Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
May 9, 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 18
Police work Two in North Bend arrested for separate crimes. Page 2
School leaders Two announce candidacy for school board. Page 3
Falcon crest Get a look at peregrines in action. Page 5
Police blotter Page 6
No numbers needed Take a watercolor class at the senior center. Page 8
Strong ending Baseball team finishes season with a win. Page 10
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Big, big jump Page 11
North Bend library made promised changes
Are there two pots of gold?
By Michele Mihalovich The inboxes of the North Bend City Council and staff members and police had been filling up with complaints about things going on at the North Bend Library, but Police Chief Mark Toner said the library has followed through with its promise to make some changes and he’s hearing very few complaints from the public these days. Parents complained they were afraid to let their children go to the library because of perceived drug deals going down, homeless people sleeping in chairs, and groups of people smoking cigarettes and pot, as well as using foul language and gathering at the entrance, Toner said. Library officials have agreed to: q Install additional lighting behind the library. q Trim shrubs around the building to limit blind spots. q Remove picnic tables from the east lot. q Construct a fence between the library and food bank. q Add “library patron parking only” signs. q Encourage groups that are outside to come inside or move along. q Ask that people not smoke near the building. q Enforce library code of conduct standards. q Offer more programs for neighbors, community groups and students. q Call the sheriff when appropriate. Toner said the library staff is being a great partner and is making the changes they said they would. The picnic table is gone and a fence was being constructed to cut down on traffic between the library and Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank, he said. “It’s been a great improvement,” Toner said. “The public and library staff are saying they’ve seen great improvement and I haven’t been receiving any complaints.”
By Joy Nelson
Joy Nelson, of Snoqualmie, shot a fantastic rainbow photo (with her iPhone) from the Snoqualmie Ridge TPC Golf Club House April 16.
Prosecutors will not charge mayor By Michele Mihalovich The King County Prosecutor’s Office on May 7 declined to file charges against North Bend Mayor Ken Hearing. Hearing was arrested March 26 on allegations that he struck his wife with a golf club. The mayor released a statement May 7 that said, “I learned today that the King County Prosecutor has declined to pursue any matter against me. My belief in the process was well founded. I continue to ask that you respect my family’s privacy.”
Dan Donohoe, with the prosecutor’s office, said charges would not be filed because the case is “legally insufficient.” In the incident report, which outlines why prosecutors did not file charges, the investigation stated that on March 26, when King County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call by the mayor, they found his wife to be very intoxicated. In conversations with Hearing, he said his wife had been very intoxicated a couple of days earlier, and in his frustration, Hearing said he hit the mattress his wife was laying on with a golf club.
Hearing said in the investigation that he had no idea that the club had touched his wife. When investigators spoke with Hearing’s wife days after the event, she told them she remembered the incident, and her husband hit her with a golf club while they were standing in the front door. Investigators noted the story was inconsistent with what she said March 26. The mayor’s wife also told investigators she would not help in the prosecution of her husband. Hearing said he did not want to comment beyond the statement.
Mount Si named a top high school Mount Si High School was ranked among the highest performing schools in Washington in this year’s Best High Schools report from U.S. News and World Report. The school earned a national and state ranking and was also awarded a silver medal, one of 45 schools in Washington to earn silver, according to the Snoqualmie Valley School District website.
The annual review recognizes top performing high schools based on math, reading and college readiness. Mount Si High School placed 38th out of 587 high schools in Washington, and 1,349 out of 21,035 nationally. A three-step process was used to determine the best high schools. The first two steps were to ensure that the schools serve students well, using per-
formance on state proficiency tests as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work, based on state exit exams and Advanced Placement exams. Go to www.usnews.com/ education/best-high-schools to see how it and other schools in Washington ranked.