Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1477 - 1501 of 2504
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...
I am writing this letter to encourage the citizens of the Dayton School District to support the Campus Wide Renovation project. As a member of the facility committee that presented the recommendation to the school board, we have reviewed all options extensively and have concluded the time has come to address the needs of our educational facilities. The high school was originally built in 1923 and had some remodeling done in 1984. The K-8 building was erected in the 1950's. The renovation will update outdated mechanical systems and will imp...
Dear Editor, I am writing this letter to encourage voters in the Dayton School District to support the Campus Wide Improvement Plan. The citizens of Columbia County have a strong sense of community and a great appreciation for preserving our historic character. This was evident back in 1910 when Dr. Marcel Pietrzcyki left provisions in his will to provide land to the Dayton School District and to provide funding toward initial construction of the high school. The community has continually exhibited their community pride with reno...
Dear Editor, Mandatory government education (also called public education) is not only collectivist, authoritarian, and unacceptable in a country that claims to be free. It is also inherently inefficient at education: 1. Public schools are not intended to educate -- from the public schools of the past: Prussia, National Socialist Germany, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, the socialist leaning governments of the early 20th century USA (Which forced Native American children into schools and punished them for speaking their own tongue), Bri...
Dear Editor, Having served on the Facilities Committee for the Dayton School District, I can assure the voters of Columbia County that there isn't a question you've asked yourselves or your neighbors about this project that we did not ask ourselves over the months the Facilities Committee met. The committee, made up of business owners, parents of school-age children, community members, government representatives, and school staff, spent months analyzing drawings and layouts, looking at costs, talking to bond companies, comparing levy rates,...
[Editor's note: The following is an edited news release from the office of Washington Governor Jay Inslee, giving his perspective on this year's legislative session.] The 2014 Legislature adjourned late Thursday night, finishing its 60-day session on time and delivering important pieces of Gov. Jay Inslee's health care and education agendas to his desk. The Legislature approved several pieces of legislation and budget items to continue Washington's successful push to improve quality of health care delivered in the state and that will redu...
Dear Editor, Most people, regardless of whether they are retired or still working, are on a fixed income, because wages are not keeping up with what it takes to live. And wages in this area have never been particularly generous. So when private citizens express concern to the Dayton School Board about a 20 million dollar bond to modernize the Dayton school facilities, they are valid in their concerns: The overall cost of the project is beyond the ability of the community to bear. Let's do the math: if the bond passes, the resulting property...
Dear Editor, I am writing this letter to encourage voter support for the Dayton School District Campus Wide Improvement Bond. I have been on the facility committee that has met continually during the last year and feel the committee has effectively concluded the extensive project is needed. The process was painstaking and a great deal of thought and effort went into the planning. The Study and Survey done by engineers and architects identified the repairs that need to be done to the high school building which is 93 years old. The committee...
Jazzy Latin music blared from the patio of some distant cafe as I dolefully chomped on a free sample from Godiva Chocolates. The overcast sky – and the wafting bit of bite on the edge of the breeze – did nothing to improve what seemed at the time like the worst day of my life. I don’t want to talk about Knowledge Bowl State this year. First of all, I’m trying to avoid writing a column about something that another article in this week’s paper might discuss. Second of all, it still hurts....
Before I sat down last week to talk with Representative Terry Nealey about this year's legislative session in Olympia that ended a couple of weeks ago, I got on line to brush up on what happened. The big-city news analysts were not impressed. The Seattle Times accused the legislature of playing "chicken with citizens' safety, money and trust." The Spokesman Review was less harsh, but said of the legislature, "We do wish they'd been more ambitious." The Tacoma News Tribune put it s...
