Residents work to keep that small-town feeling

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Dianne Heide, a local activist who won the Citizen of the Year award in 1998, attributes her achivement to being the kind of person who likes to be involved. She has helped raise money for a food bank and a domestic violence shelter for women through the citizens action committee.

"I tend to stick my finger in a lot of pies," she said. "Basically I am a very loud person, so they hear from me a lot."

Covington residents and business leaders say they are committed to keeping the small-town values that are often lost when growth comes to a community.

"I love Covington because it is a friendly town," said Heide. "We are still small enough that most people know each other."

"Keeping the small-town atmosphere is what people want," said Virginia Levack, who compiled a history of the town. "The friendliness and the small-town feeling."

This is, above all, a family-oriented community, says Mayor Pat Sullivan, who is quick to point out the town has a lot of young people. "In King County, 22 percent of the population is under 18," he said. "In Covington, it is 35 percent."

This is a community that holds an annual town celebration -- Covington Days -- providing free cake and ice cream, pony rides and face-painting for the children.

And although it formally became a city only two years ago, it is a community that is immensely proud of its history, which includes being a former railroad and logging town.

There were as many as five sawmills in the area in the early 1800s. When the logging came to an end, residents took up dairy farming, raised chickens and grew strawberries and raspberries. During Prohibition they had their fair share of stills and did a little bootlegging.

And it is a city in which family values were underscored last year when there was talk of opening a cardroom in the heart of the city. The City Council quickly voted to ban minicasinos, becoming one of the first cities in the state to do so.

"This is kind of a tight-knit community," said Eric Doan, who manages the Godfather's Pizza in town. "You see the same people at the store and say 'Hi' to each other by first name. It's kind of neat to be in a community where a lot of people recognize you and you know them too.

"This is a community where everyone cares for everyone else."