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INSIDE | Police arrest fugitive on a tip [3]
Community | Pacin’ Parson to walk 1,400 miles for friends, and a worthy cause [2]
Opinion | Secured Valley soon to shed its sandbag look [7]
Friday, JUNE 1, 2012
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Copper wire thefts frustrate City staff, residents By ROBERT WHALE rwhale@auburn-reporter.com
Months ago Auburn police noted that the arrests and prosecutions of three men had put a serious dent in local occurrences of one frustrating crime. After that brief but welcome
lull, however, public works department staff said last week, that energy has built behind a new wave of wire thefts. Thieves are again enthusiastically ripping copper wire from underground conduits serving public street lighting systems, at great cost, let alone frustra-
tion, staff say, to Auburn and its residents. “We’ve spent – just looking at our numbers – close to $100,000 on costs and damages or just replacing the wire,” City Engineer Dennis Selle said last week. “And that’s just year-to-date so far, five months into the year… That mon-
ey comes out of the city’s Street Division first, so the money that we are using to address wire thefts is money we would otherwise be using to repair potholes and other things like that.” Whereas in the past copper wire thieves picked “ghost towns” like industrial areas,
which are deserted at night and on weekends, they’ve started to ply their avocation inside existing neighborhoods, on arterial streets, and on residential plats with infrastructure but no homes. [ more thefts page 4 ]
Supermall to get a new look, name By ROBERT WHALE rwhale@auburn-reporter.com
Sky climber Auburn Mountainview’s Shaddye Melu climbs 6 feet, 4 inches at the state 3A track and field championships at Tacoma’s Mount Tahoma Stadium last Saturday. Melu finished fifth in the event. Melu, a senior, also was sixth in the 400 meters with a school-record 50.01 seconds. For more state coverage, see page 12. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter
Museum explores ‘Rails to Sails’ By SHAWN SKAGER sskager@auburn-reporter.com
Gary Tarbox knows a thing or two about railroads in the Pacific Northwest. As vice president of the Northern
Pacific Railway Historical Association, Tarbox manages a massive archive of documents and photos, detailing the history of the Northern Pacific Railway in the Northwest. [ more EXHIBIT page 5 ]
Pacific ousts police chief By SHAWN SKAGER sskager@auburn-reporter.com
Calkins
Pacific Police Chief John Calkins has been officially terminated. Mayor Cy Sun and the City Council dismissed the embattled Calkins during executive session at the council’s regularly
OPEN
NOW
The Supermall is about to get a makeover – and a new name referencing not Auburn but a certain big city with a Space Needle 30 miles to the north. Columbus-Ohiobased Glimcher Realty Trust, which has owned the mall since 1997, announced last week plans to change its Auburn holding from a hybrid mall to “a pure outlet center,” which it will call The Outlet Collection|Seattle. These changes represent part of Glimcher’s strategy to “continuously
Tell us ... Auburn’s Supermall soon will be known as The Outlet Collection|Seattle. What do you think of the new name? Send us your comments at submissions@auburnreporter.com. Please include your name and phone number.
improve its quality and identify growth opportunities” within its portfolio of holdings, according to a company press release. [ more MALL page 5 ]
scheduled meeting on May 14, according to City officials. The City has released no official statement about the termination. Sun named Sgt. Jim Pickett as the acting police chief. When the Auburn Reporter asked Sun to comment on Calkins’ firing or expand [ more CALKINS page 3 ]
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