Valley Record SNOQUALMIE
101RS YEA
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 n DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM n 75 CENTS
No-fly zone
Snoqualmie considers ban on aerial fireworks By CAROL LADWIG
ARTS
Middle Fork exhibit inspired by 140-year-old North Bend Western tree Page 8
SPORTS
Editor
Mount Si boys meet Sammamish Wolves again Page 11
INDEX Opinion 4 6 Puzzles On the Scanner 13 15 Calendar Classifieds 16-18
Vol. 101, No. 35
Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo
After a warm-up break inside the visitors center, Korean exchange students Yeon Keong Lee, left, and Seung Yeon Lee work together to wire scales into place on a dragon sculpture outside the North Bend Visitor Information Center. The dragon, envisioned by artist Bob Antone, commemorates the students’ 2015 exchange visit.
From the earth, a memory Dragon sculpture commemorates Korean exchange student visit By CAROL LADWIG Editor
“It looks good, doesn’t it?” asks Brad Pearce, as he examines the eye socket he’s been working on. It does. Eyes, jaws, the whole head, are clearly visible, and although there are no feet or scales yet, it’s easy to see the serpentine dragon that will
emerge from the bundles of branches and moss taking shape on the walkway outside the North Bend Visitors Information Center. Bob Antone grins as he adjusts one of the teeth. “It’s going to look so cool!” he says. Antone and his wife Laura, along with Seattle artist Pearce, led exchange students and host families from the Snoqualmie Sister Cities Association in the construction project Saturday, Jan. 17. They sometimes had to work to keep up their enthusiasm throughout the cold, wet, and windy day, but most of the time, it was easy. “It’s fantastic,” announced 15 yearold Yeon Keong Lee, visiting from Snoqualmie’s sister city in Korea, Gangjin. She was shivering a little — OK, a lot — but she didn’t seem to
notice the cold while she wired bark scales into place on the dragon. The scales were painted blue, for the Seahawks of course, and there was plenty of green moss, too, but these were just the first of many colors to appear on the dragon. A pile of bright fabric strips on the desk inside the visitors center is a final embellishment for the dragon. For a small donation, which benefits the visitor’s center and its Mountainview Art Gallery, as well as the Sister Cities Association, the public is invited to add to the pile. “People can write a memory on a piece of fabric, and tie it on the dragon, to flutter in the wind” said Tina McCollum, president of the SEE DRAGON, 9
Snoqualmie is already a safe place, with a nice sense of community, said several residents at the Jan. 12 City Council meeting. It doesn’t need a ban on some fireworks to make it safer. James Hunter, speaking to the council during discussion of a proposed amendment to the city fireworks code, said he’d moved to the area about a year ago, and he and his family very much enjoyed the gathering in their neighborhood on July 4. His daughters, he said, “were having fun in an environment that I felt safe in,” and safety was foremost in people’s minds during the fireworks. “The children (were) all standing on the sidewalk, and the fireworks (were) all being set off in the middle of the street,” he said. Reasoning that no one would set off fireworks that could burn their own homes down, or leave the litter from the display in the streets the next day, he told the council, “It seems to me, if you’re going to set off fireworks, probably the safest place to set them off yourself, is on the street in front of your own home.” Hunter was one of five people who spoke on the proposed amendment, which would ban aerial fireworks, and significantly increase the city fines for possession and discharge of fireworks. SEE FIREWORKS, 3
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