Wednesday, November 26, 2014 | 75 cents
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East Pierce budget cuts loom ahead
Bonney Lake man charged with felonies By Dennis Box
By Ray Still
Editor
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Staff Writer
A 32-year-old Bonney Lake man, Ricky Lee Grundy Jr., was charged Nov. 14 with four felonies in Kitsap County, the result of a multi-agency operation involving human trafficking, child prostitution and child rape. The Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office charged Grundy with firstdegree human trafficking, promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of third-degree child rape. He is in custody. The maximum penalty for the human trafficking charge and promoting sexual abuse of a minor is life in prison and/or a $50,000 fine for each if the defendant has two previous convictions for serious offenses. The child rape charges carry maxi-
SEE TRAFFICKING, PAGE 16
It’s A Wonderful Life
Michael Horstman plays George Bailey in the Bonney Lake High School production of It’s A Wonderful Life. The play was performed at the Sumner Performing Arts Center last weekend. Photo by Ray Still
The East Pierce Fire and Rescue 2015 preliminary budget was presented to the public during last week’s fire commissioner meeting. The fire commissioners plan to finalize the budget during a meeting on Nov. 25, and will be submitted to the County Council by the Dec. 6 deadline. The 2015 budget was cut by more than $3 million because the East Pierce Maintenance and Operations levy failed to get a supermajority of 60 percent yes votes during the November general elections. The fire commissioners and Fire Chief Jerry Thorson said the cuts will affect many of East Pierce’s ser-
SEE BUDGET, PAGE 7
Food bank in need of donations Numbers of families seeking services at record high By Ray Still Staff Writer
Every holiday season, the Bonney Lake Food Bank works to serve food to hundreds of families and households in the area. However, the food bank has noticed an unnerving trend this fall. The number of families being served are increasing to unprecedented levels while the donation levels
are not meeting the new demand. “Donations are going out as fast as they are coming in,” said Jeanine Ockey-Webb, executive assistant and warehouse manager. “We are booked solid for appointments, and to be booked solid and have 25 walk-ins is pretty intense.” In 2013, the food bank served an average of 978 households, or 3460 people, between July and October. October was their busiest month in that time frame, serving 1076 households, or 3389 people, in that month alone.
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Throughout that same four month period, the amount of donations in pounds averaged to 118,515.35 pounds per month. This calculates to an average of 34.25 pounds of donations per person during that four month period. This year, the average number of households served between July and October jumped to 1,213, and the average number of people to 4,154. October was again the busiest month so far this year – 1304 families, or 4410 people, were served that month. The average pound-
Sean McGarity, Brandon Firkins and Ron Ehrmantraut unload 860 pounds of milk donated to the Bonney Lake Food Bank. Photo by Ray Still age of donations for the same four month period was 123,881.2 pounds. This equates to roughly 29.82 pounds of donations per person on average for that four month period, almost 4 1/2 pounds less
per person than last year. Stew Bowen, the director of the Bonney Lake Food Bank, said this is the time the food bank would normally be stock-
SEE FOOD BANK, PAGE 12
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