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LOCAL | Miners memorial in Black Diamond closer to reality [page 3]
SISTERS, TEAMMATES | Tahoma’s Oosterhout sisters hope to help the girls FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 defend 4A cross country crown [14]
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Leaders see growth as they assess state of city
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City Council approves business license
BY KRIS HILL
BY TJ MARTINELL
khill@covingtonreporter.com
tmartinell@maplevalleyreporter.com
Growth is the watch word for Covington during the first nine months of 2012. Mayor Margaret Harto and City Manager Derek Matheson gave the Covington Chamber of Commerce the annual state of the city address at the monthly luncheon Sept. 14 with the review of the city’s accomplishments providing an upbeat big picture. Harto described Covington as a city for COVINGTON families as well as businesses, particularly the healthcare industry, with MultiCare and Valley Medical Center both expanding considerably this year. “In many ways we were No. 1 around the state,” Harto said. “In the state of Washington we are the No. 1 city for the sixth year in regard to retail growth. That’s really something we can be proud of.” Particularly given how hard
The Maple Valley City Council voted to approve a city business license at its Sept. 10 meeting. The vote, 6-1, came nearly a year after the City Council’s Public Safety Oversight Committee first examined the issue. Ultimately, the committee voted 3-0 to recommend the city adopt a business license program. When the ordinance was first introduced in May, the proMAPLE posed license VALLEY fee was $50, but it was eventually whittled down to $10. City Manager David Johnston told the Reporter in May the fee was intended merely to cover the costs of the program and not for generating revenue. “We’re not here to make money,” he said. “We used the words ‘revenue neutral.’ It’s just the program will pay for the cost of the program. Some cities have $150
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Matzat of Maple Valley hugs Beth Whitton of Valley Girls & Guys, a 3 Day Walk for the Now 60 Miles Suzanne Cure team started by Ravensdale resident Tina McDonough. The team, which has 160 members walked 60 miles in three days raised $1 million for the Susan G. Komen Foundation this past Closer To A Cure who weekend. KRIS HILL, The Reporter To view a slide show go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com
began an effort to change its policy on school construction outside of the urban growth boundary. Tahoma Junior High is outside the urban growth boundary but was built because a tight line sewer system was put in to serve the school, and only the school. “It’s a high school for us, but we’d like As district officials began evaluating the to see it become a learning center for the impacts of the failure of the bond and the community where adults have the opporproposed change to county policy, tunity take classes through Renton a whole host of creative, out of the Technical College and Green River box ideas emerged. Community College,” Maryanski Among those was the idea of a said. “For us, the situation that we’re land swap, the district’s 30 or so in, it was definitely an opportunity. acres next to its junior high for land It made sense for us to look at the inside what’s known as the donut possibility of locating instead of hole, a 156-acre piece of countytaking the 30 acres we have west of owned property — which is located Mike Maryanski the junior high and developing it.” off Southeast Kent-Kangley Road Two factors played into the start and 228th Street Southeast — that of this conversation. First was the failure of is designated rural and unincorporated yet the district’s construction bond measure in wholly surrounded by the city of Maple April 2011. Valley. It is home to nine holes of Elk Run Second, a few months later, King County Golf Course, a 13-acre county transporta-
How a new Tahoma High School could become a center for community learning BY KRIS HILL khill@maplevalleyreporter.com
A new high school in the King Countyowned donut hole wouldn’t just be for the Tahoma School District’s students. Conversations with King County about building a new Tahoma High School in the donut hole continue to progress, according to Tahoma Superintendent Mike Maryanski. This effort ties into a larger picture for the district of helping Tahoma students become future ready, to help them have plans for life after school and possibly offering educational opportunities for them after graduation at a site in the heart of the city.
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tion maintenance facility and a large stand of trees. Maryanski was serving on a rural school siting task force in 2011 which was created by King County Executive Dow Constantine to evaluate the issues surrounding construction of schools in rural areas. The superintendent planted the idea of the land swap which would allow the district to build a brand new high school that would accomplish a number of things such as addressing its crowded classrooms and high use of portables while also help TSD work on its new initiative to help students become not just ready for college but ready for the future, whatever that holds for them after high school. That conversation seems to be going well so far, Maryanski said. “We’ve had a number of conversations with (county staff ) and looked at how we might be able to move in that direction,” [ more SCHOOL page 5 ]