REPORTER
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Serving the Mercer Island Community Serving community Since since 1947 1947
Is it louder or more frequent?
Too chilly Frosty
Join in community caroling on Sunday Nothing says holidays like caroling and hot cocoa. Family and friends are invited to carol at Town Center businesses between 4 and 5 p.m., Sunday, December 22. Hennie McPennie Children’s Shoes is hosting the event. Meet at the store at 3043 78th Ave. S.E. at 4 p.m. Hot cocoa and cookies will be served at 5 p.m.
Noise from flights headed to and from Renton Airport remains an issue By Celina Kareiva
ckareiva@mi-reporter.com
At 7:30 p.m., Dec. 20, the Mercer Island Presbyterian Church will present a family holiday concert by choral ensemble, ‘Breath of Aire.’ All are invited. Free will offerings accepted. The church is located at 3605 84th Avenue S.E.
Martial art camps for children Get those kids out of the house to burn off some energy. Mercer Island Martial Arts at 2630 77th Ave S.E. is offering winter day camps and lessons on Dec. 23, 26, 27 and 30. Students can learn to break a board. Call 206-230-9050 for more.
2013 Holiday Greetings inside Inside this issue is the 2013 edition of the Mercer Island Reporter’s Holiday Greetings. We wish to thank each of the artists who shared their colorful talents with us along with the teachers and parents who helped gather and bring these treasures to our offices. Our thanks also to Island businesses who sponsor the drawings for publication in our paper — and do endless things for our community with similar sponsorships and contributions throughout the year.
Joseph Livarchik/Staff Photo
This snowman in the window of ‘I Love Pho’ last week, reflected the thoughts of most Islanders who had to be out and about when temperatures were in the 20s. Temperatures have returned to a balmy mid-40s range.
MIHS’ Craig Olson leaving for Florida By Mary L. Grady
editor@mi-reporter.com
At the moment this reporter arrived to interview Mercer Island High School Associate Principal Craig Olson, a school lockdown drill began. With few words, the staff set out to take their positions, grabbing walkie-talkies and keys. An unsuspecting parent was corralled and pulled inside the main office. No one could enter or leave the building. Doors and corridors within the building were locked, and blinds and windows were closed. As the drill ended smoothly, staff made their way back to the main office and surrounded Olson, peppering him with questions. Olson a 19-year veteran at the school, knows the particulars.
Through it all, the coach, teacher and administrator is cool and calm — there is a smile on his face. He knows the where and the why. After all, he joined the high school staff just as the high school was being transformed from a low-slung, 1950s mash-up into a more modern school in the mid-1990s. He knows the nooks and crannies, the halls and closets, the history, the stories. But by week’s end, Olson will be gone. He is leaving the district and will take early retirement. He is moving to Florida to take in the sun, golf and start a new job. When Olson joined the district in 1994, the district was in the process of rebuilding its schools. Olson had not interviewed at the high school itself, he said, but at the district offices with then-
Jeffrey Costello
206.595.5709 jeffreycostello@cbbain.com
superintendent, Dick Geiger. He had not seen where he would work until his first day. “I was shocked when I first came in to the school,” he remembered. “The condition of the building was deplorable. At least the toilets worked, but we ran out of trash cans as they were being used to catch the drips of water from the ceiling. The high school then was pieced together ‘blending’ some traditional straight hallways with classrooms opening up to them,” he explained, “with another part built with a ‘California design’ where the classrooms opened up to the outside.” Finally there was the ‘mushroom’ (the much-maligned giant canopy-like structure over the old student cafeteria) that represented a then ‘modern approach to design,’ he added. But it turned out well, he said of the massive remodel. It was worth the struggle.
If you stand at the very center of Renton Airport’s runway, and look north toward Mercer Island, you’d notice it perfectly aligns with Island Crest Way. Ryan Zulauf, airport manager, points out a V-shaped break in the trees, where the Island’s major thoroughfare runs North-to-South. Standing at the northernmost tip, on the edge of Lake Washington, about 9,000 feet separate the tarmac from MI. Runways are aligned with the prevailing wind direction and in the case of Renton Airport, that happens to also mean Island Crest Way.
Airport | Page 10
Olson | Page 6
Chase Costello
www.costello-costello.com
Read the full paper online Mercer IslandREPORTER www.mi-reporter.com
Chorale concert
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Wednesday, March18, 20,2013 2013 | 75¢ Wednesday, December
206.999.4420 chasecostello@cbbain.com