Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1367 - 1391 of 2504
Dear Editor, Thanks to Councilman Kuykendall for at least asking about polling citizens to see which artwork they would prefer on permanent display to represent Waitsburg. A shame the Art Commission didn't consider doing that early enough to gain valuable input from more of those living in the community where the final choices would reside. Thanks, also, to Ross Hamann for reminding folks who could attend of previous input--from the community--regarding the original streetscape project and the fact that life-size interactive sculptures that fol...
Dear Editor, This is my continuing effort to keep you updated on the importance of the proposed Hospital Bond and levy on the November ballot. In three years we will lose our Medicare reimbursement of $350,000 per year because we have exhausted our depreciation (an allowed tax deduction based on a reduction in value of an asset over time). This, coupled with the Booker deficit, will total $747,000 in operational dollars that cannot be sustained within the current structure and services provided. Is this Bond a redesign, a remodel, or an...
Dear Editor, I was disappointed and offended in the editorial written in the August 28 Times by Ken Graham entitled "10 Reasons I'm Glad I Don't Have to Go Back to School." In particular reason 8 - denigrating being in the band. As a music educator for 25 years I am compelled to write and "teach" The Times about the benefits of a music education. Here are just a few of the facts- Secondary students who participated in music reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances, (alcohol, tobacco, drug abuse). Students with band and...
Dear Editor: Having spent the better part of 25 years as a resident of Walla Walla, I consider it a privilege to serve the people as a Deputy Sheriff. Although I have only been with the office since 2012, and some may deem my voice as that of "the new guy", I have spent the last decade of my life serving in the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps on both active duty and in the reserves. In that time, I have seen many different leadership types both stateside and in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have seen what works and what does...
I bought my first locker organizer yesterday. It's a kit full of black plastic planks that you can interlock to form several configurations of shelves. After a little fiddling around this morning, I decided on an H-shaped setup - notebooks on top, textbooks on the bottom, and a shelf in the middle for pencil bags, a day planner, and whatever forms may need taking home. I was super excited about this because my lockers for the past three years have been the stuff of urban myth. Landslides onto...
My mother passed away a year ago this week. I'm not a particularly sentimental person, but I have been thinking about her a lot recently. And I was reminded of her when I read a letter to the editor we received this week. It was my mother's fault that I took up the trombone way back in junior high school, and played it in the band (and stage band and orchestra) all through high school. Last week in this space I wrote a column - intended to be humorous - in which I recalled some of my...
Dear Editor, As a Hospital Board member and Friend of the Hospital I feel that it is important to keep you updated on issues relevant to daily operation of the hospital and the levy. I know that a levy is not a very popular issue, especially following an important school levy which did not pass! Both education and health are very important to our families and communities. In a recent letter to the editor I indicated that the hospital district financially subsidized Booker's operation for the past seven years at an average cost of $397,000 per...
[Editor's note: the following are excerpts from news stories around the country about firearm initiatives that will be on the ballot in Washington in November.] WhileWashington state voters won't weigh in on two competing gun-related ballot measures for months, money is already pouring into the campaigns in advance of the November electionhellip; hellip;Initiative 594, which is proposing universal background checks for gun sales and transfers, has a significant fundraising advantage over its rival. Initiative 591 would prevent Washington state...
Well, it seems as though I'm running out of summer quite rapidly. School starts next Tuesday. The Walla Walla Fair, long a herald of the break's end, will already be in full swing by the time you read this. The evenings are starting to get a little chilly, and my garden's finally yielding produce. For the most part, the elapsed time was uneventful. I worked from home, started a couple projects, visited family, hosted family, applied for a scholarship or two, baked way too much cake, and hugged...
1. I did it 19 times (including Kindergarten and graduate school). That was enough. 9. I hate shopping for clothes. 8. In high school I wasn't good enough to play football. (The one year I did, I learned things about pain I'd never known.) So when school started, it meant putting on my band uniform. It's not the same. 7. I had to walk a quarter mile to the bus stop and a quarter mile home every day. 180 times a year. With my trombone. 6. Did I mention that I was kind of a dork? Guys like me...
[Editor's note: Non football fans may want to move on to the next page, because we now bring you now a selection of news from around the web about the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, and some of the challenges they (and their fans) face during the upcoming season.] Will The Niners be Too Strong? It's Colin Kaepernick and the passing game that has (the San Francisco 49ers) on the brink. It's also what can make them better, against the Seahawks' secondary or otherwisehellip; hellip;The reigning champion will be the hunted, and will find out...
There's a part of me that finds a certain measure of comfort in consistency. It enjoys falling back into the same familiar patterns, doing the same things in the same way I've always done them. That part of me hasn't had a very good week. Case in point - this column. I'm typing it on a Windows 7 computer running Windows 8 software while some fancy internet modem blinks up a storm on the shelf next to me. Just a week ago today, Word and the computer it ran on were the XP version, and the dial-up...
WASHINGTON, DC - Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA- 05) released the following statement earlier this month after introducing H.R. 5303, the 21st Century Classroom Innovation Act, which encourages the use of blended learning in the classroom. "In the past few years we've seen an increase in the number of classrooms integrating technology - and these personalized learning tools are leading to tremendous academic performance. As the mom of three, I see firsthand how technology in the classroom...
Dear Editor, The Columbia County Hospital District Board decision to seek tax payer support for your health system was not an easy one, but one that is of utmost importance to our community. The coverage provided by both the Dayton Chronicle and The Times was on target regarding the major issues supporting the need for a levy. Their timely coverage is greatly appreciated. While both touched on the areas of need there are a couple of issues that need to be brought forth now and more in-depth during the immediate future. First: I know that the...
Dear Editor, I would like to thank the great people of Waitsburg for once again supporting the summer reading program. Special thanks go to the Classic Auto Club, Waitsburg Grocery Store, Waitsburg Hardware Store, Hubbard Law Office, Columbia County Health District, Blue Crystal Screen Printing, Midway Market, Laht Neppur and an extra big thank you to the Waitsburg Lions Club for their very generous donation. Becaue of these donations we were able to have a successful reading program for the children this summer. Thank you, thank you so very,...
People ask me all the time if I'm looking at any colleges in particular. My stock answer is "No, but a bunch of them seem to be looking at me." It's the eternal curse of anyone who's taken a standardized test and checked the little "Yes" box for "Give my address to colleges which I might be interested in". You get deluged with e-mail, snail mail, and even small packages. It's all glossy and neatly formatted, and after about three days, it all starts to sound the same. And it doesn't matter how well you perform on the test, either - that only...
A bout half a mile from my house in the South Touchet valley is a small business called Octopus Garden Honey. It's run by a couple named Paul and Susan Hosticka. They are beekeepers and they make wonderful honey there, which they sell at farmers markets and other venues. (The have a Facebook page if you want to learn more.) Each day, when I drive to Waitsburg, I pass near another business called Monteillet Fromagerie. It is run by a couple called Pierre Louis and Joan Monteillet. The...
WASHINGTON, DC - Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) released the following statement after sending a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack expressing concern over stoppages to official grain inspections at the Port of Vancouver. "Wheat growers are at the heart of Eastern Washington's economy, and the continual inefficiencies at the Port of Vancouver pose a threat to our longstanding export partnerships. In the Northwest, over 80 percent of our wheat is exported abroad - but these stoppages threaten to harm to our established trade...
[Editor's note: The following are excerpts from newspapers around the Pacific Northwest about Washington Governor Jay Inslee's recent move, which effectively blocked inspection of grain at the Port of Vancouver.] hellip;just as Washington's wheat harvest and export season move into full swing, Gov. Jay Inslee made a decision that effectively has shut down one of the most important export terminals on the West Coast and threatens the market share of the grain-growing industry from here to the Midwesthellip; hellip;Two weeks ago, Inslee canceled...
I 've never been much of an athlete. You can ask any of my classmates. It took me seven years to beat the sit-up count I had in the first grade. When I played tag, I frequently got told stuff like, "Emma, we both know you're never going to catch me." When we ran in PE and the teacher asked if someone would like to race me, somebody said, "Sure, I'll jog." They weren't trying to be mean. It's just the truth. I tell people that all my muscles are in my brain. This satisfies most folks, perhaps because my brain is a dark, twisty place and...
Even at the ripe old age of 136 years, it wasn't too late to give The Times a facelift, or so we thought. So this week we bring you a new, more colorful and hopefully more engaging newspaper layout. We now have full color on all our pages, and our photographs and other images promise to be crisper and brighter. A few months ago, I asked designer Vanessa Heim to help us design a new layout template, and you can see the result. I hope our weekly layout skills can live up to her wonderful vision. Since the 1980s The Times has been printed at the...
