REPORTER
COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND
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LOCAL | Kids arrested for arson at elementary school [page 3]
Competitive Set | The SPSL 4A girls volleyball conference should be tough FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 from top to bottom [9]
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Maple Valley group fights proposed pot factory
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Covington rec sports program kicks off
BY ERIC MANDEL
BY ERIC MANDEL
emandel@covingtonreporter.com
emandel@covingtonreporter.com
A group of Maple Valley residents have voiced concern with the proposed construction of two industrial warehouse buildings that would be used to process and produce marijuana. The proposed site is located in unincorporated Maple Valley at a dead end between Southeast 248th Street and Highway 18. The commercial site development permit calls for two approximately 20,00 square foot industrial warehouse buildings with industrial zoning. The Department of Permitting and Environmental Review will issue an Environmental Threshold Determination under the State Environmental Policy Act following the 21-day public comment period, which ended Sept. 2. A group of neighbors with questions and concerns about the
Sean Conway never expected to use the oversized yellow flags sticking out of his front khaki pockets. The Sept. 5 flag football game was, in essence, a dress rehearsal — for him, the coaches and the horde of 11 year olds tossing footballs around him. He checked his text messages, COVINGTON hoping for a response from the teenage referee who was supposed to be running the next game. In the mean time, Conway quickly and kindly recruited an eager kid from the sidelines to handle the down marker. It’s game time, and both Conway and the city of Covington seem ready to take the recreational sports handoff and run.
Going the Distance
Tristan Houser runs out of the lake for the Bears team in the Tahoma Relays Saturday at Lake Wilderness. The event begins the opening of the fall cross country season. DENNIS BOX, The Reporter
[ more POT page 6 ]
[ more KICKS page 7]
Maple Valley couple joins National Alpaca Farm Days BY RAY STILL Staff Writer
National Alpaca Farm Days will be coming to the region Sept. 27 and 28. Farms that are hosting free open houses for the weekend include Liberty Alpacas in Maple Valley, Polaris Alpacas in Tacoma and Stellar Alpacas in Spanaway. Alpacas are mainly used for their fiber, which the Alpacas Owners Association claim is lighter and warmer than wool. Alpaca fiber also does not contain any grease or lanolin like wool can, is hypoallergenic and water resistant. Lorrie and Jeff Williamson started Liberty Alpacas farm back in 2007. “We needed to get livestock for
our property, and I didn’t want to do horses anymore,” Lorrie Williamson said. Instead, the Williamson’s attended a National Alpaca Farm Day event, and when they saw the alpacas Lorrie Williamson said, “It was love at first sight.” Liberty Alpacas is participating in National Alpaca Farm Days this year, and will have their farm and store open for those two days. The Williamsons said there are two kinds of alpacas on farms. The first kind of alpaca is called a huacaya (pronounced wa-Ki’ah). Huacayas look like teddy bears, said Lorrie Williamson, and have shorter fiber than a suri. Suris have longer fibers that, “hang down like dreadlocks,” said
Jeff Williamson, and tends to be curly. According Jeff Williamson alpacas are normally shaved once a year around May or June, “and produce anywhere from three to 12 or 14 pounds of fleece,” though eight pounds tends to be the average. The Alpacas Owners Association reports alpaca fibers range in price from between two to five dollars per ounce of fiber. However, the Williamsons don’t sell raw fiber. Instead, they send their fiber to Bob and Danise Cathel in Sunnyside, who run Silbury Hill Alpaca farm and Spring Harvest Fiber Mill. The Cathels started their mill in July 2013, and since then, “business has been booming,” said Bob Cathel, mentioning that they have multiple months of backlogged orders. The Cathels are sent fiber from all over Washington, and they process the raw fiber into yarn, which is sent back to farmers.
Lorrie and Jeff Williamson hold newborn alpaca Ruger with the mother close by at their farm, Liberty Alpacas, in Maple Valley. RAY STILL, The Reporter The Williamsons then make their own products from the fiber, “because it is more profitable than selling raw fleece,” said Jeff Williamson. According to the Alpaca Owner’s Association, raw fiber
tends to sell at two to five dollars per ounce. Liberty Alpacas sells yarn for purchasers to knit their own clothes, as well as hats and socks the Williamson’s make themselves.