AN HOMAGE TO LIGHT Lelavision’s newest show illuminates the season. Page 11
COMMERCE | Tote bags that help. Page 4 EDUCATION | Tech levy passes easily. Page 19 SPORTS | Grapplers place at state. Page 16
To your health h Find The Beachcomber’s ’ss guide to health care e practitioners rs inside this issue. e.
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2012 Vol. 57, No. 8
m www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Empty storefronts a sign of the times Pertussis cases at By LESLIE BROWN
schools raise concerns
Staff Writer
Walk down Vashon’s main street, and one sees signs of a struggling retail landscape. Four storefronts — Heather’s Homegrown, the former site of Island Quilter, Movie Magic and Zoomie’s — are currently vacant. Just outside of the retail core, Dr. Sjardo Steneker’s former clinic has a for sale sign on it. Further south, in Burton, Island restarauteurs Troy Kindred and Marie Browne are about to end their stint as owners of the Quartermaster Inn. And last week, Beng-Imm Low, owner of the Vashon Tea Shop, said she plans to shutter her shop at the end of March, though Chamber of she continues to commerce hope she’ll find considers a a buyer by then. new name Her tiny outfor Vashon’s let — a sweetbiggest ly appointed festival. cafe adjacent See story, to the Vashon page 5. Bookshop — has been on the market since last August. Vashon’s retail center is hardly a sea of boarded-up storefronts. But to those who have lived and worked on Vashon for several years, the number of empty storefronts seems high right now.
By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Leslie Brown/Staff Photo
One of the vacant storefronts is on a corner in the heart of town. It’s been for rent since the beginning of the year. And while the story behind each vacancy differs in the details, they’re a stark reminder, some say, of a lingering recession that has hit Vashon hard. “We’d love to have a thriving downtown business district. But people just aren’t spending money like they used to,” said Patti
McClements, who chairs Vashon’s Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a real concern to the members of our board — to see another business with butcher paper in the window. It’s very disconcerting,” she added. Linda Bianchi, a real estate agent with deep roots on the Island,
concurred, adding that she would be particularly sad to see the Tea Shop join the list of vacancies. “It’s just such a cheerful storefront,” she said. “I think it’s a sign of the economy, a sign of tough times,” Bianchi SEE STOREFRONTS, 5
Students learn the ins and outs of sustainability By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Second graders Jaime Pereyda, Sam Walker and Kaitlyn Bonaventura clean food waste off their trays at Chautauqua last week.
As Vashon School District officials make decisions about the energy efficiency and sustainability of the new high school building, the youngest students in the district are being faced with some “green” choices of their own. Last week during lunchtime at Chautauqua Elementary School, a first-grade boy emptied a bag of cracker crumbs into a bin marked “food.” Then, holding the plastic baggie over another bin marked
“trash,” he thought for a moment then asked a lunchroom helper, “Can I put this in here?” The elementary schoolers who until recently dumped their lunch waste — compostable trays and all — into trash cans began to use a new recycling center in the cafeteria this month. District facilities director Dave Wilke, who is heading up the effort, said that by separating reusable trays, food waste, liquid SEE RECYCLING, 19
Six students on Vashon have confirmed cases of whooping cough, prompting King County health officials to issue a letter urging parents and teachers to be on alert for the highly contagious disease. The public health agency, in a letter to all parents and staff at Vashon’s three public schools, says adults should pay attention to cold symptoms among children, noting they could be the first signs of pertussis, or whooping cough. Those adults who have contact with babies or young children — considered the most vulnerable to severe infection from the disease — should take extra precautions to ensure they don’t get the illness, the letter adds. Babies, according to the letter, signed by Eileen Benoliel, a public health nurse in the Communicable Disease Epidemiology & Immunization Program at Public Health - Seattle & King County, can die from pertussis. The letter was issued late Friday after officials learned there are four confirmed cases of pertussis at the Vashon School District and two confirmed cases of the disease in school-age children who attend a private school on Vashon. School officials believe there’s a linkage to those cases — or “evidence of contagion,” as Sarah Day, Vashon’s school nurse, put it — which led to the county’s letter. Vashon School Superintendent Michael Soltman said the letter from the county underscores the seriousness of the situation on the Island, where the number of children who have not been vaccinated against whooping cough is considered high by many health care professionals. According to recently tabulated SEE PERTUSSIS, 14