ORCAS RETURN Record salmon runs bring whales to Vashon. Page 4
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2012
Vol. 57, No. 44
www.vashonbeachcomber.com h b h ber.c er.com
75¢
Ferry system eyes new fuel source as a way to trim costs Liquified natural gas could also cut greenhouse gas emissions By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
Leslie Brown/Staff Photo
Mike Rugg stands next to the guillotine he made, one of many stations at his spooky trail.
THRILLS AND CHILLS ON CEMETERY ROAD When Mike and Yolanda Rugg moved to their home at the end of a long driveway off of Cemetery Road eight years ago, neighbors told them not to expect many visitors on Halloween night. Sure enough, only four people — two of them children — showed up. The Ruggs set out to do something about the scant interest in trick-or-treating. And thus began what has become nothing short of an obsession for Mike Rugg — a spooky trail at their home in the woods that last year drew 600 people. Initially, it was all word of mouth. Then, Rugg started putting signs up here and there. This year, he consented to talk about it publicly — braced, he said, for the onslaught. “We’ll hand out candy until we don’t have anymore,” he said. The trail is simple — it’s really a walk along his circular drive. But with towering firs casting dark shadows, dangling skeletons, macabre-looking clowns and a few live actors wielding chain saws, the effect can be frightening, he said.
“We’ve had a couple people faint,” he said, grinning. A talkative man with a boyish personality, Rugg clearly enjoys the art and craft of terror. He does a lot of research and development on the Internet, he said, adding, as he pointed to his head, “It’s all in here.” He fabricates most of his ghouls, zombies and dismembered body parts himself, many with materials donated by friends and business owners. Every year, he adds to his collection of props and rearranges his trail, “so you’ll never know what’ll be coming at you.” Even with donations, he guesses he’s spent thousands of dollars on his spooky trail. Why does he do it? “The exhilaration,” he said. “You look out at your property, and you think, ‘Gosh, I know almost everybody out there, and now I’m chasing them with a chain saw.’” — Leslie Brown The Spooky Trail is located at 8812 Cemetery Road. It’s open today from 4 to 10 p.m.
Faced with escalating fuel costs and increasingly stringent environmental regulations, the state ferry system hopes to convert at least a quarter of its fleet — including one Vashon boat — to a new fuel source. At Washington State Ferries’ biannual community meeting on Vashon next week, David Moseley, head of the ferry system, will give an update on the state’s efforts to convert six ferries to run on liquefied natural gas by 2015. The ferry system, looking to cut fuel costs, has been
studying liquefied natural gas (LNG) for about two years, Moseley said in an interview last week. LNG seems a logical choice for the ferries. It’s expected to remain significantly cheaper than the diesel fuel that ferries currently use, Moseley said, and it also produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions. WSF recently got preliminary approval from the U.S. Coast Guard to retrofit the six Issaquah class ferries, including the MV Issaquah that serves Vashon, to run on the new fuel. Later on, the 144-car Olympic class ferries, which are currently under construction, may be converted as well. “I think that liquefied natural gas is a major fuel source of the future,” Moseley said. The ferries division, given a nod from the Coast Guard, is now working
to develop more specific plans, which it will present to the Coast Guard as well as the state Legislature for approval as early as this winter. It’s also searching for a private investor, perhaps a natural gas supplier, to help finance the multimillion dollar project. “It would be a pretty major change for the system,” said Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-Burien), a member of the Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee. “We want to make sure we look at safety risks and costs and everything before we take any irreversible steps.” The ferry system, which burns 17 million gallons of fuel a year, has taken a hit in recent years as the cost of diesel has climbed. In 2000, fuel consumed about 10 percent of the ferry SEE NATURAL GAS, 17
Finding Faith | First in an occasional series
Mormons on Vashon embrace a faith that’s little understood By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD Staff Writer
A sign in the parking lot of Vashon’s Mormon church reads “Visitors are welcome,” and sure enough, the Islanders standing in the foyer of the church on a recent Sunday morning offered firm handshakes, big smiles and hearty greetings to everyone who entered. Five steps beyond the door, a visitor new to the church received a friendly offer from a member to sit beside her in the chapel — a large room filled with wooden pews but missing the usual adornments of most places of worship. There was no stained glass, no statuary or paintings, not even a cross. Islander Gabriele Burgess played the organ, filling the chapel with music while
around 100 church members gathered in their Sunday best — clothes that harkened back to a more buttoned-down era. Men wore suits, while boys sported white shirts and dark pants. All the women had donned dresses or skirts. Little girls were dolled up in lacy dresses, and toddler boys looked like miniature businessmen in vests and clip-on ties. There were plenty of babies there, too, notable not so much for the clothes they wore but for the noise they made; their chatter and whimpers continued throughout the service. No one seemed to mind. Members of the Mormon church — officially called the Church of Jesus Christ SEE MORMONISM, 22