$70,000 cargo stolen from errant trucker
Not having the right license can be expensive, a truck driver found.
The State Patrol stopped the driver on Interstate 90 near Highway 18 about 6:30 a.m. Monday. The driver was hauling a small excavator with several attachments on a trailer, and one of the attachments had come loose.
Then a trooper found the driver didn’t have a commercial-vehicle endorsement for his driver’s license, so he was cited for that as well as for failing to secure the load. He was ordered to park the trailer and get the correct paperwork.
The driver left the trailer and equipment at a truck scale, said Trooper Jeff Merrill, patrol public-information officer. When he returned Wednesday, the 2006 Caterpillar excavator was gone. Thieves had unloaded the $70,000 piece of equipment, put it on another trailer, along with five chains holding it, and fled.
The excavator is owned by Paradise Landscape of Duvall.
Duvall
Fire destroys home; occupant escapes
A home in the 10500 block of West Snoqualmie Valley Road near Duvall was destroyed by fire early Friday morning, but the single occupant escaped without injuries.
The fire was reported about 3 a.m., said Capt. Glenn Huffman of Eastside Fire & Rescue’s North Bend station. The blaze started as a chimney fire.
When firefighters arrived at the small home, it was engulfed in flames. Eleven fire units from Eastside Fire & Rescue, as well as the Duvall, Redmond and Fall City fire departments, responded to the blaze, Huffman said.
Northshore
Another vote needed on new fire station
It was close, but the Northshore Fire Department will have to try again for voter approval of a new station.
The $27 million levy proposal was on the Aug. 21 primary-election ballot, and initial returns showed the measure passed. But in final certification calculations this month, figures showed the measure failed because not enough people went to the polls.
While the proposal received a 73 percent approval from those who voted, state law also required that at least 5,849 ballots be cast to validate the proposal.
Only 5,782 valid ballots were received. That left a shortfall of 67 votes.
Election officials also challenged or rejected 124 ballots, including 83 mail-in ballots that were not postmarked on or before election day.
The department had acquired land for a new station in downtown Kenmore, and construction was expected to start next summer.
Department commissioners are planning to resubmit the proposal to voters in a spring election.
Seattle Times Eastside bureau