NEW TAKE ON OLD OPERA Audience gets a say in ‘Così fan tutte.’ Page 12
NEWS | Park district fails to get water right for fields project. [3] RELIGION | Episcopal church begins evening prayer service. [5] ARTS | First Friday offers art lovers [13] much to take in.
HILLS AND THRILLS Cyclists test their mettle in Passport to Pain. Page 15
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 Vol. 57, No. 36
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
Craft distillery poised to make a splash
County puts the brakes on rumble strip project
Vashon spirits? Get ready for a new kind of juice
By LESLIE BROWN
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Vashon’s first distillery has yet to produce a drop of alcohol. But one would never know that based on the attention and anticipation surrounding the small operation. Vashon’s liquor store and The Hardware Store Restaurant are already making plans to promote the new distillery’s first products, set to hit shelves this month. The distillery’s owners are getting calls from total strangers interested in investing in the business, and people passing through Center often stop by the distillery’s new shop there to see if they can get a look. “Some people know we’re here, and some people just see the sign and come over to check it out,” said co-owner Ishan Dillon, sitting outside the shop with his partners one sunny day earlier this month. “Everyone who knows of our product and what we’re doing is overwhelmingly excited,” he said. Dillon, along with IT manager Paco Joyce and graphic designer David Waterworth, have spent the last nine months transforming a 1,300-square-foot log cabin off of Vashon Highway near Center, once an auto repair shop, into a state-of-the-art craft distillery that can pump out rum, gin, vodka SEE DISTILLERY, 20
75¢
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
David Waterworth, Ishan Dillon and Paco Joyce have transformed a 1,300-square-foot log house into a state-of-the-art distillery.
King County officials have decided to end the controversial rumble strip project on Vashon, a move they made after hearing from residents and elected officials that even a modified program impairs cyclist safety. In mid-August, the county announced it would continue the project, narrowing its scope but not ending it altogether. But last week, Harold Taniguchi, who heads the county’s Department of Transportation, said he and his staff had reached a new decision. An additional four miles of rumble strips along the centerline won’t be installed, he said, nor will the county add a few more stretches of grooved pavement along the shoulders on the southern half of the Island. “We’re not going to continue with the original
plan,” he said. County officials made the decision after they came out to Vashon two weeks ago to describe their modified plan, only to hear from residents “that there were still deep concerns,” Taniguchi said. Islanders, he said, “told us we still don’t get it.” The new plan contains some elements of their revised project. Responding to concerns about children’s ability to navigate the grooved pavements, the county will remove shoulder rumble strips near Vashon’s public schools. It will also add signs warning cyclists of the presence of rumble strips and install thermoplastic markings that make the grooves more visible. Taniguchi, saying it was a departmental decision, not a political one handed down by the County Executive’s office, added that he SEE RUMBLE STRIPS, 19
WHERE HAVE THE FOGHORNS GONE?
‘Senseless’ crime hits historic site hard By AMELIA HEAGERTY For The Beachcomber
A piece of Point Robinson is missing. Two historical artifacts were stolen from the serene waterfront park last month — solid brass foghorns that noisily erupted for decades whenever fog was near the point. There has since been a television news report on the theft and an outpouring of sympathy over the loss of the unique items. The group that oversees Point Robinson plans to replace them with two similar brass foghorns, unless the originals somehow return, said Capt. Joe Wubbold, president of the Keepers of Point Robinson.
It’s likely that the brass horns, weighing 60 pounds apiece, were unbolted from their 8-foot high metal platform and taken for their value as scrap metal, he said. The thieves probably approached the lighthouse by water at night, so the nearby live-in keeper of the point had little chance to see the crime in progress, Wubbold said. But the value of the horns, installed in honor of an Islander who loved the point, was so much more, he said. “It’s an insult to all the people who live on SEE FOGHORNS 18
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Capt. Joe Wubbold is sick about the theft. Behind him is the metal platform where the pair of foghorns used to sit.