Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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When you read what I’m about to say, you’re going to think I’m a sore loser. So I plead guilty right up front. But I write on anyway because I think it’s important for taxpayers to know how their money is being spent. Last month, The Times was invited to bid on the contract to publish legal notices for Columbia County for the 12-month period beginning July 1. Our bid was $4.95 per column inch, and our text size is 8 point font. With this bid, we would easily cover our costs make a reasona...
It’s human nature to want to leave a legacy of some sort after spending any extended period of time in a given place. For example, after bidding adieu to my beloved Knowledge Bowl in March, I did so knowing that my team and I were responsible for two new additions to the state rules – the one about the audience keeping well away from the teams (aka the Onion Breath Amendment of 2014), and the one that says that if the question asks for a last name, a first name is offered, and the first name is...
Dear Editor, IT’S TIME: It takes a lot of community members to make the right decisions regarding how we live and accomplish tasks within Columbia County, its cities and Waitsburg! In most instances this is accomplished by individuals that step-up and accept a challenge, either as an elected official or as a volunteer. For several years I have been either elected or a volunteer and it is now time to pass the challenge to the younger members of our community. As I move into the mid-seventies it is becoming more difficult for me to make the d...
As I write this early on Tuesday morning, it’s snowing at my house. But I’m not discouraged. Yesterday was in the 60s and more warm weather is on the way. Baseball is up and running, and the Mariners are 3-4 after losing to the Dodgers last night. (Interleague games already? I miss the old days.) On Friday, cyclists from around the northwest will converge on Waitsburg for the annual Tour of Walla Walla bike race. (See the article on Page 9.) The race schedule is a little different this yea...
It’s eight o’clock in the morning. The commons area is all but empty, but no wonder – it’s the first day of school after spring break, and nobody is exactly rushing back. The floors are clean, almost impossibly so. They will be their usual rubber-scuffed and mud-splattered selves in 20 minutes, but for now they shine in the April sun. There is a pile of cloth crumpled on a table near the far end of the room. Somebody notices – a staffer, perhaps, or a student struck by its incongruity with its...
Organic farming may be as important to the farmers who practice it as to those who purchase and eat the food they grow. This year, researchers with the National Institute of Health completed a landmark, 20-year study of the connection between pesticides and depression in farmers. According to Dr. Freya Kamel, the study’s lead researcher, scattered reports in the literature about the association between pesticide use and depression led to the desire for further research. With much more detailed information available, researchers were able to d...
Dear Editor, Thank you for the great coverage of the historic displays being prepared for the Waitsburg sesquicentennial. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Clyde Burdine to this effort. His company did the initial clean-up of the site, compensated by the scrap metal he picked up. I monitored this activity, and indicated any items of historic value, which he set aside and donated to the Historical Society. Since then, he has moved many of the items several times including taking the large turbine to McGregor’s. It is gratifying t...
A little over a year ago, voters in the Dayton School District soundly defeated a $25 million bond levy measure that would have funded a major renovation to Dayton’s school facilities. The message was clear: taxpayers weren’t willing to pay for a project that they deemed much more luxurious than what the schools needed to do their job of educating our kids. This month the Dayton schools are again asking voters to approve a levy measure, but on a much smaller scale. The district is asking for...
Artistic types go through “phases.” Picasso is the most famous example. He had his Classical Period, then his Blue Period, then his Red Period, and then several others whose names I have forgotten since my second-grade art class. I consider writing a sort of art. You do your best to make it pretty, it takes obnoxious amounts of time, and people who do it for a living are generally broke. I believe that that’s all the qualifiers which one needs to declare something “art.” In any case, a few weeks ago, I entered what history will remember...
There is a partisan disagreement in the grain markets. Wheat called for a low and reversal to the upside on March 6. Some observers commented that it was too early in the spring debate season to make such a decisive point. Corn and soybeans, opposing the point with many negative pledges coming in from Latin members, briefly filibustered, then moved to push lower in direct opposition to wheat. Argentine corn was seen in the lobby at $8 per metric ton below U.S. offerings in the export markets. Soybeans were seen to be organizing a massive...
Washington, What a State! Jeff Foxworthy is best known for his “Redneck” jokes, but he actually wrote several “Washington” jokes as well. One of them was: “If you sometimes switch the thermostat from ‘Heat’ to ‘AC’ and back again on the same day, you live in Washington.” This is accurate. I’m one of those naturally cold-blooded people. My baseline temperature is closer to hypothermia than it is to the standard 98.6 degrees. I am somewhat notorious in the Waitsburg school system for wearing a large silver coat every day between the start of...
Dear Editor, The family of Karen Huwe Mohney wish to express our appreciation for the kindness, support, and messages of sympathy concerning the loss of our beloved wife and daughter, Karen. To all those who joined in the celebration of her life, we thank you. We especially want to thank Sandy Baker for the poignant and informative eulogy, The Reverend Bret Moser for leading the service and for his comfort and prayers, pianist Randy Pearson and soloist Bethany Moser for providing the special music, and all who shared either thoughts or...
By Cooper Inveen WNPA Olympia News Bureau OLYMPIA—It’s been almost eight months since the largest wildfire in Washington’s history scorched the Methow Valley, and criticism over the official firefighting response by the state’s Department of Natural Resources continues to rage. What began with four individual fires quickly expanded into the 268,764-acre Carlton Complex fire. Over the course of a month, the fire engulfed more than 300 homes and caused more than $65 million in damages, according to the DNR. Many victims have filed lawsuit...
I was recently informed that I am something called a “co-valedictorian.” This confuses me on multiple levels. Take the word itself. That’s seven syllables, my friends. SEVEN. It’s like one of those Knowledge Bowl questions where they give you a complicated Latin word and you’re supposed to decipher it based on your knowledge of smaller Latin words. So here goes nothing: Co = Company. Valid = Authentic and useable, as with a coupon or passport. Ick = An interjection expressing disgust Tori = A...
My Dad gave me an old router awhile back – it’s a wood router, not an internet router. (I have a couple of those, too.) There’s a shop next to my house. I call it that, though it also serves as a home office and a storage unit. I recently decided that, to go along with the router, I needed a router table in the shop. I knew you can build one (if you have a shop) but I wasn’t sure how. So I turned to YouTube. I also knew that people put videos of themselves up on YouTube showing how to do things,...
WNPA Olympia News Bureau Olympia—A political thriller earns its debut March 23 at Olympia’s marble palladium when the Legislature’s leading producers-directors—Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond, and Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina—take the stage to introduce their awaited and unreviewed drama they claim will keep their fellow political thespians out of jail and solve the constitutional quandary hovering over them: full funding for basic K-12 education. The Washington State Supreme Court is holding those political actors accountable for a solution to its ma...
Every now and then, this column will feature instructions for an activity I find interesting. Right now, I’m particularly interested in counted cross stitch, which is a simple, relaxing form of embroidery that results in a satisfying thunk noise as the stitch tightens against the taut fabric. So I thought I’d include some instructions on how to get started on your own sampler. But then I remembered that there is more than one way to have fun with cross-stitch. For example, you might be a cat...
Last week, the Washington State Senate approved a pretty significant gas tax increase for the state’s drivers. If the bill is approved by the state house and signed into law, the new gas taxes will be phased in over three years. You can read the details in the WNPA article on this page. The money will go toward a bunch of high-profile projects, including the 520 floating bridge in Seattle, I-405 east of Seattle, I-5 near Tacoma and I-90 through Snoqualmie Pass. The east side of the state is not being totally left out. A long awaited n...
OLYMPIA - Just 18 days after its initial unveiling, Senate lawmakers have passed a $15 billion transportation package that includes an 11.7-cent increase to the state gas tax over the next three years. That package now moves to the Democrat-controlled House where Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, said that the package won’t be considered until lawmakers address education funding, which they are under order from the state Supreme Court to substantially increase. “In the end, our goal is to pass a transportation budget,” Sullivan said....
Happy Daylight Saving Time, everybody! Okay, fine, so maybe “Happy” should be in quotes. Or perhaps eliminated altogether. Daylight Saving Time, everybody! Yessiree, it’s that time of year when we cash in our sleep, our sanity, and our statistical probability of avoiding a car accident for 180 extra hours of pure, gushing sunlight per annum. I understand that there is currently a bill in the state legislature concerning dropping the concept of daylight saving altogether. I expect it to pass...
There was nothing illegal or improper . . ....
Dear Editor, There are a bunch of people involved and working hard to bring our annual celebration to our wonderful little city. The event is called Waitsburg Celebration Days and it is being planned for the weekend of May 15th and 16th. So far the community has responded very well, helping to make this weekend something special. This year, once again, the Commercial Club is sponsoring the parade on May 16th. As Waitsburg citizens are wonderful volunteers, we (the Parade Committee) are seeking nominations of a very special person/family to...
Here at The Times, we don't cover news from Walla Walla all that much, but an announcement Monday from that little village down the road got my attention. I'm old enough to remember Woodstock, and Walla Walla is going to get its version of that landmark music festival this summer. (Woodstock happened in 1969 on the weekend of my 14th birthday, and no, I wasn't there.) Exactly 46 years after Woodstock (again on the weekend of my birthday; you can do the math), as many as 40,000 people are...
By Cooper Inveen, Reporter WNPA Olympia News Bureau OLYMPIA - As Washington’s gray wolf population continues to grow, so do concerns of those living in the areas of the state most affected by their return. “There’s two sides to this issue, and it kind of boils down to either you like them or you don’t,” said Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, who co-sponsored several wolf-related bills this session. Seven bills relating to Washington’s gray wolves have been introduced to the 2015 Legislature, with four surviving for continuing considerati...
Now that the Waitsburg Knowledge Bowl team knows that it’s state-bound, we’ve started planning like crazy for our trip to Seattle. We have an official t-shirt design mocked up, we’re picking places to visit for when we go into town, the hotel rooms are reserved, and the only question is whether to have dinner at The Crab Pot or Pike Street Fish Fry. In the meantime, we’ve been practicing up on our trivia. The Times writes a nice article every year about the local Knowledge Bowl teams, and the...
