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FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2013
Council cuts casino gambling tax rate BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
The Kent City Council voted 4-2 on Tuesday night to reduce the city’s gambling tax rate on the Great American Casino from 11 percent to 7 percent on gross revenues. Casino officials asked the city to reduce the tax in an effort to help reduce their losses of more than $1 million over the last two years at the Panther Lake facility. Great
American is the only “I’m very excited,” said casino in Kent. Shannon Younker, Great Councilmembers American Casino general approved the reducmanager, during a phone tion in part because interview Wednesday. “I city officials said the would have been there lost city tax revenue (at the council meeting) would be covered but I heard it was going Thomas by the state Departto be tabled. I missed my ment of Revenue as victory.” part of the annual annexation Younker had requested a sales tax rebate Kent receives cut to 4 percent, to match the to help cover the costs of ancity of Auburn rate. nexing 24,000 Panther Lake [ more GAMBLING page 5 ] residents in 2010.
Watch D.O.G.S. program encourages dads to volunteer in schools BY MICHELLE CONERLY mconerly@kentreporter.com
Sky climber Kent-Meridian’s Juliana Adams stretched 10 feet, six inches to grab second place in the pole vault at the West Central District 4A Track and Field Championships at French Field last Friday. Adams joins top athletes at this week’s state showdown in Tacoma. See story, page 14. RACHEL CIAMPI, Reporter
Faster than a speeding kickball, more powerful than a Tonka truck and able to leapfrog two firstgraders in a single bound, the Watch D.O.G.S., a special group of volunteer dads, are gaining recognition throughout the Kent School District. Created by the National Center For Fathering, the Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads Of Great Students) program began in 1998 as a way to involve positive male role models in school activities. Spreading throughout the country, the program reached the school district a few years ago as one by one, eight individual elementary schools – Soos Creek, Covington, Fairwood, Park Orchard, [ more DADS page 4 ]
Positive role model: Troy McIntyre holds his son Malik, a soon to be Husky at Covington Elementary, the school where McIntyre helps coordinate the Watch D.O.G.S. program. COURTESY PHOTO
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND Then and now: Tony Mola served 40 years in the U.S. Navy, including duty in the Pacific Theater during World War II. MARK KLAAS, Kent Reporter
SURVIVING, SAILING THROUGH HOSTILE WATERS Local man looks back on a long, fortuitous career in the Navy BY MARK KLAAS mklaas@kentreporter.com
As a young Navy machinist caught in the coils of World War II, Tony Mola looked his ter-
rifying enemy in the eyes more times than he cares to remember. Danger, dismemberment and death seemed to await Mola and his fellow sailors at every turn. But that day in 1945 aboard
the USS William Seiverling, a destroyer escort positioned off the Japanese island of Okinawa in 1945, that day is in a class of terror all by itself. Heading to the bow of the
ship to make some repairs that morning, Mola heard something buzzing in the skies right over his head. He looked up. “A kamikaze was coming at me. I could see the pilot. He was that close. Someone then yelled, ‘Look out, Tony, look out.’ … But fortunately, he didn’t hit us. He swerved and hit one of the destroyers … we were lucky,” Mola said. [ more MOLA page 4 ]