Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
Mount Si tops Mercer Island in extra innings Page 16
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April 28, 2011 VOL. 3, NO. 17
Check SnoValley Star’s website, www.snovalleystar.com, for updates about the April 26 school bond election.
Volunteers wanted Extra hands needed for Arbor Day, library projects. Page 3
Police blotter
City staff shakeup in North Bend draws ire of City Council
Page 6
Free no more Legislators approve $30 fee for recreation lands. Page 6
By Dan Catchpole
Care packages Hair-accessories business lifts cancer patients’ spirits. Page 8
By John Lok/The Seattle Times
Floating fire
women helped start the PTA at Snoqualmie Elementary School and also knew each other through Girl Scouts. “The joke Ruth Tolmasoff was we just changed from little kids to seniors,” Fosness said. “We value the same core values. We really put the seniors first and that’s mainly what we’ve based everything on.” Tolmasoff began working as executive director in October, and one month later the 1990 flood swept through Snoqualmie Valley.
A proposal to restructure North Bend’s administrative positions stirred a hornet’s nest on the City Council, which passed the measure by a 4-3 vote at its April 19 meeting. The council approved a plan to combine the city’s finance and administrative departments. The proposal had been submitted by the city’s administration, which wanted to retain Cheryl Proffitt-Schmidt. Until April 1, Proffitt-Schmidt had been the city clerk. To keep her from leaving, the administration offered her a new position as director of administrative services. But the position didn’t exist until the City Council approved it. In her new role, ProffittSchmidt will oversee the city’s financial and administrative operations. Assistant Finance Director Stan Lewis will become the city’s finance manager. Deputy City Clerk Susie Oppedahl has taken over Proffitt-Schmidt’s former position. Snoqualmie has used a similar structure for at least six years. The proposal eliminates the city’s finance director position. The resignation of Finance Director Maryann Nelson in early March made the reshuffle possible, said City Administrator Duncan Wilson. Supporters on the City
See RETIRING, Page 2
See SHUFFLE, Page 3
Kayleigh Perkins Mallory, of North Bend, leaps from the UL-72 Miss Foster Care hydroplane that caught fire as she taxied to shore after a test run in Lake Washington during a training event April 21. There was an explosion shortly before she leaped into the water. She was helped from the water and was uninjured. See story, Page 14.
Model behavior Cheerleaders hit the catwalk for a good cause. Page 12
Dispatch from Everest Climbing expedition reaches base camp. Page 14
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Mt. Si Senior Center director to retire after 21 years of service By Laura Geggel On any given day, Ruth Tolmasoff might find herself writing a grant, changing the toilet paper in the restrooms or chatting with senior citizens during lunch. This August, after 21 years of working as the executive director at the Mt. Si Senior Center, Tolmasoff is hanging up her hat and heading toward the land of retirement. “With Ruth, she’s always ready to listen and she always has an answer,” thrift store volunteer Sharon Posey said. In her years of service, Tolmasoff has left a legacy for the seniors who continue to use the center. She helped staff members re-establish the center after the devastating flood of 1990, jumpstarted the transportation program, spearheaded
the hot meals program and encouraged the growth of the thrift store — the senior center’s main money maker. Getting her feet wet Tolmasoff grew up in Southern California, but she and her husband chose Snoqualmie as the ideal place to raise their three daughters. They moved in 1975, two years before the Mt. Si Senior Center opened its doors. Tolmasoff started working at the center in 1988 as the activity director, and when she became the fourth executive director in 1990, she hired Janet Fosness to replace her at her old post. All these years later, Fosness still values her friendship — both professional and personal — with Tolmasoff. The two