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VRFA christens Lea Hill fire station By ROBERT WHALE rwhale@auburn-reporter.com
Forty years ago cow pastures bounded the two-lane roads of 124th and 312th, and King County Fire District 44 decided to build a small fire station on the southeast corner of that intersection to serve the rural residents of Lea Hill. With all the development and the widening of streets since, the once drowsy juncture morphed into a busy place. For fire engines, just getting out of the tiny station and onto those roads turned into a trial by traffic. In 2008, the City of Auburn annexed Lea Hill and enfolded the station into the new Valley Regional Fire Authority. And the powers that be on the VRFA board knew that the old station would
Konner Kuntz, dressed smartly in the regalia of a junior firefighter, flashes his toothiest grin at the Station 34 dedication. ROBERT WHALE, Auburn Reporter
no longer do. Last Saturday, and much to the delight of hard-working firefight-
Local group wins animal control services contract REPORTER STAFF
A local group soon will provide animal control services in Auburn. The Auburn City Council unanimously approved the animal control ser-
ers, the VRFA officially dedicated the new 11,200-square-foot station a couple hundred feet to the south of the old. “There are smiles all over their faces,” VRFA assistant Chief Mike Gerber said of the fiveperson crew of Station 34. “There’s lots of elbow room, it’s very efficient, they’ve got their own work stations, and separate sleep rooms without being in the group environment. They didn’t have any of those things before.” Indeed, there’s about 5,000 square feet more of elbow room than at the old station, which had already been at its maximum capacity with a three-person crew. The new station can house eight people – if necessary – at full build out. [ more STATION page 4 ]
vices contract with the Auburn Valley Humane Society (AVHS) on Monday night. The City’s Municipal Services committee recommended that the full City Council approve the contract. The AVHS – a group of area veterinarians and board members – has [ more CONTRACT page 3 ]
Classy addition Pastor Ron Kocher of the New Day Christian Fellowship addresses the crowd as Valley Christian School Principal Gloria Butz looks on during the dedication of the school's six new classrooms Sunday. The $775,000 project was made possible through a joint effort between the church and school. ‘In the past, we had to make due with rooms that morphed into classrooms, but these are beautiful new facilities,’ Butz said. Story, page 4. MARK KLAAS, Auburn Reporter
Corps intends to operate Howard Hanson Dam to full capacity REPORTER STAFF
A once-weakened Howard Hanson Dam should operate at full capacity this winter. So says a confident Col. Bruce Estok, commander of the Seattle
District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Estok said the Corps can operate the dam to its full flood storage capacity as designed, now that important risk reduction
measures are nearing completion. Seattle District engineers and scientists have concluded that the Corps can operate the dam this season to hold its design full pool – an elevation of 1,206 feet
above sea level – with low risk to the dam. “All indications are that the new measures will perform as intended to full flood storage capacity,” Estok said last Friday. “However,
until the dam experiences a flood above summer pool level (1,167 feet), there isn’t 100percent certainty of how the new measures will perform.” [ more CORPS page 4 ]
Learn more on page 2
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