It will be held this Saturday, September 25, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Enter your best salsa recipe or just come by to try the salsas and cast your vote. Salsas will be judged for flavor and spice quality in 3 categories: mild, medium, and hot. A prize will be awarded to the top salsa in each category! We will also have crafts and activities for children. Please help us spread the word!

The contest rules are available here.

• First, the RLD has a service contract with the City of Walla Walla that is in effect through the end of 2010, and we would like to continue contracting with the City going forward. In fact, we are currently in negotiations with the City to continue providing library services to County residents in 2011 and 2012.
• Second, it is true that we intend to open a storefront library in 2011. However, we view that library as an additional location for all WALNET* library cardholders to receive library services. It would not be a replacement for services offered by Walla Walla Public Library, but a complement to those services. It has been the long-standing mission of the RLD to open additional libraries throughout the County, and this particular project has been under discussion for several years.
• Third, we cannot imagine any circumstances that would require County residents to pay $135 (or any fee whatsoever) to use the WWPL. If for some reason the City of Walla Walla decides that it no longer wants to contract with the RLD, we would plan to pay for non-resident WALNET library cards for County residents who are interested in obtaining them.
• Fourth, we would like to make available to the public a letter that the RLD sent to the City of Walla Walla in May 2010 outlining our position, and providing some important background on the formation of WALNET.

We are grateful to those residents of Walla Walla County who have taken the time to contact us about this matter, to offer suggestions, and to learn more about it. We encourage others to do the same.

* WALNET is a long-term partnership between the RLD, the WWPL, and the Walla Walla Community College Library to share library resources across the County. The contract establishing the WALNET consortium is separate from the contract between the RLD and WWPL for library services to County residents.

The event will run from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. and it should be a lot of fun, so please spread the word. Here’s the line-up of entertainment and activities:

• 3:00 — Water games! (Kids, wear your swimsuits!)
• 3:30-5:00 — Chalk art, fun with bubbles, face painting, and volleyball!
• 4:30 — Tug-of-war!
• 5:00 — Dinner (potluck and Hawaiian chicken from Wing Stop in Richland)
• 5:00-6:30 — Live music by local musicians!
• 6:30-7:00 — Hula dancers! (a group of dancers will perform several traditional dances)
• 7:00 — Announcement of Summer Reading Program grand prize winners and door prizes!

This timeline may change as we add new activities. All ages welcome. Please call or visit the library to sign-up to bring a dish to the potluck dinner.

Thanks to the Friends of the Burbank Library for their generous support of this event.

We made crafts, played games, hunted for dog treats, watched the dogs perform tricks, sang to Shasta, and ate cake. Also — and this is particularly important to us at the library — many children read stories to the dogs and every child took home a free book.

We’d like to thank the Tri-City Herald for publishing a short article about the event, and to newspapers from as far away as Bellingham and Tacoma for picking up the story online. (Who can resist a story about a birthday party for a dog, after all?) Thanks also to Shasta’s dog friends Bodie, Lacey, and Shreq (and their owners, of course) and to everyone who attended the event.

And finally, thanks to Shasta and her owner Krystal Ellingson for their continued support of the library, reading, and the children of Burbank. We hope you had a great birthday, Shasta!

Several more photos are available at the link below.

Several dogs will be attending (in addition to the guest of honor, of course!), including: Tahoe (Great Dane), Bodie (Border Collie & Golden Retriever mix), Lacey (Welsh Corgi), possibly Jasper (Brazilian Mastiff), and maybe more! They are all trained therapy dogs and they are great with children.

(NOTE: Unfortunately, dogs that are not trained therapy dogs cannot attend.)

For more information about this event, please see our previous post. We hope to see you there!

The Tri-City Herald’s coverage of Friday’s award ceremony is here. The Herald’s editorial (entitled: “A humble man wins Tri-Citian of the Year”) is here. The photo below (taken by the Herald’s Kai-Huei Yau) accompanied the article and was captioned: “John Umbarger celebrates with his wife, Kathy, after being named the 2010 Tri-Citian of the Year during a ceremony Friday at the Red Lion Inn in Pasco.”

Update: John Umbarger also wrote a Letter to the Editor (which was published in the May 4 edition of the Tri-City Herald) about the three community hospitals in the Tri-Cities. Read it here.

BURBANK MAN BORN 5-5-55 TURNING 55
By Loretto J. Hulse, Herald food writer

BURBANK — Even if you don’t know him well, it’s easy to remember Ron Hackett’s birthdate. That’s because the Burbank man — who turns 55 on Wednesday — was born on 5-5-55. Which brings him a lot of surprised looks.

Read the full article here. (It’s a bit of a mystery why this was written by a Herald food writer, since there’s no mention of food.) The uncredited photo below accompanied the article.

You can listen to these e‐audiobooks on your computer or through a compatible portable listening device, like an iPod or an MP3 player. Over 2900 titles are currently available for children, teens, and adults (in both English and Spanish), and at least 30 titles will be added each month.

Given the many variables involved (different computer operating systems, different portable devices, etc.), NetLibrary can be a little tricky to use at first. Fortunately, the Washington State Library has compiled some useful instructions. And NetLibrary itself offers a toll-free help line: 1-800-848-5800.

To get started, visit our website and click on “Create a NetLibrary Account”. Then click on “Create a Free Account” in the top right-hand corner and follow the instructions. After you’ve created your account, you may access NetLibrary directly at netlibrary.com.

If you have any questions, please call us at 509-545-6549. Happy downloading and happy listening!

The Port of Walla Walla along with a group of interested citizens have expressed a preliminary interest in re-developing Cargill Pond. The goal is to revitalize this area into a vibrant, attractive park which preserves its existing uses and adds additional recreational opportunities for the Burbank community.

The Port has hired a landscape architect to develop initial design concepts for community input. We hope you can attend this meeting to help answer two important questions:

* Does the Burbank Community have an interest in seeing Cargill Pond re-developed?
* If yes, what design elements and uses are most important to you?

The meeting will be held on Thursday, May 6, 2010, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Walla Walla County Fire District 5, 460 W. Humorist Road, in Burbank. For more information, contact Jim Kuntz of the Port at 509-525-3100 or jk [at] portwallawalla [dot] com.

• The Tri-City Herald listed a Wallula Gap hike on May 1, beginning at 10 a.m. “Join Bob Fortman for a hike on the Kennewick side of the Columbia River to Wallula Gap. Native plants, especially grasses and Ice Age Flood features are extensive near the Gap. The hike will take about five hours. Bring water and lunch. For more information, call 509-948-3999.” [April 10]
• The Herald reported that “three teens and two women are facing possible felony charges in connection with two recent Richland burglaries. Richland police arrested a 14-year-old Burbank boy after identifying him as a suspect in an April 5 burglary in the 1300 block of Stevens Drive. He also is a suspect in a burglary the same day in the 700 block of Symons Street.” [April 13]
• The Herald reported: “Ben Harris wants people to experience the Columbia and Snake rivers in a new way: on a luxury houseboat provided by his Burbank-based company River Ranch Houseboats.” [April 20]
• The Herald reported: “A man was injured when his pickup was hit from behind by a car on Highway 12 near Humorist Road in Burbank around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday. The driver of the truck, whose name was not released, was taken to Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco with neck and back injuries that weren’t life threatening, said Mike Wickstrom, fire chief of Walla Walla Fire District 5.” [April 22]
• KNDU posted a story (with video) about how the Columbia-Burbank School District won the grand prize in a Top Chef-like culinary competition among four area school districts. The goal of the contest was to expose the chefs to different, healthier cooking methods, different types of food, and team building exercises. [April 27]

The photo below (taken by Bob Brawdy) accompanied the April 20 Herald article and was captioned: “River Ranch Houseboats is displaying one of its rental boats at Tim Bush Motors in Richland adjacent to Interstate 182. The houseboat is 59 feet long and 16 feet wide and features flat-screen TVs, granite countertops, barbecue grills and designer furnishings.”