The First Tech Movies@Marymoor, presented by Overlake Medical Clinics, kicks off its 13th season of weekly summertime movies at King County’s Marymoor Park on July 5. All events are “bring your own seating,” dog friendly and smoke free.

The complete line-up and more information can be found at on the Movies at Marymoor website or at www.facebook.com/moviesatmarymoor. The series is produced by local outdoor cinema company Epic Events, which also runs the Outdoor Movies at Magnuson Park in Seattle, Fairhaven Outdoor Cinema in Bellingham and Outdoor Movies at Riverfront Park in Spokane.

Metro Employee Historic Vehicle Association (MEHVA) and King County Metro hosted the Association of King County Historical Organizations (AKCHO) membership meeting Tuesday morning, May 30, 2017. AKCHO was established in 1977 to encourage the study and preservation of King County history and heritage, to promote dialog and cooperation among historical organizations, and to increase the public awareness of heritage activities in King County.

After AKCHO members discussed collection preservation and methods to cultivate volunteer participation, the group boarded #724, a 1968 GM “New Look” T8H-5305 once operated by Seattle Transit for a tour of historic Georgetown. General Motors Truck and Coach Division built the GM “New Look” bus nicknamed the “Fishbowl” (for its six-piece rounded windshield) between 1959 and 1986. The T8H-5305 was a public transportation workhorse during much of the latter half of the twentieth century. Although GM produced over 44,000 “New Look” buses, perhaps this iconic bus is most famous for its starring role in the 1994 movie “Speed.”

Josh Shield, MEHVA’s current President, provided AKCHO members an overview of MEHVA and King County’s efforts to maintain and restore vintage transit vehicles, the challenges faced today, and capably piloted the vintage coach as the group toured Georgetown.

The annual Seattle Pride Parade is coming up in just a couple of weeks, on Sunday, June 25. We’re hoping to have another large King County group!

If you want to pre-order T-shirts for you, your family, or friends to walk with the King County contingent, they are $9 each and available in adult sizes S-4XL, and child sizes XS-XL. You must pre-order and pay for your T-shirts no later than Friday, June 9, 2017. Pre-ordered T-shirts will be distributed the week of June 19.

We will also have a limited number of T-shirts available on the day of the parade at no cost in adult sizes only. First come, first served!

To order T-shirts in advance fill out the PRIDE t-shirt order form and send it along with a check for the total amount made payable to “Public Health HIV/STD Program” to Chinook Building, 401 Fifth Ave, Suite 1250, Seattle, WA 98104. For more info, email leah.holland@kingcounty.gov with the subject line “Pride”.

Orders and payment MUST be received by Leah Holland no later than Friday, June 9, 2017 at 5 p.m. 

“It doesn’t matter who the youth is, one of the things that we can do is that when they come through these doors they can be a kid again.”

That’s the goal for Pam Jones, Director of King County’s Juvenile Division, who oversees the operation of the Juvenile Detention Center at 12th Avenue and East Alder Street in Seattle.

Jones, who has been with King County for over 30 years, has played a key role in the County’s work to bring down the number of youth in detention. In the late-1990s, the average daily population was 198, peaking at times at well over 200. The existing facility can house up to 212 youth.

Over the last two decades, the County’s criminal justice agencies and community partners have worked together to reduce the number of youth in detention, with the average daily population falling to 51 in 2016.

This reduction results from a change in thinking that includes Restorative Justice and Trauma-Informed Practices, and recognizing that the brain is not fully developed in adolescents. New programs, including releasing qualified youth to an ”Alternative to Secure Detention” program, reducing the number of filings on youth made by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, offering a diversion program to young people who are arrested due to family domestic violence incidents, and providing alternatives to youth arrested on warrants who miss court dates or other appearance requirements.

“It’s a combination of systems coming together and agencies collaborating to continue to chip at those numbers and continue to reduce the population,” Jones said.

Pam works with staff to create a welcoming space for programs and services within the new facility.

A new Children and Family Justice Center, which was approved by King County voters in 2012, is scheduled to open in 2020, and will replace the aging Youth Services Center, which houses the existing Juvenile Detention Center and Juvenile Court.

The new facility will replace the current juvenile courthouse, which opened in 1972, and replace the existing detention center with a new building able to accommodate up to 112 youth, a reduction from the 212 beds available today.

It will also provide much needed space for programs and services.

“The current building has zero program space for youth,” Jones said. “We have a library and a gym; we don’t have any space that’s separate where the community can come in and do hands-on programming except for empty living halls that we have repurposed because the population has gone down. So when we want to do something fun and innovative with youth we are now just taking them from one living hall to another.”

The new building will include a “program suite” which houses a spiritual center, the gym, two multipurpose rooms and the library.

“Utilizing trauma-informed care design, we’re creating additional space in the program suite for community providers to use. The benefit as I see it for the youth is to feel like they’re going somewhere which makes them feel like, one, they’re a kid, and two, it’s not the same old ‘I’m just moving from one unit to another unit.’”

The goal is to help young people who are there feel supported, respected and like kids again.

All of which facilitates Jones’ goal of making the building one that helps the young people who are there feel supported, respected and like kids again.

“A lot of youth, they’re helping support the family; they’re the man of the house or the female of the house, or they take care of their siblings,” Jones said of the youth at the facility. “I just want them to come in and not have those responsibilities and not feel that we’re creating a space that’s going to create more harm for them, but we’re creating a space that’s going to make them feel better about themselves and the services that we’ll provide.”