In observance of Earth Day, KOMO4 News hosted King County EcoConsumer’s Tom Watson and four of his special guests to showcase youth innovators and leaders who are working on great projects and making a difference in our communities.

“Earth Day is all about the future” said Watson, “and our guests today are the future.”

Two of Tom’s guests were University of Washington students Maika Bui and Kaitlin Tighe, from the team that won the 2018 Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge Grand Prize with their BioPots – biodegradable planting pots that are an earth-friendly alternative to the plastic containers typically used for the seedlings and flowers we buy.

Watch the KOMO4 coverage of Tom and his fantastic guests below:

Maika Bui explained, “It is a biodegradable pot that is plantable, that is made of wood fiber and spent beer grain. Over 1.6 billion pounds of plastic end up in landfills every year because of plastic pots. With BioPots, we hope displace that.” Kaitlin Tighe then demonstrated how the pulp and spent grain – a waste product from the beer industry – combine to form a slurry that is poured into a mold, producing the BioPots.

“That is so, so functional, and helpful for the environment as well,” said KOMO4 Anchor Mary Nam. “Alright, very cool.”

Tom’s other two guests were Duwamish Valley Youth Corps’ Daniella Cortez and Director Carmen Martinez. Daniella shared with KOMO4’s Mary Nam how youth corps members are learning about environmental issues in our communities and spending usually one day a week taking action to make the Duwamish Valley community a better place, emphasizing the love the community has for Seattle’s only river, saying, “… it’s really important to the people here in South Park and Georgetown, because we do live right there and it is a big part of our community. We love our river, and it’s a beautiful thing to have. But, if we don’t take care of it, we’re not going to have it for much longer.” Director Martinez shared details about the youth corps’ tree planting program.

King County EcoConsumer is a DNRP Solid Waste Division program. Tom and the rest of the EcoConsumer team share the stories of many of their impactful efforts on their King County EcoConsumer Twitter feed, Pinterest board and YouTube channel. The KOMO4 coverage of Tom and his fantastic guests can be viewed here on their YouTube channel. Past KOMO4 features are available on EcoConsumer’s King County site.

From left to right, KOMO4’s Mary Nam, King County EcoConsumer’s Tom Watson, University of Washington students Maika Bui and Kaitlin Tighe, and Duwamish Valley Youth Corp’s Daniella Cortez and Director Carmen Martinez.

Crossposted from Tails from RASKC

South County Cats Founder and Director Sally Halela was honored with the 2018 Governor’s Volunteer Service Award under the Animal Welfare category. The award honor some of the state’s most dedicated individuals, groups, and families for their commitment to volunteerism as the foundation for caring communities and a thriving Washington. Regional Animal Services of King County proudly nominated Sally for this award.

Along with other award winners throughout the state, Sally was honored at a reception at the Governor’s mansion in Olympia, including was featured at a pre-game ceremony at the Seattle Mariners’ Salute to Volunteers Night.

Sally is a lifelong animal lover and has been an animal welfare volunteer for more than 35 years. Her first volunteer experience was with Seattle Humane’s Pet Food Bank for low-income senior citizens, where she realized there was a need for access to low-cost spay/neuter for cats. Sally devoted many hours and personal funds to community cat spay/neuter before starting South County Cats in 2006. She has volunteered for Regional Animal Services of King County since 1998. Sally has also volunteered for MEOW Cat Rescue, PAWS, Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project and Pasado’s Spay Station.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award. There are many animal welfare volunteers deserving of this recognition. The Governor’s Service Award not only recognizes, but validates the important work we do, which impacts cats, caretakers and our community. I am energized to increase our spay/neuter programs and partnerships, and trap-neuter-return of feral/community cats in south King County, to prevent future generations of homeless cats.” she said.

Sally’s enormous dedication, phenomenal skills, and hard work have contributed significantly to South County Cats’ mission of reducing euthanasia rates at local shelters.

Sally is also a recipient of Auburn Valley Humane Society’s 2018 Animal Champion Award-Individual and was recently honored at the AVHS Gala and Auction.

In addition to volunteering full-time for South County Cats, Sally works part-time as an elementary school paraeducator.

Other RASKC volunteers were recognized as Honorable Mentions for the Governor’s Service Award:

• Individual Teen Category: Julia Yagelowich, Partner Volunteer (Kirkland Petco)
• Service Group Category: RASKC’s Foster Program, led by Foster Care Coordinator Lori Mason

Thank you Sally and all our other winners for everything you do for pets!

Crossposted from Metro Matters

Two-week uptick in canceled trips is possible

Transit customers might experience a two-week uptick in trip cancellations starting Monday, April 23. While we have been hiring, training, and deploying more bus drivers to meet our service needs, some current drivers will stop driving for a couple of weeks as they take training to become supervisors or to move from part-time to full-time driver roles.

Metro has 2,950 bus drivers providing more than 12,900 weekday bus trips across King County.

Ten new part-time drivers graduated on Friday, April 20 and will start work on Monday, April 23. Thirty-six drivers completed their training to move from part-time to full-time positions that start on April 21, and another dozen part-time drivers are expected to graduate April 27. The more drivers we have joining the ranks, the better, to help reduce the chance of cancellations.

Pictured: New full-time transit operators began service April 21.

During this same window, 22 full-time drivers will stop driving as they enter field supervisor training, and 36 more part-time drivers will begin two weeks of training to become full-time transit operators. Those 36 operators will return to service Monday, May 5, with the ability to provide even more service to riders.

In the meantime, we’re asking all available drivers to help pick up additional trips so we don’t have to cancel single trips, but we’re still giving riders a heads-up that individual trips might be canceled. On routes that operate very few trips during the commute time, our customer communications staff will be working closely with our control center to send electronic transit alerts and to flag canceled trips in the Puget Sound Trip Planner app. Transit coordinators will do their best to fill any missed trips that might emerge, even if the trip needs to run later than scheduled.

We apologize for the temporary inconvenience this will mean for some riders. We’re striving to meet the high demand for transit service in King County, and that requires a constantly growing workforce. More information about our ongoing hiring efforts is online.

Metro has increased bus service seven consecutive times since 2015, thanks to the region’s strong economy and Seattle voter-approved funds. The Seattle area leads the country in growing transit service, integrated closely with Sound Transit Link light rail.

We know that continuing to invest in frequent and reliable transit service is the best way to move people in our community, to reduce pollution, to connect people with opportunity and help them reach their potential. We appreciate your continued support.