Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
November 14, 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 45
Wildcats stretch out season with playoff win Page 10
Mount Si High School drumline gets noisy By Sam Kenyon
Bartell’s opens Long-awaited store opens doors Friday Page 2
Election results Round up of winners and losers in local races. Page 3
Shelter open Valley’s winter homeless shelter opens. Page 6
Good robots Disinfecting robot goes to Snoqualmie Hospital. Page 6
Police blotter Page 9
New runner Mount Si freshman finishes 11th at state. Page 10
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
Matt Wenman wanted to make some noise. The first-year band director for Mount Si High School went to his booster club last summer and told them he thought the school should have a drumline. It would cost $13,000. But the steep price tag was met through sponsorship and community funding in remarkably short time, about one month. Since then, the drumline has brought the ruckus to the Friday night games, along with the rest of the Wildcat band, adding a high energy sound that was meant for football. “It’s become this kind of quintessential … football sound,” Wenman said. The rapid fire snare drums and the stomach rattling bass drums are common features of high school and college games across America. “The essence of drumline is really all about spirit on Friday nights,” he said. The money was raised through a campaign on GoFundMe.com, a crowd funding website. The money bought four snares, five cymbals, four bass drums, and two quints.
Contributed
Members of the drumline put on a performance. Funds were contributed by the Boxley Music Fund, the booster club, parents and grandparents, GoFundMe donors, the Mount Si PTSA and others. The funding came together so quickly that Wenman took it as an
Proposed funding model change could save EFR North Bend agrees with concept of shift in formula By Ari Cetron After months of intense negotiations, there may be a plan to change the funding model for Eastside Fire & Rescue, and save the agency. The North Bend City Council voted Nov. 5 and authorized a potential change in the funding formula, allowing for calls for service to be part of the charge for each entity. “We did not vote for a specific change,” said Mayor Ken Hearing. “The specific change
has to still come back for a final approval.” Sammamish has long complained that the funding model for the fire agency – made up of Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend and Fire Districts 10 and 38 – was unfair. Since it’s based solely on property values, Sammamish, with expensive houses and relatively few calls for service, has been paying more than its fair share, said Sammamish officials. For the past 18 months, the EFR partners have been negotiating to base the funding model partially on call volume. At the same time, it has been exploring the idea of starting its own department, should See EFR, Page 9
indicator that the community really desired something like the drumline to add to the game atmosphere. The speed with which they raised the money was shocking to Wenman. “One hundred percent. [I
was] Completely surprised, I was blown away by it,” he said. In his first year at Mount SI, this initial project has been successful. It is affirming and See DRUM, Page 5
Winter shelter for the homeless reopens Nov. 15 By Sherry Grindeland The homeless in the Snoqualmie Valley will be able to come in out of the cold beginning Nov. 15 when the Valley Renewal Center’s Winter Shelter opens for its second season. The shelter serves men, women and families with children from 8:30 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. daily at the North Bend Community Church, 146 E. Third St. in North Bend. Providing for the homeless became a community initiative last year. It was fueled in part by an awareness of the need that grew after North Bend outlawed camping in its parks, public spaces and on trails inside city limits.
More than 30 volunteers, people from the faith community and police met Nov. 6, 2012 to discuss the need of providing for fragile people living outdoors, in vehicles and in substandard housing with no utilities or water. Additional people joined the conversation in the following days and the first shelter opened Dec. 23. Meals are provided by volunteers and community groups. The shelter itself is managed by Congregations for the Homeless and the Valley Renewal Center advisory committee. Congregations for the Homeless, based in Bellevue, operates a men’s shelter on the See SHELTER, Page 3