Union leader wants action from school district
August 17, 2011
Art Galloway, president of the Snoqualmie Valley Education Association, the Valley’s teachers union, said the school district needs to “walk their talk” if it’s going to call the current negotiations a collaborative process.
Galloway’s response was to a statement the district’s public information coordinator, Carolyn Malcolm, issued a day after the Aug. 9 meeting between the district and the union.
The statement reads in its entirety:
“The district has been working with the teachers’ union in a collaborative process over the past few months and has several more meetings scheduled in August.
Port of Seattle encourages cruise ship visitors to see the Snoqualmie Valley
August 17, 2011
From the Space Needle to Pike Place Market, Seattle has plenty to offer its guests, but the Washington Tourism Alliance and the Port of Seattle are encouraging cruise ship tourists to explore beyond the predictable city limits.
They are hoping tourists will venture into the suburban and rural areas outside of Seattle into, quite literally, the outdoors.
“We are working on trying to develop adventure opportunities for tourists,” said Bob Cole, the economic development director for the city of Snoqualmie. “Can they go on a two-hour mountain bike ride through the forest? How about climbing Mount Si or hiking on the trails at Rattlesnake Lake?”
This is part of a plan carried out by the newly established Washington Tourism Alliance, which is working along with the Port of Seattle and other tourism agencies to let people know about the tourist opportunities that exist outside of Seattle.
Snoqualmie Ridge gets one of two sustainability awards
August 17, 2011
A Snoqualmie Ridge community’s landscaping campaign has drawn accolades from Quadrant Homes.
The housing development company named Mount Si Cottages is one of two inaugural winners of its Sustainability Challenge. The other winning community, Acadia, is in Everett.
Each of the homeowners associations for the two winning areas will receive $2,000 for community projects.
The contest was launched in late 2010 to challenge communities to develop innovative, collaborative and sustainable projects.
Mount Si Cottages was recognized for the efforts of its volunteer landscape committee, which planted nearly 100 trees and shrubs around the condominium development on the Ridge’s southern end.
More work lies ahead for the committee, which plans on building a community compost pile.
“Advancing sustainable communities and conservation in a meaningful way to suburban families and individuals is the ‘missing link’ in our region’s environmental dialogue,” Quadrant President Ken Krivanec said in a news release. “By creating this annual sustainability challenge, our hope was to show suburban neighborhoods that ‘sustainability’ isn’t just an urban word — it can have meaning and value to their community as well.”
The winning communities will appear in a video posted in September on the Friends of Quadrant Homes website.
Washington Conservation Corps seeks new workers
August 17, 2011
The state Department of Ecology needs 245 people between 18 and 25 to plant native shrubs and trees, restore salmon-bearing streams, respond to emergencies and more.
The agency is seeking applicants to the Washington Conservation Corps, a program to put young adults, including military veterans, on the job at projects in 16 counties statewide.
For the 2011-12 service year, the Department of Ecology intends to hire 150 Washington Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members using a $2 million grant from the state Commission for National and Community Service.
Columnists
August 17, 2011
Home Country
Youth is sometimes wasted on the young
When the world dilemma think tank gathered this morning at the philosophy counter, the main topic of conversation was Marvin Pincus’ problem with the county.
The county wanted him to stop counseling people on love and tying flies to go along with it. Well, they didn’t mind the fly tying so much, but the counseling was to stop unless he had a college degree and a business license. There was general outrage and frustration there in the truck stop.
There were solutions to Marvin’s problem suggested, of course. They varied from 1. finding something else Marvin could do to enjoy his retirement (from Doc), to 5. declaring war on the county up to and including seceding (from Jasper Blankenship). Nos. 2, 3 and 4 weren’t really workable and referred generally to impossible anatomical feats to be performed by certain county employees.
Editorial
August 17, 2011
When there’s a community need, the Snoqualmie Valley takes care of its own. And Valley residents always put education for their kids on a pedestal.
School will soon be starting and parents have already begun the major shopping spree to outfit returning students. Not every parent has the means.
In fact, the need for back-to-school supplies has never been as great.
There are 30 percent more requests this year than last. How about it, have you thought to buy an extra box of crayons?
Letters
August 17, 2011
Re: Two men who saved girl from Denny Creek are reluctant heroes
I can’t thank you enough for saving my great-granddaughter.
You two men were like guardian angels. You were there at the right time to save her life. She is a blonde, blue-eyed beautiful little girl.
I had many people praying for her. Our prayers were answered.
Thank you, God.
Lucy Watts
Lincoln, Neb.
Adults help children, children help adults at Festival at Mount Si
August 17, 2011
Imagine a job where you answer the same question all day — “Can I go?”
A dancer swirls her way down North Bend Way during the Grand Parade. By Mary Miller
Now, imagine you feel like parking your car. And the person who keeps you from doing it not only cannot drive, but probably could not be seen from the front if seated on the driver’s seat.
Such was the ambiance at the Festival at Mount Si Aug. 13, where Boy Scouts directed traffic and parking at Si View Park, and grown-ups handled crowd control at the inflatable toys.
The festival was its usual busy self, with people eating, drinking, laughing and dancing the weekend away.
King County forgoes crackdown on medical marijuana growing
August 17, 2011
King County is adopting a more laissez-faire approach to medical-marijuana operations as North Bend and other cities tighten rules for patient-run collective gardens and other operations.
North Bend City Council members imposed a yearlong moratorium on medical marijuana production and distribution facilities June 7. Issaquah, Sammamish, Federal Way, Kent and other cities have also clamped down on medical-marijuana operations.
King County Executive Dow Constantine, however, does not intend to propose legislation to address the issue in rural and unincorporated areas.
“At this time, the executive does not plan to propose any new regulations governing dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county,” said Frank Abe, a spokesman for the executive.
Police Blotter
August 17, 2011
North Bend police
What is your name?
At 1:50 p.m. Aug. 6, police responded to a reported larceny at Safeway in North Bend.
Two plainclothes security employees responsible for identifying shoplifters had detained a 39-year-old homeless man who had tried to leave the store with a can of malt liquor and a package of steak.
The man gave the police officer a fake name. The officer found a wallet with current identification while searching the man.
He arrested him and took him to Issaquah Jail, where the man was booked for shoplifting and obstructing a police officer.
Residential burglary
At 8:50 a.m. Aug. 5, police responded to a reported residential burglary in the 500 block of Meadow Drive Southeast. The house has been unoccupied since November 2010, but was still furnished and being kept in trust.
A real estate manager reported to police that it had been broken into and ransacked.
