Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
October 18, 2012 VOL. 4, NO. 42
Detour ahead Lake Alice Road closes temporarily. Page 2
Budding author Valley woman publishes her first novel. Page 6
Heartbreaking loss Mount Si football team loses first game of season. Page 8
Fundraiser next week School’s custodian is stricken with leukemia. Page 9
Police blotter Page 10
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Tiny dancer Page 7
No easy solutions to North Bend homeless problems By Michele Mihalovich Every neighborhood is bound to have a troublemaker or two. And that is true, even if your neighborhood is a homeless camp in North Bend. North Bend Police Chief Mark Toner and the Star walked along the Snoqualmie River South Fork trails on Sept. 27 in search of the chronically homeless who live in tents along the river. Turns out, that group was just as upset about a recent incident — in which a couple who came down to fish were told by a man with a machete that they didn’t belong there, and not to come back — as the rest of the public. “I would have told them to knock it off,” said Joey, a man in his early 50s who didn’t give his last name. “There’s always people who come down here, drinking and causing trouble for the rest of us.” There are some regulars Toner confirmed that some of the people causing trouble are not part of the homeless community living in tents on the Tollgate Farm property. They have homes, but they come down to the river and drink and when they cause
By Michele Mihalovich
Joey, a homeless man who has lived by the Snoqualmie River in North Bend for about 20 years, agrees to be interviewed at his camp Sept. 27. trouble, they get lumped in with the homeless living down there, he said. Toner said about 20 to 24 regulars live along the river, but he added that during the summer,
that number tends to double. He said that for the most part, the regulars, many of whom are dealing with mental illnesses, are quietly living in the forests and don’t bother anyone.
“I tell them they have to keep a clean camp, and try to keep out of sight,” Toner said. “And they know that if two homeless See HOMELESS, Page 3
Neighbors are leery of Two area teens charged proposed youth shelter with multiple felonies By Michele Mihalovich A youth organization is asking the city of Snoqualmie to allow a temporary, overnight, emergency homeless shelter, but neighbors who live by the proposed shelter have concerns. Friends of Youth, based in Redmond, is the primary provider of housing to homeless youth on the Eastside, Terry Pottmeyer, CEO of Friends, said at a public hearing with Snoqualmie’s hearing examiner Oct. 8. She said the organization has been offered a grant to open an overnight shelter for three months. The shelter, which would operate from 8:30 p.m. to 8
a.m. for up to eight homeless 18- to 24-year-olds, is being proposed at Friends’ existing counseling building at 7972 Maple Ave. S.E. in Snoqualmie’s historic downtown district. Pottmeyer told Ron McConnell, the hearing examiner, that there has been a significant increase in homelessness among young people 11 to 24 years old over the past couple of years in Washington, and that a lack of resources has created challenges, especially in the Snoqualmie Valley. She said that during the three months of operating an emergency overnight shelter, See SHELTER, Page 2
By Michele Mihalovich Two North Bend area teens have been charged with multiple counts after a five-hour vandalism spree that included fires, damage to vehicles and stolen property. Jarred M. Burklund, 18, and Charles Daniel Naub, 15, were each charged with one count of felony second-degree attempted arson, one count third-degree theft, one felony count seconddegree burglary, one count second-degree malicious mischief and three counts third-degree malicious mischief, according to charging documents from the Superior Court of Washington for King County Juvenile Department. The nonfelony charges are gross misdemeanors.
Burklund was 17 at the time of the incident, which police say began at 10:15 p.m. Aug. 6, and ended about five hours later. In a probable cause statement, investigators say Burklund and Naub began the evening by stealing 10 peaches from QFC and then threw them at cars in the Chaplin’s Chevrolet lot. They then walked to Si View Park, pulled a metal parking post out of the ground and tossed it through an office window and kicked sprinkler heads, breaking them off at the ground. Burklund and Naub walked across the street to a residence and covered two cars with construction adhesive and a white foamy substance, according to See TEENS, Page 2