Taste of Tacoma Weekend

Although many in town consider it a nuisance, a few of us actually enjoy the excitement, tasty food and live entertainment at our doorstep that the Taste of Tacoma brings each summer.  This year's event kicks off Friday with the usual food and music plus a few new features.

• Rock The Bowl will feature obstacle course, zipline and other fun for the whole family.
• Taste The Cooks will showcase local chefs with their own special booth.
• Hope Heart Right Bite is a healthy choice offered at each food booth.

Along with the favorite Wine & Roses + Jazz, multiple stages, arts and crafts and food galore, it promises to be a fun weekend in Ruston!

Another 5k Thru Town

Independence Day morning will bring another set of runners thru Ruston streets. Along with road closures and hopefully our annual kids parade (10am in front of Don's Ruston Market), Tacoma City Running Clubs is sponsoring it's first 5K that starts at Vassault Park and ends at Point Ruston (map here). We are popular this year! Maybe a running store should set up shop in one of our vacant storefronts...

Help Save The Goldfish

Owners are trying to raise $3,000 before the Taste of Tacoma (this weekend) to make initial upgrades to the building. Those upgrades are needed in order to use the space to host a bigger fundraiser during the Taste to raise enough money to bring the building up to code and reopen.

More details and donations via this link.

Legacy

White sails on a blue canvas. Gentle breeze over the water. Memories merge into the present.

Dave loved his work. He loved sailing even more. His efforts laid the groundwork for the new park that will likely be named after someone who hated what lays beneath this reborn patch of dirt. Like so many others, Dave worked hard to make what we are finally seeing at Point Ruston and Peninsula Park a reality. He spoke often of leaving a legacy in this dirt - knowing that he had a part in turning a smelter into a place of peace and renewal.

Dave and those who labored beside him will not have a park named after them. But their efforts mattered. They negotiated the deals that allowed these projects to finally move forward. They found creative ways to solve environmental challenges with price tags that could actually be funded. Although the final work is carried out by others, its their dream that we see coming to fruition.

I could almost feel Dave sigh with satisfaction in the breeze Saturday and sense his pleasure in the rippling sails along our new shoreline. He and others like Tom and Kevin and Sue and countless others have indeed left us a beautiful legacy.

Heidi Grace Kress

Some of the neighbors may know that a well-known scrapbook artist has lived and worked in Ruston for several years. Heidi even had a store for a time in the shop behind Don's Market. With her fourth child on the way, she has decided to focus on her family full time. That means all the years of collecting, doodling and scrapbook inventory needs to find a new home. It may also mean a move outside Ruston's borders.

Heidi's husband Ryan has served as one of our fire fighters and they both have volunteered selflessly over the years. Wherever their new adventure takes them (hopefully still in town), they have our thanks. Below is Heidi's announcement. Stop by their yard sale this weekend and wish them well in person (sale is on Commercial Street across from Rust Park).
____________________

 

well, i knew the day would come...

 

i am trying to sell all of the heidi grace inventory. as some of you know, things just did not work out as i had hoped, and its time to let it go.  its funny how things work out in other ways.  being a completely stay at home mom, with baby girl number 4 on the way...all i can say is the family is more rewarding than anything i could have ever imagined.  i apologize for the group email, this is not the easiest thing for me to do, so i am just trying to get through it.  i won't lie...i miss it all everyday and the wounds are not healed.  we may have to move soon, and i just could not justify bringing it all with me, or leaving it behind...so, i am having a yard sale (of all things) and hoping to sell it.

i am just asking for anyone to help me spread the word...it would really help us out if we could sell this stuff....and there is A LOT of stuff. boxes that i have been hoarding all the way back from the beginning...and of course every success and defeat of a line in between.

if you could forward the info to people you trust, or spread the word any way you feel good about, i would be in your debt.  i know i am already indebted to many of you for helping me over the years...and i must tell you...i love you for the support. to say i will be forever thankful to you is an understatement. i have to believe that life has a funny way of putting you exactly where you should be...even if it means going through a really painful journey.

thanks in advance if you have a few minutes to tell people about this!!!

with love,

heidi

We are having the sale:

THURSDAY 20th, noon-5pm

FRIDAY 21st, 11am-5pm

SATURDAY 22nd, 8am-4pm

 

heidi grace kress

 

www.facebook.com/heidigracekress

Mayor Hopkins Health

At the last council meeting, Mayor Bruce Hopkins announced his recent health challenges had been diagnosed as Wenger's disease, which he described as an autoimmune disease. According to Mayo Clinic's definition, this a rare disease that causes inflamation of the body's vital organs and can damage them if not caught early enough.

Hopkins confirm his prognosis is good and he thanked several community members for their assistance; including Ken and Kathy Brown, Dr. Tom Ferrer - and the Ruston Fire Department. He expressed deep gratitude for the many well wishes from the community and he looks forward to a full recovery.

Commercial Development Moratorium Lifted

The Ruston council waived the second reading for the trio of ordinances that updated their development codes and removed the moratorium on commercial development at their meeting last night. Despite Councilmember Hardin's concerns about repeating the complaints about rushing the issue through without public input, the council unanimously approved the changes recommended by the planning commission after their public hearing in May.

The changes are primarily focused on rearranging the requirements into an easier-to-understand format. But the changes also included adding the design requirements from the Pearl Street zone to the rest of the commercial zone. When the design elements were first adopted along Pearl Street, higher heights were allowed to offset the additional costs of those requirements. Only the increased design requirements were added to the rest of the commercial zone without allowing the increased heights or the less restrictive parking of the Pearl zone.

Flags Flying

 

I love looking up and down the Ruston side of Pearl Street this time of year and seeing the American flags flying. Thank you Sherri Forch for this lasting gift to our community!