MICHAEL SWAN: NOT BILT VERY WELL >>>

The Washington State Department of Health has partially closed the Biltmore Motel in Lakewood due the danger of a roof collapse. Units 16-17 must be closed and vacated by midnight, July 11, 2008.

The inspectors also found mold, broken smoke detectors, exposed electrical wiring, unsanitary floors, walls and fixtures â€" basically it’s a mess. 

The motel owner has 10 days to request a hearing and 28 days to contest these charges.

Check it out at 12701 Pacific Hwy. S.W. in Lakewood.  Another sight in the area is Jerry's Adult Book Store next door at 12626 Pacific Hwy. S.W.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER: NUT JOB >>>

Lakewood Playhouse presents One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with a free preview performance at 8 p.m. today. This show about a misfit's adventures among mental patients in an asylum is directed by Marcus Walker and features Scott C. Brown as the iconic R.P. McMurphy made famous by Jack Nicholson and Jenifer Rifenbery as the by-the-book nurse Ratched.

[Lakewood Playhouse, through June 22, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood, 253.588.0042]

KEN SWARNER: IT'S GOING TO GET CROWDED >>>

Want some investment advice?  Buy a bike.  Otherwise, expect long delays on South Sound roads as Fort Lewis’ population numbers spike to their highest rates in a long time.

Most of the post’s units will spend the summer and fall at home beginning next month as the 4th Stryker Brigade and 864th Engineer Battalion return from war deployments to join new units that arrived here last year as well as a growing number of ROTC cadets and cadre here this summer for the annual Warrior Forge.  That translates to 10,000 more troops home this summer than last year.

“It’s going to be extremely busy this summer, and it’s going to stay that way,” Steve Perrenot, Public Works director at Fort Lewis, said during a special meeting of area business leaders, government heads and military officials at the Clover Park Technical College May 1.

The meeting broke into primarily three discussions: transportation, housing and education â€" all of which Perrenot said would be affected.

Transportation
Roughly 42,000 vehicles enter and exit Fort Lewis every weekday, according to figures Perrenot displayed. That number will jump this summer.

As reported in The Ranger earlier this year, traffic mitigation will be minimal due to funding constraints to ease the strain of more cars on the road.

Gov. Christine Gregiore, the keynote speaker for last week’s meeting, said the state would add a traffic signal at Highway 507 and the East Gate to ease traffic congestion there.

Gregoire said the state also will work to fund the Cross Base Highway plus add traffic cameras and real-time traffic updates on the freeway at the DuPont interchanges. Finally, the state will add roving tow trucks to clear accidents during peak hours daily on Interstate 5 around Fort Lewis.

Housing
For years Fort Lewis officials have maintained the same number of homes on post.  Through the privatization of housing, homes have been replaced or remodeled; however, the same number of homes remained constant.  That will change under current plans as officials add 800 more homes to the inventory.
What does stay the same, however, is the percentage of homes. Currently, 30 percent of military families live on post; that ration will stay the same as the new housing comes online.

With 70 percent of military families living off the installation, most soldiers must look to the economy to live.  Add the fact that 30 percent of homes are deemed inadequate by Department of Defense standards, meaning they are too costly or too far from the installation, according to Rob Boisvert, chief of housing at Fort Lewis, and competition will be high.

Post officials expect eastern Pierce County in particular to grow due to an increasing military population.  Currently 7.8 percent of military personnel live in the Yelm, Roy and Rainier areas compared to 23.7 percent living in Lacey, 8.2 percent in DuPont, 16.4 percent in Lakewood, and 10 percent in Parkland/Spanaway.

Education
With more soldiers come more families, and school districts are gearing themselves to handle more students.  Eight hundred new homes on Fort Lewis also add kids to already crowded schools on post.

Hillside Elementary, for example, had 280 students in 2006.  Today, it has 542.

Perrenot said the military must work with the federal government to help find money for districts such as Clover Park that are heavily impacted by a growing military population.

Norma Melo, the school liaison officer at Fort Lewis who serves as a bridge between military families and the 14 school districts in the South Sound that educate the sons and daughters of military personnel, said districts aren’t just impacted by more bodies.  Military children, she said, come with more baggage too and strain the social services schools offer.

“Many of these incoming students have more than two but less than five deployments under their belts,” she said. 

Melo said military kids need more help adjusting to the stresses they feel when a parent or both parents are deployed in the war zone.

Gary Wilson, assistant superintendent for Clover Park, said his district has two full-time therapists to work solely with military kids.

“They’re busy every minute of every day,” Wilson said.

With problems, of course, come opportunities. At the entrance to the technical college’s auditorium, local businesses set up booths to tout their services.  The Tacoma and Lakewood chambers of commerce also organized at Thursday’s meeting.  More troops equal more business, and during a possible recession, that’s good news for the local economy.

BOBBLE TIKI: BREAKFAST WITH BOBBLE TIKI >>>

DAILY WORD
Indolent \IN-duh-luhnt\, adjective:
1. Avoiding labor and exertion; habitually idle; lazy; inactive.
2. Conducive to or encouraging laziness or inactivity.
3. Causing little or no pain.
4. Slow to heal, develop, or grow.

USAGE EXAMPLE: While most everyone here at the Weekly Volcano works very hard, Bobble Tiki is different. Bobble Tiki is naturally indolent.

MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Lakewood and minicasinos

OLYMPIA: More testing for drinking water

SEATTLE: Treaty warriors

SPORTS: March Madness

THINGS TO DO TODAY
MUSIC: Here's what's shaking.
FILM: Check them out.
ST. PATTY'S DAY: Here's the lowdown

MATT DRISCOLL: ONE MONTH DOWN, ETERNITY TO GO >>>

For all intents and purposes, we’ve been at it a month now. And by at it I mean producing the big, sexy, Active News and Entertainment packed new Weekly Volcano. It’s been an exciting four weeks, full of highs, a few lows, and even a learning experience or two.

One of our main goals with the newfangled Weekly Volcano is to foster an honest and legitimate dialogue with the people of Tacoma, Olympia, and everywhere in between where this beautiful rag can be found. Without the fine people of the South Sound we’d be nothing, after all. As stated by publishers Ken and Ron Swarner in our very first new and improved issue: “The Weekly Volcano is the future of print media in the South Puget Sound. It’s about conversation. It’s about us sharing this community.”   

In that spirit, I’d like to pose an honest question: How are we doing? Personally, I’ve been proud of a number of things we’ve accomplished in this first month. Joe Malik’s “Life de-railed,” cover story is a fine example, as is this week’s cover “Riot and wrong,” by Owen Taylor. On the other hand, there are a few fuck-ups from the first month which still eat at me. I whole heartedly regret my “Trib talk” post from earlier this week, not to mention using “Hindu” instead of “Hinduism” in the “A first for Olympia” post was a junior high mistake â€" at best. It’s a shame, I suppose, to have dragged you along on such learning experiences, but I guess the good thing is that learning is actually occurring.

But those are my thoughts on our first month. I’m interested in yours.

Let us know what you think, if you’re so moved. We encourage feedback here on the Spew, on our Forums page, through email, and even through old fashioned pen and paper. Letters can be mailed to us at P.O. Box 98801, Tacoma, WA 98496.

CHARLES MONROE: GET TO KNOW YOUR COPS >>>

The City of Lakewood has announced six candidates for its open the police chief slot. City Manager Andrew Neiditz will choose one of the six to replace long-time Chief Larry Saunders, who has opted to join to United States Army to fight in Iraq, in lieu of fighting crime in Lakewood.

The candidates are:

• Assistant Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar. Farrar has been a crime fighter for 20 years, mostly in Lakewood.
• Tacoma Police Captain Paul Mielbrecht. Mielbrecht has been a crime fighter in Tacoma for 30 years.
• Cheney Police Chief Jeffry Sale, 50. Sale spent 25 years with the Washington State Patrol before taking over in Cheney, Wash. Cheney lies southwest of Spokane, and has an estimated population of a little more than 10,000.
• Seattle Police Lieutenant Eric Sano. Sano has served 23 years.
• King County Sherrif’s Office Captain Scott Somers. Somers was an officer in Kent, as has been with the Sherrif’s Office for 23 years.
• Sammammish Police Chief Brad Thompson. Thompson has been with the King County Sherriff’s Office for 29 years, and has spent the past several years serving the wealthy lake-side community of Sammammish, near Bellevue.

Candidates were recently interviewed by a series of community panels, part of a long, deliberate public process that will culminate in a selection sometime this spring.

BRAD ALLEN: GOT ANY SUPER BOWL TIPS? >>>

My bookie gambling days are over. I lost again. I had Green Bay.

The Lakewood Planning Advisory Board will hold a public hearing Wednesday, Feb. 6 on gambling within the City of Lakewood at the Lakewood City Hall.  While the forum will focus on land use and zoning, public safety and welfare, and legal consequences of banning gambling, I will work the room with my Super Bowl board.

I know, I know.

LINK: The Suburban Times. 

KVTI just announced they won Top 40 Station of the Year for a second time.

Valiant also won Top 40 Music Director of the Year for a fourth year in a row.

Nice! â€" Suzy Stump

Previous post

Hey Kids!  Do you love the Top 40?  KVTI I-90 does.

KVTI is nominated for the annual New Music Weekly Award’s Top 40 Station of the Year for the second year in a row.  The Lakewood-based radio station won last year.

KVTI's Beth Valiant, who has won Top 40 Music Director of the Year for the past three years in a row, is nominated again.

And KVTI's John Mangan has been nominated for Top 40 Program Director of the Year for a second time.

What do say we vote for the hommies.  The New Music Weekly Awards show will be Nov. 10 in Hollywood. â€" Suzy Stump

Lakewood AM talk radio has added a Spanish program, featuring Plinio Gutierrez Delgado, a local Spanish teacher. Photo: Bill Timnick

Spanish language talk and Latin music have joined forces, now that Lakewood-based AM talk radio station KLAY has added local Spanish teacher, Plinio Gutierrez Delgado to its weekend program lineup.   â€œSabado Latino” began airing on Saturdays from 7:05 to 9 p.m. some two months ago, with Delgado as its inaugural host.  The program’s format is a hybrid of traditional talk and more entertainment-oriented music programming.

“KLAY opened the door to the possibility of starting a show for the Latino community,” Delgado explained, “due to the growing number of Hispanic people in our area.  And we thought that it was a good time to be start building a bridge between the Hispanic community and the general English speaking population.”

The “we” to whom Delgado referred is the Delgado family.  The “Sabado Latino” team includes Plinio as host, joined by Carol Seymour, Delgado’s wife, who serves as marketing director for the operation.  The ensemble also includes Delgado’s 15 year-old stepson, Alex Benzegala, program technician and board operator, and 10 year-old son, Gubidxa Gutierrez, whose contributions range from graphic design to voicing commercials, to running errands for the family enterprise.

Delgado himself was an elementary school teacher in his native Mexico.  He later taught in Seattle for some 10 years before becoming a Spanish teacher at Charles Wright Academy in University Place.  He has been on the Charles Wright faculty for five years. 

Delgado describes “Sabado Latino” as a variety show, following a hybrid format that combines news with interviews featuring local Hispanic community leaders, as well as social service and immigration experts, and local Latino performing artists.  Music programming completes the two hour weekly format.

“Pierce County’s Hispanic population has grown rapidly over the past few years and I believe that my community needs to be better informed about the local resources available to them and how to access them,” Delgado said.  “Also, the community needs to be well informed about topics that are important to us…and I think that it’s very important to educate my community, not just to keep it entertained.”   Recurring conversation topics include education among local Latino youth, immigration and crime.

“But I also enjoy playing music,” Delgado said.

KLAY can be heard on 1180 AM locally, or on the Web.  For more information, to join “Sabado Latino’s” family of local advertisers, or to be considered for a guest spot, call 253.313.0155 or contact the show via e-mail. â€" Bill Timnick

I think I get it now.

When one Lakewood Idol hopeful sang a song I recognized from “High School Musical,” I realized, a ha!

Basically, maybe this whole Idol thing is all about corrective emotional experience-making for high school performers who never got that lead role in the musical, or never got that choir solo.  Maybe they’re re-living their glory days much like the high school football jock becomes a coach so he can push his team to victory.

Or something.

I don’t know, it’s just a theory.

See, while I’m ashamed to admit I know about things like “High School Musical” songs (I’ll tank the Disney Channel’s non-commercials in the middle of programming, for that) I “missed” the whole American Idol phenomenon.  Maybe it’s Simon and his nastiness or Paula and her subsequent syrupy sweet.  Maybe it’s the general distaste I have for people willing to humiliate themselves nationally.  Maybe it’s the music: one can handle only so many “cover” versions of songs one never cared about in the first place, done with that appalling lack of regard to singing a clear note.

What’s with that? Why do people feel the need to over-perform the songs, Broadway-ing out their vibrato to earsplitting range, then drawing their final notes into some kind of hip-hoperatic mythical proportions?

Call me bitter because my own singing talents are negligible, or call me an orchestra geek; for whatever reason, I just don’t generally care much for the “Idol” stuff.

So there I was, last night, at the Lakewood Town Hall, watching, amused, as couples shuffled in and out looking to get hitched.  So there I was, listening to singers as they stood, occasionally girlishly at the mic, mumbling their names and ages unintelligibly, occasionally nervously giggling prior to pouring their hearts, souls, and “I can sing”-ness into the space.

There were a few guys â€" three? Four? Ranging from, I think, 11 to over 50-something, but mostly there were girls, singing a range of hip-hop, R & B, gospel, Christian, country, and show tunes, with one notable and appreciated selection of a Lisa Loeb song, a bit discredited when the singer, a formal Tacoma Idol hopeful finished up saying, “oh well, I messed up.”

And then there was another singer, a young gal rumored to either have won Tacoma Idol or Tacoma Jr. Idol last year.  “I guess you can only compete in Tacoma Idol once?” was the speculation.

In the end, I think it was probably the first singer, Antonia Darlene, who will take the Lakewood Idol title when she competes against the top eight finalists from last night’s field of 20 (that was the count as of 6 p.m., at which point the singers present had all performed: the doors would remain open to other comers until 7.)

The Lakewood Idol Finals will happen at American Lake Park at 6:30 on July 24, where the $500 check and chance to compete against the other city “Idols” â€" including Tacoma â€" at the Puyallup fair will be awarded.

One of the judges, Brenda Leach of Countrywide Mortgage, also happened to represent the company that donated $250 of that check (the additional $250 came from Kelly Norman of Windermere Real Estate.)

The other judges, Roger Laibourne, a musician, and Dr Ben Keller, Lakes High School Choir director, were making the “winner” decision after the event, and contacting the winner at home.
When I find out, I’ll share, since I know you’ll be dying to know. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler