A family of racoons visiting my front yard last summer

Renton is one of several suburban cities that has been warned about a distemper outbreak spread by racoons. Keep your pet food inside, your garbage cans covered, and stay a safe distance from urban wildlife. If you or a pet gets bitten, be sure to seek immediate professional care.

Click here for the story

Olympic Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalist Chad Hedrick

According to this Proctor and Gamble press release , Rentonites have a great opportunity to meet with and even skate with a US Olympic Speed skater this afternoon.

Chad Hedrick will be in town much of the day. Here is his public schedule:

10 a.m. – 11 a.m. – Third Street Safeway; 200 S. 3rd Street, Renton, Washington (with WARM 106.9)

12 p.m. – 1 p.m. – Hyland East Safeway; 4300 N.E. 4th Street; Renton, Washington (with Movin’ 92.5)

Area residents will also be able to meet and skate with Chad, for free, from 2-4 p.m. that afternoon at The Castle Ice Arena in Renton, Washington. WARM 106.9 will be joining Chad again to entertain skaters by playing today’s hits and providing great giveaway items.

I’m posting one last group of photos from our trip to Japan (which ended 12 day ago). This group of photos features a suspended monorail, which whisks commuters and tourists around Chiba Japan in suspended coaches four stories above city streets.

All the pictures below that look like aerial shots are taken from this monorail. For those familiar with Disneyland, this monorail reminded me of the Peter Pan ride.

We also met up with a very good friend of our family, a former exchange student whose older sister was also an exchange student…our family’s first exchange student in 2001. Both sisters made it to Seattle again for our daughter Katie’s wedding four years ago. If you are in the right situation, I strongly recommend you consider hosting an exchange student sometime in your life. You can learn so much, and the friendships you gain are life-long. I still keep in touch with a friend in Sweden who lived with my birth family for a year when I was a kid.

View through front window of suspended monorail (the drivers hand can be seen on the left)

Typical aerial view of the city from the suspended monorail

Iliana and Eric Sach, co-owners of the Balanced Athlete; they had just completed the 12K run at the Landing when I took this picture

They stock lot’s of Keen shoes; my wife says this brand is her favorite for active active days. I’ll need to give them a try.

The Balanced Athlete has opened a new location at the Landing, just in time for today’s block party and 12 K and 5 K runs.

The Balanced Athlete is owned by two athletes who are intimately familiar with the gear they sell; as runners themselves, they know proper gear. The store offers free treadmill and video foot and shoe analysis, and training advice. They can show you how to decrease injuries and run with less effort.

They will also offer group runs, to help make your training fun and motivating. Their group runs are Tuesday and Thursday at 6PM, from 2-6 miles, and Sunday at 8 AM, from 4 – 20 miles.

Be sure to stop in to say hello to Eric, Iliana, and their friendly staff, and welcome them to Renton. Take time to browse the merchandise in their bright and beautiful new store.

My youngest and oldest children, Susie and Katie, pose with Susie’s birthday cake. Our girls are like the “bookends” on our brood, with three boys in between them. This year Susie reached half of Katie’s age.

The strawberry birthday cake reminded me of the one that the Mayor of Nishiwaki suprised Susie with two years ago, when Susie celebrated her birthday with our sister city in Japan.

Click here for that photo

For almost 20 years, Renton has had the privilege to be home to the Northwest Mountain Region office of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA.) It’s been a great partnership. Their current home is on Lind Avenue, across the street from Wizards of the Coast.

Now, following tremendous growth in aviation over the past two decades, FAA has outgrown their existing facilities. They are looking for a place to expand.

Our economic development specialists have worked with local landowners to identify for FAA ten possible sites in Renton that we feel would be excellent locations for their new Northwest-Mountain Headquarters building.

The FAA is a very important employer in Renton, as they currently provide almost 1500 high-quality aviation jobs in our community. In their new headquarters building, this number is likely to increase to almost 2000. They are currently our city’s fourth largest employer.

The FAA also attracts engineers, mechanics and business owners from all over the Northwest and Rocky Mountain states (Washington, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado) for prolonged business visits related to work on their airplane projects. Many of these visitors stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants, adding even more to our jobs and city tax base. The local FAA office also host national meetings and conferences related to their leadership role in commercial jet transportation (in aviation language, they are the home of the national Transport Airplane Directorate).

We strongly desire to keep them in Renton.

Here are the sites that have been suggested to the FAA:

• The FAA Building: Current home of the nearly 200,000 square-foot FAA Northwest Mountain Regional Office at 1600 Lind Avenue Southwest. Expansion is possible there.

• Southport: 17.5 acres at 1087 Lake Washington Boulevard N. on Lake Washington.

• Lakeshore Landing: 16 acres (total 21 acres) of Boeing property at Park Avenue North and North Eighth Street.

• Sunset Bluffs: 36 acres on State Route 900/Southwest Sunset Boulevard on northwest corner of Renton’s valley office and industrial area.

• Hawk’s Landing: 7.2 acres at 4350 Lake Washington Boulevard N., near the Seahawks’ headquarters.

• Former Sound Ford property: 8.4 acres at 750 Rainier Ave. S.

• Stoneway: 14 acres on Maple Valley Highway (former Stoneway concrete plant).

• Triton Towers expansion: 21.6 acres on South Grady Way at Renton Village.

• Longacres Office Park: 12 acres of Boeing property at Southwest 27th Street, visible from I-405.

• Regal East Valley Theaters: 12.3 acres at 3751 E. Valley Road.

You can read some more about this competition in this Renton Reporter article

Commander Paul Cline 425-430-7597 October 29, 2009

Renton Police Department
Media Release

The Renton Police Department is investigating two separate Armed Robberies that occurred at “Simply Espresso” located at 401 Airport Way N in the City of Renton.

1st Incident: October 1, 2009 at 11:48 a.m. Suspect approached on foot and ordered a drink. When given his drink he implied a weapon in his pocket and demanded money from the register. After receiving the money the suspect fled on foot. The suspect was described as a W/M, early 30s, 6’0 / thin build with Brown mid-length hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, zip-up fleece like sweatshirt with a Puma logo, a black hat and sunglasses.

2nd Incident: October 20, 10:44 a.m. Suspect approached the Simply Espresso stand on foot, displayed a handgun and demanded all the money in the register. After receiving the money he fled on foot. The suspect was described as a W/M 30-35, 6’0 / thin build, unshaven with reddish facial hair and having collar length dark brown hair. He was wearing a green CAMO coat over a grey hoody, a black baseball cap, and dark sunglasses.

The second Robbery was captured on video and still photos from that video are attached to this Press Release.

The Renton Police Department is asking assistance in identifying the suspect in these photos. Anyone who believes they can identify the suspect or has any other information about these Robberies is asked to call 9-1-1 or the Renton Police Department at (425) 430-7500. If you see this suspect or know who this suspect is DO NOT attempt to contact him as he is considered Armed and Dangerous.

Commander Paul Cline
Patrol Operations Division
Renton Police Department