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FRIDAY, OCT. 26, 2012
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Football playoffs | Lindbergh, Hazen and Renton all prepare for playoff games [18]
County’s downsizing is evident in DDES move By DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
Love stories a Curvee favorite Renton producer wins second FilmFrenzy Best Picture prize for his ‘Between the Lines’ BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
“Between the Lines,” the story of romantic competition, won for Best Picture in Renton FilmFrenzy V Tuesday night, the second top award for its producer. Producer Mitch Shepherd of Renton won the FilmFrenzy IV Best Picture for “The Disconnect” in 2011, another love story about a man headed to his wedding who needs some advice, which he ends up getting from a stranger. In this year’s top film, two movie actors battle for the affections of their co-star.
List of winners Page 13
Last year one of those real actors, John Wu, won the Best Actor Curvee for his starring role in “The Disconnect.” This year, the Best Actor Curvee went to Jason Pead, who went head-to-head with Wu in “Between the Lines.” “They are great talents,” Shepherd said. Pead and Wu star in a movie now out on DVD called “Rogue Saints.” Deanna Sarkar, the object of their affections in “Between the Lines,” also stars in that movie. “Next year is a sci-fi thriller,” said Shepherd of Renton, following his back-to-back wins. “I am telling you right now. I don’t even know what it will be. But I probably just proclaimed it will be a sci-fi thriller.” He called the FilmFrenzy competition a “great experience. I just think it’s wonder-
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ful.” “I love that the city puts this on every year,” Shepherd said. “It’s great for students and for people who just like to make their art.” Suzanne Dale Estey, the City of Renton’s economic development director, called the evening a “great night, with outstanding films.” “It was a great fifth year for the Renton FilmFrenzy,” she said. “What I loved in particular was both the diversity of the filmmakers but of films of themselves,” she said, learning more about different film genres, such as film noir, humor and horror. Monday night a big loud appreciative crowd gathered to watch all the films in advance of the Curvee Awards Gala at the [ more CurveE page 12 ]
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Mitch Shepherd, at podium, producer of Best Picture ‘Between the Lines,’ listens to Renton FilmFrenzy V host Jim Dever. Behind them are actors in the film, from left, John Wu, Deanna Sarkar and Jason Pead. At far right is Q13 Fox personality Adam Gehrke who presented the Curvee with Dever. Adam McFadden, Renton Reporter
The county’s land-use office has moved from Renton to Snoqualmie to get closer to its rural customer base. Nearly all of the 90 employees of the county’s Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) on Oakesdale Avenue Southwest moved to the new headquarters. The department also has changed its name to better reflect the services it provides to its customers. It’s now the King County Department of Permitting and Environmental Review. The move from an urban setting to rural city is another visible sign of the changing role of county government and how it’s shrinking. The move to Snoqualmie is expected to save $1 million a year, according to the county. When DDES moved to Renton from Bellevue’s Eastgate area about 20 years ago, it had about 400 employees. In those decades thousands of residents in unincorporated areas have annexed to cities or formed new ones. Now more than 65 percent of its permitting work is done in rural areas, dealing with forest, agricultural and mechanical projects, and the amount related to large housing projects is declining, he said. “We still have urban area left, but no where need the volume as in the past,” he said. In fact, the new agency eventually will get out of the urban permitting business completely. There are now five major urban unincorporated areas left in King County: Fairwood, West Hill, White Center, Klahanie and an area between Auburn and Federal Way. Starboard expects that through some process those areas will become cities within a decade. The office is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday at 35030 S.E. Douglas St., Suite 210, Snoqualmie.