Facebook1Tweet0Pin0 I love organization. I’m a sucker for finding more efficient ways to accomplish tasks. But, sometimes I dread the process of starting an organizing project. You know what I’m talking about… looking at the big pile of photos that should be categorized and put in albums and just feeling like it’s too overwhelming to even start. Or, the overstocked pantry that, if tidied, would mean everyone in the family can find a snack without a pile of pasta noodles falling on their head.So, when we looked back at all the stories we have created over the past two years, we realized that it’s sometimes hard to find a older story. Enter our new organizational system – all geared to make ThurstonTalk readers more efficient. Over the next few weeks, you will see new subheadings under our popular titles. Under Sports, we’re categorizing our stories by school district. In Activities, we’re breaking out articles about family adventures. In Featured Business, we’re organizing based on business function.Now, you can easily explore local stories about people, businesses and organizations. Feedback welcome at submit@thurstontalk.Listed below, in an easily organized fashion, are our reader’s favorite stories from this week. Read on…Thrifty Thurston – Olympia Farmers Market Opens April 4While the headline may give you all the information you need, I would encourage you to read the complete story. Check out what’s new at the Market this season (hint: new restaurant, farmers).Plan To Attend A 2013 Easter Egg Hunt In Olympia, Lacey Or TumwaterOur readers are planners. Our list of local Easter Egg Hunts has been skyrocketing to the top post every day. Get an Easter Egg Hunt on your calendar.Edgar Martinez Swings Into Olympia For Tequila FansEdgar Martinez visited Olympia on Saturday. Even though you may have missed him, tequila and Seattle Mariners fans alike will enjoy this read about his business venture.ThurstonTalk aims to be your source for positive information and events happening in Olympia. If you have a suggestion for a story, send us a note at submit@thurstontalk.com. For more events and to learn what’s happening in Olympia and the surrounding area, click here.
WSECU Uses Plastic Bag Ban as Springboard for Donation
Facebook15Tweet0Pin0Submitted by WSECU WSECU counts Olympia, Wash. and the surrounding Thurston County area as its home “neighborhood” – the location of the credit union’s corporate headquarters and greatest number of branches. When most of the county implemented a retail plastic bag ban July 1, WSECU used the change as a chance to get branded reusable bags into their members’ hands and donate to a local non-profit.Each local branch put out 100 of the WSECU shopping bags on a self-service table. The credit union asked members for a $1 donation per bag and then promised to match the money raised and donate it to Garden Raised Bounty (GRuB), an Olympia non-profit organization working on food sustainability issues with a particular emphasis on youth involvement.“It just hit me that we should capitalize on this ordinance change and in one fell swoop we could help members, market the credit union and support a great local partner,” said Ann Flannigan, WSECU’s Vice President of Public Relations. “We quickly distributed the bags to the branches and they just as quickly flew off the table.”The result? A $1,506.34 donation to GRuB.WSECU is increasingly implementing opportunities to give back to the community through its relationships with business partners. Asking the credit union’s members to participate in a similar way was new. Flannigan said she expects WSECU will continue to build on the success of this pilot effort.“Our members are community-minded,” Flannigan added. “They loved getting the bag and didn’t hesitate to pitch in to donate to GRuB. We are already thinking of what the next giveaway-donation promotion will be. It’s a powerful testimony of how by banking together we can do more together.”She added that seeing the WSECU name on bags around town at local grocery stores is the “icing on the cake.”Founded by seven state employees in 1957, WSECU has grown to 200,000 members, 20 branches and more than $2 billion in assets. With an unmatched dedication to members’ success, membership is now open to all residents of the state of Washington.
Adopt-A-Pet Dog of the Week: Diesel
Facebook32Tweet0Pin0Submitted by Adopt-A-PetMeet Diesel! He is a chatty, sweet, goofy, 4-year-old, seventy-five-pound, bundle of love. His coat is mostly white with attractive black markings. Diesel would do best in a home with no cats.Diesel is a goofy guy looking for a special home. Photo courtesy: Adopt-A-PetHis special dog friend, Chevy (who he was surrendered with) seems to be the only dog he likes. If you can provide him with a securely fenced yard, exercise, good food, and your loving time, he may be the perfect, good boy for you.Adopt-A-Pet has many great dogs and always need volunteers. To see all our current dogs, visit the Adopt-A-Pet website, our Facebook page or at the shelter on Jensen Road in Shelton. For more information, email thedoghouse3091@hotmail.com or call 360-432-3091.
Red Bank Community Garden Gets Growing
RED BANK – Councilwoman Kathleen Horgan and Red Bank Community Garden Committee Chairperson Liz Seydell have announced that the community garden on Marion Street will soon be ready to lease plots for the 2013 growing season.Applications for Red Bank residents to lease plots in the new Red Bank Community Garden will be available online on Jan. 15 on the borough’s website at www.redbanknj.org under the Parks and Recreation Department forms link. Forms also may be obtained in person at the Parks and Recreation Department office on the second floor of the Red Bank Borough Hall, 90 Monmouth St.Completed applications from Red Bank residents will be accepted beginning Feb. 15, on a first-come, first-serve basis. The fee to lease a plot for one growing season is $25 and must accompany the application. Multiple sizes are available. Plot sponsorships are also available.The Community Garden Committee has been working hard to secure donations and has received a $1,000 grant from the Garden Club of New Jersey’s Community Gardens Committee. The money comes from a Specialty Crop Block Grant awarded to this committee by the state Department of Agriculture and will be presented on Feb. 17 at the New Jersey Flower and Garden Show at Raritan Center in Edison. The borough garden was able to qualify for the grant through the sponsorship of the Navesink Garden Club of Red Bank.The committee also wants to thank Builders General in Little Silver for its commitment to donate fencing materials and Rysers Landscaping in Little Silver for its donation of topsoil.
Shrewsbury Mayor In Paris During Attacks
Deafening silence in his beloved city By John BurtonIt was a terrible ending to their French vacation for Mayor Donald Burden and his wife, Mary Lea, one which included a few days in their beloved Paris – coinciding with last week’s horrific terrorist attacks.The Burdens returned to the U.S. late on Sunday “Safe, exhausted, somewhat confused about all the happenings,” the mayor relayed to friends who expressed concern about the couple, knowing their travel plans, “and thinking about the innocent and the innocence of Paris.“Our hearts go out to all,” he said.By Saturday morning, in the aftermath of last Friday’s ISIS attacks that ultimately left 129 dead, Burden observed of Paris “It was almost ghostly quiet.” Disconcertingly so, he said. Paris is always a vibrant city, Burden explained, especially on Saturdays. In the Burdens’ experience during their many trips to Paris, Parisians and tourists on the weekends flock to the cafes and museums. Many of those spots were either closed or if open, vacant, Burden, noted. “Saturday night,” he recalled, “the entire town was dark,” and the streets were empty.“The City of Lights was in darkness.”Cathedrals were closed to the public following the terrorist attacks.Speaking with French citizens, there was a numbness, a shock among the city’s residents, he said. But there was also an anger and the beginnings of a resilience. “There was a sense of enough is enough,” Burden said. In addition, there was a sorrow with many apologizing to the American tourists. “They were saying ‘It’s too bad this had to happen while you were here,’” he said.The Burdens had spent much of the week in Provence, traveling by rail from Avignon on Thursday to Paris.This was the couple’s seventh trip to Paris, a city they have come to know and love. “The whole spirit of living, the grandeur,” of Paris, is what, in part, Burden said he really appreciated.“They have a greater sense of history than anywhere else. And the food is to die for,” he offered as other appealing qualities. “I probably know the museums of Paris” – where you don’t have one or two Monets, but dozens – “better than in New York,” Burden acknowledged.Burden, who is now retired, was working in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, during the World Trade Center terrorist attack, and there are similarities as well as differences between the experiences, he offered. While in New York that day 14 years ago, it was one location; here there were a number of sites, and that, along with the terrorist killings earlier this year, likely contributing to the confusion people were experiencing last weekend. “I think a lot of French people thought this wouldn’t happen again,” he suspected. But given that it had, “They were trying to figure out the connections,” among the targets.Leaving Paris security was incredibly tight, with “checkers and checkers checking checkers and checkers checking checkers and checkers,” as they made their way to their flight home after hours of precautions. When arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport, they again faced close security, with officials reviewing their passports and inspecting carry-on luggage before being able to disembark the plane – the first time Burden could remember that ever happening.They like to travel and Burden said they will again, of course. “I wouldn’t say we have reservations,” about future travel, he explained. “But I would say we would carefully consider our next destination.”But no reservations about again returning to Paris sometime. “It’s just a wonderful city,” he said.
Simon Lake: An Inventor, Not a Destination
By Rick GeffkenYou won’t find Simon Lake on a Monmouth County map. Mister Simon Lake was the inventor of the submarine. If you’re familiar with his name and fame, you still might be surprised to learn that his first under water excursions were in our very own Two Rivers. In 1894 Simon Lake piloted a wheeled wooden submersible along the bottom of Shrewsbury River. Yes, you read that correctly – it was a wooden submarine on wheels!Speaking at the Atlantic Highland Historical Society recently, video historian John Schneider told an intrigued audience how Simon Lake made undersea navigation possible. Lake’s is a story of ingenuity, persistence, disappointments, and ultimately success, tempered by delayed recognition.If you’ve ever had a meal at the Shore Casino or commuted to New York via the Seastreak Ferry you’ve been on Simon Lake Drive in Atlantic Highlands, named for the inventor. You may have seen the replica there of Lake’s Argonaut Junior, given to the town by the Atlantic Highlands Lions Club in 1994.Simon Lake was born in Pleasantville in 1866. His father was an inventor, as well as a developer of Atlantic City and Ocean City. But young Simon’s talents weren’t simply inherited. He developed his engineering skills working in his father’s foundry and machine shop. He was also captivated by the Nautilus submarine he read about in Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.” His prototype submarine was in fact named after the scientific name for nautilus, “argonauta.”This replica of SImon Lake’s Argonaut Junior sits in the Atlantic Highlands Harbor parking lot. It was given to the town by the Atlantic Highlands Lion Club in 1994.After working in Baltimore making winding gears for oyster boats, Simon Lake moved to Atlantic Highlands in 1893, primarily because its waterfront afforded him a shallow water lab for his experiments. He lived with his Uncle Somers Champion’s family on Bay View Avenue while he tinkered with rudimentary submarine designs. Coming to his nephew’s rescue, Somers Champion asked the Atlantic Highlands mayor and other dignitaries to sign a shingle. He attached it to a sash weight and threw it from the pier. The Argonaut Junior dove again. When Lake held the retrieved shingle up in front of the crowd, “Huzzahs!” and loud applause signaled his triumph. Nonetheless, most of the press reports labeled it a stunt with little real value, ridiculing the entire episode.The U.S. Navy was also not convinced Lake’s design was worthwhile. Competitor John Philip Holland was conducting submersible operations in Raritan Bay around the same time, and in 1897 his company was the first to win a government submarine contract. The thwarted Simon Lake began selling his submarines to a number of other countries in the first years of the 20th century, among them Austria, Germany, and Russia. Eventually the United States government did come around to Lake’s innovations when it bought his sub- marines during the buildup for World War I. Simon Lake’s enduring efforts won his company many Navy con- tracts over the years. In 1964, the Navy built submarine ten- ders in what was called the Simon Lake class. The USS Simon Lake serviced the fleet for an enviable 35 years, duplicating Lake’s own persistence. After his initial fits and starts, Simon Lake became a wealthy industrialist. The innovative naval architect explored other engineering interests. For more about his life, his companies, and his other inventions, readers can visit John Schneider’s site at JerseyBayshore.com.Video historian John Schneider demonstrating his filming techniques during his May 18th Atlantic Highlands Historical presentation on submarine inventor Simon Lake.So, how DO you get to Simon Lake? Simon Lake moved his company’s operations to Bridgeport on Long Island Sound in 1907. When he passed away in 1945, he was laid to rest where he lived during those years in Milford, Connecticut. You can visit his unassuming gravesite in the Kings Highway Cemetery.Simon Lake, adopted son of Atlantic Highlands, is acknowledged today as the Father of the Submarine.
Thomas Alva Edison Lake – the son Simon named in homage to another New Jersey inventor – wrote that his father’s Argonaut Junior was “built of pitch pine, as an inexpensive way to demonstrate his principles of submergence that would ultimately change the development of submarine technology. When submerged to a shallow seafloor, a diver’s door could be opened and he could retrieve articles or exit and re-enter the little 14- foot submarine by maintaining a pressurized compartment. A novel feature was the use of wheels to keep the vessel from getting stuck to the bottom and to provide mobility by the use of interior hand cranks.”In December 1894, Simon Lake and his cousin Bart Champion took the little craft to Blackfish Hole, a 20-foot deep stretch of the Shrewsbury/Navesink confluence, just off Rocky Point at Hartshorne Woods. Once submerged, the vehicle rode across the bottom of the river as the pair of, well, Argonauts, watched marine life swim past their porthole. Excited with this success, Lake was confident the United States government couldn’t help but be interested in this new technology, if he could get it to the Navy’s attention.Lake came up with a way to generate the positive publicity he needed a few weeks later. In front of dozens of newspaper reporters and a large crowd in Atlantic Highlands, Lake took the Argonaut Junior to the bottom of the harbor and surfaced with a handful of starfish and clamshells. Skeptical observers murmured that objects had been stowed on board ahead of time.
Preliminary Decision on Power Line Project Nears
By Jay Cook |MIDDLETOWN – In less than two weeks, Office of Administrative Law Judge Gail M. Cookson will have everything she needs to make a preliminary decision on a powerline project that’s electrified 17 months of opposition from a citizen’s action group.After a 45-day deliberation period, Cookson will make the first major ruling for the Monmouth County Reliability Project (MCRP), a 10-mile, 230-kV transmission line proposed by Jersey Central Power & Light Co. The $111 million project is designed to run along the NJ Transit North Jersey Coast Line from Aberdeen to Red Bank through Hazlet, Holmdel and Middletown.Cookson recommendation to either approve or deny the MCRP will go to the state Board of Public Utilities for a final determination, expected sometime around the new year and the inauguration of New Jersey’s next governor.The MCRP has met stiff opposition from Residents Against Giant Electric (RAGE), a resident’s group organized in June 2016. RAGE met with reporters and elected officials at a press conference on Oct. 30 at the Middletown Public Library.“If this new line is built, we’d feel the pain of it every single day. And First Energy would get our money for it every single day,” said RAGE president Rachael Kanapka, referring to JCP&L’s parent company.Need for the MCRP stems from a violation at JCP&L’s Red Bank Substation where significant power would be lost if two transmission lines on a single structure failed. Kanapka said RAGE and its experts have come up with a less expensive, less intrusive plan to combat the MCRP.Designed and tested by RAGE expert and electrical engineer P. Jeffrey Palermo, the plan calls for installing two STATCOM devices at the Red Bank substation, and additionally upgrading 11 34.5-kV lines leaving the station. The anticipated cost? $30 million – or $81 million less than JCP&L’s proposal.“Compare that to the invasive and dangerous and expensive transmission line that JCP&L is proposing to fix the same exact problem,” Kanapka said.Ron Morano, a JCP&L spokesman, said the utility company has gone above and beyond in proving the MCRP’s need. JCP&L representatives have said the project will benefit 214,000 Monmouth County customers.“We strongly disagree with RAGE’s proposed alternative to the Monmouth County Reliability Project,” Morano wrote in an email to The Two River Times. “The ‘alternative’ proposed by RAGE would be more expensive to construct, more disruptive to JCP&L’s customers in Monmouth County, and result in a less robust electrical system than the MCRP.”“JCP&L has provided a significant amount of expert testimony in support of the need for this Project,” Morano continued. “The testimony regarding need was from both the Company as well as PJM.” PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization overseeing electrical grids in 13 states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.Since RAGE fundraising began last year, the group has raised and spent about $450,000 in efforts to combat the MCRP. RAGE leadership said that number is anticipated to rise, depending on legal outcomes. Middletown, Hazlet, Holmdel, and Aberdeen have also joined together to fund a municipal defense team, represented by Bevan, Mosca & Giuditta, P.C.“That’s a big chunk of change and a big sacrifice from a lot of taxpayers,” said RAGE treasurer Stephen Lunanova.At the press conference, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ-6) and state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-11) took issue with JCP&L’s actions since the MCRP was announced, charging the utility company has used ratepayer dollars to fund a falsified campaign.Pallone, a ranking member of the House of Representative’s Energy and Commerce Committee, questioned JCP&L’s discourse.“Why can they spend ratepayers’ money, our money, to lobby on behalf of this line, when on the other hand you have to spend your own money to take the opposite point of view?” he asked.Beck, who represents only one of the five towns – Red Bank – called for an investigation into JCP&L’s “libelous practices and slanderous information” over the past year and a half.“It’s wrong information, and they’re presenting to the public something that is false. And they should be fined and sued and we should hold them accountable for misrepresenting this project to our residents,” said Beck. “If the Board of Public Utilities is unwilling to take this up, unwilling to conduct an investigation, then I will call on the Attorney General to do so.”Responding to Beck’s comments, Morano said, “Rhetoric such as that is unfortunate.”Depending on which side it favors, the MCRP could reach the state Appellate Division after final decisions later next year. But Kanapka doubled-down on her comments, challenging the utility’s project.“JCP&L’s proposal to build this line is at its best incompetent and weak, and at its worst, deviant, underhanded and greedy,” she said.This article was first published in the Nov. 2-9, 2017 print edition of The Two River Times.
Leafs back on top of Murdoch after scoring narrow win in Spokane
Marcus Beesley was in goal to register his third win in four games after coming to Nelson in a trade with the Kamloops Storm.The win allows Nelson to regain sole possession of top spot Murdoch Division, two points ahead of the idle Castlegar Rebels. The Rebels have a game in hand.Nelson returns to action Friday when Spokane pays a return visit to the NDCC Arena.The game is the first of a three-game home weekend for the Leafs.Saturday Nelson hosts Grand Forks before concluding the trio of games Sunday against Revelstoke Grizzlies. The Nelson Leafs took care of business in a place the Green and White have not had an easy time getting points.Four different players scored to pace the Leafs to a 4-3 victory over the Spokane Braves in Kootenay International Junior Hockey League action Sunday in the Lilac City.Dustin Reimer, Cole Arcuri, Aaron Dunlap and James Sorrey scored for the Leafs.
Saints take show on the road following 6-1 rout of UVic
With two straight wins at home, the Selkirk College Saints will now take their grit and intensity on the road for the next month.The Saints earned two important British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) points on Saturday night with an impressive 6-1 victory over the University of Victoria Vikes before a solid home crowd at the Castlegar & District Recreation Complex.
Balfour pro Craig Wilkinson golfs to fight ALS
Balfour Golf Club professional Craig Wilkinson is a great supporter of finding a cure for ALS.So much, that last week (June 26) Wilkinson golfed 200 holes in the sunrise to sunset fundraiser to support of those living with ALS, playing for 11 hours, 27 minutes, and 26 seconds to achieve the mark. Wilkinson began the day at 6 a.m., finished with six round scores of 69, 70, 73, 74, 68, 68 along with 46 birdies. “I always find myself looking forward to the PGA of BC Golfathon for ALS each June,” said Wilkinson, Head Golf Professional at Balfour.“The support that we as an association are able to provide to individuals and families in British Columbia who suffer with ALS is something that we all should be very proud of. I very much look forward to 2018 which will mark my 10th year as a participant and supporter of this great cause.” Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects the person’s motor neurons that carry messages to the muscles resulting in weakness and wasting in arms, legs, mouth, throat and elsewhere; typically the person is immobilized within two to five years of the initial diagnosis. There is no known cause or cure yet, but there is hope through the ALS Society of BC. Proceeds from the Golfathon for ALS provide crucial support services to ALS patients and their families, friends, and caregivers. Help support your local golf professionals to raise awareness and funds for the ALS Society of BC.
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