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FINDING HIS PLACE | Former Bear Niko WEBSITE | Check the website for breaking Madison finds his place on the gridiron for news, sports and weather stories. maplevalleyreporter.com or covingtonreporter.com FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 Pacific Lutheran University [10]
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Promotion prompts new interim police chief
Plans for Covington Days falling into place BY KRIS HILL
BY KATHERINE SMITH
khill@covingtonreporter.com
ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
With just a few weeks until the Covington Days Festival set for July 20-21 the plans for the event are falling into place according to Karla Slate, the city’s community relations coordinator. The city of Covington picked up the torch of planning the festival, which began in the mid 1980s, from COVINGTON the Covington Lions Club earlier this year. Since then, Slate and other city staffers have worked to bring on new sponsors, new vendors, add elements to the event as well as finalize a different parade route. Slate wrote in an email interview that things are going well. “Our business community is
Bryan Howard will be the new acting police chief for the Maple Valley Police Department as of July 1 when the current acting chief, Sergeant Don Davis is promoted to captain and takes up the post of chief of police and fire at Boing Field/King County International Airport. Maple Valley Chief of Police MAPLE Michelle BenVALLEY nett is currently on maternity leave and is expected to return to the department in mid to late October according to Maple Valley City Manager David Johnston. The city contracts the police department with the King County Sheriff ’s Office, which it has done since the city was incorporated in
KRIS HILL AND KATHERINE SMITH, The Reporter
From high school to the Coast Guard Academy BY KATHERINE SMITH ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
Emily Burlison, a 2013 Tahoma High graduate, has found the perfect pair of illusive tube socks that come almost to her knee — an essential for those embarking on basic training also known as swab summer at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. Burlison just graduated from Tahoma High 10 days ago but
she’s already counting down the days until her brief summer ends. Nine days from now she’ll report for basic training at the academy and begin seven weeks of training, which if she survives, will be the beginning of what she plans will be a long career with the Coast Guard. “I’ve always wanted to join the military just because it seems like that’s built for me,” Burlison said. “I really enjoy academic chal-
lenge so when I found out that academies existed I (went that direction).” Out of 2,300 applicants only 235 were accepted for this year’s freshman class at the academy. “When it (her acceptance) was finally cleared…I was so relieved,” Burlison said. For Burlison it was the humanitarian focus of the Coast Guard that appealed to her. “It’s partially the humanitarian mission of the Coast Guard, and also they’re a smaller service and things that the Coast Guard does more directly affects helping American lives,” Burlison said. Burlison has practiced Kokondo, a traditional form of karate and ju-jitsu for ten years,
INTRODUCING…
ASK ZOE
[ more CHIEF page 5 ]
and she sees correlations between the discipline required for martial arts and life as a member of the military that appeal to her. “It would probably be that (Kokondo) that sparked my interest in not liking civilian life as much,” Burlison said. Applying for the academy wasn’t much different than the other college applications she had to fill out, Burlison said. She still had to write essays and then there was the usual paperwork. The one big difference was the physical and medical exams. Burlison credited her experiences at Tahoma with helping her to figure out what she wants to study – operations research and computer analysis.
Each month Zoe will answer one lucky winners question. askzoevca@yahoo.com (See ad on page 8 for more details)
Originally, Burlison thought she wanted to be an engineer so she joined Bear Metal, the robotics team at Tahoma. “I learned from Robotics that I’m not,” Burlison said with a laugh. “But I also learned that I really like what’s called scouting. It’s like intelligence gathering on the robots and stuff, and I’d develop questions and interpret them for our strategist. It actually is kind of similar to operations research which is part of how I found that.” After she graduates from the academy, Burlison is committed to five years serving in the Coast Guard. [ more GUARD page 5 ]
Covington Animal Hospital 27045 174th Pl. SE • Covington, WA 98042 W
R IN N E
2013
(253) 631-8616 www.vcahospitals.com/covington
812072
[ more PLANS page 5 ]
Raybuck, Maria Bernal, and Aaron Aston of Kentlake, Kentwood and Tahoma, Ppphoto kicker Michael Ready For respectively, are among the seniors who graduated last week and they’re ready for anything. Bernal even has the life preserver to prove it. goes here Anything To view slide shows from each ceremony go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com.