Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Dear Editor, Can it be! 30 years flood again? They are predicting cold weather into mid-March. At that time of the year there will be no gradual warmup und the temperature will turn to the 70s overnight. The mountains are full of snow along with all the farmland, add a week of rain, a chinook in the mountains - instant flood. Are you prepared? Is the city prepared? Hope so! Thirty years ago there were three breakouts on the Coppei. FEMA fixed two and I told them about the third above me, but they said they didn’t have the money to fix it. W...
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By Don C. Brunell Darned if you do, or darned if you don’t! That’s the dilemma elected officials face in determining whether to offer tax incentives for companies to locate in their city, county or state. That conflict played out recently with Amazon’s decision to cancel its second headquarters (HQ2) in New York City. On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer. The city and state would extend $3 billion in tax relief to Amazon in exchange for $27 billion in new taxes and 25,000 good-...
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The circumstances leading to Amazon’s decision to scrap its New York City project are trends corporate leaders need to examine closely. There are cultural and political shifts in America which are changing the way business is done. Amazon walked away from its deal struck with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio which would create 25,000 new jobs and added $27 billion in new city and state tax revenue. In return, Cuomo and de Blasio, who actively courted Amazon, p...
Because most of my gardening experience has been in the desert, the prospect of getting to grow an English-style cottage garden when we moved to Dayton, in 2012, was beyond my wildest dreams. Little did I know there would be a constant running battle with the wildlife for dominance, beginning with the squirrels and deer. The squirrels made quite a summer production out of tearing the immature walnuts off the tree in the back yard, and chewing them, and spitting them, and running around burying...
When I received notice of the AAUW Great Explorations program, coming in March (see Page 2), I wanted to take the opportunity to share with our readers what a fantastic opportunity this is for 5th-8th grade girls. The program is $5 and includes a lunch. (Scholarships are available.) My daughter, who is now 22, participated years ago and loved it. When I texted to ask if she remembered going to a science program at Whitman College she said, “Yes! I was just thinking about that the other day a...
By City Clerk, Randy Hinchliffe I am sure many of you have noticed by now the stretch of land being developed at the eastern edge of the City. Mild temperatures in December and January prompted the City to start work on a road project to straighten out Taggart Road from its current position to the highway as a means to improve traffic safety and access in that area. At this time, the contractor has moved out for a month or so to hopefully give the ground some time to dry out before they start placing rock on it in preparation for chip sealing...
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A column by Dena Martin It's always fun browsing through past issues of The Times, especially when it comes to perusing advertisements from bygone years. Times have certainly changed. In some ways for the better, and in others, not so much. Ads of the past were far from politically correct. I did a bit of Googling on ads from the 20s through 50s and found some gems. A series of ads from the 30s urged women to use Iodized yeast to prevent being "skinny." According to some of these ads, men were...
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ots is written about students exiting college saddled with hefty student loans; however, the impact on retired parents went largely unnoticed. Recently, Wall Street Journal writer AnnaMaria Andriotis reported Americans over 60 years old are coming out of retirement and going back to work just to pay for their children’s education. On average student borrowers in their 60s owed $33,800 in 2017 up 44 percent from 2010. Student loan debt for seniors rose 161 percent between 2010 and 2017. It was t...
Dear Editor, I am writing to thank Waitsburg residents for sharing the true meaning of Christmas with children in need this past holiday season. Because of the generosity of donors in Waitsburg and across the United States, Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, collected more than 8.8 million shoeboxes in 2018. Combined with those collected from partnering countries in 2018, the ministry is now sending more than 10.6 million shoebox gifts to children suffering from poverty, natural disasters, war, disease and famine. These...
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The good news is Washington’s cherry crop is projected to be as good as 2018; however, absent tariff relief from the ongoing U.S.-China trade tiff, a key market will remain limited. When China’s tariff went from 10 percent to 50 percent last July, right in the middle of the harvest, exports to China went from the most profitable to the pits, Fox News reported. “Growers in Washington State, by far the largest producer of sweet cherries in the U.S., saw their bumper crop lose $86 million in value...
Dear Editor, Has anyone noticed the paradox Waitsburg City Council proposes? It appears ridiculous to me for the City to consider abandoning its offices and functions at its present site in order to relocate to the “Kingdom Hall” the Jehovah Witnesses have put up for sale. Now Council is fussing over what to do about vacant commercial buildings on Main Street. To move City Hall to a location adjacent to the park and swimming pool directly places our local government in a known flood path. Recall that the JW’s building received signi...
I recently read an article about Amazon’s new Amazon Go convenience stores. The stores are the very definition of “convenient.” They have no cash, no lines and no cashiers. You simply download the Amazon Go app on your phone, walk in, pick up what you want and walk out. No standing in line and no messing with wallets or credit cards. So how does it work? The entrance of the store has a row of subway-style gates that only those with the store’s smartphone app can pass through. Patrons shop as a combination of sensors, cameras and compute...
by Kathryn Witherington, Port of Columbia Economic Development Coordinator The mission of the Port of Columbia is to maximize public resources and private investment to create jobs, provide infrastructure, and maintain and improve the economic vitality of Columbia County. As part of this mission, we work constantly to identify new opportunities for our community. In March of 2018, one of these opportunities arrived when Substitute House Bill 2664 was signed in to law. This bill gives ports in Washington State the authority to build broadband in...
Thanks to the Wildhorse Foundation, The Club in Dayton has an improved kitchen. A $13,095 grant from Wildhorse Foundation awarded in December provided for a new floor, new stainless-steel dish washing sinks, wall repairs and a home style cooking range. These improvements will allow the Columbia County Health District to provide cooking classes to members this spring. Thanks to our responsive contractors, the improvements were made during the holiday break so that club programming was not affected. This is the second grant provided to The Club...
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By Don C. Brunell While many eyes are on trade talks between our country and China, America’s port leaders are positioning their seaports to compete for increasing volumes of container traffic. After container shipments surged in November---primarily from pre-tariff contracts—they plunged by year end--impact of U.S. and China trade war. Outbound container volume at the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 11.8 percent in November from the same month in 2017. It was a decline aft...
Dear Editor: According to 2017 FBI Crime in the United States (https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11.xls) the following murders were committed by the means listed: 15,129—Total murder victims 7,032—Handguns 1,591—Knives or cutting instruments 692—Personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) 467—Blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.) 403—Rifles 264—Shotguns Recently-passed Initiative 1639 placed great emphasis on so-called “semi-automatic assault rifles” yet murders committed...
Dear Editor: The theme of the December 27 City Council discussion about the Parks and Rec Committee and the preservation or demolishing of the Fairground’s grandstands seems to be spiraling down to a silo view of Waitsburg events and continuing program of work. We have an event, Waitsburg Celebration Days, that has been successfully implemented and been a benefit to promoting Waitsburg and Waitsburg businesses that seems to be overlooked in a determination to save the grandstands. Waitsburg Celebration Days is utilized as a promotional tool y...
It has been a trend in recent years, among those in pursuit of self-improvement, to choose a theme word to focus on for the year. Examples I’ve seen include: risk, freedom, courage, thrive, strength and health. There are a multitude of books, websites and “projects” based around the concept of adopting one word to focus on throughout the year. While I have given the idea some consideration, I’ve never gone so far as to pick a word for myself. (As a lover of words choosing one would be near impossible!) However, in returning to my positio...
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