➦
P TO SAVE U
$
500
AGE ACK P SEE B OUPONS! FOR C
Your hometown newspaper
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
www.blscourierherald.com
75 cents
PDC fines Mendoza for campaign advertisement
What’s Inside News .............................Page 3-5 Views ................................Page 6 Community Click..........Page 9 Classified ............... Page 14-18
Generations can enjoy getting away together. | Family Matters, 7
Former Sumner Superintendent agrees to pay $2,000 over 2011 school board election mailers.
Updates daily at
By Brian Beckley
BLSCourierHerald.com
• Breaking news • Columns from Don Brunell, Rich Elfers and others • Letters • Obituaries • Pierce County happenings
Find us on facebook
Weather
Today, Wednesday, should bring sunny skies with highs near 70 dropping to an overnight low near 50. The sun hangs around Thursday and Friday with highs near 70. The weekend is even nicer, with sunny skies predicted and highs reaching in to the mid 70s.
Contact Us! Main Desk 360-825-2555
News ..................................ext. 3 Classifieds...........................ext.1 Retail Ads .........................ext. 4 Circulation .......................ext. 2
Staff Writer
A sign posted at the swimming area of Allan Yorke Park warns there is no lifeguard on duty. Family and friends of drowning victims are asking the city to consider lifeguards at the lake. Photo by Dennis Box.
Families of drowning victims ask for lifeguards Daniel Nash Staff Writer
The mother of a 2011 Lake Tapps drowning victim and friends and family of the teen who died in June joined together at the June 26 city council meeting to lobby for safety measures on the Allan Yorke Park shore. Tina Lombard is the mother of Robert Harris, a 17-year-old Federal Way boy who drowned in a different section of the lake in September. Harris was attending a family barbecue in the county-operated Lake Tapps North Park when an errant football landed in the water. Harris dipped in to retrieve it and disappeared under the water. Family members swam out to the scene and couldn’t find him. A grid
search by the Pierce County Inside Sheriff’s Office located his body 54 minutes later. Donation fund “Each of us around established for that beach died that day,” Lombard said to the council Boggan family. during public comment. “I Page 5 cannot tell you how many family members, how many grandkids, nephews, cousins that died on that day with him.” Lombard was part of a contingent that had gathered at the city council meeting to argue the need for greater safety measures—such as
See Lifeguard, Page 5
Former Sumner School District Superintendent Gil Mendoza on Thursday agreed to pay a $2,000 fine levied by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission for failing to report his spending on a mailer during the 2011 school board election. The commission fined Mendoza $4,500, but agreed upon the lower amount on the condition that Mendoza pay within two weeks and commit no further public disclosure violations for four years. Mendoza and the district “mutually separated” in June 2011, during the fil-
See Mendoza, Page 4
Police increase fireworks patrols With Independence Day upon us, Bonney Lake Police are reminding citizens to be careful not to run afoul of the city’s fireworks laws. It is unlawful for a person to ignite, discharge, use or explode any consumer fireworks except between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. on July 3 and on July 5 or from 9 a.m. and midnight on July 4. Only “Safe and Sane” fireworks, as per-
See Laws, Page 3
Put Your Business First!
Front Page Advertising Guaranteed! Call 360-825-2555 or 253-862-7719