Local Briefly

Published 9:51 pm Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Forest Service headquarters moves to Everett

EVERETT — The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest headquarters has a new home.

This week the office, which monitors the forest that stretches from the Canadian border to Mount Rainier National Park, moved from Mountlake Terrace to the Wall Building in downtown Everett.

The move will save the shrinking agency $145,000 per year, said Allen Gibbs, a Forest Service spokesman.

Nearly 40 people this week are emptying boxes, setting up their desks and trying to figure out how to work their new phones. It’s a significantly smaller staff than the 121 Forest Service workers who moved into the Mountlake Terrace building in 1990.

Edmonds: Garbage truck damaged in fire

Fire destroyed the cab of a commercial garbage truck Tuesday, officials said.

A hot engine sparked the blaze about 12:30 p.m. in the 7800 block of 196th Street SW, Edmonds fire inspector Mike Smith said.

The driver tried to put the blaze out with an extinguisher, Smith said, but the fire was too hot.

Crews arrived and quickly put out the fire, he said.

No one was hurt.

Lynnwood: Coach not allowed out of jail

A former youth coach accused of sexually abusing children will not be allowed to go to his grandfather’s funeral on Friday, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Andrew Lee Kortegard, 32, of Lynnwood, is being held on $500,000 bail charged with one count of second-degree child rape of a boy he allegedly recruited through his coaching. His Everett lawyer, Mark Mestel, went to court Thursday seeking a several-hour release from jail for Kortegard so he could attend the funeral.

Deputy prosecutor Mark Roe argued against release, partly because Kortegard had access to a large number of guns in his home and threatened suicide when he was arrested in March.

Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer denied the temporary release.

From Herald staff reports