‘rock star of the sewing industry’ | BERNINA International Sewing Machines president visits Renton. [3]
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BEST OF RENTON | It’s time once again for our annual Best of Renton issue! Turn to page 9 to see if your favorites made the list! [Pages 9-18]
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014
Voters shooting down transit and roads funding measure By Brian Beckley bbeckley@rentonreporter.com
In the first round of ballot counting, completed election evening, King County’s transit funding measure appears headed for defeat. As of Wednesday afternoon, voters are rejecting the measure at a rate of 55 percent. The measure would have increased the county sales tax by 0.1 percent and increased car tab fees to $60. The money would go toward preventing steep cuts in Metro services
and to funding road improvements in the cities. Officials predicted the measure would raise about $130 million in revenue, with 60 percent of the money going to Metro and the other 40 percent being sent back to cities for roads. Should the proposition continue to fail, steep cuts are ahead for Metro transit, including to routes in Renton, though our city fares better than others. According to an analysis last year by the City, six routes would be deleted, 10 routes revised and six would remain [ more results page 4 ]
Proposition 1 is losing in early returns. Image courtesy King County Elections
Ex-boyfriend sent text to victim’s father after murder Memorial service for Allison Leedy planned for Saturday By DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
For the past 20 years, the Coulon Park Walkers have been dressing the Interface statue at the park to represent the coming season. courtesy photo
20 years of friendship, fun and Interface fashion tcompton@rentonreporter.com
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or these women, what started as an effort to get some exercise and social time has turned into years of friendship and entertainment for the community. They call themselves The Coulon Park Walkers and they have been dressing the “Interface” sculpture at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park for about 20 years in festive clothes for different holidays.
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“This is a group of about 12 women of different ages, personalities and backgrounds, different career choices, and different hobbies and interests,” said Dolores Halstead, group member. “Yet, over time, we’ve developed this wonderful and caring friendship, which is important to all of us and goes beyond just dressing statues.” The trips to the sculpture started in 1993, when three friends decided to do something festive for Halloween and droppedoff carved pumpkins at the bottom of the “Interface” sculpture. [ more sculpture page 19 ]
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By TRACEY COMPTON
Just a day before her death, Allison Midori Leedy talked with her grandmother about her plans to move on with her life and education without her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, Gabriel Galan Navarro, 20, learned of her plans and on April 12, county prosecutors charge, strangled her to death in their shared apartment on Eagle Ridge Drive in Renton. He then texted her father, “She’s dead. I have the last laugh.” Navarro was charged April 15 with first-degree murder, domestic violence. His arraignment is 9 a.m. May 1 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, where he’s being held on $2 million bail. Leedy’s death was ruled a homicide by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. She died of asphyxia due to strangulation. Prosecutors wrote in charging documents that Navarro had at least two motives to kill Leedy: “his desire to prevent her from leaving him and his desire to punish her family for trying to help her get away from him.” Leedy, who was 20, attended Franklin [ more Leedy page 27 ]