Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1702 - 1726 of 2504
The Washington State Legislature is now in its second special session of 2013. We feel like the time has come for them to pass a budget in Olympia, and we figured we weren't the only ones. Here are some excerpts from opinion pieces published in Washington newspapers in the past few days: State lawmakers have 231 million good reasons to agree on a new two-year state budget. Revenue forecasts predict an additional $231 mil- lion in revenue during this fiscal year and over the next two years. That money, plus $90 million in savings from fewer...
Dear Editor, With the recent discus- sions of a need for Commer- cial Kitchens for cottage industries; the Waitsburg Town Hall Association would like the community to know of its recent certification of the Town Hall Kitchen as a com- mercial facility by the Walla Walla Health Department. Town Hall is a commu- nity owned event rental governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and organized as a 501C3. As of May 1, 2013, the Town Hall Board has completed all the requirements for our Commercial Kitchen. Rental rates are based on an individ- ual...
When I started two tomatoes from seed who-knows- how-many weeks ago, both seeds sprouted and grew into healthy plants. The only difference was that one plant grew very quickly - its stem stretching proudly towards the sky - and the other plant, while very green and vi- brant, stayedhellip;well, small. I kept the two in pots in- side for two months. When the time came to transplant them, the tall plant was push- ing four inches. The smaller plant was two centimeters high, max. I'm serious - that...
I f Jack Smiley, the late Waitsburg Prescott ath- letic director, had been looking over Jeff Foertsch's shoulder at the time the social studies teacher went through the pool of applicants for the scholarship named in his honor, Jack would have approved of his final choice. Valedictorian Claudia Soriano fit bill number one: she was a member of the Na- tional Honor Society, orga- nizer of the St. Jude Mathathon, Associated Student Body president, canned food drive volunteer, soccer team manager an...
I t is no secret that veterans are facing difficult times. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) claims backlog has been a problem that has risen to national attention and prompted outrage, concerns and questions. And for good reason. As Americans, we must do everything we can to en- sure that programs and benefits administered by the VA are being done as efficiently and effectively as possible. This includes addressing the growing size of the backlog claims for disability benefits. While President Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinse- ki...
The Waitsburg High School scholarship list in last week's Times omitted graduating senior and Honor Student Alex Leathers, who received a merit scholarship from Walla Walla Community College for $4,200, which is also renewable in his second year. He also received $575 from the William and Delora Harpe Scholarship. Alex will be attending WWCC this fall....
School's out. After a few high- stress days of testing, a surprisingly successful performance of my drama class's play, and a locker cleanup that was more like a high-stakes Jenga game (those math textbooks leave nasty bruises), I am offi- cially a junior. Scary. After such a busy last week (did I fail to mention a field trip to Silverwood, a frenzied attempt to fill in my student portfolio, and a bevy of personal appointments?), I was all for plopping down on my couch, petting the cat, and gulp...
I 've learned that in Waits- burg, one's backyard can be the target of a selective little snow bliz- zard as late as the month of May. Actually, in my case with property on the alley between Main Street and Coppei, it's guaranteed. Every year when temper- atures rise and the foliage explodes all around us, our whole neighborhood gets covered with fluffy white fir that gets into everything, including my plants, my garage and even my house. It doesn't melt like winter snow. It sticks around and...
I n 2007, when planning was underway for the second phase of the Marengo wind project in Columbia County, a small number of local citizens went to great extremes to try to stop it. They were unsuccessful, and that project joined Hopkins Ridge and Marengo I to establish an important new economic driver in the Touchet Valley. Puget Sound Energy, owner and operator of Hopkins Ridge, has since received a Conditional Use Permit in Co- lumbia County (as well as one in Garfield County) for the development of the Lower Snake River Wind Project. Phase...
The school year is near- ly over. I won't bore you with the details of the sketchy grades I am desperately trying to rectify before the grading period ends. And I recall spotting a Times reporter at graduation, so I'll tell you something related to my plans for this summer. We're going to California over the summer to visit my mom's brothers. We'll spend the better part of that time in the Silicon Valley with my mom's second-oldest brother, Dave, his (rather chipper) wife Carina, and their...
In a photograph on Page 6 of last week's Times, one of the service members standing in a group was misidentified. The man on the right is SGT Matthew Rupp. In the photo cap- tion, that person was identified as 1LT Michael Zaharevich. Zaharevich is currently stationed in Belgium....
In the spring of 1963, when John Kennedy was president and gas was 30 cents a gallon, a group of 15 Waitsburg men formed a new Lions Club and set out to help out their com- munity. And oh how they've done it. As reporter Dena Wood reports in these pages, the contri- butions the Lions - they now number nearly 70 - have made to Waitsburg have been invaluable. The club has made improvements to the race track and football fields at the fairgrounds, they've made repairs and improvements to the Waitsburg Pool and the little league fields, tennis...
I'd like to thank the internet, Google, Wikipedia, Microsoft Word, and Copy & Paste.... -- Anonymous graduation speech T hirty members of the Waitsburg community reached a milestone in their lives on Friday. After 12 years of studying together and playing sports together and just hanging out together, the members of the Waitsburg High School class of 2013 move on the next phases of their lives. The Times congratulates them and wishes them well as they move on to the next level of their education. That's right, young people; your education...
High school sports season may have ended, but not the pastime of sports itself, let alone our interest in it. The Walla Walla Sweets just started up and the Waitsburg Elite still has a game or so left. Lots of our kids will be playing summer ball. And it's never too early to start thinking about fall. Football players won't even have to wait that long to start camp or practice, which usu- ally gets going in August. That prospect led me to place a call to our own Cardinals state champion quarterb...
A while ago, I wrote a column about the gardens that my brother, cousin, and I were trying to grow. Now, I figure it's high time for an update. I started all of my seedlings a good distance from Waitsburg's average date of last frost, April 27. Eventually, I had produced two cherry tomato plants - a bonus, since I only needed to plant one. Three of my four pepper seeds sprouted - good, as that was the exact number I needed to plant. I sowed a couple rows of carrots on April 6, hoping against hop...
Every spring, the Touchet River Valley awakens. What lies dormant for months in winter, suddenly explodes with green life fed by rains and the welcome sun in skies blue to heaven. Everything stirs and moves and grows in this fertile soil that yields a bounty every year. It has been this way ever since the Palus Indians roamed these hills and fields, harvesting roots such as quamash, camas, kouse, bitterroots, chokeberry, huckleberry, gooseberries, rose berries and whortleberries, just to name a...
I n the fall of 2011, teams from Waitsburg-Prescott brought home two state championships - in soccer and football. While that success in team sports wasn't repeated dur- ing this school year, student-athletes from WP and Day- ton turned in many strong performances, and all of us in the Touchet Valley should be very proud of them. On Saturday, Jubilee student James Thompkins won three individual events at the state 2B track meet in Cheney - In the 100, 200 and 400 meter sprints. He also took a fourth victory, anchoring WP's winning 4x100 relay...
Dear Editor, This morning, May 14th, was spent riding around Waitsburg with Ivan Keve, in his classic turquoise and white Ford Pickup, as a shotgun spotter for debris piles for City Cleanup Day. The Waitsburg City Crew is a hard working bunch; fun to be around! City Administra- tor Randy Hinchliffe donned his work clothes and pitched right in to help the clean up. Volunteers Jim Burris and dump truck, Skip Carpenter and tractor, Larry John- son driving Jack McCaw's dump truck, went above and beyond the scope of their Commercial Club job...
Dear Editor, It was good to learn Rocky Miller has been appointed Columbia County Sheriff. Rocky's many years experi- ence and knowledge as a law enforcement officer will be beneficial for our county. Liv- ing in this county and raising a family and having an integral part in the schools, church and being active in the community is beneficial. How honorable it must be for someone to choose to remain local rather than move on to other areas just for advancement and promotion. The county has been through some trying times, to reflect back to...
May promises to be filled with action at the Liberty Theater. The month starts off with a showing of the sci-fi adventure,"Oblivion", followed by the uplifting biographical sports drama," 42". Later in the month, the Liberty gets your heart racing again with "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and the political thriller", The Company You Keep". "Oblivion", starring Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, and Olga Kurylenko takes place on planet Earth after it's been devastated by decades of war. Jack Harper, p...
