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$2.3m Settlement | Fry’s employees win federal harassment lawsuit [2]
Back to school | Summer break ended this week for nearly 15,000 students in the Renton FRIDAY, SEPT. 7, 2012 School District [3]
Fall previews | Hazen football and soccer teams hope to build on last year’s success [12]
Signup under way for FilmFrenzy V By DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
For the fifth time next month, Renton will turn itself over to filmmakers for 50 hours. First, the filmmakers have to sign up for Renton
FilmFrenzy V. Registration for the competition closes on Oct. 1. This year’s competition is expected to draw at least 25 filmmaking teams in two divisions, student and [ more filmfrenzy page 10 ]
Advocates to bring concerns to council By TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
Renton residents have come together to form an advocacy group that will bring citizens’ concerns to the Renton City Council and other city officials. Formed at the urging of City Council member Greg Taylor and members of the public, the group will focus on the downtown library renovation and other city projects, said Beth Asher, a group member who will research issues. This new advocacy group vows to keep watch on the City of Renton and the King County Library System’s actions concerning libraries, but that’s not all it plans to do. “There are more issues of concern in Renton than the library, and we want to provide a platform for citizens to communicate with the city about them,” wrote Asher in an email. “However, the library renovation will be an ongoing project for us.” The advocacy group seeks to act like an ombudsman but provide residents with a place to take their concerns where they’ll The contact be listened to and helped, Asher said. To get in contact with the citizens adShe will help to research convocacy group, email Beth Asher at betha@ cerns and distribute information mittenthal.com. creating “a forum and a positive means for the city and its residents to communicate.” They have plans to become a non-profit organization. So far, some members have experience in project management, change management, architecture and real estate. “All of us are committed to making our city a better place to live,” Asher said. “We’ll tackle whatever Renton residents bring to our table and research and help to the best of our abilities.” One of the issues that sparked the group’s creation was the vote on the downtown library site location. To Asher, it was clear that the majority of voters that secured the site over the Cedar River was not just a minority voice in the city, as some City Council members stated, she said. Seeing an opportunity to connect council with citizens, the group was formed with this in mind. All of the members have other full-time jobs aside from this project, but Asher says they hope to create a large working group.
fyi
Victor Karpiak will retire Sept. 17 as CEO of First Savings Bank Northwest and chairman of its board of directors, where he has worked for 35 years. dean a. radford, Renton Reporter
Changes at top of bank Longtime community bank to get new CEO; Victor Karpiak to still lead the bank’s holding company By DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
Thirty five years ago, Victor Karpiak started his banking career in Renton in a small office shared with two others – including the CEO – lending
money to the people of Renton to buy homes. The assets of what was then known as First Savings and Loan Association of Renton totaled about $40 million and were owned by the depositors. Today, the bank is First Savings Bank Northwest and those assets – mostly the value of the real-estate loans – total about $1 billion, down from a high of about $1.3 billion. “When I was a loan officer, we did loans for the grandparents and then the kids would come along and then all of a sudden you saw generation after [ more karpiak page 11 ]
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