Kent Reporter, February 27, 2015

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INSIDE | Ralph, Stober running for council seats [3]

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NEWSLINE 253-872-6600

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Arts | Musicians, bands come to jam at senior center [2]

Opinion | Passage of oil trains poses dangers to our valley [5]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015

State deals with whether WHL players should be paid as employees

Fred Satterstrom retires Friday as the city’s planning director. Satterstrom, who worked for the city of Kent for 32 years, says he will miss the many relationships he has built with employees over the years. STEVE HUNTER, Kent Reporter

BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com

Whether or not players for the Kent-based Seattle Thunderbirds and other Western Hockey League (WHL) junior teams should be paid minimum wages has turned into a hot topic before the state Legislature. An ongoing investigation by the state Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) into whether child labor laws have been broken by the teams triggered WHL owners of teams in Seattle, Spokane, Everett and the Tri-Cities to lobby the Legislature to pass a bill that would exempt the teams Farwell from minimum wage law because the players should be considered amateur athletes and not employees. “This issue is so significant that if not passed, it could negatively impact our ability to operate and force us to move out of state,” said Gary Davidson, Everett Silvertips general manager, according to a videotape of a Senate Commerce & Labor Committee meeting on Feb. 18 in Olympia. Russ Farwell, general manager of the Thunderbirds, also testified in front of the Senate committee. “We strongly support this bill because we are now being examined as if our players should be considered employees rather than amateur hockey players,” said Farwell, who added the team has operated since 1977 in the state as a top-level amateur development league for the NHL. “We would like to clarify this. The legislation clarifies our position at the top level of amateur hockey and allows us to keep operating.” [ more PLAYERS page 3 ]

Downtown Kent on the upswing

Retiring city planning director sees revival at work with many developments BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com

MAT KING

Kentridge High’s Derek Freitag hugs his coach, Todd Lantz, after capturing the 106-pound championship at Mat Classic XXVII in the Tacoma Dome last Saturday. Freitag scored a 6-2 decision over Union’s Ethan Rotondo in the final. Story, photos, page 11. RACHEL CIAMPI, Reporter

When Fred Satterstrom looks at the development of downtown from Kent Station to the ShoWare Center to The Platform Apartments, he has a simple description. “The there is here now,” he said. Few people know Kent’s development over the last few decades as well as Satterstrom, who retires Friday as the city plan-

ning director. “Now as I look back it’s one of the most significant votes in my 32 years because the way Kent Station has worked out,” Satterstrom said as he sat in his office last week chatting about the shopping center that opened in 2005. “I think Kent Station has given Kent some regional notoriety,” he said. “People who are [ more PLANNER page 4 ]

Quick to lead and shine Kent-Meridian senior making a difference

Few high school students do it as well as Kent-Meridian’s April Rose Nguyen, a generous, quiet, quick-thinking leader. She is not your typical student. “She’s a top 1-percenter,” Travis Foltz, her history teacher, said

BY MARK KLAAS mklaas@kentreporter.com

Be active, be involved, be impactful.

[ more NGUYEN page 11 ]

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April Rose Nguyen takes charge and leads by example, in and out of the classroom. MARK KLAAS,

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