Covington/Maple Valley Reporter, February 27, 2015

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REPORTER

COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015

A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING

NEWSLINE 425-432-1209

FIRE NEWS | Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety [page 5]

State and District | Mat Classic wrestling, state gymnastics and district basketball [6]

Teen on the fast track to engineering degree

WEBSITE | Check the website for breaking news, sports and weather stories. maplevalleyreporter.com or covingtonreporter.com

City Council chooses tax-exempt refinancing

BY REBECCA GOURLEY

BY REBECCA GOURLEY

rgourley@covingtonreporter.com

rgourley@maplevalleyreporter.com

W

hile most of her peers are going to be graduating from high school in three or so years, Gabi Sciuchetti will be accepting a different kind of diploma – a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington. Currently, Gabi is a sophomore at UW based on the amount of credits she has earned, and she’s Gabi Sciuchetti barely 15 years old. On top of being four years ahead on her education, she also made the dean’s list for the 2014 fall quarter, earning at least a 3.5 grade point average. Gabi, from Covington, attended the Early Entrance Program at The Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars at UW during the 2013-2014 school year. This transition school enabled her to skip high school and start earning college credits in spring 2014. After the program finished, she immediately dove head-first into

Postseason Classics

[ more TEEN page 2 ]

Tahoma’s Adam Hokenson, top, pinned Aaron Ibanez from Bothell in the semifinal round of the 195-pound 4A Mat Classic state wrestling tournament. Kyle Capperault from Kentwood, lower right, wrestles Alex Fairhust from Snohomish in the semifinal round, losing 6-2. Kentwood guard Darius LuBom drives the lane against Federal Way Saturday during the 4A district boys basketball championship. The Conks lost 74-56. Stories on page 6. DENNIS BOX, The Reporter

Vaccine bill aims to eliminate personal objection exemption BY REBECCA GOURLEY rgourley@maplevalleyreporter.com

The state House Committee on Health Care and Wellness voted 10-5 Feb. 18 in favor of a bill that would make it more difficult for parents to make their kids exempt from getting vaccinated in Washington. Currently, state law allows parents to not vaccinate their school-aged children for medical reasons, a personal objection or religious beliefs. This bill would eliminate the “philo-

sophical or personal objection” exemption option, but leave medical reasons and religious beliefs in place. Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, is listed as a co-sponsor of the bill – HB 2009. However, when asked about his reasons for supporting it, he said he was considering taking himself off the sponsor list. “My initial inclination was to support it because of the potential public health risk of unvaccinated children to the elderly, infants and immunocompromised, but I’m discovering there’s also considerable (well-

documented) risk to our kids when they’re inoculated with live virus,” Magendanz said in an email. Rep. June Robinson, D-Everett, is the primary sponsor of the bill and said at the committee meeting last Wednesday the bill is centered on public health. “Ultimately it’s a bill about public’s health and the community’s health,” she said. “We all live in community and we Chad Magendanz need to think about how our actions affect those around us.” The recent push for vaccination reform in several states is at least partially due to the recent outbreak of measles at Disneyland. That outbreak, which started in De-

After almost an hour of discussion, the Maple Valley City Council unanimously voted to refinance the city’s $2.9 million in general obligation bonds using a tax-exempt structure, keeping the status quo on the Legacy Site. The tax-exempt option saves the city approxiMAPLE mately $47,000 VALLEY more than the other option of taxable bonds. The tax-exempt option also keeps the current use restrictions on the land, which Councilman Layne Barnes said it is “just enough flexibility” for what the original plan was for the land. “At the end of the day, based upon what the CAC’s (Citizen’s Advisory Committee) report was… I have every belief that flexibility exists with the tax-exempt situation,” Barnes said. Councilman Dana Parnello agreed with Barnes. “One option gives us more flexibility, the other maintains the flexibility we’ve had.” [ more COUNCIL page 5 ]

cember, has spread to seven states, including two cases in Washington. There have been five cases in Washington so far this year, three of those were not related to the amusement park in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2013, measles cases were slightly below 200, nationwide, according to the CDC. Last year, the number of measles cases more than tripled from June Robinson the previous year. So far, 154 cases of measles have been reported across 17 states and Washington, D.C. this year. To keep diseases like measles from [ more VACCINE page 2 ]


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