Auburn Police continue to interview friends, colleagues and relatives of Seth Frankel as well as search through physical evidence in an effort to find out who might have killed the Kent city employee.
Frankel, 41, a video program coordinator for the city, was found dead May 22 lying on the floor of his Auburn home in the 100 block of D Street Northwest.
The Kent City Council on Tuesday agreed with Mayor Suzette Cooke to keep the city’s popular neighborhood-council program rather than drop it as part of its 2010 budget reductions.
Cooke and John Hodgson, chief administrative officer, worked with city staff to find another $237,000 in savings for the rest of the year as part a budget reduction of nearly $7 million from the original general fund budget of $80 million.
The hallways and offices of Kent City Hall turned somber this week after the death of city employee Seth Frankel.
Frankel, 41, a video program coordinator for the city since 2007, was found dead May 22 lying on the floor of his Auburn home in the 100 block of D Street Northwest.
The King County Medical Examiner's Office conducted an autopsy Monday, and ruled the cause of death as "incised wounds of the neck and hands," and the manner of death as homicide. A spokesman for the medical examiner listed the date of death as May 21.
The Kent city hearing examiner on May 18 approved a conditional-use permit application by the city planners to add an off-leash dog park at Morrill Meadows Park on the East Hill.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she has only just begun to fight for federal money to repair the Howard Hanson Dam and protect the Green River Valley from flooding.
King County prosecutors filed charges May 17 of theft of a motor vehicle and attempting to elude police against a 34-year-old man in connection with the May 12 theft of a pickup truck and a 15-mile chase with Kent Police before he was caught.
Fees for transportation impacts, business licenses and vehicle-license registrations all could be part of a funding package the Kent City Council may tap for funding city street projects.
Jessica Nawar compares going to the Kent School District's VisFest Film and Game Festival to attending one of the high school's drama productions.
"It's like going to a play at a school to see acting, only you're going to see what students can do with technology," said Nawar, a Kentwood High School senior and a member of the VisFest student advisory board, during a May 14 interview. "They (festival attendees) would have a lot of fun seeing what everyone from elementary to high school students are making."
VisFest is short for "Visual Literacy Arts Festival." The district started the event in 2002 to give students an outlet to display their creative and artistic visual-literacy talents to fellow students, teachers and the community.
Representatives from four Kent Neighborhood Councils told the City Council Tuesday to dump any idea of cutting the neighborhood program as part of proposed city budget cuts.
The Council discussed potential reductions in the neighborhood program at a May 10 budget workshop. The Council has not yet formally voted on any proposed cuts for the rest of 2010 in order to reduce the budget by nearly $7 million. That vote is expected to be taken before the end of June, said Council President Jamie Perry.
It was an afternoon of surprises for the winners of the annual Kent Senior Activity Center volunteers and senior citizen of the year awards.
It pleased Warren Nance that Kent city officials came out May 11 to the soon-to-be annexed Panther Lake area to present an open house about what services the city offers.
"This is a good start with public outreach," said Nance, who has lived 16 years in Panther Lake in unincorporated King County, during an interview at the event. "This is very beneficial."
Nearly 200 residents attended the open house at the Kentridge High School library to find out more about city of Kent programs and services. The annexation becomes effective July 1.
Claude French, Owen Taylor and Morris “Red” Badgro are not household names to most Kent residents.
But the names soon become familiar after a tour of the Kent football history exhibit at the Kent Historical Museum. The exhibit is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through June 18.
The Kent City Council approved an ordinance May 4 to allow a proposed East Hill commercial development on the southern edge of town.
Kent vehicle owners might be charged an annual $10 to $20 vehicle license registration fee as the City Council tries to come up with new ways to fund city street projects.
Kent city officials have decided to keep Safe Havens, the Kent-based domestic-violence visitation and exchange center, open for at least the rest of year and will continue to pursue a long-term operator for the facility.
The financial woes for the ShoWare Center in Kent continued in the first three months of this year.
"We are $84,000 in the hole," said Patrick McClusky, ShoWare finance director, at a Thursday meeting of the Public Facilities District board.
There were a few doubts in Pam Cressey's mind about whether her Kentlake High School drama club students could make the characters in the musical "South Pacific" seem real.
But the students quickly erased those doubts after the opening weekend of shows.
The count of ballots through May 4 shows voters in Kent, King County Fire District 37 and Covington are overwhelming approving Proposition No. 1 to form a regional fire authority that would merge the Kent Fire Department and Fire District 37.
Safe Havens, the Kent-based domestic violence visitation and exchange center, will close for at least one week as Kent city officials decide whether enough private donations have come in to keep the facility going for the rest of the year.
More than 200 Waste Management garbage haulers voted May 2 to ratify a new five-year contract between Teamsters Local 174 and Waste Management.
