SOUNDS OF HAWAII Slack key master plays on Vashon. Page 10
NEWS | Former restaurant is now a community kitchen. [5] COMMUNITY | Islanders hope to assist Vashon’s Millennials. [7] ARTS | High school students put on a new show. [10]
RUNNING HARD Cross country team ends season at State. Page 15
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014 Vol. 59, No. 46
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Unable to settle, Mukai activists prepare for trial County attempted to purchase the historic farmhouse By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
The legal battle over the Mukai farmhouse continues, as the island group attempting to take control of the property was unable to reach a settlement with its current owner, despite an offer from King County to purchase the house. Both sides are now preparing to return to court, with a trial date scheduled for next May. “We really worked hard to get it done, and it didn’t happen,” said Friends of Mukai President Lynn Greiner of the recent negotiations. “We were really disappointed.” This fall marks two years since the Friends of Mukai filed suit against Island Landmarks, a nonprofit headed by Texas resident Mary Matthews, over control of the historic Mukai farmhouse and Japanese garden. While unable to prevail in court so far, the Friends group has steadily amassed support for its mission — to get the property out of the
hands of Matthews, who has not opened it regularly to the public and who many say has let the house and garden fall into disrepair. Organizations and government agencies ranging from King County 4Culture to the National Trust for Historic Preservation have called for change at Mukai and have thrown their support behind the Friends group. “A lot of people are excited about what we’ve got going on and are eager to get this resolved,” Greiner said. Earlier this year, King County offered to purchase the property as part of a settlement agreement between Island Landmarks and the Vashon group, a move that would have ended the legal dispute and added the property to a short list of historic sites the county stewards. However they could not reach a deal Island Landmarks would agree to. “We’d get right up and very close to what I thought would be a final deal, and they would back away,” said Christie True, who was closely involved in the negotiations as the director of the SEE MUKAI, 19
Photo Courtesy Global Diving & Salvage
The Murph has been sitting at the bottom of Quartermaster Harbor since 2007.
Sunken tugboat emerges with a story By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Thomas Donovan has always been fascinated by The Murph, an old Navy tugboat that sank in Quartermaster Harbor in 2007. An attorney living in Tacoma, he went scuba diving there often, exploring The Murph’s hallways and the sea life growing on it. He researched the 70-yearold tug’s history and wrote an article about it for The Beachcomber. And when he was married in 2009, there was only one place to hold his wedding reception — on a flotilla of boats above The Murph.
Last week, however, the 100-foot tugboat was raised from the water in a two-day effort by the state Department of Natural Resources, which considers the sunken boat a hazard. “It’s tough to see it go, and much of the diving community is going to miss it as well,” Donovan said. “But it’s for the better and for the greater good.” The Murph is the fifth sunken boat that DNR’s Derelict Vessel Removal Program, funded by boater registration fees, has removed from Quartermaster SEE TUGBOAT, 17
Local sculptor draws on geology as her works dot the country Arist recently chosen for large installation at Tacoma Art Museum By JULI GOETZ MORSER Staff Writer
Julie Goetz Morser/Staff Photo
Julie Speidel in her Vashon studio.
Julie Speidel’s studio sits on a rolling piece of land that runs along the spine of the island. When the Vashon glacier finally relinquished its frozen hold on Puget Sound 15,000 years ago, it deposited in its wake a scattering of geologic calling cards — irregular boulders or glacial erratics. And it left one for Speidel.
Little did the internationally acclaimed sculptor know when she discovered the ancient missive behind her studio that it would eventually become the muse for “Kinetic Repose,” Speidel’s most recent installation for the Tacoma Art Museum (TAM). Last Saturday the museum unveiled the outdoor sculpture, one of three pieces it commissioned for its newly expanded building designed by Olsen Kundig Architects. Elegant and soft-spoken with a delightful, dry wit, Speidel, 73, is an artist who juggles a busy schedule packed with multiple projects. Her large-scale art requires working with a crew of three professionals to exe-
cute her designs. Several outbuildings connect to her spacious studio, and a walk through them reveals a spiraling piece of bronze for a commission still in progress, a tall-ceilinged room used for welding, sanding and painting and at the very back alcove, a stainless steel sculpture inspired by a recent trip to Brittany, France. Indeed, the larger-than-life piece captures the sway of traditional Breton skirts and jaunty tilt of a lace headdress, but the figure is surprisingly abstract. This intersection of abstract and figurative is familiar territory for Speidel, who wonders SEE SPEIDEL, 13