NEWS | Museum receives grant
VICTORY ON THE MAT Wrestlers rise to the top at Rock tourney. Page 16
ART GONE WILD Wildlife photographer, artist bring nature to First Friday. Page 12
to improve archive space. Page 3 HEALTH | Shape Up Vashon takes hold on the Island. Page 4 COMMENTARY | Communication can curb substance abuse. Page 6
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2012
Vol. 57, No. 1
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
Vashon HouseHold settles suit, repairs Eernisse
Working out and having fun A new program has drawn many seniors to the gym, where they’re enjoying the benefits of exercise and joy of camaraderie By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
Think about working out at a gym, and many images spring to mind: a young man bench-pressing heavy weights, a sleek woman running on a treadmill, an endurance swimmer slicing through the water. But at the Vashon Athletic Club (VAC), feats of athletic prowess are mixed with other inspiring scenes these days, in part because of a nationwide program that has begun to draw scores of seniors to the small gym south of town. The SilverSneakers Fitness Program — offered by some insurance plans to people eligible for Medicare — provides seniors free membership to any participating fitness center across the country. On Vashon, nearly 200 seniors have signed up since VAC adopted the program in August, giving them access to all the club’s equipment, facilities and classes, including two tailored to SilverSneakers members. “It’s preventative health care,” said Roy Haase, the coordinator of the program at VAC, “That’s really what it’s all about.” Dr. Chris Davis works for the athletic club as a personal trainer, a position he took after a 34-year career as an emergency room physician, where he grew dispirited
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By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Doug Rickerson, left, leads a water walking class at the Vashon Athletic Club. Above, Lynne Shepherd enjoys a moment with a fellow member of the class. “My mouth runs just as much as the rest of my body,” she laughed. seeing patients with illnesses they could have prevented by making healthier lifestyle choices. He has high praise for the program. “I think SilverSneakers is a monster home run,” he said. “I think it is the smartest, single most costeffective step I have seen in my health career.”
For seniors, Davis noted, regular, moderate exercise brings many benefits. As people age, they lose flexibility and muscle mass — about 1 percent a year — and exercise helps mitigate those changes. Exercise also improves people’s cholesterol and triglyceride levels, reduces blood pressure,
helps manage diabetes, delays dementia, improves depression and — what Davis calls the crown jewel of the benefits — helps with weight control. Not only do people burn calories when they exercise, Davis said, but moderate exercise SEE SILVERSNEAKERS, 15
Once scarce, coyotes are being spotted all over Vashon By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
Living on the west side of Vashon near Camp Sealth, Bella Ormseth has become accustomed to chasing raccoons away from her home, seeing deer saunter through her property and even hearing seals bark in the distance. But when her neighbors began to say there were coyotes in the area, Ormseth didn’t believe them. “The reports were always a little vague. I said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’” she recalled. Ormseth became a believer just a few weeks
ago when, during breakfast one morning, her husband called her to the window to see two coyotes trotting across their lawn. “There’s no mistaking it for any kind of dog,” Ormseth said. The two snapped a photo of the second coyote as it disappeared into the woods and sent it to friend and ecologist Bianca Perla, who wasn’t at all surprised to see the shot. Perla and other local experts say the Ormseths’ sighting is one of a growing number of coyote reports that may signal a growth in the animal’s population on Vashon. “I would guess they’re making a comeback,”
Perla said. Perla grew up on the Vashon but had not heard of coyotes on the Island until after she moved back with her family in 2003. Perla, who chairs the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, spotted a coyote herself last summer and has heard them howling a few times near her west-side home. “I really think there are more because of hearing the howls,” she said. “I think there were pups this spring.” Vashon was once heavily logged to make SEE COYOTES, 11
After a lengthy legal battle, Vashon HouseHold is in the midst of a far-ranging set of repairs at Eernisse Apartments, where water was pooling in some of the crawlspaces and mold was growing on many of the subterranean pony walls. The nonprofit organization and its main contractor, Triple D Construction of Bellevue, settled out of court earlier this fall, when Triple D and four of its subcontractors agreed to cover the costs of repairs at all seven buildings that make up the complex, said Chris Szala, Vashon HouseHold’s executive director. All told, the full fix at the $6 million project is expected to cost around $230,000, expenses that will be covered by the crews’ insurance companies. The work is extensive, Szala said. The pony walls beneath each unit were removed, creating wide open crawlspaces with plenty of room for air circulation. New foam-based insulation and topof-the-line vapor barriers have been put in each building’s crawlspace. Pipes that were cracked or not hooked up properly have been replaced. And each building now has a sump pump and dehumidifier in place to ensure crawlspaces remain dry, he said. The materials used, Szala said, are state of the art, and the work carries a lifetime guarantee. “The legal wheels grind slowly. But we got where we needed. And that’s absolutely fantastic,” Szala said. Sue Gardner, Vashon HouseHold’s board chair, concurred. “It was definitely a mess,” she said. “I saw the pictures. I saw the SEE EERNISSE, 19