MUSIC IN THE NIGHT Ian Moore will play this Saturday. Page 11
NEWS | New program aims to help island seniors. [4] COMMENTARY | Ferry proposal is cause for concern. [7] HISTORY | Take a look back at [19] Vashon College.
HONORING A PIRATE Standout football player’s number is retired. Page 14
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013 Vol. 58, No. 41
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
State begins wide soil cleanup effort Seeing the world: An islander rides south
Hundreds of homeowners offered free yard testing
Retiree reflects on 20,000-mile journey
By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
On Monday afternoon, Valencia Lund looked over her property at the southern end of Maury Island as a half-dozen people in brightly colored vests worked in her yard and garden. The state workers weren’t doing landscaping, but collecting small soil samples to be sent to a lab in Tacoma and tested for arsenic. Lund is one of 700 Vashon and Maury homeowners identified as eligible for a publicly funded yard testing and cleanup program that kicked off this month. And if arsenic levels in her yard are high, she could receive a foot of new topsoil, part of the state Department of Ecology’s (DOE) neighborhood-by-neighborhood effort to find and remove arsenic-laced soil from those areas most contaminated by the historic Asarco plume. Testing will go through next year, and yard cleanup will begin as soon as next summer. “We’re really encouraging people to participate,” said Hannah Aoyagi, an outreach and education specialist at DOE’s Toxics Cleanup Program. “This is probably the one opportunity we’ll have to go out and systemically sample all these homes.”
By SARAH LOW Staff Writer
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Josh Harp and Laura Klien, soil samplers with the state Department of Natural Resources, collect dirt samples from a garden at a Maury Island home. State funding for the massive cleanup, comes from a settlement with Asarco, a Ruston-based copper smelter, made when it filed for bankruptcy in 2005. The state received $188 million in settlement funds and expects to spend about $64 million of that on its yard cleanup program,
which will also take place in north Tacoma. For now, the state program is targeting two swaths of the island where previous testing has shown that parcels are most likely to contain high levels of arsenic — the southern third SEE SOIL, 18
A dream held for more than half a century was realized this past March, when islander Ed Holmes arrived in Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of Argentina, after riding his motorcycle the entire length of the continental United States and Central and South America. Holmes will speak and show a slide show of photos from the seven-month journey — which covered 20,000 miles and 13 countries — next week at the Vashon Senior Center. Growing up in Seattle, Holmes began to dream of the big trip when he was in junior high. Now 70, he still recalls how reading adventure literature inspired him to plan his own great journey: to ride a motorcycle all the way to the southernmost tip of South America. By the time he was a junior in high school, he
already had his route planned out, despite having never ridden a motorcycle. Holmes eventually told some friends about his plans, and they thought it was a great idea, he said. So great, in fact, that they decided to do it themselves, leaving Holmes dejected. “This was high school,” he said. “All I could think was, ‘They stole my idea,’ and I didn’t want to do it any more. I set it aside.” Still, Holmes’ interest in the indigenous cultures of South America grew, so much so that he obtained a degree in Latin American history and Spanish at the University of Washington in 1966. While working toward a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, he was able to spend a year doing research in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also spent time in Mexico and lived in Ecuador for several years. All the while, he said, the motorcycle trip remained in the back of his mind. “Maybe when I retire,” he recalled thinking to himself. SEE MOTORCYCLE, 17
VAA launches $2.5 million fundraiser Organization turns to the public to round out funding for its new arts center By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
This month Vashon Allied Arts launched an ambitious fundraising campaign to bring in the final $2.5 million required to break ground on its new performing arts center next fall. A surprise announcement about the campaign was made at the second night of VAA’s annual auction, on Sept. 28, when a small slate of islanders took to Jeff Dunnicliff Photo the stage holding signs reading “Partners in the arts.” Supporters of the Vashon Center for the Arts take to the stage at VAA’s The group included familiar supporters — Drama annual art auction last month. Dock director Gaye Detzer and Vashon Opera direc-
tor Jennifer Krikawa — as well as a few from outside the arts community — Fire Chief Hank Lipe, school Superintendent Michael Soltman and chamber director Jim Marsh. “We hope people that care about it support it,” Marsh said in an interview, noting that the chamber of commerce voted to endorse the project years ago, when VAA was in its early planning stages. “I have every confidence that they’ll make it happen,” he said. Indeed, after years of planning, designing and fundraising, VAA officials are proclaiming that the arts organization is nearing the final stretch in its effort to construct a $16.9 million arts center at the corner of Vashon Highway and Cemetery Road. “The end is in sight. The eye is on the prize,” said SEE VAA, 20