Zags No. 2 seed in South This week’s Gonzaga faces No. 15 N. Dakota St. in Seattle on Friday, Page C1
watchwords
tournament >> NCAA brackets, C3
OSO: As the March 23 anniversary of the
catastrophic mudslide approaches, a one-year remembrance set for this Sunday gives those most affected a chance to come together and reflect.
ST. PAT’S: Celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, and all things Irish this Tuesday, with a green beer or traditional feast of corned beef and cabbage.
SPRING SPORTS: Move aside prep hoops
fans, it’s time for a bounce in your step, not the ball. Baseball, softball, track and field, boys soccer, golf and girls tennis, anyone? MONDAY, 03.16.2015
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OSO MUDSLIDE
Year later, emotions high By Noah Haglund Herald Writer
OSO — A year of grief. By Sunday, families will have lived a full cycle of birthdays and holidays without the 43 people
who died in Snohomish County’s worst disaster. Those most affected by the Oso mudslide have the chance to gather Sunday at sacred ground, at a sacred time. They’re calling it a remembrance.
“Sometimes I feel like March 22, 2014 was yesterday. At other times I feel like March 22, 2014 was years ago,” said Dayn Brunner, whose sister, Summer Raffo, was killed in the slide as she drove on Highway 530. “For
me, it’s a milestone. Emotions are running high with a lot of people.” In the Stillaguamish Valley, Ground Zero is the area that used See SLIDE, Page A2
An indivisible team
Riley Brunner, then 16, joined his dad in search for victims
Lack of reports may be costly A bill under consideration would prevent special purpose districts that don’t file mandated information from collecting tax dollars. By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer
By Eric Stevick Herald Writer
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ARRINGTON — Simple sounds — the snap of a pencil, a drip in the sink — take Riley Brunner back a year to a wet wasteland of massive gray dunes and ravaged homes. That is what the debris fields west of town seemed like to him: a vast desert of despair.
At 16, and 130 pounds soaking wet, Riley was a Darrington High School junior and one of the youngest searchers after the March 22 Oso mudslide. That first afternoon, Summer Raffo he tromped through the mire alongside his dad, Dayn, and younger brother, Zack, looking for their
VOL. 115, NO. 34 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
INSIDE
Business . . . . .A6 Classified . . . . B5
Comics . . . . . . B2 Crossword . . . B2
Snow job You start on one side; I’ll start on the other: This winter’s light snowfall in the Cascades means the state Department of Transportation can begin work early to clear and reopen mountain passes closed earlier in the winter (Page A8). To clear the snow the state Dear Abby. . . . B3 Horoscope . . . B8
Aunt Summer and signs of her blue Subaru. To the north, the broken hillside groaned, dropping giant chunks of earth hundreds of feet below. The echoes thundered across the valley. The search party could feel the vibrations a mile away. Dayn thinks today about the
is putting an ad on Craigslist to hire two, maybe three guys. Bring your own snow shovels and a sack lunch.
The humble Goddard, down-played the achievement: “It’s not rocket science. Oh, wait. I guess it is.”
Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1926, scientist Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket in Massachusetts (Today in History, Page B4).
Goes great with the bricksand-boards bookshelves: Our Street Smarts columnist, Melissa Slager, addresses the question over whether its legal to decorate with street signs. A city of
Lottery . . . . . .A2 Obituaries. . . .A4
See BILL, back page, this section
See TEAM, Page A2
Opinion. . . . . .A7 Short Takes . . . B4
Sports . . . . . . . C1 Your Photos . . B1
Everett spokeswoman says it’s OK as long as signs used outside don’t confuse drivers on the street (Page A3). It’s a law that was established in a court case, State vs. W.E. Coyote, that ruled against Mr. Coyote for using road signs to direct roadrunners into rock walls painted to look like tunnels.
—Jon Bauer, Herald staff
Sundry 56/44, C6
DAILY
GENNA MARTIN / THE HERALD
Dayn Brunner and his son Riley, 17, pose for a photo at Darrington High School on March 12. Dayn’s sister, Summer Raffo, was one of the 43 victims of the Oso mudslide. Dayn and Riley spent five days searching the debris field before finding Summer in her car, hands still on the steering wheel. Dayn spent a total of 39 days searching through the mud for other victims.
OLYMPIA — Special districts that don’t file financial reports with the state auditor each year as required could be barred from spending the tax dollars they collect. A bill passed by the state House would prevent county treasurers from releasing money to any special purpose district that has failed to turn in its mandated annual report. Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, wrote the bill in response to an analysis issued in January showing that every year hundreds of small special districts, including several in Snohomish County, don’t turn in information. Hunter said he spoke with state auditor Troy Kelley before drafting House Bill 2084. It passed 85-15 on March 10. “Governments should be transparent in how they raise money and how they spend it,” said Hunter, who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “He can’t audit them if he doesn’t have access to the information.” A 1909 state law requires every local government to file a financial report with the State Auditor’s Office within 150 days of the end of the particular district’s fiscal year. About one-third of Washington’s 1,956 fire, sewer, diking, drainage, cemetery and other special purpose districts struggle to fully comply each year. Kelley’s analysis found 31 districts in Snohomish County and 580 others in Washington either did not file annual reports covering the 2013 fiscal year, or turned them in late or incomplete.
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