Valley Record SNOQUALMIE
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 n Daily updates at www.valleyrecord.com n 75 cents
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New era for Valley liquor stores
The sign struggle
By Seth Truscott
High school photographers get recognized for lens visions Page 8
Editor
Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo
Holding one of his A-frame pumpkin patch signs, in storage for two years, Nursery at Mount Si owner Nels Melgaard looks over 8,700 pumpkin seedlings. He is at the center of a debate over North Bend sign laws and business needs.
Nursery’s yard sign campaign violates code, spurs debate on balance between law, business By Carol Ladwig
SPORTS
Staff Reporter
T-Lane claims state honors, season praise for Wildcat ball Page 9
Index
Opinion 4 On The Scanner 5 8 Puzzles 11 Calendar 12 Obituaries Classifieds 13-14
Vol. 99, No. 2
Every time Nels Melgaard puts his A-frame signs up on North Bend streets, he knows he’s breaking the law. He’s not happy about it, but feels he’s at an impasse with the city. He can still joke about it, though. “Those are the criminals there,” he says, pointing to three sturdy A-frames lined up outside a shed. Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo
Giving her time to remember Tanner Jeans’ legacy and promote safe bike riding habits, Snoqualmie’s Laurie Gibbs is the founder of the Jeans Memorial Fo u n d a t i o n , organizing the annual bike safety Rodeo, June 9.
Melgaard makes the distinction because he just made up 100 other signs—simple yard signs declaring support for his business, The Nursery at Mount Si just outside city limits on Southeast 108th Street. Since May 25, when he got the signs, people have taken more than 80 and put them up in yards around North Bend. The yard signs were inspired by the A-frames, which Melgaard sets out every week to direct travelers to his business, and which city of North Bend staffers occasionally confiscate for violating the city’s six-year-old sign code. See SIGNS, 3
The gift Meet Laurie Gibbs, Jeans Foundation leader By Carol Ladwig Staff Reporter
By day, Laurie Gibbs deals with worst-case scenarios. Her analytical mind is constantly turning over prevention methods and damage mitigation for prison lock-
downs, school break-ins, and worse. For the rest of her day— she’s one of those people who seems to have more hours to get things done than the rest of us—her heart takes over. She organizes events for the Tanner Jeans Memorial Foundation that she started. See BIKES, 15
Customers were steady at North Bend’s Liquor Store No. 179 as the clock ticked down to closing time Thursday, May 31, but the shelves and stockroom were eerily clean as the selection sold out. Thursday marked the end of Washington’s 78-year state liquor monopoly, and it was a bittersweet moment for staff like Cheryl McGee and Shannon Joyce, with 14 years of experience in the liquor business between them. “There’s a whole future ahead,” McGee replies when she’s asked by a customer what she’ll do now. “Unemployment first.” McGee is among the thousands whose fate changed when the liquor industry went private. See LIQUOR, 3
Executiveeye view There’s still a way to go, but King County is reforming and changing. So says Executive Dow Constantine, who met with a group of Valley business and civic leaders during a stop at the Snoqualmie Valley Record. Learn about Contantine’s mid-term stop on page 6.
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State’s monopoly ends, new competition begins