MJR hosts groundbreaking celebration

Seven years ago, whilst having a beer on the deck of Redhook Brewery, Mike McClure and Mike Raskin of MJR Development hatched the idea to build a wine village on land along the Woodinville-Redmond Road just south of the Hollywood intersection. Three years after pitching their idea to the City of Woodinville, MJR hosted the groundbreaking ceremony for Woodinville Village.

“America walked away from public transit years ago,” said J. Craig Thorpe, nationally renowned transportation artist, trolley buff and champion of the Issaquah Trolley project. “In our country’s post World War II economic boom, we chose the suburban life – the independent life – over the urban life. We built roads and suburbs with abandon. In our arrogance, we thumbed our nose at public transit.”

Like most years, the art for this year’s Sandblast Celebration is being provided by Dan Cautrell. The theme for this year is “Local Yokels.”

But for people living in and around Duvall, the daily pleasure of experiencing the artwork of Dan Cautrell can be had in a lot of places — without waiting for Sandblast each year — especially in the old part of town.

He’s apparently a favorite with the City of Duvall and for good reason — his artwork resonates with symbols of truth and fun and timely commentary. I feel inspired by his efforts and like living around them. Lots of people collect his art work, as well.

Karl Clapp, a 2006 Honors graduate of Cedarcrest High School, left June 18 to begin a 9-week summer internship with NASA at Jet Propulsion Laboratories in California.

Karl is the son of Chad and Wendy Clapp of Duvall. He was accepted into the internship program through the College of Engineering at the University of Washington, where he will be a freshman in the fall.

He was encouraged to apply for the highly competitive internship program that offers summer positions at several local companies. There were only 40 freshmen chosen to participate in the program, and Karl is one of only four participants selected for the internship with NASA.

And give it to community

The Duvall Mustangs don’t have a sponsor yet. What they do have is two coaches and a team of parents who believe in them. They also have a brand new pitching machine. Well, they did. They gave it away as soon as they got it, at a ceremony on June 16th.

“It’s a community asset,” said Coach Andy DiGenova. “We wanted to make it available to the whole community.”

The new $27.5 million bridge will span the Snoqualmie River just west of Carnation and approximately 165 feet upstream from the current historic bridge on Northeast Tolt Hill Road. The new bridge will be wider and safer for motorists and pedestrians, plus is designed to reduce river flooding in that location.

This is the largest construction project for the King County Road Services since the completion of the new Elliott Bridge in 2005. Construction of the new Tolt Bridge is expected to last for up to two years. The Roads Division is staging the construction to avoid fish-spawning seasons and to minimize traffic disruptions for local residents.