100th birthday marked in Monroe

Pearl White’s 100th birthday is to be celebrated at 10 a.m. today at the East County Senior Center, 276 Sky River Parkway in Monroe.

White is a volunteer and community activist who helped start the Sky Valley Food Bank.

Monroe museum offers regular hours

The Western Heritage Center Interactive Museum at the east end of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays starting Wednesday.

The museum hasn’t offered regular hours until this week. Volunteers have given generously of their time to create displays.

“We’ve got old monkey wrenches on the wall,” volunteer Steve Rizzo said in a June 15 story. “We are filling every nook and cranny. A big part of the center will be seeing how things work. We always want motion, movement.”

Council to discuss Eastgate proposal

The groundwork for a new retail development similar to the Mill Creek Town Center is expected to be discussed during a City Council study session at 6 tonight at City Hall, 15728 Main St.

City planners want to see the development built on a strip of land along 132nd Street SE, east of 35th Avenue SE and west of Seattle Hill Road. They envision a mix of businesses and housing, integrated with surrounding neighborhoods.

A new road may be built through the site — where a Wal-Mart is being planned — possibly with traffic signals on 132nd Street SE and Seattle Hill Road.

Storefronts at Eastgate Way would face inward toward the new road, like at the Mill Creek Town Center.

Before anything can happen, the city must amend its comprehensive plan and add a zoning that allows for mixed-use growth. The site is currently zoned for commercial business.

Correction

Robert Pennington, 22, of Mukilteo remains a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, with the rank of private. A headline over a story on Page A1 Saturday about Pennington’s return to Mukilteo misstated his status in the Marines. Pennington was ordered released from custody in August after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy to murder in the killing of an Iraqi citizen in Hamdania, Iraq, in 2006. Pennington’s sentence and status as a Marine are being reviewed.

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