News Briefs | Oct. 2 edition
Published 2:58 pm Friday, October 3, 2025
Sidewalk closure at Methodist Church
A section of sidewalk near Vashon United Methodist Church will be closed Thursday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for sewer work. During the closure, a flagger will redirect pedestrians to the bike lane on Vashon Hwy SW.
Road work
Crews will reduce traffic to a single lane on Tramp Harbor Rd SW north of SW 216th St, to do drainage improvement work. Construction will take place from Wed. Oct. 1 to Fri. Oct. 10, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
No weekend work is scheduled. Flaggers will direct traffic around the work zone. All vehicles will have access through the work zone. Please expect delays.
Island Center Forest deer hunt
The annual limited deer-hunting season at King County Parks’ Island Center Forest is set for Oct. 11-31. During that time, trails in the Natural Area of the forest will be open for public use, but the rest of the park will be closed to all other users except for hunters.
Maps of deer hunt area are available at tinyurl.com/4zpxywzy (Spanish) and tinyurl.com/3hnxbpkv (English).
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) oversees the deer hunt at Island Center Forest to better control the growing deer population on Vashon-Maury Island, where deer have no natural predators. The hunting season during the second half of October coincides with WDFW’s designated modern firearm hunting season, when all firearms can be used, except rifles.
Formerly owned and managed by Washington Department of Natural Resources, Island Center Forest is the only public land on Vashon Island where deer hunting has been allowed. The state transferred ownership of the forest to King County in 2004, and an agreement to continue a limited annual deer-hunting season was a part of the ownership transfer.
The hunt is open to everyone with a big game deer license and tag for deer with the modern weaponry option. One deer (antlerless or buck) is allowed. The WDFW issues a special permit through a limited lottery for a second (antlerless only) deer with the modern weaponry tag.
Superintendent Search
As part of a superintendant search that began in August, the executive search firm HYA will hold listening sessions in early October to gather input about the district and the leadership characteristics stakeholders consider most important as the school board screens and selects a canidate for the job.
All members are invited to take part in a community forum at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, at Vashon High School as part of this process.
The district’s webpage for the search, at vashonsd.org/superintendent-search, provides additional details and will be updated throughout the search process. The webpage also includes links to surveys (in both Spanish and English) of stakeholders. These surveys include the same prompts HYA uses during listenings sessions and forums.
All input from the listenings sessions and surveys will be used by Vashon’s school board to identify the desired characteristics of the next superintendent.
The survey is hosted and managed by HYA, which ensures responses remain anonymous. No email or IP addresses are collected and respondents are not asked to provide their name.
Shellfishing closures
Recreational shellfishing remains closed on some beaches of Vashon-Maury Island due to unsafe levels of paralytic shellfish poison — a neurotoxin that can sicken or even kill those who eat contaminated shellfish.
Beaches closed, as of Sept. 29, include Fern Cove, Lisabuela, Department of Natural Resources areas 77-79, Spring Beach, Neill Point Natural Area, Inspiration Point, Lost Lake, Manzanita Natural Area, Dockton, Burton Acres, Camp Burton and the Southworth Ferry Dock.
A regularly updated interactive map, at fortress.wa.gov/doh/biotoxin/biotoxin.html, shows which beaches are closed and which are open, or call the DOH biotoxin hotline at 800-562-5632.
The closures refer only to recreational shellfishing; commercial shellfish sites are monitored separately.
National Merit Scholarship semifinalist
Nathaniel M. Schill, of Vashon, as been named as one of 16,000 semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Schill as well as these other academically talented high school seniors will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.
The National Merit Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. For more information about the competition, visit nationalmerit.org.
