Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 306
DAYTON-Touchet Valley Ladies Golf joined efforts to fund the irrigation project at the Touchet Valley Golf course. On December 15, Cherie Hinchliff from Touchet Valley Ladies Golf presented a $2,000.00 check to Sean Thurston, Touchet Valley Golf and Recreation treasurer. This donation was given to help fund the new irrigation project at the Dayton golf course, which will benefit golfers of all ages. The club hosts Junior Golf each year, offering young golfers in our community a free week of...
The Dayton School Board held its monthly meeting using Zoom at 6 p.m., December 15, 2021. All board members were present for the Zoom meeting, David Bailey (Chair), Zac Fabian, Grant Griffen, Jeffrey McCowen, and Fred White. Fred White made a motion to approve the consent agenda, comprised of the minutes for the November 17 and December 1, 2021, meetings, and recommendations to hire Jerry Dedloff Jr. as a custodian and Angie Whaley as the youth & government advisor. Also included in the consent agenda was approval for a stipend for the...
DAYTON – The Dayton School District Directors held a meeting, using Zoom, on December 1, 2021, at 6 p.m.. All members of the board were present. As the newly appointed board member, Zac Fabian participated in the board for the first time. Mr. Fabian joined the superintendent, Guy Strot, to take the oath of office. The superintendent postponed discussing the strategic plan until the January meeting when the newly elected board members would join the board. Strot walked the board through a presentation of charts and graphs showing the survey resu...
DAYTON— The Dayton City Council held a special meeting at 6 p.m., November 23, 2021. All city council members were in attendance except Byron Kaczmarski, who was excused. The council approved the agenda unanimously. There was no public comment. Paul Ihle presented a daycare facility update. Ihle sits on the standing committee studying childcare issues for the Columbia County Health System (CCHS). The committee is working to identify a suitable location. The architect used by the CCHS has been advising on the project and drafting drawings. Once...
DAYTON—In small communities, heroes come from all backgrounds, and they almost never wear capes. They live quiet lives, hiding in plain sight, taking their satisfaction in a job well done. They may be thanked for each job, but not for the bigger impact they have on their communities. That’s not the case for Dayton, however. At least, not if Gordon Gerlitz can help it. “We have to recognize people while they are still going,” said Gerlitz. “Oftentimes, we recognize people after the fact, but...
DAYTON-The Dayton School Board held their regular meeting on November 17, 2021, at 6 p.m. This week's board meeting began by conducting interviews with the candidates for the vacant board position. James William Wyant, Jr. removed himself from consideration, so only two interviews were conducted. The board interviewed Bryan Martin for about forty minutes, and Zac Fabian's interview lasted less than 15 minutes. After the interviews were concluded, the board moved on to approval of the consent...
DAYTON-Listening to a veteran's story was the perfect topic at the November 11 Dayton Kiwanis Club Meeting. Kiwanis members invited Eric Thorn, a local veteran who served in Vietnam, to share his experiences as a Chinook pilot during the war. "It's coming up on almost exactly fifty years since I got back from Vietnam," Thorn began. "I think it's in another month." The United States became involved in Vietnam when President Eisenhower declared support for South Vietnam in 1955. President Kennedy...
DAYTON-Sleep off all of the Thanksgiving turkey, and head to Downtown Dayon on Friday, November 26, and Saturday, November 27 for the annual Christmas Kickoff festivities. Belinda Larsen, Executive Director of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, said she started getting inquiries as early as June, from vendors and other interested parties, as to whether they would be hosting a full weekend. Last year, the event went virtual amidst COVID-19 closures and restrictions, and was significantly smaller....
DAYTON- The Dayton School Board held its work session meeting on Zoom at 6 p.m. on November 3, 2021. The first agenda item addressed by the school board was to review the strategic plan. The first aspect of the strategic plan the board looked at was the Board Operating Protocol. Using the protocol adopted by the Reardan-Edwall School District, which Superintendent Strot provided, the board members began a preliminary discussion. The Times intends to cover the proposed strategic plan in greater depth at a later date. The second agenda topic was...
DAYTON-Superintendent Guy Strot has begun the implementation of a plan to improve the Dayton School District. The district has recently lost far too many students to surrounding school districts, particularly in the secondary school. He hopes to stem or even reverse this exodus from the Dayton District. The first step is to determine why students are leaving. This process has begun and continues through exit interviews with students and teachers who have already left. The Center for Excellence...
DAYTON—The Economic Development Steering Committee met via Zoom on November 2. Jennie Dickinson kicked the meeting off with an update regarding a grant from the Innovia Foundation for startup businesses. Two businesses in downtown Dayton, Table Rock Meat and Main Street Marketplace, have benefitted from the grant in the past. This year $5,000 has been awarded to Annie’s Attic, a new cafe and a vintage furniture business coming to Dayton, both owned by Laura and Tony Auckerman. A second sta...
DAYTON-The sprawling Blue Mountain Station has become a key player in Dayton and Columbia County's economy. It provides production space for fine candy makers, craft spirit distillers, soap crafters, and growers of organic produce. The road to success has been long and, at times, rather difficult. The idea for the Station first came to light in 2007, when Jennie Dickinson was hired as Executive Director of the Port of Columbia. "When I moved from the Chamber to the Port, it was June of 2007,...
DAYTON- The Dayton School board held its regular School Director’s meeting at 6 p.m. on October 20, 2021. The board approved the consent agenda, which consisted of the minutes for the September 15, 2021 Board Meeting, a donation from Walla Walla Toyota of $2000 to the Associated Student Body (ASB), hiring both Owen Lanning as Middle School Boys Basketball Coach and Jeannie Walter as Freshman Class Advisor. Also in the consent agenda was the recommendation to hire Melanie Morgan as Senior Class Advisor and finally, a recommendation to accept D...
DAYTON - A regular meeting of the City Council was held using Zoom at 6 PM, October 13, 2021. During public comment, Sheriff Joe Helm announced that he had appointed Deputy Cesar Rivera as Chief Deputy. The Sheriff also stated that the department was preparing for the opening of deer hunting season and the influx of visitors which that entails. He also mentioned that the increased patrolling of Main Street for traffic violations would continue. The City Council approved the minutes from the...
DAYTON – The Dayton School Board met for a work session at 6 p.m. on October 6, entirely online using Zoom. Including the school board members, about 22 people participated in the Zoom meeting. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. Superintendent Strot began with a brief discussion of his plan to share substitute teachers between the Dayton, Prescott, and Waitsburg school districts in an attempt to ameliorate the shortage of substitutes. Next, Strot moved on to a discussion of r...
DAYTON-The Columbia County Commissioners met for a regular meeting on October 4. Commissioners Rundell and Hall were present at the meeting. Commissioner Amerein was absent from the Monday morning meeting. The commissioners' meetings will be moved from Monday to Tuesday starting this month. Charles Eaton reported on behalf of the Columbia County Public Works. He presented a resolution to award the Bosley Bridge Emergency Repairs consulting contract to Anderson Perry & Associates of Walla Walla....
DAYTON-Local retired farmer and Port of Columbia Commissioner candidate Jack Miller recently cut ties with the Columbia County Conservatives, saying that he did not agree with the dangerous core beliefs of the political group. "I didn't agree with a lot of the things that they were espousing, to the point I decided that I did not want to be associated with them in any way," Miller said. "And that was that." The group, which has become known for its anti-vaccination and anti-masking rhetoric,...
DAYTON—The Economic Development Steering Committee held a regular monthly remote meeting on October 5, 2021. Martha Lanman, Columbia County Public Health Administrator, announced that there were 21 active cases, with more than 20 tests performed that morning. She commended the Columbia County Health System for their ongoing hard work as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. She clarified that the COVID-19 case count is still a roller coaster in the county. She observed that cases seem to taper s...
DAYTON--Ron Asmus, owner of Ron Asmus Homes, Inc in the Tri-Cities, is moving ahead with construction of the new Assisted Living Facility units and he expects construction to begin within the next thirty days. The monthly cost of each leased unit, originally calculated at $12,000 each, has shot up an additional $2,000, because of the high cost of lumber and other building materials, according to CCHS CEO Shane McGuire at last week's hospital board meeting. "Everything is more expensive, right...
DAYTON—The Dayton School Board met Wednesday, September 15, for a regular school board meeting. Business items on the agenda included a review of multiple out-of-endorsement teachers, consideration for substitute teachers’ payment raise, and adopting a new social studies/history curriculum. The meeting was halted after the consent agenda was approved and the public comment portion of the meeting began. School board candidate Aneesha Dieu spoke during this portion of the meeting, but com...
DAYTON-The Port of Columbia Commissioners met for a regular meeting on September 8 via Zoom. The Commissioners appointed Shawn Brown as chairman, filling the position left by the late Earle Marvin. "I want to reiterate that I so much appreciate Commissioner Marvin's service to the Port, and I have his wife and family in my prayers as they move forward through this difficult time," Brown said. Port of Columbia Executive Director Jennie Dickinson said that she reached out to Commissioner Marvin's...
DAYTON—The Dayton City Council met for a hybrid meeting on September 8, 2021. Columbia County Sheriff Joe Helm shared that 57 traffic tickets were written over the past month, 38 were within city limits. He said that a new deputy is currently going through his Field Training Officer (FTO) program and that he is doing well. He said that the department hopes to have the new deputy working on his own as soon as training is complete. Sheriff Helm and County Prosecutor Dale Slack are currently p...
DAYTON—Fireworks have been an issue for city and county officials as fire conditions continued to worsen in Walla Walla and Columbia Counties. Columbia County Commissioners held a public hearing on Tuesday, September 7, to discuss an ordinance to allow the county to impose emergency bans on fireworks should local fire conditions warrant it. Currently, Columbia County and the City of Dayton cannot impose a ban on firework sales and use, even if there is immediate fire risk due to drought or s...
DAYTON— County Commissioners approved a mandate that requires masks at the Columbia County Fair this weekend at a meeting on Tuesday, September 7. The mandate, signed by Dr. Lewis Neace, Columbia County Health Officer, will provide an added level of protection for exhibitors, guests, and facilitators. “As our cases continue to go up, we are looking at the fair,” Lanman said. “We need to do something at the fair, to make it clear that we have additional cases in our communities.” Lanman sa...
DAYTON-In November 2015, Norm Passmore's dental practice closed in Dayton, and treatment options for Medicaid patients became slim. Realizing the importance of preventative dental care to whole-body health, the Columbia County Health System administrators got busy. The result is the Columbia Family Dental clinic located on the Dayton General Hospital campus at 1012 South Third Street. Since the grand opening on June 30, Audra Morgan DMD, Michael Strang DDS, Registered Dental Assistant Cherie...
