The Year Ahead

After dispelling alarmist notions foretelling the end of the world in 2012 last week, we'd like to take the opportunity this week to look at what will happen next year or what we would like to happen.

Some of the items that follow are predictions based on announcements made in 2011, while others are more in the realm of our wishful thinking. Overall, we feel 2012 will be a good year for the Touchet Valley.

We expect Waitsburg and Dayton to get even more attention as travel destinations, hopefully sustaining the existing and new downtown businesses that depend on it and provide jobs as a result.

We hope for another good harvest and the absence of too many headaches for our farmers, plus decent prices for wheat and other agricultural commodities. But we also hope rising commodity prices do not produce more hardship for those in the developing world.

We expect 2012 to be year of stability for our valley and hope economic tidings begin to turn in our corner of the state. We hope our fellow residents whose jobs are affected by the Washington State Department of Corrections cuts at the penitentiary in Walla Walla will find new opportunities either in our area or not too far from home.

We are confident that 2012 is a year worth toasting to.

Expected *Installation of Colleen Sproul on the hospital district's board of directors, hopefully bringing a fresh and welcome nurse's perspective to our joint health institution. *Creation of a new flood control district for Waitsburg, hopefully bringing more resources and energy to muchneeded flood preparedness and mitigation. *Breaking ground for a Best Western hotel in Dayton and the completion of the eight-room boutique hotel in downtown Waitsburg, providing more lodging in the valley in 2012 and 2013. *Resolution on horse racing prospects for Waitsburg and Dayton, hopefully in our towns' favor thus paving the way for the Days of Real Sport and Dayton Days of old. *Another successful Mule Mania event in Dayton, building on the first 2011 that got a new tradition off to a promising start.

2012 Wish List *Continued Medicare reimbursements for critical access hospitals like Dayton General. *Plenty of snow and high attendance for Ski Bluewood, seasonally the valley's largest employer and generator of winter fun. *A successful years for all WP and Dayton sports teams. Though we don't necessarily measure such success by the number of wins or titles, we do hope there's some hardware in it for the hard-working boys and girls on the Bulldogs, Cardinals and Tigers teams in 2012, starting with the basketball season. *The arrest of the knuckleheaded group of youths suspected of "hanging" the baby Jesus doll in front of Waitsburg's Presbyterian Church. May they see the foolishness of their errant ways and turn to the light. *The arrest of Dayton's elusive burglar/squatter who has broken into vacant and not-so-vacant homes all over town. *The recruitment and arrival of the first tenant or tenants for the new Blue Mountain Station, putting the economic development project on the road to a full buildout. *A successful year for Dayton's farmers markets, be it as one group or two. We hope the weekend attraction(s) will draw more and more vendors and visitors.