Valley Record SNOQUALMIE
Wednesday, june 5, 2013 n Daily updates at www.valleyrecord.com n 75 cents
Moving targets
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Valley citizens help with the complex choices: When, where to build new schools? By Carol Ladwig
NEWS
All ages gather to remember locals’ proud military legacy Page 6
SCENE
Staff Reporter
Get local with Valley Tilth’s Community potlucks, summer meals Page 9
Index Letters 5 6 Obituary 8 Calendar 9 Puzzles Classifieds 11-14 On The Scanner 15
Vol. 100, No. 2
A new elementary school in the next two years is at the top of the Snoqualmie Valley School Board’s wish list. A new middle school and a new, or like-new high school are on the list, too, but those buildings are moving targets. Deciding if and when to build them is the task of the school board, which is asking for help from about 200 citizens in a series of focus group meetings. Four meetings have occurred. One follows, 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. Monday, June 10, as an online presentation with opportunities for comment. About 35 community members took part in a Tuesday, May 28, focus group to review three of the most likely options for both running bonds and building facilities. These include: • Building a $30 million eleCarol Ladwig/Staff Photo mentary school and starting a Board director Geoff Doy seven-year, $160 million reconof North Bend explains an option for Valley school struction/remodel of the high construction at a Tuesday, school in the next school year. May 28, focus group at See TARGETS, 3 Mount Si High School.
Seth Truscott/Staff Photo
The original turbine spins again behind Plant Operator Byron Kurtz, working deep in the bowels of Puget Sound Energy’s Plant 2 at Snoqualmie Falls. Generators switched back on in April after nearly three years of heavy construction. A $200 million upgrade at the Falls is nearly done.
Return to power Summer 2013 update: Falls power plant, park renewal project to wrap this year By Seth Truscott Editor
Byron Kurtz has to shout to be heard over the noise of the huge machine that’s above, beneath and around him. Kurtz, plant operator at Puget Sound Energy’s Snoqualmie Falls hydropower plant, has worked these turbines for a decade.
“I was here when they took it off,” Kurtz says—June 15, 2010, when the Falls’ Plant 2 turbines went silent. “I was here when they put it back together,” and the juice started to flow again. This green-painted original unit switched on April 17.
Hero’s choice Snoqualmie cop Paul Graham gets belated nod for 2009 rescue of crash victim Rachel McNaul By Seth Truscott Editor
Dust and debris were still falling from the sky when Paul Graham made his way to the crushed cars. Graham, a Snoqualmie Police Sgt., was off duty. He could have stayed and stewed in the traffic jam that was building after this terrible accident. But Graham always keeps a medical kit in his pickup, and he isn’t one for staying on the sidelines.
See POWER, 2
Paul Graham Snoqualmie Police Sgt.
See HERO: POLICE LIFESAVER, 5
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