RENTON .com
REPORTER
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9/11
CAROLYN OSSORIO | Getting some real-life experience in downtown Renton [3]
Here we are | Renton History Museum presenting two exhibits that speak to Renton’s REPORTER NEWSLINE 425.255.3484 roots [2]
Season previews | Read what the Lindbergh XC team is looking to accomplish this season [13]
Teen charged as an adult in attack at transit center BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
Bill Ptacek, director of the King County Library System, has worked in libraries across the nation, but in King County he has found the patron and taxpayer support to turn KCLS into the busiest library system in the country. CHAD COLEMAN, Bellevue Reporter
His life is book marked KCLS director Bill Ptacek, sometimes controversial, bringing library vision to Renton nlevy@bellevuereporter.com
Bill Ptacek has always believed in the power of libraries. Growing up in Chicago, the long-time director of the King County Library System wanted to make a difference, to disseminate knowledge. Unlike others, he looked past the education field and targeted libraries as a key piece of information sharing. This passion and confidence in the potential of libraries took Ptacek all over the country, from Chicago to Idaho to Kentucky and finally to the Puget Sound area, where he has helped establish KCLS as the busiest library system in the nation. “This area’s support for libraries is incredible,” he said. “People here get it.” Since Ptacek was named the director of the
system in 1989, KCLS has expanded from 30 libraries to 46, and the number of employees has quadrupled. In other states, Ptacek said, there is tenor of anti-intellectualism that can sometimes hold libraries back, financially. In Washington, voters have agreed to tax raises, and annexations of cities into KCLS, an independent taxing district, a number of times. The most recent example occurred in 2010, when voters approved a levy lift for KCLS in the midst of the economic downturn. Renton annexed to KCLS in 2010. But Ptacek’s time hasn’t been free of controversy. He’s had run-ins with the library unions over the clustering of branches that forced employees to work at several libraries. And he’s recently been involved in a controversy over
KCLS: Numbers
FYI
5 things you may not know about KCLS 1. KCLS has never used a card catalog. 2. 25 percent of items checked out by KCLS customers are sent from one of the branch libraries to another. 3. KCLS was one of the first library systems to provide internet access. 4. KCLS circulated 22.4 million items in 2010, enough to make it the busiest system in the country. 5. Last year KCLS received 31 million web hits and 10,199,150 visits.
Help plan city libraries Page 5
[ more KCLS page 5 ]
206.949.1696 www.marciemaxwell.com Marcie Maxwell Associate Broker, Realtor & CRS
Lisa Lam
Realtor, CRS, ABR & ASP
520636
BY NAT LEVY
Solinuu Leae, 16, of Renton was charged Aug. 30 as an adult with first-degree robbery for allegedly assaulting and robbing a man at the Renton Transit Center on May 5. Initially, prosecutors charged Leae as an adult, believing he was 16 at the time of the assault. However, after examining a birth certificate, a judge determined he is 15. He was charged in Juvenile Court. At a hearing, Leae agreed to the state’s request to have him prosecuted in adult court, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office. Leae is scheduled for a hearing at 9 a.m. Sept. 12 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. If Solinuu Leae had been found guilty in juvenile court, he could have been held for about two years, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. As an adult, he would face 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in prison. Leae’s brother Troy Leae and another defendant, Francisco R. Rondon, both 20, are charged with first-degree robbery for their alleged role in the attack of a 36-year-old man at the transit center on Burnett Avenue South. The assault left the man with a broken left arm and a broken jaw. The first-degree charge factors in the assault that occurred in the robbery, Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, said in an earlier interview. Prosecutors say that Solinuu Leae is a danger to the community. Solinuu Leae spent a year in juvenile detention – an exceptional sentence – for assaulting a Metro bus driver on Jan. 23, 2010, on her Route 124 bus not far from Foster High School in Tukwila. He was released in January.