Fourth-grader Johnny Lovick rolled out of bed in the early

morning cold in his grandmother’s ramshackle home in the middle of a Louisiana cotton field.

School wouldn’t start for hours, but in the dirt-poor South, everyone had a job to do, no matter how old or young.

Cotton had to be picked and chopped, chores had to be done. No matter how cold or hot it was, no matter how miserable the boy felt, the work never stopped.

With sparse food, no running wa-ter, no electricity, and an outhouse 100 feet away from the tiny share-cropper’s shack Lovick called home, life looked bleak.

Nobody looking at the boy would see a future state legislator, a city councilman, state patrolman or a county sheriff.

Nobody, that is, until a sheriff came to talk to Lovick’s class. “Never give up,” he told the students.

“He looked directly at me, and said, ‘I don’t want you to give up.’” Lovick recalled. “He knew where I lived. He knew exactly how incred-ibly poor we were.”

Lovick took that advice to heart, graduating high school at the age of 17, joining the Coast Guard, then spending three decades with Wash-ington State Patrol before being elected Snohomish County Sheriff in 2007.

During that time, Sheriff Lovick also served five years on the Mill Creek City Council, then joined the Washington State Legislature.

Last week, Lovick talked to stu-dents at Harbour Pointe Middle School about the importance of his

Your Hometown Newspaper Volume XVIII Number 45 June 2, 2010

806 5th StreetMukilteo, WA 98275

Think $20 doesn’t buy what it used to?

Tell that to Norman and Deb Webb, the proud – and lucky – owners of a 1961 Chevrolet Corvette.

Norman Webb wrote his annual check to Valley General Hospital’s fundraiser raffle and, like the previ-ous eight years, never gave it another thought beyond the good cause to which his family contributed.

In 2001, things went a little differ-ently. That year, wife Deb wrote the check and sent it off.

“All of the sudden, I hear Deb screaming, ‘We won the car! We won the car!’” Webb recalled. “I thought it was a joke, or someone was scam-ming us.”

No joke, no scam – the Webb fam-ily was now the proud owner of the vintage Corvette, a dream come true for lifelong gearhead Norm.

“I’ve always been a car nut, always

wanted to own an old Corvette, but it was always just out of reach,” Webb

Diane Navicky has been down this road before. Not the highly pub-

licized annexation issue that has put her residence stability in the cross-hairs once again, but the unpleasant reality of being forced to relocate and losing her home in the process.

Navicky lives at Carriage Club Es-tates, a manufactured home complex in the area that Mukilteo may annex.

Right now, the property is in unin-corporated county and protected by a zoning change the county adopted last year to protect such vulnerable homeowners.

The county created manufactured home zoning, changing the property from multi-family zoning.

Unless Mukilteo adopts a similar ordinance if and when it annexes the area, Navicky said she and her neigh-bors could be forced to relocate again – challenging enough under ordinary circumstances, even tougher when you have to bring your home with you, or worse, pay for its destruction.

“I am definitely on board with that,” Councilmember Jennifer Gregerson said of Mukilteo adopt-ing similar policies. “This serves an important need (affordable housing) for our city.”

“We have no desire to kick them out,” Mayor Joe Marine said. “Cur-rently, our laws don’t allow mobile home parks; we’ve tried to discourage them in the past.”

Annexation is different, however, Marine said. And inheriting CCE is not like inheriting a casino or other property some see as undesirable for the city, he explained.

As more and more manufactured home complexes are sold for other de-velopment, those owning the mobile

by REbECCA CARREditoR@mukiltEobEACon.Com

see MOBILE HOME, page 19

see SHERIFF, page 2

Mukilteo’s Noah Swanson brings the heat in the Pounders 7-5 victory last week.

Photo courtesy of Liz Ferry

Mariner prospect?

Lovick has Ds and Fs for HP studentsby REbECCA CARREditoR@mukiltEobEACon.Com

In Mukilteo, then out again?That’s what mobile home owners are fearing

Calling all (classic) cars

Do you have a classic car, or know someone who does?

Get out that soap, water and wax, and get your prize baby ready for Mukilteo Chamber’s first car show! The show runs from 10 to 3 Saturday, June 26, at Kamiak, 10801 Harbour Pointe Blvd. For more infor-mation, or to register your car, contact Mukilteo Cham-ber, mcc@mukilteochamber.org, or (425) 347-1456.

by REbECCA CARREditoR@mukiltEobEACon.Com

see CLASSIC CARS, page 12

Norm Webb shows off his $20 Corvette, a raffle prize from Valley General Hospital’s annual fundraiser. Webb has entered his 1961 classic in Mukilteo’s first car show. Mukilteo Chamber is organizing the event, to run 10 -3 Saturday, June 26, at Kamiak High School.

Beacon photo by Rebecca Carr

Jim Brice of Mukilteo Seniors will drive a shuttle between Lincoln Courtyard, the farmers market at Lighthouse Park and the art building on Second Street,

between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., for Waterfront Wednesdays. Suggested donation: $1.

Mukilteo BeaconMukilteo Beacon

� - Mukilteo Beacon www.mukilteobeacon.com June �, �010

DDFF formula – determina-tion, discipline, faith and focus.

Without those factors, he said, he never would have overcome the crushing pov-erty of his early years.

Without that sheriff years ago believing in a determined little boy sitting in a Louisi-ana classroom – and Lovick believing in himself – he never would have realized his own childhood dream of becoming a sheriff.

“Everything I tried to do, I’d go for it all out,” he said. “You would have to tie my hands behind me and my feet to my hands to stop me once I’m determined to make it.”

Students should come to

class focused entirely on learning, Lovick told them.

“That’s your job here,” he said. “Never mind that bad guy from last week (the report of a man with a rifle that put HPMS, Kamiak and Columbia on lockdown). You come to learn, focus on study-ing, and be determined to succeed.”

Lovick showed teacher Amy De Klyen’s sixth grade students a large photo of the now-vacant shack where he grew up.

“There was a tank right here,” he said, pointing to the lower right corner. “The wa-ter would run down the gut-ters from the roof, and that was our drinking water.”

Those electrical wires didn’t exist when Lovick lived and worked there, he said.

It was discipline and de-termination that helped the young Lovick see a world be-yond that crushing poverty, he said.

Lovick told the Harbour Pointe sixth graders how important it is to never lie, al-ways tell the truth, no matter what, even when they make a mistake – in fact, especially when they make a mistake.

He pointed to former leg-islative colleague and now state superintendent Randy Dorn. Every student knew of Dorn’s highly publicized “mistake” of driving under the influence of alcohol.

While some parents and taxpayers at the time were ready to crucify Dorn, Lovick admired his courage.

“His lawyer said he could have his punishment reduced, or plead not guilty and have a good chance of getting off,” Lovick said.

“But Randy Dorn knew he was guilty. He knew he had made a mistake, and he wanted to admit it and make amends.

“I think mistakes improve performance,” he said. “Su-perintendent Dorn is now visiting classrooms, talking to the students about what he did and why it was wrong – he’s not hiding from what he did.”

That brings up another F – forgiveness, Lovick told the students.

“We all make mistakes. You can’t live without mak-ing mistakes, “ he said. “The important thing is to admit it, to always tell the truth, to make amends and move on.”

It’s as important to forgive ourselves as it is to forgive others, he said.

“You can’t cry over spilt milk. We all have to move ahead,” he said. “Life is about moving forward and feeling good about the good things we’ve done.”

SHERIFF, from page 1

Above - Harbour Pointe Middle School sixth-grader Komal Mand holds a photo of the share-cropper shack in the middle of a cotton field, where Sheriff John Lovick grew up in poverty. A message of hope and an admonition to never give up, no matter how hard the path, inspired Lovick to realize his goals – including his boyhood dream of becoming sheriff. Top right - Har-bour Pointe Middle School sixth-grader Merrick Corpening talks about Sheriff John Lovick’s goal-reaching strategies of determination, discipline, faith and focus.

Beacon photos by Rebecca Carr