In February, the community mourned an Edmonds man who died during a climbing accident the previous month.
Edmonds paramedic and firefighter Art DeLisle was killed by a falling rock Jan. 16 while climbing Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest peak in the Americas. He was 51.
More than 300 people attended the memorial service to celebrate DeLisle’s life.
A Snohomish man was sentenced in March to six years in prison for the 2008 death of a 16-year-old Lynnwood girl.
Micah Pelton, 33, admitted he was drunk when he ran into Janelle Cooper, crushing her to death, and seriously injured her friend.
Between the crash and his sentencing, Pelton had logged five more traffic tickets, and he had a prior misdemeanor conviction stemming from another drunken-driving incident.
Janelle, known as “Choubiiee” and “Nelly-Belly,” had been a sophomore at Scriber Lake High School in Mountlake Terrace.
Fire District 1 spent the better part of the year fighting a three-front battle against Lynnwood, Edmonds and Mukilteo officials with annexation ambitions.
Fire District 1 and Lynnwood officials played tug-of-war about how to divide fire services amongst the two jurisdictions.
By the end of the year, Edmonds and the Fire District signed a $6.2 million, 20-year contract for Fire District 1 to provide fire and emergency medical services to the city. The District will purchase Edmonds’ equipment, land and an estimated $700,000 in annual ambulance transport fees.
Meanwhile, Lynnwood and Edmonds fire stations joined the rest of the county and stopped offering free ambulance rides. Ambulance fees in the two cities can cost $800 plus mileage for victims of heart attacks and other serious trauma. The fees help pay for a vital service that tax dollars don’t completely fund, officials said. In Edmonds and Lynnwood, however, collection policies could leave nearly $1 million owed to the public unpaid in 2009.
In November, voters in Mountlake Terrace approved an increase in property taxes to restore an emergency medical services levy to its original 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value. The rate had dropped to 35 cents per $1,000 value.
Fire District 1 also pushed for a fireworks ban after a historically destructive Fourth of July. Fireworks sparked blazes that destroyed more than $4 million worth of property across Snohomish County during the Fourth of July holiday. Homes from Monroe to Marysville were destroyed.
The shooting of four Lakewood police officers, less than one month after the murder of Timothy Brenton, shook the community and the state.
The sadness of the killer’s actions was perhaps felt most keenly by the brotherhood of police officers. South Snohomish County police departments demonstrated their support for the Lakewood Police Department and the officers’ families by attending the memorial service earlier this month.
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