LOVELY SOUNDS Valentine’s weekend brings sweet performances to town. Page 11
SCHOOLS | District wood to be put to use. Page 3 COMMENTARY | Why are the candy canes still up? Page 7 BUSINESS | Sea Breeze Farm featured on television. Page 10
GIRLS GRAB STICKS A high school girls lacrosse team takes off. Page 16
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
Vol. 57, No. 6
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Agents see A CONGRESSMAN PAYS A VISIT TO VASHON signs of life in housing market
Town could get spruced up under UW project
Prices fell steeply in 2011, but buyers are stepping forward
Staff Writer
By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Housing prices on Vashon dropped nearly 10 percent in 2011, but with interest rates at record lows and signs of a recovery on the horizon, real estate agents say they’re feeling optimistic about their industry for the first time in years. More sales took place on Vashon in 2011 than 2010 — 102 compared to 97, according to several agents. More importantly, some note, January, typically a slow month in the industry, has been active. Some agents say they even saw multiple offers on houses last month, unheard of in recent years. “We have a lot of buyers in the marketplace right now. They’re in it to buy. And they want to buy now,” said Denise Katz, an agent who works for Vashon’s Windermere office. “There’s an edge of optimism out there,” said Ken Zaglin, owner of the John L. Scott office on Vashon. “I think we’re on track to do a little bit better this year than last year.” Home prices are still quite low, and it’s not clear, agents say, when they’ll start trending upwards again. According to several Vashon agents, foreclosures and short sales — when a seller owes more money to the bank than his or her house is worth on the market — continue to pull prices down. Those hardship sales, said Emma Amiad, a buyer’s broker, have become the comparables SEE REAL ESTATE, 14
U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) visited the Island Saturday, fielding questions from a standing-room-only crowd at the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie. The congressman faces a slightly different district now that a redistricting plan that carved out a new 10th Congressional District is about to go into effect. McDermott, who usually wins by 80 percent margins or more, lost a swath of South Seattle and gained territory further north, including Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Woodway and Edmonds. But he retained Vashon, one of his aides noted, and on Saturday he seemed clearly pleased to be here, where Islanders greeted him with smiles, applause and a long list of questions about the inner workings of Washington. See a story about his visit on page 5.
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Vashon’s main drag could soon see a sweeping makeover, should merchants and building owners choose to participate in a storefront revitalization program coming to the Island this spring. “I think there’s a lot that could be done,” Vashon Pharmacy coowner Tom Langland said of the town’s appearance. “Some small things and big things to make a better aesthetic downtown.” Langland was among dozens of business owners who attended a Vashon Chamber of Commerce meeting Monday where they learned about the project. Beginning in late March, about a dozen graduate students from the University of Washington’s Department of Architecture will focus their creative efforts on Vashon’s business core, an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants where a few storefronts have been spruced up in recently but many haven’t seen change in years. As a capstone project before graduation, the architecture students will work one-on-one with local businesses and building owners, developing a plan to make the town more visually appealing and economically vibrant.
Michele AnnLouise Cohen Photos
SEE STOREFRONTS, 15
Community council finds its way without King County By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Later this month, Vashon’s community council will host a public meeting with the second in command at the King County Sheriff’s Office, giving Islanders an opportunity to explore a sensitive issue — police staffing levels on Vashon — with a high-ranking official. To Tim Johnson, chair of the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council (VMICC), that
visit underscores the council’s ongoing relevance. “Our mission is to worry less about quorums and more about content,” he said. His personal mantra, he added, is simple: “Let’s just worry about bringing good information to the Island.” It’s a real issue to the sometimes spirited and free-wheeling community council, which has gone through a few permutations over the years. The council hasn’t had a quorum — 25
people — since October. Kyle Cruver, nominated in December to become the sixth board member, has yet to be officially named to the board because it takes a quorum to make that happen. But the issue of relevance could become trickier, some say, now that the community council has lost a role it held for years — that of acting as an official liaison between Islanders SEE COMMUNITY COUNCIL, 19