$1 Serving our communities since 1889 — www.chronline.com Festival Weekend Edition Season Saturday, Begins April 29, 2017 Without May Day / Main 3 Recovering Like Athletes ‘Act of Heroism’ Acknowledged Chronicle Staffer Tests Out Offerings of Centralia Resident With Autism Honored by RFA Pacific Sports Spa in Chehalis / Life 1 After He Alerted His Family to House Fire / Main 4 Lawmakers Timeline for Riffe Lake Projects Still Unclear Tangle Over DRAWDOWN: Boat Launch, MORTON — While locals Herrera Beutler, Mossyrock electricity-generating dams wait to learn what will become Mayor Tom Meade voiced his six decades ago, there has been Levy Rates Swimming Areas Will of Riffe Lake in the face of a growing frustration with the a contentious relationship Need Changes as Water proposed extended drawdown, relationship between Tacoma fraught with mistrust between as Special the gears of bureaucracy grind Power and East Lewis County the local and outside interests. Levels Drop away. communities. Meade noted Tacoma Pow- During a recent meeting He said that ever since the er’s evolving plan to reduce the Session By Jordan Nailon in Morton between commu- utility company set its sights Continues [email protected] nity leaders and U.S. Rep. Jaime on the Cowlitz River Valley for please see RIFFE, page Main 11 SEEKING A COMPROMISE: Rates Will Ultimately Depend on Where Handling the Family Business You Live By Graham Perednia At 24, Chehalis Man Takes Leadership Role at Mackinaw’s in Chehalis [email protected] When the state Legisla- ture finally reaches a com- promise on education fund- ing, chances are Washington residents will see changes in local levy rates. Will your local levy rates go up or down? For now, the answer to that question de- pends on where you live and whether you’re listening to Republicans in the Senate or Democrats in the House. please see LEVY, page Main 16 Public to Get First Look at New Mental Health Center in Centralia SLIGHTLY BEHIND SCHEDULE: Cascade’s New Facility Will Have 22 Beds Pete Caster / [email protected] By Justyna Tomtas Flames rise up as Yasser Khan cooks a steak on Thursday evening at Mackinaw's Restaurant in Chehalis. Khan's mother, Laurel Khan, started the high-end restaurant [email protected] 10 years ago. Laurel recently opened another restaurant in Chicago, and Yasser has taken over at the downtown Chehalis mainstay. Despite a slight delay in the construction timeframe By Graham Perednia rel Khan, his mother, left the and he has been helping with “It is a good little creative of Cascade’s new mental [email protected] restaurant in the hands of her since he was 13. outlet,” Khan said. health and evaluation treat- 24-year-old son to launch a sim- “It wasn’t a huge dream for Khan, a 2011 W.F. West ment center, a scheduled Nervous, excited, focused ilar restaurant in Chicago. me but it is something I know,” High School graduate, was a ribbon cutting and ground- and confident. “He is doing a fantastic job,” he said. “I grew up in it.” standout baseball and tennis breaking ceremony will con- Those are the feelings run- she said. “I am absolutely proud Since taking over Macki- player — he was eventually an tinue as scheduled on Mon- ning through Yasser Khan’s of him … I think he is one of a naw’s, considered to be a desti- NWAC finalist while playing day, May 1. mind on any given night since kind in many ways.” nation restaurant by both local tennis for Shoreline Commu- Richard Stride, chief ex- he temporarily took over man- Khan said he never saw residents and travelers, he has nity College — but never took ecutive officer of Cascade, agement of Mackinaw’s in Che- himself running a restaurant or enjoyed himself and has been any art or music classes while said the organization's new halis on New Year’s Eve 2017. taking over the family business. able to immerse himself in his please see CENTER, page Main 16 Owner and founder Lau- It’s his mother’s passion, though, love for cooking. please see BUSINESS, page Main 16 The Chronicle, Serving The Greater Rochester Business Fast-Food Burglaries Deaths Lewis County Area Since 1889 Former Five-Year Blankenship, June Marie, 87, Napavine Follow Us on Twitter Hope, Donita Kay (Green), 59, Centralia @chronline Teacher Sentences Garner, Samuel Clark, 62, Mossyrock Finds Success Delivered Kangas, Donna Lee, 68, Rochester Find Us on Facebook at Country for Morgan, Merry Christine, 64, Chehalis www.facebook.com/ Powers, Shawn Richard, 51, Rochester thecentraliachronicle Corner Burglary Tribble, Judy Ray, 76, Centralia Market Ring Fields, Michael Timothy, 57, Chehalis / Main 6 / Main 5 Haskin, Gilbert B., 78, Chehalis LEWIS COUNTY PUD CUSTOMERS - JUST ANNOUNCED • Up to $5,000 rebate on Ductless heat pumps DON’T DELAY, CALL NOW FOR • Up to $750 instant ASTOUNDING rebate from Mitsubishi SAVINGS AND 360-423-1420 • Financing available - COMFORT! RenaudElectric.com Call now for details! CH572695hw.do Main 2 • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, Wash., Saturday, April 29, 2017 PAGE TWO News Diving to Safety of the Weird The team behind the new posh public bathroom visited the Waldorf Astoria and other luxury hotels for inspiration. Mystery in Virginia: Someone Is Shaving No Dump Here: Posh Other People’s Cats Public Bathroom Pops WAYNESBORO, Va. (AP) — Why would someone go around Up, With Music, Art shaving other people’s cats? NEW YORK (AP) — In a The mystery has the atten- park amid skyscrapers, a gem tion of police in Waynesboro, a has emerged: a posh public bath- small city in Virginia’s Shenan- room that cost nearly $300,000, doah Valley where someone has complete with freshly delivered been taking cats and precisely flowers, imported tiles, classical shaving their underbellies or Matt Baide / [email protected] music and artwork. legs. It’s happened to seven cats Camden Bull dives back to irst base during W.F. West’s 18-0 win over Aberdeen in an Evergreen 2A Conference base- The free-of-charge, air-con- since December. ball game at W.F. West High School in Chehalis on Thursday. See additional coverage in today’s Sports section and ditioned splendor, inspired by Police Capt. Kelly Walker said online at www.chronline.com and www.lewiscountysports.com. visits to the city’s priciest hotels, Friday that all the cats have been is open to everyone. More than returned otherwise unharmed, 1 million people a year are ex- but some seem bothered. Walker Notable Quote pected to use the facility, park says all the cats clearly had own- officials said. ers — they were well-groomed On Thursday, two bathroom and wearing collars. He says po- attendants held toilet tissue that a lice aren’t sure what crime has “With all these challenges now public, it’s fair to wonder park official cut as the inaugural been committed, but the owners ribbon for the high-tech facility “would just like it to stop.” where the commissioners were while this was unraveling. Did housed in a landmarked Beaux Walker says he learned of the they know these problems existed and were they happy Arts building behind the New feline barbering spree this week York Public Library in Manhat- when a resident asked if he could with how they were being addressed?” tan. The toilets, in 310 square feet post notices asking anyone with information to contact police. divided between the women’s John McCroskey and men’s sides, are reopening after a three-month renovation. Flower Shop Owner columnist The eye-popping, LED-illu- (see page Main 8 for the full commentary) minated elegance is unusual in Accused of Stealing a city where public toilets are scarce and generally grungy. Plants From Cemetery “It’s very clean, and the flow- PEQUANNOCK TOWN- Today in History ers are alive,” said Irena Ma- SHIP, N.J. (AP) — Police say a rentic, a tourist from Slovenia, flower shop owner stole plants Today’s Highlight in History: in the Great Lakes. Atlantic Records. In 1861, the Maryland In 1977, Pope Paul VI and as she left the space, whose and other items from graves at a On April 29, 1992, a jury in House of Delegates voted 53- the Archbishop of Canterbury, walls and floors are lined with New Jersey cemetery for months. Simi Valley, California, acquit- 13 against seceding from the Donald Coggan, participated in tiles from Spain and Italy and Capt. Christopher DePuyt ted four Los Angeles police of- Union. In Montgomery, Ala- a Christian unity service in the adorned with art created by Bry- says police installed surveillance ficers of almost all state charges bama, President Jefferson Davis Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. ant Park’s painters-in-residence. cameras at the First Reformed in the videotaped beating of mo- asked the Confederate Congress In 1987, The women’s side has three Church Cemetery in Pequan- torist Rodney King; the verdicts Ronnie DeSillers, a toilet stalls, while the men’s side nock Township after two plants for the authority to wage war. 7-year-old liver recipient whose were followed by several days of In 1916, has two stalls and three urinals, disappeared from the mausole- rioting in Los Angeles resulting the Easter Rising story had prompted thousands the same number as before the um and replacement plants were in 55 deaths. in Dublin collapsed as Irish na- of Americans, including Presi- renovation. The facility can’t be stolen two days later. tionalists surrendered to British dent Ronald Reagan, to lend expanded because the space sur- He says the cameras caught authorities. support, died at a Pittsburgh rounding it is considered a sce- a woman in a minivan taking On This Date: In 1945, during World War hospital while awaiting a fourth nic landmark.