Valley Record SNOQUALMIE
101RS YEA
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 n DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM n 75 CENTS
Growing scientists
Increasing science opportunties is a goal of Valley educators, supporters By CAROL LADWIG
ARTS
Editor
‘Same Time, Next Year,’ now showing at Valley Center Stage Page 6
Allyce Andrew/Staff Photo
LOCAL
Twin Falls Middle School teacher Jana Mabry, left, with former student Dylan Glaser, right, discuss what happens when students get more opportunities to do science, as the keynote speakers at the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation lunch Thursday, March 19.
Best of the Valley reader survey results announced Page 14-15
INDEX Opinion 5 7 Puzzles On the Scanner 8 20 Calendar Classifieds 21-23
Vol. 101, No. 44
Efficiency in evidence Snoqualmie Police Department reduces, reuses seized guns By ALLYCE ANDREW Staff Reporter
Ever wondered where can you legally take brass knuckles in Washington state? A steel plant is a good place to start. What might sound like a punchline is a new reality for the Snoqualmie Police Department’s updated evidence destruction technique. Janelle Knight, the department’s records evidence technician, took brass knuckles and eligible guns to the Nucor Corporation steel plant, along with staff from a handful of other King County police stations for the first time on Friday, March 6. Her fiery workday involved 18 firearms from Snoqualmie’s cache, $100,000 worth of melted steel and 3,100 degrees. The
steel from the melt is repurposed into rebar at no cost to the police department. “It was a learning process as far as what can and cannot be melted,” Knight stated in her Snoqualmie office. “The guns have to be unclaimed with no owners. We always run the serial number, make sure it’s not reported stolen, and then obviously, ….how it came into our possession is a big part of it, as well.” Destruction-eligible guns have to fit strict requirements. They must be intentionally turned in from owners or confiscated by the police department, with no known owners and never used in a crime, as most of those firearms are kept for integrated ballistic identification system testing. Citizens who are eligible to reclaim their property are sent a letter and given 60 days to respond. If they don’t meet this deadline, the police department is legally allowed to melt it. If their background doesn’t check out, they’re allowed to sell the gun or sign it over to someone else. SEE MELT, 2
Jana Mabry, teacher at Twin Falls Middle School, set out in 2005 to “home-grow” some scientists in the school district. With help and encouragement from teachers who’d been there, done that, she has, with possibly greater success than she expected. As one of three keynote speakers at last week’s Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation luncheon, Mabry was introduced with two of her former students, both of whom shared the influence she had in guiding their careers. SEE SCIENTISTS, 19
Courtesy Photo
Snoqualmie Police Department evidence/records technician Janelle Knight and Redmond’s evidence technician Jennifer Assaker pose outside of the Nucor Corporation on March 6.
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