Part two of our look back on 2016 continues with more changes in leadership, summertime events, a new elementary school this fall, and a look at what’s ahead for the Valley communities.

July 6

• Snoqualmie held its first fireworks show on Independence Day, hosted by the nonprofit Serve Snoqualmie and presented by Entertainment Fireworks. Hundreds of residents turned out at Community Park on Snoqualmie Ridge to enjoy the 15-minute spectacle.

• Members of the Snoqualmie Mosque gathered at Jeanne Hansen Park July 3 to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson presented the mosque with a 200-year-old copy of the Quran.

• King County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Shaun Tubbs last week in Covington, ending a nearly monthlong search for the fugitive. Tubbs had previously been hiding out in North Bend, and was the subject of an extensive search in the area June 14.

• Jim Schaffer, retired as Snoqualmie Police Chief in 2012, was sworn into office as the city’s interim police chief June 27. Schaffer agreed to fill the role until the city’s new chief, hired earlier in December, is installed and up to speed in his new position.

• Carnation celebrated the Fourth of July with its traditional festivities, including three-on-three basketball, music, theater and the always popular parade, led by this year’s grand marshalls, Tod and Linda Johnson.

July 13

• North Bend officials are explaining a significant rate increase to sewer system users, as necessary to keep the city in compliance with federal EPA regulations. About $27 million in repairs and updates are needed, resulting in a rate increase of 46 percent, over the next four years. Most of the city’s aging wastewater treatment equipment needs repairs and some of the most expensive components need to have a redundant backup system, for the city to be in compliance with its permit.

• Relay for Life was held July 9, raising $98,000 in the fight against cancer.

• Katie Bunker of Duvall has already beaten cancer, now she’s taking on a new challenge, a 50-mile bicycle ride to raise funds for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

July 20

• Friends of the Trail, founded by Wade and Tonya Holden, marks its 20th year of cleaning out illegal dump sites throughout King County. The couple were inspired to start the organization while on a camping trip, surrounded by the trash that other campers had left behind. “If you could put together a non-profit to do roadside cleanup for community service maybe you could make a little impact,” they thought, so that’s what they did, establishing contracts with King County organizations and the state of Washington to clean up our beautiful outdoor areas.

• Hundreds of North Bend residents came out over the weekend for the city’s annual downtown Block Party, headlined by Spike and the Impalers and Heart by Heart.

July 27

• Timber Ridge Elementary School, about to open in the Snoqualmie Valley School District, was awarded $7 million in state construction funds. The $35 million project was part of a $244 million bond approved by voters in 2013. School officials had originally projected only $6 million in state construction funds for the district’s sixth elementary school.

August 3

• A boy in Montana is alive and well today, because Darci Gillen of Snoqualmie knew CPR, and was there to save 18-month-old Kaden Sluggett when he fell into a stream near her parent’s Lewiston vacation cabin.

• The Northwest Honkers are going to the World Series again. The National Baseball Congress event starts Aug. 5 in Wichita, Kan. The team, owned by Martin and Jocelyn Lawrence, chalked up its most wins ever this season.

August 10

• Snoqualmie and North Bend officials are challenging the authority of the Puget Sound Regional Council, which recently issued a conditional approval of both cities’ comprehensive plans, and criticized the cities for projecting too much growth, and too fast. The conditional approval could limit the amount of federal funding, which is administered and distributed by the PSRC, that would be available to both cities.

• Three Valley golfers earned bronze medals in the Special Olympics regional golf competition: Tyrrell Oliveres, Kelsey Glenn and Kevin Howe.

August 17

• Gregory Malcolm was named the Grand Marshal of the Festival at Mount Si, which this year featured a new series of events in tribute to the return of the popular television show “Twin Peaks.” Margaret Onarehim won the blueberry dessert contest.

• Members of the Washington Civil War Association spent the weekend on Meadowbrook Farm, re-enacting a fictitious battle of the civil war and recreating civilian life, as well.

August 24

• Snoqualmie dedicated its Sister Cities Park, on Maple Avenue S.E., next to City Hall, on Aug. 17, with representatives from Snoqualmie, North Bend, Korea and Peru. The dedication recognized the work of the Snoqualmie Sister Cities Association in building relationships with communities in the Valley and people across the world.

• Fall City’s historic hop shed, located in Fall City Community Park, is only in fair to poor condition, says Harrison Goodall, an architectural conservation consultant. He is conducting a review of the building, used for decades to dry hops grown in the area during the hops craze. The Fall City Historical Society contacted Goodall for the assessment, funded by a grant from King County 4Culture.

Snoqualmie’s 78th annual Railroad Days celebration lasted three scorching days and brought people together to share shade wherever they could find it. Northwest Railway Museum Executive Director Richard Anderson was named the Railroad Days Grand Marshal.

• Downtown Snoqualmie’s clothing bank is closing its doors. “Gift of Apparel,” operated by the Snoqualmie Valley Alliance church, lost its location when the city-owned building was sold.

• Valley historian Cristy Lake has been appointed to the King County Landmark’s Commission.

August 31

The Boeing Classic officially began on Friday, Aug. 26, as pros and fans alike came out to the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge for the tournament. As part of the traditional opening, the PGA tournament started with the Boeing jet flyover; at 11:20 a.m., a Korean Air 747-8 flew over the 18th green to start the competition.

• Former Snoqualmie Police Officer Nick Hogan, indicted on federal civil rights charges, is no longer working for the city. Hogan, who came to Snoqualmie in March 2014, was the subject of several excessive force lawsuits while a Tukwila Police officer. He was put on administrative leave twice in Snoqualmie for different offenses.

September 7

• The first day of school in the Valley, Aug. 31, was a bigger day than usual in Snoqualmie, where students, staff and parents celebrated the opening of the Snoqualmie Valley School district’s sixth elementary school, Timber Ridge Elementary. To be ready for the first day of school, the school district was busy for much of the summer with completing work on the school and hiring 100 new teachers throughout the district.

Sept. 14

• People have various reasons for hiking the Pacific Crest Trail; a group of combat veterans passing through the area over the Labor Day weekend, were doing it to heal, through the Warrior Expedition program. Beginning on April 11 along the Mexican border in Campo, Calif., veterans Joseph Jamison, Rueben Munoz, Daniel Janes and Jimmy Sellers started their trip up the West Coast, to work throught their challenges of returning to civilian life, and to hike all the way to Canada, with support from Warrior Expeditions.

• A full line-up of activities was planned for the Snoqualmie Valley Block Party, set for Sept. 17, but high winds and rainy weather forced organizers to cancel the event.

Sept. 21

• Work is slated to begin Monday on the reconstruction of Mount Si High School. The unexpected delay in starting the work was caused by several factors, including permitting processes, and the district’s acquisition of property needed for the work. Demolition is first on the schedule, as houses on the south end of the property and ball fields on the north end are removed to create temporary parking and construction staging areas.

• The Fall City Roadhouse’s new owners, Rob and Debbie Rosemont, are celebrating their new business venture with a week of “re-launch party” events.

• Snoqualmie Valley Women in Business focused on making the world a better place with their September luncheon, featuring Ginger Passarelli of The Soup Ladies as a guest speaker.

Sept. 28

• Feathers were ruffled in Carnation when the City Council began considering changes to its code for allowing chickens and other farm animals to be kept in residential areas. About a dozen residents, a TV news crew, and a couple of chickens turned out for the council’s Sept. 20 meeting, to urge the council to keep Carnation “country cool” by not restricting residents from keeping farm animals. Council members said the code was out of date and needed an update, which they were just starting discussions on that night.

• North Bend had another excellent turnout Saturday, at its city-wide music festival, the Blues Walk. Ticket sales set a new record for the event, which filled venues with musicians and music lovers for the evening.

• Music changed Mike McCoy’s life, which is why the Snoqualmie man now wants to help bring music to young people. He’s started the non-profit Tokul Creek Guitars, to build guitars for youth who can benefit from music in their lives.

Oct. 5

• Snoqualmie and the Snoqualmie Tribe have announced an agreement on sewer services to the Snoqualmie Casino. The breakdown of these talks earlier in the year had prompted the tribe to file a discrimination lawsuit against the city, later dismissed by a federal judge.

• Bark for Life, a dog-walking fundraiser by the Mount Si High School Key Club in support of its Relay for Life team, raised more than $1,200 over the weekend.

• Jessica Tate has joined the city of North Bend as the manager of the city’s Visitor Information Center and Mountainview Art Gallery, and come back to her birthplace at the same time. Tate was born in Snoqualmie, grew up in Redmond, went to college at Central Washington University and now lives in the first house she ever knew. With a degree in recreation and tourism management, she looks forward to introducing visitors to all the recreational opportunities that abound in this area.

October 12

• Snoqualmie’s Northwest Railway Museum has completed a project more than half a century in the making on Oct. 8, with the dedication of its new Railway Education Center.

• Mount Si Senior Center in North Bend and Sno-Valley Senior Center in Snoqualmie are experiencing significant and steady growth in demands for programming these days, as the “silver tsunami” of Baby Boomers reach the age of 65 in the next 15 years. Senior populations in King County are expected to quadruple and local senior centers are starting to plan now for how they’ll handle the wave.

• The Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce is looking for a new home, since the city of Snoqualmie has agreed to sell the chamber building at the corner of River and Falls Avenue. In the short term, the Chamber and Visitor Center will have a grace period, since the new owner, Flying Pie Pizzeria, is planning some updates to the building.

• Connie Guinn, a kindergarten teacher at Cascade View Elementary, was recognized at the Sept. 25 Seattle Seahawks game as a “Symetra Hero in the Classroom.”

October 19

• After missing a critical deadline in the permit application process, Black Canyon Hydro has ended its work on a proposed 25-megawatt hydropower plant on the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River. The 2011 proposal saw strong opposition from residents of Ernie’s Grove, just downstream of the project site, as well as conservation and recreation organizations, the city of Snoqualmie, King County, and the Snoqualmie Tribe.

• North Bend Masons Randall Rauschmeier and Ronald Woods were honored Oct. 5 in a ceremony celebrating their 50 years of service in the organization.

October 26

• After hearing from several parents and coaches about the shortage of nearby, and dry, sports fields for their children to play on, the North Bend City Council gave preliminary approval to a proposal for an indoor-outdoor athletic complex featuring four turf fields outside and a 75,000 square-foot, 12-court indoor facility to be built in Phase 2. The project site is 12 acres of open space between S.R. 202 and Boalch Avenue, just north of N.W. 14th Street.

• Tony Schlotfeldt, physical education teacher at Chief Kanim Middle School, was named Teacher of the Year by the Society of Health and Physical Educators of Washington on Oct. 14.

• Calvary Chapel North Bend has remade itself in recent months, in the image of what members believe to be a modern community of faith. Pastor Jack Arnold has joined the church, which relaunched itself as Calvary Mount Si in September.

• Mount Si High School’s Homecoming King and Queen, crowned Oct. 21, are Natalie and Jack Weidenbach.

Nov. 2

• North Bend citizens and City Councilors got a first look at preliminary designs for a new city hall at a council work study meeting Oct. 25. TCA Architecture and Lawhead Architects both presented their design ideas, begun in August, and took questions from the council.

• U.S. 8th District Congressman Dave Reichert was a guest speaker at the Oct. 26 Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The Representative spoke about U.S. trade, tax policy and police issues during the event.

November 9

• Siblings Hannah and Joe Waskom claimed top spots for themselves and for the Mount Si High School cross country team in the WIAA state 4A cross country championships Nov. 5 in Pasco. Hannah, a senior, finished fourth in the state and her brother Joe, a sophomore, finished third. The Mount Si girls took ninth as a team.

• The Board of Directors of the Riverview School District has been awarded Board of Distinction recognition from the Washington State School Directors Association for the third straight year. The award is based on the board’s history of fostering an environment that supports student achievement and closes the opportunity gap.

Nov. 16

• The Siber Defense Club, in its second year at Mount Si, recently competed in an international cybersecurity competition, placing 13th of 82 competitors, the highest placing for any U.S. school in the competition.

• Area schools commemorated Veterans Day with programs and assemblies. Artist Michael Reagan, of the Fallen Heroes Project, was a special guest speaker at several schools.

November 23

• A new fundraising group in the Valley is nothing if not efficient. The group, 100 Women Who Care – Greater Snoqualmie Valley, raises about $10,000 in an hour, says founding member Lauren Clark. “It’s fast, no-nonsense, from the heart giving,” she said.

• The Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie was awarded the John D. Spellman award for historic preservation by King County, for its preservation of the 1890-built Snoqualmie Depot, restoration of historic train cars and its work in education about the history of the rail industry in the Valley.

November 30

• The Snoqualmie Valley Winter Shelter, a seasonal homeless shelter, has opened its doors for the season. The shelter opened Nov. 20 at Snoqualmie United Methodist Church, and will move to Mount Si Lutheran Church in North Bend Jan. 19, then to Fall City United Methodist Church on March 5. The shelter season ends April 26.

• Mount Si graduate Ryan Moore has qualified for the Boston Marathon, set for April 17. Moore, who ran cross country when he was at Mount Si, qualified for the race in the July 31 Jack and Jill Downhill Marathon on the John Wayne Trail.

• Valley Center Stage brought back its popular version of “A Christmas Carol” for the holidays. The show, in its ninth year, features many of the former cast members in their original roles, including Gary Schwartz as Scrooge and Ed Benson as Jacob Marley.

December 7

• Snoqualmie Police reported finding the remains of an adult man in the woods along S.R. 202 Dec. 2. The man had no identification and police had no missing reports that matched his description.

• Snoqualmie couple Kora Stoynova and Simeon Stoynov have come the closest they’ve every come to a world title in ballroom dancing. The couple took second place in the U.S. national championships last September in Florida and on Oct. 22, they finished in seventh place in the world championships.

December 14

• Encompass has named the city of North Bend its Community Partner of the Year, and TCC Wireless as its Corporate Partner of the Year.

Mount Si High School’s dance team, now in its second year, took second place in the military categor of a Dec. 10 competition at Bellevue High School.

• It’s been around for at least 40 years and this year, it’s grown so much, the Mount Si Ski and Board Club is looking at alternative ways to transport its members to Snoqualmie Pass for six Thursdays of skiing. So far, 50 members have signed up for the club, but regular school buses can handle only 44 students.

December 21

• Perry Phipps has been hired as the new chief of the Snoqualmie Police Department. He is currently a captain in the Visalia, Calif., Police Department, who will be moving to Snoqualmie in the next few weeks and will be sworn into office Jan. 10.

• King County has awarded the city of Carnation $50,000 in funds to be used for youth sports facilities.

Entertainment Fireworks used thousands of effects in the show. The fireworks were set up early that day on top of the hill at Community Park. Evan Pappas/Staff Photo

The Super Troopers were recognized as the team that raised the largest amount of money, $15,551, during the Snoqualmie Valley Relay for Life. Evan Pappas/Staff Photo

Darci Gillen Dawson, center, smiles with her two younger children, Rafe and Madeira. This summer, while on vacation in Montana, she saved a child from drowning and received the Fergus County Lifesaving Award, the first to be awarded to a civilian. Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Members of the Calvary Mount Si Church line up behind their new sign during a work party to relaunch the church in September. Mary Miller Photo

Juliane Luna and two of her chickens joined about a dozen people at the Carnation City Council meeting Sept. 20, to oppose the proposed changes to city code on keeping chickens in the city. Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Encompass Executive Director Nela Cumming, center, presented North Bend Mayor Ken Hearing and Councilman and Mayor Pro-tem Ross Loudenback with the Community Partner of the Year award Dec. 6. Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Friends of the Trail founder Wade Holden finds a site filled with trash on Tinkham Road along the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. Evan Pappas/Staff Photo

A Union cavalry man follows the foot soldiers into battle at the “Battle of Snoqualmie” civil war re-enactment at Meadowbrook Farm. Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Consul-General Miguel Velasquez of the Consulate of Peru in Seattle and Mayor JuHong Kang from Gangjin, Korea, help Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson and North Bend Mayor Ken Hearing officially dedicate Sister Cities Park right next door to Snoqualmie City Hall. Evan Pappas/Staff Photo

Timber Ridge Principal Amy Wright welcomes students and parents to the school’s first day, Aug. 31. Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo