Lakewood will honor the 45,000 members of the military and their families who live in the city and neighboring communities with an appreciation celebration Saturday.

The Honoring Our Military Event — H.O.M.E. for short — takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday at Lakewood Towne Center, 5731 Main Street SW.

The event is free and open to the public.

Lakewood Towne Center is hosting the event. (Shown above is the event's logo shown on the shopping center's Web site) It will offer various activities, including:

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A few weeks back, I wrote about the new Tillicum Youth and Family Center.

Tacoma Area Youth For Christ announced it will hold a grand opening celebration for the 3,000-square-foot center on Sept. 17. It starts at 4 p.m., with a ceremony and barbecue.

For more information and to RSVP for the event: grandopening@tacomayfc.org.

Here is the flier for the celebration:

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For years, school officials have been lamenting the state's underfunding of transportation.

Without adequate funding from the state, they say, districts must devote more and more of their local levy dollars to get kids to school.

One of their loudest charges: the state doesn't reimburse districts for transporting students whose homes or daycares lie outside a one-mile radius from school. And instead of calculating the actual route mileage, the distance is measured as a direct line from school to home or daycare. Or, in the colloquial, "as the crow flies."

Actually, says Allan Jones with the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state does provide some money to bus kids within the one-mile radius. But not much.

Jones, director of pupil transportation, says the state gives districts some funding based on the total number of kids in kindergarten through through fifth grade within the one-mile radius.

The original intent was to help districts defray the cost of transporting youngsters who faced hazardous walking conditions, even though they lived close to school.

But it's a lower rate than what the state funds for students living outside the one-mile minimum. And the districts don't have to have hazardous walking conditions to get the money. They don't even have to use the money to transport kids within that radius.

Here's how Jones explains it, and the "crow flies" business in an e-mail to The News Tribune.

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The Oakbrook Golf & Country Club wants to change the zoning for 2 acres of its course, a sign the Lakewood club may want to sell land to generate money.

A staff report from Lakewood Senior Planner Deborah Johnson states the 42-year-old course is confronted with “financial viability issues,” and is looking to secure its future without raising fees for its 450 members.

The plan by the country club’s board calls for converting portions of its course into residential lots, up to 10, in the course’s fourth and fifth additions that could be developed into homes.
Kara Brevet, the country club’s manager, said the proposal to convert open space into residential lots is more of a fallback option for Oakbrook.

“This is something so that we have option,” she said. “It’s not something that’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s something should we need it.”

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Monday's joint meeting between the Lakewood City Council and Port of Tacoma Commission didn't feature any fireworks, just discussion about what a consultant's plan would do to an isolated neighborhood.

The two sides commissioned a study last year into the possibility of turning Woodbrook — a peninsula of land east of Interstate 5 - into a business park.

As I reported in my story Sunday, the study stated that one of the biggest challenges to redeveloping the area is the approximately 500 homes and 1,500 mostly low-income residents that are there now.

Both the City Council and the Port Commission said that complicates the problem. When the port developed Fredrickson in the mid-1980's, the people there were more than willing to sell their land, officials said.

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Anjel and Rico Hernandez are two of the activity starved Tillicum youth who received a 3,000-square-foot gift this month.

After three years of planning and renovations, Tacoma Area Youth For Christ opened its center in the geographically isolated Lakewood neighborhood, across the northern gates of Fort Lewis.

(To the right is a picture taken by Dan Livingston, the new center's director, of what the building looked like two years ago)

To longtime residents who remember what the Tillicum Youth and Family Center building used to be, its makeover might require a double-take. The Tacoma organization that helps youth live a positive life through God renovated an abandoned bar and turned adjacent duplexes into housing for staff.

It opened for the first time last week for one day. It’s open two days this week, and officials hope it will be open five days a week when school year starts.

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I wrote a few days ago about a mounted giraffe that's causing a stir in Lakewood.

Here's a picture of the fella that TNT photographer Dean Keopfler shot today:

Here's the caption: Motorists slowed to a crawl and onlookers gawked on Bridgeport Way in Lakewood Friday as a scene oddly reminiscent of a famed WWII photograph played out. Taxidermist Roger Hamel, right. of Northwest Taxidermy Training was nearing completion of a giraffe for client Paul Wieser, left, and needed help to stand up the nearly 20 ft. tall trophy. As employee Kathy Whaley helped Hamel with the rope Erik Bergren, center, pushed the giraffe to perpendicular. Work on the stand to emulate the environment of Namibia will finish the work.

OK, it's not quite a safari, but something exotic and really tall is catching the eyes of drivers on Bridgeport Way Southwest in Lakewood.

A giraffe — that's right, a giraffe — is greeting people who pass by Northwest Taxidermy Training. It's been there about a week. The owner mounted the beast for a Parkland man who shot it last year in Africa.

Here's a snippet of my story that's scheduled to run this week:

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The only public access point to Lakewood's fourth-largest lake could close for two weeks in September.

The city says the boat ramp at Lake Louise needs a stronger foundation. Every year, it spends $3,000 to $6,000 to pour crushed rock to shore up the ramp. Every year, part of that rock washes away.

The ramp, which was installed when Lake Louise belonged to Pierce County, was closed for four days last month as crews applied the temporary fixes.

Now, Lakewood says the boat ramp needs a permanent fix so it's safe enough for the hundreds of boaters who use it every year.The Lakewood City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on a $105,000 plan to protect Lake Louise from flooding. Included in that funding is $16,000 for improvements to the boat ramp, such as installing new pilings and using concrete instead of crushed rock.

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Kevin Cavanagh with Pierce County Information Technology points out that the link we published in the printed paper for the weather tracker system left off one symbol.

The correct link is http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/PC/

If you can't bring it up, click here.

On the left side, it's titled "How hot is it?"

It's pretty cool. According to the site, "Eleven weather stations around the county record temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and more. Data is updated every 15 minutes."

The heat also makes work harder for anyone who wears an orange vest and hardhat on the road.

Whether they're laying asphalt, excavating dirt or simply directing traffic, their already warm workplace gets even hotter.

I spoke with a crew from Northwest Cascade Inc., who was excavating ditches today for a sewer project in the Tillicum area of Lakewood.

The boys in orange were digging in about 90-degree heat when I spoke to them about 1 p.m. They say the work site feels warmer.

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It’s starting to feel like the dog days of summer, so today was a perfect day for the 19th annual Dog-A-Thon at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood.

Organizers expected 2,500 people and 500 dogs to attend the event, a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Tacoma-Pierce County.

Pure-breeds and mutts alike gathered at Fort Steilacoom for the event, which featured demonstrations of dog herding and agility, contests for the best dog costume and biggest dog and other festivities.

“It’s a canine carnival,” said Kathleen Olson, the society’s executive director. “People like to see and be see with their dogs.”

Linda Leeman was among those seen with her dog Rusty, a 5-year-old red Australian cattle dog. Leeman owns Ewe-Topia, a herd dog training facility in Roy. She and Rusty herded some ducks into pens and up slides as an appreciative crowd applauded.

“We like doing this for the Humane Society,” Leeman said. “It’s a great organization.”

Last year’s Dog-A-Thon netted $137,000 for the organization. Olson said this year’s event is expected to raise more than $150,000. The money will benefit homeless animals.

Cats did their part, too.

Granted, they opted out of a day at a park teeming with dogs.

Laurie Cinotti, fosters kitten for the Humane Society and keeps a blog on them, www.theittybittykittycommittee.com. She mustered the blog's fans to raise Dog-A-Thon funds that will be used to expand adoption facilities for cats. People from all over the country and around the world donated. They also bid on naming rights for the new foster kittens, and on donations of an original watercolor and an art clock.

The effort brought in $21,200.

The nonprofit wasn’t the only one raising money. Vendors of dog toys, dog collars, doggy daycare and other canine goods and services se up booths around the park. Vendors say it’s one of their best events.

“This is their clientele,” Olson said of the dog owners. “These (dogs) are their furry children.”