Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
May 2, 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 17
Sisters make up half of relay team Page 10
Group completes Snoqualmie Valley elk count By Michele Mihalovich
Up and running Snoqualmie Falls power plant is back online. Page 3
High-stakes reading Studnets show off their book smarts. Page 5
Police blotter Page 6
Mr. Toad’s wild ride Wind in the Willows debuts.
Page 6
Green hopes Snoqualmie wants ecofriendly title. Page 9
By Michele Mihalovich
Michael Walker, a volunteer participating in the Snoqualmie Valley Elk Management Group’s elk count, spots a group of elk across the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River April 12.
Local volunteers spiff up veterans’ memorial
Mid-season check-up for softball team Page 10
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Dave Humphrey couldn’t drive by the Snoqualmie Valley Veterans’ Memorial Park next to Snoqualmie City Hall and not notice the patches of weeds that seemed to be taking over the place. “This is a brand new and wonderful veterans’ memorial, but it doesn’t look like there is any kind of long-term maintenance plan,” he said. “It looks like nobody cares.” Humphrey, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Snoqualmie Valley, also serves as the liaison to Mount Si High School’s Key Club, the youth club of Kiwanis that helps with community service projects. He felt getting the park “in shape” would be a perfect spring project for the youth group. On a sunny afternoon April 24, he, along with other Kiwanis members and a handful of Key Club members, set out to tackle the See MEMORIAL, Page 2
See ELK, Page 3
Day of Silence passes quietly By David Hayes
By Michele Mihalovich
Pitcher’s duel
Mist hovered over a pond at Mountain Meadows in North Bend as Michael Walker looked through binoculars and counted 48 elk. Four of them had collars around their necks, which made the receiver sitting on the dash of his Jeep beep and blip like crazy. Walker said there are four different types of beeps, which can tell an elk counter whether an elk is standing, lying down, lowering their heads to eat — and even if an animal is dead. The herd was definitely alive, barely paying attention to the Jeep as they munched dew-covered grass. Walker, at 6 a.m. April 12, met up with nine other Snoqualmie Valley Elk Management Group volunteers at QFC to come up with a game plan for the day’s count. They usually break up into pairs and head out to count on certain routes. One is the Mount Si Road route, the others are Meadowbrook, Cedar Falls, the
By Michele Mihalovich
Princeton See (left), 16, of Snoqualmie, pulls up a dandelion, roots and all, during a clean-up project at the Snoqualmie Valley Veteran’s Memorial Park April 24. Also helping are Dave Humphrey, Dylan Johnson and Nari Emerson.
Few school events’ success are judged by the amount of what doesn’t happen. For the Mount Si High School Gay-Straight Alliance’s Day of Silence April 19, less was actually more. While participation numbers are up, according to club adviser Eric Goldhammer, at about 215, the negatives associated with the day are way down. The national event, now in its eighth year at MSHS, is bringing attention to the prejudice, harassment and discrimination gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning students regularly face in their schools and communities. It is also five years removed from the protests that marred the event’s goals See SILENCE, Page 2