Briefs

Ceremony planned

for Olympic Beach

The city of Edmonds will have a celebration marking the completion of the new Olympic Beach bulkhead and to accept a new sculpture for the area at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14.

The project replaced the decayed wooden timber walls with new bulkheads and created a new walkway along the water’s edge in the central portion of the city’s waterfront park system. Construction took place beginning in May of this year.

At the south end of Olympic Beach Park a series of water steps and an ADA-compliance ramp slopes to provide access to the beach. Benches placed along the waterfront path were purchased as part of the city’s gifts program.

The Edmonds Art Festival Foundation, a long-standing private non-profit foundation that supports arts in the community, will dedicate a gift of sculpture created by Richard Beyer titled “Seeing Whales.” The piece depicts a multi-generational family who gather together along the water’s edge to delight in the sighting of whales passing by the Edmonds shoreline along Puget Sound.

New fire station

to be dedicated

The city of Edmonds invites the public to join in the grand opening and dedication of Fire Station 16 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19 at the station, 8429 196th Street SW.

Mayor Gary Haakenson, City Council president Dave Earling and Fire Chief Tom Tomberg will speak at 5 p.m. A special ecumenical blessing for the firegfighters and the new station will be given.

The station, which has been occupied since early October, is approximately 10,000 square feet including offices, three fire engine bays, equipment storage rooms, individual sleeping dorms, and an emergency power plant.

The 12 firefighters housed at the former Station 16 at Five Corners had lived in a 1,100-square-foot, double-wide mobile home since early 1995 when the previous brick station was damaged in an earthquake.

Visitors to the ceremony may tour the station. Refreshments will be served. Additional parking will be available at Maplewood Presbyterian Church, 19523 84th Ave. W., just east of the new station.

Sno-Isle measure moves toward win

The Sno-Isle Library tax measure that had been given up for dead after early election returns Nov. 4 now appears headed for victory.

Voters saved the library system from having to make service and staff cuts next year. The measure was leading 52,879 to 49,748 as of Nov. 7. It needs a 50 percent majority to win.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that the levy measure has passed,” said Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory, library system director. The library system asked voters to approve a levy lid lift and return the property tax assessment to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. State law limits the levy rate to that amount.

Under the higher rate, the owner of a $200,000 home would pay $100 — about $8 more a year than the current levy amount.

Recount may be

needed in port race

There is the potential for a recount in two south Snohomish County races, Auditor Bob Terwilliger said Nov. 10.

Thousands of absentee ballots were still to be counted Nov. 13 (after deadline for this edition), either because they arrived late, but were still postmarked by the general election date of Nov. 4; they had to be investigated for some reason, such as the person also voted at the polls; or they were damaged in some way.

Still, Nov. 21 has been set aside as recount day if one takes place.

If the percentages stay the same, there would be machine recounts right now in two races.

For the Port of Edmonds Commission, Marianne Burkhart leads Ken Reid 2,726 to 2,710. And in Mountlake Terrace, for City Council, A.J. Housler leads John Zambrano 1,525 to 1,515.

Kiwanis Club is having food drive

The Edmonds Senior Kiwanis Club will a food drive from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday, Nov. 14-16, at Top Foods, 21900 Highway 99 in Edmonds.

Non-perishable food items, canned milk and juices and paper products and soap are being sought. Donations for the Edmonds Senior Kiwanis Club Food Bank may also be mailed to Alvin Rutledge, chairman, P.O. Box 22, Edmonds, WA, 98020.