FINDING HOPE Teen starts suicide prevention group. Page 4
NEWS | Branch and Bell prevail in election. [3] OPINION | Health center [7] merger is still a concern. COMMUNITY | An interview with Burton Store’s owner. [4]
NEW WORK TV star visits to take part in a reading. Page 5
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013 Vol. 58, No. 47
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
History of childhood trauma high on Vashon Experts say early stress increases the odds for a range of problems By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
A high number of parents on Vashon report they experienced multiple traumas as children, according to a statewide study, and are at an increased risk of chronic disease, mental illness and a host of societal problems — as well as the
increased possibility that their own children will experience trauma. The same Vashon parents report that they often or always receive the emotional support they need, though experts say it is not clear yet how much that support counteracts the affects of adverse childhood experiences, dubbed “ACEs” by those who work in the field. Laura Porter, the director of ACE Partnerships at the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), noted the importance of this information, which her office recently released. “Toxic stress in childhood is the most
powerful determinant of the public’s health,” she said. On Vashon, more parents report having had three or more ACEs than parents in most other communities in King County, according to the recent DSHS report. This report features information from a study the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control conducted between 2009 and 2011 about the prevalence of ACEs in Washington. In fact, out of roughly 40 King County communities, Vashon ranks SEE TRAUMA, 15
Vashon Library construction booking along By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
Nine months into its yearlong renovation process, the small Vashon Library has been transformed into an expansive structure that includes a wall of west-facing windows, a glass-walled conference room and a green roof set to be installed this week. On a recent tour of the facility, Jan Riley, the library’s operations supervisor, walked a small group through the expanded building, now fully framed and ready for drywall. The space is on track to be completed this winter, Riley said, and noted that the staff is looking forward to leaving its temporary location and returning to the renovated space. “We just can’t wait to come back,” she said. Walking amidst the construction equipment, Riley noted special features of the new facility, which she said will have more of a “tech feel” than the previous library, and will include a cyber bar — a long counter in front of the windows where people can plug in their laptops and other electronic devices and work looking out at a large landscaped area in front of the building. “I think that is going to be a big hit,” she said. Other features she pointed out as highlights of the remod-
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Librarian Jan Riley, left, and project superintendent Greg Nelson, right, say library construction is going well and the library is on track to open by March of 2014. eled library — some 3,400 square feet larger than the former space — include the conference room, a children’s section with windows overlooking Ober Park and a large open space that will be filled with ample places to sit. The building, with few interior walls and a long wall of windows, will feel expansive compared to the former library. “You are going to get a real
open feel here,” Riley said. There will be both more books and more elbow room, she noted, but she is not certain yet if more computers will be added. Greg Nelson, the superintendent of the project with Beisley Construction, said that all new electrical and plumbing systems and a heating and cooling system have been installed throughout the
building. Behind the library, the contractor also installed a panel that will enable Vashon Island Fire & Rescue to connect a generator and create a community shelter at the library in the case of an island-wide emergency. Funds for this feature, Riley said, came from money that was gifted to the SEE LIBRARY, 20
75¢
Local poets value brevity, fun at island haiku club A creative group is behind the ‘Hiway Haiku’ By REBECCA WITTMAN For The Beachcomber
Anyone who inches down the last 100 feet of Vashon Highway toward the north-end ferry is bound to notice four little Burma Shave-style signs just before reaching the dock. Many islanders who commute regularly look to those signs as an inspiring last whisper from the island before sailing off to less poetic destinations. It turns out the signs and their ever-changing contents began as a form of citizen-sponsored traffic control. Hita von Mende, who lives at the bottom of the hill, and her friend and fellow artist, Kajira Wyn Berry, surmised a decade ago that people needed an inducement to slow down as they approached the ferry dock. Von Mende owned the land, and Berry was a longtime haiku aficionado and a world-class calligrapher. Thus, Hiway Haiku was hatched. Have the signs slowed the cars down? Not so much, Berry said recently. “It didn’t work. Cars and bikes still hurtle down the hill,” she said. They may have spawned a population of speed-readers. More than anything, they’ve helped cultivate a community of haiku lovers. Haiku is the purest form of nonfiction, a deceptively simple yet highly disciplined mode of poetic reportage that originated in Japan. It challenges the raconteur to reduce a tale, typically something personally experienced, to its distilled essence. It’s been said that haiku is the bicycle of poetry, which in the case of Hiway Haiku would make it a conveyance that delivers thousands of islanders to the ferry every month and one that delivered me one late summer day to the mother lode of island haiku poets. I share that experience with you here, though in considerably more than 17 syllables. On the first Monday of each month, a company of haiku purists, known to one another simply as “Mondays at Three,” meets at one of the members’ homes. In attendance on this particular afternoon were six of the group of about a dozen: Berry, Jean Ameluxen, Shirley Ferris, Ron Simons, Ann Spiers and Michael Feinstein. Each member comes bearing two original poems. These are not professional poets, SEE HAIKU, 18