Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1467 - 1491 of 2504
Ten Years Ago May 6, 2004 Over two dozen Waitsburg residents who lived through World War II, or served in the military during the worldwide conflict, gathered in the former American Legion Banquet Rooms last Thursday to relate to students in Ms. Bailey's American History class their experiences during that tumultuous period. Students asked questions and scribbled notes as foks, including Dorne Hall of Walla Walla, told of their lives and the effect of the war. Twenty-Five Years Ago May 14, 1989 Reuben Stokes and Tom Mathews, students at...
Dear Editor, Waitsburg Utility Rate Payers: On April 16th, the City Council voted to raise water utility rates by $6 per month to begin to set aside funds to help replace the waterline on the east side of Main Street down 1st Street back to 2nd Street. When the new waterline was installed on Main Street to fix the leaking one in front of the grocery store, the crew encountered water at the new connection point; meaning the existing line running north is still leaking somewhere else. Due to the age and material type of the existing waterline, it...
I woke up this morning with stiff arms. I don't recall having done anything terribly exerting yesterday. I spent most of it either in a car, at a table, or asleep, except for the two hours or so in the morning when I worked on removing blackberry plants in a park in Olympia. I wasn't even yanking them - I pruned off branch after branch after branch, then set them in a wheelbarrow and minced them with a pair of pruners. It didn't even ache at the time. If I had been Joseph, another boy from the g...
On Monday, I met with several students in Rob Moore's sixth period class at Dayton High School to talk about their recent trip to Seattle to compete at the state FBLA conference. They were quite successful there, and I wrote a story about that which appears on Page One. While I was there, Mr. Moore and I took a few moments to change the subject. We asked the students if they'd be willing to give their thoughts on the levy. They were. Because almost all of them are under 18, and it's a...
Dear Editor, If money is speech, what's the upshot? - U.S. a democracy? The Supreme Court in both the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions used convoluted, tortured, and harmful free speech arguments to turn over the election process to moneyed interests. In Citizens United they allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts for "independent expenditures." In McCutcheon they allowed the very wealthy to donate about 30 times as much money in elections as before. The majority in the 5-4 decisions said a one point "there can't be...
I t seems as though I talk about college (or college related topics like the SAT) quite a bit in this column. I’m not sure why. My lead theory is that I’m so preoccupied with getting all the right forms into all the right people on time, in order to apply for scholarships and sign up for tests, that it sort of tints my whole life with equal parts anticipation and anxiety. I promise – and this is a pinkie promise – that I will abstain from all this throughout the entire month of May. If I win a...
A s this issue of the Times went to press, initial results showed that the Dayton School District's capital bond levy was going down to a big defeat. This isn't a surprise, but it leaves the Dayton community with a problem. The school facilities are getting pretty worn out and maintenance costs are mounting fast. I've talked to a lot of people over the last couple of months about the proposed levy, and even most of the people who planned to vote no didn't argue with any of that. But they...
Our federal forests are withering away from neglect, insects and disease, and no- where is this more true than in Eastern Washington. A staggering one-third of our country's national forest land managed by the U.S. Forest Service is diseased or dying. In the Colville National Forest alone, 300,000 of the forest's 1.1 million acres are bug-infested. After infestations in Okanogan, Klickitat, Yakima and Ferry counties, the Washington Department of Natural Resources has declared forest healthhazard...
I couldn't believe the fabulous deal I found for our Spring Break vacation. It was a brandspankin' new, top-rated, 3-star hotel within walking distance of Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. And I got it for $64 a night - when the less-highly-rated joint down the street was charging twice that much, even including the AAA discount! Mom was proud. I was pleased with my work. And the visit was going quite nicelyhellip;until I found out why such a wonderful hotel was available so cheaply. We...
The town of Darrington, Wash. sits in a beautiful spot in the Stilliguamish River Valley in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, northeast of Seattle. Its population is roughly the same as Waitsburg's. When a giant landslide wiped out a small community called Oso just down the road, Darrington became a town in crisis. As The Times went to Press, 33 people were confirmed dead from the slide, and seven are still missing. Dozens of homes were destroyed. A sea of mud and trees many feet deep...
Dear Editor, SCHOOL BOND LEVY - Received the ballots and glossy promotion flyers in the mail April 4. I will NOT be voting for this measure. Since moving to Dayton in 1996, we have always voted pro-school levies and supported Dayton schools in other ways. Concerning the new bond issue - we understand the need to improve safety, security, quality, energy savings, accessibility, and to modernize, yet preserve and repair, the historic building. However, I have questions concerning reasoning and cost of the proposed renovation. 1. The flyer speaks...
Dear Editor, I am very grateful for the support the citizens of Dayton have shown to our school system. I hope that the Dayton campus wide school improvement bond that is being presented will also garner positive support. Our mechanical systems and facilities have reached their useful life span. We see progressing expenses in the attempts to maintain and repair the aging infrastructure, which will ultimately impacts the dollars we have available for educating students. Increasing demands in educational standards require more space for state...
Dear Editor I've been thinking about the upcoming school levy and there are many reasons not to pass this measure. 1. The economy here simply can't support this. Our taxes are high enough. Our political future is still unknown. We can be sure power, food, fuel and everything else will keep going up. At this point more expense and bigger budgets are financial suicide. We need to think about living within our means and quit asking the taxpayer to pick up the tab. 2. Landowners and/or farmers will pay considerable more. Not only do we own our...
Dear Editor, I've read up about the Dayton School District Campus (http://daytoncitizensforeducation.com/wp/) and bond issue, and I've realized that it needs a severe overhaul (a drive by the school area indicates that). Just from a facilities standpoint alone, I would hope all citizens would want to see things upgraded and brought up to standards for the kids' sake. Reading up on the science classrooms, I noticed that they are grossly inadequate for teaching science, and I applaud the efforts of those and other teachers in dealing with their...
You wanna know what the world’s biggest rip-off is? Paying $51 for a twopage PDF, four hours’ rent on a rickety plastic chair, a booklet full of math questions I don’t particularly want to answer, and the privilege of attending school on a Saturday. Well, then again, nothing about the SAT makes much sense. Or, at least, it didn’t make much sense until I found a handy little book called “The Ultimate Guide to Not Failing Standardized Tests”. It was only $1.99 – can you believe it? Anyway, now I...
Next Door to The Times's office in Waitsburg is a lovely coffee shop called the Coppei Café. We have a door directly into it - we don't even have to go outside. Last Thursday I ordered a tall latte and sat down in a comfortable chair in the café, along with all of the members of the Washington State Legislature who represent our 16th district. They were there to talk about the recent legislative session. The three of them - Senator Mike Hewitt, Representative Maureen Walsh and Representative Ter...
Total Estimated Project Cost - $24,253,911 Bond Levy - $19,955,000 (Remainder to be paid by state matching funds) Duration - 20 years Estimated Property Tax Levy Amount - $2.53 per thousand dollar valuation* Scope of the project: High School Renovation - The Pietrzycki High School building was originally constructed in 1923. The exterior walls of the building will be preserved, but the entire interior of the building will be gutted. - New classrooms will be built, with an average size of 900 square feet. (Current classrooms are between 660 and...
This is my fourth column of the week. The first three shipped into Waitsburg as big boxes of perfectly flat Prom decorating supplies. They were made of white corrugated paper which my classmates and I cut into rectangles and taped together into the proper lengths. Then three of us would kneel in front of one of these lengths, holding big cardboard circles. We passed a hot glue gun on an extension cord from person to person. Each person would squirt a two-inch line of glue, roll their car...
Dear Editor, Hospitals, schools and municipal works are highly visible and important community assets that help to attract and retain families as they are a reflection of community values. Locally elected people oversee the expenses and operations of these local governments. Retaining students by providing services requires funding to perform routine operations and maintenance and then that once-in-a-while infusion of large dollars for major renovations or upgrades. It has been 30 years since the last renovation. The state recognizes the n...
Dear Editor, Once again, there is a small group of people that are working hard to bring our Annual Celebration Days to our city on May 16-18, 2014. Historically, these events replace our Days of Real Sport weekend. The events traditionally highlight what a wonderful little city we are. We welcome visitors and family to share in our many events. And it has proven to be one of the most successful weekends for our businesses in our community. Here's the issues facing these volunteers attempting to pull the weekend together. #1: Volunteers a...
