By Andy Valencia The cafes of Vashon certainly provide coffee drinks, but their true value is in the surprises that often accompany your order. At Luna one morning, I was just getting my laptop ready when I heard a young woman in line mentioning that she had returned from playing semi-pro soccer in Europe. I…
By Scott Harvey Vashon Island Fire & Rescue has a tax increase on the ballot for this August. The previous VIFR levy, approved in 2017, has grown from $2.4 million in 2017 to $5.4 million in 2023. The new proposed levy continues this growth, reaching $9.2 million by 2030. Our population has grown by roughly…
Years ago, I hired a contractor to rebuild a structure for me. He named a price, I got out the checkbook and wrote him a check. Several days later I mentioned this to a friend who worked in small business law. He shook his head, laughed at me, and said I’d told the contractor two…
“Despite living on Vashon Island for close to 20 years, I find our levy system confusing,” I said. “I understand,” laughed Elaine Ott-Rocheford, Vashon Park District Executive Director. “Our property tax system is one of the most complicated in the country.” After a two-hour meeting, and some seriously mind-bending exercises, I began to understand how…
The world of money has gone wild in recent years. The Loop planned a sequence of articles on the subject, starting with the basics – what is money? How is it created? However, we’ve decided to jump forward to a discussion of a new, particularly dangerous proposal that would impact how we keep and spend…
Patricia Buchanan’s green burial was a first at the Vashon Cemetery, but not the first on our island. Long before European colonists arrived, the native people living in the Puget Sound received what we today would call a green burial. Begging the question, what exactly is a green burial? Within the realm of traditional burials,…
On November 15, the Vashon school board voted unanimously to rescind the bond request for $19.5 million slated for 2023. Their decision was somewhat surprising, but in the finest and most refreshing sense, they elected to confront hard realities boiling down to a stew of bad timing. We should take this decision as a solid…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Sadly, no one has ever offered me a free LED TV. If they did, probably the first thing I would ask is, “How big is it?” If they said, “32 by 18 inches,” I might accept it to be polite, then maybe set it up on the barn to play calming…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck It’s that time in the decade when a school district’s thoughts naturally turn to bonds, and next February, the Island will be asked to approve a $19.5 million capital raise. The math works out to a 20¢ increase per $1000 of King County-assessed property values. Those property values went up a…