Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Retired school teacher Jim Davison, who became one of three part-time employees at the Cenex retail store fiveyears ago, performs one of his last tasks as clerk at the corner station. Wednesday is the store's last day in business.
WAITSBURG - Half a decade after it was opened by the Columbia County Farm Bureau, the retail store at the Cenex gas stathough tion on the corner of Preston (Highway 124) and Coppei (Highway 12) is closing. The self-service pumps will remain in operation 24/7, accessible to credit card and co-op account card holders. Access to the propane gas will be discontinued because it needs to be handled by a trained employee and the station will no longer be staffed. Wednesday, Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving is its last day in business, the shelves inside the store were already bare earlier this week in the space that was once a repair shop. "It's too bad," said Jim Davison, a retired Waitsburg teacher who took one of the three part-time positions at the store fiveyears ago so he could "walk to work."
The other part-time store employees were Rosie Warehime and Wanda Witt.
Earlier this year, the Dayton based Columbia County Farm Bureau merged with the larger, Reardan-based AgLink company. AgLink's move to close the retail store was purely a "business decision," Dayton-based company manager Joe Bush said. In other changes at AgLink, Orville Branson retired earlier this month as the principal heating fuel deliverer in Waitsburg. He has been replaced by Alan Stephens, who has been in training since the summer.
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