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Sports | Kent schools pull few wins at regional wrestling as Mat Classic approaches [10]
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013
Council unanimously approves levee repair plan BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
A controversial Green River flood wall levee repair that just a week earlier had split the Kent City Council ended up with unanimous approval Monday of the city staff ’s proposal. The council voted 6-0 at a special meeting to adopt a resolution backing the flood wall to repair the Briscoe-Desimone levee as
well as work with King vote in the next couple of County officials on a weeks on whether to pick long-term flood protecKent’s $17 million levee tion plan for the entire repair plan over a county Green River system, proposal that would cost even if it means eventual an estimated $63 million removal of that wall. to more than $416 million. City officials will send The King County Flood the resolution to the King Albertson District Executive ComCounty Flood Control mittee voted 3-1 Feb. 7 in District Board of Supervisors Seattle to recommend to the full (the nine members of the King nine-member flood district board County Council). That board will to choose the Kent proposal to
build a flood wall along the 2.5mile levee between South 200th Street and South 180th Street. “I feel that I now have the information needed to vote and support this short-term solution to a much longer term problem,” said Councilwoman Elizabeth Albertson, who ignited the controversy among the council when she testified at the flood district meeting that the council hadn’t signed off on the city staff ’s plan.
CWU forming new education advisory councils
Ex-Kent-Meridian teacher pleads guilty to sex crime
BY MICHELLE CONERLY mconerly@kentreporter.com
The Central Washington University Kent and Des Moines campuses are in the process of forming individual advisory boards for their undergraduate teacher preparation programs. CWU Kent offers a BAEd in elementary education and a mid-level science teaching minor while the Des Moines location offers a BAEd in early childhood education and elementary education, in addition to other programs. Melanie Kingham, early childhood/elementary education program director, invited several education professionals from the surrounding school districts to the informational meeting last week. “(The goal was) to initiate the forming of an interested group of school district and educational organizations who can give input to the education program so that we can forge better working relationships and target preparing those teachers to work in those districts,” Kingham said. Student representatives from both campuses discussed their reasons for choosing the CWU programs, the advantages of [ more CENTRAL page 4 ]
That testimony last week by Albertson led Larry Gossett, a member of the flood district executive committee, to vote against the Kent proposal because he didn’t know if the plan really represented “Kent’s vision.” That uncertainty of the council’s position on the levee repair led Council President Dennis Higgins to call a special meeting to vote on a resolution. [ more PLAN page 4]
BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
Up to their old tricks: Globetrotter Derick ‘Dizzy’ Grant demonstrates how to spin the ball on his finger to teachers and students at St. Benedict’s School in Seattle. MICHELLE CONERLY, Kent Reporter
LOOK WHO’S BACK IN TOWN Globetrotters come to Kent with a message BY MICHELLE CONERLY mconerly@kentreporter.com
The Harlem Globetrotters are in the Pacific Northwest spreading their ABCs of Anti-Bullying Program. “We’re known as ambassadors of goodwill, and we took it upon ourselves to step in and help out in the
community whichever way we can,” said Derick “Dizzy” Grant, while doing tricks and talking to kids about bullying prevention at St. Benedict’s School in Seattle this week. Grant and the Harlem Globetrotters are on tour, bringing their dazzling basketball and entertainment skills while delivering a positive message. The Harlem Globetrotters will perform two shows Saturday at the ShoWare
Center. For Grant, the message to kids is as simple as ABC. A stands for action, B for bravery and C for compassion, he explained. The goal of the program is to teach children what to do if they encounter bullying. “The kids have been really receptive to it,” Grant said, “especially when I tell them I used to get picked on too.” When it comes to basketball, [ more GLOBETROTTERS page 15 ]
A former Kent-Meridian High School teacher and track coach pleaded guilty to communication with a minor for immoral purposes. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 22. Ernie Ammons, 37, of Black Diamond, had been scheduled to go to trial Feb. 5 but instead entered a guilty plea, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. He is scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. Feb. 22 before King County Superior Court Judge Lori K. Smith at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Ammons could be sentenced up to one year in jail and be fined $5,000. He must register as a sex offender. In return for a guilty plea, Richard Anderson, senior deputy prosecuting attorney, will recommend to Judge Smith a sentence of 10 days in jail for Ammons and that he pay $500 for victim penalty assessment, a $100 lab fee, a $100 DNA Ammons fee and pay restitution for any of the victim’s counseling and medical expenses, according to court documents. Anderson also will recommend Ammons be placed on probation for a year. Ammons, who is free on bail, signed the following guilty statement on Feb. 1: “On or about a time between June 27, 2011 and Nov. 6, 2011 in King County, I did communicate with (the 16-year-old girl), a person I believed to be a minor, for immoral purposes of a sexual nature,” Ammons wrote. Prosecutors said Ammons sent sexually explicit text messages to a 16-year-old girl at [ more AMMONS page 2 ]