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INSIDE | Jury convicts man of pimping in Kent [3]
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
Sports | Royals, Chargers fall in SPSL North play [16]
City Council still considering par 3 golf course sale BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
Brubaker
The city of Kent might put its par 3 golf course up for sale along the Green River if a developer wants to replace the course with restaurants and shops. The three City Council members on the Parks and Human Services Com-
mittee directed city staff at a Sept. 19 meeting to find out if developers might have any interest in the city-owned property. City officials are trying to find a way to resolve the financially struggling Riverbend Golf Complex, which also includes an 18-hole course, driving range and pro shop.
Proceeds from a par 3 course sale could cover Riverbend’s $2.25 million debt, its capital investment needs of about $400,000 per year and its annual operating losses. “We had an appraisal done on the property to see if it’s viable,” said Tom Brubaker, city interim chief administrative officer, to the committee. “It’s
likely the sale price would solve the entire crisis, the debt and infrastructure and give us a nest egg for ongoing operating expenses. It should be more than enough to accomplish financial goals.” Brubaker declined to reveal the [ more GOLF page 4 ]
Is the valley prepared if Mount Rainier erupts today?
Kentridge teacher faces sex crime charge
BY ROSS COYLE
School district officials used Millennium Elementary to show off its sustainability practices, including a commitment to ecological education and green practices. Delegates from the Department of
A Kentridge High School teacher faces a sex crime charge after he allegedly agreed to meet and pay a 15-year-old girl for sex that he had met through a website advertisement. The teacher showed up to meet the girl that he thought was a high school cheerleader. But after Seattle Police arrested him he found out a detective had posed online as the girl and he was part of an undercover sting by police who had placed the ad. Brent Patrick Conley, 27, is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 3 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle on a charge of attempted commercial sexual abuse of a minor, according to charging papers filed Sept. 20 by King County prosecutors. The Kent School District placed Conley, in his first year as a full-time teacher at Kentridge, on paid administrative leave pending the results of the investigation, said Chris Loftis,
[ more GREEN page 12 ]
[ more TEACHER page 2 ]
BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
rcoyle@kentreporter.com
Mount Rainier’s last eruption occurred around 1100 AD, and the volcano that sits south of Auburn and Kent has remained dormant since. But the mountain’s activity, combined with its proximity to Tacoma, Seattle and Yakima, has earned it a label as one of the most dangerous in the world in the event of an eruption, according to the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior’s Decade Volcano list. Decade volcanos, of which there are 16, were identified in the 1990s as part of a United Nations effort to reduce the damage caused by natural disasters through education. While the volcano has been dormant for the last several hundred years, it is still due for an eruption of [ more ERUPTION page 5 ]
more photos online…
GENTLY NOW
kentreporter.com
Three-year old Ava McMasters from Maple Valley gets acquainted with Sunny Boy, the Burmese python, during Green River Community College’s Gator Fest last Saturday. Sunny Boy, one of Clayton Green’s Roving Reptiles menagerie, is 12 years old, 12-feet long and weighs about
75 pounds. The festival dedicated the college’s new Cedar Hall building and featured a free pancake breakfast, demonstrations, a car show, music from KGRG radio and vendors selling everything from barbecue to bees. SHAWN SKAGER, Reporter
Millennium Elementary awarded for ‘green‘ practices BY ROSS COYLE rcoyle@kentreporter.com
As they began a tour of Millennium Elementary School, an of-
ficial from the Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction said that “if at some point someone sees a recycling bin, I can get rid of this.”
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Considering the Kent School District received the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon School Award, that shouldn’t be too difficult.
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