Arson scars Snoqualmie Depot, City Hall
June 30, 2009
Officials say three downtown Snoqualmie fires in one night were the work of an arsonist.
The fires were reported in the early morning hours of June 30. The first fire was reported just after 2 a.m. at the Snoqualmie Depot of the Northwest Railway Museum on Railroad Avenue.
The fire was set inside a plastic garbage can outside of the Depot’s freight room. The fire climbed along the exterior wall of the building. It triggered the building’s automatic sprinkler system, which reduced the intensity of the fire.
Snoqualmie firefighters arrived on the scene about five minutes after the sprinklers were activated and quickly extinguished the fire.
Students happily return to boomerang lessons
June 27, 2009
Ian Raley-Silva noted the direction of the wind before bending his right arm behind his head and flicking his boomerang into the sky. It took an impressive loop, spinning back to earth and into Raley-Silva’s waiting hands.
Raley-Silva is one of 12 seventh- and eighth-grade students attending Two Rivers School. Like many of his classmates, he learns better by doing things. Two Rivers middle school teacher Joe Burgener understood this and started the boomerang project nine years ago. It incorporates elements of math, social studies, writing and science into the month-long mission.
“What is most important is how are the kids involved so they can learn?” Burgener said. “We try to unravel the mystery of the boomerang in here.”
Ian Raley-Silva shows a right-handed phoenix scoop, a student-made boomerang with measured scoops on its inside and outside wings.
School board approves vocational program
June 27, 2009
Recognizing demand for new workers in several industries, seven Eastside school districts are working together to give their students ample opportunity to pursue careers in fields like medicine, construction and culinary arts.
The program, called the Washington Network for Innovative Careers, or WA-NIC, just received $9 million from the Washington state legislature to help students access classes offering intensive training. Much of this money will finance construction and supplies for the new 16,000-square-foot Allied Health Center, to be located at Lake Washington Technical College. Students enrolled in the dental assisting field, for example, will take their classes at the Allied Health Center, which is slated to open in 2011.
“We’ve worked hard to develop classes that are necessary and relevant to things going on today,” Mount Si High School administrator Cindy Wilson said.
Mount Si junior Jamie Brett completes a design during her architecture class at Mount Si High School. Next year, the class will be offered through the Washington Network for Innovative Careers program.
Model T rally to make stop in North Bend
June 27, 2009
The rally started June 14 at New York City Hall, when 55 Model T Fords rolled away from the Big Apple on a trip due west.
On July 10, the historic rally will stop at the Meadowbrook Farm in the Snoqualmie Valley, and residents will have a chance to see the vehicles and meet the drivers.
The rally commemorates a 1909 race — the Ocean-to-Ocean Endurance Race — that ended in Seattle at the Alaska-Pacific-Yukon Exposition. The Model T’s stop at Meadowbrook will be part of the final leg of the 3,900-mile cross-country Centennial Run.
The race started June 1, 1909, when President William Howard Taft pressed a golden telegraph key in Washington to signal the start of the race. The telegraph signal also started the exposition in Seattle. The 1909 race was completed on June 22, 1909, at precisely 12:55 p.m.
The endurance race was a showcase for early automobile technology. In addition to the Model T’s, cars from rival automobile makers tried to make it across the relatively undeveloped roadways of America. The Ford Model T overshadowed the other cars in the race, perhaps hinting at the fate of those carmakers, whose names include Stearns, Acme, Shawmut and Itala.
Participants in the 1909 Ocean-to-Ocean Endurance Race make their way across dirt roads en route to Seattle.
Snoqualmie looks to save on equipping police vehicles
June 27, 2009
The Snoqualmie City Council decided June 22 that it needed a few extra days to gather more information about equipping five new police vehicles for service.
At issue is whether or not the city can save some money on center consoles and truck covers that need to be installed in the city’s five new police vehicles. Police Chief Jim Schaffer told the council that the city could probably buy the equipment for less money than Auto Additions Inc. would charge.
Auto Additions submitted the only bid for outfitting the new police vehicles with lights, radios and other equipment. The company agreed to do the work for $57,060.55. However, the center consoles and truck covers were included in the bid as alternatives. Auto Additions cost for the other equipment is about $14,500.
Councilman Brian Holloway said that if the city included the alternatives in the agreement with Auto Additions, the fund for equipping police vehicles would be nearly depleted. He said he wanted to avoid dipping into reserves.
North Bend settles on slogan for city
June 25, 2009
“Easy to reach… hard to leave” is the city of North Bend’s new slogan.
The North Bend City Council selected the slogan after a presentation from Community and Economic Development Director Gina Estep and branding team facilitator Geoff Doy at a June 16 meeting.
A group of volunteers from the community and city staff members participated in the branding exercise that culminated in the new slogan and a brand statement for the city.
District approves new system for absences
June 25, 2009
In response to three-year-old Shelby Boivin being left on a school bus for more than two hours earlier this month, the Snoqualmie Valley School District has implemented two changes to safeguard against similar incidents.
The morning of June 1, Boivin’s bus driver neglected to check his bus for any remaining children on the bus. When Boivin did not show up for class, her preschool teacher did not mark her absent because she thought Boivin had switched to afternoon preschool.
Another bus driver discovered Boivin more than two hours later, sitting on the hot bus. The driver gave a glass of water to the girl, who was safe and unharmed but dehydrated.
Soon after, Boivin’s mother Jennifer was waiting to meet her child at the bus stop. When she realized her child was not on the bus ride home, she called the district and they asked her to pick up her daughter.
Rescue boat for EFR is an easy choice
June 25, 2009
Editorial:
When we learned that Eastside Fire and Rescue staff wanted funding for a boat, our first thought was, ‘they don’t have one already?’
The purchase of a rescue boat, so that firefighters can help people caught in the raging waters, should be a priority, not a matter of debate. EFR’s coverage area is crisscrossed with fast flowing rivers, streams and deep lakes, both of which are prone to flooding more often than not.
Letters 6-25
June 25, 2009
Thankful for bike
safety support
Snoqualmie challenger has experience with council
June 25, 2009
The challenger in Snoqualmie’s only contested City Council race was a familiar face on the Council a decade ago.
Terry Sorenson was appointed to the Council in 1989 to fill an unexpired term on what was then a five-seat governing body. He was elected for a second term on the council and served until 1995.
Now, he’s running again.
“I miss making a difference on a local level,” Sorenson said.
