Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 457 - 481 of 1893
DAYTON – During the Columbia County Health System (CCHS) March 5 board meeting,CEO Shane McGuire discussed the University of Washington health agreements which launched a program to bring CCHS $152,000 annually to improve behavioral health care in our local communities. The program is part of the AIMS network, standing for Advanced Integrated Mental Health Solutions at the University of Washington. Advancements in psychiatry availability and counseling are key to becoming a truly patient-centered medical home. More can be learned about AIMS a...
DAYTON – The Best Western Plus Dayton Hotel & Suites, located at 507 E. Main, changed hands late last year. BK Lodging, LLC, out of the Tri-Cities, owned by Kam and Laddi Singh took ownership on Nov. 15, according to hotel General Manager Eleanor Specht. The hotel, which opened in the spring of 2013, was developed and owned by Dr. Derek Duke and his firm, Duke Properties. It was managed by Pacific Inns of Portland, Ore., a management company hired by Duke. “Everything operationally has stayed the same,” Specht said....
A column by Carolyn Henderson It's a long road from working for a contractor making parts for nuclear submarines to painting peaceful landscapes, but acrylic painter Becky Melcher is used winding paths. Nowadays, she especially enjoys painting them. For more than 40 years, the Yakima artist worked in the legal field – from that submarine contractor to attorneys' offices – and painted on the side. Upon retirement, she plunged into the art world, experimenting with techniques, media, and sub...
DAYTON – More than two dozen people gathered in the Delany Building on March 4 to hear concerns about the practices and policies of the Dayton Memorial Library. The meeting was spearheaded and facilitated by former library employee Vicki Zoller and recently terminated employee Shakira Bye. Over the course of an hour-and-a-half, Zoller voiced concerns ranging from lack of training for both the director and employees, safety concerns for library patrons and employees, inconsistency in p...
DAYTON – Among the notable features along Dayton’s well-traveled Main Street are the trees that line the walks from one end of town to the other. These trees provide cool shade in the summer, warm colors as autumn rolls in and they pop green and bright at springtime. Thanks to Bill Clemens, Regional Communications Manager with Pacific Power, along with Trees, Inc., Dayton’s trees are getting a much-needed trimming. Every year, certified arborists from Trees Inc. volunteer one day of their time...
COLUMBIA COUNTY – It should have been quitting time, but a 5:10 p.m. call to dispatch reporting a rock slide on Monday evening, sent the Columbia County road crew back to work. The slide occurred at milepost 10 on Tucannon Road, according to Columbia County Operations Supervisor Wayne Tate. "There were three to four very large, car-size rocks directly in the road and another dozen half that size," Tate said. No one was passing through at the time and the road crew was able to use a grader o...
DAYTON – The local Republican Committee has selected three finalists from a slate of nine applicants in the running to fill the District 1 seat on the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. A special meeting will be held at the Columbia County Courthouse on Mon., March 11 at 7 p.m. to interview finalists Thomas Konen, Ryan Rundell and Kaye Eaton. It will be up to commissioners Chuck Amerein and Mike Talbott to choose one of the three applicants to fill the seat formerly occupied by Norm Passmore, who resigned in January. Amerein and Talbott w...
DAYTON—The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office had a busy week last week. “We’ve been putting in a lot of overtime,” said Civil Deputy Tim Quigg speaking at last week’s Citizen’s Academy. Quigg said there were ten arrests made last week, primarily due to Deputy Foxe’s diligence. He said all the arrests stemmed from ongoing investigations. Three burglary cases, two motor vehicle theft cases, one criminal trespass, two outstanding warrants, four theft cases, two malicious mischief cases and one d...
DAYTON – Michael and Danica Gatlin are still reeling after being blindsided by one those curveballs that life can lob out of nowhere. The parents were originally told their almost two-year-old, Chayton, was suffering from a swollen gland. When it hadn't subsided after four weeks, they took the toddler to the emergency room on Jan. 23. The response was not what they expected. Doctors immediately performed scans and, two hours later, Danica and Chayton were LifeFlighted to Seattle where Chayton r...
DAYTON – A bright winter sun pours through the broad windows of the Village Shoppes on Main Street in Dayton, illuminating the varied and unique items that fill the interior. Proprietress Rori Budden is preparing to open for the day and moves with efficiency and thoughtfulness as she rearranges merchandise displays. Budden has a wide-ranging work background, including experience in retail, and she is using that know-how to construct an inviting space where browsers can easily see all the e...
DAYTON—The Port of Columbia Executive Director Jennie Dickinson frequently says jobs in Columbia County are counted by ones and twos, and the ones and twos are adding up. At last week’s Cup of Joe, Port Economic Development Coordinator Kathryn Witherington, introduced a few new businesses in Dayton to attendees gathered at the Winter Rose Café & Boutique. Winter Rose Café & Boutique All things led back to Dayton, according to Amanda Toms, who along with Tyler Usco, are the proprietors of the Winter Rose Café & Boutique. While living in North Ca...
Toddler Story Time 10-11 a.m. - Every Wednesday An interactive story time for those in the toddler years! Come sing, dance, play and learn. Prime Time Story Time 6-7:30 p.m. - Every Wednesday of March Story time, but with a special twist! Prime time is a program to encourage literacy in low income families through professional speakers and activities. Included, is a free diner. Dr. Seuss’s Birthday – Kids Craft 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. - March 2 A Dr. Seuss themed kid’s craft in honor of the classic, profound children’s book writer. It’s very passiv...
Robotics Club Seeks Help DAYTON, Wash. – The Columbia County FIRST Robotics Club 4-H group, which won the Research Award at the state competition in Spokane last year, is looking for community help to meet several needs. First, in order to apply for a Boeing grant, the team needs to be mentored by a current or former Boeing employee. Coach Jeanne Walter said the mentoring time can be brief; as little as two hours. The club is also in need of new or used tools including: tool cabinet with w...
As time goes by, we forget, as a people, how to do many things we once knew how to do: cobbling shoes, for instance, or dipping candles. And while we become experts at attacking cell phone keypads with our thumbs, we are literally all thumbs when it comes to various creative endeavors that many people were once very good at. "It's a dying art," we shrug, as if that solves the problem. But Jeremiah Colladay is not the kind of guy who shrugs away a problem, and when he discovered what he could cre...
What could you buy with an extra twenty-two thousand dollars? This was one of the topics that Chelsey Eaton, Columbia County Public Health Program Coordinator, discussed with the 4th and 5th grade students at Dayton Elementary this month. The Great American Smoke-Out is normally held on the third Thursday of November but Eaton wanted to tie the dangers of smoking with February’s National Heart Health Month campaign. Discussing the dangers of smoking often focuses on negative health impacts b...
Resort employs 160 people during ski season COLUMBIA COUNTY – An early Tuesday morning interview with Ski Bluewood General Manager Kim Clarke found the leader working on parking lot preparations for Wednesday. This is nothing unusual. "Being a small resort, everybody pitches in everywhere, whether it be Ski School, food service or snow removal," Clarke said. Although small, relative to major resorts, Ski Bluewood employs about 160 people full and part time during the winter ski months. That s...
DAYTON-The lowest gas prices in the area and the tastiest chicken curry can be found at the Hot Spot gas station and deli, located at 401 W. Main St. in Dayton. Swarit Gaur and his father, Prasoon Sharma, have been busy planning a road map to success since taking over the business in January. This includes sharing their own special chicken curry with the customers. Gaur said he and his father use only the freshest ingredients in the curry, which includes onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, cream and...
DAYTON-Items on the agenda at last week's city council meeting included an update on the city's Wastewater Treatment Plan Project. "We're getting closer in negotiations with some land owners," said Mayor Craig George. He said there will be an executive session to discuss property acquisition for the proposed Wastewater Treatment Plant Project at the March 13 city council meeting. George said a land swap is being conducted between the city and the county. He said the city will swap land owned nea...
DAYTON – Columbia County Fire District #3 quickly extinguished a house fire in the 700 block of East Main Street on Tuesday night. The fire is one of several blazes over recent weeks. At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 18, Fire District #3 responded to a report of a structure fire and requested mutual aid from Fire District #2. Sheriff’s deputies were first to arrive on the scene and were able to use a fire extinguisher to slow down the fire, which was inside the wall, according to District #3 o...
DAYTON-"They make them in fun, flavored colors. They are very easy to use and are very discreet, too," said Chelsey Eaton, a county public health program coordinator. Eaton was talking about "vaping," or smoking e-cigarettes, and why that practice isn't as harmless as it appears. Eaton said e-cigarettes were first developed in China to help people stop smoking and they arrived in the U.S. in 2007. "At that time they were using simple juices. They weren't yummy. They weren't colorful," said...
DAYTON – Columbia County Sheriff Joe Helm has officially joined the ranks of law enforcement officials across the state who will not enforce Initiative I-1639. I-1639 was placed on the ballot as an Initiative to the People and approved by voters on Nov. 6, 2018. The Initiative increased restrictions on the purchase of firearms, raising the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic firearm to 21, adding a more extensive layer to background checks, increasing waiting periods, and enacting storage requirements. On Feb. 11 Columbia County Sheriff J...
DAYTON-"Women are going to be excited about it," Museum Director Tamara Fritze said about the new exhibit currently on display at the Dayton Historic Depot. This exhibit includes clothing, foundation garments, and hats and purses, from the 1890s through 1989, with accompanying history for each decade about fashion and culture. Fritze said it has taken about a month to finish the exhibit. "Matching the dress form to the clothing was the most challenging part," she said. "We had to come up with...
Talk about Art By Carolyn Henderson When life handed Barbara Coppock a bushel of lemons, she didn't stop with just making lemonade. The Clarkston artist, who creates intaglio print etchings of cherished buildings, landscapes, and landmarks of country scenes, set up a (figurative) lemonade stand and started a profitable business in the midst of personal tragedy. It started after Coppock's children graduated from high school and flew the nest, leaving her time to pursue her printmaking interests...
DAYTON—At their regular meeting last week, the Board of County Commissioners and Charles Eaton, the county engineer, discussed moving ahead with their intention to create a county-wide flood control zone district, a process that was started by City of Dayton Mayor Craig George and former County Commissioner Merle Jackson, early in 2017. At that time, Commissioner Jackson expressed concerns about recent high water events and the accumulating amount of gravel just north of the Highway 12 B...
DAYTON—The state Health Care Authority is providing Columbia County Health System with an initial award in the amount of $150,000 to help focus on the elements needed to achieve accreditation in Patient Centered Medical Home care, said CEO Shane McGuire in an interview last Thursday. “We’re getting quite a large sum of money that can actually influence change,” said McGuire. “The good news here is that we generally funded these efforts out of our operations budget, and figured out the reimbursement part as we went.” “We’ve been trying to do Pa...
