Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
June 7, 2012 VOL. 4, NO. 23
Mount Si’s Trevor Lane is player of the year Page 11
Pot debate rages on
Holy Moses
Don’t start fires Annual burn ban starts June 15. Page 2
By Michele Mihalovich
Stay away, please Authorities seek help to protect peregrine falcons. Page 3
Police blotter Page 3
Help pet populations Assistance is available for spaying and neutering. Page 6
By Stihl Timbersports
David Moses competes in the Springboard Chop event during Stihl Timbersports’ Western Qualifier on March 30 in Corvalis, Ore. Read the story on page 6.
Time for goodbye Teachers retire after decades of service. Page 8
Talented students Valley students shine in talent contest. Page 9
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign By Michele Mihalovich When North Bend’s code enforcement officer confiscated The Nursery at Mount Si signs just before Mother’s Day weekend, residents expressed their disappointment with the city in a local Yahoo group. “Shame on you city of North Bend” was a common theme on the message board, as were statements that the city was picking on a beloved small business owner. But Nels Melgaard, owner of the nursery in rural North Bend, said statements about the city targeting him and his signs aren’t true. “I have played this cat-andmouse game with the city for years, and under several different administrations,” he said. The city does allow businesses to place A-board-style signs near their shops, as is the case all along the downtown district on North Bend Way.
Melgaard’s nursery, at 42328 S.E. 108th St., is well off the beaten path. If he were to place his A-boards just in front of the entrance to his business, only elk and a handful of neighbors would see it. “I need a way to pull business off the main drag,” he said. “The signs are a huge driver for me. And I can really feel the drop in business when the signs aren’t out. Out of sight, out of mind.” On Thursday, just before Mother’s Day weekend, Melgaard said he put signs up around the city, including his favorite spot, the sidewalk in front of Chaplin’s North Bend Chevrolet. By Friday, the signs were gone. And because Melgaard had been playing the cat-and-mouse game with the city for so long, he said he knew exactly where to find his signs — the orphan sign pile at the city’s public works building. “So I picked through the
orphan sign pile like I always do, but they weren’t there,” he said. “Then I looked in the code enforcement guy’s Jeep Cherokee, and there they were — locked inside. And I thought, ‘Oh, for crying out loud.’” City Administrator Londi Lindell said in an email that the city does, in fact, allow offpremise signs advertising a business so long as they are removed at the end of the day. She said the signs must be on private property, and aren’t allowed within a public right of way. “It is my understanding that our building official picked up some of the nursery’s signs a couple weeks ago when the signs were placed in city right of way,” she said. Melgaard admits that the sign at Chaplin’s Chevrolet was on the sidewalk in front of the vehicles at the car lot. See SIGN, Page 3
King County, North Bend and Snoqualmie governments have all chosen different paths when it comes to handling medicalmarijuana operations after the law changed last July. The county did not enact new legislation; Snoqualmie will not under any circumstances allow a business license and North Bend issued a moratorium. Initiative 692, passed in 1998, allows people suffering from certain medical conditions to possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. Marijuana, regardless of whether it’s being used for medical purposes or not, remains illegal under federal law. State lawmakers attempted to legalize and regulate marijuana dispensaries and farms by amending the law, but Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed 36 of the 58 sections that would have allowed them. Some of the vetoes made dispensaries illegal, but she did authorize 45-plant “collective gardens” for up to 10 See POT, Page 2
Graduation coming for Mount Si High School
At 6:30 p.m. June 8, 308 students will enter the Mount Si High School football field as students. A few hours later, they will leave it as alumni. The class of 2012 will bid farewell to the building at 8651 Meadowbrook Way in a ceremony that will include a class speech by twin sisters Landon and Riley Edwards, and the presentation of the class by Principal John Belcher. Riley Edwards and Sally Miller will be honored as class valedictorians. No reception will follow the graduation. Instead, the grads will be bused to a top-secret location for their all-night graduation party. Read next week’s SnoValley Star for photo coverage of the big day.