Here’s a great way to usher in the holidays for Northshore’s kids of all ages. The 18th annual Rotary Santa Breakfast, sponsored by the Northshore Rotary Club and the Woodinville Rotary Club, will be held Dec. 13 at Northshore Junior High.
A festive breakfast will be prepared and served by the Rotarians from 8-11 a.m., amid the singing of Christmas carols, face painting, balloon art, pictures with Santa and gifts for the kids. Volunteers from the local high schools will participate in serving and entertaining the kids.
Live music will be provided by students of the Music Project at Secondary Academy for Success. Members of the Woodinville Rotary Club will help size and distribute brand new coats as part of the club’s annual Operation Warm project.
Tickets are $3 per person and are available at Banner Bank in downtown Bothell and Ostrom’s Drug in Kenmore. A number of donated tickets from the clubs are available at Northshore district elementary schools.
Gift idea
How about this Christmas holiday gift idea for local history buffs? Ever wonder where the Zesto was located in Bothell or who the first woman postmistress might have been? The answers are in the just-released book complete with DVD, “Then and Now,” produced by the Bothell Landmark Preservation Board. The 164-page table-top pictorial covers Bothell business, public and residential landmarks — providing a valuable visual record of buildings and institutions as they appeared over the years from 1909 to 2009. Available for $20 at City Hall and at the Greater Bothell Chamber of Commerce offices. We hope you’ll be able to get a copy at local Buy Bothell First outlets before long.
To see what the Paul Richards clothier business building looked like in the 1940s, for instance, turn to page 42. A 1913 photo of the Bothell Cornet Band will be found on page 155. It’s published as a fitting keepsake of Bothell’s centennial observance of the city’s incorporation in 1909.
Undecided still
The governor’s office projects that state revenues over the next 2 ½ years will fall nearly $6 billion short of the current state spending levels. It’s being called a budget deficit. Meanwhile, lawmakers from Snohomish County are unable to decide whether a third University of Washington branch campus should be located in Everett or Marysville.
To date, more than $2 million has been spent in the “siting” process, and the state even devoted a paltry $100,000 to “negotiate” a settlement on this heated disagreement. One legislator said the state should forge ahead with establishing a “franchise” and let the eventual site decision take its course.
Am I missing something? Shouldn’t our fast-depleting state resources first be allocated to fulfill the ability for the UW-Bothell branch to expand course offerings and reach its enrollment potential? A billion-dollar project in Snohomish County versus filling the enrollment capacity at UW-Bothell? Not to mention that selected community colleges are exploring the possibility of adding bachelor degree programs similar to those offered at the traditional four-year state colleges?
Noteworthy
Retired Army colonel Bob Mathews celebrated his 90th birthday Dec. 8. The day prior — the anniversary of the storied Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — family, friends and admirers attended a birthday reception at the Foundation House in Bothell. A native of Idaho, “Colonel Bob” served combat tours in France in World War II and in the Korean conflict in the early 1950s. He was a paratrooper, participating in the D-Day landing in June of 1944. Bob established a scholarship in memory of his late wife, Pat, directed to a Northshore School District staff person interested in securing teaching credentials.
John Hughes was owner-publisher of the Northshore Citizen from 1961 to 1988 and is active in local nonprofit organizations.
