Covington/Maple Valley Reporter, February 17, 2012

BY TJ MARTINELL

[email protected]

Th e Maple Valley City Coun-cil adopted a cyberstalking ordinance as a part of the city’s criminal code on harassment at its Feb. 13 meeting.

According to the City Council’s Feb. 6 minutes, City Prosecutor Tom Hagan recommended that the city adopt the state’s cyber-stalking ordinance, which was passed in 2004, in order to allow him to prosecute such cases at a municipal level.

Maple Valley Police Chief Michelle Bennett explained in an email interview that the police department is currently inves-tigating a potential case of cyberstalking, but the law will need to be in place if the prosecutor decides to fi le charges.

Under the proposed ordinance, cyberstalking would be classifi ed as a gross misdemeanor.

A person would be consid-ered guilty of cyberstalking for contacting someone electronically with the intent to “harass, intimi-date, torment or embarrass any other person,” including threats

BY SARAH KEHOE

[email protected]

Kent School District staff are no longer talking about shutting down two elementary schools for the 2012-2013 school year.

Offi cials announced a new rec-ommendation to look into keep-ing all schools open at the Feb. 8 meeting of the district’s Board of Directors.

“Th e full report and recom-mendations will be presented to the board in two weeks as previ-ously scheduled,” said Debbie Straus, school board president. Of course, our school board believes in transparency and so I didn’t want to wait two weeks to share the information.”

Th e board had previously planned to review closing Jenkins Creek and Cedar Valley elemen-tary schools in order to sidestep budget cuts. Th e schools were under consideration because they had the smallest enrollments in the district.

Kent School District, like many districts in Washington state, has been making budget reductions

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PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR TRADE PART III | How the TDR program aff ects Black Diamond [page 3]

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COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMONDREPORTER

Kentwood senior Jonathan Ohashi briefl y revels in his win in the 160-pound fi nal at the Region III wrestling tournament Feb. 11 at Thomas Jeff erson High School. Ohashi beat Seth Mizoguchi of Auburn, whom he lost to at the sub-regional tournament a week earlier, and will wrestle for the fi rst time in his high school career at Mat Classic on Friday and Saturday in Tacoma. He is one of four Conqueror wrestlers who will compete at state. KRIS HILL, The Reporter

Conqueringthe Mat

District will not close elementary schools

Council passes law on cyber safety

BY TJ MARTINELL

[email protected]

Mike Jeff rey was appalled the fi rst time he went to Sierra Leone in 2008.

Th ough the country’s 12-year civil war, in which thousands of people had been killed or displaced had ended, the Maple Valley resident noted the humani-tarian eff ort was “pathetic.”

“I just witnessed things where

we treat our animals better than they treated their people,” Jeff rey said. “Th ere was no medical treat-ment, and even if there was you wouldn’t want to go there. Th ere were fl ies everywhere. No medi-cine, no bandages.”

Th is week, Jeff rey and other members of Th e Bridge of Hope, a non-profi t organization, left once more for their annual mission trip to the West African nation. First owned by the Sierra Leone

Company, the country became a British colony in 1808, and gained its independence in 1961. In 1991, a civil war broke out when a rebel group called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attempted to overthrow the government. Th e RUF failed in its eff orts, however, and by the time the war ended in 2002, over 50,000 people had been killed. Th e civil war was depicted in the 2006 fi lm “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly.

In the four years since Jeff rey’s fi rst trip, however, the humanitar-ian work is beginning to show.

Church builds a bridge of hope to Sierra Leone

Ken Mitchell, right, senior pastor of New Community Church, baptizes a man in a Sierra Leone river along with executive pastor Bill Borland. Courtesy photo

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February 17, 2012[2]

[3]February 17, 2012

Property Rights for Trade

BY TJ MARTINELL

[email protected]

In terms of history, growth and development, Maple Valley and Black Diamond are almost opposites of each other. Maple Valley is a relatively young city, incorporated in 1997, while Black Diamond has existed since the 1880s and became a city in 1954. Maple Valley experienced a surge in development and population growth in the past two decades, much of the land within Black Diamond remains undeveloped.

This also applies to their transfer of development rights programs. Maple Valley created its TDR program less than six months ago while Black Diamond passed its program in Decem-ber 2003, three years after King County had adopted the program.

BLACK DIAMOND’S APPROACH TO ITS TDR PROGRAM

Unlike Maple Valley, Black Diamond doesn’t have property within its city limits owned by King County. As part of the pro-gram policy, no TDRs can be im-ported into the city from another part of the county. Essentially, this ensures that any time a TDR is used to increase the density of a property somewhere in the city, another property within the city is protected from development through a conservation easement.

Brian Ross, managing partner for YarrowBay, stated in a tele-phone interview that the single jurisdiction makes the program much easier for developers and property owners to navigate.

“I think the (TDR) program seems to work,” he said. “The biggest challenge is getting the sending site and receiving site in the same jurisdiction. That’s why what happens in Black Diamond works.”

Additionally, unlike Maple Val-ley, Black Diamond’s program has designated lands as either sending or receiving sites.

According to Black Diamond Community Development Direc-tor Steve Pilcher, most of the

sending sites are open space areas or historic parts of the city, while the majority of the receiv-ing sites are located on the west side of town. For example, one section of land located on the east side of town is a designated sending site, but is also required to send its TDRs, if purchased, to annexed land on the far east section of the city.

Other open space lands des-ignated as sending sites includes property surrounding Mud Lake, Lake Majorine and Jones Lake, as well as property on the lower southeast section of Lake Sawyer.

Pilcher explained there were various reasons for this. First, lands located within the city lim-its were annexed over an extended period from King County. In 1991, for example, Black Diamond annexed 623 acres.

At the time, the city decided to shift the potential growth over to the west side of town, where a development would not be required to demolish any existing part of the town.

“Things were kind of set up to make the program work,” Pilcher said. “Our system is different from the county. You work to preserve the rural land while shifting growth into the urban area. We want to provide some compensation for people who can’t develop their land to the full extent.”

It was also done to be more practical since it is easier to build new infrastructure rather than try to renovate or replace an outdated one.

“That was the basic concept,” Pilcher said. “It’s an interesting town in how it developed. They thought, ‘Let’s let growth go to the areas of town where we can build new stuff, rather than where the streets are narrow.’ It makes no sense to put it where it can’t expand.”

MODIFICATIONS MADE

Certain modifications were made to the TDR program in 2009, according to Pilcher, when King County adopted a new Sensitive Area Ordinance (SAO). The SAO enlarged the required buffers a development must have between a dwelling unit and an environmentally protected area, such as wetland. This impacted many properties in the city which have wetlands located on them.

The TDR program was adjusted to encourage evenly spread devel-opment, rather than clustering, while at the same time protect-ing the development value of the property affected by the SAO

changes.If, for example, a

person owns one acre of land, they have the right to develop four units. If half of the property is declared a wetland, and thus unusable, the property owner still retains the development rights on the wetland that they can’t develop on, which gives them two

separate options.The first option is to cluster the

four units into a more con-centrated area of the one acre, rather than evenly spread them out. The developer would then close off the rest of the property from development as a buffer.

But some developers may not be enthusiastic about condens-ing growth, so the second option allows them to place a conserva-tion easement on the wetland areas, receive the TDR credits, and then sell them or transfer them to another property which does not have environmentally protected area on it.

This way the owner avoids losing property value due to the changes made to the county’s SAO.

“It provides people with send-ing sites on their property the opportunity to get the financial compensation for it,” Pilcher said.

MASTER PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS

In 1996 the Black Diamond Urban Growth Area Agree-ment (BDUGAA) was created, which stipulated several things. It required 542 acres of land within the existing city limits to be preserved as permanent open space and the preservation of an additional 984 acres of open space within unincorporated King County.

“That kind of laid the ground-work as Black Diamond began to grow and open space that would be preserved with the county,”

Pilcher said.An owner who plans to develop

80 or more acres is required to create a master planned develop-ment (MPD). When the City Council approved YarrowBay’s MPD, it required the Kirkland-based firm to develop at four units per acre. Also, 40 percent of the development density on a prop-erty must come from purchased development rights.

To meet the base density requirement for the two MPDs, 2,876 TDR certificates are re-quired out of roughly 3,000 total TDRs in Black Diamond.

How transfer of development rights could impact Black Diamond

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Black Diamond’s transfer of development rights program map shows sending and receiving sites within the city. Image courtesy of the city of Black Diamond

“Things were kind of set up to make the program work. You work to preserve the rural land while shifting growth into the urban area. We want to provide some compensation for the people who can’t develop their land to full extent.” Steve Pilcher

[ more RIGHTS page 4 ]


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This means YarrowBay would need to purchase close to 96 percent of all the TDRs located in the city.

“It can be a challenge,” Pilcher said. “It assumes the people are willing to sell.”

Nevertheless, Ross stated that securing the requisite TDRs will not be an issue, due to a low market de-mand for TDRs in the city.

“We’re probably the only consumer of TDRs,” he said. “So we’ll have a number of sellers and we’ll have a number of folks to buy from.”

Even if they failed to get the necessary TDRs from private owners, YarrowBay’s Director of Development Colin Lund said, there are other options available to them.

“We’re not concerned about that,” he said. “There are a few safeguards in the ordinance about our ability

to meet the exact number.”The alternative option

would be to buy them from the city’s TDR bank, which currently holds 1,000 TDR certificates.

“Before they buy them (from us) the developer has to prove they went out and tried to purchase the TDRs,” Pilcher said.

There is a difference, however, between the pri-vately owned TDRs and the TDRs in the bank. While the privately owned TDR certificates are derived from a specific piece of land, the TDRs in the bank were cre-ated automatically when the program was first started and are not tied to any land.

“It’s kind of like the Fed,” Pilcher said. “People com-plain they (TDRs) were cre-ated out of thin air, which is, frankly, true.”

At present, however, Yar-rowBay has yet to purchase any TDRs, according to

Ross, for practical reasons.“We don’t want to buy

TDRs until we’re ready to start the development process,” he said.

Pilcher stated that several property owners have been issued TDR certificates, but none have been sold yet. He added that the estimated number of TDRs could vary.

“Some of these things will be fine tuned as people apply,” he said.

For example, if a property owner applied for a TDR certificate and it is discov-ered that a trailhead could be put on the property, it could bring a higher value to it. In order for this to oc-cur, a planning commission process is held to prove its higher value.Reach TJ Martinell at 425-432-1209 ext. 5052. To comment on this story go to covingtonreporter.com.

BOATING SAFETY COURSE TO BE OFFERED STARTING FEB. 28

“About Boating Safety” will be offered through the Tahoma Learning Community (TLC) from 7-9 p.m. on Feb. 28, March 1, March 6 and March 8 in the Cedar River Middle School library.

The cost for the course is $25 fort he textbook and other materials. The eight hour course will be taught by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 25. The course meets the requirement for the boater safety education law of the State of Washing-ton. For this boating season, all boaters ages 40 and under who wish to operate boats and personal watercraft are required to have a Boater Safety Education Card. Other age groups will be phased in until everyone has a card.

For more information, call TLC at 425-413-3400.

SIX COVINGTON TEACHERS EARN NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFICATION

A half dozen teachers in Covington area schools have become National Board Certified Teachers according to the Kent School District. The six teachers who earned this certification are: Susan Bailey, an exceptional needs specialist at Covington Elemen-tary, Kentlake Spanish teacher Marla Boyd, Rebecca Fry and Stacey Gruenich, both exceptional needs specialists at Jenkins Creek Elementary, Kentlake social studies teacher Chase Parsley and Elizabeth Zamora, a Spanish teacher at Kentwood.

These teachers have typically spent at least 400 hours working on their applications and portfolios. This includes a video of a lesson, a detailed narrative of what occurred during that lesson, essays about the teacher’s beliefs and theories related to teaching and learning, and reflective writing regarding their teaching strategies. Congressionally mandated research has determined that national certification has a positive impact on teacher retention, student achievement, and professional development. These six teachers were among 25 KSD educators who earned National Board Certification this year. Superin-tendent Dr. Edward Lee Vargas said, “This is a great example of the dedication and commitment KSD staff has toward provid-ing a quality education for each and every one of our students.”

Community Notes

[ RIGHTS from page 3]

more stories online... covingtonreporter.com | maplevalleyreporter.com


BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

Maple Valley Police Chief Michelle Bennett went to Quantico, Va., in October to train at the FBI National Academy and came away with a

highly valuable intangible — perspective.“For me to be able to gain perspective from so many

different view points, it helped me come back in a calm and relaxed space,” Bennett said. “It made me really appreci-ate what we have, which is a fantastic environment and a fantastic support system here in Maple Valley.”

Bennett, who has served as the Maple Valley Police chief since 2004, decided to take on the 11-week challenge of the FBI National Academy and began the arduous application process.

It starts with an online application. Everything is verified by the FBI.

Bennett was then interviewed. Once she completed that portion of the process, the FBI did an extensive back-ground check, a full medical check and required a letter of recommendation from the chief executive which would be Maple Valley City Manager David Johnston.

Johnston, who moved to Maple Valley from Indiana in 2009, was familiar with the program.

“It’s been my experience in the midwest is that minimal requirements for police chiefs is graduation from North-western University’s Command College and Traffic Safety Institute and the FBI Academy,” he said. “When the city was asked to sponsor Chief Bennett’s attendance it was one of the quickest approvals of my career because of that (prior experience). The training of police chiefs or poten-tial police chiefs is the best in the world because it is an in-ternational program. I have all the confidence in the world that training will benefit the city of Maple Valley.”

Once Bennett was admitted to the program, which is highly selective and offered four times annually, she left for Virginia in October.

“I was really proud to be selected to go,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I did the city proud.”

She described the first week as crazy, as close to military boot camp as she’d ever experienced firsthand, during which she moved into a dorm and filled out mountains of paperwork.

During the program, she earned 17 college credits while taking courses on youth violence, public speaking and behavioral psychology, among other topics. Bennett said that while she doesn’t need the credits — she earned a doctorate at Seattle Pacific University a few years ago — the classroom experiences and knowledge she took away were invaluable.

“The cool part about the people there is that they were all high caliber,” Bennett said. “It was neat to be around that kind of excellence. I was able to learn a lot while I was there both in the coursework and from my colleagues and bring that back to Maple Valley to enhance my job skills to help me be a better supervisor and leader here.”

On top of the work involved in those six courses, which included several papers, Bennett took on all the fitness challenges the program had to offer.

There were weekly runs for the group of 266 participants that started with a 1.8 mile jaunt and finished with a 6.1 mile run and obstacle course. Bennett said the final run and obstacle course — known as “the yellow brick road” — had to be completed on a day “it was pouring down rain.”

“The yellow brick road was very challenging because I love working out but I’m not a runner,” she said. “I had a really bad cold that day. I was coughing up a lung and I had lost my voice.”

Bennett was also one of 30 who took on the swim chal-lenge and one of three women of the 37 in the program that session.

In the mornings, Bennett would go to the pool and swim, sometimes missing breakfast. At the end of the day, she would return to the pool with the others who decided to take on the swim challenge at the end of each, working up to a 37 mile swim at the end of the 11 weeks.

Whatever free time she had, Bennett said, she spent in the pool.

Bennett is used to being busy because she juggles her roles as police chief and mom to 8-year-old son, Tommy. But, the FBI National Academy was a different sort of busy, and it presented a different kind of challenge.

“The hardest thing while I was there was probably learn-ing balance,” she said. “There’s three parts of being there, the academic part, the physical part and the social and networking part. I wouldn’t get to sleep until 11 o’ clock or

midnight... then you had to get up super early. I was busy and it was hard to balance those three hats.”

At the end of the program, she was thankful for the per-spective she’d gained, but also for the people she had met.

“To step back and have three months of great train-ing and great perspective (was valuable),” Bennett said. “Besides the perspective and the networking, I’ve got 265 good friends now if I ever have an issue or question that I can reach out to.”

Reach Kris Hill at [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.To comment on this story go to www.maplevalleyre-porter.com..

Police chief came away from FBI Academy with perspective

Michelle Bennett, right, poses with FBI Director Robert Mueller on graduation day from the National Academy. Courtesy photo

Maple Valley’s Michelle Bennett swam, ran, studied and networked her way through 11-week national academy in Virginia


When I left home last week the wind was blowing. For most places around the Puget Sound, that is not necessarily a big deal, but in Enumclaw we take notice. Th e wind really knows how to blow in that town.

Th ere have been terrifi c and at times terrifying storms with wind gusts reaching 90 mph, and the damage in and around the town has been at times devastating

Th e Tuesday morning wind storm, which wasn’t much, started me thinking about the times I have run across tree ordinance in cities I cover. I have to admit it always makes me wonder. Particularly aft er our most recent freezing rain and snow storm in January.

Most the people I know in Enumclaw are not what I would call afraid to whack down a tree.

I was raised on a farm and my dad was a very pragmatic guy. If a tree was close enough to fall on our house, it got cut down.

I remember the Columbus Day storm of 1962. My dad took me up to the White River lumber mill aft er it blew through the region.

Th ere were cranes on parallel bars for lift ing the stacks of lumber that came out of the drying kilns. I will never forget it. Th ese enormous cranes were hanging upside down from the rods like giant dead spiders. It was one of the most bizarre sights I have ever seen.

Th e fi rst freezing rain storm I remember was when I was in Philadelphia the winter of 1973. I still have not seen a freezing rain storm here that compares to anything Philadelphia served. Th ose cobblestone streets with trolly tracks running

down the middle were a great way to enhance the nastiness of an East Coast freezing rain at-tack. Th e fi rst time I walked down Broad Street in Philadelphia getting pounded by freezing rain I was pretty sure I had fallen into the seventh level of Dante’s Inferno.

When I drove around the Puget Sound region aft er the most recent freezing rain and snow-storm I was amazed to see how many houses had trees within striking distance. I understand folks feel warmly about trees, but, trees don’t feel warmly about you when they are crashing through your roof in the middle of the night.

A forest ranger told me years ago that allowing Douglas fi rs to grow up next to your home is asking for a very large toothpick to hit you on the head.

He said Douglas fi rs were fi rst growth, which accounts for those root systems that are about a foot deep on a 100-foot tree. According to the ranger, Douglas fi rs are designed by God to blow down or fall over to make way for second growth.

Th at is why any time someone would get all misty eyed about a “old growth” stand of Douglas fi rs my ranger friend would look like he was having a stroke.

You drive by the farm where I was raised today and there are no trees around the house. Th ere are plenty of trees beyond the fi elds. When I was a kid, people cleared before building because the wind blows really hard sometimes. Big trees cause a lot of damage when they hit things and cost a pile of money.

Seems like basic math to me.

Tahoma Junior High student Tyler Friesen has fi gured out at 14 what a lot of us don’t fi gure out until we’re in our 20s.

Actually, he’s fi gured out two things: what he loves to do and what he’s good at.

And it happens to be the same thing — drawing comics.

While all of us were forced by our teachers to scribble stick fi gures in Kindergarten, Friesen was drawing well before he ever stepped into a classroom.

In fact, he doesn’t remember at what point he didn’t enjoy drawing.

Th e real desire to draw fi rst came from a book series called Captain Underpants, which concerns two fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who create their superhero aft er accidentally hypnotizing their principal Mr. Krupp. Th ey also draw comics detailing the adventures.

“It sounds really stupid,” Friesen recalled. “But it was funny. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, that’s cool. I want to do that.’”

Like all artists, Friesen started out learning the basics. A life-long comic book fan he created little makeshift comic books featuring his own superheroes. His favorite comic book hero is Spiderman.

“He’s diff erent from all of the rest,” Friesen said. “His personal life aff ects him when he puts on the mask. Now, everyone has it, but I thought it was special at the time.”

Sticking with a traditional form, all of his comics are drawn by hand.

Even now he only uses a computer soft ware to crop the electronic fi les when uploading them online. Working on those comic books also al-lowed Friesen to develop his skills.

“It kind of came naturally,” he said. “It ranges from what I kind of want at the moment.”

Th e transition into comic strips came when he was a sixth grader in Ohio.

Friesen admitted his style is very similar to Calvin and Hobbes, whose creator, Bill Watter-son, is also a personal inspiration.

“He was the man,” Friesen said. “He was amazing.”

When it comes to the characters in his comics, however, he took a cue from Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.

“I was reading some story of Charles Schulz that said he based a lot of his cartoons off of real people,” he said. “So, I thought if it worked for him, it can work for me. It depends on what life gives you for material.”

Friesen’s comics very much refl ect the world of a 14-year-old.

In them, issues such as the irrationality of puppy love, the dislike of homework — unless the homework involves drawing — and subtle

● Q U O T E O F N O T E : ”All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” - Charles Schultz

Learning from windy weather

Teen finds his passion in life

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observances of people’s idiosyncrasies are presented in a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek manner.

“That is a major element of the strip,” Friesen said. “It makes everything a little more relatable, for me and the audience. It’s kind of got a vibe that says ‘This is what life is like.’”

At the same time, basing it off friends has placed limitations on Friesen, as he has trouble portraying any of them in a particularly poor light.

“I need to come up with a completely imaginary character so he can do all

the bad things,” he said.After he moved from

Ohio to Ravensdale he continued creating more comics strips. They were merely a personal pas-sion for him until a friend recommended that he post some of them on Facebook.

Taking five strips from his sketchbook, he up-loaded them onto the social networking site, where they were well-received by his friends and family.

“Everyone loved them,” he said.

Friesen plans to eventu-ally make a comic book, but time constraints necessitate that he stick to the comic strip for the moment.

Meanwhile, he’s working on creating a more defined world for his comic strips, including character names and plots.

“I should work on mak-ing a point,” he said. “I keep meaning to mention their names more often.”

While Friesen hasn’t de-cided what he wants to do for a career, he has plenty of time on his side.

Meanwhile, he gets a small chance to play the hero when he’s in art class.

“If there’s ever an as-signment when you have to draw a picture, people generally come up to me and say, ‘Tyler, can you help us out?’” he said.

[MARTINELL from page 6]

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during the past several years as state and federal revenues have withered and local property taxes have declined. These are the three largest revenue sources for the district.

“This board has a responsibility to not only involve the community in our decision making but to look at every legitimate option to keep the district on sound financial footing,” Straus said. “Our respon-sibility goes beyond the

current students, families and staff, but to future generations as well. As a community, we may not always agree on every cost saving option we consider, but you can count on us keeping our students and our district’s sustainability at the forefront of every decision we make.”

A record crowd of around 200 teachers, par-ents and students attended the meeting in support of keeping Jenkins Creek and Cedar Valley Elementary School open.

“People seemed very

please with the board’s news to keep the schools open, they were applauding and cheering,” said Mike Halliday, district spokes-man. “I think it was great there were students there because they were able to see government in action and how they can be active participants in a positive way.”

This is not the first time in recent memory the Kent School District decided not to proceed with cuts or closures.

The board almost elimi-nated physical education

and music programs for the 2010-2011 school year be-fore discovering they didn’t have to make the cuts.

“These decisions are nev-er easy because the board not only has a responsibility to the kids and staff, but to the long term health of the district,” Halliday said. “They need to look at every option necessary in order to balance the budget and be viable.”

The board will make the final decision on the status of the schools during its Feb. 22 meeting.

[ SCHOOLS from page 1]

of physical harm to a person, a member of their family, or their property,.

If a person had been previously convicted of cyberstalking the same vic-tim or family of the victim, however, then under the

ordinance it would be con-sidered a class C felony.

The full text of the Maple Valley ordinance can be read at http://www.maplevalleywa.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=4286. The Washington State ver-

sion can be read at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/de-fault.aspx?cite=9.61.260.

Reach TJ Martinell at 425-432-1209 ext. 5052.To comment on this story go to maplevalleyreporter.com.

[ C YBER from page 1]

COVINGTON

Feb. 10

THE FLINTSTONES: 21000 block of Southeast 268th Street. A woman

slapped her boyfriend who retaliated by dragging her outside by her hair.

Feb. 3

TWEAKING: 16800 block of Southeast 272nd Street. A man was jumping in front of cars on Southeast 272nd Street as well as in the Fred Meyer parking lot. He was found in possession of a meth pipe as well as a tool to hot wire cars.

Jan. 30

FOUND: 16700 block of Southeast 272nd Street. A Toyota 4Runner that had been stolen was found unlocked in the parking lot of Fred Meyer.

STOLEN, STRIPPED, DUMPED: 19900 block of Southeast 262nd Street. A Toyota truck which had been stolen was found on the trail area just south of Southeast 262nd Street at 199th Avenue Southeast. The truck had been

completely stripped.

MOVIE NIGHT: 17000 block of South-east 272nd Street. The suspect was caught when he walked out of Safeway with six DVDs that he did not pay for.

MAPLE VALLEY

Feb. 9

BURGLARY, INTERRUPTED: 21200 block of Southeast 280th Street. A

homeowner interrupted a burglar as he tried to pry open the front door. Police suspect the burglar may be responsible for subsequent crimes in neighboring cities.

Feb. 8

FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT: 21900 block of Southeast Wax Road. Two women who are neighbors in an apartment complex got into a physical altercation.

Both women suffered minor injuries including scratches.

Feb. 6

ATTEMPTED BURGLARY: 24400 block of Southeast 231st Street. Some-one removed a portion of fence and attempted to gain access to the build-ing where a dog daycare is located. Nothing appeared to have been taken from the business.

CRIME

ALERTThis week’s…

Police Blotter

Check letters & opinion online... covingtonreporter.com | maplevalleyreporter.com


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The community now has a medical and dental treatment center, as well a seven-room school house.

The Bridge of Hope was created in 2008 as a result of the combined mission-ary effort between the New Community Church and Jefferson Baptist Church in Sierra Leone. It has sent a mission team out every year since 2006 and plans to send two groups this year. The first group left Feb. 16 and the other group will leave at the beginning of March. The trips last 10 days.

As part of its ministry, Bridge provides medical treatment, trains teachers and pastors as well as runs vacation bible school-style sports camps with donated soccer balls and uniforms. Although it was originally formed by two churches, Bridge now represents four different churches, with members coming from all over the country.

Additionally, many of the volunteers hail from secular professions, such as doctors, nurses and build-ers, whose skills are sorely needed in the country ranked lowest on the Hu-man Development Index.

As part of its mis-sion, Bridge has focused exclusively on the Makeni area, which is located in the central region of Sierra Le-one. Bridge President Geri

Jeffrey explained this has allowed them to cultivate good relationships with the local people and create long-term strategies.

“It takes a lot of time and effort, so you want the people to know we care,” she said. “Overall we’re trying to help them build community again.”

For the first several years, Bridge concentrated on providing infrastructure as Makeni had no medical treatment centers, schools or basic utilities.

“During the civil war they lost everything,” said Bridge member Lanie Ey-lander. “You’re just starting to see things improve in recent years.”

The biggest problem, Mike Jeffrey explained, is the severe deficit of people with either an education or financial resources, due to the civil war.

“When there’s war the people leave the country,” he said. “Everybody who could leave left. Throughout the continent the infra-structure is falling down. There’s been a void, and churches are filling the void.”

For members like Mike Jeffrey the powerful experi-ences they felt during their first trip compelled them to return.

“I just had a lot to process when I got back (home),” he said. “At the beginning I was angry that people are treated like that. But then I

got angry at myself, because it’s my problem, too.”

Jeff DiDonato and his daughter, Michaela, are go-ing for the first time.

Michaela DiDonato is one of several Tahoma students, along with Taylor and Mackenzie Boland, go-ing on the trip.

“I’ve gone to Mexico and I love how close I am to God when I get back,” Michaela DiDonato said. “It seemed like a cool country to go to because they are the most needy.”

Taylor Boland said, “It seemed like a good oppor-tunity to get closer to God, to see others that are less fortunate.”

To help prepare them emotionally, physically and culturally for the trip they have attended training ses-sions since October.

For example, because belief in witchcraft is widespread in the country, certain words or expres-sions that are harmless in America can receive a very negative reaction, accord-ing to Hannah Brown, a Tahoma High graduate who went on last year’s trip.

Yet, she described the people in Makeni as unusu-ally cheerful.

“They’re so used to death,” she said. “They were really happy over so much. You have kids trying to touch your hand or just smile at you. They seem so genuinely happy that you are there.”

[ BRIDGE from page 1]

BY DENNIS BOX

[email protected]

A call for a replay of a few legal calls was on the table at the Valley Medical Center Board of Commis-sioners meeting Monday in Renton.

On a split vote the board hired the Tukwila law firm Talmadge-Fitz-patrick to give the board a legal review of the alliance between Valley Medical Center and University of Washington Medicine.

Voting for the resolu-tion were Board President Dr. Paul Joos and commis-sioners Anthony Hemstad and Dr. Aaron Heide. In dissent were Sue Bowman and Carolyn Parnell.

According to Joos, Phil Talmadge will conduct the review. Talmadge is a for-mer state Supreme Court justice and state senator.

Joos said, “Maybe I missed something, but I didn’t see any review (of the alliance) from the state attorney general or

any independent counsel. I think this is a minor expenditure to get us an opinion on what happened last year.”

It is expected to cost the board about $3,000 to $5,000.

Joos said the plan is to keep the review limited to about 10 to 15 hours of Talmadge’s time.

Parnell stated it, “may be a minor expenditure, but is it reasonable?”

The commissioner questioned why the three

members did not consider the alliance as legal.

Hemstad stated “it is vitally important going forward this be checked out now.”

Bowman said after working on the alliance over the past year, “We vetted this in the commu-nity. We had an advisory group come here. We had people looking at this inside and out. I don’t see the need to do this.”

Joos stated, “I’m a physician and so I’ve been

trained to be skeptical and try to figure things out. The UW alliance to me has some really strong points…. I was at meet-ings where everyone testi-fied and I had to restrain myself from standing up myself and saying, ‘Isn’t this like Jonestown where everyone drank the Kool-Aid?’”

Joos questioned whether the alliance was “ever proposed to go out to the voters of the district to see if this is a good idea? A lot

of things in life are sales and there was this big rush to judgment. I would just like to have another opinion.”

University of Washing-ton Medicine and Valley Medical Center (also known as Public Hospital District No. 1) formed an alliance in July 2011.

The board voted 3-2 in July for the alliance. Vot-ing for the alliance were Parnell, Bowman and Don Jacobson. Hemstad and

Valley Medical board hires Tukwila law firm

[ more VALLEY page 9 ]

Got forsythia? This bright yellow shrub goes un-noticed all year but, by the third week of Febru-ary, winter begins to fade once the bright bloom of this sunshine-colored shrub opens up. If your forsythia is not yet in flower you can force a few branches into bloom by cutting them from the plant and dis-playing the bare branches indoors in a vase of warm water. In a few days those cut limbs will be fooled into blooming. Sometimes it is nice to fool Mother Nature.

Mid-February is when some gardeners can start pea seeds and other cool-season veggies indoors. But this spring you need to be more patient. It is not the temperature of the soil but the moisture level in the soil that will slow down spring planting. A wet winter means the soil is still saturated with water so don’t dig in until the soil dries out.

Here’s a way to test the texture and planting ability of your soil. Grab a handful of garden soil and squeeze. Now open your hand. If the muddy mess in your hand is shaped into a solid mass, then you have clay in your soil and it is too wet to work. If the soil in your palm falls through your fingers (this will not happen in spring in our climate) then you have sandy soil. But if the clump in your hand falls apart then sits on your hand, your soil has

dried enough for planting.

Q. I want to add

roses to my garden but I’m not sure when I can plant them. Should I

wait until summer and buy roses in pots in full bloom or buy the bare root roses I see for sale now? T.H., Tacoma

A. I can promise you a rose garden

no matter which way you decide to go. I prefer buying bare root roses because they are less expensive and easy to transport home since you buy the plants without any soil or pot around the roots. Another advantage of bare root roses is they can be planted now and into the month of March. This gives them time to estab-lish a new root system and bloom this summer. But the advantage of buying a potted rose later in the year is that you can see, smell and touch the actual flowers before you commit to plac-ing them in your garden. Either way, be sure you dig a large hole, at least 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep and loosen the soil.

Q. Which Japanese maples do you rec-

ommend for my small front yard? I lost a rather ugly tree in the wind storm and want to plant a good-sized Japanese maple to take its place. S.S., Enumclaw

A. The Bloodgood Japanese maple is

a Northwest classic with burgundy-red leaves and

a slender, open growth habit. The small leaves turn brilliant red in the fall. Then there is the lower-growing Crimson Queen Japanese maple, perfect for small spaces as it only grows to about 10 feet tall. But don’t overlook the exciting growth form of the Waterfall Japanese maple, with cascading green leaves that turn bright gold each autumn or the more cold- and frost-tolerant Emperor Japanese maple. I also love coral bark maples and the pastel pink on the varie-gated leaves of butterfly maples. The truth is, all Japanese maples do well here and a visit to your lo-cal nursery will allow you to choose the best shape and size for your landscape.

Q. I have a smoke tree that was

badly damaged by wind this winter. The branches are gone on one side and half gone on the other side. Is this tree worth saving? P.L., Maple Valley

A. You are in luck because where

there are smoke trees there is a surefire way to start over again. The smoke tree or Cotinus coggygria is one of the few trees that can be pollarded or cut right to ground level. Just leave a stump 6 inches tall. Do this extreme makeover with a sharp pruning saw in March and don’t worry. You’ll be rewarded with a flush of fresh new growth in a few months and you may become hooked on pollarding your smoke tree every year.

Learn all about color in an early spring garden. Mari-anne Binetti will speak at 1 p.m. Saturday at Wind-mill Gardens in Sumner on “Heavenly Hellebores and Companions.” Go to www.windmillgarden.com or call 253-863-5843 to register.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For book requests or answers to gardening questions, write to her at: P.O. Box 872, Enumclaw, 98022.

Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a personal reply.For more gardening information, she can be reached at her Web site, www.binettigarden.com.

Copyright for this col-umn owned by Marianne Binetti.

How to test the texture of your garden soil[9]February 17, 2012

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MULTICARE SET TO HOST RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY MARCH 31

Multicare will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new emergency department in Covington from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 31.

The new 24,000 square-foot emergency department will contain 19 treatment rooms, four of them specialized for children. The emergency department is located at 17700-B SE 272nd St. Covington.

1-MORE FOUNDATION SEEKS DONATIONS FOR HOMELESS CAMP BY MARCH 1

The Maple Valley-based 1-More foundation is asking for donations to send to the residents of Nickelsville, a home-less camp in the Seattle area.

Donations of gently used household items or food items will be delivered directly to Nickelsville and local food banks.

Drop off donations at the Maple Valley Community Center. Donations will be accepted until March 1.

For more information, visit us at www.1-more.org, on Facebook at 1moreorg, on Twitter @1moreorg or email: [email protected].

Community Notes

Heide voted against the alliance. Jacobson retired from the board and Joos won the election for his seat in November.

At the close of the Monday meeting Heide stated he agreed the alliance

“potentially is a very good thing,” but he believed the process setting up the alli-ance was rushed. He said the UW Medicine -Valley board of trustees does not have legislative oversight concerning the board of commissioners.“I don’t want to blow it up

(the alliance),” Heide said. “My two children were born here. I have a stake in this institution.”

Reach Dennis Box at [email protected] or 253-872-6600 ext. 5050.To comment on this story go to kentreporter.com.

[ VALLEY from page 8]

February 17, 2012[10]

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My name is Bill VanRuff and, as a Fire Commissioner, I am proud to be represent-ing the taxpayers of Maple Valley Fire & Life Safety Fire District 43. It’s been a pleasure and a learning expe-rience for me these past two years working with my fellow Commissioners, Administra-tive personnel and our line Firefi ghters. I am also proud to say I have been elected as the Chairperson of the fi ve member commission for the upcoming year.

As Commissioners, we are doing our due dili-gence in ensuring your taxpayer dollars are well spent in these challenging, recessionary times. We establish the policies of the Department, but are not involved in the daily operations of the district. Our job includes negotiating with the Firefi ghters union on salary packages including medical, vacation and retirement benefi ts, evalu-ating fi re service equipment needs, conducting the performance evaluation of the Fire Chief, and setting the fi scal policy within the confi nes of the annual budget. In 2012, we will work with a $7.9 million budget based on the District’s total assessed valuation of $4.3 billion. By increasing the number of Commissioners from three to fi ve members, as approved by the voters, we have been able to work in small committees doing the homework and planning necessary to accomplish

the tasks at hand.In regards to the evaluation of the Fire

Chief, the Commissioners recognized the excellence in Chief Doerfl inger’s ability to lead the department. Thus, we negotiated a 5 year contract, which will ensure that we are able to maintain the continuity and consistency of leadership throughout the entire Department.

As a Commissioner, I have had the opportunity to advocate at the state

level for the State’s 100% fi nancing of 9-1-1 service. I also supported the adoption of fair fi re district annexation policies and reimbursement of expenses in servicing areas referred to as ‘no-man’s’ land. These areas are remote regions where the residents have opted out of paying taxes for fi re and life safety services.

As a long-time resident of the community, I have had the opportunity to interact with this fi re department in a number of ways over the years, including serving on the fi re department’s citizen advisory board, and as the proud dad of a former volunteer Firefi ghter. There’s nothing better than seeing the respect and admiration that a Firefi ghter ignites in a child or an adult. It happens every day. Most recently, it was demon-strated in seeing the Jerry Wood’s Holiday Truck roll through neighborhoods as our fi re personnel, Greater Maple Valley Girl and Boy Scouts and the Tahoma High School cheerleaders collected food and donations for the food bank. The

Holiday Truck is just one of many examples of our Firefi ghter’s involvement in the community, other than when they respond to emergencies.

As the board Chairperson, I look forward to continuing the collaborative spirit of this Department’s Administration, Firefi ghters and Commissioners. I personally invite and encourage you to attend one of our regular Commission-ers’ meetings held at 6 pm on the fi rst and third Thursday of every month at Station 81 on SE 231st and Maple Valley Highway. Hope to see you there.

Respectfully,Bill VanRuff

February 2012

From the Chief…As our attention turns to a new year and the challenges that lay ahead, I can’t help but refl ect

back on the previous year’s accomplishments. Although there is no way I could capture all that was accomplished or changed, here is a brief look at what trans-pired in 2011 within Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety.

Our Firefi ghters responded to 2,432 calls for service including commercial fi res, residential fi res, motor vehicle accidents, and nearly 1,500 requests for medical aid. Due to budget cuts and reduction of personnel, our fi refi ghter staffi ng level dropped from a minimum 12 to 10 on-duty each day. We have since been able to increase the daily staffi ng level to 11 fi refi ghters on-duty, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our volunteer staffi ng increased as we recruit-ed and trained 8 new volunteer EMT’s. We also partnered with the Kent and SeaTac Fire Departments, and formed a joint Training Consortium, reducing our annual expenses by approximately $158,000.

Our Fire Prevention Division provided a multitude of public education opportunities, including the training and certifi cation of 42 CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) members. Furthermore, 33 of our CERT members were successful in achieving State of Washington Emergency Workers certifi cation. We also had the opportunity to provide CPR/First Aid training and certifi cation for 100 Tahoma School District students.

The Fire Marshal and crews completed 335 fi re safety building inspections in 2011. We were also able to secure $3936 in grants in the form of money and equipment for CERT equipment, smoke detector batteries and reimbursement for CPR/First Aid instruction. We partnered with the City of Maple Valley and developed an impact fee program to assist in maintaining our current level of services as developments are added. Working alongside our union, we developed a salary sav-ings program, which helps eliminate some of the barriers for members wishing to retire, while at the same time providing a savings to the District.

Department members organized and staffed numerous public events including: Kids Fest, our annual open house, MDA fi ll the boot, and the Jerry Wood Holiday Engine. We were able to complete a remodel of Station 81 (across the street from old Precinct 3) on time and under budget. This past fall we conducted Lieutenant, Captain and Battalion Chief promotional assessment pro-cesses, which was given to 20 applicants.

Regarding personnel, we saw our Offi ce Manager of twenty years, Faye Barker, move on to sun-nier days in eastern Washington. In November, we said thanks and goodbye to Jennifer Rydberg for her two years of service as Fire Commissioner, and welcomed aboard newly-elected Commissioner Gabe DeBay.

I am pleased with how we have overcome obstacles and what we were able to accomplish in 2011. As we move into 2012 with newly-anticipated hurdles ahead, I am confi dent that your Fire Department will remain dedicated to providing the highest level of quality services to our community and all our residents. Once again, we appreciate your continued support.

OperationsIn the last article, we discussed the staffi ng levels of the District and the tiered response system. A good example of how this system works was demonstrated in a call to which we recently responded. A few weeks ago, a 9-1-1 call was placed for a person who was in cardiac arrest. The dispatcher assisted the caller over the phone with CPR instructions while dispatching the appropriate units. The closest unit was a fi re engine (as you may recall all of our fi re engines carry emergency medical kits), which was backed up by one of our aid cars. Due to the seriousness of the incident, a medic unit was also dispatched. Upon arrival, the engine crew took over the ongoing bystander CPR, shocked the patient twice, and then – with the help of the aid car crew -- transferred the patient to the medic unit. The medic unit transported the patient to the hospital. We’re happy to report that the patient survived and was released with no signifi cant debilitations. This event illustrates how important

the “chain of survival” and the tiered response is, which starts with trained citizen CPR and the call to 9-1-1, and ends with defi nitive care at the hospital. Not only do we respond to emergency medical incidents, but we are an “all hazards” fi re department. This means that we will respond to and mitigate any emergency to which

we are dispatched. Due to the wide variety of emergencies that occur, it is diffi cult to be experts for every type of incident, which is again why we rely on a tiered system. If there is an emergency that we are not an expert in, such as a major hazardous materials incident, we will respond and start the mitigation process while units respond from a neighboring fi re district such as the Kent Fire Department, who has that expertise. The process is also reciprocal. If Maple Valley Fire has an expertise that is needed by another agency, such as swiftwater and high angle rescue, then we will respond into another fi re district to assist in their emergency. This is another example of the tiered system, and what we call mutual aid. Mutual aid is the system of fi re departments helping each other when needed. Not only is a specifi c expertise sometimes needed, but for certain emergencies, we also need more personnel and apparatus. For example, on a structure, it is our goal to have a minimum of 15 personnel respond. The minimum level of staffi ng in the District on any day is 11, with a maximum of 15. Therefore, on these calls we rely on mutual aid assistance to help mitigate the incident. The mutual aid sys-tem is used throughout the industry because it is very diffi cult, fi nancially, to staff a fi re department

so it can respond to all emergencies by itself.Historically, we respond – on an average -- to less than ten incidents per day, with 70 to 80 percent of the incidents being emergency medi-cal calls. However, there are times when we will fl uctuate up to nearly 20 calls per day. And, when we have signifi cant events such as the recent snow/ice storm, resources can be over-whelmed. During this last storm, we responded to over 100 emergencies in two days with an average of nearly 40 calls per day over a four-day period. Most of the incidents were not critical, but we did respond to multiple structure fi res and life threatening injuries. In events such as this, we prioritize the calls and keep units in service so that we can promptly respond to the serious incidents. This may mean a delayed response to non-critical incidents, but allows us to provide the best services to the community as a whole. If you have any questions about how we respond to emergencies or our protocols, please contact me at mattc@maplevalleyfi re.org. If you have an organization such as a home owner’s association, etc. and would like me to attend or speak at a meeting or event, I would be more than happy to do so. In our next article we will discuss the role of our training division.

Thank you and be safe!Matt CowanDeputy Chief of Operations

IntroductionWe would

like to introduce Dave Bille, who has worked at Maple Valley Fire & Life Safety for 23 years. Dave is currently a Bat-talion Chief and works at Station #81.

Dave has been married to his wife Peggy for nine years and they have lived in Maple Valley for 17 years. They have two kids; Lani age 16 and Jacob age 15. Lani attends Tahoma Senior High and Jacob attends Tahoma Junior High. Peggy works as a registered nurse.

Dave’s hobbies include; hiking, fi shing, water skiing and watching his kids play soccer and football. He also enjoys spending time outdoors with his family and friends.

Dave has earned an AA degree in fi re sci-ence from Bellevue College and a Bachelors Degree in fi re command and administration from Eastern Oregon University. He is honored to live and work in Maple Valley and wants everyone to know that they are being served by some of the best fi refi ghters in the country.

Is your number up? Every minute is critical in life-threatening situations!Firefi ghters, emergency vehicles, and personnel may need to fi nd your home quickly should an emergency occur. It is diffi cult for emergency vehicles, utility trucks, and postal/delivery trucks to fi nd homes and businesses whose address numbers are not properly posted.

In an effort to serve you better, the Maple Valley Fire Department is requesting that residents cooperate in posting their street numbers on their homes. The importance of having an address number highly visible on your home or driveway cannot be emphasized enough. We encourage residents to post refl ective address signs so emergency vehicles can quickly fi nd your home even when it is dark.

Walk out to the street in front of your home and see if your house numbers can

easily be seen. Do this at night time as well. If they can be seen, then the fi re

department has a greater chance of possibly saving a life.

Here are some basic rules to follow:

easily detected from the street.

set of numbers should also be displayed on the mailbox or on a post at the street or end of the drive.

direction. Be sure to mark both sides of your mailbox or mark your house number in such a way that it may be easily seen, no matter from which direction they are approaching.

A Commissioner’s View

Brad Doerfl inger

Matt Cowan

Dave Bille

Janine JohnsonBill VanRuff

February 17, 2012[12]

This month’s featured advertiser…The Loft Salon & Spa is a mother/daughter

endeavor, now in our 4th year in Diamond Square. Owned and operated by Valerie and Nikki Westover, we fi rst opened in 2008. We are a L’Oreal Professionnel exclusive salon, specializing in color, including the new revolutionary INOA color line. All of us at The Loft Salon & Spa pride ourselveson staying up to date with current trends andeducation.Come visit Marci Smith, and take advantage

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Valley Girls & Guys! Susan G. Komen 3 Day Team next meeting is Monday, February 27, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.at the Rock Creek Elementary library. Great opportunity to meet the team, get questions answered and talk aboutall of our upcoming fundraisers. Thinking about joining? Great opportunity to hear all about us! See you there!

NEW LOW PRICE! NEW PRICE! 200 feet of waterfront on the Cedar River in the heart of Maple Valley! 3 bedroom, 2 bath home w/bonus room located on .68 acre! Kitchen is open to both family & living room area and most of the rooms have river views! Light & bright master suite also has sprawling views of the river, windows galore and skylights! Located in the award winning Tahoma School District! $269,000

NEW LISTING!! Welcome home to the heart of Maple Valley in the Lake Wilderness area! This 3 BR rambler has fenced yard and is tucked up and away. It off ers a peaceful setting, and boasts a Lake Wilderness view. Located in the award-winning Tahoma School District!$375,000

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[13]February 17, 2012

SPORTS

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Tahoma’s Tim Whitehead is moments away from getting the pin in the 112-pound fi nal against Jesse Grice of South Kitsap on Feb. 11 in the Region III wrestling tournament at Thomas Jeff erson High, which the Bears won easily. KRIS HILL, The Reporter To view a slide show go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com and to buy photos go to the website and click on the photo reprints tab.

BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

This could be Ta-homa’s year at Mat

Classic.With 15 wrestlers

advancing to the state wres-tling championships Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome — four more than a year ago and more wrestlers than Mead of Spokane,

the team wrestling experts consider Tahoma’s top adversary — the Bears’ goal to win state looks more realistic than ever.

Tahoma rolled to an easy victory at the Region III tournament Feb. 11 at Th omas Jeff erson High, racking up 303.5 points to second place South Kitsap’s 141.5 points.

Kentwood fi nished

fi ft h with 85 points while Kentlake fi nished sixth with 56 points. Both crowned a regional champion.

Th ere were a number of eery similarities in the fi nals with several matches featuring the same two wrestlers who battled it out at the sub-regional tourna-ment on Feb. 4 at Kent-Meridian High.

For example, Tahoma’s Steven Hopkins and Jesse Vaughan both ended up in the 126 pound fi nal, but unlike the sub-regional

tournament the two battled it out on the mat. Hop-kins came away with the regional championship with a 10-2 defeat of Vaughan.

Tim Whitehead started the fi nals off for Tahoma with a pin in the 112 pound weight class with 32 seconds left in the fi nal period. Sam Schuessler will join Whitehead in the same weight class at state as he fi nished fourth.

Tahoma sophomore Cruz Velasquez put together a dominating match in a 12-1

win over Warren Sprecher of Central Kitsap at 120 pounds.

Gabe Boynay, a sopho-more, took home the regional crown at 132 when teammate Joey Palmer took an injury default. Palmer, a senior bound for Oregon State next year, won the 125 pound title as a junior at Rogers High.

Austin Perry just kept doing work for Tahoma at 182. To continue with that sense of de ja vu,

BEAR DOWN

Tahoma wins regional crown with six individual champions, 15 going to state

[ more BEAR page 14 ]

HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS

AT SHOWARE FEB. 23The Harlem Globetrotters are

returning to the ShoWare Center in Kent for the fourth

consecutive year.The Globetrotters will bring

their World Tour mix of basketball, comedy, theater and

plenty of fan interaction at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23

to the arena. Rosters in each city vary and are

subject to change.Ticket prices are $87, $62, $55,

$37, $27 and $23. Last year’s performance sold out.

For tickets, go to www.showarecenter.com or visit the

arena box offi ce from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday

and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

February 17, 2012[14]

White River Valley Museum

918 H Street SE, (Les Gove Park)

ADMISSION: $1 for children and seniors, $2 for adults

Admission Free Each Wednesday & 4th Sunday

580195www.wrvmuseum.org

Best FriendsAntique Images of

Animals and Their People

Sponsored by:Last Chance!

Registration closes February 18, 2012

Register online at www.maplevalleyponyball.org

All boys and girls ages 5-18

are welcome to play

Contact us at [email protected]

Register Now for the 2012Spring Baseball Season

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Perry again pinned his way through the bracket, just as he did a week earlier. And again he pinned James West of Auburn in the final.

Before Perry got the fall, though, it looked like he might have been in a little trouble. He was working from the bottom then before West knew it, Perry had slipped out of his grip and put West on his back, finishing it 3 minutes, 37 seconds into the match.

Dan Haniger, via injury default in his final match of the day, took fourth place at 152 for Tahoma.

At 195, Tahoma’s Matt Hopkins squared off again with Thomas Jefferson star KW Williams, in the final which was another repeat of the sub-regional final.

This time, however, Hop-kins was able to lift Wil-

liams twice in an effort to bring him back down to the mat but Williams had a 6-4 lead late in the third period and Hopkins was unable to get a shot and take down in when the opportunity presented itself.

Then again, Hopkins, had just six seconds to do it and it would have been a tall task with 20 seconds given Williams’ strength and agility.

At 220, Aaron Davis finished the day off with a bang, pinning his final two opponents. Davis dispatched Jon Davine of Mount Tahoma in 51 seconds in the third-fourth place match.

The night ended on a somewhat disappointing note for the Bears.

Ed Torres lost in a decision to Kyle Lanoue of Central Kitsap in the 285

pound final.It was also a pretty good

night for the Conquerors, who sent two wrestlers to the finals, and will take a to-tal of four to Mat Classic.

Ken Sroka, longtime head coach for Kentwood, wrote in an email Sunday that he was pleased his athletes.

“The overall performance of my kids was good,” Sroka wrote. “At this time of year you win some that you didn’t see coming, and, you lose a few. We definitely lost a couple of matches that I feel we were the better wrestler, but, every coach in the state would probably say the same thing.”

Kentwood’s Dalton Mey-ers, who wrestled at state last year as a freshman, took third in the 126 pound class with a 3-1 win over Tyson Gaillac of Auburn. Jamiel Jackson, a junior, finished fourth at 132.

Perhaps the highlight of the night for the Conks was Ohashi’s 10-6 win over

Auburn’s Seth Mizoguchi at 160 pounds. It was another rematch of a sub-regional contest from a week ago which had a very different result.

Ohashi was able to find shots from neutral and get escape points. He was more aggressive and confident than on Feb. 4 when Mizo-guchi got the better of him with an 8-4 decision.

“Jonathan Ohashi’s win meant a lot for his con-fidence moving to state,” Sroka wrote. “He lost to the Auburn kid… last week and we talked all week about what to do, and what not to do if we met up with him again. Jonathan wrestled a great match and came out on top to earn a good seed at state. Jonathan had an injury his 10th grade year that kept him out for the season, and, last year he didn’t make it out of sub-regionals. Jonathan is wres-tling well right now and if he keeps it up, he can earn

his way onto the podium at the state tournament.”

Matthew Herrick made it to the 220 final against Eddie Meisner of South Kit-sap. Things looked good for Herrick until the midway point of the third period when Meisner was able to capitalize on a mistake and get Herrick on his back and pinned 55 seconds into the period.

Kentlake’s Colton Mar-lowe and Sean Farr wrestled in back to back regional finals.

Marlowe earned a 6-4 decision over Kyle Iverson of Gig Harbor to take home the title at 138 while Farr couldn’t seem to find a way for the second week in a row to beat Tahoma’s Tan-ner Mjelde, who won the 145 pound final with a 6-4 decision.

Kent-Meridian’s Thomas Kemp scored an upset of Garret Autrey in the 170 pound title match. With 38 seconds left in the match

with Autrey trying to score with a 1-0 lead, Kemp got two points on a take down near the edge of the circle, ending the contest with a 2-1 win in another sub-regional rematch which featured a different winner the second time around.

Joshua Smith finished strong for the Royals, as well, as he took apart Mala-chi Conklin in the third-fourth place contest with a 9-4 victory at 138 pounds.

Chris Bailey will repre-sent Kentridge at Mat Clas-sic thanks to a third place finish at 160 while Kenny Hobbs got a 6-3 victory over Tahoma’s Todd Link in the 106 pound third-fourth place match.

Reach Kris Hill at [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.To comment on this story go to www.maplevalleyre-porter.com.

[ BEAR from page 13]

BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

Students from Tahoma and Kentlake signed on the dotted line on Feb. 1.

A trio of Tahoma athletes committed to play at the college level on Feb. 1 while seven Kentlake student-athletes were celebrated on Friday morning.

Barrett Weston of Ta-homa will play football and Lauren Duty will play soc-cer at Central Washington University while Cassidy

Richmond will take to the soccer pitch for Boise State next year.

From Kentlake, five foot-ball players will compete on the college gridiron next

year with Ryan Ar-chibald and Tanner Lucas heading to Central, Kyle Minnis going to

St. Cloud State and Caleb Saulo set to go

to Oregon State.Meanwhile Austin Per-

nell, who also plays football and basketball, has earned a scholarship to the Wash-

ington State University baseball team.

Edgardo Ferrer, who is a member of the Falcons boys soccer team, will play at Hastings College next year.

Finally Laura Rayfield, a captain on the Kentlake girls soccer team, has com-mitted to play at Oregon State.

Reach Kris Hill at [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.To comment on this story go to www.maplevalleyre-porter.com.

Students commit to colleges

SIGNING

DAY

Tahoma and Kentlake athletes sign on the dotted line

Kentlake student athletes were celebrated on Feb. 10 as they prepare to compete in college. From left, Kyle Minnis, Ryan Archibald, Tanner Lucas, Austin Pernell, Edgardo Ferrer, Ashlann Wood, Laura Rayfield and Caleb Saulo. KRIS HILL, The Reporter

BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

It was a banner week on the basketball court for Kent schools capped off with Kentwood’s boys team beating Curtis for the South Puget Sound League title Feb. 10.

The Conquerors lost to the Vikings in the same game a year ago with many expecting a similar result this year.

Kentwood’s boys team, however, continued to sur-prise everyone but them-selves with a 49-41 win to earn the top seed into the district tournament.

Balanced offense and keeping mistakes to a mini-mum, something the Conks have been working on in the past two weeks, were the keys to victory against the Vikings.

Kentwood also scored 14 points off turnovers.

Isaiah Malvar led the scoring for Kentwood, including back to back buckets in the second quar-ter, with 11 points.

Malvar got a bucket in transition then capitalized on a Curtis turnover when he took a pass on a fast break, slowed down just enough in the paint to let the lone Curtis defender fly by and out of bounds, then put the ball in the hoop. He scored two points on the

next Conks possession with another transition lay-in.

Taylor Jones his a jumper on the next possession for Kentwood with 3:40 left in the quarter to cap the 6-0 run and make it 17-11.

At halftime it was a 22-15 Kentwood advantage but Curtis came out of the locker room ready to go. The Vi-kings outscored the Conks 13-8 in the third period including a three pointer by Domin-ique Robinson, who scored 17 for Curtis, to cut the lead to 30-26.

Robinson then started off the third with another trey to help Curtis take a 31-30 lead but Austin Weiher answered quickly for Kent-wood with a bucket under-neath to make it 32-31.

Kentwood did not relin-quish the lead again though Curtis did not let up.

With little more than three minutes left on the clock, Joe Kramer dropped in a jump shot to make it 43-37 Kentwood, who then spread the offense out and moved the ball around to run out the clock in ensu-ing possession.

Jones finished with eight points as did Kramer while Austin Benson had nine on 3-of-5 from the three point line.

Kentridge’s boys squad started it off on Feb. 9 with

a 63-59 win over Spanaway Lake then the Kentwood girls kept it going in the first game at ShoWare Cen-ter on Feb. 10.

Senior point guard Maddison Rankin led the Conquerors with 18 points,

including a trio of three pointers, one of which put Kentwood up 17-10 over Emerald

Ridge in the first quarter.

Kentwood didn’t look back after that, winning the battle of No. 2 seeds 57-44, earning the No. 3 berth in

the 4A West Central Dis-trict tournament.

Alycea DeLong chipped in 11 points while Sarah Toeaina added nine and Jenny Johnson score eight in the victory.

Next up at ShoWare was Kent-Meridian, which finished second in the SPSL North division, taking on Federal Way in a contest for the third and fourth seeds.

This game started off slow, with the Royals and Eagles tied at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter, but the pace and scoring sped up in the fourth quarter as K-M

held off Federal Way 46-39.Gary Bailey took the

Royals on his shoulders in the final period.

Kent-Meridian had a six point lead going into the fourth quarter and after a Martel Taylor-Barone bucket with 2 minutes, 38 seconds left in the game, the lead was 10 at 39-29.

Bailey hit his second three ball of the fourth after he spun away from a Fed-eral Way defender, put the ball on the floor, the spotted up and drained the shot to get the lead back to 10 at 41-31 with two minutes left.

He finished with 16 points while Mike Banks had 11, Arman Brar had seven and Abu Kamara had six.

On Feb. 11 the Kentridge girls came away with a 47-43 win over Spanaway Lake at Auburn High.

The same afternoon the Kentlake boys traveled to Auburn High to take on Rogers for the seventh and eighth seeds into the district tournament which started Tuesday, after the Reporter’s press deadline.

Kentlake came away with the 61-58 win.

[15]February 17, 2012

...obituariesPlace a paid obituary to honor those

who have passed away, call Linda at 253.234.3506

[email protected] obituaries include publication

in the newspaper and online atwww.covingtonreporter.com

www.maplevalleyreporter.comAll notices are subject to verifi cation.

DELIVERY TUBESAVAILABLE

The Covington/Maple Valley/ Black Diamond Reporteris published every Friday and deliverytubes are available FREE to our readerswho live in our distribution area.

Our newspaper tube can be installedon your property at no charge to you.Or the tube can be provided to you to install at your convenience next to your mailbox receptacle or at the end of your driveway.

Pick up your FREE tube at our Maple Valley offi ce, locatedat 22035 SE Wax Road, Suite 20 during regular business hours.(Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

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COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND

REPORTER

Tritec Homes, Inc. PO Box 951 Sumner, WA 98390, is seeking coverage under the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Construction Storm- water NPDES and State Waste Discharge General Permit. The proposed project, Woodbridge Subdivision is located at 15416 SE 256th St in Covington, in King County. This project involves 1.49 acres of soil disturbance for residential, utility, single family subdivision construction activities. Stormwa- ter will be discharged to ground- water and Big Soos Creek. Any persons desiring to present their views to the Washington State Department of Ecology regarding this application, or inter- ested in Ecology’s action on this application, may notify Ecology

in writing no later than 30 days of the last date of publication of this notice. Ecology reviews public comments and considers whether discharges from this project would cause a measur- able change in receiving water quality, and, if so, whether the project is necessary and in the overriding public interest according to Tier II antidegradation requirements under WAC 173-201A-320.Comments can be submitted to: Department of Ecology Attn: Water Quality Program, Construction Stormwater P.O. Box 47696, Olympia, WA 98504-7696 Published in Covington/Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporter on February 10, 2012 and Febru- ary 17, 2012. #582799.

PUBLIC HOSPITAL DISTRICT NO. 1

OF KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON

VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER

NOTICE OF REGULAR MEETING TIME CHANGE

The regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Public Hospital District No. 1 of King County, (Valley Medical Center) scheduled for the 3rd Mondays of each month at 5:30 p.m., has been rescheduled to start at 6:30 p.m., effective Tuesday, February 21, 2012. Regular meetings of this Board will continue to be held on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month at the start time of 5:30 p.m. on the 1st Monday of each month and 6:30 p.m. on the 3rd

Monday of each month thereaf- ter, unless changed by public notice. Monday meetings will automatically move to Tuesday when a federal holiday occurs on the 1st or 3rd Monday of each month.BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSPUBLIC HOSPITAL DISTRICT NO. 1 OF KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON (VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER)By: Sandra Sward Assistant to the Board of Commissioners Published in the Kent, Renton, Covington/Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporters on February 17, 2012. #584988.

PUBLIC NOTICES

CITY OF COVINGTON NOTICES

CITY COUNCIL NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2012 – 7:00 P.M.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Covington City Council will hold a public hearing on designating residential target areas for applying multi-family tax exemptions under RCW 84.14.040. Proposed residential target areas include the Town Center (TC) Zone, the Mixed Housing and Office (MHO) Zone, and the Multi-Family Residential R-18 Zone, all within the City of Covington. The public hearing will be at the regular Council meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2012, at 7:00 p.m., to be held in the Council Chambers at Covington City Hall, 16720 S.E. 271st Street, Covington, WA 98042.

The purpose of this public hearing is for the City Council to receive comments from the public, both written and oral, regarding the proposed regulations for enacting tax exemptions provisions for future multi-family residential housing projects in three (3) Residential Target Areas, the TC, the MHO, and the R-18 Zones, under provisions of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 84.14.040. All property owners in these three zones or adjacent property may be affected by the proposed regulations, and such property owners are encouraged to contact the city if they have questions.

The City Council is also tentatively scheduled to adopt an ordinance applying new property tax exemption provisions for new multi-family residential projects in the three target area zones at a future Council meeting. The proposed tax exemption regulations and maps of the residential target areas are available for review at City Hall and by contacting Ann Mueller, Senior Planner, at [email protected] or via phone at 253-638-1110, ext. 2224 All persons desiring to comment may do so in writing to Sharon Scott, City Clerk, at 16720 SE 271st Street, Suite 100, Covington, Washington, 98042, prior to 5:00 p.m. on February 27 or by appearing at the public hearing on February 28, 2012.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that agenda information will be posted the Friday prior to the above meeting at Covington City Hall and on the City’s web site: www.covingtonwa.gov. For further information, please contact Ann Mueller, AICP, Senior Planner, at [email protected] or by phone at 253-638-1110, ext. 2224.

PLANNING COMMISSION NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2012 – 6:30 PM

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Covington City Planning Commission will hold a Public Hearing at its meeting on Thursday, March 1, 2012, at 6:30 p.m., to be held in the Council Chambers at Covington City Hall, 16720 S.E. 271st Street, Covington, WA.

The purpose of the Public Hearing is for the Planning Commission to receive comments, both written and oral, from the public, regarding repeal of Covington Municipal Code 18.70 Development Standards-Communications Facilities and adoption of new land use and development regulations for Wireless Communication Facilities (WCF’s) (cell towers and other communication facilities) in the City of Covington, including the appropriate zoning districts where such facilities are permitted, and the specific heights, development standards and co-location requirements.

All persons desiring to comment may do so in writing to Kelly Thompson, Planning Commission Secretary, 16720 SE 271st Street, Suite 100, Covington, Washington 98042 prior to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, 2012, or by appearing at the public hearing. Copies of the City Staff Report and Recommendations, along with the proposed regulations will be available for inspection and copying at Covington City Hall by Friday, February, 24, 2012, and on the City website.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that a draft of the proposed Wireless Communication Facilities (WCF) regulations can be obtained on February 17, 2012, on the City’s web site: www.covingtonwa.gov. For further information, please contact Ann Mueller, Senior Planner, at (253) 638-1110, ext. 2224 or via email at [email protected] Published in the Covington/Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporter on February 17, 2012. #585791.

To place a Public/Legal Notice, please call 253-234-3506or e-mail [email protected]

Wins all around for Kent high school hoops

HOOPS

PLAYOFFS

[16] Feb 17, 2012 www.nw-ads.comwww.covingtonreporter.com www.maplevalleyreporter.com

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Th e highest amount of salt Americans eat comes from bread, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nearly 50 percent of the salt consumed in the U.S. is linked to popular foods such as baked goods, cold cuts, cured meats, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches, cheese, pasta and snacks like pretzels and potato chips. Many items loaded with salt don’t even taste salty.

Th e study, which involved more than 7,000 participants, found that bread accounted for an average of seven percent of daily sodium intake, more than any other

individual food item. Bread may not contain the highest amount of salt per serving, but the fact that people eat it more oft en and in larger quantities than most other foods makes it a leading contributor to high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

Th e average Ameri-can consumes about 3,250 milligrams of salt per day, far more than what’s recommended by the government’s dietary guidelines, which is 2,300 milligrams for healthy adults and 1,500 milligrams for high blood pressure and heart disease patients.

More than 30 percent of the adult population suff ers from high blood pressure according to the CDC.

Most consumers are not aware that they are getting too much salt. What makes matters worse is that they could not easily change that even if they wanted to.

“Most so-dium comes from

common grocery store and restaurant items and only a very small portion from the shaker at the table,” Dr. Th omas R. Frieden, the Director of the CDC, told reporters. “People can choose

how much salt they add to their food at the table, but they can’t take it out once it’s there.”

In fact, more than 60 percent of the salt consumed by Americans is found in processed foods, about 25 percent in restaurant meals and the remainder from other sources such as vend-ing machines and extra salt added at home, according to CDC statistics.

Frieden called for food manufacturers and restaurant owners to reduce the amount of salt they apply to their products. It is estimated that a 25 percent reduction in salt content in the most popular food items could save tens of

thousands of lives every year.Food industry represen-

tatives have responded by saying that reducing sodium would adversely aff ect taste and may also violate food safety standards because salt is commonly used as a preservative.

Th e CDC study report was released in the Febru-ary edition of the journal “Vital Signs,” just in time to coincide with Heart Health Month.

Sodium is well known to raise blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. More than 800,000 Americans die each year from these diseases.

Health experts have long advised that people with heart problems should avoid processed and packaged foods as much as possible and eat more fresh produce instead. With regard to bread, it is important to read the nutrition facts labels.

Sodium content in diff er-

ent breads can considerably vary between 80 and well over 200 milligrams.

Other items like canned soups can have a wide sodium range from 100 to well over 900 milligrams, depending on the brand. Many fast food choices and TV dinners contain astronomical amounts of salt, oft en more than the recommended daily values in just one serving.

Asking food manufac-turers and restaurants to voluntarily change the ways they use salt has not been shown to be very eff ective, although there are excep-tions. Other than through legislation, the only promis-ing approach would be con-sumer demand. If grocery store owners found that customers prefer low-sodi-um products and restaurant patrons asked to have salt reduced or eliminated in their dishes, we could see some positive changes over time.

Government study finds too much salt in bread

February 17, 2012[18]

...HEALTHY LIVING

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425-228-KIDS (5437)451 Duvall Ave NE, Ste 140Visit us online:www.akidsplacedentistry.com

Keith E. McDonald, DMD

Changing the myth of scary dentistry,one smile at a time...

What you eat can actually make your teeth stronger! There are a number of vitamins and minerals that can help strengthen the enamel on your teeth. The three primary minerals are calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. A great website to reference is www.Nutritiondata.com to find natural food sources for these important minerals. For more information about how to keep your child’s mouth healthy, visit us online at www.akidsplacedentistry.com.

We welcome new patients!

Certified, American Board of Pediatric DentistryMember American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry

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Dr. Mabel Obeng

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Evening and Saturday Appointments Available with Dr. Mabel ObengCall to schedule your appointment 425.651.433822500 SE 64th Place Suite 120 Issaquah, WA 98027www.issaquahwomens.com

Dr. Maria HolmesBoard Certifi ed

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Issaquah Women’s Clinic

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Now Open in

Maple Valley

Maple Valley Pediatric DentistryCurtis Barnett, D.D.S., PLLC

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FUNGAL INFECTIONSAnybody who has suffered the itchy discomfort of a yeast in-

fection or athlete’s foot has had some experience with a fungus growing on their skin. As awful as it sounds, a fungus, which is really just a very primitive vegetable, doesn’t cause too much more than discomfort in healthy people with normal immune systems. Infections like jock itch, athlete’s foot, ringworm, and certain nail infections are all caused by a fungus that can be treated with ei-ther topical cream or oral anti-fungal medicine. However, a health care provider should be consulted to determine which course of treatment is best. People who have compromised immune sys-tems should always seek the advice of a health care provider. To help prevent fungal infections, change out of gym clothes when done exercising, wear rubber shoes in public showers, and change undergarments and socks daily.

Today’s active lifestyles can make it easier for anyone to be-come exposed to a fungal infection. Fortunately there are several effective treatment regimens available. Typically, antifungal drugs or ointments will be effective and oral antibiotics may also be recommended.

For more information or to schedule a medical appointment, please call Southlake Clinic health care at (253) 395-1972. We are a multi-specialty medical group with a clinic at 27005 168th Place SE in Covington. We are also open on Saturdays.

Family DentistryFour Corners

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[19]February 17, 2012

Because of Mary Bridge, quality pediatric care is here when you need it.

Covington

17700 SE 272nd StCovington, WA 98042253.372.7155

Connie Corcoran, MDRobert LeClair, MDJames Morton, MDGayathri Rao, MDCheryl Tan-Jacobson, MDElizabeth Hadland, ARNP

Auburn

Plaza Two, 202 N Division St., Suite 202 Auburn, WA 98001253.876.8088

Bruce Oriel, MDRaymond Myers, MDMegan Lindale, ARNP

MultiCare Health Systemmulticare.org

Turn to a Mary Bridge pediatrician

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February 17, 2012[20]

With more than 8000 joint replacement surgeries performed, Washington’s fi rst joint center is also the state’s best, according to HealthGrades® for 2010, 2011 and 2012—and has received its Five-Star Rating in Joint Replacement for nine consecutive years.

An acclaimed model for best practices and recently celebrating our 11th anniversary, The Joint Center is led by nationally recognized surgeons in procedures, implant design and research, along with our team of specialized joint replacement nurses and therapists.

State-of-the-art surgical techniques and implant selection, brand new facilities on a dedicated fl oor in our South Tower, attentive care and personalized therapy, private rooms and the success of nearly 1300 surgeries performed just last year, make The Joint Center your top choice for joint replacement.

For more information, to obtain a physician referral or to attend a FREE joint replacement seminar, please visit us at valleymed.org/joint or call us at 425.656.4636.

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2010 2011 2012

Active Joint Center patients loving life and living without pain. See more joint replacement patients doing what they enjoy at facebook.com/valleymed.

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Covington/Maple Valley Reporter, February 17, 2012

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Transcript of Covington/Maple Valley Reporter, February 17, 2012