Table of Contents
Editor's Note
Special Feature
12-15
Sometimes Not Losing is Winning
What is Your Vision for Downtown Dayton?
A
recent Seattle Times article listed the ten towns in Washington that experienced the largest decreases in population from 2000 to 2010, according to the US Census. All of them are in Eastern Washington, and five of the ten towns are in Whitman County. The population drops were between 12 and 20 percent, except for the unfortunate town of Lamont, Whitman County, which saw a 34 percent loss. Also in Whitman County, Endicott, LaCross, Rosalia and Uniontown all lost between 15 and 18 percent of their populations during that period. Washtucna, in Adams County, lost 20 percent of its population.
This month, contributing writer Dian McClurg talked to a lot of people who are working on projects with the Dayton Development Task Force to find new uses for City-owned property on the north side of Dayton's downtown. We also give an update on the status of the Port of Columbia's Blue Mountain Station Project.
News & Features Coalition Seeks Grant to Reduce 4-5 Youth Substance Abuse 9 10
Rawhide Bar & Grill Opens in Starbuck Reid Helford Looks Back on Three Years as Liberty Theater Manager
More 7-8 News Briefs 16-21 Calendar of Events 18 Real Estate More Thing . . . : 23 One What Guys Really Want by Ken Graham
On the Cover An artist's rendering shows a busy Blue Mountain Station after the project is completed. (Cover design by Vanessa Heim)
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Ken Graham
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Page 2 Blue Mountain NEWS April 2011
Editor and Publisher
(509) 540-2752 ken@bluemtnnews.com
Associate Editor & Advertising Representative (509) 382-4458/(509) 540-4644 tanya@bluemtnnews.com
Dian McClurg Contributing Writer
Vanessa Heim Graphic Designer
All of these towns started out with populations under 1,000, but it got me to thinking that we are fortunate none of our Touchet Valley-area towns made that list. I did a little research on the Census Bureau web site, and you can see in the box below how our area fared, population-wise, over the past decade. Dayton lost nearly five percent of its population during that time, but Columbia County overall gained a bit, so we’ll count that as a wash. Our feature story this month takes a look at some of the very important efforts being made to promote economic development in the Touchet Valley. After two years of planning and fundraising, construction on the Port of Columbia’s Blue Mountain Station project will begin in April. This project has the potential to bring several new value-added agricultural businesses to Dayton, and with it, business owners and their employees. With a project I’m leading for the Dayton Development Task Force, we’re hoping to make the large vacant City-owned lots along Commercial Street on the north side of Downtown into a new gathering spot for residents and visitors. A children’s playground will be built there this summer, and hopefully some form of town square will take shape in the near future. Our area has a long history of successfully completing projects that have improved the economic and cultural climates here. These include the Main Street renovation project and the restorations of the Dayton Historic Depot, the Columbia County Courthouse and the Liberty Theater. Many hours of hard work went in to helping bring the wind power industry to the Touchet Valley, and it has undoubtedly played a big part in keeping our population and our economy stable. Congratulating ourselves for the fact that we’re not losing population may seem kind of odd. But considering how some other Eastern Washington towns are doing, it may be that all the hard work we’ve done here has paid off, just by keeping ourselves from shrinking. Ken Graham
Population Changes: City/Co. Dayton Waitsburg Prescott Starbuck Col. Co.
2000 2,655 1,212 314 130 4,064
Source: US Census Bureau
2010 2,526 1,217 318 129 4,078
Change -4.9% 0.4% 1.3% -0.8% 0.3%