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Lessons in city budget for group of residents
Land use appeal case in hands of the judge
BY KRIS HILL
Dennis Box
khill@covingtonreporter.com
dbox@maplevalleyreporter.com
Ed Cook believes in volunteerism so after serving on the Covington Economic Development Council it made sense for him to sign up for the city’s Budget Priorities Advisory Committee. “I thought it would be a good way to put some meaning behind the dollars,” Cook wrote in an email interview. “Anyone with a computer can pretty much access their community’s budget but all those numbers having a Covington numbing affect after a while. Secondly, I think generally there is a communal disconnect when it comes to a city’s budget — more about what it’s going to cost me than what I’m getting.” Since it started meeting in February, the city’s Budget Priorities Advisory Committee has taken its government 101 lessons and is working toward coming to a consensus to report to the City Council, which ideally would be the end of the calendar year, but could be no later than June 2013.
King County Superior Court 3B was packed the morning of Aug. 3, as attorneys argued the fate of the YarrowBay master planned developments targeted for Black Diamond. Judge Patrick Oishi heard the Land Use Petition Act appeal. For nearly three hours the parties presented their cases for and against the two developments, The Villages and Lawson Hills, which would add about black 6,250 residences diamond along with commercial, retail, schools, open space and parks. At the close of the hearing, Oishi said he would render a decision later. He did not give a specific date. Attorney Bob Sterbank of the Issaquah-firm Kenyon Disend represented Black Diamond. Nancy Rogers of Cairncross & Hempelmann in Seattle represented the Kirkland developer YarrowBay and David Bricklin of Seattle-based Bricklin & Newman presented the case for Toward
[ more BUDGET page 4 ]
Sign The Shirt On My Back
Cameron Hale, 12, of Maple Valley, lets funny car driver Jack Beckman use his back as a flat surface for an autograph on a T-shirt. Beckman was one of a number of professional drag racers at Pacific Raceways over the weekend for the 25th Northwest Nationals. kris hill, The Reporter To view a slide show go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com
A Tahoma senior’s midsummer night of Shakespeare in the park By TJ Martinell tmartinell@maplevalleyreporter.com
Originally, the cast of a Shakespeare play was exclusively male, with young boys playing the girls parts. In Maple Valley, Tahoma High senior Nico Lindblom is doing just the opposite — young girls in male roles — for her senior project, which is a production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.” Lindblom first got the idea of doing a Shakespeare play after she had decided to do something grandiose for her senior project rather than the bare minimum. “I didn’t want to do anything that was average,” she said. “Lots of people redo their bathrooms or things like that. And I felt like redoing my bathroom was not big enough for my last year in high school, so I decided ‘Let’s choose
something big.’” Wilderness Arboretum in mind, Her problem, however, was which she felt worked as a natural finding something that fit her background and provided the apgrandiose aspirations yet at the propriate ambiance. same time was practical and “It’s sort of whimsical so I felt within her capacity. it probably fit best,” she “My first thought was said. “I could have chosen ‘Let’s do a renaissance “Hamlet,” but somebody fair,’” she said. “That was told me it was probably way too big of a project. not family friendly.” Too many liabilities issues. After creating a proAnd so instead as sort posal for the play producof a spin off of a renaistion, Lindblom presented Nico Lindblom sance thing I said, ‘let’s do it to her mentor, who was Shakespeare.’” impressed with the scope After deciding to take of her project. a stab at a production of one of The first dilemma she faced was the bard’s plays, Lindblom said casting the 17 character roles. she chose “A Midsummer Night’s Originally Lindblom said Dream” with the idea of the Lake she wanted to have a traveling
[ more APPEAL page 7 ]
Shakespeare troupe perform, but the costs were too high. She then turned to her high school, hoping to find students there who might be interested in participating in a Shakespeare play. She circulated posters for auditions and created a Facebook page to raise awareness. The first day of auditions, however, brought five aspiring actors, while the second day had seven, a total of 12. “I had to take them all because there aren’t enough people,” she said. “There are people who had to be double casted…So there’s quick changes back scene. It worked out okay in the end [ more PLAY page 11 ]