Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Ten Years Ago July 7, 2011 [Photo caption] Alex the Clown rides atop the elephants during Thursday evening’s show of the Carson & Barnes circus on the outskirts of Dayton. When Imbert Matthee bought the Times in fall of 2009, the Dutch immigrant was as excited about owning two Main Street buildings as he was about having his own newspaper after a long career as a daily news reporter, editor and columnist. Coffee and an occasional French-syle pastry being his favorite and only breakfast, Matthee said he can’t wait for Coppei Coffee’s door to op...
Ten Years Ago June 30, 2011 Farmers in the Touchet Valley are predicting their harvest this year will be at least a week later than usual with fields in the Prescott and Waitsburg areas ready by the third week of July and in Dayton by early August. [Photo caption] Jennifer Flemming, visiting her mother Jacci Wooten for the weekend, cozies up to an Elvis impersonator from Walla Walla at the season’s first farmers’ market Saturday. Art enthusiasts from across the Touchet Valley visited the historic Boldman House on a sunny but breezy Sat...
Ten Years Ago May 26, 2011 Amidst concerns over the spread of a highly contagious equine virus in the region, Dayton Days organizers Tuesday night decided to cancel two days of Pro West rodeo this weekend. The Dayton Days parade, though horseless, will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, as will the Queen’s Coronation dinner on Friday and the Queen’s luncheon after the parade. It’s not every day Chandra Richardson and Caitlin Riley get to beat up their principal. But Andy Maheras actually welcomes their screams, kicks and punches because it’s...
Ten Years Ago May 19, 2011 For more than eight decades, several Dayton and Waitsburg families with FFA (Future Farmers of America) and 4-H have made the annual trek the first full week in May to the Spokane Fairgrounds to compete in the Junior Livestock Show of Spokane May 3-7. This year was the organization’s 76th year. Adams sisters Beka, 15, and Emily, 12 are each in the lead of a big event in the Touchet Valley. Beka, who was DRS Queen last year, will be in the Waitsburg parade as the Queen of Dayton Days this year. Dayton Days is next w...
Ten Years Ago May 12, 2011 [Photo credit] A member of the Atomic Bombshells burlesque dance group from Seattle entertains wine enthusiasts during Charles Smith’s spring release party on Saturday. The weather in the Snake River area may still have rain and chill in the air, but the recreational boating and fishing season is underway. “The catfish are biting like crazy,” said Jim MacArthur, who runs the Lyons Ferry Marina on the Snake near Starbuck with his wife Angela. [Photo credit] Val Woodworth and fellow Lions Club members prepare ribs...
Ten Years Ago May 5, 2011 It isn’t every night that the lights are on at two in the morning in Joan Helm’s home on Fourth Street. Or that her table is laden with four different kinds of scones, egg dishes and tea. Or that champagne (well, actually, sparkling cider) is chilling in the fridge for a special toast. [Photo caption] Vestas technician Tony Mathews has one of about 150 permanent jobs related to the wind energy industry in the five-county area. A new alliance hopes to add momentum to the sector’s job growth here. The Power House Theat...
Ten Years Ago April 28, 2011 The largest circus to come to Dayton in more than a decade, the Carson & Barnes Circus has the second-largest herd of elephants in the country. Local residents will have access to the circus grounds to witness the care and feeding of these and many other animals on the morning of Thursday, June 30. The Walla Walla area is growing in popularity as a wine destination, and some weekends, travelers can’t find a place to stay in town. Wine critic Paul Gregutt and filmmaker Karen Stanton-Gregutt are banking on all that an...
Ten Years Ago April 21, 2011 [Headline] Dayton Cut & Wrap expands business. Dayton business owners Jim and Connie Westergreen have big news for small ranchers in Columbia and Walla Walla counties. The couple will soon expand their meat processing operations to include a USDA-inspected butchering facility in Dayton and a second retail shop in Walla Walla. Managing a small, nonprofit theater is not an everyday kind of job. One of Reid Helford’s fondest, early memories when she first started as manager of the Liberty Theater in downtown Dayton m...
Ten Years Ago April 14, 2011 Give Bart Baxter and Tiffany Laposi a few months to work on the Whetstone Pub building and you’ll be able to dine with James Dean. By summer, he may well be giving you his cool gaze from the wall of the couple’s 1950s style restaurant that will be called “Betty’s Diner.” [Photo caption] Motocross racers put on a show during the annual Bash at Ski Bluewood Sunday, marking the resort’s last day of the skiing season that was the first for its new owners. Inserted in this week’s edition of the Times, you will find som...
Ten Years Ago April 7, 2011 What’s the Point? Cardinal pierced by javelin wonders why Oregon still allows use of dangerous steel-tipped spears. Preliminary election results for Waitsburg’s city government show incumbent Mayor Walt Gobel and the current five city council members returned to office by a landslide. With 357 votes cast, Gobel obtained 276 votes compared to challenger Bart Baxter’s 64 votes. [Photo caption] Karen Mohney and Skip Carpenter in front of Preston Park tile display which brought together student artists from the three...
Ten Years Ago March 31, 2011 Sheriff John Turner doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The Walla Walla County’s new top law-enforcement official is thrilled he can make adjustments to the patrol schedule that provides 24/7 coverage is his jurisdiction. He’s pleased some members of his new team bring many years of law enforcement experience they can use to offer in-house training to his deputies. At the same time, Turner is deeply concerned that his budget is being cut. [Photo caption] Leroy Cunningham, founder of Rural Green Youth Enter...
Ten Years Ago March 24, 2011 During the past several years, all has been relatively quiet on the meth front. But in recent months, it appears that local production and consumption of the drug are back on the rise, according to law enforcement officials in Walla Walla and Columbia counties. It was like a scene from the Sherwood Forest. Men, women, and children tromped through the woods carrying bows and quivers filled with arrows, but this wasn’t Robin Hood and his band, nor was it Merry Auld England in the 12th century. [Photo caption] T...
Ten Years Ago March 17, 2011 •[Photo caption] The months-long logistical project for the components of the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project in Garfield County has begun. Here, a transport of a nacelle makes its way through Waitsburg on Highway 12. It’s the part that sits behind the three blades and hub, and generates the electricity from the mill’s rotation. In all, truckers are making nearly 1,192 trips to bring the major components for 149 towers to their construction sites in Garfield County and will be coming through the Touchet Valle...
Ten Years Ago Mar 10, 2011 [Headline] Baxter to challenge Gobel for Mayor [Photo caption] Members, parents, siblings, and coaches from 17 eastern Washington youth wrestling teams gathered in Waitsburg for the first tournament of the five-week Little Guys wrestling season. The 10 a.m. flag salute at Kison Court included an Honor Guard. Nearly 500 competitors participated in this first big tournament hosted by Waitsburg. Senior Bulldog Dain Henderson stood before a crowd of teammates, schoolmates, coaches, and family to read from the page, “I a...
Ten Years Ago March 4, 2010 Retired state patrol sergeant Walt Gobel has declared his candidacy for mayor of Waitsburg, saying he is running with a slate of candidates nominated by the new “Truth and Trust” caucus. The caucus, which is roughly 40 members, also named Karl Newell, Kevin House, Orville Branson, Scott Nettles and Marty Dunn as nominees for City Council. A marina in the dead of winter isn’t the kind of place you’d expect to see a lot of life. But on a late February weekday morning, Lyons Ferry definitely has a pulse. Some boaters...
Ten Years Ago February 25, 2010 For the first time in six years, the Cardinals have won a berth in the 2B state tournament in Spokane after beating Gar-Pal 53-46 in a hard-fought battle at Whitman College Monday night. Since Waitsburg and Prescott teams are now combined, it’s the first time in 78 years since any player from Prescott has gone to state. In this case, the Tigers are represented by Guillermo Hernandez. Repeating her theme of stability and progress, Waitsburg Mayor Markeeta Little Wolf said the “one of a kind” city is in bette...
Ten Years Ago February 18, 2010 A ski hill on Valentine’s Day is an unnatural setting for sorrow, particularly when it comes from a gathering of college students far too young to be mourning the loss of a close friend. But the intimate memorial service on Ski Bluewood’s Huckleberry run was a fitting tribute to the 19-year-old member of the Whitman College Ski Club who died Saturday in the mountain’s second fatal accident. He was the first to die from his injuries on Bluewood before rescuers had a chance to transport him to a medical facil...
Ten Years Ago February 11, 2010 Waitsburg city council members Jeff Broom and Kathleen Powers said this week they won’t seek another one-year term in this spring’s elections. The development, which opens two seats on the five-member body, may prompt several new candidates to sign up for the ballot. Laurie Richardson joked that it came down to a simple choice. She and her husband Les were either going to invest in wind and solar power or be doomed to eat cat food for the rest of their ret...
Ten Years Ago August 27, 2009 [Photo caption] John Hockersmith (second from the left) and fellow Troublemakers, from left Zach Beasley, Mariah Barthlow and Austin Beasley during a Christmas performance at the Liberty Theater in Dayton. Members of the Waitsburg Lions Club issued a collective sigh of relief late last week when club funds were returned by the family of Don Johnson, the former treasurer who has reportedly admitted embezzling them. Shaken by the episode, the club wisely made...
Ten Years Ago January 28, 2010 The local horse racing industry has been dancing on the edge of decline for some time. But a shortage in state funding for smaller tracks could force organizers to cancel spring races altogether. “We thought we had 2010 racing events covered,” said Melissa Hansen, who oversees the Dayton Days horse races scheduled for May, “now we’re all up in the air. It’s a scary space to be in because we just don’t know what’s going to happen.” Waitsburg has a new fire chief, wh...
Ten Years Ago January 21,2010 [Photo caption] Kellie Wessels and her Paint horse Apache go through the paces, demonstrating a run in during tryouts for the Dayton Days Court last weekend. Students of the Month for December include, from left to right, Karlie Pettichord and Joseph LaRue, Fourth Grade; and Jasmine Foxe, Fifth Grade. Teachers in grades four and five select students based on citizenship, respectful behavior, effort and attendance. The Days of Real Sport, Inc. will hold its annual...
Ten Years Ago January 14, 2010 The Siberian Huskies who make their way to Ray and Carla Nilsen each come with a story and, sadly, it is most often about abuse and neglect. It’s been the couple’s mission these past six years to give every one of the canines who’ve come into their care a happy ending. And to see these dogs romping playfully around their remote, rustic home above Dixie, it appears they’re succeeding. Krystal Harris blocked the shot, got control of the basketball and started...
Ten Years Ago January 7, 2010 Sheriff’s deputies chased a 21-year-old man through a Waitsburg neighborhood, then surrounded his residence with guns drawn for nearly three hours Saturday before obtaining a search warrant that allowed them to enter the house and make an arrest. [Photo caption] At six foot eleven inches, Blake Brown is the tallest student-athlete in any high school in Washington state, and he is working to become a member of the Waitsburg-Prescott basketball squad. The Times has made its first move into the cyber age with the laun...
Ten Years Ago December 31, 2009 Couple loses home to fire: Longtime Waitsburg residents John and Kate Reeve did not have insurance. Fire crews from several districts battled for nine hours Tuesday in an attempt to save John and Kate Reeve’s home on DeWitt Road just outside Waitsburg. Photo caption: Bulldog Dain Henderson lays one up on the basket. The high-pitched radio tones went off at 3 a.m. The dispatcher’s voice followed. A serious rollover accident. Gabe Kiefel knew this would be his big test on the Waitsburg Ambulance crew. Twenty-Five Y...
Ten Years Ago December 24, 2009 Shannon Elliott had the gift of making others feel special. She was a young woman who always had a smile on her face and plenty of time for people. “She always made you feel like you’d just made her day when she saw you,” said retired third-grade teacher Sandy McCaw. McCaw is among the many in Waitsburg who are mourning Elliott’s death last Friday in a collision along U. S. Highway 12 at Airport Road. She was 23 years old. Photo caption: Waitsburg Troop Leader...
