Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
Holy hole-in-one! Page 10
June 6, 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 22
Joel Aune’s contract is renewed School superintendent gets a three-year deal. Page 2
Building options North Bend considers asking for development ideas. Page 3
How big for a bond? School district holds focus group about bond size. Page 5
Police blotter Page 6
By Greg Farrar
Bill King (left), of Auburn, while spending a few weeks at Snoqualmie Valley Hospital in rehab recently for a broken femur, pets Quilla, a Pet Partners therapy dog owned by Cindy Kerby (right), of Carnation.
By Greg Farrar
Quilla, a Siberian Husky/Australian shepherd mix, gets a loving hug from Cindy Kerby while they prepare to visit another patient.
Therapy dogs help local patients battle back to health By David Hayes When Bill King broke his femur in a horseback riding accident, the 48-year-old knew after surgery he was in for a long, excruciating rehabilitation period. But the highly trained specialist his team of physical
therapists at The specialOn the Web Snoqualmie ist trained to Learn more about Pet Partners Valley Hospital help patients at www.petpartners.org. brings in makes with their the process a rehab is Quilla, little more tola 2 ½-year-old erable, even if Siberian Husky/ the exorbitant fees in return Australian shepherd mix, one are nothing more than a good of six dogs provided by Pet scratch behind the ears. Partners through the hospital’s
Animal Assisted Therapy program. Working with Quilla helps the half-hour go faster for King when he has to get up out of his wheelchair and work on putting weight on his healing leg again. For King, who has dogs See DOGS, Page 2
Snoqualmie Police sergeant Tribe constructing new is honored for saving life administration building By Michele Mihalovich
Multitalented man Valley author writes about what he knows. Page 9 Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
On Dec. 15, 2009, Rachel McNaul was driving west near Preston on Interstate 90 when a woman, impaired by drugs and alcohol and driving westbound on I-90, crossed the median and slammed head on into McNaul’s vehicle at 70 miles per hour. Off-duty Snoqualmie Police Sgt. Paul Graham was also heading westbound on the interstate, to go have lunch with his wife, when traffic came to a screeching halt. Graham said he drove on the shoulder to the accident to see what had happened and if he could help. Smoke, dust, scattered debris and two mangled cars greeted him. He said he grabbed a medical
kit from his vehicle and ran up to the first car he came to — the drunken driver. “She was fine, talking and moving her arms,” he said. When he approached the second vehicle, he found McNaul squeezed into the backseat. The two cars didn’t hit fender to fender. The drunken driver’s vehicle came up over McNaul’s hood and through the windshield, pushing her body into the backseat. Graham said he recognized McNaul immediately. She was a checker at the North Bend Safeway and he’d gone through her line many times. He also knew she was in trouble. There was no blood, but he heard the
See SAVE, Page 3
By Michele Mihalovich The Snoqualmie Tribe has outgrown its current administration building in downtown Snoqualmie, and has broken ground on a new 10,800-square-foot building at the current Snoqualmie Valley Hospital campus on Ethan Wade Way Southeast. The hospital board approved selling the old hospital building and 52-acre property to the tribe in 2007 for $30 million. Then in June 2012, the board accepted an early payoff of $14 million. Some hospital commissioners and administrators said the current campus was too steep to expand the hospital, and a new hospital is in the process
of being built on Snoqualmie Parkway near Interstate 90. However, according to the Snoqualmie Tribe’s May newsletter, “26 acres can be developed.” The Tribal Council, in an email, said, “As our staff size and programs have increased, the Snoqualmie Tribal government has outgrown its current administrative building in downtown historic Snoqualmie. As a result, the tribe is currently in the process of constructing a new government administration building on tribally-owned land near the tribe’s Health and Human Services Annex Building in Snoqualmie. See TRIBE, Page 3