020, Mark James, beloved husband, brother, son, and father of two, passed away at his home in Walla Walla. He was 66. Mark was born on October 8, 1953 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Clark and B.A. James. After graduating from Dayton High School in 1971, Mark went on to college at Washington State University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Education in 1976. On May 7, 1977, he married Linda Geer... Full story
Erma Lou Galt (84), Richmond, Va., went to be with the angels on April 17, 2020. Erma Lou was born in Okanogan, Wash., and grew up in southeast Washington. She attended Yakima High School where she participated in cheerleading, drama, yearbook and student government. In 1953, Erma Lou entered Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., to pursue a degree in sociology. At Whitman, she was active in Press Club, Editor of the yearbook, YMCA Leadership Training Chairperson and Secretary of the... Full story
WAITSBURG—Waitsburg residents’ participation in the 2020 census is one of the lowest in Washington state. So far only 36 percent of town residents have completed the survey. It can’t be because we don’t have time, we are stuck at home! If you haven’t filled out a census form yet, go online and let’s get Waitsburg’s participation up to 100 percent! Deadline for the Self-Response Phase, online, phone and mailed self-responses, has been extended to October 31, 2020. Here is where we our local participation is as of April 27. Waitsburg sel...
WALLA WALLA—Walla Walla County Sheriff Mark Crider released a letter on April 23 stating that “the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office is primarily funded from sales tax, so is imperative that we get Walla Walla County businesses back up and running.” Crider stated that the five percent budget cuts his department are being asked to make by Walla Walla County Commissioners would slice $232,595 out of a $4,651905 total budget. Crider asserts that these budget cuts “can only mean one thing, we are going to have to cut manpower by reducing...
Springtime in Waitsburg is official when there is a sighting of the miniature horse and cart making its way to the grocery for treats....
We planted trees today, three apple and one Chinese persimmon. More flora and fauna to impatiently watch and wait, along with my vegetables and herbs. As I mentioned last week, I am my father’s daughter, no patience! From my mother, I inherited her stellar sense of direction, her need to have a fully stocked pantry with backups for everything and unfortunately, her “black thumb.” So, not only am I impatient, I am not very optimistic about a large bounty. About two weeks ago we started plant...
(On The Road Part One) Mrs. G and I would be the first to admit that we are not RV people. But we do like long road trips. Just during the six year long process of moving out of a 2,400 square foot home in Seattle and into our 1,000 square foot Waitsburg cottage, we made literally hundreds of trips back and forth. That is when we perfected the fine art of packing our SUV with vast amounts of stuff. This all happened in the pre-Cookie days. If Cookie got to cast a vote on road trip...
Your new hobby-writing! Finals are very nearly upon me, and I find it increasingly hard to talk or think about anything else. But given that you folks have enough stress in your lives at the moment, I figured I'd expand last week's unsolicited-gardening-advice column into a three-part series of unsolicited-advice pieces for those looking to try something new during quarantine. Did anybody ask for it? No. That's the whole point. This week's topic is writing. I think it's fair to say that most of...
DAYTON-Communities around the nation are coming up with creative ideas to honor their high school's Class of 2020 in the midst of a pandemic. In Dayton, Scott Kirk and Bette Lou Crothers teamed up to raise money for banners to display on Main Street. While Bette Lou handled the fundraising efforts, Kirk, owner of Scott Kirk Photography, donated his time to design the banners and ensure each student had a senior portrait for the project. The banner idea came from a few Facebook posts that Scott...
PENDLETON, Ore. – The Umatilla National Forest will begin invasive plant treatments in late April using an integrated approach of prevention, manual, mechanical, herbicide, biological control and cultural treatments to reduce the risk of invasive species expanding on the forest. Treatments are expected to continue through October. Invasive species have been shown to reduce biodiversity including wildlife habitat, wildlife and domestic livestock forage and streamside vegetation. Invasive p...
