Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1144 - 1168 of 2504
Hey, everybody, guess what day it is! (Well, not today, necessarily. I think it might be this weekend, or it might have been last Monday, but it’s this week and this is a weekly newspaper, so just play along.) That’s right, it’s National Embrace Your Geekiness Day AND National French Fry Day! On the same day! It’s my favorite holiday for obvious reasons. Obvious Reason #1: I am a geek. Big time. Obvious Reason #2: I am a French fry connoisseur. I have an authoritative Top 10 list of the best fr...
Back in the fall of 2010, the Dayton City Council and many city residents had a contentious debate over whether to allow limited use of off-road vehicles on some city streets. In the end, in a split vote, the council decided to kill the proposal. As we report on the front page this week, the issue is back on the council’s to-do list. But a lot has changed in five years. In 2013, the Washington State Legislature created a new category of vehicle, called a WATV, or wheeled all-terrain vehicle. T...
Dear Editor Just a note of thanks. After twenty five years working for Government at Hanford, (father also worked thirty years there) and several years for Boeing, I retired and with wife Olga bought the small lavender farm here. Yes, we are new farmers in town but full of energy retirees learning more every day. We are grateful to community: members of commercial club for opinions about lavender field uses, city office for consulting and at the hardware store people for advise and for finding perfect pets for our home, and for helping us...
Dear Editor, I find it positively exhilarating having been informed that Bill Clinton’s wife, Hillary, plans to invite Caitlyn Jenner to be her vice president. Imagine their apparelers’ grins as these grand ladies stroll the inaugural runway among flowers and more flowers! America is at war between the inner-city savages and the robots of the suburbs, and I wonder if this curious political marriage can appease the combatants. David Castleman Dayton...
Washington Legislature Slogs On Last week, the Washington State Legislature was within hours of passing a biennial budget, wrapping up business and going home. But a glitch developed at the last minute. Here’s how State Representative Terry Nealey, of Dayton, put it in an email message: Unfortunately, there’s some bad news. Due to some 11th-hour sabotage from Senate Democrats early Wednesday morning, the operating budget is now in jeopardy. The reason is Senate Democrats, despite an agr...
Do you remember those commercials (I think they were for Charter) that listed an implausible sequence of events resulting from having ordinary cable TV? (Example: “When you have expensive cable bills, you feel helpless. When you feel helpless, you want to do something about it. When you want to do something about it, you take karate. When you take karate, you want to use it. When you want to use it, you become the Fist of Justice. When you become the Fist of Justice, you crash through a glass r...
I grew up in the heyday of Smokey the Bear. Smokey drilled into our heads the message that we needed to stir our campfires until they were dead out, and that we must never ever throw a lit cigarette out our car window. Smokey doesn’t get the press he once did (he died in 1976, at the age of 26) but his message is as important as ever - perhaps more so. As The Times’ Dian Ver Valen has been reporting the last couple of weeks, we’re in a drought. River levels are at record lows and tempe...
I’ve always loved studying environmental science for two basic reasons. One is the large amount of impressive vocabulary you pick up and can use in everyday contexts– e.g., “That’s eutrophication for ya!” and, “I sense the formation of a positive feedback cycle here”. The second is how much of it applies to life and society in general. High school is an ecosystem, and it’s much easier to navigate when one thinks of it in terms of resource niches, apex predators, and keystone species, as opp...
Dear Editor, Take a moment and thank your volunteer firefighters in Columbia and Walla Walla County (Waitsburg). They are on duty for us, providing first class, responsive fire and property protection, including education for rural forest homeowners. Our volunteers choose to protect us. They serve our rural communities at the their own expense, skipping time with their families, especially in our time of need. They are on duty during holidays, weekends and after midnight. Our quality of life here is much improved by the sacrifices these...
I’m sure I don’t totally understand how emergency services operate in and around Waitsburg, but here’s how I can best explain it: The city of Waitsburg has a fire department that puts out fires and responds to other emergencies within the city limits. The area of Walla Walla County surrounding Waitsburg has its own fire department (WW Co. Fire District 2) that responds to emergencies outside the city, but within the county. Then there’s an area in Columbia County that’s nearer to Waitsburg...
There are pros and cons to computers. One pro, of course, is that you can work on multiple things at once. One con, however, is that you can work on multiple things at once. Take this seemingly simple dovetail: Working on signing up for college classes while trying to write a chapter for a “collaborative fiction project.” I started off by booting up the Internet and attempting to log into my course manager. While that was loading, I typed a few paragraphs, trying to flesh out my character withou...
Twenty years ago this week, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce attempted an experiment. They decided to hold a car show on Main Street. Dayton's Main Street had recently undergone a complete reconstruction, from the new water and sewer lines to the tops of the new trees and light poles. It was the pride of the city, and the Chamber wanted to show it off. Dayton's State Farm Agent, Bette Lou Crothers, was already a 10-year veteran on the Chamber board, and she agreed to head up the committee to try t...
I’m not sure that my subconscious knows that I’ve graduated yet. For the past two nights, I’ve had dreams about being late for school, which I still apparently need to attend. The night before that, I dreamed that my grades were lousy – not oh-heaven-help-us-it’s-an-A-minus lousy, but give-us-the-diploma-back lousy. According to the omniscient internet, dreaming about school “most often represents social concerns, insecurities or anxieties.” I have no idea what on earth that’s about. After al...
Dear Editor, I want to take this opportunity to say “Thank you” for all of the notes, cards and well wishes on my retirement. A special thanks to Dinah Lindsey for organizing and Dr. Clarke for hosting the event. Margie Douglas College Place...
On that warm June evening in 1973 when I graduated from high school, I can still remember experiencing feelings of anticipation and excitement for the future. In my case I was mostly looking forward to the near future: I had a party to go to later that night, and I couldn’t wait. (And, just for the record, it wasn’t at my parents’ house.) After high school, and the big party, I went on to college for several years, with a break or two mixed in. The thing that surprised me most about colle...
On Friday night, the senior class of Waitsburg High School graduated. I’m sure there’s a lovely article about this somewhere in this paper, so I won’t go into much detail. On Monday morning, all the classes of Waitsburg Elementary School went to the Bruce Mansion to learn a bit of hands-on history on Pioneer Day. There’s probably a story – or at least a few pictures – in here somewhere. If not, check back next week. [Thanks for the tip, Emma. We’ll get on it. – Ed.] I attended both events – the first one as a graduate, the second as a demonstra...
It drives like a boat and has some nicks in the paint. It has what looks like a cigarette burn in the driver's seat. It even includes a working 8-track tape player containing – get this – a well-used Barry Manilow tape. But it's an all-original survivor, and it might be the coolest car you'll ever own. That is if you buy a ticket and win it. For the second year in a row, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce – this time with sponsorship from us, The Times – is raffling off this 1970 Buick Electra...
It’s June, everybody? Whoops, did I accidentally put a question mark there? Sorry. Let me try that again. It’s June, everybody! Much better, right? Although, come to think of it, maybe the question mark is appropriate, because as I write this the sky is choked with gray clouds and I still have doubts about being ready to graduate. Both of these were supposed to clear away by the end of May. It’s June, everybody? On second thought, my kitchen is encrusted with flour from the ten gazillion batches...
Dear Editor, A big thank you to all of the Waitsburg Celebration Days volunteers and to all of those who donated to the public art project! We are very close to having the piece, Jeffrey Hill’s “Founding Fathers”, fully funded, but we still need to raise $5,000. Any donations are greatly appreciated! Thanks once again to all of our great community members who continue to keep Waitsburg “One of a Kind”! Randy Hinchliffe City of Waitsburg...
Here at The Times, we love the spring for all the reasons you all do, and for another reason as well: Springtime brings great photo opportunities in the Touchet Valley. We like to keep this newspaper colorful, and that can be tough to do in February. But once the trees turn green and the the flowers are in bloom and people are out enjoying the weather, we put our cameras to work. Events in Waitsburg and Dayton are great fun to photograph. In our last two issues, we've tried to convey the wide...
I am in the process of writing my co-valedictorian’s address. This process is not going as smoothly as I would have hoped. “Valedictorian” is taken from “Valedictory,” which is defined as “a farewell address.” In other words, academic stuff aside, the whole point of being a valedictorian is to deliver a speech at graduation. This fact is not helping. I know from experience that the opening line is the most crucial part of any speech. I won some very important elections at Girls’ State with biza...
The wheat market as revealed by Chicago soft red winter futures is a one-day wonder. Since mid-May, all of the significant price changes have come in single sessions. On May 14, July contracts opened at $4.81½ and closed 33 cents higher at $5.14½. This week, following the three-day weekend, wheat opened at $5.15¼ and closed 22 cents lower at $4.92¾. Every other session for the month has been quiet and small. This is sufficient to exasperate short-term traders, although the profession of trading wheat is a study in exasperation anyway. The tre...
Dear Citizens of Waitsburg, Thank you for supporting our 2015 Waitsburg Celebration Days and celebration of our 150th anniversary of Waitsburg! It was a great turnout for everything. As Mayor of this “one of a kind” city, I was so proud of the weekend, but most of all, thanks to the many, many volunteers that made it happen. I am referring to the Waitsburg Celebration Board and committee members. The committee consists of the following very faithful members: Robbie Johnson serves as vice president, Marianne Newell as secretary, Deanne Joh...
As the end of my high-school career draws closer, people are asking me more and more frequently whether this column will continue once I leave for college. Unfortunately, the demanding coursework awaiting me as a freshman at Whitman will consume most of my free time, and so it will most likely be well-nigh impossible for this piece to continue in its current format. However, I have several ideas for utilizing this space in an entertaining manner well into the future, and I wanted to run them...
[Editors Note: The following history (we’ve edited it slightly) originally appeared in the September 30, 1965 edition of The Times. We bring it back for your enjoyment. Unfortunately, this paper will cost you more than a dime.] 1881 – Washington flour mill enlarged to double present capacity. Single copies of The Times, 10 cents. Wheat market unsteady at 55 cents. Pres. Garfield assassinated. 1882 – W. P. Bruce erects home on Main Street. Wheat selling at 60 cents a bushel. Much of Waitsburg flooded by high waters of Touchet. 1883 – Waitsbu...
