Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1630 - 1654 of 2504
Dear Editor, We've just finished our annual task of compiling lessons learned from this year's Pioneer Fall Festi- val. We were again blessed with great weather although maybe a little warm, and the mud storm was nice enough to hold off until everything was put away. We received very positive feedback on the exhibits and displays in our three buildings and for the music and food. We're still trying to find the best balance for the food so that visitors can enjoy our his- toric downtown if they so choose and have something to eat there, or to...
Vinton, Iowa - Maya Garcia, of Waitsburg, is one of 190 Vinton-based young people serving in the nation's second class of FEMA Corps; a new unit of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) solely devoted to emergency management and long-term recovery activities. During her 10-month term of service, Garcia, 21, is providing important support to disaster survivors and gaining significant training and professional experience in emergency management. Serving on teams of 10 to 12 people, FEMA Corps members both travel to di-...
Ladies and gentlemen, the long dry season is over – it’s Knowl- edge Bowl time! Yessiree, for the next seven months, my life (or at least my Friday mornings) will be jam-packed with buzzer-slapping, brain- wracking, inside-joking, cookie-munching fun. As a result, my columns will be similarly stuffed with refer- ences to these antics. Last year, I started writ- ing columns in the middle of the Knowledge Bowl season. The first column I wrote on the topic never reached your eyes – I sent two c...
Doug Warnock, a retired WSU Extension Agent, re- ceived the National Association of County Agricul- tural Agents' Hall of Fame Award at the association's annual meeting in Pittsburg, Penn. on September 19. Warnock served in three Washington counties: Walla Walla (1961-1973), Asotin (1973-1978 and Kittitas (1978- 1996). He now lives near Prescott. Warnock's 35-year career with Washington State Uni- versity began in 1961. He started the "Steer, Lamb and Hog of Merit" youth programs that helped...
A trend that has always puzzled me somewhat is the concept of "distressed" jeans. For the uninitiated, distressed jeans are jeans that are damaged with rips, fading, or acid washing - and then sold just like that in reputable stores at a hefty markup. They are considered very fashionable at the moment, and it is more than socially acceptable to wear them in public. But even when the stains on your jeans aren't from acid or dye, but rather a drip- ping chocolate ice-cream cone, people still...
I t might seem a bit early to talk about Halloween, though some supermar- kets and stores are already in the spirit for the scary event with displays and candy. But a radio news item last week reminded me of an incident that happened on Halloween some years ago when I walked a much- younger Niko (our son) to the school bus. First, I have to explain this happened on Bainbridge Island, where motorists tend to be quite polite, except perhaps when it comes to getting to the Seattle-bound ferry on...
The day after this paper went to press, the Columbia County Board of Commissioners was scheduled to hold a public hearing and most likely impose a one- year moratorium on the production and sale of marijuana within the county. Walla Walla County and the City of Dayton are also considering similar measures. The city of Waitsburg already passed a moratorium back in December. The statewide initiative that passed last fall, legalizing recreational use of small amounts of pot, may well turn out to be a good thing in the long run, but it has created...
On behalf of more than 1,800 members, the Washington As- sociation of Wheat Growers is strongly opposed to Initiative 522 on the Novem- ber statewide ballot. I-522 would force Washington farmers and food companies to implement costly new labeling, packaging, distri- bution and recordkeeping re- quirements that do not exist in any other state - whether or not they grow or produce genetically engineered crops (GE) or food products. "I-522 is a costly and misleading measure that would hurt Washington's family farmers and consum- ers," said WAWG...
Between the start of school and the Columbia County Fair, it's been a very busy week. Talk about an embarrass- ment of riches - the events of the past seven days could constitute a whole month's worth of columns. Here's a highly condensed version of events: School started on Tues- day the 3rd. I was pretty excited - visibly so, in fact, to the point where someone passing me on the sidewalk remarked that I was "too happy to be at **** school." (This had little to no effect on my mood.) My first-p...
We can't resist this play on words once more: the "spirit" of Waitsburg is in a bottle and it's reaching shores in some very distant lands, not to mention our own. Thanks to two entrepreneurs, Kirby Kallas Lewis and Paul Gregutt, who branded their tasty and tastefully labeled vin- tages after our town, the Waitsburg name is getting out there and raising some worldwide interest. Waitsburg Bourbon, now in its eighth batch since its launch only a few years ago, can be found in stores, bars and restaurants in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California,...
The Columbia County Fair is coming up this weekend, so I've been in sales-pitch mode all week long. (In fact, I would pitch to all of you, but there are some thorny ethical issues in- volved with using my column as an advertising vehicle. Bummer.) It feels so odd to have the fair-court season com- ing to a close so soon. Wasn't it just yesterday that I learned that, for the second time, I would be Hostess Emma, travers- ing Southeastern Wash- ington in cowboy boots and a satin sash and way too...
This weekend, we marked Labor Day with some work on a rental we own. Kar- en, Rainier and Niko helped me clean and paint the three-bedroom home where tenants had dwelled for almost a decade before moving on. To make these mun- dane tasks more enjoy- able, we brought the boom box from the house and the boys got to play their favorite tunes. Niko chose several dub step artists and rappers. Rainier opted for Smashing Pumpkins. All of it was too rau- cous for my taste, but lo and behold Rainier...
How many players line up on offense on a foot- ball team? For our sports-challenged readers, the answer is eleven. For a high school team, it doesn't matter if your school has 200 students or 2,000, the answer's still 11. (Okay, there's such a thing as eight-man football at RE- ALLY small schools, but we'll ignore that.) And how many sports are there for kids to play at Dayton or WP? Just in the fall, there are four: Football, volleyball, soccer and cross country. All year long there are more than a dozen. Young athletes at our local high schoo...
You can pick up the fragrance in the fields and the woods. It's the smell of fall in the air, and for many athletes and fans alike it heralds the first sports season of the school year. The Times will be previewing all the fall sports teams starting next week, but before we get all excited about the Cardinals/Tigers or Bulldogs, there's something else I wanted to draw your attention to before everyone goes back to school: college sports. This year, we have the highest number of Waits- burg,...
Dear Editor, What was the City think- ing when they were redoing West 7th.and decided it would be nice to put the 4 foot of rock between the sidewalk and the curb? Not only does it serve no real function, it is also danger- ous for me and others with medical devices, I.E. walk- ers, crutches, wheelchairs. I was expecting to see the strip filled with dirt, grass and trees, but, no, it was river rock. A law suit just waiting to happen. Jim Wills Waitsburg...
Dear Editor, I would like to update our wonderful community on my medical status. With the help of friends, family, local business and many, many community members, we were able to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota in June, expecting to have brain surgery. After three very long and extensive days of testing, the surgeon (Dr. Link) along with sev- eral of his associates made the decision to put brain surgery on hold. He felt he would do more damage than good, due to the location of the tumor. At this point I have the entire...
Some weeks, my ex- perience doesn't lend itself well to a nicely organized, cohesive piece. On those occasions, I string my thoughts together in the order they enter my brain. This style of organization is known as 'stream of con- sciousness'. It's sort of the 'fruitcake' of writing styles - some people can't stand it, while others think it does the single truest job of capturing the human experience in all its raw, gritty glory. If you fall into the latter category, prepare for dis-...
This time each year in our hometown The county fair comes our way Where the folks gather round to be happy and spend theirday ~ from "County Fair," by The Beach Boys F airs are as old as civilization. In ancient Rome, special holidays - which allowed a break from work - were marked with gatherings they began calling Fairs. Fairs in the middle ages often included markets, where farmers would sell their goods and craftspeople would sell their wares. (The word fare is a variation that now often refers to food and drink.) Wikipedia's entry on...
Last night, when I took Dizzy for a walk up the alley, past the el- ementary school and back down Main Street, I looked up at the night sky. The moon wasn't quite full since it had an oval side, but it was bright. Around it, stars hung quietly above Preston Hall. One of them was on the move. Or, wait, it had a very small flashing light that hinted at its linear progress across the sky at least a mile high: a jet making its way west, probably to Portland International. In Waitsburg, I had never s...
When our country was founded, Thomas Jefferson declared that governments should only derive their power from the "consent of the governed." Four score and seven years later, at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln reminded us that ours was a government "of the people, by the people, for the people." Last week, the House of Representatives paid worthy tribute to the legacy of our Founding Fathers. We have renewed our commitment to putting people before politics. Last week, House Rep...
