We have both good and bad news from Washington State. Starting with the good, two companion bills, Senate Bill 6179 and House Bill 2347, would make it legal to manufacture spring-assisted and switchblade knives in the state of Washington. These bills also clarify the definition of a switchblade, or what is referred to in Oregon law as a “spring blade knife,” so as to not include assisted-opening knives that are currently subject to adverse interpretation of the state statute making them technically illegal. In addition, this bill would expand the existing law enforcement exemption for possession of “spring blade knives” to members of the military, full-time first responders and those citizens who hold a valid Washington concealed pistol license (WA is a “shall issue” state).

Knife Rights Director of Legislative Affairs, Todd Rather, will be in Olympia on Wednesday to testify in support of these bills on behalf of Washington’s knife owners. The bills are a big incremental step forward in a state where any knife with a spring assisted blade has been interpreted as being an illegal knife and where Washington knife manufacturers, such as Fox Knives USA and SOG, were prohibited from even manufacturing these knives in the state, sending those jobs to other states with more rational knife laws, including neighboring Oregon.

The bad news is that last year’s ridiculous anti-knife bill, HB 1006, that would make it illegal to conceal any knife over 3 1/2 inches long, even with a WA concealed pistol permit (since it is not a concealed weapon permit), has been resurrected. In a state where a long coat is a normal part of every outdoor enthusiast’s, fisherman’s and hunter’s attire for a good part of the year, this would turn honest citizens into criminals for carrying a modestly sized sheath knife on their belt, along with quite a few common folding knives longer than the arbitrary length limit. It’s time to put a stake through the heart of this asinine legislation and Knife Rights is working on that.

If you live, work or travel in Washington state, please contact BOTH your Senator and Representative in Olympia and ask them to support SB 1234 and HB 2347, respectively and ask your Representative to help kill HB 1006 for good. Click here to locate your legislators, or the legislators who represent where you work or travel.

Reprinted with permission from Knife Rights www.KnifeRights.org This article appeared in Knife Rights News Slice – January 21, 2012

On February 10 the House passed HB 2347, the bill which would make it legal to manufacture spring-assisted and switchblade knives in the state of Washington. The Senate passed SB 6179 out of committee. Knife Rights encourages interested citizens to contact their Senate representatives to request they support SB 6179.
   

The Annual Meeting of the Griffin Neighborhood Association is Thursday, January 26, 7 PM at the Griffin Fire Department Headquarters. Come early, for light refreshments and conversation. 

Thursday, January 26
7 PM, but arrive early
Griffin Fire Department Headquarters
3707 Steamboat Loop NW

This year’s Annual Meeting will include a report to membership on the activities of the Board of the Griffin Neighborhood Association.

Each year, up to half the positions on the Board are offered for elections. This is your opportunity to renew your membership in the Griffin Neighborhood Association, since only current Association members can vote to fill the Board. Click here to become a new member or renew your existing membership, online.

The Annual Meeting features a number of special guests. Those who have already accepted our invitation to speak a few minutes each and to take questions include:

• Karen Valenzuela, Thurston County Commissioner
• John Snaza, Thurston County Sheriff
• Greg Woods, Griffin School District Superintendent
• John Wood, Griffin Fire Chief
• Andy Willis, Pastor at St. Christopher’s Community Church
• Jon Tunheim, Thurston County Prosecutor

State Representative Fred Finn and Ray Peters of the Squaxin Island Tribe have also been invited, but have not yet confirmed they will be able to attend.

Where else will you find such a list of elected and local officials, in one place and at one time?

Are you interested in serving on the Board of the Griffin Neighborhood Association? For more information on the duties and responsibilities of Board membership, click here to download a copy of our FAQ. Contact any current Board member, with your questions or to enter your name into nomination.

We look forward to seeing you at this year’s Annual Meeting.

Update to speakers list: Thurston County Under-Sheriff Tim Braniff will attend, instead of Sheriff John Snaza.
 

Emergency Preparedness Expo
Saturday, October 29, 2011
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Saint Martin’s University
Marcus Pavilion & Worthington Conference Center
5300 Pacific Ave. SE, Lacey

Wheelchair Accessible • ASL Interpreter Available

Vendors, Information & Displays:

• American Red Cross – Emergency Preparedness Information & Supplies
• CERT – Community Emergency Response Team
• Crisis Clinic Resource Network (Thurston/Mason Counties)
• Department of Ecology Flood Program
• Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center
• Home Depot
• J & I Power Equipment
• KGY Radio
• Lacey Fire District #3
• LDS Church – Food Storage/Prep Cooking with Emergency Provisions
• National Weather Service
• Office of the Insurance Commissioner
• Olympia Fire Department Tiller Truck and Jaws of Life
• Puget Sound Energy – Electrical Safety
• Quake Ready
• Rescue Tape NW
• ServiceMaster of Greater Tacoma
• Shelf Reliance
• South Sound 2-1-1
• Thurston County ARES/RACES
• Thurston County Emergency Management Council – Local Preparedness & Hazards
• Thurston County Environmental Health – Water Purification & Storage
• Thurston County Public Health & Social Services – Medical Reserve Corps
• Thurston County Search & Rescue Council
• Thurston County Sheriff’s Office – Child Identification, Iris Scanning
• Thurston County Sheriff’s Office – Dive Team
• Tumwater Fire Department – Fire Extinguisher Training
• Washington State Animal Response Team (WASART)
• West Thurston Regional Fire Authority
• WSU Germ City
• Fun, Family-friendly Exhibits

For More Information Contact:  Vivian Eason, Thurston County Emergency Management at 360-786-5243 or email easonv@co.thurston.wa.us

Detail from the cover of Insects of the Pacific Northwest

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the annual picnic sponsored by the Griffin Neighborhood Association is the opportunity to meet neighbors from this area for the first time. Among those local residents who visited Frye Cove at this year’s picnic was Mark Genich and Lynne Ferguson. Recently retired as a physician, Dr. Genich has undertaken an interesting project with which any of us could lend a hand.

Dr. Genich is collecting samples of insects in our area for the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound with the help of the emeritus professor, Dr. Dennis Paulson. The collection will be used as a teaching tool for the students at the university. Although he retired as a family practice physician and worked in the urgent care department of Group Health Cooperative, “I got my start toward a career in medicine because I got interested in insects as vectors of disease to people and animals,” Dr. Genich explains.

As our late summer turns into fall, you may yet have an opportunity to add an important insect or two to the collection. If you capture an unusual looking insect, Dr. Genich is happy to personally pick up anything anyone finds. “The best way to hold any specimens is to catch them in a jar if possible and then put them into a freezer so they won’t dry out and become brittle.”

If you capture and freeze an insect for the collection, please contact Dr. Mark Genich by phone at 866-0844.

Detail from the current approved site plan

Local residents cannot help but notice the activity on the prairie at the corner of Steamboat Island and Sexton roads. In recent weeks, grading has commenced on a 5.2 acre parcel owned by STAC Properties, LLC (Drake Nicholson and Desiree Forbes). A number of inquiries have been received by members of the Griffin Neighborhood Association as to what’s up. We can now report that Mr. Nicholson is indeed moving ahead with construction on a pair of buildings totaling 43,020 square feet to house a “members’ only” facility with indoor tennis courts, a salon with massage, manicure/pedicure, sauna and tanning facilities, a weight room, racquetball court, climbing wall, hot tub, and a small swimming pool.

Meet the new neighbor. Except for the Griffin School, nothing as big as this structure exists in our area. Beyond the footprint on the ground, too, the height required to accommodate tennis courts may put this among the highest structures.

Mr. Nicholson purchased the parcel in April, 2003 and made application in mid-2004 to build the Steamboat Island Tennis Club. The original application required a Special Use Permit (the parcel is zoned for rural residential use) for the construction of a 43,200 square foot building “for indoor tennis and other associated athletic uses such as a weight room, locker room and swimming pool. In addition,” according to that original application, “the facility includes two outdoor tennis and 151 parking stalls.” Copies of the original application materials are available on the web site of the Griffin Neighborhood Association.

Long before grading equipment set to work on one of the last undeveloped portions of prairie in our area, voices had been raised against the project. Some objected to the development as a “huge, urban and high density athletic facility.” One local resident, Steve Lundin, filed a formal appeal against approval of the application. In a letter to the County’s Permit Assistance Center, Mr. Lundin wrote the project “(1) Violates the county zoning code; (2) is incompatible with the County Comprehensive Plan and the State’s Growth Management Act; and (3) will have substantial and undue adverse impacts on the Griffin community.”

Other residents welcomed the possibility there might be built an athletic facility closer to home.

While the Board of the Griffin Neighborhood Association did not take a position either in favor of or against the project, they did note a number of inconsistencies in the plans and wrote in a memo to Association members that “confusion exists about the project details.” Early in the planning stages, Mr. Nicholson had approached the Board to describe what he had in mind. However, many on the Board at the time reported the plans discussed appeared to be so fluid as to be impossible to say exactly what it was Mr. Nicholson was actually going to build. Some expressed concerns over the long-term viability of the business being proposed for such large buildings.

In May, 2006, the County’s Hearing Examiner upheld the decision to approve the Special Use Permit and denied Mr. Lundin’s appeal against the County’s approval of the project. Although zoned Rural Residential, as is much of the land on our peninsula, the Hearing Examiner allowed to go forward plans to construct what he described as two buildings “proposed to be 35 feet in height.”

The Comprehensive Plan requires development to remain rural in character and to balance human uses with the natural environment, and it requires commercial uses to be small in scale for provision of convenience services to the surrounding rural neighborhood.

Following the Hearing Examiner’s decision, an appeal was filed with the County Commissioners. The size regulations for athletic facilities in the county were not in place at the time of the original application. Commissioner MacLeod abstained from voting “due to his concerns about the special use application and whether or not it was properly vested under the rules relied upon by the Hearing Examiner.” However, the two remaining Commissioners, Cathy Wolfe and Diane Oberquell, upheld the Hearing Examiner’s decision.

That’s where things ended back in July, 2006.

In October, 2009, Mr. Nicholson filed an amended application. This time the facility included a pro shop and a “café/deli.”

In the intervening years, little the public would be aware of appears to have been done with the parcel. That is, until a few weeks ago. That’s when the grading began. We now have received from the County a packet of materials with the latest site plans. The pro shop and café/deli are out. The County’s Amended Administrative Site Plan Review includes a copy of correspondence from the Public Works Department, dated this last March, and a memo from the Environmental Health Department, in April. A blank Administrative Appeal Application Form was also included.

The County is recommending approval of the permit and for the project to proceed. A nonrefundable fee of $1710 would be required to appeal the decision. Such an appeal would need to be filed by June 15.

Click here to peruse our archive of documents related to the Steamboat Island Athletic Club.

Watch this space for more information, as it becomes available.