Diane DeMeerleer used to love living in The Lakes neighborhood of Kent, along the Green River close to a popular walking and biking trail that stretches for miles through the city.
But that love has faded, ever since a heavy rainstorm in 2009 damaged an embankment next to the Howard Hanson Dam and raised the threat of flooding. Kent city officials placed giant sandbags atop the Green River Trail, and they will remain there until the dam is fully operational after repairs, probably by the end of 2012. Sandbags also surround the 26-unit condominium complex where DeMeerleer lives.
A developer might finally take over the half-built parking garage in downtown Kent to construct a mixed-use development that could include apartments, a hotel, and maybe office and retail space.
Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke revealed the upbeat news about the project during her sixth annual State of the City address Wednesday at the Kent Chamber of Commerce monthly membership luncheon at the ShoWare Center second-floor banquet room.
The financial troubles continue for the ShoWare Center in Kent as the 2-year-old arena lost money for the second consecutive year in 2010.
It didn't take long for Keith Evans to start tracking down several of his former players after the Kent Predators hired him this month as coach.
Evans has signed at least four players who played under him last year in Wenatchee to join Kent's Indoor Football League team, which is now in its second year. The Predators open the 2011 season Feb. 25 at the ShoWare Center.
Larice Roop remembers as she watched her daughter Spencer sing in the crib even before she could talk.
But last week Roop watched her 14-year-old daughter win the Kent-Meridian High School Idol contest. And on Jan. 29, Roop will see her daughter compete in the first "Kent's Got Talent" show at the Kent Senior Activity Center.
Shawn David Gulseth, the man charged with first-degree murder in the connection with the Dec. 20 stabbing death of his Kent girlfriend at her apartment, is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 3 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Helena Reynolds gladly helped place the new sign board along East Smith Street to promote the weekday lunch at the Kent Senior Activity Center.
Reynolds, a program coordinator at the city-owned senior center, continually looks for ways to let more people know about Kent Parks Deli & Cafe lunch deal to help keep it going.
Kent residents and business owners near the Green River can soon find out how new preliminary Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance maps could impact them.
FEMA will present the new flood maps at an open house from 6-8 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Kent Senior Activity Center, 600 E. Smith St.
Chelsie Jorgensen, a member of the Seattle Mist women's Lingerie Football League team that plays at the ShoWare Center in Kent, appears in the February issue of Playboy.
As Bobby Dean stands in front of a cowboy mural in the entertainment room at his Kent home, he can’t help but marvel about the sudden rise of his country music singing career.
Dean, 53, signed a two-year contract in June with Lamon Records of Nashville. Lamon released Dean’s first CD “On the Radio” Jan. 4, including the single “Hank on the Radio.”
Ken Thomas couldn't even legally carry a loaded gun his first few months with the Kent Police Department because he was just 20 years old.
"Another officer had to carry my gun to the police academy," Thomas said in a phone interview Wednesday about his police debut in 1989.
Twenty-two years later, Mayor Suzette Cooke has named Thomas as Kent's new police chief.
The Kent City Council has approved a 35-foot height limit on buildings constructed on property within 300 feet of single-family residential zones.
The Council passed the ordinance at its Jan. 4 meeting. The ordinance becomes effective Feb. 3. The city had no previous height limit on buildings.
Four King County jail corrections officers were injured in a fight with an inmate at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Two officers were transported to Valley Medical Center in Renton after the Jan. 11 incident while the other two were treated the next day by their personal doctors, said Cmdr. Williams Hayes, spokesman for the RJC jail.
A 53-year-old Des Moines woman suspected in as many as 15 bank robberies in the Seattle area was arrested Jan. 11 by Kent Police for investigation of robbing an East Hill bank.
Kent Police arrested a 26-year-old man for investigation of aiming a firearm in connection with a road rage dispute between two vehicles on the West Hill.
Officers received a 911 call from a driver that a passenger in a vehicle had aimed a handgun at him at about 10:33 a.m. Dec. 28 near South 260th Street and Pacific Highway South, according to the police report.
The Kent Predators have hired Keith Evans to coach the pro Indoor Football League team this season.
Evans coached the Wenatchee Venom of the American Indoor Football Association last year and has coaching experience with several other teams, according to a Jan. 13 Predators media release to announce his signing.
Law enforcement officials soon will transfer Shawn David Gulseth from a California jail to King County to face a first-degree murder charge in connection with the stabbing death of his girlfriend at a Kent apartment.
Gulseth, 40, of Kent, waived an extradition hearing Thursday in Mendocino County, Calif., according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
Brad Ross thought it was so cool when his mother hired a magician to perform at his 5-year-old birthday party that he decided to become a magician.
Ross received a magic kit, took after-school magic classes and as a high-school student, he in turn became the magician at children's birthday parties.
"I fell in love with it," Ross said in a Monday phone interview from Bakersfield, Calif., where he is on tour with the Disney Live Mickey's Magic Show.
Jeff Scott bought the Kent Predators Indoor Football League team because he believes it is "a viable product that the community wants."
Scott, of Renton, a former owner and coach with the King County Jaguars semipro football team that played in Kent, is the new majority owner who along with four partners helped make sure the Predators will return for the 2011 IFL season.
The 40-year-old Kent man charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of his Kent girlfriend was arrested Tuesday after officers from three California police agencies found him living under a bridge in the small town of Willits in Northern California.
