A lot has happened on Mercer Island on Alan Merkle’s watch as mayor for the last six years:
Whether we celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or festivities of the New Year, the holidays are about traditions. Traditions are a way of remembering who we are and what we believe. Traditions honor our ancestors, our roots, our heritage and faiths. And at the end of the calendar year, the holidays and these traditions mark a time to take stock of our lives, to reconnect with loved ones and renew ourselves for the coming year. But even though the definition of the word tradition means that we practice certain rituals in the same way each year, it is curious to note how those customs and practices change over time. The practice of these oft-ancient customs morphs over time into new ones, often in subtle ways we don’t even notice.
For my great grandfather who lived in another place and in another epoch, Christmas was a time of terror; a time to hide and a time of suffering and loss.^kaThat was at another time in another place but still, Great-grandfather-Lapin is astounded today to see his great-grandson defending Christmas. For this reason I must address my remarks now to him rather than to you.
In Montana, getting drunken drivers off the road is a year-around job for the Montana Highway Patrol. For Labor Day weekend and other holidays, each of the eight patrol divisions puts together an enforcement plan to target safety problems in its area, according to Capt. Butch Huseby of the Patrol’s Helena office. Drunken driving is one target, but not the only hazard the patrol officers pursue.
The Billings City Council’s decision against a proposed contract to treat Lockwood sewage is a lost opportunity for both Billings and the Lockwood community. The Gazette’s endorsement of this decision is equally divisive. A number of points can be made in support of the contract, but little can support its denial.
In the past few weeks there have been disturbing reports about violence in our nation’s schools — specifically the murder/suicides in Colorado and in the Amish school. We have had our own share of recent incidents here as well. You may be asking the questions: How safe are we and what measures have we taken as a community to prevent violence in our schools? I would like to reassure you that we do have strategies in place with many people in our community working together to ensure the safety of our young people and our staff. Here are some examples:
Today a study team from the University of Washington will present a newly completed map detailing the Island’s precarious position atop a couple of active geologic faults. A presentation for Islanders to hear and see more about the map will be held at noon today at Mercer Island City Hall.
It has been a dreary, endless rainy November, bringing wind, gutters and drains blocked with leaves and debris, sluiceways on the streets, wet basements and leaking roofs.
I want to address the PEAK project. This proposed facility, 50 feet from 86th Avenue S.E., is an out-of-scale community-center-sized building that is proposed to be placed smack in the middle of an already extremely busy neighborhood. It will overwhelm us.
The Christmas season has arrived. Throngs of people are already at the malls to get a head start on their gift lists. It’s also the time of year when street-smart con-artists take advantage of holiday guilt so you can expect to see an increase of panhandlers at intersections, freeway off-ramps and anywhere else they can get attention.
There is a venerable local organization that has been in business longer than the City of Mercer Island has been a city. The volunteers produce a useful product that is mailed to every household and organization on the Island and is prized by its recipients. This praiseworthy effort is in the “business” of raising money for an honored Seattle institution.
I am truly honored to be chosen by my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus to chair the Transportation Committee.
As the year draws to a close, a new chapter is beginning for the Mercer Island Reporter. The Reporter has been purchased by Black Press, a Canadian newspaper group. It owns newspapers in the Puget Sound region through its subsidiary, Sound Publishing. Black Press has purchased all 10 papers in the King County Journal Newspaper group: the daily King County Journal; two weeklies, the Mercer Island Reporter and Snoqualmie Valley Record; and seven Reporter papers published every two weeks: the Auburn, Bellevue, Bothell/Kenmore, Covington/Maple Valley, Kent, Redmond and Renton Reporters. Our new owner plans to increase the frequency of publication of the bi-weeklies, to weekly and twice-weekly.
