Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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By Friends of the Dayton Memorial Library President Pearl Dennis I go into my library and all history unrolls before me. - Alexander Smith Maintaining a thriving library within a rural community relies on committed individuals who are driven by a desire to improve their communities. Dayton has been blessed with a long line of civic-minded individuals dedicating their time, energy and resources towards developing and building the Columbia County Rural Library District. The history of the Dayton library dates back to 1919 when a small...
By Don C. Brunell Each year Americans throw away more than three billion batteries constituting 180,000 tons of hazardous material and the situation is likely to get much worse as the world shifts to electric vehicles. Everyday-green.com reports more than 86,000 tons of single-use alkaline batteries (AAA, AA, C and D) are thrown away. They power electronic toys and games, portable audio equipment and flashlights and make up 20 percent of the household hazardous materials in our garbage dumps....
We face a lot of division in America today, but there is a movement underway to build a more inclusive, united and tolerant nation. This movement is made up of individuals of different ages, different genders, different races and different political backgrounds. It’s a movement of people from across the country, all who can agree on this: We must teach our children what it means to belong and what it means to empathize with those who are different from ourselves. Through its Unified Champion Schools program, Special Olympics is teaching t...
With National Library Week being April 7-13, The Times asked locals to share a few of their favorite reads. Lynn Carpenter: "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson and "Grapes of Wrath" is a favorite classic. Matt Oakley: "Game of Thrones" series by George R. R. Martin Sarah Groffman: "Mother Night" by Kurt Vonnegut Lane Gwinn—"War With the Newts" by Karel Čapek John Avery: "Watership Down" by Richard Adams Suze Wood: "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Emma Orczy Luke Chavez: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez and "Geek Love" by Kath...
By Don C. Brunell Before our country, in haste, dives totally into renewable energy, we must carefully evaluate its impacts. By just focusing on eliminating natural gas, liquid fuels (gasoline and diesel) and coal to combat climate change, we ignore the effects of other forms of pollution generated by processes in which renewable energy components are made. Under the Green New Deal, the United States would become 100 percent reliant on renewable energy in a decade and eliminate CO2 producing fuels. It would cost up to $93 trillion over...
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By Governor John Kasich There's a lot of talk these days about the Green New Deal, a progressive Democratic response to the challenge of climate change. While it is intended to improve our environment, many Republicans and even some Democrats fear that it would stifle economic growth and kill jobs, set off a massive redistribution of wealth, and dangerously centralize federal government power. But for all those problems, the Green New Deal is serving an important purpose by provoking a more vigorous level of public debate. We’ve finally r...
Dear Editor, This is being written in support of our latest Assistant Librarian Shakira Bye, who was recently fired from the job on a serious accusation and for which there is no evidence. We have been told that her dismissal is the ninth such in the last four years. People are asking, why have so many have been let go. These are expensive personnel hirings, and terminations are so damaging. Most of these workers were not given cause. Of course none is required in WA and apparently, none of them really complained, quietly letting it go and...
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November’s Camp Wildfire was California’s deadliest killing 86 people and destroying 14,000 homes along with more than 500 businesses. The financial fallout is forcing PG&E, northern California’s electric utility, to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It is a catastrophe we all hope to avoid. The fire’s probable cause was overhead power lines coming into contact with nearby trees which is an ongoing problem for powerlines attached to poles and metal towers. While we have located the ignitio...
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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