.com
CRIME BLOTTER | Police pursuit ends with a stolen bike and a taser treatment [2]
VOL. 15, NO. 40
Mirror
F E D E R A L WAY
division of Sound Publishing
OPINION | Roegner: City council race is full of contrasts [7] Mr. Federal Way’s Q&A: Politicians and pumpkin love [11] BUSINESS NEWS | New restaurants and retailers coming to Celebration Center [3] BREAST CANCER | Look inside these pink pages to learn more about this disease [4]
SPORTS | Beamer golfers playing at Twin CALENDAR | Fright Fest at Wild Waves, plus FW Symphony’s season opener [27] FRIDAY, October 4, 2013 | 75¢ Lakes. Plus: Swimming news [13]
City reviews low-income apartments
WACKY WEATHER By GREG ALLMAIN gallmain@fedwaymirror.com
An unusually powerful and wet storm has drenched Western Washington last weekend, leading to record rainfall amounts throughout the state, including Seattle. According to the National Weather Service’s (NWS) measurements on Saturday, Sept. 28, the region saw the wettest day recorded since 1948, with 1.71 inches of rain. The previous record of 1.65 inches in a day had occurred twice, in 1978 and 1953. Federal Way experienced the torrential downpour with impressive figures itself, with NSW spotters recording rainfall levels of 2.48 for that same day. According to one published report, a “spotter near Potlatch in Mason County reported an estimated 7 inches of rain — an estimate because that’s all the gauge could hold and it overflowed.” Monday saw perhaps the most bizarre manifestation
Street and have a detrimental impact to singlefamily neighborhoods in Opposition to a prothe vicinity. posed low-income apartFederal Way Mayor Skip ment complex at the site Priest gave a brief update of Federal Way Public on the issue to the Schools’ former Federal Way City “bus barn” at South Council during the NEWS 320th and 11th Oct. 1 meeting, sayPlace South has ing the city’s hands been vocal since the are tied in some plans for the developrespects, and also that ment were made known it appears DevCo Inc. may in August. have played some games DevCo Inc., the Belwith the city regarding this levue-based developer, particular project. has plans for 16 buildings “The city cannot stop containing 308 dwelling the proposed development units, 18,440 square feet of by retroactively changing ground-floor commercial the zoning regulations,” space, and 10,294 square Priest said. “The city did feet of ground-floor comnot learn of the developer’s mon space for residents. intent to construct low- to Many residents feel that moderate-income apartthis kind of structure would ments until after (DevCo) have a severe impact on traffic along South 320th [ more APARTMENTS, page 26 ] By GREG ALLMAIN
gallmain@federalwaymirror.com
UPDATE
Heavy rain hammered the region around noon Saturday, Sept. 28, and flooded the intersection at Pacific Highway and South 324th Street. Pacific Highway was closed southbound for a period of time. Police and fire units along with city staff responded to the scene. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRUCE HONDA, For The Mirror of the inclement weather, when it was reported and confirmed that a tornado touched down near Frederickson in Pierce County. The tornado had a small impact, although various reports indicated that it
damaged nearby buildings, tipped over rail cars, and caused debris-blown damage to nearby cars. Temperatures this weekend (Oct. 4-6) are expected to reach highs in the low- to mid-60s, with
intervals of clouds and sun, and rain expected on Sunday. For more Northwest weather insight, check out the Cliff Mass Weather Blog online at cliffmass. blogspot.com.
Mayor under investigation again By ANDY HOBBS editor@federalwaymirror.com
NEWSPAPER RACKS: To see a list of rack locations for the print edition of The Mirror, visit federalwaymirror.com/about_us.
Federal Way Mayor Skip Priest is under investigation for possible criminal theft after he was caught removing cityconfiscated campaign signs late at night. The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. Sept. 24. A
Federal Way police officer had stopped by the auxiliary building on South 333rd Street, across from City Hall, when he observed Priest removing campaign signs from the socalled “sign jail” at the side of the building. The sign jail is where the city stores confiscated campaign signs that are illegally placed in
the city. Sign owners must pay a fine to get the signs back. The officer advised his supervisor because it appeared the signs were being stolen. The officer was suspicious because the activity was taking place at night. In a letter dated Sept. 30, Chief Brian Wilson asked the Washington State Patrol to in-
vestigate the incident and “determine if prosecutorial and/or other review are warranted.” Priest told The Mirror he received an invoice for the campaign signs Sept. 24 and wrote a check for $120 that same day. The city issued Priest “This is the silly a receipt at 11:06 a.m. Sept. 25. political season.” Priest provided copies of the Mayor Skip Priest [ more PRIEST, page 26 ]
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