North Cascades Highway opens a month early
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, April 8, 2004
MAZAMA – The North Cascades Highway reopened at 10 a.m. Thursday, almost a month earlier than usual.
The opening follows last year’s earliest closing of the highway – Oct. 17 – since it first opened in 1973. October flooding throughout the 47-mile mountain pass forced the early closure.
The highway from Mazama to Newhalem closes each winter due to avalanche danger, and it usually takes road workers about two months to clear snow from the road each spring. This year, crews finished the job in one month because workers had only half as much snow as usual to clear.
Wenatchee World
Woodinville: City drops its Brightwater appeal
Construction of the Brightwater sewage treatment facility north of Woodinville is closer after the city dropped an appeal of King County’s environmental studies of the project. An agreement between King County, which is seeking to build the plant off Highway 9, and Woodinville will codify certain conditions for the plant that the city had been seeking. The plant is planned for unincorporated Snohomish County just outside the city limits, so Woodinville has had no review authority over the project prior to the agreement.
King County Journal
Westport: Teen dies after car flips on beach
A 17-year-old from Grayland is the second motorist to die on a Washington state beach this week. The Washington State Patrol said Jerome Lee Green died Wednesday after the vehicle he was driving flipped while Green was cutting doughnuts in the sand here. Three other teenagers in the vehicle, all from Westport, were injured and transported to Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen for treatment. Travis J. Lejeune, 22, of Shelton, died early Sunday in Ocean Shores. He had been riding in the bed of a truck that rolled over while attempting the tight circles. The driver in that case was arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide.
Associated Press
Sequim: Cougar killed near residential area
An officer from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife shot and killed a cougar near the Dungeness Fish Hatchery. Officer Paul Mosman said a family out walking spotted the cougar Tuesday evening. Mosman summoned a houndsman, the houndsman’s dog tracked the cougar scent and treed the 80-pound female cat about a mile from a residential area. Law enforcement and Fish and Wildlife agents had received a number of reports of cougar sightings in the area. Two girls said they were forced to jump into the Dungeness River in January to escape a cougar that was following them.
Associated Press
Wenatchee: Legion member parks in hall
A 50-year member of the American Legion drove his pickup into the group’s North Wenatchee Avenue building Tuesday afternoon, punching a gaping hole in the wall. Tom Pattison, 76, said he was on his way into the Legion hall for happy hour to have a Coke and socialize. He said he’d just bought the used Chevy 1500 pickup the day before. Pattison, a retired Chelan County PUD dispatcher and Navy veteran from Wenatchee, was not injured in the crash.
Wenatchee World
Tacoma: Teacher
attacked at university
A University of Puget Sound teacher was attacked after stopping to talk to a man he had seen waiting in a campus hall for about an hour. The man fled after grabbing the teacher and punching him Tuesday, police said. The teacher approached the man in the main second-floor foyer of Thompson Hall. The man asked several questions about the building and university before hitting the unidentified teacher, who suffered minor injuries. Police and school officials searched the campus but did not find the attacker.
Associated Press
