Sewer rates go up again in January – do you know why?

Dear Editor,
 
To flush or not to flush, that is the question this holiday season as the $70/month sewer service begins on Jan 1. It also seems that several more rate increases will follow.
I have a solution!  Let's all call the KING 5 yellow jacket investigators and have them do an audit of the Lake Stevens Sewer district.
How much is the management being paid? How much overtime is being worked?  Could our sewer have been flushed over to Everett instead of building a new plant? 
The KING 5 investigators are really good at their jobs like the waste on the water series, State EBT cards, and working from home for DSHS for three years and getting paid, etc.
What would they find here at the Lake Stevens Sewer? No one knows until things are researched or Lake Stevens Sewer publishes stuff in this paper without asking for a freedom of info request.
 
Brad Thayer
Lake Stevens

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Olympia needs to stop spending and work toward reform

Dear Editor,
 
Once again I am amazed with Hans Dunshee’s disconnect with reality.  His article in the December 7 Journal states we don’t really have a budget problem, we have a jobs problem. 
Well, I must say we do have a budget problem and a big part of it is because our elected officials spent money like there was no tomorrow when the economy was good.  If only our Olympia friends would have shown some restraint and saved some of that money. 
Now, with a bad economy, it appears Mr. Dunshee’s solution is to spend more money on jobs—money we don’t have.  Mr. Dunshee also stated they have to cut $10 billion in spending.  The reality is they have cut $10.5 billion in projected spending. The budget is actually up by $2.5 billion.
Let’s encourage our state representatives to make good decisions that will strengthen our current position so we can move forward.  
 If Mr. Dunshee wants to maintain and increase jobs, let’s look at reforms that would allow this, for example, the recent announcement of the Kimberly-Clark paper mill closing in Everett.  Perhaps if some concessions of regulations were made, the purchase of the mill could have been secured and jobs could have been saved. 
Val Stevens believes “reforms that repeal or reduce burdensome rules and regulations will create a business-friendly climate in our state where private employers can create jobs.  Your taxes should not be used as a ’jobs’ program for more state employees.”(December 8 News letter)
I am aware of people who have turned down jobs because they can make more on unemployment. 
One reform would be to help supplement their income while working instead of them staying home on unemployment.  This would reduce state unemployment spending while allowing the businesses to hire the jobless. 
For Mr. Dunshee to just say we have a jobs problem, he needs to look at the reality of where the money will come from to pay for these jobs?  With this economy, the money is not available for spending!
 
Kory Gunnell
Lake Stevens

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Community supported family in need  — Thank You  Dear Editor,

One year ago this month our family suffered two horrible tragedies, one the death of our two-year-old daughter and then the morning of her funeral our home burned down.
Thanks to our wonderful community of Lake Stevens and a few special people Kim Demary, Michelle Chedester, John Knutsen and family, Fire Station 81 and 82 for helping with our daughter and also responding to our fire, our family survived what is supposed to be a wonderful time for kids and family, but was a tragic holiday.
Thanks to all of our friends who got donations of clothing, new presents for the kids for Christmas, we even had a secret Santa (Andrea), food from the food bank and also a home to come back to as we were completely homeless.
The Chedesters put my husband Mark up in their home for Christmas as myself and eight kids drove to California to stay with family while Mark sorted out things here.
We had people storing food in freezers, churches getting blankets, sheets, cribs and beds for us to sleep in.
We are a foster family who takes in medically fragile infants and we are always used to giving and helping others. Last December we found ourselves struggling and trying to keep things as normal as possible for our children who were upset and confused.
We have adopted three special needs children that cannot handle change and have severe emotional issues.
Little Zoey is struggling with smells, noises such as fire alarms, ambulance sirens and most everything these days.
Thanks to the school district for helping us with the kids when we returned to school and also for them making a special basket this Thanksgiving.
We are struggling to celebrate the holidays, as a year has passed and we have been through a lot. Without our community we could not have made it through this. Words cannot express the gratitude we have for all of you. We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
 
Lori, Mark, Jeremy, John, Joey, Jacob, James, Zoey, Holli and our little peanut (can’t use his name) Bush
Lake Stevens

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Seeking intelligent life

Dear Editor,
 
Even as the enthusiasm of youth gives way to the wisdom of age, I find recent stories on the discovery of a distant planet similar to ours, exciting.
 A spacecraft traveling four times faster than Voyager II could reach the new system in a mere 188,610 years or 4,715 generations. That’s a hefty number considering the Roman Empire destroyed itself in only 30 generations!
 Also, in that time the planet could have been destroyed by some natural disaster. Or, what if we landed during their Jurassic Period? Do T-Rex’s have a preference for light or dark meat?
 Shifting gears for a look at more mundane news.
 Nationally, infants are found in dumpsters, pedophilia runs rampant, parents angry at the state can kill their children to get even, and academic wizards like Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) can share concerns—on TV—that the island of Guam might “tip over” should the Navy station 8,000 sailors there.
 In Kentucky, a pre-teen was suspended from school for singing Christmas carols that mentioned . . . Christ, and, in California, a woman mauled by a mountain lion found residents raising 9.6 times as much money for the lion’s legal fund as they did for her medical care.
 And while the University of Washington once got a federal grant to investigate the industrial uses of slug slime, members of the Seattle school board went brain-dead enough to classify a 2 ½-inch transparent water pistol as a "weapon," suspending its young owner from school!
 Considering the thousands of problems we face, the billions of dollars associated with a trip to the nearest inhabitable planet, and the incidents just mentioned, wouldn’t it be a much better use of our tax dollars to seek out intelligent life on this planet, first?
 
William J. Cook
Lake Stevens

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Firefighters say ‘Thank You’ to Lake Stevens residents for attending Tips for Firefighters

 Dear Editor,

On December 3, Lake Stevens Firefighters held a fundraiser called Tips for Firefighters at Ixtapa Restaurant. The owner Francisco and his staff allowed us to bus tables for extra tips to help buy Christmas presents for needy children in our community. His staff is a well-oiled machine, add a little sand called Firefighters and anything could go wrong. 
The staff did a great job with this gritty inconvenience, and everything ran smoothly from our perspective.  Inside there were Firefighters with their Santa hats working as table hosts and outside there was an engine that kids and parents could tour.
That evening the great community of Lake Stevens came out and supported their kids. The community was very gracious and accommodating to the new Ixtapa staff.
We raised $2,500 in extra tips. The Lake Stevens Firefighter Association donated $1,000, and we received two additional donations after the event of $300.
Our total cash donation for 2011 was $3,800. There was also over $400 in gifts donated.  This year 37 kids in our community will have a Christmas that I hope will be a little more special and one that they will always remember. Words will never convey the gratitude in my heart for the support from this great community. 
I can’t thank Francisco and his staff enough for allowing us to use his restaurant, for his generous donation, and for feeding our crew after a long evening. Francisco and his staff are awesome!
I would also like to thank the men and women of Lake Stevens Fire.  Thank you to those who came in on their off time to work in the restaurant and those who were on duty and greeted customers outside and collected tons of presents that were donated—in between responding on emergency calls. With out you all, this would not have been such a great success!
There are still kids in our community that need your help. Christmas is all about the kids and that’s what makes Christmas so special. If you would like to help out, contact the Lake Stevens Family Center, and our many service organizations. As a community of caring citizens, the community of greater Lake Stevens is a wonderful place to live and raise our children.
Thank you all so very much!

Pat Cook, Firefighter
Lake Stevens Fire
Local 3235

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LSHS food drive a success

Dear Editor,

I just wanted to take the time to thank all of you for your support of the annual LSHS “Adopt a Family” Food Drive this year. We all raised 48,185 food items, which is absolutely remarkable.
At LSHS, students made over 300 boxes of food for local families for the holiday season. In addition to that over 25,000 cans of food was donated to the Lil’ Hungry Hearts program.
A huge thank you to the Lake Stevens Safeway and the Lake Stevens Haggens for partnering with Lake Stevens High School. The staff of those stores was simply amazing to work with and they played an integral part in the success of the food drive.
Additionally, a thank you to the Lake Stevens Albertsons and Snohomish Station for participating in the drive as well.
A big thank you to Rodger Anderson, Kathy Hahn, Scott Flanders, Andy Knutson, Suzanne Kerker and Jim Willie for helping to sort and box the food.
There were also hundreds of students that collected at neighborhoods, stood outside of stores for donations, boxed and sorted the food in the cafeteria—so thank you to you all.
Lastly, the biggest thank you of all is to the Lake Stevens community. Without the support of the community the food drive would not have been as successful as it was.
I was born and raised in Lake Stevens and it really is amazing to see the support of the Lake Stevens community. Whether it is through decorating your neighborhoods to show support of the football team or donating hundreds of cans of food to the students, the people of Lake Stevens are always supportive.
It really makes me appreciate the great community we have and the outstanding citizens that live in it. The students at Lake Stevens could not have achieved their goal without so thank you. It is moments like this that make me proud to be a Viking!

Joe Cronin
Leadership Teacher at LSHS
 

 

 

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