As a mother and pet owner who runs a home, I cannot really agree with a complete ban on plastic bags. I don’t think I really need to list the many uses we all come up with for re-using our plastic bags.
The President’s Cup Golf Tournament held at the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge on Monday, June 3, was an enormous success. On behalf Snoqualmie Valley Rotary, I want convey my gratitude to sponsors and participants who propelled us to net $30,000 for Rotary First Harvest, the Mount Si Food Bank and other local organizations.
The Fall City Community Food Pantry was one of the local food banks that benefited from the May 11 “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. We are extremely grateful for the 625 pounds of food collected and delivered by the Fall City Post Office staff.
As demand on the Food Pantry resources continues to grow every year, the local community food drives become more and more important; this past year we assisted over 350 families residing in the Snoqualmie Valley communities.
A very heartfelt “thank you” to the people of Snoqualmie Valley and beyond… who came out for the “Heart of the Valley” community photograph Sunday, May 19, forming not one, not two, not three, but four co-created designs on the grounds of Centennial Fields, in Snoqualmie.
No one knew, fully, what I had in mind, as I was very carefully keeping designs a “secret” until the day of.
On May 13, the Washington State Legislature entered a special session after the 105-day regular legislative session ended without agreement on major budget related issues.
Calling this overtime “special” implies that it is something we should look forward to, but the reality is it’s a failure of the House majority party to make difficult decisions needed to get Washington back on sound financial footing.
I’ve lived in North Bend for 50 years, and that’s not half the age of the Tollgate farmhouse.
If you wanted to go to Snoqualmie Pass at the turn of the century, you paid a toll at the farm. This building was given to the city for preservation. The city had all kinds of regulations for historical buildings, but apparently the farm isn’t historical enough to apply the rules. A while back, I saw a new, shiny asphalt roof go on, and thought that would help preserve the building until the city got enough money to put on a more expensive shake roof. The next improvement was to tear off the original porch and install a shiny set of aluminum handrails.
Every minute, there are a million single-use plastic bags used in the United States. This is a staggering and alarming statistic, especially considering that many of these bags end up in the landfill or, even worse, in the bellies of whales or turtles or around sea birds’ necks.
Just last year, a gray whale in Puget Sound was found dead with 20 plastic bags in its stomach. This animal was very lethargic many days before it washed ashore and may have been starving to death because of intestinal blockage from plastic.
My name is Jolie Shelton. I am 10 years old and go to North Bend Elementary. My job is to make sure you have a happy and safe prom.
There are many steps to help you achieve a happy and safe prom. The first one is don’t drink, smoke or do drugs. They won’t just harm you, they’ll harm your friends and family, who trust you to make good choices.
On Saturday, April 27, we once again participated in the federally supported prescription Drug Drop Day in North Bend.
We had over 79 pounds of unneeded, unused or expired prescription drugs brought to our location for safe and environmentally sensitive disposal by citizens from throughout the area, both inside of and around North Bend.
Our family has lived in North Bend for the past 13 years and only found out last Friday night that the North Bend and Snoqualmie fire stations are run by a combination of paid firefighters and volunteer medics.
My son got into a serious ATV accident early last Friday evening, and we called 911 for an ambulance. Eight men arrived to assist with the accident. One man explained that three were paid firefighters, and the rest were trained volunteers. They have families and careers, yet give their time to help people in their community.
Due to lack of funding and a fire department founded on volunteers, our community now relies on these volunteers to provide a vital service.
The first-ever North Bend Blues Walk was a great success thanks to everyone involved. More than 1,200 people came out on Saturday, April 20, filling 13 venues downtown. Following in the same fashion as the successful Jazz Walk last September, music could be found all up and down North Bend Way from 6 to midnight and patrons wandered from venue to venue, enjoying the experience of it all.
We had a great group of new venues added to the list with music in some unconventional places. There was live music in a retail storefront like Birches Habitat and a car dealership showroom like Chaplin’s Chevrolet. Thanks to all our host venues, the Pour House, Snoqualmie Valley Moose Lodge, Pioneer Coffee, Birches Habitat, Emerald City Smoothie, North Bend Theatre, Twede’s Cafe, Euro Lounge Cafe, George’s Bakery, Valley Center Stage, Boxley’s, Chaplin’s, and Scott’s Dairy Freeze.
As a forest manager for over 20 years, I appreciate the complexities of the ecosystem in which we are fortunate to live. A forest system involves a complex balance to grow and flourish — from ancient snow-capped mountaintops to the delicate forest floor in which young seedlings need nourishment to take root each year.
I draw a similar analogy to the complexities of sustaining a healthy school system. It takes seasoned education professionals who can adapt to seasons of change, together with involved families and community support, to ensure our children have the “nourishment” and foundation they need to grow and prosper into contributing adults themselves.
In response to “Give us a choice: plastic or paper,” the letter in the April 3 Valley Record, while I agree with the argument that it is commendable to reuse plastic bags a second time, the problem is that they still end up in the landfill. This is a short postponement of a long-term and serious problem.