Brad Toft, a Snoqualmie businessman, will challenge incumbent State Senator Cheryl Pflug for a fifth district Senate seat in the 2012 general election. Toft committed to the race at an Oct. 21 tourism conference in Snoqualmie, and plans a formal announcement Thursday, Nov. 10.
It’s mid-afternoon on a Monday, and things are quiet outside the cluster of businesses along High Point Way in Preston. No one is parked at the Subway, and only a car or two are at the Shell Station. It’s quiet, inside, too, until about a half-dozen cars and people stop in at the storefront on the end, the Kind Alternative.
They’re gone almost as soon as they came, but those cars and people have had a powerful effect on at least one shop in this small community.
Just months after opening its doors last March, the Kind Alternative in Preston expanded, hugely, and with hardly a growing pain.
In a place where chaos seems to reign, where Donnie and Marie are grouped with Young Frankenstein, where Empire tie fighters battle World War II-era fighter planes, and where Aliens hang out with the Tinkertoys, even in a place like this, there are rules.
The first rule at Flying Frog Antiques and Collectibles, is to have fun. The rest of the rules aren’t as important.
With North Bend’s Position 7 councilman Chris Garcia vacating his seat this fall, two challengers are facing off for the right to take the council job, effective immediately after the vote is certified.
One of them, Planning Commissioner Piper Muoio (pronounced “Mew-yo”), hopes to bring a fresh perspective to the North Bend City Council. She feels her professional background in process improvement and customer service will serve her well on the council, as she works toward economic development and growth for the city.
With North Bend’s Position 7 councilman Chris Garcia vacating his seat this fall, two challengers are facing off for the right to take the council job, effective immediately after the vote is certified.
One of them, North Bend landscape contractor Ryan Kolodejchuk (pronounced “Call-a-day-chuck”), hopes to bring to the North Bend City Council a great optimism about the future of the city, and some tenacity at finding facts to solve problems. The city could be more business friendly, and needs to pursue more grant funding, and he hopes to make these changes part of his legacy to the community.
Should every school board member support the final decision of the board, regardless of how they voted on it? Yes, absolutely, came the response. Should student achievement be a factor in teacher evaluations? Again, a full round of yesses.
Five of six school board candidates were in overall agreement on some rapid-fire questions put to them during the Oct. 13 candidate forum at Mount Si High School, but when the moderator reached questions about a proposed freshman campus at Snoqualmie Middle School and support of recent bonds, the unanimous tone disintegrated.
During the second, extended response portion of the forum, the candidates became sharply divided on points of leadership, spending priorities, impact fees, and including community members in school processes.
Mount Si High School is putting on the glitz for Spirit Week and Homecoming, starting Monday, Oct. 17, but the festivities have already started for most of the school, who voted this week on the Homecoming Court to be announced Monday. Then there’s the group of five Associated Student Body (ASB) members, for whom Homecoming has been a main attraction since July.
“It’s a ton of work!” announced ASB Homecoming and Assemblies Committee chairperson Maura Williams Thursday before Spirit Week. “Everybody just kind of works on everything, and we meet every single day,” Williams said, but they are all ready for a memorable Homecoming week at Mount Si High School.
Carnation voters are deciding between saving money or saving police services in the Nov. 8 election.
Halloween festivities on Mountain Meadows Farm in North Bend could look an awful lot like the start of the zombie apocalypse. The farm will be crawling—literally—with blood-spattered undead, slogging through mud, and leaping fire to run after, sometimes ahead of, the living. The prize in this race is not brains or survival, but a medal, a free drink, and a party.
Outgoing Carnation City Council member Stuart Lisk is entitled to have a little fun these days. He’s in his last three months of a 13-year run on the city council, and about to see years of his and the council’s efforts to improve city safety come to fruition.
Mugging for a photo at the intersection of Tolt Avenue and Entwistle Street, Lisk gets a question from a friend—“What are you running for now?”
Nothing at all. He’s simply enjoying one of his last views of cars and trucks zooming unchecked down the state highway that runs through the middle of his town, on Tolt Avenue. Within the next two months, Carnation will have a four-way traffic and pedestrian-crossing light installed at the Tolt/Entwistle intersection.
A thick fog muffled the warning siren, but it was loud enough. By the time Carnation Elementary Principal Doug Poage was done announcing that the Tolt Dam breach evacuation drill was in progress Wednesday Sept. 27, students and teachers were filing down the sidewalk toward the class checkpoint.
“New students, over here!” one teacher announced. A few children, mostly Kindergartners, clustered around her looking excited, while most, veterans of the drill, were cleared after a quick headcount by their teachers to do their part of the evacuation.
While still growing, initial enrollment figures in the Snoqualmie Valley School District are lower than expected this fall. The difference is only 75 full-time-equivalency (FTE) students less than budgeted, but it could affect the district’s anticipated revenues.
District Finance Director Ryan Stokes reported on enrollment figures to the Snoqualmie Valley School Board Sept. 22, and noted that the balanced budget the school board passed in August was balanced on state revenue for more students.
Everything serves a purpose on Dog Mountain Farm, even the weeds.
Trees and gardens produce fruits and vegetables, chickens and ducks produce eggs, various other animals provide meat, and all provide fertilizer components. The weeds are food and work for the farm pig.
“Gabriel’s tilling for me,” says Dog Mountain Farm owner Cindy Krepky, looking over at the animal, busy tearing up a small square of land for more garden space. She pens the pig wherever she wants land cleared, and he goes to work, digging and eating plants, roots and all. Even tenacious dandelions don’t grow back.
