DOG RESCUE GOES VIRAL Dog stands guard over hound friend for a week. Page 9
NEWS | Work to begin on old south-end pier. [5] COMMENTARY | VCC needs funds to continue service. [6] ARTS | Solar activist to speak at [10] science series lecture.
MARATHON MATCH Football team beats Charles Wright Academy. Page 14
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 Vol. 60, No. 38
School, park district candidates to debate By ANNELI FOGT Editor
Candidates for contested positions on the Vashon Park District board and school board will answer questions from voters in the upcoming weeks, and share their platforms at two separate debates ahead of the Nov. 3 election. School board candidates will debate on Oct. 1, and park district candidates on Oct. 6. Both debates are sponsored by Voice of Vashon and The Beachcomber and were organized by community activist Hilary Emmer. She has been organizing debates for public office candidates for several years as a way to help the public become informed voters. They will be moderated by Susan McCabe, co-host of Voice of Vashon’s Island Crossroads. The public will ask all questions at both debates, a move that Emmer says she believes is the most fair. “Having the public ask is the fairest way to do it
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Back to the lighthouse: Granddaughter of former keeper returns to visit house, recalls memories
because they are the ones that care and the ones that are voting,” Emmer said last week. “My focus is to give a venue to see them and hear them and become informed voters. Each candidate will be a little different, and the public can find out how. I only want informed voters casting their ballot.” Three school board seats are contested: Dan Chasan and Laura Wishik are incumbents, and Kathy Jones will not seek re-election. Chasan will be vying for his seat against John “Oz” Osborne, a former school board member who did not seek re-election after his term ended in 2009. A May Beachcomber article reported Osborne is a software engineer and college professor. Jones’ seat is up for grabs by either Jake Jacobovitch or Zabette Macomber, both islanders with experience on Vashon school boards. Wishik has served two terms on the board and is
Top: Karen Musselman stands on the steps of the former Point Robinson lighthouse keeper’s quarters. The house, now a rental property, was her grandparents’ home while her grandfather worked as the keeper from 1938 to 1955. She spent a lot of time as a young child with her grandparents at the house and came back to visit last week for the first time since her grandfather retired. Right: Musselman’s grandparents, Elsie and Jens Pedersen, sit on the stairs of the keeper’s quarters in this undated family photo. The Pedersens lived in the keeper’s home for nearly 20 years while Jens worked as assistant keeper and eventually keeper of the Point Robinson lighthouse.
SEE DEBATES, 18
FULL STORY, 13
Anneli Fogt/Staff Photo
Courtesy Photo
Seattle police, county bring Safe Place initiative to Vashon By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
A Seattle Police Department initiative garnering attention for its focus on preventing and responding to antiLGBTQ bias crimes will launch on Vashon next week, concluding in a public meeting for business owners and community members. The Safe Place program began in Seattle in May after a rise in reported crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning individuals, and it quickly gained attention as the only police department program of its kind. Now, the King County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with the Seattle Police Department to roll out the program in areas throughout the county, starting with Vashon. As part of the program, businesses and other organizations put a small “Safe Place” decal in a window, indicating that they will provide a safe place for any LGBTQ person who feels harassed or threatened; staff members also
agree to call 911 for assistance while the person remains safe inside. Jim Ritter, the founder of the program and a longtime officer with the Seattle Police Department, said more than 650 Seattle businesses have already signed on; many others are waiting to join, and police departments as far away as South Carolina, Ohio and Calgary in Alberta, Canada, have expressed interest. Next Wednesday afternoon, Ritter and Michelle Bennett, the LGBTQ coordinator at the sheriff’s office, will visit Vashon to enlist local businesses in the effort. That evening, they will host a community meeting to provide more information about the initiative and the goals of the program. They noted that both KING 5 and a representative from the United States Department of Justice may attend. Vashon, home to the state’s largest percentage of samesex households, has a reputation among many for being a tolerant community with little crime, including bias crimes. Indeed, since September 2013, only one such crime has been reported on Vashon, said Sgt. Stan Seo, a sheriff’s office spokesman; that was the race-related malicious
harassment incident reported last month. Regardless, Bennett says, the program is an important one because many bias crimes go unreported — meaning Vashon might have a larger problem than statistics show — and the stickers themselves send an important message. “I want to bring awareness to any issues that may exist,” she said in an interview last week. “I want to make sure the community knows we are partners in their safety, that there is a safe place and that we want to assist in the problem.” Ritter and Bennett first came to Vashon to discuss the Safe Place program last month after they were invited to do so and met with several business and agency leaders, including Lisa McLeod, co-chair of VARSA (Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse). Since then, McLeod has begun talking to other business leaders, informing of them of the new program and asking SEE SAFE PLACE, 19