Valley on alert for spread of swine flu
April 30, 2009
Snoqualmie Valley community leaders are receiving questions from the public about a possible swine flu pandemic that has reportedly reached Washington state.
Snoqualmie’s Emergency Management Director and Fire Chief, Bob Rowe, sent an e-mail to various Valley community leaders and information sources, including the SnoValley Star, on April 30 that contains information on the H1N1 influenza virus, otherwise known as swine flu.
The information that Snoqualmie is distributing comes from the Center of Disease Control and King County Health Department Web-sites.
Residents discuss North Bend brand
April 30, 2009
A group of North Bend residents and business owners gathered April 23 at the Mt. Si Senior Center to discuss creating a unique identity or “brand” for the community.
“We lack an identity. A single statement of who we are and what we stand for,” said Gina Estep, North Bend’s community and economic development director.
North Bend resident and business management consultant, Geoffrey Doy, facilitated the branding meeting. Doy and other members of North Bend’s brand team have been brainstorming ideas for the community’s identity. The meeting on April 23 was part of a series of discussions designed to get stakeholders involved in the branding process.
New plan for middle school sports a good one
April 30, 2009
Editorial:
The Snoqualmie Valley School Board returned with its budget judgment last week and formulated a theoretical plan for middle school sports that we think will work.
The school district worked for weeks to cut $4.1 million from its budget, in expectation of funding shortages from the state. As a way to save money, the district planned to reduce all competitive middle school sports to intramural sports, meaning the district’s middle-school teams would only play each other during the school year.
Letters to the editor 4-30
April 30, 2009
The multiple ironies of “silencing the silencers”
Art guild shows local artwork at library
April 30, 2009
With its mane covering its eyes, a white and black horse gallops across a piece of aging sheet music titled “Gypsy Love Song.”
Diane Solomon recently started painting horses on old newspapers, old sheet music — any paper that has escaped the recycling bin and is over the legal age.
“Feel this, its almost like cloth,” Solomon said, rubbing a newspaper she had salvaged from 1942.
Using her unorthodox canvases, Solomon paints watercolors and acrylics of Gypsy Vanner, stallions, thoroughbred and any horse that strikes her fancy. She started painting with watercolor, even though it can be unruly at times.
Diane Solomon works on a painting of a horse. The North Bend resident will have work on display during the Mt. Si Artist Guild show at the North Bend Library.
King County Library System to offer job help
April 30, 2009
Who said the library was just for kids?
The King County Library System is tackling some very adult issues this week by opening an hour early to help residents in search of jobs or unemployment resources, beginning May 1.
“Really, it is for anyone that has run into trouble with this hard economic time,” said Julie Williams, the library system’s community relations and marketing director. “We can help get them started.”
Obituary – Sexton Arthur Johnson
April 30, 2009
Sexton Arthur Johnson died April 17 at the age of 59.
Better known as Junior, or J.R., Johnson was born on Aug. 2, 1949. He and his six siblings started life in Federal Way, before they moved to the mountain town of Baring, where his love of trees began.
State Attorney General visits the Valley
April 29, 2009
State Attorney General Rob McKenna addressed the Snoqualmie Valley Rotary Club on April 23 at Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Club.
McKenna’s talk focused on his involvement in the 2008 legislative session and his initiatives as attorney general. He highlighted three areas that his office is particularly concerned about: consumer protection, public safety and government accountability.
On consumer protection, McKenna said that, as the economy went into the downturn, his office began to receive more complaints about mortgage rescue scams. Typically, these are unfavorable business dealings where a person deeds their home to a mortgage “rescuer,” who claims that they will buy their loan and lease back the house to the original homeowners. Some people find that their lease payments are more than their mortgage payments, and if they are unable to make those payments they can still loose their homes. In other instances, the mortgage rescue fails to meet property tax obligations and pockets any equity in the property after it is auctioned to pay taxes.
Attorney General Rob McKenna speaks to the Snoqualmie Valley Rotary Club April 23.
Students go head-to-head in book battle
April 29, 2009
Marathon runners prepare for their race by eating bananas and running. Ph.D. candidates receive their degree after researching and writing a dissertation. In the Snoqualmie Valley School District, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders prep for the Battle of the Books by reading words, words, words and committing plots and character details to memory.
How else would they answer these questions?
Elementary students have competed in the Battle of the Books since it began in 2001. Every year, the school district’s elementary librarians select 14 books and write questions for the competition.
The Bookinators, from left, Sarah Panciroli, Madison Walsh, Hailey Michaels, Katie McCreadie and Katie Navidi won the North Bend Elementary challenge and will progress to the district-wide May 8 Battle of the Books.
Annexation in North Bend discussed further at meeting
April 29, 2009
Residents of a proposed annexation area along Tanner Bend Road spoke at an April 21 North Bend City Council meeting.
Most who spoke at the public hearing said that they favored the annexation, although some still had questions about joining the city. Gary Fancher wanted to know if adding new homes to the city’s sewer system would overburden its capacity. He also asked about how the city’s land-use regulations would differ from the county’s rules. Fancher, and another resident of the annexation area, asked who would pay for sewer improvements.
“I very much believe that this is the right direction for the east end of town,” said Howard Thomas, a resident of the Wood River subdivision.
