Septemeber 2008 - Labor Day Edition

This is the html version of the IndexWa.org newsletter.  Sent to a WHOPPING 48 subscribers monthly (well, most of the time). Hey, we never claimed to be big.

Approximate Site Hits for August 2008 - 57,000 - 60,000.

In this issue:

Greetings from IndexWa.org:

: We would like to welcome Moon Mullens, owner of The Rose Hill Manor in Index - http://www.therosehillmanor.com.  She has graciously taken a supporter spot on IndexWa.org.  If you are looking for a place to stay for a few days or for a vacation rental, as always, please support our advertisers.  They help us make IndexWa.org happen.

As promised, we uploaded a few pictures of our Mossyrock outing.  Only a few though as most of them are more of the personal nature and would mean nothing to others.  There is a view of the property, the cabin we stay in, a sunset, a sunrise and one or two more.  They can be viewed on the blog at our website IndexWa.org.

Oh, and yeah!  We had a great time.  It was my turn to cook on Saturday and of course there were about 30 people to BBQ for and it was 105 degrees!!!  I was soaked and a shower with the humidity the way it was just did not cut it.  But fun was had none the less.

On August 4, the County Council contributed $700,000 toward the purchase of the Buse property on Heybrook Ridge to create our county’s newest park. That put the Friends of Heybrook Ridge effort over the top, with the new, lower price of $1.2 million met. The sale will close by mid-September. Congratulations to all who supported this effort!

For those who have not yet made a donation to the Friends, it’s not too late – County Parks is depending on us to help fund trail development and purchase of interpretive signage. This will benefit the public and the many school classes from elementary through college, invited to visit the new park to learn about our area’s cultural and natural history. Please pick up a brochure and donation form by the museum door or go to our website www.heybrookridge.org to donate online. We hope to see all of our supporters at our celebration party on Saturday, Oct. 4, from 2:00 p.m. until evening, featuring good food and Rib Horst’s bluegrass band at Outdoor Adventures/Wave Trek’s RiverHouse in Index.

Our story has been told through numerous media outlets from the Monroe Monitor features, Seattle Times and P-I, KSER and KOMO radio, and television coverage on KCTS, KING, KOMO, and FOX news. See the website for a video and links to media.

During the Evergreen Fair the Index Historical Society featured an exhibit about the past and our history-making Heybrook effort at the Western Heritage Center’s new addition (near the east gate). The historical society continues to document the important changes for our town as they happen, knowing that today’s actions become tomorrow’s “history.” Thank you, citizens of Index, for bringing our community to one of the most important, revitalizing, turning points in its history.

Louise Lindgren, President, Friends of Heybrook Ridge

You know the old saying, politics make strange bed fellows.  Two things I normally avoid is politics and religion.  Everybody has their views and some folks are just plain passionate about their view and it is the only view that is right.

One of the things we want to avoid on IndexWa.org is the latter BUT, just for fun we put a poll up on the blog.  A real simple question.  Who will win the governors race?  Gregoire or Rossi.

Come on over and cast your vote.  You do not need to be logged in to vote and we don't track who voted.  The poll closes at midnight November 1st.

:( But The Index Eagle Is On Its Way

Leigh has been busy and I am lazy which brings us to the next tidbit.

I have been trying to get the Index Eagle going on the website for a year.  Leigh has a stash (a big stash I might add) of the old Index Eagle's.  She was doing her spring/summer cleaning and stumbled upon some of the oldies dating back to 1991.  On the 23rd of August much to my surprise, she dropped by and gave me a container full of the Eagles (thank goodness not all of them).

Since we do not yet have an author for the Eagle, we got permission from Bob Hubbard to post his writings, but looking over the articles, they are pretty much public domain so, I will scan some of the Eagle's in as well as a few snippets from other articles and get them posted as soon as I can.

Even though they are aged, they are an excellent read and give a lot of insight to the Town of Index as well as the mind of the authors. We will send out a notice as soon as the first one appears.  Subscribers of News As It Happens will be the first to know.

Please keep in mind, even though these items are public PLEASE do not copy them to another website without our written permission.  Linking is fine as long as you do not eat up our bandwidth.

Let us know what you think of the writings when they appear.

PS - August 24, 2008 - Just moments ago we received permission from Dr. David A. Cameron to also post his articles from the Index Historical Society, which we did right away.  If you are a subscriber to News As It Happens, you were notified right away of this post.  If you are not subscribed to News As It Happens, you may do so now by clicking this link - http://www.indexwa.org/mail/lists/.  You may be on the Newsletter List as well as News As It Happens.  The Newsletter is a monthly publication (time permitting) and News As it Happens is just that.  If something comes our way that we think you would be interested in, we ship it out ASAP.  This can equate to nothing one month or several in one week, depending on the issues that come up.
 

If you happen to have a nose for news, let us know.  Do you have a local tidbit for the NewsLetter?  Drop us a line and we will try to get it posted in time for the next news letter.  No advertisements please, just good old fashion news that locals and others will be interested in.

The state added rumble strips to HWY2 from Monroe to Skykomish (hmmmm, I have not been to Skykomish since they have been added so I "guess" it is at least that far) Skykomish. The project was completed about two months or so ago.

Since that time there have been two more deaths on our highway.  One from an illegal left turn turn over a double line where the left hand turn person was rear-ended and pushed into oncoming traffic in front of a motorcycle resulting in the bikers death.  The other was a head on near Fern Bluff Road.

The left hand turn death was human stupidity.  The head on crash is what the rumble strips are supposed to help prevent.

I have seen people hit the strips and they over correct when they feel the vibration and hear the noise.

In my opinion they do no good.  The best thing to do is pay attention to the dang road.  Granted, there is not much you can do if you are just feet away from a car and they suddenly appear in your lane but I do wonder if those strips do any good?

If you have an opinion, go to our blog and click on the Contact Us link and send us your opinion.  We will post some of the responses in our next news letter (that is if we get any responses).

The Town Council meets monthly on the first Monday of the month.  Due to the holiday on the 1st Monday in September, the meeting will be held on the first Tuesday.

Hope to see you there.

Don't forget.  You are subscribed to the IndexWa.org Newsletter.  We added NEWS AS IT HAPPENS for those interested in keeping up to date on any news that comes our way during the month.  August produced 2 short articles for News As It Happens.

To add this subscription to your repertoire , click on the link at the bottom to UPDATE YOUR PREFERENCES. You will be transported to the section of the site to add or delete subscriptions.

Have a safe and fun Labor Day.

This Months Quote: I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein-

Ed

PS - as a subscriber to IndexWa.org, you may hit REPLY to comment on anything in the newsletter.  Please do not quote the complete newsletter, only the piece you are responding about.  We have read the entire newsletter already. (grin)