July 23 and July 25 – 27, 2008, in Liberty Park

The 23rd Annual Renton River Days is a week-long family festival and a celebration of community pride.  It is a time to get together with family, friends and neighbors and to enjoy the amenities and activities which make Renton a great community in which to live, work and play. Originating in 1986, this celebration joins residents, businesses, organizations, and Puget Sound region tourists together for a wonderful variety of events, special features for kids, arts & crafts, recreation, food and stage entertainment.  Liberty Park, in the heart of Renton, is the focal point for the festival. Cedar River Park is also host to many events in and around the Renton Community Center.  Continued… Renton River Days – City of Renton

Mike Rozell ~ Renton Realtor / Real Estate Agent ~ www.MyRentonLifestyle.com

Renton – Join us in Renton this 4th of July and celebrate the country’s birthday by letting the kids play in a bounce house, enjoying lots of great stage entertainment and taking in one of the eastside’s most popular fireworks display at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park.

The celebration has something for everyone, including free children’s activities and face-painting from 12 to 8 p.m., stage entertainment from 1 to 9:30 p.m., free shuttle service from 9 a.m. to midnight, and a professional fireworks display from a barge on Lake Washington at 10 p.m.  Average attendance at the park has been 20,000 for Renton’s 4th of July event, with many more viewing the beautiful night-time fireworks display from boats, canoes, kayaks, West Hill, Mercer Island, Newcastle, and Renton’s Kennydale and Highlands neighborhoods.  Continued…  Renton’s Fabulous Fourth of July and Fireworks at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park

Mike Rozell ~ Renton Realtor / Real Estate Agent ~ www.RentonLifestyle.com

For what seems like forever, two wooden islands have been rotting off Renton’s shore, abandoned, polluted and sunken by storms.

Back in the day, they were dry docks for boats in need of repair. Now they’re a navigational nightmare “” 200 feet long, 1,800 tons heavy, their floors submerged in water, their side walls rising from the surface of the lake.

How they got stuck in Lake Washington is a long, tangled story, involving three owners, five agencies, a delicate fish habitat and a federal Superfund site. This summer, the state will finally haul them away “” but only after more than two years, and about $1.8 million in public money.

All that, to pick up someone else’s trash.

“We can’t afford to educate our children, but we can waste money on things like this,” Renton Mayor Denis Law said with disgust.

The city, eager to remove the dry docks from its waterfront view, has offered to foot part of the bill. So has King County. Just don’t ask for money from the owner, who has no permanent address, and told police he was incoherent when he signed the bill of sale.  Continued…   Rotting dry docks near Renton’s shore to be removed -Cara Solomon, Seattle Times

Mike Rozell ~ Realtor / Real Estate Agent ~ www.MyLifestyleRealtor.com