Written by Alcohol and speed are to blame in this deadly crash on Talbot Hill.
Photo from KIRO TV…see link below
KIRO TVs website has detailed coverage, with photos. Click Here.
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Passenger killed in Renton when SUV hits apartment building on Talbot Hill
Update on council-member appointment process
Marcie Palmer and I have spoken recently about the council appointment process. (Marcie will be Council President when the council makes this appointment, and I will be President Pro-Tem, so we are coordinating on a preferred approach)
Marcie has informed me that our city attorney has determined that, contrary to his preliminary assessment on the matter, Benson Hill residents WOULD theoretically be eligible for appointment after that are annexed on March 1. The new understanding is that for newly annexed areas the 1-year city residency requirement does not apply (as long as they have lived in the annexed area for the previous year.) However, city policy prescribed timelines would have us fill this position in January, and we are probably going to adhere to those unless there is a groundswell of support to deviate. Several citizens have pointed out that North and South Renton, West Hill, Rolling Hills, and other parts of Renton are currently not home to council members either, so it would not be fair to only consider an applicant from Benson Hill. And holding up appointments to get a Benson Hill applicant into the mix could put the final review process would give us another month or two with a missing council member, which becomes questionable policy-wise. We’ve not made a final decision, but I think we are pushing for a January appointment.
Marcie and I have also spoken about the tentative time-line I published earlier, which was developed by our city attorney and our City’s Chief Administrator. After further review, we think we can shorten the process by a week or two, which would have us choosing an applicant in about mid-January.
Marcie and I want to hold a meeting with our attorney and chief administrator to firmly nail down a schedule, which we can then formally advertise to all interested parties. Meanwhile, many people have already expressed interest, and all of you (that the council knows about) will be notified of the formal application process.
The way things are shaping up, I expect to see somewhere around 8 to 12 strong applicants for this open position….maybe more.
Finally, I want to mention to applicants and potential applicants that Marcie and I felt it would be best if we decline one-on-one invitatations to meet with you at this time. While you are kind to offer to help us get to know you better, and we know your intentions are admirable, it could be perceived as unfair for those unable to get on our calenders. Furthermore, if you met with a majority of us, it might get close to the type of issue that Dan Clawson is alleging (falsely!) in his lawsuit.
If you have questions for me, please feel free to leave them as comments below, and I will try to get back to you quickly. As always, you can also email me and my council colleages at city hall, but going to www.rentonwa.gov.
By guest contributer Rose McMayhem; Another perspective on Christmas
I wasn’t raised in a church, and certainly didn’t lament this decision; friends who had to be picked up early on Sunday after spending the night found no envy from me. My parents- raised in low-intensity Christian households- were lax churchgoers in their younger lives; they were married in a church but had few close ties to it. When the time came to decide whether they’d impose religion upon their offspring, they declined to do so.
I liked the idea of believing in god when I was young, but beyond that didn’t give it much thought. I was more prone to telling wishes to my worry dolls and leaving them under my pillow than turning to prayer. In high school, I realized that the whole concept of religion didn’t make sense to me. By college, I was certain there was no creator.
Some people might think my absence of faith molded me into a heartless heathen; some might even accuse my parents of denying me a relationship with god- neither is true. My life is guided by a set of values that I think anyone would agree are fair and decent: I’m a loving sister, daughter, and girlfriend who values kindness and endeavors to treat others with respect. I’m also certain that regardless of my parents’ decision, by virtue of who I am I would’ve come to the same conclusion about religion, so their actions are without fault.
Whether or not you agree with my standpoint is immaterial. If others choose to believe in a deity, I have no desire to take that away from them. I am not here to debate truth and reality, as there’s no end to that maelstrom; I’m here only to comment on my experience as a nonbeliever during the holiday season and to enlighten anyone who thinks it means nothing to me.
What I have chosen to believe clearly does not exactly jibe with the Reason for the Season. This wasn’t something I ever found particularly hypocritical until my boyfriend, a long-lapsed Catholic, brought it to my attention. When he gave up religion, he gave up everything that went along with it- including Christmas. As a result, he thinks it’s silly for non-religious families to participate in Christmas. This is a sentiment that I understand, but do not entirely agree with- it’s a logical conclusion, but not a necessary one. Having spent each December 25th of my life gathered around a Christmas tree with my immediate family, I’m not inclined to forfeit the tradition, rational though it may be to do so- and the reason is that while Christmas holds absolutely no religious meaning for me personally, I very much enjoy it on a social scale.
Heresy, right? Not quite. Just because I don’t celebrate Jesus’ birthday doesn’t mean I don’t still enjoy the holiday and hold it up as a unique occasion to gather with loved ones. It doesn’t mean that the whole extended, secular family doesn’t come over to exchange gifts, have dinner, and enjoy each others’ company, and it certainly doesn’t mean that I’m devoid of morals or have a spiritual hole in my life. This time of year is important and special to us, even if we don’t sing hymns- the scope may be a little bit different, but the main ingredients are still there. It’s the one day a year that nearly everything shuts down and we spend the day lazing about near the fireplace, drinking coffee with Bailey’s and enjoying our new sweaters. And leading up to that day, everyone is so damned nice. People are more prone to get along with each other at this time of year, and how is THAT not worth the celebration?
It’s like Garfield said: “It’s not the giving. It’s not the getting. It’s the loving.” I’m on board with that sentiment 100%, and even without a supreme being to guide my way, there’s plenty of love given and received among my family at Christmas.
By the way, I have no desire to campaign for calling Christmas trees “holiday trees” in an attempt to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy. That’s a load of crap to me, watering down belief systems for public consumption- there are too many different facets of society to be able to please every one of them, so just call the damn thing what it is. Inclusion of everyone doesn’t work on this scale, and to force it just pisses off the people who are having their traditions stepped on.
So I hope that those of you celebrating next week with Jesus’ birthday in mind aren’t bothered that plenty of us have co-opted the holiday with little religious basis, but as far as the spirit of the season goes, we’re right there with you cherishing our family and friends. Have a merry Christmas, whatever you believe in.
Rose McMayhem
New website for the Landing; Latest list of tenants
A new website for the Landing has been unveiled, with all new renderings, lists of businesses, information on hours, etc. Check it out!
Note that the new web address is at The Landing IN Renton
Update on I-405 Repair; right lane open next week, cost is 7 million dollars
Subject: Fwd: I-405 Culvert Repair — status
Mayor and Full Council, for your information
>>> Peter Hahn 12/18/2007 4:56 PM >>>
Transportation Committee:
This is a followup to a conversation Marcie and I had around noon today.
We met with WSDOT today and we have this to report:
There are two parts to the repair: the temporary repair and the permanent one.
The temporary one is intended to handle any more severe rain fall in the next several months. It consists of the installation of 3 – 24 inch pipes to convey water, plus 15 pumps and generators. This work is supposed to be completed before year’s end, or even slighly sooner (no one is eager to work over Christmas).
The permanent replacement of the 48 inch culvert will be designed and awarded before the end of January with completion by end of March.
The estimated cost is $5 million for the permanent, and $2 million + $250,000 in equipment rental for the temporary.
WSDOT does not anticipate a lot of lane closure after this week and very little thereafter.
Peter
Peter Hahn
Deputy Administrator
Planning, Building, Public Works
City of Renton
The US Supreme Court agrees to review punctuation….oh, and gun ownership too
The New York Times ran an interesting opinion piece about the Supreme Court’s agreement to review the Second Amendment for the first time in 70 years. All parties are hanging their arguements on what our founding fathers meant with their punctuation. (I don’t know what the court would do with a typical text message today.)
Obviously, any change in the meaning of this amendment could have far-reaching ripple-down effects in all fifty states and countless cities and counties (depending on what voters wanted.)
Click Here for the story
Santa stopped by Maplewood Golf and Country Club
The large aerospace company I work for hosted a great office party for our organization at Renton’s own Maplewood Golf and Country Club. Here is a nice picture of me and my wife visiting with Santa at the event.
You heard it from Karolyn Grimes, of Carnation: “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings”
My wife and daughter talked me into accompanying them to the Seattle Woman’s show last year. While they really had fun, and I found most of it moderately interesting, there was one definite highlight for me. We ran across Karolyn Grimes, a Carnation resident who had the most famous line in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Now a youngish-seeming grandmother, she remains recognizable at Zu Zu, and she is wonderfully willing to share about making the movie. She told me her strongest memory was of Jimie Stewert carrying her down the stairs on the set of the old house. At 6′ 3″, Stewart was soooo tall, she said, and he would hold her high up near his shoulders, making her feel like she was way up in the air. She also said she remembers him being very friendly and warm to everyone.
Here is a picture she signed for us.
If you go to This Website you can learn more about Karolyn Grimes and see pictures of her today.
Great time to purchase your first home! Potential buyers– now’s the time to talk with an agent!
If you have been hoping to land your first home in the Renton real estate market, now might be a really good time to see what you can purchase. Renton has some really great real estate brokers and some excellent local lending institutions, and they would all like to help you purchase your first home. They can also tell you about what assistance programs are available for first-time buyers….you may be very pleasantly surprised.
With inventory of homes-for-sale up, and interest rates headed down, we may not see conditions this good for first-time buyers again for a long time.
Many people are a little spooked by real estate across the nation right now, as banks are struggling with “sub-prime” mortgages, where they lent money to borrowers at initial teaser below-marker interest rates; then, when these interest rates climbed to market value (in two to five years usually), some borrowers could not afford the payments. Meanwhile, if their house value had remained flat, or even dropped, some buyers were defaulting on the loans. This has created a great number of foreclosures nationally, and spooked some investors about real estate. But, it also creates an opportunity for new first-time buyers, as long as you get a loan that you will be able to afford in the long term. With home prices depressed right now, and interest rates headed down, you may be pleasantly surprised in what you can buy.
Good luck!
Read an article from today’s Seattle Times about the “buyer’s marker” in Renton and elsewhere…. CLICK HERE
Email from Police Chief Milosevich; Car-pedestrian accident on Duvall Sarturday afternoon
Information from Chief Milosovich about the car-pedestrian accident on Duvall yesterday. The preliminary investigation seems to indicate that a Renton jogger was killed by a car which drifted across the oncoming traffic lanes. Here is the chief’s email, sent to our council inboxes from the field. I’m sure this report is subject to revision as the police interview witnesses and learn more.
From: “Kevin Milosevich” <kmilosevich@ci.renton.wa.us> [ Save Address ]
To: “Clark Wilcox” <cwilcox@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Daniel Clawson” <dclawson@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Denis Law” <dlaw@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Don Persson” <dpersson@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Jay Covington” <jcovington@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Kathy Keolker” <mayorkathy@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Marcie Palmer” <mpalmer@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Randy Corman” <rcorman@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Terri Briere” <tbriere@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Antonette Nelson” <tnelson@ci.renton.wa.us>
Subject: Car-pedestrian accident on Duvall this afternoon
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:36:52 -0800
We are at the scene of what will be a fatality accident on Duvall.
A little different than the two recent accidents.
A jogger was southbound on the east shoulder when the suspect vehicle was
southbound on Duvall.
The vehicle drove gradually across both northbound lanes and struck the jogger
from behind.
The vehicle drove into a ditch, up an embankment and through several sections of
fence before resting on it’s side against a tree.
The driver was injured, and will survive. We are investigating the cause.
Sgt Wilcox will provide additional information later in the evening.
Reminder from Randy, added Dec 17: Until we get more information, we need to presume that this is just a terrible accident of some kind. The police will conduct an extremely thorough investigation, and determine if the driver might have any criminal culpability. Meanwhile, presume innocent of course. (I don’t know any more than what is in this email at this point, but I’ll let you know as soon as the police release a public update)
Plato’s great advice from 2400 years ago; Still applies today!
These are some of my favorites of Plato’s quotes; Renton is not exactly Athens, but the philosophy still seems to apply.
Email from Fred Jarrett; He’s switching from an “R” to a “D”
This news is now a day old, but here is the email I recieved from our 41st District Representative Fred Jarrett. About 1/3 of Rentonites live in the 41st district (Some of Renton Highlands, upper Kennydale).
Missed it by that much. Renton business came SO close to becoming billion dollar enterprise
“Missed it by that much!”
This Renton business was, in my view, and the view of many others, the first social networking site.
I had signed-up on Classmates.com in it’s early years, nearly a decade before I had heard about Myspace or Facebook. I posted a simple but accurate profile, and read some facts about some old and dear high school friends.
Looking back, I think the only flaw in Classmates.com’s plan, that ultimately prevented them growing into a top-visited, billion-dollar enterprise like Facebook or Myspace, was that they charged you a couple bucks a month if you wanted to actually contact all the high-school chums that you found on their site. I chose not to pay it. I didn’t trust online credit-card transactions very much at the time, and I decided my friends could find me through other public channels…I thought, “why sign up for another recurring cost?”
Thus, when MySpace, Facebook, and Livejournal came on the scene, and offered to link you for free so long as you did not mind ads scrolling around on the side bars, the critical mass flocked to these other sites.
This one business detail, which is much easier seen with 20/20 hindsight, possibly stopped Renton from hatching a huge Social Networking empire to accompany our jet aircraft empire and truck-making empire. Bummer.
Maybe it’s not too late. After all, Classmates.com has shown some staying power…it is one of the few companies that survived the internet bubble burst six years ago. And it sounds like finance experts are still valuing it above $100 million dollars, something anyone could be very proud of.
What do you web-savvy readers think… if Classmates.com revamped their business strategy right now, could they still be a contender for a significant position in the social networking world? Could a Renton start-up still scrap and fight its way to the top of the social networking charts? Or is it simply too late?
Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse
Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse, which started in Renton and then spawned a new Federal Way restaurant, was just reviewed by the Tacoma News Tribune. While the Federal Way restaurant was the one critiqued, my personal observations are that the write-up and recommendation seems equally valid for the original restaurant here in Renton (On SW 7th Stree, near Walmart.) If you have not tried it yet, you should go for a visit. While we have many excellent restaurants in Renton, Jimmy Mac’s remains one of my favorites.
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