Portfolio 2013

King County dumping free Cedar Falls service

to cut the budgetBY CAROL LADWIG

Staff Reporter

Recycling is easy, for most people in the Valley. Plastic blue bins for depositing plastic, glass, paper, and metal are part of the landscape, anywhere you’d find a trash can, and every commercial trash hauler in the county will pick up recycling right off your curb, if you ask them to.

For the rest, recycling is not exactly hard—those who don’t get curbside col-lection can still haul their recyclables to a collection site—but it is about to get harder. King County will close its free recycling col-lection sites at most solid waste transfer stations on We d ne s d ay, Feb. 1, includ-ing North Bend’s Cedar Falls facility.

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Moment of truth arrives for joint city-Y venture on Snoqualmie Ridge

BY SETH TRUSCOTTEditor

Shoes have been kicked off and board games are on the table on this lazy January afternoon.

The trio of teens, Cali Rose, Ellie Miller and Allie Murphy, laugh as they play “Buzzword, then switch to “Apples to Apples.”

“That one made me think too much,” said Miller, who’d rather just hang out.

The atmosphere is relaxed, but these girls aren’t at home. They’re regulars at the teen center at the Snoqualmie Community Center and Valley YMCA, which quietly opened January 1 and with a grand-opening bang on Saturday, Jan. 21.

The three girls have been coming here since day one, dabbling in games and bouts of ping pong, but mostly coming to see each other.


Founding director of the new Snoqualmie Community Center and Y, Dave Mayer doesn’t hesitate to shoot a few hoops or engage visitors. Mayer is responsible for get-ting the center off to a strong start.

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“I get bored sometimes at home,” Rose said. Since mom doesn’t like her wander-ing Snoqualmie, she comes here, where the teens play under the supervision of YMCA teen program director Stacy Holdren.

The teen center is open to any youth in grades 6 to 10, regardless of whether they are Y members. While staffed by the YMCA, the teen area is part of the Snoqualmie Community Center, one of several facets where the Y and center blur together.

Breaking the moldThe new Snoqualmie Y breaks the mold

in several ways. It’s a joint city-Y ven-ture, reclaiming a YMCA legacy that last-ed for decades at the lost community of Snoqualmie Falls. It’s a community center within a Y—that’s why teens like Holdren’s card-playing trio can attend even if they aren’t members.

The boundaries between the Y and the community center are fuzzy, and there’s a reason for that, says Gwen Voelpel, parks director for the city of Snoqualmie.

“It’s been a growing-together process,” Voelpel said. “They’re one and the same.”

“So many words about what a community center means, is what the Y means as well,” said Dave Mayer, the founding director of the Snoqualmie Valley YMCA. “Our job is to create healthy lives. That’s what a com-munity center would be doing, too.”

Boosters say this place will change the Valley by becoming a gathering point, a local hub. The full name of the Y’s local identity is the “Snoqualmie Valley YMCA,” and it’s meant to live up to the name through Valley-spanning activities like the group hiking classes that start in February.

“They’re bigger than just the building,” Voelpel said.

With the city as building owner, the Y is the operator and maintainer of a master schedule, running center-specific programs like a teen center and a community meet-ing room. Reflecting that, at Snoqualmie, unlike other Ys, there is no gate to halt visi-tors at the reception desk.

Voelpel says the center is already a com-munity hub. On Friday, Jan. 6, 50 fami-lies camped on blankets and sleeping bags to watch a movie on the gym wall. Last Tuesday, 45 teens transformed the gym into a dodgeball battleground. Now, the Y’s after-school programs are converging here.

“When you see families coming together, see families meeting people that they some-how have never met before, it’s already fulfill-ing that vision… as a centerpiece,” Voelpel said. “I’m interested in seeing how that gives kids avenues to explore and grow.”

Cost and sizeThe path to a new center has led past three

failed votes. The $4 million, 13,000-square-foot center is a trimmed-down version of the vision put before Snoqualmie voters in 2002, 2006 and 2008. Those bond measures, which would have built a bigger center and pool, each time failed to garner a supermajor-ity vote. The city then voted to go it alone, choosing the YMCA as an operating partner and setting aside $950,000 of reserves for construction. Other funding came from the Snoqualmie Tribe, Ridge builders Quadrant, Murray Franklyn and Pulte, the Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Company, and from Puget Western.

Besides the initial donation, the tribe has made a $100,000 annual commitment from its mitigation and social services fund to pay for operations.

The Y has a goal of 900 membership units—individual, couple and family memberships—for its first year. Snoqualmie Valley YMCA had 418 units on Dec. 31, and about 520 today.

Here they comeMembership representative

Bre Fowler had her hands full Tuesday evening, scanning members while touting the facility to newcomers.

“Around 7 o’clock, we get a mad rush,” Fowler said. “It was going out the door. That was the craziest I’ve seen it.”

The most common ques-tion she answers: “What are the activities for 9-to-10-year-old kids?”

On Wednesday afternoon, youths and families steadily approach Fowler’s desk. Mount Si High School seniors Sean Ballsmith, Tyler Young and Dustin Dirks walked in to pick up applications. The boys live on the Ridge, and want to lift weights, work out and play basketball in the offseason.

In the next room, Snoqualmie Ridge residents Barry Ferner, who was lifting 25-pound hand weights, and Joel Erne, on the treadmill, both joined for family reasons. They switched gyms from Issaquah and Snoqualmie, respectively, and while both men said they’d prefer to see a bigger facility, they were sold on the variety of options for all ages.

“It’s something for everybody,” Ferner said.

Y programs are fluid right now, but will firm up soon. Mayer points to the comment card at the front desk as a way to fine-tune offerings.

“We’re encouraging as many comments as possible,” he said.

Coming togetherDuring a tour of the gym,

Mayer stopped for a moment to snatch a rolling basket-ball, then sunk a hoop on his first throw. His second went wide, though.

Self-described as “the bus-iest guy on the planet, having the time of my life,” Mayer has been balancing the act of getting the community center/Y up and running with face time, leading tours and meeting new members.

“Obviously, there are e-mails to go through, but I’d rather be out, walking around,” he said.

As the last clocks and coat-hooks go up, the completion of the long-anticipated vision sinks in. Mayer excitedly goes over the plans for the grand opening and beyond—unveiling of a large mobile statue out front, a future fire-warmed plaza outside—and points out the first commu-nity group, the Northwest Railway Museum board, now ranged along a table in the community activity room.

“What’s cool is seeing people come into the build-ing, so excited about what

they’re seeing,” Mayer said. “Seeing every-thing the community envisioned…it’s been cool to see that come into reality.”

• You can learn more about the Snoqualmie YMCA at www.seattleymca.org/Locations/Snoqualmie/Pages/Home.aspx. Valley residents who want to reserve the community room at the center should contact the Snoqualmie branch at (425) 256-3115.

Photo courtesy Puget Sound Energy

Above, Zumba instructor Kirsty Johnson leads fast moves in the gymnasium at the newly opened Snoqualmie Valley YMCA. Top left, Stacy Holdren, right, leads a round of card games with Cali Rose, Ellie Miller and Allie Murphy in the new Snoqualmie teen center.Below left, Mount Si High School senior Sean Ballsmith takes an application form from Y employ-ee Annie McCall.Left, Becky Straka and Megan Worzella assemble exercise bikes.

www.valleyrecord.comGrand openingA public grand opening of the Snoqualmie Community Center / Snoqualmie Valley YMCA is 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21, at 35018 S.E. Ridge St., on Snoqualmie Ridge.Speakers include Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson; Bob Gilbertson, President/CEO of the YMCA of Greater Seattle; and Snoqualmie Valley YMCA Executive Director Dave Mayer.There will be an open house with activities for all ages. Y staff will register new members and give tours of the Health & Well-Being Center, Family Gym, Youth Development Center, Community Activity Room, and other facility amenities. Program information will be available about ongoing YMCA activities and special events for children, teens, and adults.

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SEE OPTIONS, 2

Elementary review is not popularity contest,

school official saysBY ALLISON ESPIRITU

Staff Reporter

Snoqualmie Valley School District officials weighing more than 1,300 comments and responses in this spring’s elementary school bound-ary review process caution residents that the change is not a popularity contest.

Concerned parents flood-ed two public comment meetings held Monday and Tuesday, March 29 and 30, at North Bend Elementary and Snoqualmie Middle School, but none took the microphone. Rather, school officials asked parents to write their comments on cards, which were then read to the district’s boundary review committee, made up of school staff.

Jeff Hogan, committee facilitator and district direc-tor of instructional technology, noticed a phenomenon at the second meeting that was dif-ferent from the first.

“What was heard on Tuesday night was unique,” Hogan told the Record.

Monday’s meeting saw more support for options A and C, while Tuesday’s meeting saw increased sup-port for option F.

Parents campaign for school boundary options

History museum explores vanished community


The forested pathways surround-ing the site of Weyerhaeuser’s desert-ed Snoqualmie Falls lumber mill hide secrets. But some people know how to uncover them.

Dave Battey, a retired telephone com-pany employee and history sleuth for the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum, is one such man. On a cold March morn-ing, Battey hopped a guard rail near his home and hiked down an elk trail just off 396th Drive. His destination: the ghostly remains of the Snoqualmie Valley’s origi-nal YMCA.

The elk trail is more than it seems. Under layers of leaf litter, Battey’s boots find the old loop road, once a main thoroughfare in the now-vanished

community of Snoqualmie Falls.“It’s all asphalt,” said Battey. Steps away,

seemingly lost in the forest, is a paved school yard, hidden under the leaves.

Here, the forest is reclaiming its own. Weyerhaeuser moved houses, bulldozed pavement and replanted the town with firs 40 years ago. English ivy, escaped from some mill worker’s garden, entwines the trunks near the vanished community center.

In its heydey, the Snoqualmie Falls community hall drew children and adults from as far as Carnation.

“It was quite spectacular, probably the biggest Y this side of Seattle,” Battey said.

Today, just finding where it stood is a challenge. Battey’s only clue to the Y’s whereabouts is a steel pipe among the trunks. Holding up an old photo, Battey zeroes in on a tiny signpost in the photo that directed firefighters to a water source.

“The community hall was really right

here,” he said. The pipe is the only visible vestige to a building that nurtured thou-sands of lives.

Quick growthThe company town of Snoqualmie

Falls sprang up fast — and vanished almost as quickly. Snoqualmie Falls had its genesis in the creation of the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company in 1914 by Weyerhaeuser and the Grandin-Coast Lumber Company. Homes and services were needed for the mill workers, and the town coalesced as the lumber company began operations in 1917.

Bunkhouses provided initial homes for the loggers and mill workers. Over a period of about four years, true neighborhoods developed — places called The Flats, The Gulch, Riverside and the Dirty Dozen, so-called for its

Ghosts of the mill town


Chasing the ghosts of a vanished community, Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum member Dave Battey uncovers the play-ground foundations of long-lost Snoqualmie Falls Grade School. The lost town is the focus of a new museum exhibit.

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Tribe found Nelems site too dilapidated to save


The former Nelems Memorial Hospital in Snoqualmie has been demol-ished to make way for Snoqualmie Tribe elder hous-ing.

Tribal Administrator Matt Mattson said the 1947 struc-ture offered too many chal-lenges for a successful renova-tion.

Contractor Bubba’s Trucking of Carnation will clear the site, located east of Snoqualmie Casino on Southeast North Bend Way, within a week.

“It was far more expensive to try to remodel it than to tear it down and rebuild new,” Mattson said.

The tribe’s $1.4 million proj-ect would build four housing units for seniors. Construction begins this summer.

Preference will be given to low-income elders. To reside there, elders should apply to the tribe’s Housing Committee.

The tribe purchased the Nelems site in 2005.

“By the time we took own-ership, you could barely tell it was an old hospital, except for the morgue in the basement,” Mattson said.

When the tribe originally purchased the building, it was thought that some parts of the building, such as the founda-tion, could be saved. But that strategy was discarded.

The building was not in good shape, Mattson said.

“I don’t think it was func-tional for any use whatsoever,” he said.

The tribe had to remove asbestos from the building last year.

Bubba’s Trucking owner Chuck Hinzman said that some parts of the building were sound and sturdy, but the side walls were rotten.

“I can’t pull the stucco off the side walls,” he said. “I’m afraid the building will col-lapse.”

Demolition crews found the hospital’s old morque under the floor. They’ll have to jack-hammer its five-foot-thick concrete walls to bits.

Much of the materials, including wood beams, brick and plaster, will be recycled or reused, Hinzman said.

Building historyNelems was a precursor to

Snoqualmie Valley Hospital, which opened in 1983.

Superintendent Bernice Nelems built the 12,000 square foot hospital in 1948 for $32,000, according to a Jan. 1, 1948, Valley Record article. The building replaced Snoqualmie Falls Hospital at the Weyerhaeuser mill.

The building was named Nelems Hospital as a memo-rial to Nelems’ mother, father and sister. The Nelems family operated it until 1969 when it was sold to a group of physi-cians and re-named Nelems Memorial Hospital.

The hospital was where a generation of Snoqualmie Valley residents were treated, and where a generation of Valley babies were born.

When it opened, the build-ing had 23 rooms — five fewer than today’s hospital — as well as a solarium, living room, sur-gery, kitchen, and quarters for staff in the basement.

“For 1948, this was a small but modern hospital,” said Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum member Gloria McNeely.

Six of her grandchildren were born there, and McNeely’s son Denny was treated for a compound leg fracture dur-ing the last football game of his senior high school career.

She recalled the care there as exemplary.

While noting that the building was never a candi-date for historic registry list-ing, McNeely expressed some regret that the building could not find a continuing role in the elder housing plans.

The Snoqualmie Tribe has also executed a purchase agreement for the current Snoqualmie Valley Hospital, located on Ethan Wade Way in Snoqualmie. The tribe is nego-tiating an extension on its pay-ment schedule to King County Hospital District 4, asking for a minimum monthly payment plan. The tribe plans to turn Snoqualmie Valley Hospital into a tribal health center.

Wrecking ball hits former hospital


Chuck Hinzman sweeps up debris at the former Nelems Memorial Hospital building in Snoqualmie. The Snoqualmie Tribe demolished the site to make way for elder housing.

downwind proximity to the mill’s smokestacks.The Orchard neighborhood, built in 1919, was a social

experiment to attract stable families, breaking the old ste-reotype of loggers as rough, hard-carousing men. The last house was constructed in 1924.

At its peak, the self-contained community had its own water and electricity system, post office, hotel, barber shop, hospital and YMCA, serving the mill’s 1,200 workers.

To Battey, Snoqualmie Falls was clearly an urban environ-ment.

“This was a town,” he said. “The houses were reasonably close together. Everyone felt like they were part of their indi-vidual neighborhoods.”

Vanishing townBy 1930, homes were being removed at Snoqualmie

Falls. Gradually, employees and services in Snoqualmie Falls moved into the greater Valley. Nelems Memorial Hospital, now being converted to senior housing by the Snoqualmie Tribe, replaced the Snoqualmie Falls Hospital in 1948. The bulk of the homes that could be moved were rolled across a timber bridge into Snoqualmie in the 1950s. The site of the Orchard is now a Glacier Northwest gravel pit; trees are reclaiming the other neighborhoods.

Among the last mill town agencies to close was the YMCA.

“They tried to get the rest of the Valley to keep the YMCA going,” Battey said. “It was too far out of the way. But people came to this thing from Carnation in its hey-day. It was a regional draw.”

Even after Snoqualmie Falls residents moved away, the Y remained a gathering place until it closed its doors in 1971. On June 30 of that year, the last piece of mail received its Snoqualmie Falls date stamp in the mill town’s post office.

The last generation born at Snoqualmie Falls Hospital is now in their mid-50s. Occasionally, a bewildered child of the mill town revisits Snoqualmie Falls, struggling to find a lost home.

Battey’s family farm sits just over the hill from the mill. When a visitor pulls into his driveway, he can tell at a glance whether they are searching for the lost town.

“Our house is the only thing they can recognize,” Battey said. “Sometimes they have tears in their eyes. They can’t grasp the fact that this is all gone.”

• MORE NEXT WEEK: “Ghosts of the mill town” is the � rst in a two-part series on the lost community of Snoqualmie Falls. See the full story online.


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Valley man recalls growing up in lost mill townBY SETH TRUSCOTT

Editor

Visit the Reinig Road Sycamore Corridor, a registered King County landmark, today and you will find rows of huge, stately trees, forming a natural cathedral of arching branches and thick trunks.

But a visit with North Bend resident Harley Brumbaugh, armed with an old black and white photo, reveals a very different place.

The corridor of trees was once the Riverside neighborhood, part of the lost community of Snoqualmie Falls built around the now-closed Weyerhaeuser mill. Seven decades ago, Riverside looked like any other suburban neighborhood, with houses set back from younger, smaller sycamores, reached by con-crete steps. Today, only the trees remain.

Riverside RatsBrumbaugh grew up in Riverside. Son

of a steam shovel operator and a home-maker, he roamed the streets and meadows of Snoqualmie Falls with the boys from his neighborhood.

“We called ourselves the Riverside Rats,” Brumbaugh said. “It was a Tom Sawyer existence.”

The boys used a chicken coop for a club house. Bylaws included “No girls allowed.”

Living in Riverside meant more freedom for Brumbaugh and his pals than most children in Snoqualmie Falls. They lived closer to the urban environment of Meadowbrook than anyone else, so the boys were able to collect old beer bottles and sell them back to the tavern owners across the river.

“Kids who lived in the Orchard, on the other side of the mill, they were sort of confined,” Brumbaugh remembered.

Every Thanksgiving, boys from the two neighborhoods faced off in a touch football game. The boys had to mind their own fouls, because there was no referees.

“We had great freedom as kids,” Brumbaugh said. “But we all worked. We were expected to produce for the family.”

Brumbaugh was expected to keep the family wood pile stacked year-round. He and the other boys also helped elderly residents with their firewood.

“We had the meadows, we had swimming, fishing,” Brumbaugh said. “We had each other. We felt as though we were in a community. Nobody really screwed up. I can’t remember the police ever coming.”

Every student who attended the Snoqualmie Falls Grade

School knew each other, though enrollment fluctuated with employment.

“We got superior ratings in music,” Brumbaugh said. “It was because we had roots. We knew who we were.”

Youth lifeSetting the standard for youth behavior was Harold Keller, the

director of the community hall and YMCA in the mill town. If a teen under Keller’s eye goofed off too much, he might find him-self a persona non grata at the Y.

“There went your social life,” Brumbaugh said.Harold’s son Ward Keller remembers his

father, who ran the YMCA from 1942 to 1965, as an energetic, hard-working man.

Young people learned everything from knit-ting to rifle marksmanship at the YMCA. The senior Keller used the rivers of the Valley to teach swimming to children who didn’t have access to a pool. He went to the Arthur Murray studios to learn the latest dance steps, then taught them each year to junior high school students.

Keller said he was amazed by what the YMCA meant for young people.

“We never had any problems with kids during that time,” he said.

Sound of the millThe school, YMCA and store all overlooked the gigantic

mill and its smokestacks. Brumbaugh recalls the ambience of sound to the place.

“You could always hear the whining and the clank-clank of lumber going through,” he said. “There would be percussive jabs of whistles. The main mill whistle was a baritone — a low ‘wooh!’ You expected those things. You could see the cinders on your windowsill at school.”

An aspiring professional musician, Brumbaugh saw a dif-ferent world when he commuted to Seattle for trumpet les-sons. But he always appreciated the mill’s sense of unity.

To many longtime residents, the vanished mill town was clearly the strongest influence on the Valley of the last cen-tury. The mill’s economic engine drew workers from as far as Redmond, coalescing a community.

The community of Snoqualmie Falls began to shrink in the 1930s, and was completely gone by the early 1970s, as homes and services moved out into the greater Valley.

Most people grow up and leave their communities behind. To Brumbaugh, “Snoqualmie Falls left us.”

To Keller, the loss of the YMCA at the mill left a 45-year gap in recreation for Snoqualmie residents.

“Hopefully, this project they have at the Ridge will be the beginning of restoring the YMCA’s efforts,” he said.

Staff photo, above / Photo by Harold Keller, inset

North Bend resident Harley Brumbaugh revisits his boyhood home, the former Snoqualmie Falls neighborhood of Riverside. Where rows of homes once stood, now only the corridor of sycamores remain. Inset, the community of Riverside as it looked circa 1940. The site is now a King County historic landmark.

Mill town at the museumThe story of the Snoqualmie Falls mill and town is the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum’s primary exhibit for 2010. As the museum opens this month, it will feature images and stories of the town and how it changed the Valley. To learn more, visit www.sno-qualmievalleymuseum.org.

www.valleyrecord.com4 • April 14, 2010 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

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Our page 2 story this week continues the saga of the lost town of Snoqualmie Falls.

Like many locals, I was aware that there used to be a community across the river from downtown Snoqualmie. But actually seeing the shadowy remains of that town — the steps to the now-nonexistent Snoqualmie Falls Hospital, a gnarled cherry tree planted three generations ago by a long-departed Japanese student of the Falls school — was a true eye-opener. The story of Snoqualmie Falls is an amazing saga, which really hasn’t ended yet.

Part of the old town is still owned by Weyerhaeuser, where it has been reclaimed by forest. Some parts are among the mill site that Ultimate Rally Experience is negoti-ating to buy from Weyerhaeuser. If the purchase goes through as planned, owners Greg Lund and Bob Morris intend to conserve and promote the history there.

It’s impossible to give much more than an introduction to the mill town’s story in these pages. For those who would like to go deeper, the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum, located in downtown North Bend, is the place to go.

North Bend changesThe thought of changing commu-

nities underscores what is happening right now in North Bend. Last week, the North Bend City Council made its decision to allow a new and modern hotel on the south side of Interstate 90’s exit 31. This has been one of the most hotly contested issues in a Valley community in recent years. Meetings on the hotel plan made the Mount Si Senior Center a standing-room-only venue, and a planning commissioner resigned at the height of the furor last fall. Hundreds of people had some-thing to say on the matter, with some folks demanding a new place for visi-tors to stay, others decrying the change a national chain hotel means for their community.

Local police checked out the claims of neighbors that the site will drive up crime rates, and did find that crime will rise — but with the hotel, not neighbors, as the victim. North Bend’s city plan-ners worked to lay down design stan-dards easing a big building’s impacts on the local viewshed, but those obviously won’t please everybody. Regardless, a decision has been made, and history moves on.

Hotel raceValley communities have been in a

race for a new hotel for some time. Four communities have a stake — North Bend, Snoqualmie, the Snoqualmie Tribe and the Muckleshoots. In Snoqualmie’s city limits, a hotel has been discussed atop Snoqualmie Ridge, at the planned new campus

of Snoqualmie Valley Hospital. It’s a safe bet that the Snoqualmie Tribe will one day open a big hotel next to their casino, probably when economic times are flusher. And sooner or later, the Muckleshoot Tribe will proceed with plans to expand the Salish Lodge and Spa.

For now, North Bend has taken the lead in the lodging race.

That’s good news to folks like the entrepreneurs behind Ultimate Rally Experience, as well as other Valley businesses who would benefit from North Bend’s push to position itself as a recreation gateway. Just how bad it will be for near neighbors or the North Bend scenic landscape, only time will tell.

• E-mail Editor Seth Truscott at [email protected].

Publisher William Shaw [email protected]

Editor Seth Truscott [email protected] Reporter Allison Espiritu [email protected]

Creative Design Wendy Fried [email protected]

Advertising Terri Barclay Account [email protected] Executive Circulation/ Sean McGinnis Distribution [email protected] Office Denise O’Keefe Manager [email protected]

Mail PO Box 300, Snoqualmie, WA 98065

Phone 425.888.2311 Fax 425.888.2427


Classified Advertising: 800.388.2527 Subscriptions: $29.95 per year in King

County, $35 per year elsewhereCirculation: 425.453.4250

or 1.888.838.3000

The Snoqualmie Valley Record is the legal newspaper for the cities of Snoqualmie,

North Bend and Carnation.

Written permission from the publisher is required for reproduction of any part of this

publication. Letters, columns and guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views

of the Snoqualmie Record.

“I’m doing paperless billing and being creative by cutting

up plastic grocery bags and crocheting them into reusable

grocery bags.

Debbie ConrowNorth Bend

“If I have a chance, I do carpool.”

Jennifer BoivinSnoqualmie

“I compost and feed the birds a lot.”

Lloyd WhitehurstNorth Bend

“I recycle aluminum cans and compost.”

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Earth Day is April 22. How do you help the environment?

History rolls on at mill site,

new hotel

ValleyRecoRd

SNOQUALMIE

SETh TRuSCOTT Valley Record Editor


INDEXOPINION 4LETTERS 5ON THE SCANNER 10SPORTS 13 PUZZLES 15 CLASSIFIED ADS 17-18

Vol. 98, No. 7

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2011 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS


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Dance instructor: Any and all comers invited to boogie for town festival

Katie Black of IGNITE Dance & Yoga in North Bend is planning a first “Flash Mob” dance for the North Bend Block Party, Saturday, July 23.

“I really want this to be about bringing the com-munity together,” Black said.

Children and adults are welcome to learn the steps and dance to the song, “Shake a Tailfeather.”

To view the choreography, visit www.ignitedance-andyoga.com. Rehearsals are planned for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, July 16; 8 p.m. Monday, July 18; 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 22, at the studio, 472 E. North Bend Way next to QFC. To learn more, call (425) 292-9880.

Heavy Meadowbrook traffic, road closure in works for weekend Warrior Dash

By Valley Record Staff

An extreme racing event featuring an obstacle course of mud, fire and car hulks is expected to bring nearly 30,000 people to Snoqualmie and North Bend this weekend.

The Warrior Dash, happening for the first time at Meadowbrook Farm, will mean increased traf-fic, North Bend city officials warn.

Boalch Avenue will be closed from 10 a.m. Friday, July 15 to 10 a.m. Monday, July 18, from the south entrance of Mount Si Golf Course to the King County Sheriff Station. Drivers can still reach Mount Si Golf Course using Park Street.

The 3.55 mile race begins at 8 a.m., Saturday, July 16, with heats starting every half-hour. The last heat starts at 6:30 p.m. Racers will cross Boalch Avenue several times during the event.

At the finish line, there are live bands and a free beer.

This Warrior Dash is one of 35 scheduled for 2011 and the first in Washington state. Learn more about the Warrior Dash at www.warrior-dash.com/register2011_washington.php.

‘Flash mob’ forms for block party

30,000 warriors expected for extreme run


Holding a binder of memories and written appeals, North Fork property owners Jan and Robert “Sully” Sullivan stand on the decaying Shake Mill Left Levee, watching as erosion steadily encroaches on their home. Now candidates for buyout, the 40-year residents have watched the levee disappear in four years.

Homeowners watch and wait as North Fork devours levee, property


Jan Sullivan won’t go any closer to the crum-bling edge of the Shake Mill Left Levee, but husband Robert “Sully” Sullivan is bolder. He takes a few steps closer to the void, where the grass of the earthen berm ends in a clean break, its base invisible under the overhang.

Jan’s caution is understandable. She and Sully have watched the levee that marks the northern edge of their home and business property disap-pear, faster and faster, over the last four years. The thought of the speedy devouring of their property keeps them up at night.

Worry “hits us like a ton of bricks,” Sully says.

“We don’t know what’ll happen if it keeps up,” adds Jan.

The lost leveeThe Shake Mill Left Levee, also known as the

North Fork Bridge Levee, was built in the early 1960s to protect the bridge and nearby 428th Avenue from erosion.

Gloria McNeely, a local historian and retired employee of the King County flood divi-sion, recalled how the levee system in North Bend originated. Voters approved a $5 million bond in 1960 following a big 1959 flood on the Snoqualmie River that killed a driver on Interstate 90. That money paid for levees.

“They were built with the participation of the riparian property owners,” McNeely said.

The hungry river

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“Whenever (the county) saw a stretch of the river that would benefit from being rip-rapped, those owners were approached,” she added.

Walking the remains of the levee along his property, Sully stopped every few feet to collect windblown sticks and branches, then toss them out of the way. He keeps the grass mowed up to his property line, which extends into a nearby oxbow lake.

“We’ve always maintained it,” said Sully. “When you’ve owned a piece of property for 45 years, that’s a long time.”

The Sullivans bought the site for a home and shake mill busi-ness in 1966.

“It was beautiful,” Sully said. “Here’s a picture of the mill.” He held up an aerial photo of the place, pointing to the loop road that wound around the north edge and is now eroded away.

“This is all gone,” he said. “It’s our bloodlife, from when we started the first little shake mill, and grew it.”

Walking the levee up to the oxbow, Sully points out how the earthwork is unchanged near the calm water.

“Most of this has good armament,” he said, referring to the stabilizing rocks, or rip-rap, encasing the bank.

“They didn’t armor it from the silo burner on down.” That’s why the bank went so fast, he says.

Erosion started slowly; the Sullivans noticed it about four years ago.

“The last two years, it’s just quadrupled,” Sully said.The motion of the river removed tons of material from their

side of the bank, piling a lot of it as rocky, gravelly deposits along the opposite shore and sending the rest downriver.

“A lot of our fill is over there,” he said. “What denotes our north boundary was the south shore of the river,” Sullivan said. In places, that boundary is now as far as 50 feet out in the water.

The Sullivans have spent about four years seeking county action on the levee, which has now been destroyed up to within about 300 feet of the North Fork Bridge,

A few years ago, “it wouldn’t have taken a lot of armament to stop this erosion,” Sully said. “Look at it now.”

Changing channelPushing for action from King County, the Sullivans have

become increasingly frustrated with the response. At one point told that their levee was on the roster for repairs, the

Sullivans instead became a candidate for buy-out.With the scale of the damage and the natural processes now

changing the North Fork, the county has ruled out a levee replacement. County officials say the situation does not war-rant emergency action.

“We’ve concluded that the best approach is to make the Sullivans a fair market value offer for their property,” said Clint Loper, the county’s supervising engineer for River and Floodplain Management in the Snoqualmie basin.

This part of the river is susceptible to channel changes, as it sits in the North Fork’s alluvial fan, a flat area near the river’s mouth where the sediment is deposited and the flow is prone to meandering.

“It used to flow parallel,” Loper said. “Now, the river is to the north, attacking the levee at an aggressive angle.”

As the river meanders, Loper said it’s still expected to keep its channel under the bridge. If the county owned the prop-erty, Loper said his division might look at a project to protect the approaches to the bridge.

Like the Shake Mill Left, many local levies date to the 1960s, Loper said.

“There was a philosophy of what we call river training,” he said.

But today, the Sullivans’ levee is among others that are not routinely maintained.

Loper said his division doesn’t have clear records on wheth-er the Shake Mill levee was privately or publicly constructed.

“We do know that there are many properties along the North Fork for which we do have easements,” he said. “The easements we have specifically exclude the Sullivan property. Someone made a decision not to grant that easement to the county back in the 60s. That is our analysis.”

Loper said he understands the Sullivans’ position. The river “is just eating through their property... Nobody

wants to see that.”But the county’s policy is to provide the river with more

room to move, and replacing the levee isn’t cost-effective.“We don’t feel it’s a good expenditure,” Loper said.If the county can’t negotiate a purchase, the Sullivans were

told to try their own erosion-control measures or hire a firm to control it.

The Sullivans dispute this decision. Their research, which included visits to regional and collegearchives and talks with the widows of some of the men who helped build the levee,

show that the county was involved with work on the Shake Mill berm.

Among their findings is a 1962 resolution by the King County board of commissioners authorizing $6,000 for bar removal and revetment work on the left bank of the North Fork Bridge.

“We’ve got the proof they worked on it,” Jan said.In the Sullivans’ view, the county always had the right to

access the property. In their four-year effort, “there’s always been a reason” not

to fix the levee, Jan said. “The stories change. Wouldn’t you become frustrated?”

The Sullivans say they would accept a buy-out, if it was fair.

“We’re not passing it on,” Jan said. “The boys aren’t inter-ested.”

Dam of treesIn May, the Sullivans’ vista changed dramatically when

two huge, century-old cottonwood trees toppled from the new shoreline, forming a barrier spanning roughly the entire channel. Sully calls them a potential threat to kayak-ers and river users.

“There is so much water backed up in the oxbow, it’s unbelievable,” said Sully, who blames the downed trees for blocking flow. He has doubts about whether the remaining trees along the riverbank will stay standing.

Steve Marshall, a King County Sheriff ’s Deputy with the department’s Marine Unit who responded to the scene, downplays any risk from the downed trees.

“That area doesn’t get a lot of recreation. There’s a long line of sight. It’s an easy escape off the river,” he said.

“The trees are so stinking massive,” the county’s largest helicopter probably couldn’t move them, Marshall added. “It’ll be there a long time. It’ll be a landmark.”

To Marshall, the river is showing its natural implacabil-ity.

“It’s hard to put a wild river into a box,” he said. The Sullivans, however, are preparing for more of their

bank to go. As the buyout proceeds, they still want to see the berm fixed before additional land goes underwater.

“We still feel they should fix the levee,” Jan said. “We’re going to lose some more property. That’s a given, come flood season.”

LEVEE FROM 1 School service award for SafewayThe Riverview Schools Board of Directors presented Roger Jones, man-ager of the Duvall Safeway, with the 2011 Community Service Award on June 28. Safeway and Riverview have partnered over the years to assist in the success of students in school and in the community. Safeway was the first busi-ness to provide employment learning experiences for students in the transi-tion program. From left are Danny Edwards, Lori Oviatt, Duvall Safeway Manager Roger Jones, Greg Bawden, Dan Pflugrath, and Carol Van Noy. Courtesy photo


INDEXOPINION 4 SCHOOLS 5CALENDAR 9 OBITUARIES 15 ON THE SCANNER 16CLASSIFIEDS 17-18

Vol. 98, No. 51

SCEN

E Volunteers celebrate new Fall City stage Page 12

WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2012 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS



SPOR

TS Softball revs up seniors for strong postseason run Page 13

SCEN

E Volunteers

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Transitional center still feeling effects of January blackout

BY CAROL LADWIGStaff Reporter

Months after a weeklong power out-age that started January 18, the Mount Si Transitional Health Center in North Bend has again suffered from the effects of that event.

The center, home now to 41 people recovering from medical procedures, had to have a generator wired into the facility during the outage. Staff did not know until last month that some of the work did not meet state code. An electri-cal inspector found the flaws about two weeks ago, and called them to administra-tor Beth Marsh’s attention.

“He told us what he had concerns about, and we said ‘ok, we’re on it,’” Marsh said Thursday. She esti-mated the repairs would be done by the end of last week.

The center was not fined or penalized in any way because of the work, either Marsh emphasized.

“He totally held us blameless,” Marsh said of the electrical inspector. “He wasn’t even here for that.”

The inspector had just approved the electrical repairs to the laundry room, damaged by a Feb. 18 fire, when he spot-ted the generator flaws.

Marsh called the discovery unfortu-nate, but also a good development, since now they knew to make repairs to bring the generator up to code. The generator had been installed by a company that appeared at fault for the failure to meet code. The installation had been intended to be temporary, but the generator is now expected to stay in place for a few more months, Marsh said.

Legacy of the storm

BETH MARSH Mount Si Transitional Health Center Administrator

SEE STORM, 2

In North Bend, growth of tagging, gang symbols is a troubling sign


On the stairwell by the North Bend Park and Ride, a tagger has struck, and pretty recently, too.

The nickname, sprayed in black, spiky letters, has resisted one clean-up attempt, leaving the graffiti still legible.

“I’m reading M-A-V-I-K: Mavik,” says North Bend Police Chief Mark Toner, driving around the city on a graffiti survey.

Most commuters who drive by this place, on West North Bend Way, won’t notice the foot-tall letters, which are hidden under the lip of the roadway, out of sight.

“You could drive by this thing all day long, and you’d never see it,” the police chief said.

Toner says graffiti is on a steady incline in North Bend. He’s not sure what’s pushing the increase,

but he knows that locals need to start pushing back.

“If we allow some to go, it’s going to start to grow,” he says. “That’s what we’re seeing now.”

A hidden language

A few steps away, there’s another Mavik sign. But this time, someone else has come along and sprayed over his tag with “X3” in blue letters.

The new tag has connections with the Sureños, an Hispanic street gang.

“Mavik is saying ‘I’m cool,’ and X3 is saying, ‘No, you’re not,’” Toner says. “This is where it starts to become a battle of sorts.”


Exploring the splash of graffiti under the Bendigo Boulevard bridge, North Bend Police Chief Mark Toner has been keeping tabs on the increasing work of taggers—some using gang symbols—in the community. He says locals should be aware of graffiti’s growth.

GraffitiErasing

Writing on the wall

‘Writing on the wall’ is the first story in a two-part series looking at how Valley police are dealing with the persistent problem of graffiti and vandalism.

SEE GRAFFITI, 3

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In Pray’s 15 years on the job in the North Bend Parks Department, he’s caught his share of taggers, from 10-year-old boys to men in their 20s who should know better.

“It ranges from the good kids that you never have a prob-lem with to repeat offenders,” Pray said. “On occasion, grown boys.”

The city’s public bathrooms and both Torguson and EJ Roberts Parks are graffiti favor-ites, but Pray can’t find much logic to the vandalism.

“It can be anywhere at all—out on the skate park, or con-cealed inside the bathrooms,” he said. Power company-owned utility boxes get hit a lot. North Bend doesn’t own those, but it often ends up painting them.

“If we want the grounds to be kept up, we have to just get on it,” Pray said. Blatant, obvi-ous foul language is a priority target.

So far this year year, graffiti has been a nuisance. But past years have seen major spikes. In 2008, Mayor Ken Hearing called a town forum on the issue. Pray remembers con-

fronting serious graffiti prob-lems at downtown businesses and city water tanks—dozens of tags requiring hundreds of work-hours to remove.

“Right now, it’s quiet. Keep in mind that the weather hasn’t been great, and kids aren’t out of school—which increases things exponentially,” Pray said. “You’re not going to see it go anywhere but up, until school starts and the rain comes back.”

ConsequencesOn the night of March 19,

a small group of teens went wild with paint on Snoqualmie Ridge. Their tags marred the stairwell at the Ridge Fitness building, signs at Stillwater Bog interpretive center and covered much of the men’s room at Community Park with “SOG” tags in black, white, red and day-glo green. Police estimate the spree caused more than $2,000 in damage.

The damage was the latest visitation of a plague of van-dalism in Snoqualmie parks, bridges and signs in the last year.

Thanks to a report by a vigi-lant citizen, and police work with schools that led to a mark on a detention slip, police were

able to identify five of the teens involved. The city is now work-ing with juvenile court and the teens’ parents to right the wrongs through restitution and community service.

“The parents seem very cooperative,” Snoqualmie Police Captain Steve McCulley told the Record. “They want to make sure the right thing is done, and that kids understand there are consequences for their actions.”

The police, McCulley said, would rather see the teens stay out of the jail system, and cor-rect their behavior instead.

The graffiti arrest also gets

the word out: “If you do this, there are going to be conse-quences for your actions.”

Local responseNorth Bend Police Chief

Mark Toner wants to see a community response to graf-fiti—not just officially, but also by residents and business own-ers. He has considered an ordi-nance stressing prompt clean-up, but balks at putting all the responsibility on victims.

“It’s effective, but at the same time, it’s a double insult,” he said.

Toner would like to see a volunteer program in which graffiti can be reported and a quick-response team can quickly paint over it, free of charge, allowing the home- or

property-owner time to do a better job.

Toner asks parents to check out their children’s notebooks.

“When you drive through town and you see a specific script, look at your kids’ books. See if they have the same script on it,” he said.

McCulley said parents should be vigilant, and know where their teens are and who they’re hanging out with.

When Pray, the North Bend parks worker, spots those stealthy teens ducking him at Torguson Park, he calls the cops.

“We always tell people, if they see something, they need to tell us,” McCulley said. “Sometimes, there’s a hesitancy to call 911. That’s how you reach police.”

GRAFFITI FROM 1 “Parents...want to make sure

the right thing is done, and kids

understand there are consquences.”

Steve McCulley, Snoqualmie Police Captain

County weighs park tobacco ban

King County would join a growing list of local parks, hospitals and schools with policies for tobacco-free areas under a proposed ordinance, prohibiting tobacco use in the busiest areas of the county’s expansive parks system, being considered by the county council.

The proposed ordi-nance would mean visitors to county parks could no longer use tobacco in heavily-used park areas such as chil-dren’s playgrounds, ath-letic fields, picnic shel-ters and trailheads.


INDEXVALLEY VIEWS 4 PARENTING 11MOVIE TIMES 12PUZZLES 12 ON THE SCANNER 13 CLASSIFIED ADS 14 OBITUARIES 15

Vol. 97, No. 27

BUSI

NESS Business brings

food, flowers and one special toad together Page 5

SPOR

TS North Bend has a world champ in teen power lifter Page 6

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS



North Bend’s Mountain Film Festival eyes local vistasBY SETH TRUSCOTT

Editor

For three years, the North Bend Mountain Film Festival has brought international perspectives on the great out-doors to the big screen.

This fall, Valley film-

makers get their moment in the limelight at North Bend Theatre as part of the Outdoor Amateur Film Challenge. Filmmakers were invited to submit 15-minute, PG-rated outdoor films to the challenge this fall. The

winning film and other run-ners-up will be played at the festival, which begins Sunday, Dec. 5 with showings of “Eye Trip” and “Revolver,” and culminates with the Banff Mountain Film Festival, Dec. 8 and 9.

To Martin Volken, owner of Pro Ski Guiding Service, the festival is a major coup for North Bend.

“It’s part of the plan to make the North Bend community be what we’re saying we are,” Volken said. “We want to be

an authentic town that cares about the outdoors.”

The film challenge prize includes four tickets to the North Bend Banff Film Festival. The top three films will be featured on the city’s website.


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Master hunters David Wyrick and Steve Perry eye surroundings from the Scott farm near the Snoqualmie River’s Three Forks. Wyrick, of Carnation, and Perry, of Snohomish, are among nine hunters authorized to kill elk this winter by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. A special season runs through March and is meant to increase the local herd’s aversion to humans while slowing its growth.

North Bend man, 31, slashed across chest

By Valley Record Staff

A 31-year-old North Bend man was treated for stab wounds, report-edly inflicted by his 30-year-old brother Monday afternoon in a parking lot in the 42900 block of Southeast North Bend Way.

A witness called police at 1:10 p.m. to report the incident. The two brothers had been arguing when the younger one pulled out a folding knife and slashed the older brother, leaving a six-inch-long cut in the victim’s chest.

King County Sheriff ’s Deputies throughout the Snoqualmie Valley responded to the call within three minutes, and began processing the crime scene. Eastside Fire & Rescue treated the victim on-site and trans-ported him to Overlake Hospital.

The seven deputies on the scene interviewed witnesses and tracked the suspect to a heavily wooded area about 200 yards from the crime scene. The man was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for assault, first degree. Bail has not been set.

The Sheriff ’s Office Major Crimes Unit will refer charges to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

Brother arrested in parking lot stabbing

In special season, master hunters aim to decrease elk-human interaction


Dusk fell quietly as David Wyrick and Steve Perry took their positions inside the barn and readied their rifles. Motionless, without speaking, the men settled in their darkened blind, waiting for the perfect moment to make a kill.

Both men are master hunters, allowed to kill one cow elk this fall in a culling project approved by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Their vantage point, a cow shed near the Snoqualmie River’s Three Forks, allowed them a view onto a nearby pas-ture. Mist-wreathed trees in the distance marked the extent of their kill zone. The men only had a hundred yards or so to make a safe shot, and as master hunters, that is the only one they are allowed to take.

Hunting to save the herd

SEE HUNT, 2

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“If there is any question about it, you don’t have a shot,” said Perry, a Carnation resident and master hunter of eight years. “Our number one thing here is safe-ty, and relations with landowners and neighbors. We’re in their back yard.”

Earlier, North Bend resident and Master Hunter Coordinator Jim Gildersleeve met with the hunters to show them the lay of the land and how to do their job safely.

“It’s important that they understand this area,” said Gildersleeve, who works with hunters to find permitted, private sites.

At the Scott farm at Three Forks, Gildersleeve explained how topogra-phy and a nearby road defined safe and unsafe shooting lines. From the barn, the men had an ideal view. Poised to waylay passing elk, the hunters were aiming downhill; any missed shot would pass harmlessly into the earth.

This year, hunters have been autho-rized to kill 42 cows, with master hunters receiving 25 permits. So far, nine elk cows have been killed.

Gildersleeve is expecting a good sea-son, and the Scott property is a good place for a hunter to hide. The ripar-ian habitat is prime elk country, but the animals don’t respect property boundar-ies, leading to increased run-ins with residents and property owners. This fall, Nursery at Mount Si owner Nels Melgaard canceled autumn activities and closed his pumpkin patch because a noc-turnal herd had destroyed the field.

When combined with accidents, pre-dation and natural causes, the hunt is believed to keep the Valley herd stable in size, more spread out and more averse to human beings.

“The goal right now is to keep it level,” said Gildersleeve. A major study of elk habits and numbers is underway, and a constant population will help in getting that data, he said.

Elk have overbrowsed the Valley floor, Gildersleeve said.

“If we don’t keep the numbers under control, we’re going to have significant die-off, especially in a hard winter,” he said.

Hunted for the first time last year, the herd has already become more wary of humans.

“That’s a good thing,” Gildersleeve said. “That keeps the distance between the humans and the animals, and mini-mizes a lot of problems.”

Hunters must dress in orange, and hunt in permitted areas. They cannot shoot in city limits or a number of rural no-shooting areas. Meadowbrook farm elk are protected by custom.

Only cow elk are hunted. Individual property owners may relax some rules or make them more stringent, at their preference. The special season runs from August 1 through March 31.

Sometimes, residents contact law enforcement when they hear shots after the close of the regular season.

“People thought we were hunting illegally,” Gildersleeve said. “We’re doing

something that is legal and, we believe, in the best interest of the elk herd.”

Gildersleeve has advised some agen-cies of the harvest, but police visits some-times take a while to straighten out.

With the regular season over as of last Tuesday, he hopes to make the public aware of the project.

The special elk hunt can be cold, tir-ing work, but Wyrick, Perry and fellow hunter Fred Valenta, also of Carnation, are in their element.

On Monday afternoon, a snow-dusted Valenta emerged from the brush to greet his fellows.

“I love the snow,” said Valenta. The ground cover helps him see and track animals. “It’s more enjoyable to be out. You’ve just got to dress for the occasion.”

“You have to really man up,” Perry said. “It’s a test.”

Hunting offers a pursuit diametrically opposite from Perry’s workaday life. He became a master hunter to avoid oth-erwise-crowded public hunting venues, and enjoys the solitude of the pastime.

“You get to do a little soul searching, a little processing that you can never do at home,” he said. “When you’re out here by yourself, that’s a good day—whether you harvest anything or not.”

• When the special hunting season ends, the Upper Snoqualmie Valley Elk Management Group will resume its col-laring project, participating with local students. Sponsors are sought to partici-pate. Learn more at snoqualmievalleyelk.org.

Plane flip under investigationA single-engine plane flipped on its top in a landing

accident Sunday afternoon, Nov. 28, at the Bandera State Airport near Snoqualmie. No one was injured in the acci-dent, the King County Sheriff ’s Office reported.

The pilot, a 53 year-old Kirkland man, was flying the A-1b Aviat Husky airplane alone. The runway had about three feet of snow on it, but the pilot explained to authori-ties that he’d successfully landed on snow in the past and decided to try it. The wheels of the landing gear sank into the snow and caused the plane to flip upside down.

Sheriff ’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart said the Federal Aviation Administration was alerted about the incident and has taken over the investigation.

School to host bond info meetingsThe Snoqualmie Valley School District will host three

informational meetings about the February 2011 school bond proposition, starting next week. The public is wel-come to the meetings, all scheduled at Twin Falls Middle School, 46910 S.E. Middle Fork Road in North Bend, to learn and ask questions about the planned improvements to various district buildings.

Meetings will be Tuesday, Dec. 7, from 7 to 8 p.m., and Wednesday, Dec. 8, from noon to 1 p.m. A third meet-ing will be conducted online. Participants can watch the e-meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15. To attend the online meeting, visit the school district’s website (www.svsd410.org) and then click the E-meeting icon. Log in a few minutes before the presentation starts.

All of the meetings will include the same presentation.

Transition group looks at barterTransition Snoqualmie Valley will explore a local barter

exchange program at its “Potluck with a Purpose,” 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at the Carnation Tree Farm Loft.

Visitors can meet Francis Ayley of Fourth Corner Exchange and learn about a complementary currency option in its fourth year of operation.

To learn more, e-mail to [email protected].

HUNT FROM 1

WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM Snoqualmie Valley Record • September 12, 2012 • 9

In Brief

IGNITE Dance & Yoga grows skills, health and

friendships in first two years

After 10 years of traveling the world working as a professional danc-er for Holland America Cruise

Line, and stints in California and Las Vegas, Katie Black decided she was ready for more. She pursued yoga training, getting certified though the world-recognized Yoga Alliance. Katie was ready for a new start. All she needed to do was find her roots.

It turned out that Black’s roots were wait-ing to grow right here in North Bend. Not long after opening the doors of her first business, IGNITE Dance & Yoga, two years

ago this month, Katie knew she had made the right choice.

Bold stepsOn any given day, IGNITE’s four class-

rooms are filled with students, young and old alike, learning new skills for life, staying fit and building friendships. It’s those friend-ships, those relationships, that led Katie to start this business in September of 2010. Connections between dancers, instructors, friends and neighbors are what have made IGNITE a success, and as it enters its third year, the studio continues to grow, Katie’s bold vision leading the way.

From those first days in 2010, when Katie and her family members ran the busi-ness and taught the classes, IGNITE has grown to nearly 30 instructors, together teach-ing more than 160 classes for adults and children every week

IGNITE offers dance and yoga classes for all ages, from young children to seniors. Beginning with the youngest students, there is the Spark! preschool enrichment program, and classes for youth including creative movement, ballet and tap, tumbling, boys’ break-danc-

ing, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, musical theatre, acro (tumbling), and contemporary. Youth dance gives young people focus, strength and flexibility. Katie relates the story of

one boy, Max, whose amaz-ing acro and yoga class skills helped him make big plays on the baseball diamond, and had his buddies start signing up.

Adults can take part in sev-eral varieties of yoga, includ-ing, hot, warm, gentle, prena-tal, Vinyasa and introductory classes, as well as monthly yoga workshops. Yoga has positively impacted all ages at IGNITE. Students have benefited from not only the

physical demands of yoga, but also the emo-tional and mental challenges, helping with patience and stress reduction.

Community strong

Staff Photo

Dancers, from tykes to teens to adults, gather at IGNITE Dance & Yoga’s studio in North Bend. The studio has grown dramatically since opening its doors in 2010, and today holds hundreds of classes weekly, such as yoga instruction, below.

Life, motion and friendship

A Snoqualmie Valley Record Business Profile | Advertisement September 2012

SEE IGNITE, 10

“I realized how important

relationships are to me—seeing kids grow as

dancers.”Katie Black,

IGNITE Dance & Yoga owner

VALLEY PROFILE

WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM10 • September 12, 2012 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

Zumba, a fast-moving, dance-cen-tric workout, along with ballet, tap and Broadway-style dance classes are offered. Adults and teens explore act-ing concepts in an improv class.

In its first two years, the studio greatly expanded, from two dance rooms to three rooms to, this fall, four. The latest addition is the private, quiet, yoga “oasis,” a space for 25 people to practice. The new addition, which has its own landscaping, park-ing and entrance, gives IGNITE new visibility on the city’s main street, and Katie is understandably proud of it.

Katie believes IGNITE has a differ-ent feel from most studios, and that her students can sense this.

“It’s a community spirit,” she says. “My mission is to have a place where people can be themselves in a non-pretentious environment. Where people can really thrive and work to their fullest potential and feel like they have a family that supports them.”

It’s not about who’s the best dancer. Small stuff isn’t sweated.

“There’s no anxiety when you come in to take a class,” Katie says. “It’s down-to-earth, real people with incredible instruction.”

Big changeVisits to her family in Snoqualmie

led Katie to try teaching classes on the Eastside. When her students’ parents began to request that she stay, the seeds of IGNITE were planted.

“I had traveled nationally, taught master classes, but you don’t see those kids improve every week,” she said. “I realized how important those rela-tionships were to me—seeing the kids grow as dancers, being stable in their lives, being someone they could rely on.”

After two years of success, Katie smiles, and tears up, as she thinks about what the community support has meant for her.

“I love it so much,” she says. “Life has changed a lot. It’s so good. So good.”

The balanceThe different faces of IGNITE—

children’s classes, adult dance, yoga and competition teams—all inter-twine. Dance and yoga encompass the whole family, and there is something for everyone.

For her staff, there are high expecta-tions, but teachers rise to them. Katie emphasizes communication: “Making sure that we connect and that we have similar goals. I trust every single per-son that works here. We keep it healthy and happy.”

That welcoming feeling extends outside the exercise room. There is always a friendly face to answer ques-tions at the front desk.

Katie has also improved much of the building, from expansion to landscaping to customizing the top quality sprung dance floors—which are husband Gavin’s Black’s specialty, designed for less impact—and fewer aches—in the dancers’ legs.

Katie isn’t hesitant to try new ideas—as long as they fit into her vision of

helping her customers, students and families have a better experience.

Competition teamsIGNITE gives its youth dancers the

opportunity to earn their spot on trav-eling competition teams, and shows their moves at regional and national events.

Starting with 20 children and teens in the first year, in 2012 there were 90 youths who came to audition, which amazed Katie.

Not everyone makes it, but the opportunity helps every student move toward their potential. Competition team members take advanced classes, bond as a team, and practice extra, simply for their love of dance and commitment to each other. The teams,

like other classes at IGNITE, lead to lifetime friendships.

When classes are fun, families can be deeply involved. Katie points out the annual Dads’ Dance, which is held for every youth recital. Students’ fathers perform a dance all their own, getting in on the fun. In 2011, they were the “Blues Brothers.” This year was the dance of the “Disco Dads.”

“When dance is your passion, and you’re serious about it, it becomes your family,” Katie says. “It’s about more than classes. It’s about relationships.”

• IGNITE is located at 472 East North Bend Way. Learn more about classes or sign up at www.ignitedance-andyoga.com, call (425) 292-9880, or e-mail to [email protected].

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IGNITE FROM 9 Yoga Oasis opensIGNITE Dance & Yoga holds a special grand opening for its new Yoga Oasis, all day Sunday, Sept. 16.There will be live music, massage demos, lots of giveaways and prizes, and other special events.For the open house, the studio is partner-ing with Pioneer Coffee, QFC, Emerald City Smoothie, Birches Habitat, George’s Bakery, The Valley Theatre, Selah Gifts, and North Bend Bar and Grill. It’s a great opportunity to find out what the studio has to offer for your family.

Courtesy photos

Children can learn movement and exercise skills for life while taking classes, such as acrobatics, above, at IGNITE Dance and Yoga. The youth competition team, at right, showcase their advanced moves in regional and national showcases.

McGowan, Shaw to wed

Lawrence J. and Suzanne D. McGowan of Stevensville, Mont., announce the engage-ment of their daughter Natalie Suzanne McGowan, to Liam David Shaw, son of William G. A. Shaw and Mary Beth Haggerty-Shaw of Issaquah.

The couple will be piped and fiddled into matrimony at a September 15 wedding by Scottish bagpiper Andrew Taylor and Irish violinist Brendon Haggerty. The cel-ebration will take place at the

engaged couple’s residence in Horse Canyon outside of Cle Elum. Officicants will be McGowan’s uncle Jeffrey Harrison and Shaw’s father William.

McGowan graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Montana State University and is an equine nutrition con-sultant with CHS Nutrition. Shaw graduated from Central Washington University with a geography degree and is a terri-tory manager at New Zealand- based Gallagher Animal Management Solutions, Inc. The Shaws plan to live in Cle Elum with their growing menagerie of cattle, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.

The couple would like to thank their parents for their love and support and for their respective 29 and 30 years of marriage—great examples to set for a long and happy union.


INDEXOPINION 4 LETTERS 5BACK TO SCHOOL 6 LEGAL NOTICES 12 CLASSIFIEDS 13,14CALENDAR 15

Vol. 98, No. 15

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS



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610 E. North Bend Way • North Bend • 425.831.6300

Garbage footprint evolving as contracts go up for grabs

BY SETH TRUSCOTT AND CAROL LADWIG

The hydraulic arm lifts the plas-tic bin up into the air, dumps the

aromatic contents and then sends it back down to the ground in sec-onds with smooth motion.

But inside the cab, driver Rod Holmes, along with the rest of his 50,000-pound garbage truck, is wobbled like a kayak in a gale by the power of that arm.

“It takes a lot of getting used to,” admits Holmes, a 15-year Allied Waste collector—don’t call him a garbage man—and five-year vet-eran on the yard waste route in the Snoqualmie Valley.

Fall City man rescues rafter, suffers heart attackBY CAROL LADWIG

Staff Reporter

Russell Holl of Fall City had a back-breaking week. His schedule so far has been as follows: Sunday, Aug. 28, save a woman from drowning in a rafting accident; Monday, rush to hospital with a heart attack; Tuesday, more hospital; Wednesday, come home with a new stent in the chest.

“It was a little more excitement than I planned on,” said the 45 year-old last Thursday, Sept. 1, after admitting he was still a little woozy from the past week.

Holl had just been planning on a sunny float down the Snoqualmie River Sunday, with some friends and neigh-bors from the Snoqualmie RV Park and Campground.

With 20 acres in North Bend, board has home for new

Youth Activity CenterBY CAROL LADWIG

Staff Reporter

It’s a good thing Bryan Zemp built his Eagle Scout project to last. The 25- year-old sign announcing the future site of the Snoqualmie Valley Youth Activity Center has been installed again this week on Boalch Avenue in North Bend, across from Encompass. Ty Powers restored the sign last year for his own Eagle project, making it a symbol of what the YAC Board of Directors hopes the center will be.

“We really want to emphasize the multi-generational aspect of the cen-ter,” said board member Jim Green, who is excited to get the YAC “back on the map.”

The center has been closed since March of 2008, when the building it then occupied on Bendigo Boulevard, was flooded with sewage from North Bend’s nearby water treatment plant. Youth groups that relied on the cen-ter, mainly Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the Venturing Crew, have been meeting in other facilities over the years, and focusing more on outdoor activities.

“It kind of disappeared for a few years,” Green said of the center.

Board members were working all along, though, to settle the issue of the old building with the city of North Bend, and to buy new property for a new, bigger center to accommodate the expanding club sizes. In 2010, the city of North Bend bought the prop-erty from the YAC for $425,000, and earlier this year, the board purchased a 20-acre site on Boalch Avenue for about $225,000.

SEE YAC, 5

Scouts find room to grow

Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Friends Lisa Sweet, left, and Russell Holl sit at the Snoqualmie River RV Park and Campground. Holl and his neighbors saved a young woman from a river accident in August; he suffered a heart attack the following day.SEE RESCUE, 3

Hero Sunday, hospitalized Monday

Transforming the trash


Working a weekly route on Snoqualmie Ridge, Allied Waste collector Rod Holmes handles all yard debris collection in North Bend and Snoqualmie—and is proud of his role. Garbage contracts in the Valley are up for renewal starting this fall.

SEE TRASH, 11

www.valleyrecord.com Snoqualmie Valley Record • September 7, 2011 • 11

“It has to have that kick,” he explains. “It has to have a lot of power to shake out all that stuff out of there, so... when the customer comes home, they’re not giving us a call.”

Holmes’ eight-hour shift—two days a week in North Bend, three days a week in Snoqualmie, collecting thou-sands of green yard waste bins, dumping them, coming back for more—is full of shakes, wobbles, beeps, hisses and funny smells. But it’s also sur-prisingly full of human contact.

Like all Allied Waste collec-tors, Holmes drives solo. But he gets to know many residents—most Valley folk are great, he says—parents, children and pets.

“I even have dog treats for my dogs out here,” he said, pull-ing out a bag of bacon-flavored Canine Carry-Outs. “I meet about five a day.”

Pointing to a passing golden Lab making his own rounds on Kendall Peak Street on Snoqualmie Ridge, “I already hooked him up,” Holmes said.

As Allied Waste’s sole yard waste collector in the Valley, Holmes works under the com-pany’s contracts with North Bend and Snoqualmie. Those contracts are up for renewal this year, and city officials are negotiating new terms begin-ning in 2012, hoping to expand options and lower the local eco-logical footprint.

Trash pictureSolid waste in Snoqualmie,

North Bend, Fall City, Preston and the surrounding county is picked up by Allied Waste. In Carnation and parts north, garbage is picked up by Waste Management. Together, Waste Management and Allied Waste are the first and second largest haulers in the United States, commanding roughly a $20 billion share of the industry.

In Snoqualmie and North Bend, trucks hit the streets sev-eral days a week for eight-and-a-half-hour shifts.

In some cities, they’re on the road as early as 6 a.m.; in most, it’s 7 a.m., though, for school-children’s safety as well as noise reasons.

Three different kinds of trucks make the rounds. Some are specifically garbage, others recycling, still others solely yard waste, like Holmes.

Recyclers deliver to Allied’s high-tech Materials Recovery Facility in Seattle. Yard waste trucks deliver to the Cedar Grove Composting facility at Maple Valley. All garbage from the Valley is trucked to the county’s Cedar Hills landfill, dumped by the hauler for $95 a ton.

The 920,000-acre landfill takes in about 800,000 tons of trash a year, or 2,200 tons a day—all of the garbage gener-

ated from across the county, except Seattle and Milton. The landfill is expected to fill up after 2024.

County residents may self-haul, but city residents can’t move in without signing up for garbage service: “Not an option,” said Dan Marcinko, Snoqualmie Public Works director.

Collection is mandatory for homes, apartments and busi-nesses in city limits, “meaning you have to use the contractor we’re using,” Marcinko said.

Recycling is included in the rate, typically about $45 for a single family residence, which can be reduced for low-income residents or seniors.

Snoqualmie’s contract could be sweetened as part of the bid process. Proposals are due Wednesday, Sept. 7. A final-ist will be selected by October, council action will come in December, and the new con-tract comes online next June.

With contracts coming up only periodically, this is the time for competition among haulers for trash dollars.

“When you go through a competitive process, you have the opportunity to get the mar-ket price on things,” said Jeff Brown, a private trash contract consultant to the city.

Thanks to the recession, the marketplace has changed. Prices are lower and contrac-tors are hungrier for hauling accounts; there are more haul-ers in the mix, and a wider, bet-ter variety of recycling options and tech.

Mayor Matt Larson wants the city’s next solid waste con-tract to allow as much flexibil-ity as possible to adapt to new discoveries.

“One of the areas most lack-ing in our current contract is the ability to separate food waste for our commercial and

retail customers,” Larson said. “Local restaurants, schools, (The) Salish, TPC, etc., do not have the option to separate their food waste, which repre-sents a majority of their waste streams. I hope that new tech-nologies... will offer solutions to such problems. We wish to be sure that we can take full advantage if and when the opportunity arrives.”

Allied’s waste options have evolved in the course of the contract. The company most recently expanded a food waste program: Residents can now dump egg cartons, rinds and scraps into their yard bins.

“When I started here, March of 2009, you couldn’t do it,” Marcinko said. “Now you can. They’ve done a great job of adding, of allowing the city to make changes.”

Sole provider?Two contract companies

serve North Bend, each with its own franchise area. Allied Waste Management col-lects trash, recycling and yard waste from most North Bend residents, while Kent-Meridian Disposal has three separate contracts to serve the recently annexed Maloney Grove, Stilson, and Tanner neighbor-hoods of the city.

The city’s contract with Allied expires in 2012, but the North Bend City Council last month approved a 10-year extension of Kent-Meridian’s contract. By this extension, the council was able to avoid paying damages to Kent-Meridian for the loss of its franchise, as state law dictates. However, the city still has to manage multiple contracts.

City Administrator Duncan Wilson said Allied has request-ed that the city delay calling for bids on a new contract. The city agreed, and has begun negoti-ating with Allied on a possible

future contract. “We wanted to investigate

a way to bring all those con-tracts under one entity,” Wilson explained. Since the company is part-owner of Kent-Meridian, “Allied might buy out the con-tract,” he said.

Whatever provider wins the 2012 contract, the city wants a few changes from its current service level. Some possibilities are increased yard waste col-lection, now every other week, and lower rates for residents and businesses.

The monthly charge for the lowest volume of collection at a business in North Bend is $120, $198 outside city limits “...so you can see there’s a serious savings in the city,” Wilson said. “Allied has told us it’s feasible for them to buy out the (Kent-Meridian) contract and effectu-ate some savings.”

However, if the city and Allied can’t agree on terms, the city still has time to seek bids from other haulers.

Old landfillCarnation used to manage

its own waste stream, with a city truck and a couple of employees making the weekly rounds. That system worked for more than 50 years, City Manager Ken Carter estimat-ed, since the city had its own landfill.

“I think it wasn’t a land-fill like we think of a landfill today,” said Carter, who’s been with the city for about two years. “It was the old, old city dump.”

The landfill closed in 1989, and the city now contracts with Waste Management for trash collection, recycling and yard waste services. The current franchise agreement expires next year, and although the City Council hasn’t begun dis-cussing its options, Carter has

already been thinking about them.

“There is a big hole in our current agreement regarding commercial solid waste recy-cling,” Carter said. Without specific provisions for com-mercial recycling, “For a com-mercial business to recycle, doesn’t save them anything.”

Carter is also hoping to negotiate a spring cleaning day into the city’s next agreement, allowing people to dispose of large items at no extra cost on this day. Better rates are also always a goal, Carter said.

“On the whole, Waste Management does a pretty good job... but that doesn’t mean the council won’t want to explore other options.”

Among its other options are contracts with Allied Waste, or Cleanscapes, a newer contrac-tor that contacted Carter in mid-August.

Carnation’s current agree-ment with Waste Management is a franchise fee model, in which the city gets free collec-tion in return for the franchise, plus 5 percent of the contrac-tor’s receipts from residents and businesses in the city. Last year, that brought in about $50,000 for the city, after util-ity taxes.

That revenue almost cov-ers the annual cost of moni-toring the city’s closed landfill, which was $57,000 in 2010. Monitoring requirements from King County and the State Department of Ecology are for four periodic tests of the site each year, to check for methane production, settling of materi-als, or any movement in the landfill. The landfill has had some of these issues, but the periodic test results have been identical recently, so the city has received permission to test the site only twice in 2011, for an estimated cost of $48,000.

Dirty jobWaste collectors like Rod

Holmes have seen their indus-try change from the inside. Five years ago, Allied Waste did away with the last of the two-person pick-up teams. For safety reasons, all drivers go solo, using the robot arms to pick up bins.

Haulers are also embracing green tech in the truck fleet. Half of Allied’s 88 Eastside trucks are now powered by compressed natural gas; Replacing one truck is the equivalent of taking 325 cars off the road.

When the old rear-loaders went away, Holmes swore he wouldn’t change. But when they gave him one of the new hydraulic trucks, he quickly got on board. They couldn’t pry it from him now, he says, and he doesn’t mind driving solo.

There’s his name, decaled on the doors.

“For eight hours, it’s my truck,” he says. “The owner-ship is me operating the truck safely, educating the public.” Holmes not only meets cus-tomers on his route, but makes pitches for recycling on radio.

Holmes thinks constantly about safety, and warns fami-lies to keep children away from the bins. He often makes a personal connection, getting to know the people he serves.

“There are people who are truly grateful,” Holmes said. “Most people follow the rules. I’ve had some pretty good run-ins out here. Except for that deer.”

Holmes loves the reality of his job, and says he’s passed up desk jobs to stay on the road.

“I’m glad to be a part of it,” he said, proud of being a collector. “We are totally the opposite of the stigma that is garbage.”

TRASH FROM 1

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WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM Snoqualmie Valley Record • September 26, 2012 • 9

Hard work delivers as Mount Si boys golfers ramp up seasonBY SETH TRUSCOTT

Editor

Alex Nelson’s drives cleaved through the warm air of one of the last days of summers. His putts all hit their mark.

The Mount Si freshman had a golden day on his first varsity tournament, co-medaling with fellow ‘Cat Sebastian Gant at home.

“I was just taking my time, doing what I normally do,” Nelson said of his game. He’s at home on the course, and like the rest of the varsity squad, is only beginning. Mount Si won their first league match of the season, Monday, Sept. 17, against Juanita. Gant and Nelson went two under par with scores of 38 on nine holes.

Senior Jake Archambeau shot 39, junior Marcus Deichman and sophomores Mac Smith and Reed Pattenaude hit 41s, and Tanner Simpson had a score of 43. Junior Dylan Savage shot 44, sophomore Sam Young shot 45, and junior Duncan Kelly shot 46.

Mount Si won, 197 to 217.Boys squad members practice on weekends and

extra in the afternoons. A goal of head coach Brandon Proudfoot’s youth program was to instill the need to golf on their own. Now, that emphasis on play is paying off.

“Their scores from the beginning of the season have dropped so much as a team,” Proudfoot said. “This team has worked harder on their own than I’ve seen any other team, boys or girls, to date,” in his three years as coach.

“It’s been amazing,” he added.On Monday, Gant hit three birdies, five bogies and one par, on hole 12, the

par-five longest hole in the course.Archambeau was proud to have tied with the number-one high school golfer

in Washington, Juanita’s Frank Garber.“If you do that, it’s a good day,” he said.In the top four, Gant is shaping up as Mount Si’s top player, followed by

Pattenaude and Archambeau. Deichman was on junior varsity last year, and has found his footing as Mount Si’s most consistent player.

Nelson shot even par in a preseason match, and is looking very promising.• The Wildcats host Lake Washington this Thursday, Sept. 27.

Help groups with golf tourneyTee-off for Valley Health, a golf

tournament coming to Mount Si Golf Course in Snoqualmie

Sept. 28, will benefit three local groups working to sup-

port the health and well-being of citizens in the Valley. The Snoqualmie Valley Hospital

Foundation, Mount Si Senior Center and Sno-Valley Senior Center are all beneficiaries of

the 18-hole tournament. The tournament is open to

men and women, with a shot-gun start at 8:30 a.m. Team

prizes will be awarded for first, second and third-place teams,

and individual prizes will be awarded for Closest to the Pin,

Longest Drive, and Longest Putt made. Lunch will be

served after the tournament. Cost is $125, for individuals, or

$500 for teams of four. To secure a spot in the tourna-

ment, sponsor a portion of it, or for any questions, contact BJ

Libby, Executive Director, Mt. Si Senior Center, at [email protected], or by calling (425)

888-3434.

Folkstyle sign-ups at

Wrestling ClubSnoqualmie Valley Wrestling

Club is readying for its folk-style season, which begins

Oct. 22.Three groups, ages 4 to 6, and

novice and advanced ages 6 to 14, wrestle at gyms in the

Valley.Wrestling fundamentals and

skills are taught, and wrestlers have the opportunity to take

part in tournaments.Fees range from $80 to $175.

No previous experience is necessary. To learn more, visit

http://www.siviewpark.org/wrestling.phtml.

SPOR

TSSN

OQUA

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VAL

LEY The big payoff

SEBASTIAN GANT


Taylor Herro, Lexi Read, Anna McCreadie and Lauren Smith eyeball an incoming hit by Bellevue during play Thursday, Sept. 20.


Wildcat freshman Alex Nelson drives on hole 13 of the Mount Si Golf Course on Sept. 17. He co-medaled with Sebastian Gant.

Right on timeMount Si hitters deliver, grow against Bellevue, Mercer

From her post as setter, senior team captain Lauren Smith was in a good position to actively watch as teammates on the Mount Si varsity volleyball team delivered a domination of the Bellevue Wolverines at home on Thursday evening, Sept. 20.

From Smith’s perspective, Mount Si’s four middle blockers—Haley Groth, Taylor Herro, Katelyn Hoydal, Haley Holmberg—were every-where, on time that night, doing what they needed to do.

Mount Si’s strengths of communication and timing were evident in their first set, a 25-13 win. The edge allowed head coach Bonnie Foote to play some younger athletes and grow depth, before the Wildcats

start to face stronger competition later in the season.

Sophomore Jen Rogers was called up from junior varsity to suit up as a server.

“I got one ace, which is better than I was hoping,” she said. “I was hoping to get them all over.”

Mount Si finished things, 25-16, 25-21.“We played really well as a team tonight,” said

outside hitter Anna McCreadie. She is happy “just knowing I did my best and swung hard.”

Fellow hitter Lindsay Carr said her team-mates terminated well on the night. The hitters showed strong communication in calling their shots, and follow-through in raining balls down on Bellevue.

Smith, a co-captain, delivered 22 assists on the night; she said she is nothing without her teammates.

Rogers praised the group’s ability to com-municate.

“We’re all really close,” she said.Mount Si is now 5-0 overall.Mount Si went on to beat Mercer Island on

Sept. 24 in five sets, 23-25, 25-18, 25-18, 15-25, 15-12. They play Thursday, Sept. 27, at Liberty.

Game time is 7 p.m.LINDSAY CARR

After four-year push, Snoqualmie Valley vet’s memorial ready for dedication


There are only six words in the inscription. “The Dubey Family honors Jack Dubey.”

But Cristy Lake, assistant director at the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum, knows the whole story behind the words on the brick paver. As clerk for the Snoqualmie Valley

Veteran’s Memorial, Lake takes orders for the $100 memorial bricks, sales of which fund the memorial project. In the process, she hears or reads the stories behind the bricks.

She learned Jack Dubey’s story from his broth-er, Neil, a Snoqualmie resident. The two men served in the U.S. Merchant Marine together during World War II. Neil met his sailor brother by chance on the street twice in the two weeks before Jack’s ship was torpedoed off the Atlantic coast.


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Storiesin stone

Man in brimmed hat, glasses entered homes near Preston, witnesses say


Neighbors of four homes that were burglar-ized the week of October 14 are working to help law enforcement capture the thief.

An artist’s sketch of the man who was seen breaking into one of the homes on High Point Way has been circulated throughout the area, and neighbors are urg-ing anyone who’s seen him to contact the King County Sheriff ’s Department.

The man, pictured in large glasses and a narrow-brimmed homburg hat, is believed to have robbed three homes.


Brian Gray of Mr. K’s Construction lays a row of brick pavers at the new Snoqualmie Valley Veteran’s Memorial. A plaza at the site includes personalized bricks with messages of remembrance and patriotism. The $40,000 monument connects all Valley communities and honors locals who died in service to their nation over more than a century. North Bend plans

attack on odorsCity explains distressing discharge


North Bend’s 50 year-old wastewater treat-ment plant is the source of complaints about ongoing unpleasant odors, and lately, concern over murky, foamy discharges into the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River.

Suspect sketched in High Point burglaries

Courtesy Photo

North Bend resident Bryan Townley used his cell phone to snap a photo of brownish waer discharging from a North Bend pipe on Sunday, Oct. 16. City officials say the water had been disinfected, but hadn’t had time for materials to settle out.

Courtesy photo

A King County Sheriff ’s Office artist sketched the likeness of a sus-pect in recent High Point burglaries.SEE SKETCH, 19

SEE WASTEWATER, 25

WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM4 • November 9, 2011 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

According to Lake, in one meeting, Jack asked Neil to go on board ship with him, but Neil turned him down.

“I had been at sea for five months, and had train fare home,” Neil wrote in a message to Lake. “By the time I got home, he had been torpedoed the second time. I was lucky, and served a little over four years at sea, and survived by luck.”

Neil turned 90 this year and is now in a rest home in Sammamish.

“It’s just because he loved his brother,” his wife, Donna, explained the brick message. “It was a nice donation.”

Time is nearBricks like those of Neil and Jack Dubey have been slid-

ing into place in the last few days at the Valley Veteran’s Memorial. The monument, which has cost $46,000 and taken about four years to fundraise and build, is nearing the moment of completion.

An official dedication is planned for 11:11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11. Congressman Dave Reichert, Washington’s ‘First Husband’ Mike Gregoire, State Rep. Jay Rodne and Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson have been invited to speak. Members of the Snoqualmie Tribe will also bless the occasion. All are invited.

A shy public speaker, Lake made the rounds at city councils recently, drumming up awareness and asking locals to attend the dedication.

“I appreciate all the sacrifices that our veterans have made,” she said. “I’m just so honored that I get to be part of helping honor them.”

Built beside the American Legion’s Renton-Pickering Post at 38625 S.E. River St., Snoqualmie, the project includes a legacy tree, lighted flagpoles, standing stones, a brick plaza, and, eventually, a carved memorial stone capped by a replica of Mount Si. Through its very stones, the project is meant to connect Valley communities and their legacy of service.

Stones from lost townsTen stones came from each Valley community—three

from the vanished towns of Edgewick, Snoqualmie Falls and Cedar Falls. Those stones were donated by former residents or those familiar with the lost towns.

Eventually, there will be bricks identifying the standing stones. Right now, you have to guess.

“They’re all different shapes and sizes,” Lake said. Representing Snoqualmie Falls, historian Dave Battey pulled one from his old farm.

One granite stone, the biggest, was donated by the Snoqualmie Tribe. The city of Snoqualmie’s stone once sat in the river. It appears to be a conglomerate of other stones, merged into one over time.

“It has cool green colors that shine when it’s wet,” Lake said.The irregular stone pieces for the flagpole wall were blasted from beneath Snoqualmie

Falls by Puget Sound Energy, and were a challenge to lay. The task of building them into a rock wall would normally be a pricey custom job, but Nolan Daley and other employ-ees of J&S Masonry put in the same effort as a paying job.

“It’s part of the heritage,” mason Nolan Daley said. “It’s nice to do something for the community. We’re happy to be here.”

The memorial’s central monument isn’t ready yet. Carvers at Quiring Monuments have donated a smaller stone as a stand-in. That stone looks similar, but will lay flat on the site.

“It’s quite close, and quite neat,” Lake said.Memorial boosters have raised about $43,000. Still needed is another $3,000. Lake

says it’s needed sooner rather than later. The Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum has fronted the money to the project, to be paid back by the memorial committee.

“The museum is covering it until we get the money,” Lake said. “But it’s also my bud-get for the museum.”

The best way for people to support the project is through donations and buying memorial bricks. The $100 bricks can memorialize the name and deeds of a friend or family member; those honored don’t need to be Valley residents to be included. Any message, including a simple one of patriotism, is welcome.

Major donors to the project include Mr. K’s Construction, J&S Masonry, Kunesh Landscaping, A&H Septic Systems, Bob’s Electric, Quantum Consulting Engineers, Miller Hall Partnerships, Big Trees, The Nursery at Mount Si, Lee Nursery and Fred’s Flowers. Stone was donated by Puget Sound Energy. Mutual Materials gave a 50 percent discount on bricks. Quiring Monuments donated a second monument.

“It’s been nice to see everyone’s support of the project,” Lake said. “It’s a tough eco-nomic time right now.”

• You can learn more about the memorial project or order a brick at http://www.sno-qualmievalleymuseum.org/veterans.html. Or, call Chris Chartier at (425) 888-9152 or by cell at (425) 802-5174.

Legacy treeThe newly planted Legacy Tree at the Snoqualmie Valley Veterans’ Memorial is special. It’s a Bloodgood sycamore, a cross between North American and Asian sycamores that is resistant to disease and to smog and other urban pollutants. The Veterans’ Memorial Legacy Tree is not the only memorial sycamore in the Snoqualmie Valley. Some time around 1925, sycamores were planted in front of each mill house in the Riverside neighborhood of the now vanished Weyerhaeuser mill town of Snoqualmie Falls— which lost at least seven young men in World War II. The houses are gone, but the sycamores live on as an offi-cially designated living King County Landmark.The tree was donated by Big Trees Supply of Snohomish.

DEDICATION FROM 1Veterans’ memorial, start to finishThe story of the Snoqualmie Valley Veterans’ Memorial begins with the individual memorials created by residents of several local communities in the years after the world wars.Some of those memorials still stand. Others have vanished. A group of historians, veterans and passionate community members began work five years ago for a new, central memorial in Snoqualmie. Fundraising efforts reached critical mass by spring of 2011, leading to the start of construction at the Renton-Pickering Post this summer. A dedication and celebration is planned for 11:11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11.

Veterans’ memorial, start to finishThe story of the Snoqualmie Valley Veterans’ Memorial begins with the individual memorials created by residents of several local communities in the years after the world wars.Some of those memorials still stand. Others have vanished. A group of historians, veterans and passionate community members began work five years ago for a new, central memorial in Snoqualmie. Fundraising efforts reached critical mass by spring of 2011, leading to the start of construction at the Renton-Pickering Post this summer. A dedication and celebration is planned for 11:11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11.

Among the vanished Valley memorials are the North Bend Service Roll, left, posted in front of the main grocery story at Bendigo Boulevard and North Bend Way in this 1945 photo by Harold Keller, and the employee service rolls at the Weyerhaeuser Mill, below. The new Snoqualmie Valley monument is meant to com-bine existing and vanished memorials into one.

Vanished memorials, 1945

A big crowd of veterans and civic officials ceremonially break ground on Veterans’ Day in 2008, spurring the initial campaign for a new Valley memorial. However, the oncoming national recession slowed donations and progress for a few years.

A new vision, 2008

Memorial backers were pleased to see new impetus and energy come into the project. By mid-2010, more than $30,000 in donations had been pledged to the project, with various busi-nesses and professionals put-ting in their efforts.

Back in motion, 2010

With enough money in hand, ground broke again in the summer of 2011. Construction ramped up this fall, and the new memorial should be almost fully complete in time for a grand dedication on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2011.

The earth moves, 2011

WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COMWWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM8 • December 28, 2011 • Snoqualmie Valley Record Snoqualmie Valley Record • December 28, 2011 • 9

Never a dull moment

Despite challenges, Valley changed, amazed in 2011Even in tough times, the Snoqualmie Valley never stag-

nates.While the past year has seen the marks of economic strug-

gle—shuttered storefronts, women praying for the survival of businesses—nothing ever stayed still or silent in 2011.

We saw ‘minor’ floods soak the Valley, future homes change hands on Snoqualmie Ridge, and the rise of medical marijuana in places like Preston’s Kind Alternative.

Construction of some long-awaited projects, like the new North Bend Fire Station, the Snoqualmie Community Center, or the Snoqualmie Valley Veteran’s Memorial, marked the year.

So did the advent of ‘adventure’ sports such as DirtFish Rally School driving, which drew big attention when annexation plans revved up this year, or major footraces like the Warrior Dash, which created gridlock and opportunity on North Bend streets.

And we met amazing people, from DuWayne Bailey, who writes more than 60 valentines to all the ladies and kids in his life, to Darby Summers, who risked his own life to save another in the cold waters of the Snoqualmie last June.

Revisit the year that was through these Valley Record photos.

SEE FULL STORY, MORE PHOTOS ONLINEwww.valleyrecord.com

Seth Truscott/Staff Photos, except where noted

Contestants emerge from the final Warrior Dash mud crawl on July 15, 2011. More than 24,000 participants tested themselves in a dirty, fiery obstacle course.

2011 Photo Year in Review

Top, in January, Jeff Groshell and son Trevor inspect the flooded entrance to their family’s golf course at Fall City. Groshell was surprised by fast flooding over the Martin Luther King Jr., holiday weekend.Above, in May, the Mount Si High School baseball team—from left, Trevor Taylor, Tim Proudfoot, coach Elliott Cribby and ballboy Ryan Jarchow—celebrates with the WIAA 3A state trophy. Mount Si won, 5-4, over Shorewood, Saturday, May 28, in Tacoma.Right, in April, driver Matthew Johnson digs up the final stretch of a Global RallyCross heat at Snoqualmie’s Old Mill Adventure Park. The race drew pro drivers, ESPN coverage—and a contentious annexation debate—to Snoqualmie.Below, in June, North Fork prop-erty owners Jan and Robert “Sully” Sullivan stand on the decaying Shake Mill Left Levee outside North Bend. The Sullivans watched as erosion steadily encroached on their home.

Above, in September, senior Chase Carlson holds the ball for junior Cameron Van Winkle during practice. Van Winkle, a junior and the varsity kicker since ninth grade, crushed Mount Si’s school field goal records. Below, praying for the prosperity of all Valley businesses, an informal women’s circle meets with North Bend café owner Kyle Twede in February. From left are Terri Mattison, Samantha Van Nyhuis, Twede, Jo Anderson, and Karen Nelson.


Above, in March, Dianna Mattoni lifts son Simon at a Snoqualmie story time. Snoqualmie has the highest youth population of any city in King County.Left, in June, North Fork hydropower proponent Thom Fischer spoke about plans for power plant and dam upriver from Ernie’s Grove.Above right, Snoqualmie Tribe member Jessy Lucas performs a blessing at the newly unveiled Snoqualmie Valley Veteran Memorial on Nov. 11.Right, penning 60 Valentine’s cards for friends, family and sweethearts, Snoqualmie’s DuWayne Bailey gets plenty of hugs in return.


King County dumping free Cedar Falls service

to cut the budgetBY CAROL LADWIG

Staff Reporter

Recycling is easy, for most people in the Valley. Plastic blue bins for depositing plastic, glass, paper, and metal are part of the landscape, anywhere you’d find a trash can, and every commercial trash hauler in the county will pick up recycling right off your curb, if you ask them to.

For the rest, recycling is not exactly hard—those who don’t get curbside col-lection can still haul their recyclables to a collection site—but it is about to get harder. King County will close its free recycling col-lection sites at most solid waste transfer stations on We d ne s d ay, Feb. 1, includ-ing North Bend’s Cedar Falls facility.


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Signs at the Cedar Falls Transfer Station in North Bend inform users of the impending closure of public recycle service.

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Moment of truth arrives for joint city-Y venture on Snoqualmie Ridge


Shoes have been kicked off and board games are on the table on this lazy January afternoon.

The trio of teens, Cali Rose, Ellie Miller and Allie Murphy, laugh as they play “Buzzword, then switch to “Apples to Apples.”

“That one made me think too much,” said Miller, who’d rather just hang out.

The atmosphere is relaxed, but these girls aren’t at home. They’re regulars at the teen center at the Snoqualmie Community Center and Valley YMCA, which quietly opened January 1 and with a grand-opening bang on Saturday, Jan. 21.

The three girls have been coming here since day one, dabbling in games and bouts of ping pong, but mostly coming to see each other.


Founding director of the new Snoqualmie Community Center and Y, Dave Mayer doesn’t hesitate to shoot a few hoops or engage visitors. Mayer is responsible for get-ting the center off to a strong start.

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WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM2 • January 18, 2012 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

“I get bored sometimes at home,” Rose said. Since mom doesn’t like her wander-ing Snoqualmie, she comes here, where the teens play under the supervision of YMCA teen program director Stacy Holdren.

The teen center is open to any youth in grades 6 to 10, regardless of whether they are Y members. While staffed by the YMCA, the teen area is part of the Snoqualmie Community Center, one of several facets where the Y and center blur together.

Breaking the moldThe new Snoqualmie Y breaks the mold

in several ways. It’s a joint city-Y ven-ture, reclaiming a YMCA legacy that last-ed for decades at the lost community of Snoqualmie Falls. It’s a community center within a Y—that’s why teens like Holdren’s card-playing trio can attend even if they aren’t members.

The boundaries between the Y and the community center are fuzzy, and there’s a reason for that, says Gwen Voelpel, parks director for the city of Snoqualmie.

“It’s been a growing-together process,” Voelpel said. “They’re one and the same.”

“So many words about what a community center means, is what the Y means as well,” said Dave Mayer, the founding director of the Snoqualmie Valley YMCA. “Our job is to create healthy lives. That’s what a com-munity center would be doing, too.”

Boosters say this place will change the Valley by becoming a gathering point, a local hub. The full name of the Y’s local identity is the “Snoqualmie Valley YMCA,” and it’s meant to live up to the name through Valley-spanning activities like the group hiking classes that start in February.

“They’re bigger than just the building,” Voelpel said.

With the city as building owner, the Y is the operator and maintainer of a master schedule, running center-specific programs like a teen center and a community meet-ing room. Reflecting that, at Snoqualmie, unlike other Ys, there is no gate to halt visi-tors at the reception desk.

Voelpel says the center is already a com-munity hub. On Friday, Jan. 6, 50 fami-lies camped on blankets and sleeping bags to watch a movie on the gym wall. Last Tuesday, 45 teens transformed the gym into a dodgeball battleground. Now, the Y’s after-school programs are converging here.

“When you see families coming together, see families meeting people that they some-how have never met before, it’s already fulfill-ing that vision… as a centerpiece,” Voelpel said. “I’m interested in seeing how that gives kids avenues to explore and grow.”

Cost and sizeThe path to a new center has led past three

failed votes. The $4 million, 13,000-square-foot center is a trimmed-down version of the vision put before Snoqualmie voters in 2002, 2006 and 2008. Those bond measures, which would have built a bigger center and pool, each time failed to garner a supermajor-ity vote. The city then voted to go it alone, choosing the YMCA as an operating partner and setting aside $950,000 of reserves for construction. Other funding came from the Snoqualmie Tribe, Ridge builders Quadrant, Murray Franklyn and Pulte, the Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Company, and from Puget Western.

Besides the initial donation, the tribe has made a $100,000 annual commitment from its mitigation and social services fund to pay for operations.

The Y has a goal of 900 membership units—individual, couple and family memberships—for its first year. Snoqualmie Valley YMCA had 418 units on Dec. 31, and about 520 today.

Here they comeMembership representative

Bre Fowler had her hands full Tuesday evening, scanning members while touting the facility to newcomers.

“Around 7 o’clock, we get a mad rush,” Fowler said. “It was going out the door. That was the craziest I’ve seen it.”

The most common ques-tion she answers: “What are the activities for 9-to-10-year-old kids?”

On Wednesday afternoon, youths and families steadily approach Fowler’s desk. Mount Si High School seniors Sean Ballsmith, Tyler Young and Dustin Dirks walked in to pick up applications. The boys live on the Ridge, and want to lift weights, work out and play basketball in the offseason.

In the next room, Snoqualmie Ridge residents Barry Ferner, who was lifting 25-pound hand weights, and Joel Erne, on the treadmill, both joined for family reasons. They switched gyms from Issaquah and Snoqualmie, respectively, and while both men said they’d prefer to see a bigger facility, they were sold on the variety of options for all ages.

“It’s something for everybody,” Ferner said.

Y programs are fluid right now, but will firm up soon. Mayer points to the comment card at the front desk as a way to fine-tune offerings.

“We’re encouraging as many comments as possible,” he said.

Coming togetherDuring a tour of the gym,

Mayer stopped for a moment to snatch a rolling basket-ball, then sunk a hoop on his first throw. His second went wide, though.

Self-described as “the bus-iest guy on the planet, having the time of my life,” Mayer has been balancing the act of getting the community center/Y up and running with face time, leading tours and meeting new members.

“Obviously, there are e-mails to go through, but I’d rather be out, walking around,” he said.

As the last clocks and coat-hooks go up, the completion of the long-anticipated vision sinks in. Mayer excitedly goes over the plans for the grand opening and beyond—unveiling of a large mobile statue out front, a future fire-warmed plaza outside—and points out the first commu-nity group, the Northwest Railway Museum board, now ranged along a table in the community activity room.

“What’s cool is seeing people come into the build-ing, so excited about what

they’re seeing,” Mayer said. “Seeing every-thing the community envisioned…it’s been cool to see that come into reality.”

• You can learn more about the Snoqualmie YMCA at www.seattleymca.org/Locations/Snoqualmie/Pages/Home.aspx. Valley residents who want to reserve the community room at the center should contact the Snoqualmie branch at (425) 256-3115.

Photo courtesy Puget Sound Energy

Above, Zumba instructor Kirsty Johnson leads fast moves in the gymnasium at the newly opened Snoqualmie Valley YMCA. Top left, Stacy Holdren, right, leads a round of card games with Cali Rose, Ellie Miller and Allie Murphy in the new Snoqualmie teen center.Below left, Mount Si High School senior Sean Ballsmith takes an application form from Y employ-ee Annie McCall.Left, Becky Straka and Megan Worzella assemble exercise bikes.

www.valleyrecord.comGrand openingA public grand opening of the Snoqualmie Community Center / Snoqualmie Valley YMCA is 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21, at 35018 S.E. Ridge St., on Snoqualmie Ridge.Speakers include Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson; Bob Gilbertson, President/CEO of the YMCA of Greater Seattle; and Snoqualmie Valley YMCA Executive Director Dave Mayer.There will be an open house with activities for all ages. Y staff will register new members and give tours of the Health & Well-Being Center, Family Gym, Youth Development Center, Community Activity Room, and other facility amenities. Program information will be available about ongoing YMCA activities and special events for children, teens, and adults.

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Fall from the sky

Investigators explore Mount Si for answers in fatal

late-night plane crashBY CAROL LADWIG

Staff Reporter

One week after a small plane dropped from the sky to crash on the face of Mount Si, investigators are still without definite answers for why three people are dead.

The plane, a Cessna 172 with one pilot and two passengers, was destroyed when it crashed into the mountain early Wednesday, Feb.

15, killing all three aboard. Last week, the King County Medical

Examiner revealed the identities of the victims, Robert Hill, 30, Seth Dawson, 31, and Elizabeth Redling, 29, all from the Federal Way area.

What they were doing in the plane, where they came from and why they were flying so near Mount Si are all still unclear.


Assembling at the foot of Mount Si, King County search teams and firefighters huddle Wednesday, Feb. 15, before hiking to the site of an early morning plane crash. Investigators are still seeking the cause of the deadly accident.

SEE CRASH, 3

Permits in our

backyard?County plans to move

98-person development department HQ to Ridge


The broad second-floor expanse of the big, beige Kendall Lake building on Douglas Avenue is mostly empty now. That’s expected to change in a few months, when its suites become home to an enterprise wholly new to Snoqualmie Ridge—a King County divisional head-quarters.

In a bid to move closer to the bulk of its permit business, the county’s Department of Development and Environ-mental Services wants to relo-cate its 98-per-son main office from Renton to Snoqualmie, as early as this summer. The county is two months into nego-tiations with Kendall Lake owners Meriwether Partners of Seattle for an estimated $300,000 lease, about half of what the county pays for its current facility—a place DDES Director John Starbard likens to a gloomy DMV.

SEE MOVE, 7

empty bowls THE KENDALL LAKE BUILDING

As Mount Si Food Bank sees record demand,

grassroots benefit can help meet local needs

Filling


Admiring a clay bowl made for the first-ever Mount Si Food Bank benefit night, Ruth Huschle, art teacher at Snoqualmie Middle School, says students are awake to local needs.


Isaiha Medford rubs his hands together and sits back to take a look at his work.

The middle school student is shaping pottery bowls for Empty Bowls, an upcoming benefit for Mount Si Food Bank.

“I’m going to make three, because I want to donate two and keep one,” he explains. “It’s helping the needy and the poor people to feed their children.”

With that understanding, Medford represents at least one goal accomplished by this food bank project: Raising awareness of hunger in the Valley.

SEE BOWLS, 2


BY SETH TRUSCOTT AND CAROL LADWIGValley Record Staff

Valley elementary, middle and high school students explore bold frontiers, serious mysteries and weird

wonders in annual science fairs. The following are a sampling of the wide variety of projects to spring from their imaginations.

Cedarcrest High

Electric ShoesHe’s not a runner himself, but Cedarcrest High School junior Alex Ratayzeck laced up his own shoes and took a couple of jogs to prove his hypothesis: there are plenty of ways to produce electricity that have nothing to do with fossil fuels. “The world uses 18 trillion kilowatts per year, and 77 percent of it is supplied by fossil fuel,” he said at the Cedarcrest science fair in February. His goal, with his electric shoes, was to lighten some of that load. “Even if it just charges an iPod, that’s that much less electricity that is taken from the fossil fuels,” he said. The shoes work, too. The left one is a Faraday device, modeled after a flashlight that is powered by shak-ing. The right one is piezoelectric, more intriguing to Ratayzeck, but less powerful. “The Faraday one works very well. It actually gener-ates quite a few volts,” he said. “The piezoelectric one produced a little less voltage than I wanted, but it still produced enough to be practical.” Ratayzeck’s shoes earned him first place at the Central Sound Regional Science & Engineering Fair in March, but he’s gotten used to science success. “Last year, I built an argon gas laser,” he said.

Yoga vs. Television

A cultural showdown was at the heart of Carly Stewart’s science fair entry at Cedarcrest. The fresh-man wanted to compare the effects of two different activities, practicing yoga, and watching television, on people’s bodies. “I took their blood pressure before and after yoga, and then before and after television, and I found that yoga significantly lowered their blood pressure, and television significantly increased their blood pressure,” she said. Television was limited to the show “24,” but Stewart wanted to further investigate the effects of different types of television shows. For this experiment, the action show fit her purposes. “When you’re watching television, you’re always thinking ‘what’s going to happen next?’ You’re try-ing to figure out the plot, and in yoga, you’re trying to focus on your breathing, and really relaxing,” she said. “I really wanted to see the overall difference between mental calmness and mental activity… I wanted to see if there’s an unspoken reason why many Americans have hypertension.”

Zapped hairOpstad Elementary’s science fair drew an estimated 1,000 people, who viewed presentations such as an exploration of whether dog nose-prints are as unique as human fingerprints, as well as trying their hand at the demonstrations.The OtterBots robotics display and 100,000 volt Van de Graaf “lightning machine,” the effects of which are pictured above, were again popular dis-plays. Science fair participants chose topics that were interesting to them, then formed the questions they wanted to explore, predicted the answers, tested their predictions, then reported on their projects. A group of 26 adult volun-teers judged the projects during the day. Mount Si High School teacher Kyle Warren nominated 30 finalists for Super Scientist awards, and the judges also selected award winners.

Vinegar rocketTwin Falls’ Ashley Gate has always liked explosions. She gave the science fair stand-by, vinegar reacting with baking soda, a new twist: she added measured amounts of baking soda to vinegar in a canister, shook it up and ran for cover. The resulting ‘rocket’ leaped into the air. Her dad, watching from nearby, helped her gauge the height of the launch.“I’m going to think of other experiments to do with baking soda,” she says.

Deep freeze

As his friend Adam Rogers pulls on gloves to help, Twin Falls Middle Schooler Carlos Larios cheerfully

dunks a chunk of super-cold dry ice into water, mist swirling around his station.

Carlos is having fun with the experiment, in which he proves that the warmer the water bath, the faster the dry ice—frozen carbon dioxide—evaporates.

“I’ve been curious about dry ice,” the seventh grader says. “Even if you hold it with gloves, it can still burn you.”

The dry ice experiment was among a number of serious and goofy topics at Twin Falls’ science fair on April 12, which ranged from dirty keyboards and homemade hovercrafts to DNA and smoking’s effects on the lungs.“Science is an interesting thing,” Carlos says. “We get to learn how things grow and transform. It’s not always putting Mentos in Coke. It’s about learning how chemicals react to each other.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Kangas

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