Arlington Times, January 30, 2013

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Illustrating the plight of Arlington’s homeless

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BY KIRK BOXLEITNER kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com

SPORTS: Arlington tops Lake Stevens, 70-62. Page 6

Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photo

Volunteer Ken Trowbridge staples a quote from a real-life homeless child onto a gingerbread kid in Legion Park on Jan. 26.

boys get victory over King’s. Page 6

BY KIRK BOXLEITNER kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com

INDEX CLASSIFIED ADS 8-11 5 LEGAL NOTICES 4 OPINION 3, 5, 8 OBITUARIES 6 SPORTS 12 WORSHIP

Vol. 124, No. 08

SEE KIDS, PAGE 2

Arlington cuts projected utility rate increase ARLINGTON — Arlington utility customers will pay less than what their monthly sewer rates were projected to be by January of 2013. City Public Works Director Jim Kelly reported to the City Council on Jan. 14 that the $5 increase that had been slated for the start of the year could be reduced to a $2 increase instead. “Our plan was to raise the rates over a three-year period,” Kelly said. “Rather than increasing it by $15 all at once in 2011, we opted to increase it $5 each year, with 2013 being the final year.” Kelly cited a study by Kelly Isaacson

Associates, which determined that a $2 increase would be adequate to cover the capital reserve and other needs. “We’re not rolling in money,” Kelly said. “We’ve had to defer purchases and take furloughs. At the same time, measures such as cleaning out the storm drain lines have made us very energy efficient, and we’ve even received federal stimulus grant money to direct toward high energy efficiency. It’s a long-term investment that we continue to reap the rewards up every year.” Kelly credited much of these savings to the built-in measures of the city’s waste water treatment plant, which SEE RATES, PAGE 2

Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photo

Jason Ewing, senior operator for the Arlington waste water treatment plant, double-checks its fan press efficiency.

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SPORTS: Lakewood

ARLINGTON — Legion Park has become home to a host of oversized gingerbread men and women who were created to help illustrate the plight of homeless children within the community. After they painted an estimated 125 gingerbread boys and girls in a cold warehouse at the Arlington Airport on Jan. 19, with assistance from the Arlington Arts Council, volunteers from Hands Together braved the rain to plant the gingerbread kids on the southern border of Legion Park the following weekend, Jan. 26, to foster greater awareness of the estimated 125 children in the Arlington School District who are homeless. “That’s 1.5 percent of the student population,” said Deena Jones, pastor of the Arlington United Church and a leader of Hands Together, a coalition of faith-based and commu-

nity service groups in Arlington. “We were sub-awardees of a grant that was intended to raise awareness of homelessness within our congregation, but we wanted to take that out into the broader community.” Hands Together received approximately $6,000 as a sub-grant as part of the Faith and Family Homelessness Project from Seattle University, which in turn was awarded a grant for advocacy and awareness of homelessness from the Gates Foundation. Since the gingerbread children only cost $1,100 in locally purchased materials to create, Hands Together will be using the rest of its sub-grant to fund Penway’s printing of children’s activity books by local cartoonist Steve Edwards, highlighting homelessness as an issue, which will be distributed at the Arlington-Stillaguamish Eagle Festival on Feb. 1-2, as well as a com-


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