Hundreds of Seahawks fans visited the Valley Saturday, Sept. 6, to unleash their inner beasts, and maybe, just maybe, see Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. They got both. As runners challenged themselves in obstacles like Marshawn’s Mud Pit and the classic run through the tires, Lynch drove the course in a small utility vehicle, to loud cheers from the fans.
It may look like a group of people “playing army” at Rotary Park this Saturday, Sept. 6. It may even sound like it, if the Washington Civil War Association re-enactors get city permission to fire—black powder only—their muskets that day. It is, in fact, a fun day for the participants, but it could be the start of something much bigger.
School starts next week, but before Snoqualmie Valley School District students can walk their school halls, they have a last bit of homework to finish.
All students are required to have proof of nine required immunizations by the first day of school, per the Washington Department of Health policy, or to get an exemption from them.
North Bend processes about 1 million gallons of sewage in its 60 year-old wastewater treatment plant every day, a little less during the dry season. On paper, the city could handle more than double that, but in reality, the plant’s intake has been limited to the million mark for the past six months to a year.
Celebrity sightings are starting to be almost commonplace here, as movie companies come through, shoot a few scenes, then pack up their stars and equipment. When one of those movies premieres, though, the Valley will have a resident celebrity.
Diane Sheets, a bartender at Smokey Joe’s Tavern in downtown Snoqualmie, is a familiar face in a couple of scenes in the upcoming “Captain Fantastic,” from Electric City Entertainment. In fact, aside from the star, Viggo Mortensen, hers is about the only face in those scenes.
Six Valley schools are in a dubious spotlight this month, and in response, area superintendents are working to turn that light back onto what they say is the source of the problem.
The schools, Twin Falls Middle School and Opstad and North Bend Elementary Schools in the Snoqualmie Valley District, Tolt Middle School, and Cherry Valley and Carnation Elementary in Riverview, are being penalized for student test scores that did not meet federal adequate yearly progress, or AYP, standards. Each of the schools receives federal Title I funding, which will come with more restrictions on it this year, including reserving 20 percent strictly for transportation costs for students who choose a different school this year, and setting aside funds for staff professional development.
About a dozen people spent a day in Snoqualmie last month bottling, labeling, packing and stacking roughly half of Sigillo Cellars’ output for the year. They worked steadily in the brilliant sunshine, condensing what used to be the work of days into an early morning and a long afternoon.
It could almost have been a scene from the olden days, or maybe the Old World, where small family-run wineries called in all their friends and relations to help put up the vintage.
Snoqualmie celebrated its heritage over the weekend with a parade, music, art, timber sports, classic cars, living history, and, the star of the weekend, an authentic steam-powered locomotive engine. The Santa Cruz and Portland Cement Locomotive 2 steam engine, owned and operated by Skathi Pappan, drew a crowd of photographers and admirers with every stop at the Snoqualmie Depot, and turned heads with every blast of its whistle.
A tradition was born, a dynasty rose, and a community came together in the thousands during the Festival at Mount Si, Aug. 8 to 10.
A 23-year-old North Bend man, found guilty in April on two counts of first-degree child molestation, was given an alternative sentence from the King County Superior Court.
Sentencing information for Lazarus Honeywell stated that he was eligible for the sexual offender sentencing alternative, or SSOSA, in part because of his youth and his support system.
Uprooted trees lay flattened in the glare of the sun on the north bank of the Snoqualmie River. The dirt, churned up for the first time in decades, was a uniform, sun-baked beige color, and in its narrow channel, the river lazed past, too quiet to drown out the surprised chatter from a group of visitors.
Almost two months along, the $4 million Upper Carlson floodplain project looked rough when the Snoqualmie Watershed Forum stopped here on its annual floodplain tour July 16. But it was also a good example of the Forum’s efforts on what presenters called “the three F’s,” fish, farms and flooding.
Since the fall of 2009 when King County completed a levee removal project in Tolt Mac-Donald Park, Carnation, the Tolt River hasn’t seen significant flooding. It’s a good thing for the surrounding area, but not a true test of the project, which is similar to the Upper Carlson Floodplain Restoration project underway near Fall City.
North Bend is about half the size of Snoqualmie, but at least the city’s equal in police statistics. In the first three months of the Snoqualmie Police Department’s contract to cover North Bend, the department saw nearly as much activity in North Bend, population about 6,500, as it did in the first six months of the year for Snoqualmie, population 12,500. Calls for service in North Bend totaled 2,021, and in Snoqualmie, 2,873.