SPECTACULAR SWIMMING Noted author and swimmer to visit. Page 7
NEWS | Property values increase on Vashon. [4] COMMUNITY | Local vet gets the royal treatment. [5] ARTS | Author reads from new [10] children’s book.
PIRATES COME THROUGH The football team celebrates its first win. Page 14
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014
Vol. 59, No. 41
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
VARSA attempts to turn a new page in prevention Group addressing teen substance use now sponsored by the school district By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Rachel Pattin prepares crushed apples for juicing at the Vashon Winery. The winery gets most of its apples, pictured below, from an orchard on Maury Island.
PRESSING ON IN A GROWING MARKET
Last week at the Vashon Winery, apple juice flowed. Hundreds of apples were crushed and juiced, their golden, tangy-sweet liquid poured into plastic barrels for fermenting before eventual aging in oak barrels. For Vashon Winery owner Ron Irvine, who has been making hard cider for over two decades, pressing apples is as natural as the changing leaves each fall. His small winery now puts out about 1,000 bottles a year as a side project, largely using apples grown on Vashon. This weekend, however, Irvine will join two other Vashon cider makers that are newer to the craft but already making a mark on the burgeoning cider scene. CiderFest, Vashon’s annual cider celebration, has a decidedly local focus this year, as Dragon’s Head Cider and Nashi Orchards will both offer tours of their orchards and facilities on Saturday in addition to a local cider tasting that afternoon. “This year we decided we have some great cider on the island, and we want to focus on the locals,” said Jim Marsh of the chamber of commerce, noting that past tastings have featured mostly off-island cider. While hard cider has been enjoyed in the U.S. for centuries, it’s recently seen a surge in popularity that some have compared to the craft beer boom of the 1970s. Irvine lays claim to producing the state’s first commercial cider, as he made a batch on Vashon that sold at Seattle’s Pike and Western Wine Shop in 1989. There are now more than 30 cider producers in the state, including Nashi Orchards, which began making Asian pear perry just last year, and Dragon’s Head Cider, which planted an orchard outside Vashon town a few years ago and now sells three
With a new sponsor for its grant, new leadership and new plans for how it will spend over $100,000 a year, a group of local volunteers say they are ready to get back to trying to reduce youth drug and alcohol use on Vashon. The Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse (VARSA) in recent years has been mired in conflict with Vashon Youth & Family Services (VYFS), mostly over how the groups worked together to spend two large grants aimed at addressing Vashon’s
higher than average rates of teen substance abuse. Now that the two groups have formally parted ways and VARSA has just one grant, members say they’re as hopeful as ever that they can make progress on Vashon — that is, if they can recruit a large number of volunteers to help. “The answer comes down to can we get the bodies in there to help us,” said Chuck VanNorman, VARSA’s new co-chair. Both VanNorman and Lisa Bruce, who was hired last week as VARSA’s paid coordinator, say they are now working to recruit volunteers. However, they worry VARSA’s troubled history may prevent some from getting involved with what they feel is still an important mission. SEE VARSA, 17
Friends group forms around vision for the pool By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
types of cider and a perry at retailers throughout Washington and Oregon. At Dragon’s Head, Laura Cherry says she has seen cider grow in popularity even since she and her husband started their business. Seattle Cider Summit, for instance, now attracts exponentially more tasters than it did when it started just a few years ago. “Cider is really having a renaissance, and there is a larger and larger audience,” she said. Vashon’s own homage to cider will kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday with cider pressing and fresh cider for sale at the Farmers Market. Nashi Orchards and Dragon’s Head will give orchard tours in the afternoon, and Seattle Distilling Company will offer local cider tasting and activities for kids. The day wraps up with a concert and dance at the Open Space for Arts & Community. For CiderFest times and details, see vashonchamber.com. Story and photos by Natalie Martin
A group of islanders interested in the benefits of swimming and other water sports has set its sights on extending the Vashon Pool’s season and expanding its programming to benefit islanders of all ages. The five-member Friends of the Vashon Pool formed in August, hoping to keep the pool open through the summer-like days of September, group members say. When that proved not workable this year, they began looking ahead to next year and beyond. In recent weeks, they have been reaching out to a variety of stakeholders, including officials at the Vashon Park District, which manages the pool, and to several community members and groups, ranging from the island’s schools and sports teams to Vashon Community Care and the Vashon Senior Center.
Group members say they are trying to determine how these groups and others might like to use the pool and how it could remain open longer and serve a wider swath of the community without additional financial support from the Vashon Park District. “Our Despite drainage primary issue, Vashon Pool mission is to learn as ends its season on much as budget. possible as See story, page 5 quickly as possible,” said Mark Nassutti, a group member. The Friends of the Vashon Pool, whose members did not all know one another before they created the group, includes people with a variety of backgrounds but a shared passion for swimming. SEE POOL, 12