In the United States, daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m., local time, on the second Sunday in March. That means this Sunday, March 8, at 2 a.m., clocks need to be set ahead one hour.
Expanded enrollment in Washington’s prepaid college tuition plan shows that parents are eager to find a secure way to save for college. State officials are predicting a record year for the nation’s fastest growing prepaid tuition plan.
The latest traffic technology aimed at increasing safety and reducing collisions is coming soon to I-90. Beginning this past Monday, drivers will see activity on new electronic speed signs installed last fall on the westbound shoulders of I-90 between I-405 and I-5.
On Tuesday evening, members of the Island Crest Way Citizens Panel, city officials and Island residents met to discuss the two options for improving the intersection of Island Crest Way and Merrimount chosen last month by the panel.
An Island man died sometime on March 2 after his car plunged into Lake Washington at Calkins Landing. Mercer Island Marine Patrol divers discovered the car, an Acura RSX, upside down at the bottom of the lake about 40 feet off the shoreline shortly before 6 p.m. on March 2.
The Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce luncheon on March 5 will host speakers to discuss the May and July 1-90 bridge closures. The first phase of expansion joint replacement project will take place May 4-23, leaving the 1-90 express lanes closed around the clock. According to WSDOT, the project timing is crucial as the joints are aged and cracking. Engineers fear that the large steel joints will pop up and cause accidents if not replaced. The second phase of the project will occur July 5-28. All westbound 1-90 lanes will be closed around the clock. Drivers can still use all lanes east of Mercer Island. During the closures, drivers should anticipate delays up to 40 minutes east of Mercer Island, congestion on westbound SR-520, SR-522 and I-405, in addition to significant congestion on I-90. For more information, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov.
The Mercer Island boys basketball team lost to Mount Si twice last week, being pushed to a loser-out first-round game of KingCo.
Youth Theatre Northwest is reaching out for funds to keep the 25-year-old teaching and performing space a going concern.
After hearing a scratching noise for a couple of days in their chimney, Michael and Melissa Ralph, who live near Ellis Pond, opened the flue expecting a small animal to fall out. Used to a good deal of animal life in their neighborhood, the couple was surprised to be faced with two large dark eyes and a shower of gray feathers in the chimney. Even after phone calls to the zoo, wildlife agencies and the Audubon Society, the couple did not have a clear idea of what to do. Melissa Ralph, a seventh-grade teacher at Islander Middle School, asked her students what they should do. The students had many suggestions (some involving guns), but the Ralphs opted to wait and see if the owl would leave on its own. After five days, they became worried that the bird would starve and hatched a plan to coax it out. They bought a white mouse at Petco and took the flue apart. The bird then came into the house on his own and perched on nearly every piece of furniture in two rooms. It eventually glided out the front door, tempted by the mouse in the jar. The decoy was returned to Petco the next day, unharmed.
The Mercer Island girls basketball team will host Bellevue tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Washington’s economic recovery will depend on small businesses. That message is driven home in the newly updated Washington Small Business Profile released today by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The most recent data shows that the state has 147,948 small employers, and they employ 98.2 percent of the state’s workforce.
Special Assistant United States Attorney Donald M. Reno Jr. was recently honored as the “Trial Attorney of the Year” by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The award was presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., hosted by DHS General Counsel Gus Coldebella.
A total of 12 scouts from Mercer Island earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 2009. The scouts donated approximately 1,700 hours to the community doing projects such as: removing garbage from a campsite at Mt. Rainier, initiating a boating safety information card, moving an exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo, a basic First Aid to Teens video, park clean-up after winter storms, and a health effects of sugar presentation at Garfield Community Center. Mercer Island Parks benefited with trailhead plantings, new landscaping at the Community Center, erosion control measures at Parkwood Ridge Trail, new sand play area at Clark Beach Park, stairs at Groveland Park and dog poo pick-up bags at Luther Burbank Park. At $10/hour, this saved the community $17,000 in 2009.
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