LOST NO MORE Former Lost Boy returns to Africa. Page 5
NEWS | County rethinks raising farmers market fees. [3] COMMUNITY | Student rises to the top in poetry contest. [4] ARTS | New Drama Dock show [11] aims to entertain.
PIRATES AT STATE Hoopsters finish a winning season at state tournament. Page 14
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015
Vol. 60, No. 10
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Dental office on wheels at risk of not returning Hundreds have used the dental van’s services By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Angela Schmidt, with the state Department of Natural Resources, puts notices on buoys last Friday at Dockton.
State will pull buoys to make way for more orderly harbor Effort to create areas of permitted buoys will begin in Burton By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
After years of planning and outreach around its effort to clean up Quartermaster Harbor, the state is poised to pull nearly 50 private mooring buoys at Burton to clear the way for a field of new environmentally friendly buoys. Last Friday officials from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) boated around the harbor at Burton, attaching notices to 45 to 50 buoys in the cove, some of them holding boats and others floating alone. As soon as mid-April, the state will remove the tagged buoys from the water and will begin issuing permits to dozens of people who have applied to have new buoys there. Nearly 100 local boaters have now submitted applications to place buoys in new parking lot-type buoy fields to be created by the state at
Burton and Dockton or in front of their waterfront homes, all part of an effort to rid the harbor of abandoned boats and buoys and to better regulate those in use. “It will be great to start getting things in order there and try to take some of the really scrappy and old, half-sinking buoys out of there,” said Stacy Birk, an environmental planner with DNR’s Aquatic Resources Division, which is heading the effort. About four years ago, DNR began planning for its ambitious and controversial project to bring greater order to Quartermaster Harbor, part of the state-owned Maury Island Aquatic Reserve. As the number of boats in the harbor has grown in recent years, state officials have said they’ve become concerned about the conditions there. The bay now contains boats that are too close together, abandoned buoys that pose navigational hazards, anchors that drag and damage the underwater habitat and a handful of derelict and deteriorating boats and other structures. The state has received complaints from SEE BUOYS, 20
When island artist Shelly Hurd stopped by the dental van last week to inquire if the dentist might pull a troublesome tooth, she received mixed news: He will, but for further dental care, she may have to seek another solution, as the van might not return to Vashon after July. The dental van, operated by Medical Teams International, is staffed almost entirely by volunteers and has served Vashon several times a year since 2009. Recently, dentist Cliff Eckman, who has volunteered his services since the van’s first visit, and Hilary Emmer, who schedules patients and provides program support, announced they will leave their unpaid posts in July. So far, no one has stepped forward to fill either of their roles, though Vashon HouseHold Executive Director Chris Szala, who heads the Vashon Social Services Network, said that group is slated to discuss the issue this week. “It is something we would like to continue,” he said. Scores of patients have sought care at
Susan Riemer/Staff Photo
Dentist Cliff Eckman treats a patient at the dental van last week. Since 2012, the van has provided more than 560 appointments for low-income adults and 83 for children. the van since its earliest days on Vashon, thanks to former islander Heather Robinson, who first brought the van to the island. As a dental assistant, she worked for a local dentist and saw there were many people who could not afford to pay for their services and had nowhere else to turn. She learned about Medical Teams International and approached island dentists to see if any might volunteer if the nonprofit organiza-
tion would send a van to Vashon. Eckman, who was working part-time and preparing to retire, stepped forward. “I have always thought one should give back,” he said last week. “I thought let’s give it a try.” Since then, he has cared for hundreds of islanders and frequently has seen severe dental problems in patients, he said, including teeth decayed down to the SEE DENTAL VAN, 19