10,000 QUILTS A project to comfort vets continues to fill a need. Page 4
NEWS | Park District wins an
A MOVING STORY Documentary reveals the pain of domestic abuse. Page 10
injunction in land dispute. Page 3 OPINION | Putting an end to anonymous comments. Page 6 SPORTS | Volleyball team just misses going to state. Page 15
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2011
Vol. 56, No. 42
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
Books by the Way: 1973 to 2011
A bookstore closes, and an era ends By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Books by the Way has had many incarnations over the years, opening first in the Old Fuller Store at Center and then moving into town, where it claimed at least four locations. Now, the 38-year-old business, the longest-running bookstore on Vashon, is about to shutter its doors for good. And owner Jenni Wilke, appropriately, it seems, will hold a wake to mark the small shop’s closure. “It’ll be an opportunity for people to celebrate the bookstore with stories and memories, the same way you’d celebrate a life,” she said. “But we also realize there will be some sadness.” Indeed, last week, as books, discounted 45 percent, flew out of the store, one customer after another noted how sorry he or she was to see the Island institution close. “It’s been around forever,” said Joanne Calhoun. “I will miss it.” “It’s heartbreaking,” another woman said as she placed 11 books on the counter. “I’ve been a loyal customer for 10 years.” She patted Wilke’s dog Millie on the head and then gave the bookseller a hug.
75¢
County plans to cut down trees to save a forest By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Leslie Brown/Staff Photos
Jenni Wilke sells a stack of books to a longtime customer. Below, a man peruses the shelves, looking for bargains. “It’s been such a great place to hang out,” she told Wilke. And so it’s gone for the last couple of weeks, as Wilke upped her discounts, finally scrawling on a sandwichboard sign on the sidewalk “closing mid-November.” Some have come into the store asking Wilke who they’ll now turn to for book suggestions. Others have shed tears. Several, Wilke said, apologized
for not buying more books. But Wilke, who bought the store four years ago with her husband Dave, doesn’t blame Vashon for the shop’s closure. As her husband put it, “a perfect storm” hit the bookstore during their brief tenure as owners — a fateful combination of economic hardship, the ongoing popularity of online SEE BOOKSTORE, 20
King County hopes to undertake its largest thinning operation to date at Island Center Forest, removing dying alders and tightly packed Douglas firs in an area comprising nearly 100 acres of the popular woodland. Should the county move forward on the plan, the operation would take place in two different sections of the 363-acre forest — a 90-acre tract and a 33-acre area. The county is holding a public meeting to discuss its plans Tuesday evening at the Land Trust Building. Neither site, however, would be clearcut under the county’s plan, according to Bill Loeber, the county’s forester. The logging operations would be ecological in nature, he said, geared to improving forest health by selectively thinning in stands that are either too dense or comprised of trees that are dying and ready to topple. “I think of these things as being like a restoration project,” Loeber said. David Warren, who heads the Vashon Forest Stewards and who has played an active role in Island Center Forest’s management, concurred. “There’s this idea that if you just leave the forest alone, it’ll grow back to this natural forest,” he said. Island Center Forest, however, “is at a point where it needs some loving care.” Much of Island Center Forest was owned by the state Department of Natural Resources, which managed the site commercially for decades, using funds from its management to SEE FOREST, PAGE 18
Islanders rally to save Vashon’s skatepark By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
Allison Reid Photo
The BARC skatepark has been used by over 300 kids this year.
When Allison Reid’s 9-year-old son started skateboarding at BARC this summer, she had some reservations. “I thought it was just for teens,” she said. “I didn’t even know it was supervised.” Now, Reid is fighting to make sure the skatepark stays open. “It’s not at all what I have always thought it was. … It’s fabulous for him,” she said. “We go all the time, and I want to help.” Last month, parents learned the indoor skatepark, open five days a week at the Burton Adventure
Recreation Center (BARC), was on an unsustainable path. The park district program, which costs about $20,000 a year to operate, has barely broken even in past years, despite yearly help in the form of a $3,500 grant by the Development of Island Teens (DOIT). Last year, the skatepark came up $800 short. This year, the park district lowered admission to the park in an attempt to draw more skateboarders, inline skaters and scooter riders and make the program accessible to a wider number of people. “People were saying they couldn’t afford it,” said Susan McCabe, the park district’s program coordinator. Attendance dropped slightly, however. And now, SEE SKATEPARK, 19