The Monroe Monitor & Valley News -- The Voice of the Sky Valley Since 1899

In PDF format
(View with Acrobat Reader)

PAGE 1
• The Good Life In Blum
• Monroe Inmate found guilty of murdering cellmate
• Kids will learn about nature through forest program
• Heritage Baptist rezone shot down a second time

PAGE 2
• Around The Valley
• Flashback

PAGE 3
• Former Monroe woman provides homes for teen mothers
• Forest Service snowshoe hikes offer sightseeing, local history

PAGE 4
• Opinion
• Letters

PAGE 5
• Olsen seeks rematch against Kristiansen
• Crisis Card highlights resources for county teens
• Find It Fast Directory

PAGE 6
• Roads Update
• Births
• Classified ads
• Legal notices
• City of Monroe legal notices

PAGE 7
• Events
• People
• Police Reports

PAGE 8
• Citizen's Academy offers chance to experience life as a cop
• Explosion team kicks off Math Challege at Frank Wagner
• Obituary
• MHS scholars
• Classified ads
• Legal notices
• City of Monroe legal notices

PAGE 9
• Sports page and sports photos

PAGE 10
• Sports page and sports photos

For a guy who, as he puts it, isn't that good of a wood carver, Dan Blum has managed to work what appears to be a miracle. He has carved an elf with a golf ball trapped inside. Like a ship in a bottle, the golf ball is too big to have fit through any of the openings in the statue.When complimented, Blum, 83, seeks to deflect the attention to someone else.

See page 1

Just because it's cold and wet outside is no reason for kids to stay indoors. In fact, it's a good time to learn about Washington forests and wildlife, and a new program offered through the Monroe and Sultan Boys and Girls Clubs, in partnership with Snohomish County Parks and 4H, will teach kids just that.
"I think it's for kids who are interested in the outdoors, interested in wildlife, doing hikes, interested in birds and plant life and
fish," said
Gabrielle
Roesch, an
organizer with
4H. "We talk
about wildlife,
salmon,
biology. It's for
kids who want
to get their
hands dirty."

See page 1

Monroe Inmate Found Guilty of Murdering Cellmate

After an eight-day trial, a Monroe Correctional Complex inmate was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday for strangling his cellmate to death with the drawstring from a pair of sweatpants in 2006.

Cory Garzina, 24, had just a month left to serve on a two-year sentence for theft and stolen property when he reported to prison officials that he was frightened of his cellmate, Daniel Jay Perez, 24, of Tacoma.
Many inmates make that complaint to try to get private cells, said prison officials, and his request for a transfer was refused.

But in June 2006, corrections officers found Garzina's body under a bunk in his two-man cell, a cord embedded in the flesh of his neck.

Evidence pointed to Perez, who had a history of mental health problems. Security cameras showed only him entering and leaving the cell. And he told detectives later that he dreamed Garzina had stabbed him.

See page 1

(Left) DAN BLUM joins other seniors to carve and kibbitz each week at the East County Senior Center, where he creates items like these golf ball-holding statuettes. The senior center, he says, gives him a lot to look forward to each week.
PHOTO BY POLLY KEARY