PAT’S LAST DRIVE Fans of a longtime bus driver honor his retirement. Page 10
BUSINESS | Business owners team up to generate leads. Page 5 SCHOOLS | Once threatened, Camp Waskowitz trip is on. Page 3 COMMUNITY | Elves’ setback takes a fundraising toll. Page 4
CHAMBER RETURNS Vashon Chamber Music sets a somber tone. Page 9
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012
Vol. 57, No. 2
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
New meals program fills growing Island need
‘This is now Central Park.’
By SUSAN RIEMER
The 40-acre forest behind Roseballen is a muddy expanse in places, crisscrossed by deeply rutted tire tracks and pockmarked with debris — food wrappers, discarded needles, an old sleeping bag, clothes. A small, makeshift cross, marking where one man buried his dog, stands near a spreading hawthorne. The remnants of a camp — a tattered assemblage of tarps, chairs, cardboard and blankets — is tucked behind a wall of ferns, so well-hidden it escaped the bulldozer. This is where some of Vashon’s homeless people spent their nights and where a handful of Islanders tore through the muck in their rigs — “mud-bogging,” they called it. But the forested parcel is adjacent to Island Center Forest and, perhaps more importantly, holds the headwaters for Judd Creek, a salmon-bearing stream and Vashon’s largest watershed. And now, after three years of negotiations and a concerted fundraising effort, the parcel is in King County’s hands — its latest acquisition on Vashon and a fantastic addition, some say, to Island Center Forest, a popular, 360-acre park with nine miles of well-used trails. David Kimmett, a natural lands manager for the county, and Tom Dean, head of the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, made their way through the woods last week, commenting on both the needs of the site and its remarkable contribution to Vashon’s swath of public ownership. With the purchase, Island Center Forest is now 400 acres in size and directly accessible from town, Kimmett said, noting he could see the flag at Vashon’s post office as he stood at the forest’s edge. The site’s needs are great, Kimmett acknowledged. Scotch broom, a highly invasive plant, covers several
Healing the land, restoring a forest By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Three months after launching a pilot program that provides free meals seven days a week, members of the Vashon Social Services Network (VSSN) say the meals are serving a definite need on the Island. Prior to this program, which began Oct. 1, free dinners were available two to four days a week, but now Islanders who would benefit from a free meal can attend a dinner six days a week as well as Sunday brunch. Staffed by coordinator Robin Blair and a host of volunteers, the program has served roughly 1,800 meals to Islanders since it began a little more than three months ago. “Clearly the need is growing,” said Emma Amiad, a member of the VSSN and a board member of the Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness. Blair stressed that it is not just homeless people who attend the dinners, but a wide range of people, including families in which at least one of the parents works. The cost of living is high here, Blair noted, and some families do not have enough money in their budgets for utilities and food. “One person working is not enough with the rents people have to pay on the Island,” she said. Typically, Blair said, between 20 and 40 people turn out for each meal, though the average is between 20 and 26, with the numbers increasing toward the end of the month. Volunteers have made this effort possible, Blair noted, but more assistance is needed, including five more volunteer teams that would make dinner once a month. Four to five adults per team is optimal; children are also welcome. SEE MEALS, 16
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
David Kimmett and Tom Dean walk through a 40-acre forest behind Roseballen, a parcel King County just purchased and that will be added to Island Center Forest.
SEE LAND, 16
Vashon educators celebrate high court’s landmark ruling Court will retain jurisdiction until state fixes its broken system, justices say By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Vashon educators and officials are cheering a strongly worded state Supreme Court decision issued last week that found the Legislature has failed for decades to meet its constitutional mandate to amply fund K-12 education. The high court’s 7-2 decision affirmed a
King County Superior judge’s February 2010 ruling, agreeing that the Legislature’s failure to fund basic education has resulted in an uneven and severely underfunded system of education. Districts don’t have enough money to purchase basic supplies and decent text books, pay their teachers and administrators adequately or cover the costs to transport students to and from school, the high court said. Noting the decades of failure, the Supreme Court added that it will retain jurisdiction over the issue to ensure the state finds a way to mend what it called a “broken” system. “What we have learned from experience is that this court cannot stand on the sidelines
and hope the state meets its constitutional mandate to amply fund education. … We will not abdicate our judicial role,” Supreme Court Justice Debra Stephens wrote in the 78-page majority opinion. “A noted scholar in the area of schoolfinance litigation has observed that success depends on ‘continued vigilance on the part of courts,’” she added. “This court intends to remain vigilant.” Vashon was one of many school districts that signed a letter in support of the lawsuit — McCleary v. State of Washington — that led SEE EDUCATION, 15