Author: Kim Kalliber

Local police departments introduce ‘Business Watch’

Kirk BoxleitnerMarysville Police Chief Rick Smith hopes the ‘Business Watch’ program, in partnership with the Tulalip Tribal Police Department, will help area merchants and retailers safeguard themselves from crime.
Kirk Boxleitner
Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith hopes the ‘Business Watch’ program, in partnership with the Tulalip Tribal Police Department, will help area merchants and retailers safeguard themselves from crime.

Kirk Boxleitner, The Marysville Globe

TULALIP — Members of the Marysville and Tulalip Tribal police departments introduced their “Business Watch” program to the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce on Friday, May 31, but while they pledge to provide resources and consultation to the program, they made clear to the Chamber members that the “Business Watch” is the community’s program more than it is the police departments’ program.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world, between difficult fiscal times and manmade and natural disasters,” Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith said. “We hope this will bring some certainty back to your lives.”

“As the primary law enforcement for Quil Ceda Village, I understand the importance of business to the community as a whole,” Tulalip Tribal Police Deputy Chief Carlos Echevarria said.

Recently promoted Marysville Police Lt. Mark Thomas, whom Smith touted as a creative people-person, presented the bulk of the program, which he compared to the Marysville Volunteers Program of the Marysville Police Department.

“Perfection is unattainable, but in its pursuit, we find excellence,” Thomas said. “Every good police officer has the goal of driving crime down far enough to put himself out of a job. Realistically, that’s not attainable, but we do excellent work by pursuing that goal.”

To that end, the Business Watch program is designed to work by encouraging businesses to focus on ways they can safeguard themselves from being victimized by crime, with credit card fraud, forgery and shoplifting ranking along the primary illegal perils that they face.

“The Business Watch will never be made into a Hollywood action film,” Thomas laughed. “It’s a coalition of individuals who get together to take care of simple things that might make them vulnerable. Shoplifting alone costs retailers more than $13 billion a year.”

Not only will Business Watches run on the partnerships between businesses, and between businesses and their respective police departments, but Thomas also encouraged Business Watches to forge partnerships with the school district and community service organizations.

“It’s a platform to help teach merchants to crime-proof their own properties, watch over their neighbors’ property, and report and document any suspicious behavior,” Thomas said. “The Business Watch philosophy is straightforward; take control of what happens in your community, and lessen your chances of becoming a victim.”

Among the habits that Thomas identified as contributing to successful groups, Thomas advised Business Watch members to promote communication between law enforcement and business, encourage cooperation among merchants and offer training to their employees.

Thomas broke down the process of creating a Business Watch into five steps, starting with forming a committee to list potential problems in their area, followed by involving law enforcement.

“We can provide training and data on what kinds of crimes are common to your areas, so that you can focus your resources properly,” Thomas said. “From there, you should conduct a survey of your fellow businesses, to identify the issues that you face and establish your common interests.”

According to Thomas, every Business Watch should be launched with a kickoff event, lasting about 45 minutes at a place and time that’s convenient for everyone, after which the Business Watch’s first official meeting should include plenty of questions and answers, to ensure that all of its participants are getting what they want out of the group.

“The difference between a good idea and a great idea is follow-through,” Thomas said. “We can provide you with the tools, but it’s not our place to go out and impose a Business Watch on you. You guys have to pull that together yourselves.”

For more information, contact Thomas at 360-363-8321 or mthomas@marysvillewa.gov, Echevarria at 360-716-4608 or cechevarria@tulaliptribalpolice.org, or Business Watch Coordinator Bob Rise at 360-363-8325 or mvp@marysvillewa.gov.

Five Creative Ways to Use Containers in Your Landscape

Patio container gardenBy Melinda Myers

Container gardens have long been used to add a spot of color by a fron Container gardens have long been used to add a spot of color by a front entrance or expand planting space in city lots, balconies and decks.  Don’t let past experience and tradition limit your vision.  Try one or more of these attractive, fun and functional ways to include containers in your landscape, large or small.

Add vertical interest to any garden or garden space.  Select a large attractive container filled with tall plants like papyrus and canna.  Or elevate a small pot on steppers or an overturned pot for added height.  Create height with smaller pots and plants by strategically stacking and planting them into a creative planting.  Try setting any of these planters right in the garden to create a dramatic focal point.

Create a privacy screen or mask a bad view.  Use an arbor or other support for hanging baskets and then place a few containers below for an attractive screen.  Or create a garden of containers to provide seasonal interest using a variety of plants. Use trees, shrubs, and ornamental grasses for height.  Save money by purchasing smaller plants.  Elevate these on overturned pots for added height and impact.  Mask the mechanics by wrapping the pots in burlap.  Then add a few colorful self-watering pots in the foreground for added color and beauty.  Fill these with annuals or perennials for additional seasonal interest.

Bring the garden right to your back door for ease of harvest and added entertainment.  A self-watering patio planter, windowbox, or rail planter reduces maintenance and makes harvesting herbs as easy as reaching out the window or backdoor.  Plus, guests will have fun harvesting their own fresh mint for mojitos or greens for their salads

Define outdoor living spaces within your landscape.  Use containers as walls and dividers to separate entertaining and play areas from quiet reflective spaces.  And consider using pots with built in casters or set them on moveable saucers to make moving these pots easier.  This way you can expand and shrink individual spaces as needed simply by moving the pots.

Create your own vacation paradise.  Use planters filled with cannas, bananas, palms and New Zealand flax for a more tropical flare.  Add some wicker furniture to complete the scene.  Or fill vertical gardens, an old child’s wagon, metal colander or wooden and concrete planters with cacti and succulents.  Add some old branches and large stones. You’ll feel as though you’ve hiked into the desert.

All you need is a bit of space and creativity to find fun new ways to put containers to work for you in the garden this season.

Gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening.  She hosts The Great Courses How to Grow Anything DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment segments which air on over 130 TV and radio stations throughout the U.S.  She is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and writes the twice monthly “Gardeners’ Questions” newspaper column. Melinda also has a column in Gardening How-to magazine.  She has a master’s degree in horticulture, is a certified arborist and was a horticulture instructor with tenure.  Her web site, www.melindamyers.com, offers gardening videos, podcasts, garden tips and more.

 

Puget Sound Gets Troubling Report Card On Sediment Contamination

he Washington Department of Ecology analyzed contamination levels in Puget Sound sediment in 1998 and 2008. The results are concerning. | credit: Department of Ecology |
he Washington Department of Ecology analyzed contamination levels in Puget Sound sediment in 1998 and 2008. The results are concerning. | credit: Department of Ecology |

Do you ever remember getting a bad report card – the kind of report card you’d purposefully leave in the bottom of your backpack, underneath the dirty lunchbox in the hopes that your parents wouldn’t notice it?

Washington Department of Ecology just released that kind of a report card on Puget Sound.

Back in 1998-1999 Ecology sampled the muck at the bottom of Puget Sound from Tacoma up to the southern tip of Whidbey Island. Ten years later they took samples from the same area and then compared the results.

The scientists tested for 133 potentially toxic chemicals including flame retardants, mercury and PCBs:

  • 1998-1999: 4 percent of the study area had contamination levels above the standards.
  • 2008-2009: 11 percent of the study area had contamination levels exceeding the standards. The contaminated area had almost tripled.

Here’s another comparison:

Screen shot 2013-06-04 at 3.04.54 PM

Back in 1998 Ecology judged that invertebrates – like mollusks and worms – were being negatively impacted at 7 percent of the study area.

Ten years later that figure had jumped to 28 percent of the study area.

Chemical contamination near the cities of Seattle and Tacoma showed some improvement.

But overall the report concludes that “the declining sediment quality… seen almost everywhere throughout Puget Sound should be a concern for environmental managers.”

Chinook Tribal Council Makes Ancestral Canoe Journey

Indian Country Today Media Network

From June 9-14 the Chinook Indian Nation Council will travel down the Lower Columbia River Water Trail in traditional canoes. The route, starting from Washougal, Washington will include stops in Kelly Pt. Park, Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, Kalama, Mayger Dock/Clatskanie, Cathlamet, Elliott Landing/Pillar Rock, Ilwaco, and Chinook Point/Fort Columbia.

The Chinook Council consists of nine members: Chairman Ray Gardner, Vice-Chairman Sam Robinson, Secretary/Treasurer Peggy Disney and Representatives Marketa Van Patten, Charlie Funk, Jane Wekell, Lisa Elliott, Jeremy Wekell, and Kate Elliott.

(Chinook Indian Nation/Facebook)
(Chinook Indian Nation/Facebook)

In accompaniment with other Chinooks and friends, the Chinook Council will spend five days and five nights travelling down the Lower Columbia River Water Trail. This will be a celebration of the great river, Yakaitl-Wimakl, which is still home to many Chinooks today. This journey will include the chairman’s family canoe, Itsxut (“Black Bear”), the Snohomish Chairman’s family canoe Sbeqwá (“Blue Heron”), Chinook Dan Heiner’s Canoe the Beau Tanner, and will include long time Chinook friend, Lyle Deschand’s new canoe.

After spending Sunday night in the Cathlapotle plankhouse, the Chinook Council and People will meet up river at the Clark Park in Washougal to conduct a naming ceremony for Deschand’s new canoe. They will then place all the canoes in the water and begin the journey back to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. As the canoes travel down the river, Chinook families will host dinner and provide shelter for the travelers, much in the way of their ancestors.

This week of sharing and commemoration will culminate in paddling down to Chinook Point on Friday afternoon to participate in the private annual Chinook Nation First Salmon Ceremony.

Historical photo, Chinook canoe (Chinook Indian Nation/Facebook)
Historical photo, Chinook canoe (Chinook Indian Nation/Facebook)

The Chinook Indian Nation/Chinook Tribes consist of the Cathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum, and Willapa tribes. Despite being an influential tribe in this region since time immemorial, the U.S. government does not recognize the Chinooks as a tribal nation. The U.S. Senate shelved the 1851 Tansey Point Treaty agreements with the Chinook because they did not move them east of the Cascades. The Chinook continue their fight for federal restoration today.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/05/chinook-tribal-council-makes-ancestral-canoe-journey-149720

Quinault Nation Pushes for Blueback Support

Two engineered logjams with fishermen in boat. The restoration plan for the Upper Quinault River is needed to protect and restore the famed Blueback Salmon population. Will the state do its part? The Quinault Tribal plan for the Upper Quinault River on the Olympic Peninsula applies engineered logjams and floodplain forest restoration methods modeled after natural floodplain forest developmental patterns and river channel habitat forming processes found in river valleys of the west side of the Olympic Mountains. Among other things, the logjams are designed to mimic old growth trees to create and protect river floodplain and side channel salmon habitat and foster the development of mature, self-sustaining conifer floodplain forests.
Two engineered logjams with fishermen in boat. The restoration plan for the Upper Quinault River is needed to protect and restore the famed Blueback Salmon population. Will the state do its part? The Quinault Tribal plan for the Upper Quinault River on the Olympic Peninsula applies engineered logjams and floodplain forest restoration methods modeled after natural floodplain forest developmental patterns and river channel habitat forming processes found in river valleys of the west side of the Olympic Mountains. Among other things, the logjams are designed to mimic old growth trees to create and protect river floodplain and side channel salmon habitat and foster the development of mature, self-sustaining conifer floodplain forests.

TAHOLAH, WA (6/3/13)–Work being done on the Upper Quinault River is a powerful example of environmental stewardship benefiting the economy, and the state legislature needs to step up to support it, says Fawn Sharp, President of the Quinault Indian Nation. “There is interconnection between a healthy environment and a sustainable economy wherever you go, but on the Upper Quinault everything is lined up to truly make a difference,” she said.

In an email letter addressed to Governor Inslee and to all legislators today, Sharp reminded the state’s lawmakers to support a budget proviso for $2.8 million in the Senate Capital Budget which would support ongoing work on the Upper Quinault, and the Tribe has made one of its top priorities (Department of Natural Resources budget, PSSB 5035, New Section 3235).

“This proposal is important to the coastal region in many respects. The investment will be highly job intensive in a region in desperate need of employment opportunities—and those jobs will be sustainable and environmentally friendly,” said Sharp.  One of the primary objectives of the effort is to restore habitat which is key to the survival and restoration of the famed Blueback Salmon population. To date, since the year 2000, the Quinault Tribe has invested more than $5 million in Blueback restoration which includes the upper Quinault River work, lake fertilization, monitoring and supplementation.  The current federal ask is more than $5 million. Of the state request, $2.5 million would be used to install engineered logjams over a five mile stretch of the river and $300,000 would be used for the Lower Queets/Clearwater and Quinault Riparian Forest restoration and enhancement (improvement of riparian forest habitat through invasive species control, instream habitat enhancement, off channel habitat enhancement, and replanting native trees to aid forest regeneration).

“The work being done on this project is highly professional and well engineered. It is the result of government-to-government and tribal and non-tribal coordination. That is another great thing about this effort. We are demonstrating, once again, that things get done when we work together. Everybody stands to benefit and everyone is involved,” said Sharp.

“We have made this request of the legislature several times this session. It is a very reasonable request which will benefit the state and its citizens, economically and environmentally, many times over. Everyone has stepped up to the plate. We’re simply encouraging the state to do the same. Given the unstable nature of the state budget process, we want to impress the importance of this project on the Governor and legislators. This is one they cannot leave behind,” she said.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation published a report, paid for by the Quinault Tribe, in 2005, stating that “the upper Quinault River and its salmon habitats will not heal on their own. Restorative intervention is required.” In response to that conclusion, the great importance of the Blueback Salmon to the Tribe’s culture, heritage and economy, and the inherent risks to continued viability of that species, Quinault produced and published the Salmon Habitat Restoration Plan – Upper Quinault River. The plan is a comprehensive, science-based approach to restore the river, including its floodplains, floodplain forests, and salmon habitat. The plan, which the Tribe and others in the area are following, applies engineered logjams and floodplain forest restoration methods modeled after natural floodplain forest developmental patterns and river channel habitat forming processes found in river valleys of the west side of the Olympic Mountains. Among other things, the logjams are designed to mimic old growth trees to create and protect river floodplain and side channel salmon habitat and foster the development of mature, self-sustaining conifer floodplain forests.

The project areas proposed for use of the funding include approximately 3.6 miles of mainstem river channel and 520 acres of existing floodplain. The project, if funded and constructed in its entirety will yield approximately 7.7 miles of protected and/or restored mainstem river and side channel salmon habitat, approximately 860 acres of new floodplain, and reestablish approximately 537 acres of mixed conifer-deciduous floodplain forest.

“So much is at stake here. Dozens of jobs. Economic stability. Generations of critically important Blueback runs. We truly hope the Governor and legislators are listening,” said Sharp.

 

 

Everett Community College Graduation is June 14

EVERETT, WA – Everett Community College will celebrate graduating students and honor outstanding graduates at the EvCC 2013 Commencement at 7 p.m. June 14 at EvCC’s Student Fitness Center.

Doors open at the Student Fitness Center, 2206 Tower St., at 6 p.m. Admission is by ticket only.

EvCC’s Henry M. Jackson Conference Center will be available as an alternate viewing location for those without tickets. For the first time, graduation will also be streamed live on the web from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. June 14. Go to www.everettcc.edu/graduation and click on watch graduation live.

In 2012-13, more than 2,200 students will graduate from EvCC with a degree or certificate. About 350 students are expected to participate in commencement including student speaker Raven Conyers.

Conyers, a 2011 Cascade High School graduate, was diagnosed with Guillain-Barrè syndrome at age 16. The muscle disorder left her with nerve damage in her hands and feet. Since then, she’s had a strong interest in learning about how the human body works.

At EvCC, Conyers has been involved as a student leader, serving as the Diversity and Intercultural Awareness Coordinator for 2012-13 and as a student senator. She was a member of the Achieve the Dream Start to Finish committee, Student Involvement committee, Awards Banquet committee, Safe Zone committee and Appointment Review committee.

She graduates from EvCC with an associate in arts and sciences degree and is transferring to Washington State University to major in biochemistry and pre-pharmacy with plans to become a pharmacist.

EvCC will also honor 24 outstanding graduates chosen by faculty. (See below).

Outside food and drinks, helium balloons, strollers, car/baby seats, tripods and air horns are not permitted in EvCC’s Student Fitness Center. Limited reserved ADA seating and wheelchair accessible seating will be available. For hearing impaired guests and graduates, sign language interpretation will be provided, and FM machines will be available at the Guest Services Counter at the main entrance.

For more information, visit www.everettcc.edu/graduation or contact Jennifer Rhodes, director of EvCC’s Student Activities Office, at 425-388-9509.

Everett Community College’s 2013 Outstanding Graduates

Faculty members nominate and select outstanding graduates in each of the college’s instructional divisions. Outstanding graduates are recognized with an “Honor for Excellence” gold medallion and a certificate of award.

Maria G. Anakotta, Human Services, Everett
Rachel E. Austin, Adult Ed/Academic Transfer, Everett
Kathy L. Bansen, Medical Transcription, Big Pine Key, Fla.
Jacqueline Nichole Brewer, Early Childhood Education, Snohomish
Aaron Britton, Criminal Justice, Lake Stevens
Charvette Costa, Communications Studies, Marysville
Colby J. Droullard, Social Sciences, Snohomish
Rebecca S. Flippen, Photography, Marysville
Sharlyn K. Galvez, Education, Lake Stevens
Justin W. Gilkison, Manufacturing Tech: CAD, Sultan
Manjeet Singh Hayer, Adult Education, Everett
Karli I. Hesselman, World Languages, Arlington
Jennifer L. Hunsaker, Medical Assisting, Lake Stevens
Dorothyann C. Johnson, English, Everett
Lubna M, Khalfe, Mathematics, Marysville
Kristen J. Marberry, Geology, Lake Stevens
Nicole R. Mather, Accounting, Everett
Kathleen K. McCraw, Medical Coding, Edmonds
Dan A. Radion, Engineering, Arlington
Elizabeth L. Roberts, Business Technology, Mill Creek
Bryant Sales, Studio Arts, Marysville
Matthew W. Spah, Computer Science, Arlington
Adam R. Sylvester, Academic Transfer, Marysville
Kirin M. Vreeland, Pre-Nursing, Everett

PUD reminds customers about potential scams

The Marysville Globe

EVERETT — The Snohomish County PUD is reminding customers about potential scams that aim to steal customers’ identity and bill payment information.

If a PUD customer receives a phone call asking for financial information related to their bill, they should never provide this information. The PUD never calls customers to collect credit card information over the phone. The only time a credit card number is taken over the phone is through an outside bill payment service. In this case, the phone call and payment are initiated by the customer, by calling 1-888-909-4628.

If a customer receives a phone call, supposedly from the utility, and isn’t sure if it actually came from the PUD, they should call PUD Customer Service at 425-783-1000 to verify the information they were given. The PUD representative will be able to tell them whether or not the call was legitimate.

If a person comes to a customer’s home or business claiming to be a PUD employee, the customer should ask to see their PUD identification. Employees carry an ID card with their picture on it, and will gladly show it to customers.