Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Happily and reluctantly, I have shed my mask, knowing that this is most likely a temporary reprieve. The virus is thriving in Europe and Asia, so I assume we will eventually be inundated and back to masking. It may be a brief interlude, but it's nice to show my face and dig out the old dried-up lipsticks again. I need to remember to watch my facial expressions; my smirks can now be seen by all. This week I will be back in L.A. and will plan to maintain a selective social distancing policy. I...
DAYTON – The Port of Columbia held its regular meeting at 5 p.m., March 9, 2022. Chair Genie Crowe, Commissioners Johnny Watts and Seth Bryan, and Port Director Jennie Dickinson, were present. There were members of the public attending in person and over fifty joining on Zoom. Board Chair Crowe opened the meeting with public comment. Dickinson began by reading two from many letters submitted to the board. County Commissioner, Charles Amerein, wrote of his fear that leasing port property to the H...
I am still grief-stricken about the war Putin has declared on the people of Ukraine. I did go to the World Central Kitchen website to see if there was anything I could do. Even though I am not a trained chef, I am not a bad cook. I have a passport, suitcases, and am happy to help and work to feed refugees or soldiers on the front lines. Unfortunately, I don’t have proficiency in the Polish language, which is one of their requirements. My few words of Yiddish just won’t meet the proficiency sta...
DAYTON – The Dayton School Board held a regularly scheduled work session meeting at 6 p.m. on March 2, 2022. All Board members were in attendance. The night before, the School Board held a two-and-a-half-hour special board meeting which consisted of a long executive session. At the beginning of the meeting, Board Chair Jeff McCowen announced an executive session would be held under IAW RCW 42.30.110 (f). This section of the Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA) allows a closed session specifically t...
These past few weeks have been heart-wrenching. The feelings of grief, sadness, anger, and hopelessness are all swirling within me as I watch this dreadful war unfold in Ukraine. My paternal grandfather moved to the United States as a child from a small town in Austria in the late 1800s. That town is now part of Ukraine. I feel connected to this war in a way that I hadn’t imagined. Hindsight being 20/20, I am now embarrassed by my last column. While the people in Ukraine hear the constant b...
I love music. My parents and many relatives had both musical talents, a great appreciation for music, and there was almost always music playing in our house. My father loved classical music and grew to love opera, influenced by my grandfather, who lived with us who loved both of those genres. My mother owned every Broadway musical album ever recorded and was a big fan of Frankie Lane. We were the first on our block to have a HiFi which was constantly played. The first “big” gifts I received as a...
The day before we left for Los Angeles, we enjoyed lunch with our friend Eric on our backyard deck. Eric declared, "I'm calling it, Spring is here." Right! Heard that before. While in LA, I received a text from one of my Waitsburg friends with a picture of crocus springing up in her yard. She also wanted me to know that Spring had arrived. I texted back, "Yeah, I remember last year when we had two feet of snow the last two weeks of February." I have a picture of a vase of my daffodils sitting...
While some people study great philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, my current frame of reference are more Broadway Musicals and popular songs. Lerner & Lowe’s clever lyrics, “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” from their show My Fair Lady have been playing through my head daily. Just reversing the genders. The song laments that women are temperamental, flighty, vain, and generally self-centered spoiled creatures, unlike men who have none of those pesky traits. Well, wake up...
Character assassination? Let’s examine what character assassination looks like. During the last campaign, followers of your conservative group used images of me in the Sheriff’s Office to depict me as rummaging through the desks of deputies and stealing. This was deliberate and calculated. It was so egregious that our Sheriff and our Prosecuting Attorney had to issue a community wide statement correcting the attack on me. It was done to show me in a less than honest light, to attack my reputation and character. So please, spare me the whi...
Dear Editor: In response to Vicki Zoller’s letter to ‘The Times’ on January 6, 2022... I was disheartened to see that mudslinging and character assassination were used to undermine Commissioner Charles Amerein’s posture regarding the broadband project. I heard Commissioner Amerein’s position statement on that, and it is apparent to me that Ms. Zoller is not being forthright in her depiction of it. Missing were statements made by Commissioner Amerein regarding the source of funding for said project, i.e....CARES act/ARPA funds. Commissio...
We have shortened the hours at the restaurant to dinner service only on Friday and Saturday nights. No more lunches, and no longer opening on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have added Take & Bake, a much simpler undertaking. Theoretically, with the reduction in the hours, I should have much more free time. Where is it? I am working out more. It turns out that last year’s insomniac impulse purchase of the Mirror was a good decision. I am taking all sorts of classes, including Zumba, stretch, weight...
Cole Porter, known for his profound lyrics, was “en pointe” with this particular song relating to our recent reopening of the restaurant. I have familiarity with this song title from the Broadway show Kiss Me, Kate. The show, roughly based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, is also somewhat “en pointe” because, on a rough night in the kitchen, Daniel can be shrewish. Porter’s lyrics reverberated in my brain all evening during our recent reopening. The new reduced hours and reduced men...
I am finally mobile again since the weather has warmed up, enough rain fell, and my car is now out of its “stuck in the ice and snow” mode. It is no longer an ice sculpture but a dirty, mode of tranportation, all gassed up and ready to go! I am grateful I didn’t have COVID fever, just a mild case of Cabin Fever these past two weeks. It’s probably psychological because there was no place I needed or wanted to go. We had food, water (after the pipes defrosted), and every Netflix, Amazon Prime,...
Letter to the Editor - I am writing to say THANK YOU to the two Columbia County Commissioners, Marty Hall, and Ryan Rundell, who stood up for their community now and for the future, by voting yes to provide money for the broadband project in our county. The launch of this project is critical to our community. Commissioners Hall and Rundell understand that. They see the importance of the project, and they see the future that so many in the community can see. So, again, thank you for resolving this prior to the year’s end. I am disappointed b...
This past week of rough weather has been an important lesson and slapped down my hubris. I recently discovered, or instead, learned the hard way, that over confidence was a huge mistake. It seems we’ve had a year’s worth of weather in the last week, with snow, a little warming sun, below zero temperatures, howling winds, followed by more snow falling right now. I was confident my new snow tires made my car impervious to snow; evidently, I was wrong because it is currently a snow-bound scu...
Ten Years Ago January 5, 2012 Joanna Lanning is getting ready to take the plunge. Last year, Lanning, and two Waitsburgers, Patty Hazelwood and Vicki Hamann, took a dip in the Columbia River to raise money for Special Olympics of Washington. Lanning is the WP cross country coach, Hazelwood is a special education teacher and cheerleading coach, Hamann is a paraprofessional at the high school. Lanning raised $800 last year. This year her goal is $1,000. Twenty-Five Years Ago January 9, 1997 For a...
DAYTON—Support for the Port of Columbia’s broadband infrastructure project is crucial to prividng high speed, reliable, up to date internet to the residents of Dayton and Columbia County. Anne Walsh, speaking on behalf of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, spoke at a December 14 meeting, encouraging the commissioners to support the project, which is being overseen by the Port of Columbia. The total cost of the project totals $2.5 million, and could provide reliable, high speed internet to more than 1,200 homes and businesses in Dayton. The Port ha...
As I’ve frequently written, I am not a reflective person. However, I do appreciate traditions. Therefore, as I did columns for my first and second anniversaries in Waitsburg, I decided to make it tradition and do a third-anniversary column. First, I am still amazed that my original attempt at a column was published; that the column continues is still beyond me. Full disclosure, after reading my initial essay, my first English class professor immediately sent me to the remedial class. Q...
Letter to the Editor - I am writing in support of our Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Joe Helm has created a strong team of Deputies that choose to serve and protect our county. THANK YOU ALL! It’s always easy to boo and hiss from the cheap seats. It’s always easy to hide behind a keyboard and post inflammatory statements or outright lies to social media. It’s easy to cherry pick incidents and use those random incidents to display law enforcement in a bad light. I rarely see those same people sharing all the positive deeds perform...
My life seems weird now that we have decided to slow down the operations at the restaurant. Our new focus on catering, take & bake, and working with some winemakers for special dinners is more fun and for sure, less stressful. Now I have time to go to the gym, but am I? Not as much as I should! The excuse is I’m still decompressing, although I’m not sure how long that will be a viable excuse. I’m finally reading again and recently finished two books and am on to a third. I’ve perfected downloa...
DAYTON—The Port of Columbia commissioners held their last regularly scheduled meeting of the year at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 08, 2021, via Zoom. Commissioner Shawn Brown called the meeting to order. There was no public comment. The Board approved the minutes of the last meeting and addressed the monthly budget report. The Port Director, Jennie Dickinson, announced the Port received $55,000 in tax revenue from the County. The Port received from the County a bill for the primary election for $7820, which is about twice the past election c...
DAYTON—In small communities, heroes come from all backgrounds, and they almost never wear capes. They live quiet lives, hiding in plain sight, taking their satisfaction in a job well done. They may be thanked for each job, but not for the bigger impact they have on their communities. That’s not the case for Dayton, however. At least, not if Gordon Gerlitz can help it. “We have to recognize people while they are still going,” said Gerlitz. “Oftentimes, we recognize people after the fact, but...
What are the odds that this Thanksgiving would be as good if not better than my first “Friendsgiving” in Waitsburg? My first pre-Covid-19 gathering was terrific. It was the group effort, no stress, no driving, good food, good friends’ day that is, in my opinion, a perfect way to spend the holiday. In movies the sequel is usually disappointing compared to the first, but not this Thanksgiving-it was the best, even with some of my Covid trepidation. This year some of “our gang” had out of town v...
When we were kids, and my mother had reached the end of her rope with our mess, complaining, whining, and general bad behavior, she would halt all activities, give us “the look,” and let us know in her stern voice, “there is a new regime, starting now!” Our rooms had to be cleaned, clothes put away, homework done, and only then could we go out to play with our friends. This new regime and stricter discipline period would usually only last a few weeks. Still, it probably provided my mother with a...
Although I am not a great tennis player, I love to play. It’s good exercise for someone competitive and social. I’ve told my coaches over the years,” What I lack in talent, I make up for in stamina.” And, of course, add to that good sportsmanship, a good sense of humor, and no delusions about my skill level. As proof of my diehard spirit, my friend and I were on the court at Waitsburg High School playing this Sunday in gale-force winds. The leaves and debris whirling around us were dizzying, but...
