Pet owners who fail to obtain pet licenses now face fines, and King County Regional Animal Services officers are providing additional patrols throughout Kent to enforce the new rules which went into effect Oct. 1.
The fines - $125 for a spayed or neutered pet; $250 for an unaltered pet - come along with changes in license fees, which help support the costs of providing animal care and control for Kent and 26 other cities.
Starting quarterback Charles McCullum plans to return next season to the Kent Predators of the professional Indoor Football League.
McCullum is one of more than a dozen players who recently signed with Kent. The Predators open their IFL second season Feb. 25 at the ShoWare Center.
A King County Superior Court jury in Kent found Edward Earl Cobb guilty Nov. 4 of first-degree murder for shooting a Renton teen in 2008 at a Kent fast-food restaurant.
Kent Police arrested a 30-year-old Kent man Nov. 4 for investigation of attempted murder and first-degree assault in connection with a Sept. 30 shooting that injured two men at a Panther Lake area apartment complex.
The men, a 38-year-old Renton man and a 37-year-old resident of the Country Squire Apartments, 10835 S.E. 200th St.
Kent Police chaplain Pat Ellis loves his job.
“I’ve been a chaplain for about 10 years for Kent Police and I’ve been with Kent Fire for about six years,” the affable former youth pastor recalled. “It’s very intense sometimes, and very stressful, but I really, really like helping people. It’s a really unique position to be in, to bring that comfort, care and compassion to people in trauma.”
Thanks to the late Kent Police officer Greg Duffin, Ellis had a special opportunity to do even more.
He helped Duffin, who was fighting cancer, in developing what eventually became the nonprofit Cops With Cancer organization.
For his efforts to help the police community and to bring the Kent community together to help, Ellis will be the recipient of a Rotary-Sunrise Service Above Self Award.
Along with five other recipients (including one couple), Ellis will receive the honor during the Rotary-Sunrise annual dinner auction 5:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Kent ShoWare Center.
Large catering dinners have started to bring a much-needed revenue boost to the ShoWare Center in Kent, but the city-owned arena continues to lose money during its second year of operation due to low attendance and a lack of events.
Ballots are still arriving in the mail at King County Elections, however most of the ballots postmarked by the Election Day deadline have been delivered, totaling more than 762,000.
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr likens her dilemma to operating a hospital.
With $7.2 million to pare from her agency’s budget next year, it will be like “eliminating all preventative care and operating only an emergency room,” she said.
Having already cut $10 million out of her budget in the last three years, Rahr said, “the cumulative effect is huge.”
As much as the political shakeup on the federal level seems under way on election night, so too are shakeups going down on the local level.
As of Tuesday night, two incumbents appeared to be losing to their challengers in the 47th district.
The Kentridge High School community will have a chance to say goodbye to one of its own next week.
A memorial service has been scheduled for Devin Topps, the former Kentridge athletic standout who died Oct. 31 after gunfire outside a house party in Kent. The service will take place 10 a.m. Nov. 11 at the New Beginnings Christian Fellowship Worship and Family Life Center, 19300 108th Ave. S.E., Kent.
Many questions still remain as the Kent Police try to figure out what led to an argument, fight and the shooting death early Sunday of Devin Topps, 18, a former Kentridge High School student-athlete.
But police do not believe whoever shot Topps went after him specifically.
Kent Police detectives continued to follow up on a number of promising leads Monday while attempting to identify the person responsible for an early morning shooting Sunday that killed Devin Topps, a former Kentridge High School student-athlete.
Topps, 18, was shot and killed outside a house party in northeast Kent.
Ballots are being returned at a steady rate to King County Elections where Election Day results are expected to set a new mail ballot record. With more than 400,000 ballots already returned, Elections staff have been busy processing ballots and officials expect to report on about 350,000 votes cast in the first set of election results.
Drivers in the Kent Valley will want to avoid 76th Avenue South between South 212th Street and South 222nd Street because of water over the roadway.
The murder trial of a Seattle man accused of shooting a Renton teenager in 2008 at a Kent fast-food restaurant continues this week at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
King County prosecutors rested their case Oct. 26 against Edward Earl Cobb, 20. Cobb is charged with first-degree murder for shooting Chezaray Bacchus, 17, on July 12, 2008 at the Arby's restaurant along East Smith Street.
Kent Police are investigating the early morning shooting death of a local man that took place outside a house party in north Kent Sunday.
Police were sent to the 20000 block of 92nd Avenue South at 2:05 a.m. for a report of gunfire in the area. Once on location, police found the victim lying in the street next to his truck, mortally wounded.
It frustrates Doug Hill as he walks along the shoulder of the Green River Road in south Kent to see blackberries growing through the guardrail.
That’s one of the reasons Hill wants to help out the city of Kent by joining its new volunteer Green Kent program that starts up in December.
“There are not enough people to see all of these places much less take care of it,” said Hill as he uses a machete to slash away blackberry vines along a shoulder overseen by the city of Kent public works department under the South 277th Street overpass.
Hill fits the type of person Kent park officials want to become Green Kent stewards. In that capacity, stewards will help restore more than 1,100 acres of public lands over the next 20 years. The program, developed in a city partnership with the Cascade Land Conservancy, kicks off with an orientation meeting Dec. 4 for anyone interested in becoming a steward.
Kent resident Doug Scharnhorst thinks the city needs to fund a railroad crossing construction project so train engineers no longer have to blow their horns as the locomotive speeds through downtown.
Scharnhorst has lived 15 years in the Mill Creek neighborhood, just east of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks.
“They go through town all hours of the day and night,” Scharnhorst said. “It’s loud.”
Scharnhorst wants the city to include what’s known as the railroad quiet zone project in the 2011 budget. He testified before the Council at a Sept. 21 public hearing and shared the reasons he supports the project during a phone interview.
The City Council has a second public hearing for comments about the budget at 5 p.m. Nov. 2 at City Hall.
As the visitors walked through the greeting line Tuesday in the Kent ShoWare Center, Arthur Fujii stood at relaxed attention with fellow members of Troop 474.
Uniform pressed, and wearing the neckerchief his father had as a boy, Fujii was a model Boy Scout, quietly greeting each guest and handing them a program overviewing the afternoon’s activities.
The murder trial of a Seattle man accused of shooting a Renton teenager in 2008 at a Kent fast-food restaurant continues this week at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
King County prosecutors rested their case Oct. 26 against Edward Earl Cobb, 20. Cobb is charged with first-degree murder for shooting Chezaray Bacchus, 17, on July 12, 2008 at the Arby's restaurant along East Smith Street.
