Valley legislators split on same-sex marriage law

The broad second-floor expanse of the big, beige Kendall Lake building on Douglas Avenue is mostly empty now. That's expected to change in a few months, when its suites become home to an enterprise wholly new to Snoqualmie Ridge—a King County divisional headquarters. In a bid to move closer to the bulk of its permit business, the county's Department of Development and Environmental Services wants to relocate its 98-person main office from Renton to Snoqualmie, as early as this summer. The county is two months into negotiations with Kendall Lake owners Meriwether Partners of Seattle for an estimated $400,000 lease, about half of what the county pays for its current facility—a place DDES Director John Starbard likens to a gloomy DMV.

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A white 1997 Mazda pickup truck led State Patrolmen and Snoqualmie Police on a lengthy chase before being forcibly stopped on Railroad Avenue in the downtown area Monday evening, Feb. 6. Snoqualmie Police deployed spike strips in the 6400 block of Railroad Avenue to end the pursuit. The truckcame to a stop about a mile from the spike strips, with both front tires flat. The incident began around 8:25 p.m., when Snoqualmie Police were asked to assist the State Patrol in stopping the vehicle, westbound on I-90. The report does not state why multiple patrol cars were pursuing the vehicle.

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Kindergarten in the Snoqualmie Valley School District is safe, for now. In response to dozens of parents' pleas, the Snoqualmie Valley School Board voted unanimously Thursday, Feb. 9, to no longer consider a Kindergarten format change for cost savings in the 2012-13 school year. The decision was welcomed by the full house of parents at the meeting, but prompted warnings from Superintendent Joel Aune, and School Board President Dan Popp. "I'm not seeing as a possibility, in April, to revisit this," Aune told the board. Kindergarten registration is set for March 6, and parents will build their plans around the Kindergarten schedule they enroll in then.

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King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert today announced a tentative date for council members to review the proposed annexation of Snoqualmie's mill site. The Transportation, Economy, and Environment (TREE) committee will discuss the legislation that could authorize Snoqualmie to annex the property on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1:30 p.m. in King County Council Chambers. Lambert emphasized that the date was tentative, and a final agenda would not be published until a few days before the meeting.

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A $5.5 million bond issue for the construction of a new fire station in May Valley and improvements to five other stations in Fire District 10 will be on the Feb. 14 ballot for Carnation voters. The measure, Proposition 1, is a 20-year bond that would cost voters an estimated 9 cents per $1,000 of assessed value in property taxes ($27 a year for a $300,000 home), to raise a total of $5.5 million. Of that amount, $4 million is budgeted for the new May Valley station, which will be the future home of Fire Station 78, now in Kent, at the outer edge of Fire District 10.

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Bleary-eyed and with a handful of tissues, Montessori preschool teacher Sarah Lenihan shook off her cold Tuesday, Feb. 7, to find out what Kindergarten will look like for 13 of her students next year. She joined more than 60 parents who wanted to know more about a radical restructuring proposed for the Kindergarten schedule, from today's half-day classes Monday through Friday, to full-day classes every other day, with alternating Fridays. "The parents, they all just found out this week," said Sue Erickson, a Montessori Kindergarten teacher attending the meeting with Lenihan. "They're all still up in the air."

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This love story is missing something. It has all the high points, from boy-meets-girl to boy-and-girl-date. It’s got all the flirting, all the blushing, all the hand-holding, giggling, and gentle words of love, too. All the meaningful looks are there, in spades. What it’s missing, though, is the awkwardness and uncertainty that usually precede all of those other things. So, how did they get past that point, and on to the good parts? George Summers and Betty McNeely look at each other before answering, and Betty’s cheeks begin to color. They both laugh. They can’t explain it.

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They’re no singles clubs, but it turns out, both of the Valley senior centers have produced their share of love matches in recent years. Several couples have met at, married, and then moved on or moved away from the Mount Si Senior Center under program coordinator Janet Fosness’s watch, she recalled, and she never knows when a new one is forming. “There are definitely seniors who come in looking for that,” said Fosness, “and then there are the accidental ones.”

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Good news for users of the big blue bins: It turns out that the only in-person recycling option in the Valley isn't going anywhere. The King County Solid Waste Division reports that they will reinstate free recycling services at the North Bend Cedar Falls Drop Box, as well as at the Enumclaw Transfer Station, by Saturday, Feb. 11.

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The face of Snoqualmie Valley School District’s compliance with state anti-bullying requirements is not Nancy Meeks, and she’d be first to say so. Instead, Meeks said the school district really addresses harassment, intimidation and bullying issues at the level of each individual school. “The real work is not with me, it’s with the buildings,” she said. Although she is officially the school compliance officer for the state-mandated policy 3207, she said “it's the principals and the counselors in the buildings who play the biggest role.”

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