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WEDNESDAY, November 28, 2012 n VOL. 45, NO. 48 n 75¢
Coach Dahl to run Boston Marathon by CALI BAGBY Staff reporter
Dennis Dahl during the Coeur d’Alene marathon in Idaho this past May.
contributed photo
The race was 100 kilometers up 17,000 feet into the French Alps. Runners endured rain and snow and raced throughout the night. Dennis Dahl was among those brave and, maybe a little insane, athletes facing extreme conditions. Dahl describes himself during the race as “mostly happy,” but at one checkpoint, where he stopped for a hot drink, he felt his temperature start to drop. He pulled his hat around his freezing ears and walked out into the rain and blowing wind. In front of him a few young people were laughing and singing. He told himself, “Come on old man.” “Their spirits lifted me up,” he said. “That was a magical moment.” After 23 hours and 11 minutes, Dahl finished the race, which is called the UltraTrail du Mont-Blanc. It was to be one of two great physical accomplishments for the year. Several months earlier, in May, he completed the Coeur d’Alene marathon in
just about four hours, making him eligible, in his age bracket, for the Boston Marathon, a much sought after 26.2-mile race. But he had to wait until the end of September to find out that he had officially qualified to participate in the Boston Marathon. When he got the message, he immediately printed out the email and put it on the fridge. “Really, it’s a big deal,” he said. “I’ve always been excited to have a chance to do it.” Dahl estimates that he has finished four or five marathons. Last year he ran the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon with his son and daughter. At age 65, Dahl’s philosophy is “if you keep moving they can’t get you” and he doesn’t plan to slow down – life is too fragile. “You get to be my age and you don’t know what could go wrong and you might not get to run anymore,” he said. In 2009, Dahl retired after 20 years of leading the Vikings football team. At the end of 2011 he also retired from his posi-
ORS awarded transfer station contract After a long back and forth with the county, Orcas Recycling Services is given the reigns by STEVE WERHLY Journal reporter
The county council voted unanimously in favor of the underdogs for management of the Orcas Island and San Juan Island solid waste transfer stations. Orcas Recycling Services, the nonprofit company that now operates The Exchange at the Orcas Transfer Station, was given the goahead on Nov. 20 to negotiate an operating agreement for full operations at the countyowned transfer station, including the garbage truck tipping floor and recycling, reuse, and waste reduction programs included in the Request for Proposals issued by the county in May 2012. “It’s been a long road for us to reach this point,” said Mark De Tray of Orcas Recycling
after the council meeting. “But at each step, our confidence increased as we improved our proposal.” For drop-box and related operations at the Sutton Road transfer station on San Juan Island, the council instructed the county Public Works Department to negotiate a five-year operating contract with a consortium of Ken-Tec Energy USA of Lynnwood and Lautenbach Industries of Mt. Vernon. Ken-Tec and Lautenbach were responding to a Request for Proposals issued in August. For both locations, the county spurned proposals from Cimarron Enterprises, an affiliate of Cimarron Trucking, which hauls garbage and recycling from Orcas Island to Waste Management Inc. facilities in Seattle and Woodinville, Wash.
In July, the initial report of the Orcas Vendor Selection Committee recommended that the council select Cimarron Enterprises to operate the transfer station. However, the council wanted more information from both bidders, resulting in both Cimarron and Orcas Recycling responding to a series of questions about their proposals. The council then instructed the Public Works Department to negotiate two agreements – one for operation by Cimarron of the tipping floor and for removal of waste, the other for provision by ORS of recycling, re-use and waste reduction services. At that time, Councilman Howie Rosenfeld expressed his preference for local operators for the Orcas transfer station
See ORS, Page 6
See DAHL, Page 6
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