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Wednesday, December 3, 2014 | 75 cents
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Lake Tapps projects nearly washed out By Ray Still Staff Writer
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Weather The forecast for today, Wednesday, calls for partly sunny skies and a high temperature near 45 with calm winds. Thursday brings a 50 percent chance of rain and a high of 48. Rain is likely Friday through Sunday with daytime highs in the lower 50s and nighttime lows to near 40 degrees.
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With the unexpected rainfall last Tuesday, the White River was nearly three feet away from flowing over the flume gates and down through the flume construction project. This was a problem for Cascade Water Alliance Lake Manager Joe Mickelson, who was overseeing the replacement of the flume that fed water into Lake Tapps. Nearly 2,400 feet of centuryold, rotted wood is being replaced by high-tensile concrete to withstand the river’s erosive power. “The river was at 1,800 cubit feet of water per second, and now it is at 3,800,” Mickelson said, explaining how the unexpected rainfall caused the water to quickly rise. “I can’t have the water get any higher than that. We can’t have it go over the flume or it will
wipe out the project.” Although Mickelson was worried about the water levels, he said it was not an emergency, and he expected his workers to be able to keep the water from flowing down into the project site. The replacement of the flume is one of the many projects Cascade Water Alliance is attempting to finish before spring. Other projects include weeding the lake bed and replacing the head gates that control how much water enters and leaves the lake. In order to perform these numerous inspections and repairs, Cascade started lowering the lake water levels in November until the lake was almost completely empty of water. The lake elevation is just over 500 feet, nearly 43 feet lower than when the lake was at its highest levels earlier this summer. This is
SEE TAPPS, PAGE 5
The White River flowed with more than 3800 cubic feet of water per second last Tuesday, causing problems for Cascade Water Alliance workers. Bottom left, the 100-year-old wooden flume that transported water from White River to Lake Tapps has been collapsed. Bottom right, the new flume will be constructed from hightensile concrete and will be able to withstand 10,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. Photos by Ray Still
Bonney Lake pawn shop saves WWII museum exhibit By Ray Still Staff Writer
When state Initiative 594 passed in November, Pioneer Museum in Lynden, Wash., found itself in a peculiar, and possibly lawfully ambiguous, position. According to the new law, the World War II firearms the museum has on loan from various owners for an exhibit would need to be returned to owners before Dec. 4, or the original owners of the
weapons would need to undergo a background check before their weapons could be legally returned. It was by chance that Pistol Annie’s Gun and Jewelry and Pawn shop in Bonney Lake learned about the museum’s problem, and decided to do something about it. “My husband went home early, which he never does, and he caught the story on the news,” said owner Melissa Denny. “When I got home, my husband said hey,
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check this out.” The pawn shop decided to help the museum keep its exhibit by performing background checks on museum curator Troy Luginbill and the original gun owners. This way, the museum can legally display the firearms it has on loan, and when the exhibit ends in May, the museum can legally return the guns to the original owners. Originally, the museum was going to return all 11 firearms from the exhibit, both because of
the gray area the initiative created around long-term gun loans and the cost of background checks. The background checks would normally cost $40 per gun in both directions, resulting in an estimated bill of $880 for the museum, but Denny decided to waive the fee. Since this new development some of the firearm owners told Luginbill they do not want to
SEE MUSEUM, PAGE 5
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