Arlington Times, August 16, 2014

Page 1

 THE NEWSPAPER AT THE HEART & SOUL OF OUR COMMUNITY 

WEEKEND EDITION  2014WWW.ARLINGTONTIMES.COM WWW.ARLINGTONTIMES.COM75¢ 75¢  AUG. JUNE 17, 8, 2014

Herald THE SUNDAY

An Edition of

Oso heroes receive thanks

BY KIRK BOXLEITNER kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com

Community:

Festival of the River heats up. Page 11

Library: Summer reading program wraps up. Page 14.

DARRINGTON — Months after their initial efforts in response to the Highway 530 slide, Darrington and Oso firefighters received a show of support from visiting employees of Rairdon Dodge Chrysler Jeep of Marysville. Both fire stations had scheduled training Aug. 12, so the Rairdon employees spent nearly $200 on 20 pizza, 10 breadsticks and six 2-liter bottles of soda from Little Caesar’s, which they delivered in a 2014 Jeep Wrangler that had been customized in remembrance of the March 22 slide. Rairdon parts adviser James Biddle had spent two months customizing the jeep, whose back windows bear “Oso Strong” labels, and whose front hood is covered with a topographical map of the slide area, with a red dot marking the epicenter. “We’re calling it the tribute edition,” Biddle said of the custom Jeep, which the dealership plans to sell

at cost for nearly $27,000. “These firefighters helped out those who lost so much. My cousin came from Eastern Washington to help out as part of the National Guard, so I could connect to that.” Les Hays, the dealership’s recon manager, not only helped a close friend recover from losing his parents and grandparents in the slide, but also saw a number of customers after the slide who’d been impacted by it. “One lady came in, escorted by military people,” Hays said. “She’d lost her entire family, so she bought a Ram and a big camper. She planned to go on a cross-country trip. A couple came in from Darrington, who’d been stranded on the Arlington side of the slide, needing a water pump for their truck, so we hooked them right up.” When Hays and Biddle made their first stop at the Darrington fire station, they handed out nearly half of their coupons for free oil changes to more than 20 personnel on site, including emergency medical tech-

INDEX 9

OPINION

4

SPORTS

10

WORSHIP

nicians Darin and Martha Park. “Did you replace the water pump in our truck?” Martha asked. “Because we really appreciated that, and made sure to spread the word about your good deed. We were in tears that week.” “It was like a doublewhammy, because we couldn’t get back home, and the one rig we had for transportation didn’t work,” Darin said. “We wanted to wait until

the dust had settled, before we came by with pizza and coupons,” Hays said. “We wanted to give you a chance to collect yourselves, and to let you know people are still thinking about you after the fact.” Oso Fire Chief Willy Harper and his crew hadn’t even expected the Rairdon employees that night. “Please tell me I placed the red dot in the right location for the slide,” Biddle laughed.

BY STEVE POWELL spowell@marysvilleglobe.com

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Vol. 124, No. 55 Steve Powell/Staff Photo

Tori Torolova talks with Georgetta and Georgette Reeves.

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From left, Oso firefighters Steve Jahn, Willy Harper, Toby Hyde, Ryan Olson and Tim Harper confirm that the epicenter of the slide was placed correctly on the map. “No, you got it right,” Harper said, as he and 10 of his nearly 20 firefighters studied the map on the Jeep’s hood. Darrington fire safety officer Jeff McClelland explained that he and his fellow responders had been more busy keeping up with the area’s regular fire and medical calls than with assisting the search and recovery efforts in the wake SEE HEROES, PAGE 2

Tulalip A.D. ex-Bulgarian star

CLASSIFIED ADS 15-18 LEGAL NOTICES

Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photo

TULALIP – Tori Torolova loves her family, even though she’s seen little of them since she defected to the U.S. from Communist Bulgaria 24 years ago. She hasn’t seen her sister since 2001, her mom since 2000 and her brother since 1994. She saw little of them before that, as she was taken from her home at age 10 and placed in a Sports School so she could focus on playing basketball for that country’s national team.

So she gets a little teary-eyed when talking about family. But she gets a huge smile when she talks about her adopted family on the Tulalip Reservation. She was hired there 4 1/2 years ago and is now the athletic director at the Boys and Girls Club. She loves the kids, and they love her. Bulgaria as a child Tori grew up in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. In the summers she would go to the countryside with her sister, mom and dad. “I was the baby,” she said. At about age SEE STAR, PAGE 2


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