covington/maple valley reporter, june 14, 2013

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LOCAL | In search of funding for Ravensdale Park [page 3]

FIRST-ROUNDER | Kentwood’s Reese McGuire selected in the fi rst round of MLB draft by Pittsburgh Pirates [10]FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013

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COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMONDREPORTER

BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

Offi cials from Tahoma School District and King County recently resurrected discussions related to the district’s purchase of 35 acres in the Donut Hole.

Th is comes aft er both par-ties walked away from a years worth of negotiations in Febru-ary. Recent developments in the state Legislature helped bring the parties back together, specifi -cally the approval of Senate Bill 5417, which will allow the city to annex the property. Not long aft er that came about, the county lowered its asking price, ac-cording to information Tahoma Superintendent Mike Maryanski provided to the Maple Valley City Council during a joint meeting of the council, the Tahoma School Board and Maple Valley Fire com-missioners May 29.

In addition, state senators Joe Fain, R-Auburn, and Mark Mullet,

Tahoma and county resume discussions

BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

Editor’s Note: To read more about the park opening, see Annie Livengood’s column on page 4.

Tiny soccer players dribbled, scrimmaged and passed the ball around on the fi eld at Covington Community Park as city offi cials celebrated the grand opening June 8.

Opening the fi rst phase of the park — the soccer fi eld, a parking lot and trail system to name a few features — marks a signifi cant milestone for Covington.

“Th is is a really special occa-sion for the city,” said Covington’s Parks and Recreation Commis-sion Chair, Steven Pan. “It has the ability to impact our entire community. Th is is the largest and fi rst active use fi eld park that we have and that’s wonderful.”

Phase one is vital because it fi lls a critical need which is one of the highest priorities for residents according to research the city has done in preparing its Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Plan. Scott Th omas, the city’s parks and recreation director, told the Reporter in December there is a signifi cant need to provide a place for children to play sports.

BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

Norm Holcomb is excited to teach patrons of the Maple Valley Farmers Market about bees this summer.

Holcomb, owner of Bees in the Burbs in Maple Valley, will bring a demonstration beehive to the market, which kicks off its 17-week season Saturday at 9 a.m. at Rock Creek Elementary.

“I took it to the Kent Market last Saturday, and boy, it was a big hit,” Holcomb said. “I would say over one-third of our sales were due to that beehive. People would see the beehive then stop and talk about it, especially the kids.”

Th e educational opportunity is hard to pass up, Holcomb said, and he plans to bring the demon-stration hive to the market as long as the bees can handle it and he

can keep them healthy.Market Manager Victoria Jonas

wrote in an email interview that the demonstration beehive is a perfect fi t for the market.

“It will become one more added and important attraction that makes our Farmers Market so special,” Jonas wrote. “It will become a natural conversation piece, I can only imagine the buzz of curiosity and conversations that will occur around the beehive! Bringing a live beehive to our market embraces the core foun-dation of our Farmers Market’s mission of providing a avenue for educational learning on the

Bees in the ‘Burbs makes farmers market sweeter

Natalie Holcomb of Bees in the ‘Burbs, a Maple Valley business, checks out a panel from a beehive the afternoon of June 7. KRIS HILL, The Reporter

[ more TAHOMA page 6 ][ more PARK page 5 ]

Park opening a celebration of community

Annabelle Cabrera, 4, kicks the ball around with Courtney Crocker, a Kent-Covington Youth Soccer Association board member at the Covington Community Park grand opening event June 8. The park was more than a decade in the making. KRIS HILL, The Reporter

To view a slideshow go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com.

[ more BEES page 5 ]

WEBSITE | Check the website for breaking news, sports and weather stories.maplevalleyreporter.com or covingtonreporter.com

BY KATHERINE SMITH

[email protected]

In recent weeks a statistic has surfaced at Maple Val-ley City Council meetings that 43 percent of home-owners in Maple Valley and Covington are underwater.

Essentially what that means is those homeown-ers have no equity in their homes and owe more than their homes are worth.

While that sounds alarm-ing, it doesn’t necessarily paint the truest representa-tion of the housing market in the two cities according to Sam Price, South King County housing special-ist with the Seattle King County Realtors, and Tina McDonough, a Re/Max agent in Maple Valley.

Th e percentage was ini-tially mentioned at a Maple Valley City Council meet-ing in May aft er City Man-ager David Johnston at-tended the annual housing issues briefi ng that South King County Realtors host for local offi cials and those running for offi ce.

Th e number comes from Zillow.com, a website that is a database of informa-

tion on homes, real estate, mortgages and home improvements according to the website.

Price cautioned that the data from Zillow is only up-dated every three months and that the mar-ket is constantly changing.

“It (Zillow) is not especially accurate but it’s a starting point,” Price said. “It (the market) is very dynamic right now.”

He also explained that Zillow is the only compre-hensive source of data on the percentage of home-owners that are underwater.

Th e data is created by estimating the value of the property and then Zillow works with TransUnion, one of the major credit re-porting agencies, to gather information on the total amount of debt against a property.

“Th ey aggregate that data so it can be searched (on the website) by zip code or by city or by county,” Price said.

Th e data that was

presented at the meeting Johnston attended was from the fourth quarter of 2012. Current numbers on Zillow still refl ect the 43 percent estimate.

“Th ose with higher numbers gener-ally have newer construction with recent sales,” Price said. “People who bought and haven’t had the time to pay down the mortgage.”

Th at describes Maple Valley

perfectly. “Some of that is because

people fi nanced a large por-tion of the purchase price, then the market dropped and it hasn’t caught up with where it was,” Price said.

Price also explained that while the Seattle area is see-ing an increase in sales and skyrocketing prices as the number of properties on the market is low and there-fore increases competition, the farther you get from the job centers the longer the recovery takes.

McDonough said that there are many factors that go into the market.

“It just depends on the area you’re in and when the person bought, too,” Mc-Donough said in a phone interview Tuesday.

McDonough credited the Tahoma School District with being a driving force in Maple Valley, as people specifi cally cite the district when they are looking to buy in the area.

“I would say overall it’s just super busy and values are up and we don’t have the inventory that we had a year ago, even six months ago,” McDonough said. “So what we see as we go in is there are lots of pendings and not a lot of inventory.”

Kim Emmons, a John L. Scott broker in Maple Val-ley said that valuations are up to the levels they were in 2007 and homes are selling for 20 percent more than they were at this time last year and 40 percent faster.

“I think people’s percep-tion is not what reality is,” Emmons said. “Reality is actually much better right now.

Reach Katherine Smith [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5052.

June 14, 2013[2] www.covingtonreporter.com • www.maplevalleyreporter.com

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Reuben Maloney, 11, perfects his bubble technique during Maple Valley Days June 7 at Lake Wilderness Park. DENNIS BOX, The Reporter To view a slide show go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com

Beautiful Day for Big Bubbles

Homeowners still underwater as market rebounds

“I think people’s perception is not what reality is. Reality is actually much better right now.” Kim Emmons

BY KATHERINE SMITH

[email protected]

Six months out from treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Tahoma High junior Allie Duven is back in the pool, preparing for her senior swim season in the fall.

Duven was diagnosed last summer after her doctor noticed swelling in her glands which didn’t re-

spond to a course of antibi-otics. When tests came back negative for mononucleosis and all other common causes life became a flurry of appointments and tests for Duven, and the diagno-sis of Stage 2B Hodgkin’s lymphoma was made after a lymph node biopsy.

“I’m doing OK,” Duven said of how she feels cur-rently. “It’s just kind of a slow process…getting your

strength back and back into school and all that.”

Duven has participated on the Tahoma girls swim team since her freshman year and was voted captain for her junior year but had to sit out the season last fall while she underwent surgery, chemo and radia-tion. She can’t wait to get back in the pool with her teammates and contribute to the team in the fall and

take on the responsibili-ties of a captain, a role that her teammates once again selected her for.

“I think just getting to participate this year because last year it was kind of a bummer to not be able to help out and actually fulfill my role as captain and help out with that kind of stuff and get to know people,” Duven said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to that.”

After completing treat-ment in early January Duven has worked toward healing and getting back to normal this winter and spring as well as reaching

goals she set for herself like making it up to the moun-tains to ski this year.

“I went up (to the moun-tains) I think four times this year,” Duven said. “It was only a few hours long (the first time) but it was still, like, at least I got up and I was able to enjoy something like that.”

Duven’s treatment included four rounds of chemo and 14 days of radiation.

“A lot of people say radia-tion is the easiest part and I think, I don’t know, it was

[3]June 14, 2013www.covingtonreporter.com • www.maplevalleyreporter.com

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medication to help with lost sleep or something a little stronger that the doctor will prescribe? First of all, in the case of a sleeping issue that seems to be ongoing, talk to a healthcare provider. There may be an underlying issue that’s making it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep. Over-the-counter sleep helpers are fine in the short term, but be sure to talk with the pharmacist about any other medications you are taking in order to minimize the risk of a dangerous interaction. Prescription sleep aids belong to different classes of drugs; some can be addictive, and some can leave a person sleepy the next day.

Chronic sleep deprivation, for whatever reason, significantly affects your health, performance, and safety, so it’s important to have a checkup if you are sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation is quite often due to unrecognized sleep disorders. After a typical night’s sleep, you may not feel restored and be sleepy during the day, but be totally unaware that you are sleep-deprived or have a sleep disorder.

To schedule an appointment at Southlake Clinic, please call (253) 395-1972. Our Covington clinic is located at 27005 168th Place SE. Our primary care providers are supported by a network of multispecialty physicians and services. And we are open on Saturdays.

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BY KATHERINE SMITH

[email protected]

The city of Maple Valley plans to approve $500,000 for the Ravensdale Park Foundation to help fund phase two of the Ravens-dale Park project.

City Council mem-bers decided to give the go-ahead for contributing to the park at the coun-cil retreat in May. The plan approved by council includes partnering with King County in a dollar-for-dollar match through an interlocal agreement that will fund the first $1 million of phase two at Ravensdale Park. The city attorney is currently draft-ing the agreement accord-ing to Maple Valley City

Manager David Johnston, who expects the completed agreement to be presented to council next month.

“I think we need to have sports facilities for our citizens and I’m fully sup-portive of doing anything we can with the resources we have,” said Maple Val-ley City Council member Layne Barnes. “I think that (Ravensdale Park) will be a wonderful addition to the greater Maple Valley area and city of Maple Valley.”

The phase, which will have a total cost of $6 million and will include two multipurpose fields, onsite parking, restrooms, a concessions stand, play structures, an open area and trails as well as a main-tenance facility according

to the Ravensdale Park Foundation website.

Members of the founda-tion approached the Maple Valley City Council about helping to fund the project last fall and the city created a parks commission to vet the idea and offer its recom-mendation.

The commission present-ed its report to council in which it recommended that the city give $2 million to the project. Other sources of funding the foundation is seeking include $2 mil-lion from the county, and approximately $650,000 from the state legislature. They’ll then need to raise the roughly $1 million left elsewhere, according to Rob Nist, board member of the Ravensdale Park Founda-

tion.Johnston said that he

expects the $500,000 that the city has committed will come from the city’s real estate excise tax funds and park development funds.

“The intent is for the city to match the county with $2 million each,” Nist said. “I’m pleased to see that the council recognizes that something needs to be done.”

The funding from King County is dependent on the county’s parks levy passing later this summer, Nist said.

“There is capital money in the state budget for us, for the park,” Nist said. “We don’t know what it’s going to be until its signed, but both sides have money in the capital budget.”

The foundation mem-bers hope, in a best case scenario, to receive the needed funding to be able to break ground in January, Nist said.

“The youth football group will cease to exist if they don’t have somewhere to practice next fall,” Nist said. “There’s a sense of urgency to do something as quickly as possible.”

Reach Katherine Smith [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5052. To com-ment on this story go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com.

City to support Ravensdale Park Project

Diving back in the pool after defeating cancer

[ more POOL page 11 ]

BICYCLE SAFETY RODEO TO BE HELD JUNE 15 The Maple Valley Bicycle

Safety Rodeo will be held at Rock Creek Elementary on

Saturday.The rodeo creates a fun and safe learning environment

for children to develop rider safety skills.

The course has been designed to teach children

proper street bicycling techniques and features a

real stop light, street signs and a helmet and bike fitting

station. Award certificates will be provided to all

participants along with other giveaways.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to noon.


If you didn’t know, there was an opening ceremony June 8 for the new Covington Com-munity Park.

I always thought the fi eld next to Tahoma High School was just a horse pasture. Never would I have thought that there was an idea to have a park there for almost 10 years. Around 2002, the city of Coving-ton purchased the land that used to be a farm. Reserving it was one of the only ways to keep it from being turned into just another housing develop-ment. By 2008 Covington’s parks and recreation department completed the master plan. Th e next step was to make it hap-pen.

When I came onto the fi eld I was awakened with a bright, concrete platform and shiny new bleachers. Th ere was one full size soccer fi eld, grass cut to the quick. A large black, chain-link fence surrounding the perimeter, and goals big enough for older kids to play with. I was greeted by Scott Th omas, the director of Covington Parks and Recreation, and also by Margeret Harto, Covington’s mayor.

To start the ceremony, Mayor Harto spoke at the podium in front of a large ribbon that separated the crowd from the fi eld. First she introduced some individuals in the crowd, and then she told a story about how the park came to be. She also informed us on new things to come, other than a soccer fi eld and a trail. Additions to Covington Community Park include tennis courts, basketball courts, more soccer fi elds, more parking, additions to the trail, play areas, a concession stand, a community stage and more! Th is park is going to be a slam dunk! Th is fi eld and trail was only part one.

“It’s like building a quilt. You put one square

to another, and before you know it, you’re done,” Harto said.

Next was the actual ribbon cutting. A Coving-ton Community Sports team sat underneath the ribbon, and Mayor Harto along with a few oth-ers cut the ribbon with these gigantic, wooden scissors the size of a small dog. Once the ribbon had fallen, the kids soccer team ran onto the fi eld and started practicing, while everyone else was free to roam. If you went to the Covington Parks and Recreation tent — the same one I saw at Relay For Life June 1 — you could get snacks, beverages, or souveneirs like a soccer ball key chain.

Also somebody near the fi eld was making balloon animals for kids! At every special event there has to be something fun!

You could also walk down some steps to the beginning of a paved trail that led into the trees. I didn’t get a chance to walk it — I was in heels — but I did go over to another stand, which had

some maps that included things to be added to the park in phase two. I was amazed to see what is planned and can’t wait for the next phase to come.

For some of you who are excited to come down here and check the park out, the fi elds aren’t offi cially open to the public until some-time in September. Covington Parks and Recre-ation wants to get a head-start on the grass fi eld before it gets stomped on by a billion people. Also if you want to go see the trail, I heard you’re welcome to bring a dog if it’s leashed. So, I really hope to see many people next time I’m at the park.

Th is is only the beginning. Covington Com-munity Park is going to be one of the best addi-tions I’ve seen to Covington so far.

Annie Livengood of Covington is an aspir-ing journalist and sixth grader at Crestwood Elementary.

Advanced Placement Statistics is not at all what I thought it would be and given that math is never my strongest skill, the presenta-tion of a project by a group of Tahoma High students left me impressed, but also a little dizzy at the formulas.

Th is group — Donica Delia, Sarah Herman, Shanan Hopp and Marcelle Verkruse — met with me earlier this spring as part of a fi nal project for Dave Wright’s AP Statistics class. Wright sent me a message in April asking if the staff at the Reporter had any questions the students could investigate. Given the phenom-enal growth in Maple Valley in the past decade or so, I thought it would be interesting to see if there was any impact on voting patterns.

I also asked if they could check out patterns in Covington, but, I think that made the proj-ect too broad for them. Instead, they focused

on Maple Valley, and it was quite well done. Th e quartet brought me a lovely printed report with graphs, scary looking — to me, at least — math formulas and well-composed summaries of the conclusions of the varying tests they did to investigate my question. Th ey also put together an awesome Power Point presenta-tion replete with excellent graphics, much of the same information as the printed report, as well as the scary math, which in the end left me feeling a bit fuzzy.

On the other hand, it was kind of like an episode of Mythbusters, except with more math than explosions. Th e group did a series of tests, confi rmed their results before moving on to the next test, then drew conclusions based on the data they collected.

What impressed me most, though, was the fact they went to QFC in Maple Valley and the King County Library branch off Witte Road, then asked every third adult walking into either building to take the survey. I know that’s not easy. Years ago when I was a student at the University of Washington, I worked for the Eastside Journal as a news clerk, and for six months I had to do a man-on-the-street question every week. Th is was a small feature which I believe ran in the opinion section, so, it typically was a question about some kind of hot-button topic at the time. Now, people are always willing to share their opinions, but the

kicker was I also had to take a headshot photo of everyone I interviewed. It could take up to two hours at times to get four responses as required to fi ll the space. I hated it and I was getting paid to do it. One of my favorite places to do this was outside of the Bellevue Regional Library. So, I know exactly what the students were talking about when people declined to take the survey for all sorts of reasons includ-ing they didn’t want to talk about politics.

Still, Delia, Herman, Hopp and Verkruyse surveyed a signifi cant number of people over the course of a few weeks in May. Th ey asked them who they voted for in the past three presidential elections. Th ey also asked how long they lived in Maple Valley to see if newer residents tended to vote for Democrats more than residents who have lived here for nine years or longer.

Now, their initial data showed that hypoth-esis of mine regarding newer residents might be true, but what surprised me is their data also indicated Maple Valley does not skew as conservatively as I thought and may even be evenly split down the middle. For anyone who followed the legislative elections in 2012, this would explain some things.

But, the group determined they just didn’t have enough data to make any defi nitive

Q U O T E O F T H E W E E K : ”We’ve got some real slow learners in Maple Valley, but when they get two or three tickets...it does make a diff erence.” Linda Johnson, Maple Valley City Council member on speeding in Maple Valley.

Just the start for new park

Math project makes me dizzy

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conclusions. So, when the Mythbusters can’t conclusive-ly confirm or bust a myth, they say it’s plausible. And, so, my hypothesis about voting patterns is plausible based on what the students determined through their data collection but they would need to collect more data to either confirm or bust my theory.

I asked them if given more time, would they be in-terested in pursuing the question to a point where they could gather enough data and perhaps even tweak their methodology to confirm or bust my theory, and they said they would. Unfortunately for me they graduate Tuesday so, this is where the investigation needs to stop.

Ultimately, it was clear this group of students were able to take everything they learned during the course of the school to do work relevant to a real-work situation — voting patterns are a critical part of understanding how elections turn out as a journalist because we often need to analyze results, especially in situations when certain candidates lose or certain measures fail — which also required them to go well beyond the classroom walls to get the work done. It required interacting with the public, working with someone in the community

they could consider a client, presenting results to me as well as a panel of judges and demonstrating a level of higher order thinking skills that will serve them well not just in college but throughout the rest of their lives.

If it were up to me, I’d give them an A on the project. But, that may just be due to the fact all those equations made me feel a little light-headed.

[ HILL from page 4]

This new field, which has been in use since a soft opening May 9, is versatile because it can be broken into mini fields for multiple games at once or the full field can be used by older soccer players.

The grass field, which was planted in early October, spent the entire winter growing and developing its root system. Weather was ideal over the winter for the field to grow on a site which was formerly a pasture — the soccer field takes up about half of that field.

Covington Community Park is located at 180th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 240th Street.

The site is about 30 acres and is a collection of four par-cels purchased by the city in 2003 and then brought into King County’s urban growth boundary in 2004. It was an-nexed into the city in 2008. It is a short walk from Tahoma High School.

Construction had a $1.6 million price tag while the total project cost comes in at $2.26 million.

“It took us 10 years to build to this point,” said Mayor Margaret Harto.

Funding came from a variety of sources including grants as well as city dollars, with the City Council approving an increase to the utility tax in 2012 to ensure funding to cover the costs of maintenance.

Harto told the crowd who gathered for the ribbon cutting June 8 that partnerships were a key element in getting funding for the park. Years ago 47th District Rep.

Pat Sullivan, a former Covington councilman, told the city he wished there was someplace for his daughters to play soccer.

“Rep. Sullivan agreed to help us get state money if we agreed to put it at the top of our priority list,” Harto said. “I’m happy to say both sides kept their parts of the agree-ment.”

Finding funding was not easy, though, Harto explained, especially because the efforts began in 2009 after the reces-sion took hold yet Covington found a number of partners to get grants and money from the state legislature to make it happen.

“Over half of the development costs of this park have been paid for by grants and through partnerships,” Harto said. “I want to say thank you to the community for being involved since the beginning.”

Considerable thought was put into the trail design at Covington Community Park. Designers and contractors have worked to preserve as many of the big trees on the property as possible.

The trails were built so they are ADA accessible with gentle, curving slopes so those with walkers or in wheel-chairs can safely enjoy them. The trails were also designed with extensive sight lines and awareness of escape routes for greater safety.

One piece of the new trail system was built along a Bonneville Power Administration power line easement on the southeast portion of the property. It will eventually

connect up with another trail that is, at least temporarily, known as the Jenkins Prairie Trail, which will connect with other trails in the region which could take people from Lake Wilderness through Covington down to Lake Merid-ian.

That portion of the trail is paved and is capable of han-dling BPA’s heaviest work trucks, Thomas noted.

Other portions of the trail on the site will have interpre-tive signs. School field trips or small groups could make use of that feature of the trail, Thomas told the Reporter in December.

There are additional phases planned for the park which means the city will again seek out support from the state as well as community partnerships to make that happen.

There are plans for tennis courts, an open field, a play area, a place for a stage for community events and much more. As of the time Harto was talking about future phases, the state Legislature was working to finish its spe-cial session and finalize budgets. She explained there was money included in both the House and Senate budgets for the second phase. It’s just a matter of what happens when everything is finalized likely this week or early next week.

“We still have a long ways to go with this park,” Harto said.

In the meantime, phase one is open, something Pan said was rewarding for all the people who worked on the project as commissioners or city staff.

“To see it come to life is just wonderful,” Pan said.

[ PARK from page 1]

benefits of sustainable local food systems and develop-ing healthy communities.”

It also is an opportunity to introduce market pa-trons to folks like Holcomb, who are producing items to sell at the market right in their own backyard.

Holcomb opened his store just off Maple Valley Highway south of Four Corners about a year ago. Before that he worked out of a trailer part-time. He decided to turn the beekeeping and honey into sales after he realized it was time to leave the construc-tion industry due to medi-cal issues.

He was first introduced to beekeeping when he was a child and there was a

neighborhood beehive. “I was comfortable with

it already,” Holcomb said. “I decided about six years ago I wanted to teach my kids about it. I have about 40 to 50 hives now, some here at the store and some at home. I’ve been an ironworker my whole life, so, I’ve always done something on the edge anyhow.”

This will be the third sea-son for Bees in the Burbs at the Farmers Market, which is in its fifth year, where he sells raw, all natural, locally made honey. He may even have some freshly harvested honey in the first week or two of the Maple Valley market.

Bees in the Burbs is a small family business,

Holcomb explained, run by himself, his wife and two daughters, who do a fair amount of demonstrations and educational talks. The plan this year is to vend at the Maple Valley and Kent markets, which Holcomb said should keep them pretty busy.

Another element of beehives for the Maple Valley market this year will be a bee-hive box.

Holcomb gathered the materials together and donated it to the market so it can be decorated then displayed for some time before it goes to a farmer in the region who will use it to start a hive.

That’s something Hol-

comb is passionate about: teaching people how to get started.

“My main thing is to help people get through (start-ing a beehive) a lot easier than I did,” he said.

Jonas wrote that the demonstration hive

may just entice cus-tomers to try their hand at beekeep-ing. In any event,

the experience adds so much to the market,

she wrote.“Last year when Norm

donated a beehive box to our Farmers Market and then this year, when he suggested that we partner in bringing a demonstra-tion beehive to the market, I was eager to make it happen,” Jonas wrote. “I

was thrilled to offer up this amazing experience to our Farmers Market custom-ers and particularly to our younger generation of customers. As our market season quickly approaches, we will have a new hand-painted beehive box for an added visual effect just as we have Mrs. Utter-Butter, our cow mascot. We are thankful to local artist Ni-cole Notch for painting the beehive box.”

Having a business like Holcomb’s is an important element of the Farmers Market, Jonas wrote.

“Whether it be apia-rists like Norm, ranchers, orchardists or farmers, supporting the sustain-ability of our local farmers enables us as a community

to support their livelihood and provides them with an avenue where they can harvest their crops early in the a.m. and bring their product to market the same day, without going through a middle-man and we are the beneficiaries of their hard work. Providing a venue for all of our farmers is the core to who we are as a Farmers Market.”

Reach Assistant Editor Kris Hill at [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054. To comment on this story go to www.maplevalleyre-porter.com.

[ BEES from page 1]

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D-Issaquah, of the 47th and 5th legislative districts respectively, have partnered with Rep. Pat Sullivan, a Democrat from Covington who represents the 47th, to try and get $4 million for the purchase funded through the state’s capital budget. Th e House included the money for the Tahoma project in its budget and Fain and Mullet are work-ing to add it to the Senate’s version.

Th at $4 million would go toward the purchase price for the property in the Donut Hole which the dis-trict envisions as the future home of a new high school which could help alleviate the districts overcrowding issues.

“Basically the day aft er we got the Donut Hole bill passed then I shift ed gears to the $4 million capital request,” Mullet said. “It

basically will guarantee you can site the new high school there. It makes no sense to have the high school out on the edge of the city.”

Th e Donut Hole is 156 acres of county-owned property located off South-east Kent-Kangley Road and 228th Street Southeast. It is designated rural and unincorporated yet is whol-ly surrounded by the city of Maple Valley. It is home to nine holes of Elk Run Golf Course, a 13-acre county transportation maintenance facility and a large stand of trees.

Th e district’s last con-struction bond measure failed in April 2011 and administrators started con-sidering their options.

One option was to site a new school on property the district owns adjacent to Tahoma Junior High, which is located outside the urban growth boundary — a line that separates urban devel-opment from rural spaces.

At the same time county offi cials began to change county policies on school construction outside the ur-ban growth boundary.

Initially Maryanski fl oated the idea of a land swap — the 30 acres next to the junior high for a chunk of land inside the Donut Hole — but the district and the county moved beyond that to negotiations to sell the property to TSD.

Aft er the county and district discontinued negotiations in February, the School Board began to consider its options for grade realignment as it prepared for a possible construction bond measure in November.

At the same time, district staff searched within the

urban growth boundary for another potential site for a new high school.

In February, the board got a report which of-fered six options of grade alignment, which it then narrowed down to two:

• Glacier Park, Rock Creek, Shadow Lake, Cedar River and Tahoma — the latter two are currently middle schools for sixth and seventh graders — would serve as elemen-tary schools for students in kindergarten through fi ft h grade. Tahoma High and Tahoma Junior High would then become middle schools for students in grades six through eight. Th is option would then shift students from Lake Wilderness Elementary, which would no longer be used as a school, with 500 students who would need to be housed in portable class-rooms across the district by 2020.

• Building A of Lake Wilderness, which was built in 1986, would be expanded so it would continue to be used as a K-5 elementary along with Glacier Park, Rock Creek, Shadow Lake, Cedar River and Tahoma. Meanwhile, the original portion of the building which was constructed in 1959, would be demolished. Using Lake Wilderness would not require putting students in portables. Th is would add about $15 to $17 million to the cost of the bond, making it potentially $135 million to $140 mil-lion.

District spokesman Kevin Patterson said the board would, ideally, make a decision before the end of June regarding a construction bond. A new

high school would cost anywhere from $90 to $110 million, based on the price tags for similar projects in the area recently such as Auburn High, which voters approved a $100 million construction bond measure to renovate.

Patterson wrote in an email that if the state Senate includes the $4 million in its capital budget “and the governor signs the budget, then we will use it and our own funds to resume our eff orts to purchase property from the county. We don’t have a formal agreement yet with the county but they are very interested.”

Mullet said the key to getting the money into the Senate’s capital budget is going to talk to legislators face-to-face and persuade them on the merits of the allocation.

“Lake Wilder-ness is the largest elementary in the state, they have the three larg-est in the state, so, that’s what I point to, the sheer capacity issues,” Mullet said. “Th ey’re still producing the results but the rally is: it’s time to pass a school bond and improve capacity. Th is $4 million al-location is going to be a big part of passing the school bond this fall.”

Mullet said this alloca-tion is high on his list of priorities, which has grown shorter as the special ses-

sion marched on.One thing which could

help persuade legislators in the Senate to support the $4 million allocation, Mullet said, is the fact he crossed the aisle to work with Fain.

“It’s a bi-partisan deal, which is really nice,” Mullet said. “People realize it’s not a partisan favor, this is im-portant to a community.”

Still, as of Monday aft ernoon, there is still a fair amount which needs to be

settled.“We need

to come to a consensus about the size of the overall general fund before we can start plugging projects into the capital budget,” Fain said. “But I think there’s real life in that project and there’s great bi-partisan agreement that it’s the right project for that piece of property.”

Fain said he supports the vision for a new high school in the Donut Hole because it will achieve so much more than pro-viding additional space for Tahoma students and he supports the

project, even though it is not in his district, because he believes it’s best for children.

“It’s clear that we’re see-ing more and more families choose southeast King County as a place to raise their families which means we’re seeing more and more overcrowding,” Fain said. “We know there’s a growing sentiment in the commu-nity that we can’t have our

students living in portables all day long. Also the type of project that the district is considering, having a skill center bent to it, engaging with local businesses, trying to do public-private part-nerships to not only benefi t the students they’re bring-ing through the district but for the businesses who are looking for that pipeline of skilled employees. It seems like this type of a concept is a win-win-win.”

Fain said Maryanski and the Tahoma School District did it right by approaching businesses experiencing a shortage in skilled em-ployees to fi nd out what it needs to do to help students connect with those career options.

Th anks to the passage of the annexation bill, Fain said, he won’t have to explain the situation to state senators as he pitches them on the upside of the $4 mil-lion allocation for Tahoma.

“While that Donut Hole bill is not an end-all, be-all solution on how that land develops in the next few years, it was a good fi rst step,” Fain said. “Th ere is probably no legislator in Olympia that doesn’t know what we’re talking about when we say Donut Hole which is … something people in the Covington-Maple Valley community can take great appreciation in the fact that every legisla-tor is well-versed on what is going on in that part of the community.”

Time will tell — some-time between now and the start of the new fi scal year July 1 — if the $4 million makes it into the state capi-tal budget but that could make all the diff erence when it comes to Tahoma School District’s vision of the future.

[ TAHOMA from page 1]

“We need to come to a consensus about the size of the overall general fund before we can start plugging projects into the capital budget. But I think there’s real life in that project and there’s great bi-partisan agreement that it’s the right project for that piece of property.” Joe Fain

Read us online 24/7with regular updates

www.covingtonreporter.comwww.maplevalleyreporter.com


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The King County parks levy was the main topic at the Greater Maple Val-ley Unincorporated Area Council meeting June 3.

The upcoming levy was presented by Katy Terry, King County Parks assistant division director. Terry described the ballot issue as a six-year property tax levy lid lift to raise revenue for the maintenance and

operations of King County’s parks, trails, and open space. Levy funds would also be used to expand the regional trails system.

The levy replaces the 2007 Operations and Main-tenance Levy and Open Space and Trails Levy, both of which expire this year. Specific goals are to take care of existing parks and trails, grow and connect re-

gional open space, improve regional trails, and make parks more accessible.

The property tax levy lid lift is 18.77 cents per $1,000 of assessed value – an esti-mated $56 per year for the owner of a home valued at $300,000. The levy proposal is consistent with county’s practice to end the use of General Fund monies on regional parks, trails and

open space, and on local facilities in the rural unin-corporated areas.

For more information on the Parks levy visit www.kingcounty.gov/recreation/parks/about/levy.aspx.

Following the Area Council’s recent Citizens’ Survey Tahoma High School students volun-teered to catalogue and evaluate the results. Joseph

Meyers, Matt Milburn, and Hannah Wheeler, students in the Advanced Placement Statistics class, presented the findings at the meeting.

There was an overall 12 percent voter response rate to the survey. This is considered good for a mail-in ballot. The students presented each survey ques-tion and citizen response, while describing noticeable

trends in the data. Discus-sion included ways to im-prove the survey to garner even more citizen feedback in the future.

The Election and Survey Committee will be meeting further with the students to compile all results and trends. For more information on the council visit www.greatermaplevalleyarea-council.org.

King County Park levy top issue at monthly Area Council meeting

Community News and Notes

KENTWOOD STUDENT ACCEPTED INTO WASHINGTON AEROSPACE SCHOLARS PROGRAM Brian Lunder from Kentwood High School will be participating in one

of the four Washington Aerospace Scholars summer residency ses-sions held in June and July at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Wash-ington Aerospace Scholars is a competitive educational program, based at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, for high school juniors from across Washington State.

Lunder is among the 160 students who qualified for the program

from 285 students who applied in November. To qualify for the residency program, they spent five months studying a University of Washington and NASA-designed, distance-learning curriculum via the Internet and have been selected to attend based on their academic performance on the distance-learning lessons.

During the residency experience students will collaborate on the design of a human mission to Mars. Students are guided by engineers,

scientists, university students and certified educators as they plan these missions. The program is designed to inspire students to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math and learn about mis-sion management, budgets, legal aspects of space exploration, and medicine.

Applications for the 2014 program are available online at www.museumofflight.org/was. Applications are due Nov. 8.

The second week in June means your roses have bloomed and are looking for more food for the second wave of flowers.

Fertilize roses, peren-nials and annuals this week. Any-thing grow-ing in a container, from lettuce to petunias needs fertilizer this month as the days are longer and the plants are working overtime producing new growth.

This is also a good week to pinch back any leggy petunias and prune back sedum “Autumn Joy” plants to one half their size.

By pruning succulents like sedum now you will encourage branching and more upright plants that will not need staking.

Shear back rock gar-den plants like creeping

phlox, basket-of-gold and candytuft that have finished blooming. If foxgloves or

delphiniums have bloomed, cut back the main stalk now and the plants will send up side shoots for an encore of color.

And now, some good news: New Hydrangeas work like magic in Western Washington gardens.

Cool, wet summers are perfect for the new re-blooming hydrangeas and the fact that you can harvest and enjoy the first June blooms and be rewarded with even more flowers all summer long makes hydrangeas a shrub of incredible value. No other plant will give a landscape more flower color in shaded areas year after year without replanting.

The breeding break

through that made hydran-geas the comeback kids of the summer scene is the fact that once you remove one of the balls of boda-cious blooms it tells the entire shrub to get busy and make more flowers.

All this snipping and picking also keeps these new hydrangeas more com-pact so they can be enjoyed in containers and close to the house without block-ing the light from first floor windows.

Check nurseries this week for the new dwarf hydrangeas, pee gee hy-drangeas and re-blooming hydrangeas.

Do and Don’ts for Happy Hydrangeas:

Do choose from the re-blooming varieties. “Endless Summer” is the brand name that started it all but you can also find Big Leaf hydrangeas recom-mended by Proven Winners with names like “Let’s

Dance” (buds are extra cold tolerant), “CityLine” (compact plants for smaller yards) “Edgy” (variegated or bi-colored blooms) and “Abracadabra” (magical black stems)

Do choose a location protected from the hot afternoon sun. Heat will wilt these shrubs even if there is plenty of moisture in the soil.

Do harvest or remove the blooms if you want more new growth and late sum-mer color.

Don’t fret about the con-fusing choices and varieties of hydrangeas. They all do well in our climate. Bigleaf hydrangeas or hydrangea macrophylla give the most color.

Don’t forget that hy-drangeas can be used for a summer screening hedge. Choose one of the “bract-ed” hydrangeas such as “Little Lime” or “Limelight” with pale green and white

blooms on more upright plants. These large hydran-geas are more tolerant of winter cold and summer heat than the big leaf hy-drangeas.

Don’t plant your hydran-geas in deep shade if you want maximum blooms. On the north side of a house your hydrangeas will look healthy but produce few flowers. On the East side of the house or in a woodland garden where the shrubs get 4 to 5 hours of filtered sun that same plant will be covered with blooms.

Don’t forget to water your hydrangeas during droughts and improve the soil with organic matter when you add them to the garden. Hydrangeas need the most water the first summer after you plant – this is when they are build-ing a root system.

Don’t expect your big leaf hydrangeas to be the

exact same color as they are at the nursery. The more acid your soil the more blue the blooms. Our soil is naturally acid. Adding aluminum sulphate to the soil around your hydran-geas will turn them pink or purple – but this may take several seasons to work.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the au-thor of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and sev-eral other books. For book requests or answers to gardening questions, write to her at: P.O. Box 872, Enumclaw, 98022. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a personal reply. For more garden-ing information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.

Hydrangeas a staple of Western Washington gardensJune 14, 2013[8] www.covingtonreporter.com • www.maplevalleyreporter.com

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Visitors to the Lake Wilderness Arboretum can learn interesting facts about plants and also the history of this lakeside area by taking a free docent-led tour of the gardens.

“The sunny warm weather, mixed with occasional periods of cool rain in recent weeks has resulted in swaths of colors and fragrance in the Arboretum,” said Docent Co-Chair Cindy Ostermann. “Why not take a stroll along the paths to view the plant collections and the forest in June, and enjoy all that this public garden in Maple Valley has to offer?”

Free to the public on the third Saturday of each month through October, the next tour takes

place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 16 starting from the Arbo-retum’s gazebo. Signs are posted for parking as well as to the gazebo prior to the tour.

To inquire about scheduling a free docent tour, call us at 253-293-5103 or email us at [email protected]. Group tours can be arranged for other days and times by contact-ing the Arboretum.

Located at 22520 Southeast 248th in Maple Valley, the Ar-boretum is easily accessible by foot or bicycle via King County’s Cedar-to-Green River Trail. The arboretum is open daily at no charge from dawn to dusk. Visit LakeWildernessArboretum.org to volunteer or donate.

What’s blooming at LakeWilderness Arboretum

[9]June 14, 2013www.covingtonreporter.com • www.maplevalleyreporter.com8

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Johnson's Home & Garden26625 Maple Valley-Black Diamond Road | Maple Valley

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BY KRIS HILL

[email protected]

Reese McGuire ex-perienced what it’s like to be a superstar

on a whole new level the day aft er he was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fi rst round of the 2013 MLB fi rst-year players draft June 6.

McGuire, a senior at Kentwood High, went to school the next morning and found himself signing autographs.

“Friday was awesome,” McGuire said. “So many friends and classmates were coming up to me in the halls… people were taking pictures with me and getting my autograph. To know that people were supporting me, even people that I don’t really know, it was just a good feeling.”

Still, it was a little odd for McGuire who despite the numerous baseball acco-lades he’s accumulated just in the past month alone, is a quiet guy who is grounded. It’s not in his nature to seek the spotlight. He lets his

hard work off the fi eld, his bat and his skills on it do the talking. And ultimately, he just wants to play base-ball.

“I’m doing all those showcases (last summer) and whatnot, trying to get closer to my goal to be a fi rst-rounder,” McGuire said. “I knew I could just play my game and every-thing would turn out all right.”

Mark Zender, head base-ball coach for Kentwood, credits McGuire’s parents for that attitude.

“Th ey have done a great job keeping him grounded,” Zender wrote in an email interview. “Quite simply, they raised him right and it showed each day no matter how many scouts were at a game or practice, or if we were playing in a big playoff game. In the end for Reese, it is all about excelling at the game he loves, not the other things that surround it.”

McGuire is thankful for all his parents have done for

FIRST ROUNDER Kentwood senior Reese McGuire selected 14th in MLB’s fi rst-year player draft by Pittsburgh

Kentwood’s Reese McGuire takes a lead off third base during a game against Auburn in the spring. McGuire, a senior catcher, was selected in the fi rst round of the MBL draft June 6. KRIS HILL, The Reporter[ more FIRST page 11 ]

ALSO SELECTED IN THE DRAFT...

Among the players selected in the fi rst year MLB player draft

were two other young men from the Kent School District.

Austin Voth, a right handed pitcher who graduated from

Kentwood in 2010, was drafted out of the University of

Washington.Kentlake senior Jordan Cowan

was drafted by the Seattle Mariners. Cowan is a shortstop.


To place a Legal Notice,

please call 253-234-3506

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KING COUNTY DEPT. OF PERMITTING

& ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW

35030 SE Douglas St., Ste. 210, Snoqualmie, WA 98065-9266

NOTICE OF PERMIT APPLICATIONREQUEST: FORMAL SUBDIVISION

File: PLAT13-0005Applicant: Sugarloaf Mountain West

Location: South side of Kent- Kangley Rd btwn 309th Ave SE & 320th Ave SE (approx.) Ravensdale

Proposal: Re-subdivide exist legal parcels, 286.74 acres, zoned RA-5 into 40 lots for S/F detached dwellings & tracts for open space, trail corridor & critical areas.

Program Manager: Kim Claussen 206-477-0329

COMMENT PROCEDURES:

now being accepted by King County DPER, at the address listed above.

Published in Covington/Maple Valley Reporter on June 14, 2013. #795283.CITY OF BLACK DIAMOND

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Notice is hereby given that the Black Diamond City Council will be conducting a public hearing regarding possible increases in the water, sewer and stormwa- ter rates. The hearing will take place on Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at the Black Diamond City Council Cham- bers, 25510 Lawson Street, Black Diamond, WA. The purpose of the hearing is to hear public testimony on the above listed subject. Written comments may be submitted to the Clerk,s

PO Box 599, Black Diamond, WA, 98010 no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 20, 2013, otherwise they must be submitted at the hearing. Information is also available on the City’s website www.ci.blackdiamond.wa.us under “Public Notices”. For further information please contact May Miller, Finance Director at 360-886-5700. Dated this 4th day of June, 2013Brenda L. Martinez, CMCAsst. City Admin/City Clerk Published in Covington/Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporter on June 7, 2013 and June 14, 2013. #795995. King County Fire Protection District #43 (Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety) presents notice of the existence of a “Vendor List” for purchase of materials, equipment or supplies as required by RCW 52.14.110. Interested vendors are solicited to submit their names for the list.

While this is a general list, types of purchases would include jani-

supplies and EMS supplies. Respond to: 23775 SE 264th Street, Maple Valley, WA 98038, (425) 432-0200 or the form is available online at www.maple-

under the “Forms & Information” tab. Published in Covington/Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporter on June 14, 2013. #810085. King County Fire Protection District #43 (Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety) presents notice of the existence of a “Small Works Roster” for public works contracts as required by RCW 39.041.155. Interested contractors are solicited to submit their names for the roster. While this is a general roster, the types of work anticipated will include all phases of general construction, including plumbing and electrical, etc. Respond to: 23775 SE 264th Street, Maple Valley, WA 98038, (425) 432-0200 or the form is available online at www.maple-

& Information” tab. Published in Covington/Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporter on June 14, 2013. #810090.

Cedar River Water & Sewer District

At the regularly scheduled Board of Commissioners meeting on July 2, 2013 at 3:30 p.m., the Board of commissioners will be discussing and adopting a 6 year

required by the Washington State Dept. of Health. The goal being discussed is a regional goal de- veloped by the Saving Water Partnership, which CRWSD is a member of. A copy of the information supporting the goal can be viewed at the District

(www.crwsd.com), or on the Saving Water Partnership website (www.savingwater.org.) The meeting will be held at the Dis-

Petrovitsky Road, Renton, WA 98058. Published in Renton, Covington/ Maple Valley/Black Diamond Reporters on June 14, 2013. #811296.

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easier than chemo but it was still kind of tough, it was still every day,” Duven said. “I had a really bad sore throat and my taste buds went away, water tasted re-ally bad and really random things tasted strange, and it (the radiation treatments) smelled really bad which I didn’t really expect.”

This spring Duven concentrated on keeping up with school and staying on track to graduate next year.

“It (school) is good, it’s stressful,” Duven said. “But, I think it’s just managing expectations is the hardest part. Teachers see me come to school and I look fine and my attendance is much more regular…at times I have to check myself and expectations and I have to remind myself and remind teachers that it’s going to take a while. That I’m still recovering.”

Duven had her first follow-up CT scan and bar-rage of bloodwork as well as other tests like an echo cardiogram in April and much to her relief every-thing came back clean.

“That was encouraging to know that everything was going the way it was sup-posed to,” Duven said.

The future prognosis for Duven is excellent, she said that doctors told her there is less than a 5 percent chance of recurrence.

“It was very treatable,” Duven said. “They always say that if you had to get cancer it’s the cancer to get.”

This summer Duven is swimming for Fairwood Swim Team, a Midlakes summer league team.

“It’s going good,” Duven said.

The season kicked off with practice May 21 and dual meets began this week. Duven said she’s looking forward to connecting with old friends who also swim for Fairwood and enjoy-ing the slower pace of life without constant doctor appointments.

Duven is a sprint and middle distance freestyler, focusing on the 50, 100, and 200 yard freestyle events. Duven said the 200 is her favorite event, but she joked, “that depends on the day.”

One of the biggest take aways for Duven through the entire experience of fighting cancer has been the centrality of patience.

“I think it (cancer) teaches you a lot of things and you learn a lot about

yourself and others,” Duven said. “I think patience has been a big thing. You have to be patient and know that what you’re doing is going to work and now it’s, like, waiting for hair to grow, being patient with that…being patient with myself, my family being patient with me, being patient with teachers, all those kinds of things — being patient with the recovery.”

Duven also gave credit to her family and friends, for helping her through treat-ment and healing.

“We’ve all become really close,” Duven said of her fam-ily. “We were close before but now we’re really close.”

Duven said she’s become especially close with her sister, Bridget.

“She’s become really protec-tive, she was just a really good helper during treatment,” Duven said. “My parents have been really helpful with corre-sponding with teachers and managing everything else.”

Before she was diagnosed

with cancer Duven was interested in going into the medical field, maybe becoming a pediatrician, and she said that cancer has only made her more deter-mined to pursue medicine and help others.

“At first I just said pe-diatrician and it was just kind of general a year ago, but then after a year ago I started thinking, ‘What if I worked at Children’s? That would be cool,’” Duven said. “And then I found out I had Hodgkin’s and now I’ve seen all the different little departments or fields you

can go into and I’m thinking pediatric oncologist and I think being a nurse practitioner would be really interesting there (at Chil-dren’s).”

With an eye on a bright future Duven is looking forward to her se-nior year and being a normal teenager

again while holding on to what her experience with cancer has taught her.

One of her goals for next year is to incorporate the community of cancer patients and survivors into

her senior project.“I would just say that it

(cancer) has opened my eyes and given me more empathy and understand-ing of what other people are going through,” Duven said. “You just never know what someone else is go-ing through because a lot of people — I wore my wig until my hair started coming back and I stopped wearing it right after spring break — and I came back and people didn’t even know that I had had cancer. I thought it was so obvious

and I didn’t have any eye-brows and I was like never at school and all this weird stuff. To me it was really obvious, but I think it just shows you that you never know what people are going through, and just everyone has a different situation and it’s important to be aware of that and be patient or understanding.”

Reach Katherine Smith [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5052.

[ POOL from page 3]

“I think patience has been a big thing. You have to be patient and know what you’re doing is going to work, and now it’s, like, waiting for hair to grow, being patient with that.” Allie Duven

him as well as his broth-ers — Cash just finished his freshman year at Seattle University where he plays baseball on scholarship while Shane is an eighth grader, who is a left-handed hitter and catcher like Reese — which is why he chose to stay home for the draft. He said he wouldn’t even have the opportunity without his family so he wanted to share the experience with them. Plus, he is days away from graduation.

“It’s really a dream come true for all of us,” McGuire said. “I credit my parents with everything, my dad coaching me and my mom keeping me out of trouble and keeping me on track in school.”

His mother, Robin, is a teacher at Kentwood. McGuire said his parents did everything they could to help the boys earn scholarships to help pay for their college education, something that is important to his mom, by supporting their pursuit of athletics. All three boys settled on base-ball and it’s possible that Cash McGuire could end up getting drafted when his college career wraps up.

McGuire recalls people telling him and his brothers when they were younger that someday they would

go pro but he didn’t take it seriously then.

To have that opportu-nity, now, McGuire said, is, “pretty cool.”

And this comes after he was offered a scholarship to play for the University of San Diego. When McGuire spoke to the Reporter in August, he said he wasn’t sure which direction he would go if he were se-lected, but in the days since he was drafted he said he is leaning toward going pro now.

While it was no surprise he was drafted, the selec-tion went a bit differently than he was expecting, and it was still a huge moment for him.

“With the draft, going into it you never really know (what could hap-pen),” McGuire said. “Some guys went earlier so that really threw things off. Once the Pirates first came up with the ninth pick and then I saw my buddy was drafted … once they passed 10, 11, 12 and 13, I had a gut feeling (the 14th pick) was going to be the one. I felt like the Pirates were going to take me and I saw my name come up and I got a little teary-eyed and emotional. It was so amaz-ing to hear my name called and everyone was yelling

[ FIRST from page 10]

[ more FIRST page 12 ]


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Ruth Kirk ReevesWife, Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother,

A follower of Jesus Christ.

I have fought the good fight,I have finished the race, I havekept the faith. Now there is in

store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,the righteous Judge, will award

me on that day. 2 Timothy 4:7-8

This past May 28, 2013, Ruth went into the presence of her loving Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ where she was reunited with her husband, Jack, of 50 years who preceded her in death in 1990. Ruth was born on February 15, 1917 in Bellingham WA. She attended Bellingham Normal School (now WWU) and began her teaching career in Lynden WA. In 1976 Jack and Ruth moved from their longtime home in Seattle to Shady Lake in Renton.

Ruth was a committed Christian. With her love of music, she served her Lord over the years as a choir member, a choir director and a church organist. Mrs. Reeves was the first choir director at Maple Valley Presbyterian Church and was a charter member of that church. As an avid reader, she used this passion as an English tutor, a trainer of tutors as well as being the president of the Valley Literacy Council.

Survivors include sons John Reeves and Mark Reeves; daughters Judy Meyer and Cindy Solvie; and 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Wesley Homes Lea Hill on Wednesday, June 19 at 11a.m. at 32049 109th Place SE, Auburn.

In her memory, contributions may be made to the Wesley Homes Lea Hill Health Care Center.

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and screaming and all of a sudden I was hugging my mom.”

When he spoke to the Reporter Monday, McGuire said he has not yet been in touch with the Pirates organization to finalize a physical or discuss the contract, but he thinks they were giving him some time to finish his last week of high school and graduate before jumping into that.

“Having the draft over, it’s not really a chance to relax, it’s like, ‘OK, you’ve got that set,’” McGuire said. “To me, it’s the beginning. I have a lot to learn. This last week (of school) … not much is

going on in my classes, so, basically it’s soaking up the last of this time with my friends.”

And putting in work. McGuire said he’ll be hitting the gym and the batting cage his parents built for him in the shed in the backyard. If all the details are worked out with the Pirates in the near future, he expects he could report to the team by the end of June. He’s excited to be a part of the Pittsburgh organization and feels like it will be a good fit. He’s ready

to move on to that phase of his career, venture out into the world and learn.

But, there are some im-portant lessons he learned

playing at Kent-wood, particularly form Zender, that McGuire knows will help him as he transition to the next level.

“Zender has told me it’s all about character, it’s not about how you play, it’s about your character,” McGuire said.

“Zender’s really big on developing men rather than just players, so, the way he has approached that has definitely rubbed off on me, so, I’m going to bring that with me.”

As for Zender, his advice to McGuire, is to be him-self.

“Stay the same. Continue to love the game, be a great teammate and strive to get better,” Zender wrote. “Our team motto – adapted last year – is ‘classy dirt bags’ which means to always play the game as hard as you can between the lines yet always be a classy person. If he does that, he’ll maximize his talent, be a great role model for all and reach all his goals.”

Reach Assistant Edi-tor Kris Hill at [email protected] or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.To comment on this story go to www.covingtonre-porter.com.

[ FIRST from page 11]

“Zender’s really big on developing men rather than just players, so, the way he has approached that has definitely rubbed off on me, so, I’m going to bring that with me.” Reese McGuire

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Covington Water ChronicleProviding High Quality Drinking Water Since 1960

18631 SE 300th Place, Covington, WA 98042253-631-0565 • Fax: 253-630-4825 • CovingtonWater.com

GENERAL MANAGER: Gwenn Maxfi eld

79

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Please be aware that summer rates will be in

effect June 1, 2013 through September 30, 2013.

Senior Citizen low income and/or disabled

low income discountThe District offers a discount that is equivalent to our standard residential fl at fee to qualifi ed low-income Senior Citizens and low-income Disabled customers.

To qualify as low-income the total household income must be 50% lower than HUD’s standard Median Income for King County. A single applicant’s adjusted gross income (AGI) cannot exceed $30,350. Married applicants or co-applicants adjusted gross income (AGI) cannot exceed $34,700. The standard median income is updated annually by Housing and Urban Development.

Person(s) applying must be a Senior Citizen age 62 or older. If under age 62, the person(s) applying must be disabled and provide proof of disability.

Applicants receiving the discount will be required to renew their application each year, providing their most current income tax return to determine continuous eligibility. Renewal forms are mailed out every year by April 15th and must be returned by May 15th. New applicants can apply any time during the year.

If you have any questions, please call our Customer Service team at 253-631-0565, extension 0.

Holiday Closure: The offi ce will be closed in observance of Independence Day on Thursday, July 4, 2013

In residential areas, your water meter is usually located between the sidewalk and the street, in your front yard area, or in the sidewalk.

The water meter box serves two functions. It allows you and Covington Water District to easily access the water meter and the shut-off valve. It also serves to protect the water meter.

The District utilizes an automatic meter reading (AMR) system to read your water use. The AMR mobile system has a transmitter located at each meter that transmits water usage readings to a radio receiver when it is within range of the transmitted signal. When a meter technician drives within signal range, customer usage data is collected and then uploaded to our billing system.

For ease of access, please remember to:

Keep items off of the meter box such as trash cans, potted plants, vehicles and debris.

Trim the grass around the meter box.

Keep shrubbery and other landscaping from obstructing clear access to the meter box.

What’s In the Box? The District has joined King County and a coalition of King County cities, towns, tribes and special purpose districts to update plans preparing for the impacts of natural disasters. The District’s last update in the Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan was in 2009 and the new plan update is sched-uled to be updated in late 2014.

Responding to federal mandates in the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, the coali-tion was formed in order to pool resources and create a uniform hazard mitigation strategy that can be applied consistently throughout King County. The 2013 planning coalition, or plan-ning partners, is made up of King County, 26 cities and towns, 1 Tribe and 31 special purpose districts, including the Covington Water District. The planning process will take approximately 12 – 14 months.

District staff participates in the Steering Committee that is direct-ing the planning process. The Steering Committee serves as an oversight body and assumes the responsibility for many of the planning milestones prescribed for this process to help reduce the burden of time required by each planning partner.

During this planning process, the public will be asked to con-tribute by sharing local knowledge of an area’s vulnerability to hazards based on past occurrences. Public involvement will be

solicited via a multi-media campaign that will include public meetings, web-based informa-tion, questionnaires and updates on plan’s progress. This process will be overseen by the Steering Committee. The Steering Commit-tee meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, from 1:30 to 3:30, at the King County Offi ce of Emergency Management facility at 3511 NE 2nd St. in Renton.

An informational website on the plan and planning process is coming soon to the King County Govern-ment website. This website will serve as the primary means for the public to gain information on the plan and to fi nd out how they can participate in the planning process. The public is highly encouraged to provide input on all phases of the Plan’s development.

District staff will present the updated Hazard Mitigation Plan to the Covington Water District Board of Commissioners for adop-tion at a public meeting in late 2014. The District will publish the meeting notifi cation, time and location on its website and in the Covington/Maple Valley Reporter a few weeks before the meeting is to occur. District customers are invited.

Any questions or comments regarding this process are encour-aged and should be directed to Bob Taylor at the Covington Water District at 253-867-0940 or [email protected].

Preparing For The Impacts of Natural Disasters

Covington Water District Chooses Electronic Delivery Option for the 2012 Consumer Confi dence Report

The Consumer Confi dence Report (CCR) is an annual water quality report that the Safe Drinking Water Act requires all com-munity water systems (CWS) to provide to its customers. The purpose of the CCR is to raise customer’s awareness of where their drinking water comes from, the quality of their water, what it takes to deliver the water to their homes and the importance of protecting drinking water sources. The CCR Rule requires each CWS to mail or otherwise directly deliver one copy to each customer annually.

Within the last few years CWSs and other stakeholders, noting the increase in the number and type of communication tools, have asked EPA to allow for electronic delivery of the CCRs. The CWSs pointed out that electronic delivery would reduce mailing costs and promote environmental stewardship. It may also improve readership of the CCRs.

In response, in October of 2011 the EPA began a retrospective review of the CCR Rule. It looked for opportunities to improve the effectiveness of communicating drinking water informa-tion to the public, while lowering the cost by taking advantage of the newer forms of communication. To support this review, the EPA Offi ce of Ground Water and Drinking Water convened a workgroup to evaluate stakeholder input, held stakeholder outreach meetings and analyzed all available information on

CCR delivery.

EPA concluded that the existing CCR Rule lan-guage of “mail or otherwise directly deliver” allows for a variety of forms of delivery of the CCR, including electronic, so long as the CWS is providing the report directly to each customer. Therefore, in January of 2013 EPA clarifi ed the CCR delivery requirements to include electronic reporting. Consequently,

an overview of acceptable electronic delivery options and described approaches was provided to CWSs in order for them to implement electronic delivery if they chose to do so.

The District, in an effort to improve readership, save money and optimize staff time has elected to deliver its 2012 CCR elec-tronically this year. However, recognizing that not all customers have access to computers or other electronic devices, such as smart phones, tablets and laptops, the District will still make paper copies available to any customer who requests one. Paper copies of the CCR will also be available at the District’s front offi ce and other public locations such as the King County Public Library in Covington.

The District will be providing a direct link to the CCR within the message box on all customer bills starting in May and on the District website at covingtonwater.com. Look for the 2012 CCR to be available on July 1, 2013.

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425.656.5588

WOMEN WILL BE DIAGNOSEDWITH BREAST CANCER

IN1 8Early Detection is the Best ProtectionThe Breast Center at Valley is dedicated to helping our community win the battle against breast cancer. Early detection is the key to increasing treatment options and survival. In addition to an annual clinical exam and annual mammogram for women over the age of 40, a monthly self-breast exam is recommended for all women aged 20 and older.

Healing Environment

Warmed, lush gowns. A calm, comfortable and reassuring environment. Specialists at The Breast Center at Valley Medical Center understand the anxiety that often accompanies mammography and other diagnostic testing and we emphasize comfort, privacy, education and attention.

Advanced Technology &Expert Clinicians

Radiologists at The Breast Center are experienced in women’s imaging offering advanced digital technology, including the R2 ImageChecker®, which provides a digital second opinion of your mammogram. Our extensive screening services include low-dose screening mammography, diagnostic mammography ultrasound and bone density testing. Should you need care beyond routine imaging, we also offer comprehensive services and collaborative, skilled practitioners to support and guide you every step of the way.

Schedule Your Annual Mammogram Today!

The Breast Center at Valley Medical Center is here for you and the ones you love. Call today to schedule an appointment at 425.656.5588.valleymed.org/breastcenter

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covington/maple valley reporter, june 14, 2013

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