On July 7, the State Court of Appeals ruled that King County’s land clearing regulations amount to an “in kind indirect tax, fee or charge on new development.”

The regulations, part of the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO), were passed by a 7-6 margin along party lines in a midnight session of the King County Council in October of 2004. They limited rural landowners with five acres of property to clearing only 35 percent of their property, requiring them to set aside the remaining 65 percent of their land as native vegetation.

Staff photo/June Collins-McKiernan, assisted by John Wardell
Members of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Orchestra practiced last week at Pop Keeney Field in Bothell.

Three Woodinville High School grads and a large contingent of Inglemoor High School students have left for Beijing. They’re members of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Orchestra that will be playing prior to and during the upcoming Summer Games.

Desiree Decker (’05), Natalie Hussman (’05) and Maddie Rauzi (’06), who are all University of Washington students and members of the Husky Marching Band, are among the 643 participants in the U.S. contingent of the orchestra.

Courtesy photo
Ken Kosters, Chris White and Mim Vermeulen stand amongst the garden bounty at Carnation Farm.

Organic produce stand will open August 7

Camp Korey is now the official owner of the Carnation Farm property and with that has inherited 259 acres of organic farmland.

Last March, in preparation of the purchase, longtime employees Mim Vermeulen, Chris White and Ken Kosters designed and planted a half-acre plot of all natural produce to share with the campers. Campers have the opportunity to spend time in the garden before breakfast and pick the vegetables served each day in the salad bar.

Sitting in a café in Paris, France in 1930, you may have heard the lively guitar and violin music of Django Reinhardt.

That musical tradition, known as Gypsy jazz, is captured by Hot Club Sandwich who will be performing at SummerStage on August 13th.

Hot Club Sandwich is well known on the Seattle Gypsy jazz scene. The acoustic sextet has three guitars, upright bass, violin and mandolin and plays jazz inspired by the hot jazz and swing of the ’20s – ’40s that was popular in Europe and America.

It all started when Quilter’s Garden owner Diane Baker had a sudden flashback during a recent chamber of commerce meeting.

She was listening, she said, to Mayor Will Ibershof speaking about the upcoming reconstruction of Main Street in Historic Duvall and that he was open to any ideas on how to encourage people to continue to shop downtown, since, he said, there may be times when the sidewalks are torn up and the stores may be unaccessible.

Tori Dillon, a 2005 Cedarcrest graduate, was seriously injured July 3rd when she was riding her motorcycle in Lake Tahoe. According to her friend, Kimberly Sawtelle, an accident caused Tori to be thrown into the oncoming traffic lane where she was run over by a Chevy Avalanche truck.

Tori was airlifted to a Reno hospital with multiple injuries, included a broken pelvis, broken left hip, fractured right hip, ruptured spleen, and internal bleeding. She went through two surgeries and more may be needed. Her recovery time is expected to be 12 - 16 months. She is currently confined to a wheelchair and will be unable to work.

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network is proud to announce the 2008 Key Leaders Summit, to be held at The Grange Café on Main Street in Duvall on Monday, August 11th from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network, Snoqualmie Hospital, and friends are pleased to sponsor this retreat for community leaders to promote health and well-being.