Do you spend hours tending your roses, make sure your yard is perfectly edged or find yourself flipping though gardening books when it’s too cold to be outside? In other words, are you a green thumb?
Beginning May 1, The Herald will have a new feature highlighting the local gardeners in our communities. Each week, The Herald’s newsest columnist, Nancy Draper, will profile an East Pierce County gardener.
If you want to show off your hard work, send information about your garden, a way to get in touch with you and photos of your yard to editor@puyallupherald.com.

Sumner city officials sent a letter to Bonney Lake officials today to inform them that after approximately 30 days, Sumner will no longer provide Bonney Lake’s police communication services, said Sumner Communications Director Carmen Palmer.

Sumner officials reached the decision after determining staff levels in the communications center are practical for one city, Palmer said. There are six full-time communications officers hired at the Sumner Communications Center. No layoffs are predicted, but shift configurations may be altered.
It also appeared that Bonney Lake was leaning toward a partnership with Puyallup, she said.

The formal contract that Bonney Lake had with Sumner for dispatching service expired last fall, but it was renewed on an informal basis until this July, Palmer said.

The total cost of the communications center is approximately $900,000 per year. With the contract, signed in 2003, Bonney Lake pays an estimated $304,000 and Sumner pays roughly $600,000. Before 2003, each city had its own dispatch center.

Bonney Lake reporter Susan Schell will relocate to the Peninsula Gateway beginning Monday, Feb. 4.

Anyone wishing to suggest story ideas, please contact The Herald at 253-841-2481 - Heather Meier (editor) - ext. 310; Chris Albert, ext. 313 or Roxanne Cooke, ext. 314

City manager Jim Bacon announced his intent to leave Puyallup to accept a position in Arizona. The announcement was made via an e-mail message to city employees on Tuesday night, Nov. 6.
He will become the town manager for Paradise Valley, Ariz.
City attorney Gary McClean will serve as acting city manager until the city council chooses an interim.

This is a call-out to any local readers (Puyallup, South Hill, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps) who have ever needed to call a plumber or other service worker on a holiday.

The Herald is interested in your experience for an article about getting service on the day of a holiday. Was anyone available on Thanksgiving or Christmas? If so, how did it go, and if not, how did you deal with the problem?

E-mail editor@puyallupherald.com with your story or call Roxanne at 253-841-2481 ext. 314.

Okay, maybe what you find in The Herald hasn’t changed, but where you can find it has. For some time we’ve offered stories on the newspaper’s Web site but it was a place readers felt was outdated and not the same quality of what they were reading in print every week.

Today, though, we bring you something new — an online version of The Herald that’s easy to navigate and every bit as informative as the one you read over a morning cup of coffee every Thursday. Only now, you can be at work in downtown Seattle, on vacation at Disneyland or as East Pierce transplant living overseas.

And now, in addition to the award winning writing you are used to every week, online you will also a link to legacy.com, where obituaries can be viewed and loved ones can visit guestbooks.

Plus, if you don’t get your fill of photos in The Herald, our Web site will offer galleries where you can browse or order your own copies.

Have fun on the new Web site and thanks for reading The Herald each week.