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Free parking permits will be required by the city of Kent to park in the North Park neighborhood once the Kent Events Center opens in January. City officials hope to keep events center attendees from parking in the neighborhood.

Permit parking coming to Kent neighborhood

Permit parking is coming to the city of Kent for the first time, because of the Kent Events Center. The message? Don’t park in North Park without a permit. It’s the area just east of the city-owned events center.

Free parking permits will be required by the city of Kent to park in the North Park neighborhood once the Kent Events Center opens in January. City officials hope to keep events center attendees from parking in the neighborhood.
Jeff Veach

For Kent city worker, good deed goes rewarded

What would you do if you found a bag of cash? When city of Kent employee Jeff Veach found a money bag with $1,200 early one morning this summer at a cash machine in downtown Kent, he picked up the bag, waved to the security camera and took the money to his boss.

Jeff Veach
Author Arleen Williams speaks last week at the Issaquah Library about her book.

Sister of Green River Killer victim pens memoir

Twenty-five years ago, Gary Ridgway killed Arleen Williams’ sister, irrevocably changing her family. In her first book, Williams tells the tale of growing up on a remote parcel of land on Tiger Mountain in the Issaquah Valley. Her sister, Maureen Sue Feeney, was killed at the age of 19, just a month after moving out of the family home and into a Seattle apartment.

  • Oct 6, 2008
  • BY Wire Service
Author Arleen Williams speaks last week at the Issaquah Library about her book.

Charges filed in armed domestic-violence case

The King County Prosecutor’s Office filed a second-degree assault charge Oct. 1 in King County Superior Court against a Kent man who allegedly made threats Sept. 27 to shoot his girlfriend at his West Hill home.

Reader comments now featured on KentReporter.com

Starting today, your community news site is adding a lot more community. Visitors to our site can now contribute their own comments to all of our news stories, editorials and letters to the editor. You are invited to participate.

  • Oct 6, 2008
  • BY Wire Service
Students from Jodie Hall’s first-grade class at Kent Elementary line up Monday outside their portable classroom. Due to the high numbers of students it has

Audit praises school district, makes suggestions

A performance audit of the 10 largest school districts in the state made four best-practice recommendations to the Kent School Disrict, but did not offer any cost savings to the district.

Students from Jodie Hall’s first-grade class at Kent Elementary line up Monday outside their portable classroom. Due to the high numbers of students it has

Monday: County Council to discuss dropping shelter services

The culture of King County’s animal services system is so far beyond repair that the County should get out of that line of business, according to three Metropolitan King County Councilmembers who on Sunday announced their support for the idea of partnering with a community agency to provide shelter services.

  • Oct 5, 2008
  • BY Wire Service

Police Blotter: Airborne blender sends girlfriend to jail

A verbal dispute turned physical when a girlfriend threw a blender at her boyfriend at about 6:15 p.m. Sept. 21 in the kitchen of a Kent home in the 27000 block of 125th Avenue Southeast.

In some respects

Kent couple devoted to each other, even in shadow of disease

Because of Merrill Vesper’s fight against kidney disease, the long hikes he and his wife first took together more than 20 years ago are out. But the city of Kent worker carefully researches hikes he still can take with Mary, his wife of 22 years.

In some respects
Martin Sortun Elementary has created a “Green team” to help bring down the garbage to help promote a green school.  Fourth graders Sarah Stregne

Martin Sortun school staff, students go green

At the kick-off assembly for the new green schools program at Martin Sortun Elementary, the kids were excited to show off what they had learned. As the trained pairs of students set to monitor the new three can system of garbage, recyclables and compost took their places behind their respective garbage collection points in the school’s multi-purpose room, education assistant Scott Meyer tested the rest of the student body about what they learned in preparation for Tuesday’s launch event.

Martin Sortun Elementary has created a “Green team” to help bring down the garbage to help promote a green school.  Fourth graders Sarah Stregne

Multiple threats Wednesday to Regional Justice Center in Kent

An array of area fire and police agencies were summoned to two separate threats to Wednesday's activities at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

  • Oct 2, 2008
  • BY Wire Service

Kentridge High School suspends 50 students after fight

Fifty Kentridge High School students were suspended this week in the aftermath of a Sept. 25 fight off campus between two students.

Grandma gets cited for prostitution | Kent Reporter Police Blotter

Prostitution Kent Police cited a grandmother and a married man for investigation of prostitution loitering after officers found the two sitting in a car at 2:32 a.m. Sept. 19 in a parking lot in the 25500 block of Pacific Highway South.

Washington State School Security Officer of the Year Dave Fowler talks with Devin Topps and Alex Ferguson during lunch Sept. 26. Topps and Ferguson are both members of the football team and the Kingsmen.

Award-winning security officer helps keep Kentridge High School safe

With 2,300 ethnically and culturally diverse students and dozens of administrators and staff, Kentridge High School has a larger population than some towns. “It’s like a mini-city here,” says Dave Fowler, the school’s security officer.

Washington State School Security Officer of the Year Dave Fowler talks with Devin Topps and Alex Ferguson during lunch Sept. 26. Topps and Ferguson are both members of the football team and the Kingsmen.

Watch Kent firefighters on a hazardous-materials drill

The Kent Fire Department has scheduled a hazardous-materials drill for Oct. 8, and local folks can get a firsthand view of the action. The drill runs 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 8 at Univar USA, 8201 S. 212th St., Kent. Attendees must sign up by Oct. 3.

  • Sep 30, 2008
  • BY Wire Service
Kent Fire Department's Hazmat Team

Is new fire agency in Kent’s future?

City of Kent and King County Fire District 37 officials continue to give serious thought to forming a regional fire authority. A regional fire authority would be able to levy a property tax as well as a new fire benefit fee to help provide more stable funding and increase response times to medical and fire calls, officials from both entities say.

Kent Fire Department's Hazmat Team

Kent school district facing gloomy financial forecast

After having cut $2.6 million from its operating budget for the 2008-2009 school year, the Kent School District is facing further cuts in the future as expenditures continue to outstrip revenues and the district’s fund balance continues to shrink.

Kent Council to mull water-rate hikes for ‘09 budget

Kent utility customers could see monthly jumps next year in water rates and storm drainage rates under a proposal outlined Tuesday at a City Council workshop.

The East Village Opera Company will perform 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Kentwood High Performing Arts Center in Covington as part of the city of Kent Spotlight Series.

A little bit opera, and a little rock’n’roll

Music fans can expect a new sound and a new experience at the East Village Opera Company concert 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Kentwood High School.

The East Village Opera Company will perform 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Kentwood High Performing Arts Center in Covington as part of the city of Kent Spotlight Series.

Three Kent residents indicted as part of international drug ring

Three Kent residents were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on accusations of conspiracy to distribute cocaine as part of an alleged drug-trafficking ring spanning the Seattle area, Idaho and Mexico.

  • Sep 26, 2008
  • BY Wire Service