The News Tribune du lieu suivant : Tacoma, Washington • 13

Inside Business: Employers are conceding impossible to prevent romance in the workplace B4 Obituaries B3 Classified 66-11 THE NEWS TRIBUNE wwwtribnetcom MONDAY DECEMBER 21 1998 iMrs take Utohi family T-" The joy of a i devotion love Lbj rBauaRnana The News Tribune I1 ttSr pr O' I'-i At the home of Net Tan Tran the father of murder victim Linda Tran other relatives of Linda come together At left sister-irvlaw Teresa Dunn-Tran hugs her daughter Alyssa with cousin Hannah Minnehan and brother Hung TVan center and right spoke English and Vietnamese with equal ease always ask me if I wanted ice cream or something to eat something to drink" TVan said gottopay for it -the same way they killed my daughter and family" Linda TVan 26 Pktrida 9 and 22-month-old Austin were all beaten before their Salishan home exploded in flames while they were inside Tran was seven months pregnant The Pierce County medical office ruled the family died of blunt trauma smoke inhalation and bums Shortly before the fire broke out neighbors saw a man with a baseball bat chasing Linda 1Yan outside the house Police are trying to identify him and track him down Though surviving relatives say they beheve the man with the bat an ex-boyfriend who was the father of Ivan's unborn child Ihcoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said otherwise Mattheis on Sunday said that detectives have cleared the ex-boyfriend of any involvement in the case "He is not a suspect" Mattheis said Police say they got a domestic violence call at the house minutes before thefire broke out The investi-gation continues leads dried Please set XnaK Ket Tan TVan lost more than his daughter Linda and two of hia grandchildren in a Friday anon that police believe may have been a case of domestic violence 1 lost TVan said Sunday night He lost the joy he felt each day when he came home from work to hu granddaughter Patricia his favorite grandchild Until the past few yean he had raised the girl who Vi' Retir Haley The News Tribune Seeing is not believing "nr rrm i 4 '4 a I I I I 'S jyy 2JL Jl Lu Kit WonrThe News TWbune Syear-old Austin Olson taking partial refuge under mdm Jennifer's shirt at all sure about this Santa Claus fellow on a recent trip to the Tacoma Mall In the end Austin decided against going any further but such rejection often accompanied by screaming is just part of the job for Santa's shopping center surrogates This Santa is Phil Grabinski a retired Pierce Transit driver in his 12th winter of meeting children These are busy days in the Santa business New home for most dangerous mental patients Locke requests $46 million for new Legal Offender Unit at Western State Hospital By JokpsTUrnei THe News Tribune The building at Weston State Hospital hone to the moat dangerous mental patients would be replaced under Gov Gary proposed budget for the next two years The governor is asking the Legislature for $46 million to Wld a new 240-bed facility at the Lakewood hospital to replace the 1930s-vintage structure that now houses about 212 Ktients who ft been committed by the courts for evaluation or treatment of mental disorders Residents of the Legal Offender Unit are murderers arsonists predators and other felons who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity or other patients who have been sent to the mental hospital by the courts to be evaluated and treated before they stand triaL If the Legislature agrees the new building would open in mid-2001 The long-range capital budget also would set aside $10 million to expand the facility to house 300 patients in the next four to six years really said Jann Hoppler director of the Mental Health Division of the state Department of Social and Health Services been heading to this new building for many years This will allow us to do much more programs and activities inside the secure facility And a much better environment for patient State and hospital officials say the new building also would be less costly to operate "It will be less expensive in terms of security said Dr Darrell Hamilton director of the Legal Offender Unit The present structure requires many guards because of its layout and because patients must be escorted to recreational activities outside the building he said Security guards also patrol the perimeter of the building The new complex will have a small gymnasium inside giving residents more opportunities for recreation and making many of the security escorts unnecessary he said Lockek budget proposal also would set aside $22 million to remodel three cottagBs that are home to about 45 juvenile patients under treatment for mental illnesses The remodeling would include replacing gypsum wallboard walls with concrete so they cant be so easily damaged Hamilton said no one has escaped from the Legal Offender Unit in four years and the newer facility would make escapes even less likely because of newer security features "It doesn't look like prison It kxiks like a campus building' he said of the replacement building Please seeMmtM rr --i siT fih Hie old fellow has lots of stand-ins around area malls and for most of them a true labor of love By Com Sumi Tie News Tribune if? 'VLtSf via i Even Santa Claus needs a little help in looking good Here one of his Tacoma Mail helpers Tiffany Dailey combs out Phil Grabinskl's beard on a break during Santa duty earlier this month Ui Kit Wong The New Tribune Tacoma MalL He loves the work despite the fairly frequent earephtting screams or tugs on the fake white beard 1 get along with kids" said Grabinski 73 wno also used to perform at hospitals and in parades as a Shrineri down quit growing mentally when I was 9 years old so I speak their Grabinski is among the dozens of men in the Puget Sound region who don uncomfortable and sometimes stifling white beards and wigs red velvet suits and belly padding to pose patiently for a few weeks in November and December so that little ernes can tell Santa in person just what they want for Christmas find another of them retired Franklin Pierce School District teacher Einer Thomsen pulling the Santa shift at Sea-Tac Mall in Federal Way "The best part is the little ones Please see Smta 92 uki peers ovi moon glasses and smiles at the vel-vet-clad toddler who is howling despite her mother's best efforts to get her to grin or at least stop crying Another woman places the child on knee and shakes a stuffed animal before her face to coax out a chuckle also to no avail Getting an earful of screams is an occupational hazard when Santa Claus or in this case one of the men who help out the jolly old elf by working as his stand-in Grabinski a retired Pierce Transit driver and roads supervisor can be found most days poring as Santa at 1 vvvVv-i v- i ISonney Lake looks eastward tor more land At behest of property owners dty intends to annex 305 acres along 410 corridor only 3 miles from Bucldey Bv Bos TUcker The News Tribune percent of the assessed valuation of the 305 acres triggering the annexation process The City Council then adopted a resolution accepting the petition and directing the dty administration to file a notice of intent to annex With the Pierce County Boundary Review Board If no one formally objects the annexation could be completed by mid-March after more public hearings to establish zoning said city planning director Craig Flamme "Ihere are no problems that Tm aware of" said Bonney Lake Mayor Bob Young property owners want The CSly of Buckley probabfy wont oppose the annexation Mayor John Blanuaa said City Administrator Thmarah Knapp said the mayor may ask for a of the at its next meeting to determine if any council members are uncomfortable Bonney Lake has declared its intent to annex more land along Washington 410 and move its eastern city limits from 214th Avenue East to around 234th Avenue East only three miles from Buckley's western boundary The action comes about 13 months after property owners began circulating a petition asking the city to annex 305 acres along the 410 corridor just east of the rapidly growing municipality Earlier this month the Pierce County assessor certified that the petition contained the signatures of property owners representing more than 60 TheNawtTHbun Please see is AaJi i i1 sisreitoi.