Need a professional locksmith? Click q for truly professional services!

ARCHIVE PAGE 43

Yakima Valley Map Stay Alert. q Mannatech CLICK HERE, get a Yahoo map to pinpoint any address, THEN COME BACK

POTPOURRI You are visitor since 10-15-99

Summary of Sunnyside' substantive news events for Dec. 1999

Yakima Valley News will glean news items from other sources and summarize them for our readers. Click q to email YVN's vast newspaper empire. Click q for archived Potpourris.

Mandated license plates to sell for $7 SUNNYSIDE (Friday 12-31-99)---If you display the old green-on-white or green-on -yellow (personalized) license plates on your machine, you'll need to pay the state $7 for standard "mountain background" plates when you get your tabs renewed. So sayeth Nancy Kerry, Asst. Dir. for Vehicle Services at the beloved WA Dept. of Licensing. The law requiring mountain-design plates was passed in 1997. Everyone ought to be sporting them by end of 2000.   Three new businesses settle in Sunny SUNNYSIDE (Friday 12-31-99)---Three new businesses have hit town, Papa Murphy's pizza, Fantastic Sams beauty treatments, and Cash Advance, a national money store.   Bureaucrats won't punish voters for I-695, says Lisk SUNNYSIDE (Friday 12-31-99)---"We will not allow government to punish citizens for voting themselves a tax cut. We have an obligation to make (I-695) work the way voters want it to work," said state House Republican Leader Barbara Lisk, R-Zillah. "This is a great opportunity to improve our state by re-examining government's (read bureaucrats') priorities and looking closely at how we deliver services," said Lisk, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. Ideas up for consideration are having bureaucrats contract with the private sector to control costs via competition, and to review existing state programs for performance. Those that perform will get bucks to continue.   Chain retailers do great for shopping season; locals: brrrt! SUNNYSIDE (Thursday 12-30-99)---Payless, Penneys, Radio Shack, and Wal-Mart made out like bandits over the Christmas shopping season, according to local reports. Mom and pop retailers in Sunnyside, however, apparently didn't pay their phone bills so they could discuss their own luck over the holidays. Some little shops said business was dismal to d.o.a.   Sunnyside gears up for Y2K emergencies (if any) SUNNYSIDE (Thursday 12-30-99)--- As we stumble headlong into 2000, cops and firemen will stand by in Sunnyside's second-floor Emergency Command Center on Eighth Street. They will be on duty from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sunnyside's 54-bed jail--now only half full--is ready in case they have to arrest Ma Nature or if Mideast terrorists (beards, scowls, turbans, guns) invade Sunnyside.   Anonymous teen chick drags Sunnyside man behind van SUNNYSIDE (Thursday 12-30-99)---Prosser cops said a 14-year old chick stole an '87 Plymouth Voyager, then crashed into a '91 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Ruben Roman, 41, of Sunnyside. The teenybopper tried to get away, but Roman grabbed the van and held on for three blocks before letting go. Politically correct Prosser cops arrested the anonymous female but didn't release her name, that of her parents, or her address.   Villanueva gets nod for state housing committee SUNNYSIDE (Monday 12-27-99)---Gov. Gary Locke has appointed Mario Villanueva, of Outlook to preside over Washington State Affordable Housing Advisory Board. Villanueva is housing development coordinator for the Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing. His job is to "establish and develop" affordable rental housing farmworkers--complexes that look like apartments. Villanueva said the state has set aside $6-million for farmworker housing.   Go to private firms to get your car tags SUNNYSIDE (Monday 12-27-99)---County Auditor Doug Cochran urges motorists to get their tags at Robinson Licensing Agency, 620 Decatur Ave., Sunnyside; Rider's True Value Hardware, 117 E. Main, Grandview; and Toppenish Licensing Agency, 218 S. Toppenish Ave., Toppenish. It was Cochran's decision after I-695 to cut back licensing staff at the Courthouse so patrons can pay $3 more for tabs at private firms. Auditor licensing facilities will be open from 1-5 p.m. weekdays, half the usual hours.   Couple loses everything in house fire, including car SUNNYSIDE (Friday 12-24-99)---It was an awful Christmas Eve for Don and Gloria Outhet. Fire broke out in their home at 1400 Ferson Rd. causing $80,000 to $100,000 in damage. District 5 chief Mark Kimm said the blaze started in the garage, spread to the house, and destroyed a car. It took firemen from Sunnyside, Outlook, Grandview and Zillah about two hours to extinguish the blaze. The family is staying with friends.   WA will use Big Tobacco bucks for 'control' program SUNNYSIDE (Wednesday 12-15-99)--- Gov. Gary Locke says Washington will get $4.5 billion in tobacco settlement dollars over the next 25 years. The Legislature has dedicated $100 million a year ($2.5 billion over 25 years) of the loot for a "comprehensive tobacco control program." That's duckspeak for a "People-Who-Smoke Control Program". No one's so far saying what the other $2-bil will be used for.   Grant writer nails $2.7-mil for Sunnyside Port SUNNYSIDE (Tuesday 12-14-99)---Grant writer Elaine Willman nailed down $2.7 million in grants for Sunnyside Port District in 1999. The Port, Sunnyside, and Sunnyside Community Hospital each kick in $22,003 for her services. She obtained $99,000 Dept. of Ag. grant, a $50,000 Yakima County grant, and a $2.5-million grant for Midvale Road expansion.   Yakima County to hold zoning law talks SUNNYSIDE (Saturday 12-11-99)---Yakima County Planners will hold public hearings in Yakima Wednesday and in Zillah Thursday regarding new zoning laws to regulate lot sizes, land use, density, and development standards. The last zone law was adopted in 1974. If the new one is based solely on federal regs, Constitutional questions may be raised. Property owners whose land use might be curtailed-- devaluing the land--might want to speak up. Hearings at Yakima take place at 6:30 p.m. in Room 420 of the Yakima County Courthouse, 128 N. 2nd St., at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 15. In Zillah they're set for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Zillah Civic Center, 119 First Ave. To read up on the new proposed county regs click q. The Tenth Amendment says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The Constitution doesn't allow the United States (feds) the power to make counties do or not do anything with their lands. The Constitution is the basic law of the U.S.   Sunnyside paring budget; fed regs push for more staff SUNNYSIDE (Tuesday 12-7-99)---At a time the I-695 hatchet is swinging in Sunnyside--and across Washington state--the local Public Works Dept. says it needs three more staff just to keep up with federal regulations. PW Director Gary Potter said another $90,000 is needed for Sunnyside's street, water and sewer departments to implement wonderful fed ideas. Meanwhile the city reportedly faces a $568,000 shortfall in revenues in 2000 because state taxpayers won the latest battle in the tax-revolt war. The council is determined not to dip into reserves. The Tenth Amendment says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The Constitution doesn't allow the United States (feds) the power to make cities do anything with their streets, or water and sewer lines. The Constitution is the basic law of the land.   Public Disclosure Commission fines Roy Anciso SUNNYSIDE (Tuesday 12-6-99)---The WA Public Disclosure Commission has fined City Councilman Roy Anciso $2,000 for not disclosing his personal finances. The PDC will chop the fine in half if Anciso pays up in 30 days and has no other violations in the next two years. Disclosures are due each April 1 at the PDC. The newly reelected councilman suffered a death in the family last April. "I just wasn't focused at the time," he told reporters. The 16-year veteran of the Council reportedly got crosswise with the PDC in 1994 and 1995, as well.