Pay stations for parking debut

SEATTLE — Parking rates in downtown Seattle are jumping from $1 to $1.50 an hour, but the city is making it easier to pay.

In Pioneer Square, Mayor Greg Nickels yesterday unveiled the first of new pay stations that will accept credit and debit cards, in addition to coins. After paying, customers display a receipt on the front window of their cars indicating the expiration time.

Over the next three years the city will replace most of the 9,000 single-space parking meters with pay stations, beginning in Pioneer Square and adding downtown, the waterfront, Capitol Hill, and the Pike-Pine and First Hill business districts this year.

In some neighborhoods where parking is 60 cents an hour, the cost will rise to $1.

The new parking rates are the first increases in 10 years. By the end of the year, all 4,500 of the city's electronic single-space meters will operate at the new rate; within 18 months, all of the mechanical meters will be retired and replaced by pay stations or electronic meters.

2 arrested as suspects n Lynnwood burglaries

LYNNWOOD — Lynnwood police have arrested two people they believe are responsible for at least 10 local burglaries since March 9.

A 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were each booked at the Lynnwood Jail on Friday on six counts of investigation of first-degree burglary. Sgt. Sean Doty said detectives caught them leaving the Alderwood Heights apartment complex in the 18100 block of 36th Avenue West after spotting them breaking into several apartments

Board OKs plan for cuts in Marysville schools

MARYSVILLE — The School Board last night approved plans to cut $1.5 million from next year's budget because of a 200-student enrollment decline, a sagging fund balance and a new teachers contract.

The cuts include the elimination of 16 teaching, administrative and nonteaching positions, which will result in the loss of some elective classes at Marysville's midgrade levels. Also targeted for cuts are new reading curriculum and 10 percent of every school's budget.

While several teachers asked the board to find alternatives to cutting the arts, interim superintendent Paul Sjunnesen said not all the cuts may be necessary. If the district's enrollment increases, programs could be restored.

Montlake Cut light-rail route gets City Council backing

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council yesterday endorsed an eight-mile, six-station light-rail route from downtown under the Montlake Cut and north to Northgate.

The board of Sound Transit, the regional transit agency, is expected to pick an alignment Thursday. Sound Transit already is building a 14-mile light-rail line south from downtown to Tukwila.

The City Council's preferred route north, underground as far as Lake City Way Northeast, would include stations at First Hill, Capitol Hill, Husky Stadium, the University District, the Roosevelt District and Northgate.

The council rejected a possible station on University of Washington property at 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 45th Street, saying the University District station instead should go under Brooklyn Avenue Northeast either north or south of 45th.

Arlington man sentenced to 79 years for death plot

EVERETT — An Arlington man who tried to hire a plainclothes detective to kill his ex-wife and her family was sentenced yesterday to 79 years in prison.

On July 16, a jury found Mitchell Varnell, 42, guilty of five counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

Varnell was charged in February 2002 after he tried to hire his secretary to kill his former wife, her parents and her brother. The secretary told him she knew of someone who could take care of his "problem." She then began working with police.

Alleged assault at high school investigated by King County

AUBURN — The King County Sheriff's Office is investigating a report of a sexual assault last week at Thomas Jefferson High School in the Federal Way School District. Detectives say a 15-year-old girl was the victim of inappropriate sexual contact by a boy at the school.

No one has been arrested. But the district has temporarily expelled three students — two boys and one girl — from the high school for actions before and at the time of the alleged assault, said Debra Stenberg, a district spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate on their alleged actions.

Mailbox Peak hiker's death came after heart attack

NORTH BEND — A 55-year-old North Bend man who died Saturday afternoon near the summit of 5,500-foot Mailbox Peak suffered a heart attack, a King County medical examiner's official said yesterday.

George Piccola was hiking the peak with his wife and two friends when part of the group looked back and saw Piccola fall forward, a King County sheriff's spokesman said. Two hours of resuscitation attempts failed, and a Navy helicopter retrieved Piccola's body.

Former mobile-home dealer sentenced in loan-fraud case

SEATTLE — After seven years on the run, a 65-year-old former Kent mobile-home dealer was sentenced yesterday to 16 months in a federal prison for a loan-fraud scheme that netted him nearly $1 million in the early 1990s.

Prosecutors charged in 1994 that Norman Eckles, who ran Vincent Homes, reported inflated purchase prices in loan documents sent to Pacific First Bank and pocketed down payments. Prosecutors alleged that Eckles paid Malcolm Cavanaugh, the bank's principal loan officer at the time, $1,000 per loan to push the fraudulent paperwork through. Cavanaugh was charged and arrested, but he committed suicide.

Eckles fled in 1996 while awaiting trial. He recently was arrested in Mexico.

Times staff and news services