HEALTH | Wellness project gets new life. Page 3 EDUCATION | How green can the new school be? Page 4 SPORTS | Girls b-ball wins first round of playoffs. Page 16
AN ICY JOURNEY VHS grad part of historic trip to Nome. Page 12
BIG SOUNDS Portage Fill works to protect its legacy. Page 11
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012
Vol. 57, No. 7
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
WSF project raises questions for PO boat If Pier 50 goes, where will the water taxi park? By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
Bidding farewell to a country chapel The church has been shuttered for years. This week it comes down. By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD Staff Writer
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Joanna, Louis and Tim Jovanovich (top), a longtime parish family, take a look at St. Patrick’s shortly before it was demolished this week. Helen Brocard (above) ties a ribbon around a Cyprus tree that her godmother Helen Puz planted with seeds from Croatia.
For more than a decade, St. Patrick Church has been a darkened fixture on Maury Island — an increasingly dilapidated reminder of a bygone era of baptisms, bazaars, weddings, potlucks and other gatherings of the Catholic faithful that once took place in Dockton. Now, emptied of its statuary, stations of the cross and other sacred content, the rustic 1923 country chapel is about to be demolished, stirring memories and emotions for some longtime Islanders. According to Constance Walker, pastoral assistant at St. John Vianney Church, the building was beyond saving. “The foundation was rotten and infested with pests,” she said. “There
was asbestos, lead paint, the floor was completely rotten and the roof was leaking.” The historic house of worship was condemned in 2001, after a massive infestation of termite-like insects laid waste to its timbered foundation. At that time, only Saturday vigil masses were being held at the church — all other services were being held at St. John Vianney, which was built on nearly 60 acres purchased by the Archdiocese of Seattle in the 1950s in anticipation of a proposed bridge from the mainland to Vashon. The bridge was never built, of course, and the archdiocese eventually scrapped plans for a Catholic school and a convent next to St. John Vianney. But still, the more centrally located church became the parish seat when it opened in the mid-1960s. St. Patrick’s was relegated to the status of a mission until the building was condemned. And with the failure of a yearSEE CHURCH, 18
The King County Water Taxi may be forced to find a new place to dock in Seattle, should the state follow through with its plan to demolish Pier 50, where the boat currently pulls up. Joe McDermott, who represents Vashon on the Metropolitan King County Council, and others are fighting Washington State Ferries’ plan to destroy Pier 50 as part of a $210 million project to rebuild Colman Dock. Since 2009, the King County Ferry District has leased Pier 50, which sits
at the south end of Colman Dock, from the state. But according to current plans, when construction begins on the dock in mid-2015, the passenger-only water taxi — which has a dozen sailings a day from Vashon and West Seattle — as well as the Kingston SoundRunner passenger ferry, must find a new home. The public can comment on the plan through midMarch, and a public meeting for the project is planned for Thursday in Seattle. McDermott said he opposes the state’s plan because it makes the most sense for water taxi riders to get off at the Colman Dock. The streets around the dock are already designed for foot traffic since a large number of pedestrians SEE FERRY, 15
FOR THE LOVE OF EDUCATION
Natalie Johnson
Craig Harrold, left, and Erica Davidson, president of the Vashon PTSA, were among many who raised bid cards to purchase a spot at an Ian Moore concert during the organization’s annual auction last week. The Valentine-themed affair brought in roughly $60,000. See page 10 for more photos.