See our special advertising supplement on pages 18 to 26
ARTS | Young thespians present
ROLLING AHEAD Vashon girls soccer team wins three games in a row. Page 28
a musical classic. Page 12 OUTDOORS | Ecologist writes a new trail book for kids. Page 4 NEWS | Agency offers help for housing shortage. Page 9
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011
Vol. 56, No. 39
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Fire board candidates vie in a spirited contest
Joe Ulatoski
While four Islanders are running this fall to fill two positions on Vashon’s fire board, one race is getting significantly more attention than the other. Both Candy McCullough and Joe Ulatoski, who are running for position four on Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s board of commissioners, launched public campaigns — creating websites, collecting donations and handing out buttons bearing their names. McCullough, a longtime Boeing firefighter and volunteer firefighter on Vashon, was appointed to the five-person board in a 3-0 vote in June. As she completes the term of a board member who moved off the Island, she is running to stay on the board under the slogan “Retain Candy McCullough.” Ulatoski, a retired Army brigadier general and a founder of VashonBePrepared, has had
perhaps the most visible campaign. It kicked off at the Strawberry Festival parade, where he and some supporters marched with “Joe For Vashon” shirts and signs. His yard signs can already be seen along the highway. Both candidates are making it easy for others to support them with “donate now” buttons on their websites. McCullough said she has collected $375 so far from friends and family, while Ulatoski declined to say how much he has brought in. The two of them will face off tonight at a public debate at the Penny Farcy Building, along with Deborah Brown and Ron Turner, who are running for position one. The debate begins at 7 p.m. Turn to pages 31 and 32 to read about all four candidates. — Natalie Johnson
A GRAND OPENING: ISLANDERS CELEBRATE A GREAT PLACE FOR KIDS
Candy McCullough
State plans to clean up yards tainted by plume By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Leslie Brown/Staff Photo
Islanders gathered Saturday to celebrate the reopening of Vashon Youth & Family Services’ PlaySpace, which has been closed for four months while undergoing a $50,000 remodel. The event was a highlight for the many Islanders who worked to make the vision of a permanent home for early learning a reality, according to Ken Maaz, executive director of the nonprofit agency. The organization bought the building on the corner of Vashon Highway and Gorsuch Road from the YMCA of Greater Seattle earlier this year. On Saturday, it was named after Edith Aspiri, a founding board member of VYFS. Above, Sadie Liebo, 6, plays the violin, while Raena Joyce listens. More photos and a story are on page 28.
The state Department of Ecology hopes to clean up residential yards that test high in arsenic and lead in the most contaminated parts of the Arsarco smelter plume — a swath that includes all of Maury Island, the Burton area and much of southern Vashon Island. The far-reaching cleanup plan, which will be unveiled Thursday for a 60-day public comment period, will entail a neighborhood-byneighborhood sampling effort in Ruston, parts of Tacoma, University Place, Maury Island and southern Vashon Island — those places considered most contaminated within the 1,000acre Tacoma Smelter Plume, the state’s largest contaminated site. The sampling will be voluntary, as will any remediation the state recommends, said Hannah Aoyagi, an outreach and education specialist in the Ecology Department’s Toxics Clean-
up Program. All told, state officials said, there are approximately 2,400 residences on Maury, in the Burton area and on Vashon Island south of S.W. 264th Street that fall within the area of greatest concern and that may warrant both sampling and remediation. “We have some data from the Island, but we haven’t done a lot of sampling,” Aoyagi said. “We’re concerned that there are some residential areas that have some pretty high levels.” The state’s plan is to send letters or visit neighborhoods in an effort to get permission to test for arsenic and lead in homeowners’ yards and gardens. Those homeowners with soil that tests high — arsenic at 100 parts per million (ppm), five times above what the state considers clean, and lead at 500 ppm, twice the state’s cleanup standard — will be offered remediation. That remediation could vary widely, from wholesale SEE ASARCO, 16