Kent Reporter, November 02, 2012

Page 1

KENT .com

REPORTER

NEWSLINE 253-872-6600

OPINION | What if public schools were fully funded? [5]

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012

BIG FINISH | Kentwood football finishes regular season undefeated, takes on Arlington in first-round playoff game [13]

VOTE | Do your part, mail in your ballot by Tuesday, Nov. 6

Councilwoman says city should ‘eliminate the CAO’ BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com

Kent City Councilwoman Elizabeth Albertson let loose with a bombshell as to where the city

should cut its budget. “We should eliminate the CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) and the CAO’s assistant and have the mayor actually run the city,”

Albertson said just prior to the end of a more than three-hour council budget workshop Tuesday night at City Hall. Albertson made the statement

directly to John Hodgson, the city’s CAO, as he sat at a table to discuss potential cuts with the council. Hodgson wrote down all of the ideas, including the elimi-

nation of his job. No other council member backed Albertson’s idea. Right after her comment, Councilman [ more BUDGET page 2 ]

Financial losses continue to mount at ShoWare Center members voiced their concerns about the arena during an Oct. 16 meeting when the council The financial losses conagreed to assess a business and tinue to mount for Kent’s occupation (B&O) tax ShoWare Center as city to raise an estimated $5 leaders look to find ways million to help pay for to boost revenue at the overdue street repairs. nearly 4-year-old arena. “The other problem The city-owned we need to deal with is arena has lost $634,634 the ShoWare,” Councilthrough the first nine man Bill Boyce said at months of this year, the meeting. “We need according to the center’s Boyce to fix our debt problem income statement. with the ShoWare.” ShoWare had expenses of The arena has lost more than $1.86 million and revenues of $1.3 million in its first three $1.23 million in the first three years of operation. That figure quarters. Two Kent City Council [ more SHOWARE page 2 ] BY STEVE HUNTER

shunter@kentreporter.com

Kent Green Day Cris LeCompte, a Kent steward, instructs Sam Carpillo and Logan Schiller, of the PacNW SoccerClub, during the inaugural Green Kent Day, a city-wide event that celebrated the effort to restore and manage the city’s forested parklands and green spaces. About 170 volunteers and members of the Green Kent Partnership participated, planting 5,383 native plants at Morrill Meadows Park on the East Hill and at the Green River Natural Resources Area in the valley. RACHEL CIAMPI, Kent Reporter

Sound Transit begins light rail plans for Kent BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com

KENT BOY TO PERFORM IN NUTCRACKER PRODUCTION BY TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@soundpublishing.com

This week was full of excitement for William Dougherty. Not only did he celebrate his 11th

birthday on Halloween, but for a fourth year he rehearsed dance steps for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker production. The Kent boy is one of 222

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students who will participate in PNB’s Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell and world-famous illustrator Maurice Sendak’s [ more NUTCRACKER page 8 ]

The preliminary plans are under way to extend light rail through Kent’s West Hill by 2023. Residents can attend an open house from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 to find out about the project to build a 7.6-mile line from a future light rail station

at South 200th Street in SeaTac through Kent to the Federal Way Transit Center. The open house is at Highline Community College (Building 2) in Des Moines. “We’ll ask for people’s ideas and introduce the project,” said Kent Hale, senior environmental planner for Sound Transit. [ more LIGHT RAIL page 12 ]

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