MUSICAL JOURNEY Local band plans to document its work in Africa. Page 10
You r Va shon y e ad Winter R 2013
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BEACHCOMBER HandEbToHoIkS
VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2013 Vol. 58, No. 51
I NSI D E ! I S SU
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Park district Couple leaves a legacy of protection at Judd Creek passes budget, Officials call land most looks ahead purchase significant in years By SUSAN RIEMER
By NATALIE MARTIN
For The Beachcomber
Staff Writer
The Vashon Park District passed a $1 million budget for 2014 last week, with four commissioners approving the spending plan and Scott Harvey, the newly seated board member, dissenting. While much is expected to remain the same at the park district next year, the budget reflects major changes ahead for maintenance and lodging and potential challenges at the VES fields, according to the district’s General Manager Elaine Ott. In a new maintenance model, the district will contract out much of its work, Ott said, and to manage lodging at Fern Cove and Point Robinson, it will employ a full-time staff person tasked with overseeing the facilities and increasing their bookings. “It’s a different way of doing business,” commissioner Bill Ameling said at the Dec. 10 meeting. “So we’ll all learn together.” Park district commissioners plan to reduce the district’s maintenance staff and hire out a variety of tasks employees have typically done, including plumbing, tree service and electrical work. In the busy spring and summer months, the district will add seasonal help. The idea behind this change, Ott said, is to receive high-level, professional service in the areas contracted out. One maintenance position has already been eliminated, she said, and the new model is expected to cost roughly the same as the current one, though there will likely be an adjustment period. “The challenge is to manage it effectively and cost effectively,” she said. Both she and Jason Acosta, the maintenance supervisor, have much to learn, Ott said, including how best to navigate the bid process and establish and manage contracts. Hiring and training seasonal workers may also present challenges, she noted. To assist with
When Jim and Elaine Scott moved to their property at the mouth of Judd Creek 50 years ago, the creek teemed with salmon. But now the Scotts, 93 and 88 respectively, haven’t seen a salmon outside their home in years. While coho and chum salmon do still make their way up the stream, their numbers, as in all of Puget Sound, are a fraction of their historic levels. “You used to hear them splashing and going by, but you don’t anymore,” Jim said. The Vashon Maury Island Land Trust now hopes to see that trend reversed. In what some are calling the most significant con-
SEE BUDGET, 23
servation purchase on Vashon in recent history — aside from the purchase of the Glacier property on Maury Island — the Scotts recently sold their 10-acre plot at Judd Creek to the land trust. The acquisition, officials say, is a boon to local conservation efforts, protecting one of Vashon’s only estuaries and adding a vital piece to the land trust’s 100-acre Paradise Valley Preserve. “Salmon are being dealt a death of a thousand cuts,” said land trust director Tom Dean. “We’re trying to do a thousand acts of kindness for salmon.” The $725,000 purchase, made official last week, was the first purchase largely funded by a $4 million allocation the state Legislature set aside earlier this year for open space preservation on Vashon. The land trust purchased the property and will grant King County an easement there in order to partner with it
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Elaine and Jim Scott stand on their deck, which looks out on the mouth of Judd Creek. They will stay in the home for as long as they wish. on conservation projects. “It’s really special for the land trust to be able to deliver such a high-habitat-quality piece as the very first purchase on this,” Dean
said. “It shows there was really a need for that fund.” Last week the Scotts, in an SEE JUDD CREEK, 24
Getting prepared
New effort to get businesses ready for the big one By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
UNEXPECTED WHALE WATCHING Ferry riders were in for a treat on Saturday afternoon as a pod of orcas passed through the north-end ferry lanes, coming close to the ferries. Passengers crowded onto the car decks and pickle forks to get a glimpse of the whales, which one ferry worker estimated to be a pod of about 20. “There were lots of big smiles and finger pointing, people holding up their kids to get a better view,” said Michael FitzPatrick, an islander who saw the whales from one of the ferries. FitzPatrick’s only regret, he said, was that he didn’t have a camera. “It was just one of those wonderful, iconic images that unfortunately I’ll have to carry around in my head for the rest of my life,” he said. This image of whales passing the Issaquah, captured by West Seattle photographer Trileigh Tucker, quickly made it to the West Seattle Blog. For more of Tucker’s images of local wildlife, visit naturalpresence.wordpress.com. Trileigh Tucker photo/naturalpresence.wordpress.com
Citing statistics that fewer than half of businesses that suffer major disasters reopen their doors, volunteers are teaming up to help ensure that island businesses are prepared for emergencies of all kinds. “It could be surviving an ice storm like we had a two or three years ago or it could be that big earthquake,” said Debi Richards, a VashonBePrepared board member who is leading the effort. Beginning next month, VashonBePrepared, in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce, will offer a series of free workshops to SEE PREPAREDNESS, 20