Black Diamond NOW

Are New Health Care Clinics Good Or Bad For Our Community?

Ok, after a self imposed short hiatus, I am feeling the need to for more charts, graphs and data.  But bear with me on this one - these data raise some very interesting questions.  One of my favorite bloggers, Matthew Yglasias, has recently moved to Slate which I have also followed for many years now.  What the data seem to be saying is that the more services that are available to us and the closer these services are, the greater consumers of medical services we will be.  But - is there a correlation between being greater consumers of medical services and outcomes?  This is the real fundamental question and the jury remains out. 

Perhaps the biggest trend these days is to locate emergency medical services in suburban areas.  St. Elizabeth's hospital in Enumclaw recently opened a world class facility right in our back yard.  Believe me, I've seen their new facility and it's great.  Now we have Multi-Care in Covington also expanding facilities and will soon open their new 24 hr. emergency medicine services wing.  Currently, urgent care is only available during regualr business hours.  And somehow, many of us still find ourselves paying taxes to support Valley Medical Center, which is also trying to add new emergency services in our area.  With Multi-Care and St. Elizabeth's, why should we be required to pay taxes to support Valley??  Perhaps one of these days I'll have time enough to take on this cause for our community - but not now.

Why are all of these new emergency medical services being offered here?  Because they pay off.  But do they really result in better outcomes?  That's the big question and the data doesn't yet support the premise that the more available these services become locally, the better the outcomes.  We do know, however, that costs go up the more we "consume" of these services and the more local these services are, the more consumption of services there will be.  Since both our daughter and son-in-law are emergency medicine physicians in northern California, this issue leads to some interesting conversations. 

Who says that free market economics are not driving the medical establishment - unless you are a tax subsidized Valley Medical Center that we just don't need?

Fire District 44 Santa Food Drive

Have fun and support a great cause.

Leftovers For Your Pets - Or Not

(Photo: A holiday reminder via Reddit)

One enduring impression I have from my own doorbelling experience two years ago was becoming more aware of all of the pets in our community.  The number of households with two or more pets really surprised me and few homes were without any. 

As the signs say, be careful what table scraps we give them.  Apparently turkey bones and nuts are the worst, particularly walnuts and macadamia nuts.  Dogblogtimes.com says, "Within twelve hours of eating the nuts, dogs can start to develop symptoms such as an inability to stand, ataxia (walking wobbly), depression, vomiting, muscle tremors, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), weakness and an elevated heart rate. Usually the symptoms go away within 48 hours but the weakness, vomiting and fear can lead to dangerous, and sometimes deadly, shock."  Scary.

Crummy Weather - Take At Hike In The Park

Lake Sawyer Regional Park is one of our community's real jewels.  With over 168 Acres Of Open Space, it's a great place to get out and about whatever the weather.  For those who have not been there yet, a parking area was established about 18 months ago with a great trail that leads you down to the lake.  No more need to disturb residents living along 312th by parking in the street.  The parking area is located just east of the Lake Sawyer Black Diamond road between Lake Sawyer Christian Church and the Lake Sawyer Elementary school.  Take advantage of this unique area asset and brighten your day.

Trail to the lake.

Frog lake during the fall, right below one of the two eagles' nests.

Thunderbirds Hockey - Pretty Fun

How many of you have never been to a hockey game before?  Me for one prior to this last weekend.  The Seattle Thunderbirds (one level below the NHL) play at the Showare Center in Kent, right next door to Kent Station.  For some reason, hockey has never been on my radar screen, but with grand kids in town, we thought we would give it a try.  Seeing hockey on the tube just doesn't do it for me.  However, live and in person, it's a very different game and quite exciting.  These guys are so athletic - fast, agile and strong.  Seating about 6,000, the Showare Center is also a wonderful facility and the place was packed.  We heard the chant "Portland Sucks" more than enough (for the opposition Portland Winterhawks) but hey, our grand kids were more than happy to join in the chorus and Seattle won 6 to 3.  Looking for something new to do over the holiday season - get your tickets and have fun.

Green River Flooding - Not A Current Risk, At Least For Now

Following are copies of today's Green River flows and water levels as posted by the USGS.  Even with all of the recent rain, it does not appear that we face any current flood risks.  The dam is being operated at up to full capacity and current discharge levels are well below flood risk - even lower than is typical for this time of year.  One curious observation, however, is the degree to which dam release volumes have been varied significantly in the recent week by the Corps of Engineers.  Interesting.

 

Miner's Picnics - And A Young Gomer Evans

Photo courtesy of Bill Kombol, Palmer Coking Coal and Gomer Evans, circa 1952 at Flaming Geyser State Park

Did miners ever party?  Absolutely.  Each summer, coal and clay mining companies would host a miners picnic filled with games, libations and leasure, according to Bill Kombol.  The above photo shows the Evan & Mickey Johnson Coal Mining Company's miners picnic in 1952. For more information on this mine, follow these links to Hiking To The Old Johnson Coal & Clay Mine and The Johnson Clay Mine

The following miners have been identified:  Back row from left to right: Gene Barnes, Harry Rossi, Dick Wetton, Pete Cartright, Gomer Evans Jr., Mickey Johnson, Frank Costi, unknown, Enoch Johnson, Ed Johnson, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, Dewey?, George Savicke (pouring beer), unknown, unknown, Paul Botts, unknown.  Front row kneeling from left to right:  Jack Darby (pouring beer), unknown, Roy Darby, Joe Wilsco, Bill Parkins.  So many familiar names from our community's wonderful history.  Gomer - always the handsome and tall guy.  The swimming suits were not exactly speedos but brief they were. 

To hear Gomer tell the stories, partying was not just limited to an annual picnic.  The wash-house tended to be party central.  From what I am told, miners wore their street clothes to the wash-house every day, then changed into their mining clothes hung from the roof.  At the end of the day, mining clothes were shed, re-hung and showers had before changing back into everyday clothes before heading home.  But on some days there was also a little hootch or other libations to be had before heading home.  For more of our illustrious history, follow these links to Why So Many Plum Trees In Black Diamond and Black Mary - Bootlegging Queen of Black Diamond.  Gomer of course went home before the partying began.  Very fun!

For more about coal miner's picnics, follow this link to HistoryLink.org and type in Miners Picnic in the search box.

Odds & Ends

• UnExercise - Not a real word but very descriptive of what I observe in the exercise club parking lot.  I regularly see people actually waiting in their cars for other drivers to pull out of the parking spaces right in front of the club entrance so that they won't have to walk too far.  Go figure.
• UnTwilight - Headed to the theatre over the holidays?  If ever there was a book and movie series that captured the differences between the sexes, this may be it.  How many of you guys out there are chomping at the bit to go see vampires and maidens engage in romantic trysts - in Forks of all places and no sex (so I'm told).  Nothing but moss there.  But for those of you that need, don't miss the continuation of the Twilight Saga -The Breaking Dawn (or Breaking Wind as I call it), now in a theatre near you.  Unfortunately, my own schedule is already "full".
• Un ???? - Sorry, I forgot the third.               

 

This last one might be a little subtle for some.  Think GOP and RP and even more recently, where is Libya?

Beaver Lake Tree Planting Scheduled For December 3

Come have fun with us and make a difference as the Middle Green River Coalition (MGRC) partners with King County to restore the property around Beaver Lake to a natural state, complete with trails for hiking, bird watching areas and other wildlife habitat.  Following is a video put together by MGRC board member Courtney Feeney - well worth your look.  It's great fun and a great cause.

 

 

 

Local Elections & State Fiscal Challenges

I have always loved this picture - a natural storm.  Pretty well sums up what's going on in our community and as the State Legislature faces current fiscal challenges.  Life is not always easy, but for everyone out there, please stay positive and be/remain engaged.  Our future is bright and we can all make a big difference.

State Parks - What Does The Future Hold?

Given Washington State's current fiscal challenges, the future of State Parks is very much in doubt.  Following is a summary of Parks funding originally passed by the Legislature for the mid year 2011 to mid year 2013 biennium.

Unfortunately, there are two big problems.  Discover Pass revenues are coming in well below expectations and may not reach even $20 million over this two year period.  In addition, due to the State's current fiscal crises, further cuts in funding from General Fund sources must be made and will go away altogether in the next biennium.  Fortunately, fees from direct park services such as revenue from camping and $5 license tab donations seem to be holding up reasonably well.

As a result, it would appear that a fundamental restructuring of how State Parks conducts its business is needed.  Recognizing how important it is that we keep all three of our local State Parks open (Flaming Geyser, Nolte and Kanaskat Palmer) and keep them in good operating condition, I have been doing some research re how Parks currently spends it's money and where human resources are now allocated.  Here is some of what I am finding:

For your reference, our area parks are located withing the Northwest Region.  Kanaskat Palmer actually generates revenue exceeding direct park expenditures.

From the chart above, you can see that our parks overall generate quite a bit of revenue for direct services provided, like camping fees, conference center fees etc.  Looking at it this way, keeping all of our parks open with current on the ground staffing levels is not nearly so daunting.  Current levels of income from the Discover Pass (even at today's low levels), parking tab fees and dedicated funds substantially exceed this gap.  So where is all the money being spent?

Well, as you can see, current direct spending on parks is actually less than money now being spent for other things in State Parks - principally overhead.  If you look at current staffing levels and where they are located (thanks to the help of Senator Pam Roach and her staff), this is what we find:

What the above data seem to tell us is that Region and HQ staffing currently eats up what appears to be a substantially disproportionate share of Parks resources compared to most other organizations.  At least intuitively, we might also expect that the average compensation for each HQ employee to substantially exceed that for direct on the ground park employees - Rangers, maintenance personnel and park aides.  In private business - if we have 1 staff/management position for every 8 to 10 on the ground operating personnel, this would be high overhead. In schools, 1 administrator to 5 teachers would seem to be high.  In State Parks, it's currently 1 staff/management position for less than 2 on the ground personnel.  H'mmmmmm!

More on this subject in later posts.

 

Van Asselt School - First In King County

Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Asahel Curtis Collection, CUR 1735, circa late 1800's

In the process of learning about the Puget Sound Fire & Clay Company - Van Asselt Plant located on Beacon Hill in Seattle, I ran across this photo of the Van Asselt school.  As it turns out, Van Asselt was the location of the very first school to be established in King County.  Following are some excerpts from the verso of the image.

The little settlement of Van Asselt had the first school in King county.  It was opened in "Bachelors hall" by Mrs. D.E. Blaine in 1854.  There were fourteen pupils, thirteen girls and one boy.  The expense was born by a subscription paid by the parents.  This school continued until the outbreak of the Indian War in 1855.  Shortly after the war ended, the subscription school reopened and in 1862 a one room schoolhouse was established on Unversity property (presumably the school shown in the above photo).  The University continued to house the school until 1868, but by then people wanted a free common school.  In 1869, the first tax was voted and a site was purchased at Third Avenue and Marion where the first free public school was built - a two story structure 48 feet by 30 feet.

Does anyone know when and where the first school was established in Black Diamond?

The Financial Markets' Casino

What ever happened to investing based on the fundamentals?  We do still have Warren Buffet and a few others of his ilk, but increasingly our financial markets seem to be dominated by the gamblers.  I was at the gym yesterday punishing my body in the battle of flab versus muscle tone and what did they have on the big screen - CNBC reporting on the markets.

The screen was literally alive with numbers, colors and movement that would make any gamer out there proud.  I'm not a TV watcher so I observed the scene for a little while and racked my brain - where have I seen this before?  Ah yes, Las Vegas and the casinos, that's where.  In so many ways, a casino seems to be the perfect metaphor for our financial markets of today.  All of the emphasis seems to on the very short term.  What's happening today.  The only trend charts that you see are daily trade related and maybe span a week at the longest. Breaking news is all of the "pops and drops" - those stocks going up or down the most for the day.  They even have a "halftime report" during the middle of the trading day, as if this is momentous news of great importance.  And then, if you want, you can continue watching at the end of trading and tune into "Mob Money", "Fast Money", "Mad Money" and even "Bonus Buck Answers".   Now if this isn't the closest thing that you'll find to Las Vegas and the casinos, I don't know what is.

Part of my reaction is specific to CNBC and their coverage but I think that it's also very illustrative of the mentality that seems to pervade our markets today.  Those that win this lottery are those whose "bets" on daily and weekly market movements beat other traders' or investors' bets.  If you think the market or particular stocks are going to go down, you place a "bet" - otherwise known as short selling.  This isn't investing, it pure short term wagering.  So, our 401K's can get creamed, but who walks away with money in their pocket. And we see extreme volatility as a result given the herd mentality.  Somehow, I just can't see the "value added" brought to our economy as a result of this speculation.

It will be interesting to see where the Occupy Wall Street movement goes.  There is no question that more and more people are angry.  I will admit to being a child of the 60's and all of the civil rights and anti-war demonstrations and riots.  With economic inequality continuing to increase, are we headed there again?

By the way, still looking for my hippie van.

 

Salmon & Steelhead Releases

Although I promised to not release any more charts and graphs, I found the following data to be of great interest - so I violated my pledge at least for now.

Fewer and fewer releases and catches.  Hmmmmm.  Lots of Pinks returning this year as illustrated in an earlier post re Pink Salmon Are Running In the Green.  Apparently this is a binanneal event.

Our hatcheries remain very busy - but to what end if we are just holding our own and the dollar drain right now is so significant????  How do we get our fisheries on an even/sustainable budgetary framework?  I'm afraid that our fisheries are about to collapse just like our State Parks are now on life support!  Time for us all to get involved.  More re our State Parks in a future post.

Hiking To The Old Johnson Coal & Clay Mine

Picture of Gomer Evans taken on Wednesday during our hike to the old Johnson Mine

On a beautiful fall day, Keith Watson, Keith's brother, Gomer Evans, Bill Kombol and I had the opportunity to hike to the location of the old Johnson Clay Mine.  Gomer worked here during the 1950's, so we were anxious to see if we could find any remnants of the mine now located on Washington State Parks property.  It's on the south side of the Green River just east of Flaming Geyser State Park.  Thanks to Gomer's memory and the sleuthing/bushwacking skills of our team, I think that we did great and now have a pretty good understanding of how this facility all laid out - at least at the big picture level.

The old haul road that once connected the mine to SR 169 is still there.  In the picture that follows we see where the haul road decended into the area of the mine up on the ridge, about 600 feet above the river, that contained the burn pile areas, hoist, bunkers for loading mined coal and clay, the wash house etc. as sketched by Gomer in the link provided above.  We are hoping that Gomer might put together a more detailed sketch focused just on this area.

Bill Kombol gets the "discoverer" award for finding what clearly appears to be the area where coal/clay cars where hoisted up from the mine on rail to the ridge top.

The picture that follows shows just how steep this incline was for pulling cars up from the mine, which was located pretty close to water level in the river.

If you look near the top center, you will be able to see the river below - way down there.  Among Bill's discoveries was also what could have been a vent or just caved in area - big hole that went well into the hillside.  Notice the clear coal seam.

And for the last picture let me show some of the remnants pulled from the site including nuggets of clay left over from the burn piles, coal remnants and what we might best call a "klinker" that had been heated through the burn process but that contained other minerals like silica that would cause it to fuse and look "glazed" in appearance.

It appears that the best way to get there without having to cross private property is from Flaming Geyser - but I'll save that trail for another day.

More Medic One & EMS Data Post

In a prior post re Medic One & EMS, I highlighted the very high rate of survival for cardiac arrest victims that we have here in King County compared to elsewhere in the country.  One of the big reasons - with coaching from our 911 operators, bystanders often begin CPR well before our fire fighters or paramedics can get their.  As you can see in the above table, fully 61% of the time, bystanders are administering CPR on the spot and the value from this is huge.  Following is some more data/trends that I find really interesting and positive for King County.  For reference, BLS stands for Basic Life Support and ALS stands for Advanced Life Support (adminstered by our Paramedics).

Ok, I have my affinity for charts and graphs out of my system for the week.  I promise, no more until late next week at the earliest.  But great data and illustrative of how we are indeed blessed with the best EMS services anywhere in the country!

 

Denny Renton Clay & Coal Circa 1910

Above is a picture of the Denny Renton Clay & Coal Company facility in Renton circa 1910 courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Asahel Curtis Collection, CUR789

In an earlier post, I focused on the Johnson Clay Mine located just south across the Green River from Kummer.  Clay was mined and processed here and shipped to the Renton facility which operated well into the 1950's.  Mr. Denny for whom the plant was renamed, was one of Seattle's founding fathers and he acquired and consolidated much of the region's clay mining and processing facilities into a real empire in the early 1900's, including the mine at Kummer which began operations going all the way back to 1898.  Hence, the Renton Clay & Coal Company became known as the Denny Renton Clay & Coal Company.  In the picture above, notice what clay processing does to the surrounding area - almost looks like snow covering the area except that it's clay.  Such fine particles easily wind blown. 

Notice Lake Washington in the far background.  This plant is where both Kummer and Johnson mine coal and clay were transported to for many years.  In the picture that follows, also courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, you will see the clay sewer pipe manufactured here - lot's of it.

Later this morning, Gomer Evans, Bill Kombol, Keith Watson and I are headed on an exploritory mission to see if we can find any remnants of the old Johnson Mine.  The area where the mine was then located is now owned by Washington State Parks, though getting there requires traversing through some private property for which we have obtained permission.  I will report soon on what we find.  Should be great fun.

A Great Black Diamond Community Center Fund Raiser

I am pleased to report that the Black Diamond Community Center fund raiser event this past Saturday was a huge success.  This year's Harvest Dinner Auction raised $8,000 more than ever before in the history of this event - all in a great cause.  Cheryl and Leslie, our sincere thanks for all of your hard work in pulling this event together.  So many more people to thank that I am afraid that I will miss someone, from Vern fixing dinner for us all to ........  So many people contributed to such a great event.  Why is Black Diamond different?  We care and this is what we saw last Saturday!  Our community center does so much good.  As you plan your year end tax planning and have some money yet to give, I really encourage you to give here.  So many wonderful stories of how our community center has positively impacted the lives of people.  Dorothy and Howard Botts - you have led the way for so many years, we are indebted to you both .  For our newly involved, you will take us to the next level.

At the risk of omitting so many contributors that merit our cudoos, I do feel complelled to single out the contribution of Mama Passarelli (Ginger) for the three $1,000 dinners that ended up being auctioned off - well beyond what you initially thought of as 2 of these dinners.  For all of you that haven't been to dinner here recently, please go and enjoy.  I recently gave a $25 gift certificate for a reader of this blog that could answer a question, and it was received and redeemed even before I could get Mama to set up the account.  Just goes to show what a special treat dining here is.

Please support our local community and Mama Passarelli's.  Thanks Ginger for your support to our community

CSO's - An Environmental Connundrum or Not?

For those of you looking for a sexy topic, CSO's are not it.  But if you wish to engage in a discussion of environmental regulation and where it does and does not pay dividends, then this is your forum.  Hang on to your seats and let me first describe what a CSO is.  CSO stands for Combined Sewer Overflow and was the popular stormwater and sewer engineering practice in the northwest in the early days - pre 60's.  Following is a graphic that explains the concept and the problem.

In essence, our sewer and stormwater drainage systems were interlinked.  But when we have heavy rainfall exceeding the sewer treatment plant's capacity, which has been a frequent occurance, the combination of raw sewage and stormwater overflowed into our streams and into Puget Sound.  From a public works engineering perspective, this was most efficient.  But from a pollution standpoint, it was horrible.  Pretty ugly.  The result was contaminated beaches (swimming in sewage) and pollution in the sound that killed fish - but it was "engineering efficient".  OK, no more engineer bashing.  To correct these obvious problems, major efforts were initiated in the mid to late 1960's to begin separating stormwater and sewer systems and the results have been very impressive.  Following is a chart that shows the rate of progress in reducing combined sewer overflows and sewer pollution into Puget Sound over the last 50 years. 

As we can see, though there remain some CSO related flows into Puget Sound, current volumes are but a bare trickle of what they once were.  Yet, efforts to get that last trickle out of the system continue.  But at what cost?  Should we spend our scarce rescources here to fully finish the retrofit job or should we redirect these resources (our money) to other efforts that will give us an even bigger bang for the buck?  And this is the simple question that I am now posing.  Guess what the price tag is to wring that last bit of CSO out of the system.  For King County alone, it's $711 million dollars and there is less a problem here than for the City of Seattle.

So, the real question is - should we (King County) spend $711 million, and the City of Seattle even more, to tighten up our current CSO systems to "finish the job" and pay for this through our sewer rates or are there other uses for this money that can yield us even higher returns for preserving Puget Sound and our fisheries?  Unfortunately, this is not the question now being asked by King County - and I sit on the Regional Water Quality Committee.  There seems to be a view that to legally comply, we must remove the last vestiges of CSO's.  But, it's highly unlikely that this money and these expenditures will in the end make a material difference in improving water quality and fisheries within Puget Sound and our region.  There are likely to be expenditures to solve other problems with a much higher return on investment than these CSO's if our end goal is to provide maximum protection/improvement for Puget Sound and our fisheries.

And by means of full disclosure, I am also a member of the South Central Action Area Caucus Group of the Puget Sound Partnership focused on preserving Puget Sound.  In this capacity and in that as a member of the Regional Water Quality Committtee, I have in the past, and will continue to ask this same question - solving what specific water quality problems will give us the biggest return on our investment?  If that means less investment in CSO replacement and more investment in retrofitting other stormwater systems, then the money should be allocated accordingly.  Simple question, but not a simple answer with the multiplicity of government jurisdictions involved with overlapping responsibilities.  It seems to me that this is why the Puget Sound Partnership was created to begin with.  Where is the leadership?

 

Pinnacle Peak - Popular Enumclaw Hike

View from along the trail to Pinnacle Peak, looking south and west toward Sumner

If you hadn't noticed, it's getting colder now and there are signs of snow in the foothills.  As you plan your explorations for this winter and spring and are looking for a hike with some steepness to it but no snow, Pinnacle Peak is worth the trek.  Pinnacle Peak Park is a 256 acre volcanic cone that rises out of the plateau in Enumclaw and one of the many open spaces and trails maintained by King County in our area.  This peak is also known locally as Mt. Peak or Mt. Pete, but its all one and the same.  The hike is only one mile up (2 miles round trip) but you also climb 1,000 feet to the 1,800 foot summit - enough to get a sweat up.  And then you can always try running it.  Because of it's proximity, it's well used but typically still not too overcrowed.  At the very top we were fascinated to see extruded outcroppings of columnar basalt.  They were so uniform in shape as you can see in the picture that follows.

The Cal Magnuson trailhead is at the corner of 276th SE and SE 472nd Street not far from the old Pete's Pool in Enumclaw. We took this hike earlier in the year and found the flora and views to be wonderful.

A grove of devils club.

Judy at the summit.

Beautiful maiden hair ferns and lush understory.  Anyone know what this green leaved plant is?