Enumclaw Courier-Herald, October 19, 2011

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INSIDE: Rainier crews getting set for winter season, page 2 . . . . Candidates make points during Thursday debate, page 4 . . . . Buckley council renews city waste disposal contract, page 5 . . . Shingle and post-shingle pain can be nerve-wracking, page 23 . . . . Fire burns deep for 8-0 White River Hornets, page 24

Your hometown newspaper for more than 100 years!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

www.courierherald.com

75 cents

Budget news is gloomy

What’s Inside Classified ...................... Page 28 Views .................................Page 7 Sports ............................ Page 24 Obituaries .................... Page 13 Binetti ............................. Page 11

HEALTHY g

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Identify health risks before the symptoms hit.

On the Web Breaking news Enumclaw police reports updated daily Sports scores posted the morning after games Updates daily. Go to: www.courierherald.com

By Kevin Hanson Editor

She wasn’t alone in the Auburn campus pottery studio. All around her were volunteers, former students, staff members, faculty and even Enumclaw Mayor Liz Reynolds. All were working feverishly to produce between 150 and 200 bowls for Enumclaw’s inaugural Empty Bowls program. Empty Bowls is an international grass roots

Like communities across the nation, Enumclaw is beginning the process of drafting a 2012 budget fraught with financial difficulty. A dismal general scenario – lagging revenues and increasing costs – has been widely assumed, but was put into print Friday. Mayor Liz Reynolds’ preliminary budget was released, validating the gloomy expectations. “For the past several years, starting with the 2010 budget, city government has noticeably contracted,” Reynolds wrote in her introduction to the 2012 budget. “Failing revenues and rising costs have forced reductions across the entire organization.” Any hope of a financial turnaround, the mayor wrote, was dashed when the state’s September forecast predicted several more years of economic turmoil and high unemployment. Several years into a national recession, the impacts are evident in factors that help shape the municipal budget: delinquencies in utility payments, foreclosures of personal and business properties, a significant decrease in local property values and continued local and regional unemployment. Reynolds’ preliminary budget shows bad news in the general fund, the portion of the budget that pays for essential services like police protection, parks and recreation, senior and youth services, street maintenance and city administration. The fund begins with assumed total revenues of about $7.74 million and anticipated expenditures of nearly $8.1 million. The proposal is to make ends meet by slicing reserves from approximately $1.12

SEE BOWLS, PAGE 3

SEE BUDGET, PAGE 4

Weather Today, Wednesday, should bring mostly cloudy skies with a chance of rain in the evening with temoeratures in the mid-50s. Rain is likely through the weekend. For details go to: www.blscourierherald.com click on weather

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Enumclaw’s Amanda Skipworth, a former Green River Community College pottery student, was part of Thursday’s ‘throw off ’ for the Empty Bowls program. Photo by Brenda Sexton/To view or buy photos go to www.courierherald.com.

Bowls feed the hungry By Brenda Sexton Staff Writer

Thursday afternoon Amanda Skipworth was in full production, throwing chunks of gray clay on her pottery wheel and spinning them into simple, yet stylish, bowls. One after another, the Enumclaw resident and former Green River Community College pottery student kept turning out clay bowls.

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SERVICE REPAIR SPECIAL

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Check inside this issue for the annual Women in Business section, produced by the staff of The Courier-Herald.

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ENUMCLAW

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