Photo courtesy of City of Woodinville
Woodinville’s new Police Chief, John McSwain

Making personal, positive connections with citizens, businesses and visitors is a definite priority for Woodinville’s new Police Chief, John McSwain.

McSwain succeeds Chief Kent Baxter who recently resigned to take a position in the Special Operations Division of King County Metro Transit.

Courtesy photo
Cedarcrest Music Director Ryan Lewis recently returned from Iraq where he spent a year deployed with the Army Reserves.

Ryan Lewis wouldn’t ever call himself a hero. He might call himself a dedicated music instructor, or a soldier, or a friend. But hero he is, to many who have served with him, whether here at home or in Iraq.

Now that he is back in Duvall, after serving a year in Iraq in the Army Reserves, I asked him about his deployment and acclimation back into civilian life.

As for deployment he said, “There’s a need for soldiers to take care of other soldiers” while deployed. “Morale comes and goes in waves,” he continued as he recalled one Lieutenant Colonel in his unit. She was pretty outspoken about asking for things from home in care packages, Lewis remembered, with the intent of giving them away to other soldiers who were having a hard day, or a difficult time. “That was her strength, to be able to provide for others,” he said.

When he arrived in Kuwait and then Baghdad, the heat of 115 degrees was the challenge, as his unit moved into temporary housing, aka: tents. The first two weeks were spent learning their jobs and then becoming responsible for them, as they replaced other soldiers returning home.

Background

Readers may recall the June 5, 2006, Woodinville Weekly/Valley View story about a Carnation couple that applied for a permit to build a garage on their rental property along the Redmond-Fall City Road. The Lechners submitted their application to King County’s Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) on July 29, 1999, not anticipating any problems in obtaining a permit since the garage was to be built on an existing foundation and existing slab that were present when they bought the house in 1972.

But problems they had, seven years’ worth.

For those interested in how the city spends its money, this is the time to pay attention.

The city’s annual Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) process is underway. All the city’s capital needs are being reviewed and prioritized. The public is asked to join the process.

Staff ranked over 90 projects using a scoring system adopted by the City Council. The projects proposed for the 2007-2012 CIP received the highest scores and are assumed to have the highest priority. Yet the process is not complete.

The search for an interim city manager moves forward. In fact, city consultant Greg Prothman of Prothman Company in Bellevue delivered the resumes of several potential candidates to the City Council Aug. 7. He said the cadre of available candidates is only seven or eight deep.

Acting City Manager Jim Katica hopes to have the interim manager on board by September for a three- to four-month term.