REPORTER
COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
NEWSLINE 425-432-1209
ROBOTICS | Bear Metal finalists [page 5]
THIRD AT DISTRICTS | Kentwood’s baseball team earned third place at districts, regionals start Saturday [14]
WEBSITE | Check the website for breaking news, sports and weather stories. maplevalleyreporter.com or covingtonreporter.com
Chick-Fil-A congestion may come to Covington
Filing week ends and political races begin BY DENNIS BOX
BY REBECCA GOURLEY
Editor
Reporter
The candidate filing period ended Friday and the next stop is the Nov. 2 general election. For any race with three candidates filing, the Aug. 4 primary will whittle it down to two candidates facing off in November.
The city of Bellevue is still reeling after the much-anticipated April opening of Chick-Fil-A, a fast food chain famous for its chicken sandwiches. Police in Bellevue are still conducting traffic control in the Richard Hart area around the restaurant, more than a month after the doors have opened. That congestion could be coming to Covington soon. Richard Hart, Community Development director for Covington, said if the plans for the restaurant move forward, they do expect to do some traffic mitigation in the area. “We’re going to have to do
Maple Valley
City Council Position No. 1 Sean P. Kelly (incumbent) Position No. 3 Kathi Turner, Les Burberry Position No. 5 Megan Sheridan Position No. 6 Dana Parnello (appointed incumbent), Cathy Hilde - unexpired two-year term
Rampathon
Ali Al Dulaimy, 19, received a new ramp at his home in Covington Saturday through the effort of volunteers from the Master Builders Association and the Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau. Ali has cerebral palsy and needed the ramp to get to the school bus and other services. The ramp was built at no cost to the family. DENNIS BOX, The Reporter
[ more Filings page 16 ]
[ more CHICK page 2 ]
Farm takes shape on former golf course BY REBECCA GOURLEY Reporter
The former Elk Run Golf Course is looking less and less like a golf course as the weeks go on. The course closed last October and about 5 acres of its greens will soon be home to the new Elk Run Farm. The farm is a project of the South King County Food Coalition, which represents the food banks in the area. The produce grown at the farm will be donated to area food banks for people in need. The owners of the property, Roy Humphreys and Daryl Connell, will lease the portion of their land to the coalition for the farm and its infrastructure. The coalition is currently conducting a feasibility study and plans to do water and soil testing
before anything takes root. Katie Pencke, the farm manager, said the location of the farm will be where the old clubhouse was and it will run east to west along the main parking lot and underneath the Bonneville Power Administration transmission line that runs through the property. Matt Torpey, senior planner for the city of Maple Valley, said the group has received approval from BPA to build the farm there. Pencke and Lila Henderson, executive director of the Maple Valley Food Bank, made a presentation during the April 29 planning commission meeting about the project. Torpey said there was unanimous concurrence from the commission to include the recommended policies in the comprehensive plan that would support
the elk run farm proposal. Pencke said the coalition is looking for individuals in the community to assist with the farm’s infrastructure. Farm management held a volunteer drop-in day Tuesday, May 19 to allow people to help with the work that needs to get done, including establishing permanent storage in what used to be the driving range. More of these volunteer days are planned, Pencke said, and specific dates will be announced once they are scheduled. “We are currently seeking to schedule days of service with groups of 10-30 people to clean up driving range, grub out blackberries (and) clean gutters on the bbq shelter building,” she said in an email. They are also looking for someone with a riding mower to help
Volunteers help clean old driving range Tuesday at the former Elk Run Golf Course to make way for the future storage space for the Elk Run Farm. REBECCA GOURLEY, The Reporter mow the grass the coalition will be leasing. The group also needs people to do light carpentry work, electrical work and provision of materials to create storage spaces. Funding and general community involvement is also something
the coalition is seeking. “We envision a volunteer advisory board of neighbors and community stakeholders who will help to provide connections to resources and advocate for the farm. [ more FARM page 2 ]