Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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WAITSBURG - Foodies and car buffs from throughout southeast Washington will have at least four good reasons to be in Waitsburg on the first weekend of August. The first is the annual Classic Auto Show & Swap Meet, which starts with its traditional gathering and cruise at Preston Park on Friday, Aug. 5, followed by the show and meet on Saturday. The second is the triple grand opening the same weekend of three new food establishments, representing a second wave of gourmet eateries as part of the...
Dean Lowell Atkinson passed away on June 7, 2011. He was born on March 2, 1921 in Waitsburg, Wash., the youngest son of Zo and Hazel Atkinson. After graduating from high school in Waitsburg, he continued his studies in Portland, Ore., until he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942. After training (partially here in the desert under General Patton), his company embarked on the Queen Mary for England. Later, Dean's company participated in the D-Day operation; wading ashore from an LCV on Utah Beach. H...
DAYTON- Madison, a black quarter horse, is doing a slow square dance beside Robert Phinney. She moves her hind end to the left, takes two steps back, and bows her head. Phinney has hardly moved. "It's an energy thing," says Phinney. "And it's a presence thing. I think that's one of the things that's a little difficult for people." Phinney says he believes we all had that energy and presence as children, but we lose it as we grow up. He smiles, and the corners of his graying moustache lift....
DAYTON - It isn't too often that you can sit at a fine-linen banquet table outdoors enjoying the farm-fresh cuisine of a Whitehouse Crawford chef one day and get your paper plate piled high with some of the best chuck wagon chuck in the west the next. Yet, that was my culinary journey two weeks ago. I attended the four-course natural gourmet dinner hosted by the international Outstanding In The Field group at the Monteillet Fromagerie on Wednes- day. On Friday, we were in line for the chuck...
DAYTON - For T.J. Hersey, running her father's grocery store in Dayton is a way for him to live on. Hersey is now a thirdgeneration grocer in the town. Her grandfather, H.W. Stephenson, came to Dayton in 1938 from Portland, Ore., and he opened up a grocery in 1944. Hersey's father, Gail Bennett, took over in 1961 and ran the neighborhood grocery on Fourth Street until he passed away last year. "He was a grocery man all his life in Dayton," Hersey said of her father. "(Keeping the store) is what...
HUNTSVILLE - Zooming by on Highway 12, it's easy to miss the unassuming signs that mark the county line. "Entering Columbia County" reads the one going east. "Entering Walla Walla County" greets drivers going west. Most motorists pay them scant attention. But not businessman John Palmer. The owner of the new Ace Landscaping nursery, who barely needs binoculars to read the Walla Walla county sign, says it spells unfair competition to him, at least until Columbia County officials amend their...
Waitsburg/Walla Walla County July 19 Student driver with instruction permit was driving erratically on Middle Waitsburg Road and hit a road sign. Driver's father was in the passenger seat. Insurance will cover the damage to the sign. July 20 Suspicious circumstance reported on Preston Avenue. Caller reported three suspicious subjects in her yard about 2 a.m. Suspects were believed to be staking out the White Stallion. July 25 Malicious mischief reported on Harmon Street. Homeowner reported a window shot. Two white soft air pellets found near...
A fter shopping at Klicker's for a bag of frozen Bing cherries, I decided to drive a bit further, out along Isaacs and visit Charles Smith Wines, home to the wine-marketing genius of Winemaker, Charles Smith. Over the summer, I attended a barbecue and shared a bottle of Smith's '08 Eve Chardonnay. Today, I was on a mission to find another bottle for a picnic with Wine Guy. This has become a summer event, to find a quiet spot on Wolf Fork Creek, Patit Valley, Dayton, for a picnic and share a bottle of "water-rapid" chilled wine. We just let...
Ten Years Ago August 2, 2001 The East Eighth Street Project featuring new sidewalks, a wider street and parking by the athletic fields, wrapped up last week. A definite improvement for the community. For the first time, the 2001 Days of Real Sport Court will be a special guest at the Emerald Downs Race Track in Federal Way on August 10. The four young women on the court - Queen Chelsey Murdock and princesses Corrine McKinley, Trista Flores and Amy Smith won't be "riding in," so the journey will be without their four-legged partners....
WAITSBURG - More than 100 family members and local friends of Dennis Nostrant showed up for a dinner and silent auction at the fairgrounds Saturday, hoping to give the father of two a "second chance" at life, as his sister Susan Skeeters put it. The event raised more than $6,000 for Nostrant's transplant fund. The engineer, once a bar owner in Dayton and a longtime former resident of Waitsburg, needs a liver transplant to survive his late 50s. About one year ago, he discovered he has cirrhosis a...
PLANNING COMMISSIONERS WANTED WAITSBURG - The City of Waitsburg Planning Commission has three vacancies it needs to fill, City Clerk Randy Ninchliffe said. The six-member commission, which helps the city decide on the dedication of streets and alleys, reviewsconditional use permits, variances and interprets zoning, meets the first Thursday of every month and when there is business to address. The commission also makes recommendations for changes in the comprehensive plan, building codes, subdivision codes, zoning codes, environment code, plat...
Looking back on the 1950s when barbecue grills were being introduced into American culture, the craze didn't hit Waitsburg as quickly as it did other places. People were busy with harvest and they didn't want to be bothered at that time of year. I looked at my old 1958 Better Homes and Gardens Barbecues and Picnics book and read the introduction: "This is easy-going, hieverybody sort of fare. Poke up a fire and relax. For Dad there's all the how-to's for those big, thick charcoalbroiled steaks, plump barbecued chickens, for the kids:...
DAYTON - Members of the Dayton community are lending their talents and their time to restore a collection of downtown outdoor advertisements going back to the late 1800s. The Historic Sign Restoration Project on the back of the Sterling Savings Bank and other buildings on Main Street, is a project of the Dayton Development Task Force. The group obtained a $20,000 grant from the Sherwood Trust Fund recently and work is underway. The group won't be restoring the advertisement s so they look new. R...
A ugust promises to be a busy and exciting month for Waitsburg. Harvest, if it even starts for some farmers before the end of July, will go well into August. The slow maturation from cooler spring and summer temperatures promise bigger yields. Some observers estimate this year's harvest could set a record in the region. That means that a month that's usually marked by high heat and slowing farm activity could see the fields around town and elsewhere in the Touchet Valley buzzing. But the rolling hills that surround us won't be the only scene of...
DAYTON - Columbia County residents are invited to the Dayton City Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 5-8 p.m. to join forces with thousands of communities across the country for National Night Out. National Night Out is an annual anti-crime and anti-drug event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), and co-sponsored locally by the Columbia County Friends of 9-1-1 and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Last year's National Night Out campaign involved citizens, law enforcement...
WAITSBURG - The Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office is considering bringing a program to Waitsburg that would dispose of residents' prescription and illegal drugs to keep them out of sewer systems and landfills, but an inability to fund and staff the program could prevent its fruition. The possibility of a oncea year pickup of prescription and illegal drugs was discussed at the Waitsburg City Council's meeting last Wednesday. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), run by the sheriff's office, runs these projects around the country. The drug pickup...
