Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
Mount Si wins final home game Page 8
Forest rebounds after fire
November 7, 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 44
What’s the point of high school A Mount Si student gives her take. Page 2
Turn to the left
By Sherry Grindeland
Senior fashion show this week. Page 3
Police blotter Page 7
Mountain scholars Muzzle-loaders offer scholarship. Page 7
Cows greet the Valley sunrise Run for it Mount Si freshman takes sixth place at district meet. Page 8
Green Snoqualmie City enters its buildings in campaign to promote green power. Page 10
By Heather Vincent
Dolly, a five-year-old cow at the Snoqualmie Cattle Company, poses with the sunrise at her back. Her son, Rio Nine Eleven, like most young critters, is still snoozing. Rio Nine Eleven’s unusual name comes from his birthday – he was born on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Agent 99 stands in the background.
Small ferns wave in the slight afternoon breeze. Tiny strands of moss send out feelers along a blackened boulder. Protect Saplings, your home just a few inches tall, from sprout at wildfires the base of a Learn what fire-scorched plants are fire tree. The forresistant and est between how to keep Mount Si the area around and Little Si your house has begun clear at www. regenerating firewise.org. itself. Three months after the 444th Fire burned 18 acres, signs of recovery abound. “Things start growing back See FIRE, Page 6
Bus route changes designed to serve rural areas By Sam Kenyon King County Metro Transit has re-thought the bus system in the Snoqualmie Valley. In an effort to make routes more cost efficient and improve metro services, particularly in rural or low-population areas,
King County is experimenting with what they call Alternative Service Delivery. Six weeks ago several systematic changes were made to multiple bus routes in the Valley. The changes are part of an effort to do more with less. “Why would we pour a lot
of resources into routes that weren’t carrying very many people?” said Matt Hansen, the Supervisor of Market Development for Seattle Metro. The King County Council charged Metro with finding alternative solutions to inefficient bus routes. The council
encouraged Metro to approach the issue with novel solutions. “This project is a challenge for us to be creative,” Hansen said. In one of the biggest policy changes, a Valley Shuttle has See BUS, Page 2
Show explores 1 woman’s experience walking to fight cancer By Sherry Grindeland Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Don’t let the title fool you. The show, said Robin WalbeckForrest, is pretty darn clean. “People hear the title and think it is going to be something blue or something racy,” said the North Bend actor. “But there’s no nudity and hardly any swearing.” She should know. She not only stars in the one-woman
show at North Bend’s Valley Center Stage, she wrote it. More importantly, she lives it every year. “Tits and Asphalt: Why I Walk for Breast Cancer” opens at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7 and runs through Nov. 9. Proceeds from opening night will go to the Valley’s annual Relay for Life. Walbeck-Forest has been participating in fundraising walks in both Canada and the United
States for years. For her it is personal. She watched beloved family members battle breast cancer. She was inspired to write and perform “Tits & Asphalt” because it combines her desire to help find a cure for cancer with her love of theatre. “The breast cancer cause is very important to me and I am equally passionate about theater. It made sense to bridge the two in order to reach out to others,”
she said. The show was originally produced in 2007 at the North Bend Theatre and The Connection in Bellingham. Last February, Walbeck-Forrest updated the script and performed it at Valley Center Stage. For nearly a decade, WalbeckForrest has devoted long hours to training for multi-day cancer See SHOW, Page 3