VOTE GOAT? The unofficial mayor contest is underway. Page 10
HEAD TO THE GARDEN Take in a tour of blooms this weekend. Page 12
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015
Vol. 60, No. 25
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
VIFR looks to expand volunteer force By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Chad Widmer examines a tank of small blubber jellies, one of four species on display in his new exhibit.
Biologist brings his passion for jellyfish to local aquarium By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Chad Widmer thinks jellyfish have gotten a bad rap. The translucent creatures get caught in fishing nets and sucked into boat engines. Many people consider them slimy or have stories of being stung by them during a vacation. “Most people think of jellyfish as a nuisance and they’re happy when they’re not around,” said Widmer, a marine biologist who lives on Vashon. “They’re not scary at all. They’re beautiful.” Widmer is the force behind a new exhibit at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium that not only gets visitors upclose with jellyfish of all shapes, colors and sizes, but is SEE JELLYFISH, 19
Vashon’s fire department will close the window on a new round of volunteer applications next week, and district officials say they hope many islanders will step forward, willing to serve. Like many fire departments that rely on volunteers, Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) has struggled to maintain an adequate volunteer crew to assist with medical, fire and other emergencies. With June 30 as the application deadline, many at VIFR are encouraging islanders to bolster the department’s ranks and serve as emergency medical technicians (EMTs), as well as firefighter/EMTs, firefighters and firefighter support members. Men and women, young and not so young, are encouraged to apply. “A lot of people think you have to be a 20-something uber-fit male to qualify for the department, and that is not true,” said Brigitte Brown, 60, a longtime volunteer EMT. Currently, about 40 people volunteer with VIFR, and only about half of those live on the island,
David Weller Photo
Volunteers at Vashon Island Fire & Rescue train regularly for a variety of calls. Here, firefighters practice putting out a car fire on the department grounds. said Assistant Chief George Brown, who would like to increase the number of volunteers, as well as the percent who live on-island. At VIFR, nearly 80 percent of calls are for medical reasons, and there is a pressing need for additional EMTs. For years, VIFR officials have talked about the rising call volume and how it stretches the department’s resources. In 1995, George Brown said, the
department received under 800 calls, and last year that number increased to more than 1,700 calls. Adding to the pressure is that frequently several calls come in at once. “Our calls come in clusters. I cannot explain it,” he said. Fire district commissioners have directed the department to be ready to respond to two and a half calls at a time, Brown said,
and sometimes the department falls short of being able to do so. At any given time, VIFR has two paid EMT/firefighters and two paramedics on shift, with the ability to respond to one and a half calls — the half call being the ability to respond to a call but not to transport the person off-island. Brown would like enough volunteers to fully staff another call, SEE VOLUNTEERS, 18
TRANSFORMING A LANDSCAPE ON MAURY A quiet ceremony at the Maury Island Marine Park on Saturday was hardly a reflection of the busy scene the county-owned park has been for the last couple years. Through a $2.1 million effort funded by the state, the former mining site has been transformed from a hillside overridden with blackberries and Scotch broom to an inviting park dotted with native plants and new trails. In what’s been called the largest environmental restoration in Vashon’s history, crews with Puget SoundCorps cleared 50 acres of noxious weeks, including about 2,000 feet of shoreline, and planted 103,000 new plants such as cedar, oak and madrona trees. Twenty tons of trash and creosote logs were removed. On Saturday, county officials and local volunteers cut the ribbon on the finishing touch, a large picnic shelter in the heart of the park, overlooking the water and Mount Rainier. The shelter’s construction was funded by a King County grant and organized by the Friends of Maury Park. And though it hasn’t been promoted much, Karlista Rickerson, founder of the friends group, said the shelter is already drawing picnickers and those looking for a cool place to relax. “We understand someone came down with a hammock and had it stretched from post to post,” she said. Christie True, director of the county’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks, called the landscape at the park completely different than when she moved to Maury Island some years ago. “It was a gem then, and it’s even more of a gem now,” she said.