The non-profit organization that operated last month’s Tacoma Tall Ships 2008 ran the festival at a $500,000 deficit, its co-chairman said Thursday.

But the Tacoma Tall Ships Organization has no plans to declare bankruptcy or seek a bailout from the city, Stan Selden said.

“Our ticket sales were not what we forecasted. Our expenses were less than we forecasted,” he said. “But the ticket sales, combined with free tours of the Eagle – we just did not have the income. And that’s something we couldn’t have known until the event happened.”

About 300,000 people attended the event, which ran July 3-7. That number is 100,000 lower than the original estimate, and lower than organizers were hoping. Poor weather during the event was likely a large factor in the turnout.

Admission to the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle, the 266-foot three-masted barque that was the main attraction of the event, was free, but boarding passes were required to visit the dozens of other ships moored in the Thea Foss Waterway.

All of the organization’s creditors will be paid, Selden said.

“We’re not running away from the problem,” he said. “There are various ways to solve these kinds of problems in the non-profit world, and we’re exploring three or four of those simultaneously as we move forward. No one likes to face up to these problems and make these kinds of phone calls, but we feel it’s our obligation.”

=> Read more!

A teacher at The First Learning Tree Daycare and Preschool at 1328 S. 84th St. hadn’t heard about the arrival of John Henry Mathers in her neighborhood, but she said she’ll be wary.

“I don’t want him to move here. My first job is to protect the children. Safety is our first priority,” said Ohkee Cameron. “He can live here – legally – but we just have to be more careful now.”

When Nanette Palaypay discovered last week that a Level 3 sex offender planned to move a block away from her South End home, she set some new rules for her 7-year-old son, Kyle.

“I told him not to get close to doors,” she said. “If someone rings the doorbell, I tell him to stay away from the door.”

Palaypay, 40, also altered her behavior.

“If anyone rings the doorbell, I’m really cautious,” she said. “I take a look at who it is before I open. And my friend printed a picture of him for me, so I keep an eye out to make sure it’s not him.”

John Henry Mathers, 56, moved to the 1700 block of South 87th Street after spending more than 11 years at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. He was convicted of indecent liberties and second-degree assault in 1972 after he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl and threatened her with a knife. Two weeks later, he abducted and sexually assaulted two siblings, police reported.

Earlier: Court frees McNeil sex felon

While serving time at a state work-release facility, he escaped and fled to California, where he stabbed a 22-year-old woman. He was convicted in that attack.

In 1981 he was convicted in Pierce County of second-degree rape after he sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman he’d met on a bus.

Mathers entered the facility in July 1997 and graduated to the center’s halfway house on McNeil Island in 2002. He has no court-ordered requirements of his release, but he must abide by the state’s registration requirements.

That means residents in the Fern Hill neighborhood are grappling with the knowledge that Mathers, only the second convicted sex offender to be released from the center since it opened in 1990, is now living in their area.

“I don’t want a sex offender in the neighborhood,” said 46-year-old Norma Felix while holding her 19-month-old granddaughter, Raenalyn Pardo, in her arms. “It’s not sake for the kids. And not just the kids – it’s not safe for older people too.”

Marilee Harding, a 14-year-old student at Mount Tahoma, said the fact the state released him likely makes the situation still a little better – but not much.

“I don’t think it’s a big, big deal,” said Harding, who lives about two blocks away. “It just makes me nervous.”

The Fight Back! Express bus is stopping by Stadium High School this Saturday.

It’s part of a 6-month, 48-state tour to promote cancer awareness, and it’ll be at the iconic school at 10 a.m. Dr. Gordy Klatt, the founder of the American Caner Society’s Relay for Life, will deliver a keynote address.

The bus tour concludes with the “Stand Up to Cancer” event that will be broadcast on ABC, NBC and CBS to highlight the need for increased caner-research funding.

Check out a video of it:

It's more potholes reporting today, and an interview for a weekend profile.