YAKIMA, Wash. -- It is common in the final days of December to reflect upon the year that was. There were plenty of big news stories in the Yakima Valley in 2009, including the fire at the former Boise Cascade log yard, the Nile landslide and even the passage of bond issues that will replace Eisenhower and renovate Davis High School.

The newsroom staff at the Yakima Herald-Republic voted on this year's most noteworthy stories.

1. Nile landslide

A quiet October Sunday morning in the Nile along State Route 410 northwest of Yakima became anything but when a major landslide, the largest in thousands of years, rocked the area.

The Oct. 11 event reminded Yakima Valley residents of the potential hazards that lurk in the ridges that define the county's landscape.

The landslide off Cleman Mountain blocked the highway and diverted the Naches River, shutting off residents from their primary access to the Yakima area for a week.

No one was injured, but eight homes were destroyed or damaged.

State geologists are still investigating the slide's cause but now believe the movement of earth that slid down the hillside started at least 200 feet below ground, said Dave Norman, state geologist with the Department of Natural Resources.

The threat to downstream property caused by the dammed river sent county and state officials into emergency mode for six weeks. A temporary road built on top of Nile Road provided access while county and state Department of Transportation crews built a new road to last the winter and created a new channel for the Naches River.

Selland Construction of Wenatchee built the new road that opened to traffic Nov. 18.

Yakima County spent about $1.7 million buying land for the channel and the road.

When it was all over, employees of the county, state and Selland, who worked on the project nonstop, were treated to a potluck dinner by Nile residents.

2. The gang issue

A rapid-fire series of gang shootings across Yakima County in the summer, including several that wounded innocent victims, put residents and governments on high alert.

At the end of last week, the number of homicides tied the record set in 1987.

The Yakima City Council poured money into police overtime in an attempt to put a lid on a spike in shootings, although overall crime statistics show that violence is generally trending downward.

Yakima County and other agencies sought funding from Congress for a broad initiative to turn gang members and families away from the criminal life.

And from Yakima to Prosser, community members rose up to join police in trying to fight the gang presence.

Regardless, gang-related crime continued to make the news on a regular basis. About a third of the county's 25 reported homicides had some connection to gangs.

Looking toward the upcoming legislative session in Olympia, the Yakima Valley's elected delegation promised to keep fighting for enhanced penalties against gang members who break the law.

3. State budget crisis

A whopping $9.5 billion budget shortfall forced unprecedented cuts to social services, including a plan to shut down the Yakima Valley School for the developmentally disabled in Selah.

The residential school had been targeted in years past but was always spared largely because of retired state Sen. Alex Deccio, the Yakima Republican who knew how to horse trade his way around the halls of Olympia.

But the residential, institutional model is considered obsolete by most experts in the field, who say community living in smaller group homes affords the developmentally disabled more freedom and autonomy.

As a result, the 100 or so beds currently occupied at Yakima Valley School likely will be reduced by more than half in the future.

Meanwhile, another victim of a continuing state fiscal crisis, the Ahtanum View Corrections Center, is slated to close by March.

4. Groundwater contamination

Spurred by a Yakima Herald-Republic series on groundwater contamination in the Lower Yakima Valley, a group of government agencies begins to map out solutions.

Led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the group intends to conduct more testing of private well water to identify the source of nitrate and bacterial pollution.

Enough with the testing, say citizen groups. They call for tougher enforcement of existing rules and laws against large animal feeding operations, including dairies in the Yakima Valley. While the EPA promises stepped-up action, it remains to be seen exactly what that will entail and whether any fines will be levied against dairies and feedlots.

Meanwhile, the agency picks the Yakima Valley as one of 10 communities nationwide for a special project to reduce health risks faced by minorities drinking contaminated water from private wells.

5. Log yard fire

It happened the afternoon of Sept. 26.

That's the day huge piles of dried-out logs at the former Boise Cascade log yard caught fire, causing a conflagration that cut off power to thousands of homes and businesses, threatened closure of the Central Washington State Fair and forced the call-up of every available firefighter in the region.

For months, city officials had been gently prodding Dunollie Enterprises, owners of a wood-chipping operation at the old mill, over fire safety concerns at the site.

A malfunction that burned up a water tanker July 16 was written off as an ironic fluke, but a lightning-caused blaze July 30 ratcheted up the city's efforts.

Deadlines came and went, leading to a Sept. 25 confrontation between city officials and Dunollie over ongoing concerns about the size and spacing of log decks at the site as well as the functioning of the operation's private fire hydrant system.

The day after, spontaneous combustion in a pile of wood waste set off the fire. In the aftermath, city officials shut down the operation for two weeks. A sprinkler system is expected to be reactivated this spring, when full-scale operations resume.

City officials eventually decided against seeking damages for the cost of fighting the fire, estimated at over $50,000. The 224-acre site is being primed for the biggest redevelopment effort in the city's history.

6. Dry Creek Complex fire

An August wildfire blackened 49,000 acres of sage-covered hills north of Sunnyside and destroyed a state highway bridge, a mobile home and the rural landmark Silver Dollar Cafe.

The lightning-caused blaze opened up a floodgate of questions about how firefighters handle emergencies in areas so remote, because they are not covered by any tax-supported agency.

Neighboring fire districts are reluctant to venture into the areas to fight fires because they could be held liable if it leaves their own areas undercovered. Brian Vogel, chief of Yakima County Fire District 5, likens it to mowing a neighbor's yard.

The fire also prompted some venting by area residents who claim firefighters wouldn't fight the fire because of the jurisdictional concerns but wouldn't let property owners access to do it themselves. Utility company officials made similar complaints.

Three state lawmakers called a November meeting in Sunnyside to hear all sides of the story.

They plan to introduce legislation in 2010 that would protect firefighters fighting flames and helping people anywhere, similar to the state's current medical Good Samaritan Law.

7. Yakima school bond measure

In spite of a bleak economy and belt-tightening times, Yakima voters approved a 20-year, $114 million bond measure to replace Eisenhower High School, modernize Davis High School and renovate six other schools.

Students got involved in the campaign, going door-to-door to talk to taxpayers and holding rallies before the May 19 election.

Seven months later, design work is under way for the new Ike, which is expected to stretch just over 289,500 square feet and accommodate about 2,400 students.

Eisenhower was the last high school built in Yakima, in 1957.

The district held community forums in the fall to gather input for the new school, which should take about two years to plan and another two years to build. The design phase is expected to last through September 2011, with construction to begin shortly after that.

Students should be in the building by the start of the 2013 school year.

Renovation at Davis should be completed in spring 2015.

The project also includes upgrades for four elementary schools -- Garfield, Hoover, McKinley and Nob Hill -- as well as Discovery Lab School, with grades one to eight, and Stanton Academy, an alternative high school.

8. Kittitas well permits

A mid-July moratorium on new permit-exempt water wells that brought real estate development to a halt in upper Kittitas County remains in effect at year's end.

The factors that prompted the state Department of Ecology to impose the moratorium could become issues elsewhere in Washington state, including Yakima County.

Exempt wells, for which a state permit is not required, have been the major driver of rural development for homes and agricultural uses such as dairies and feedlots.

But Ecology officials are concerned the growth of exempt wells is hurting senior water rights and stream flows.

A new development near year's end -- a water exchange for builders and homeowners to purchase rights to water -- also could be a wave of the future in rural Washington.

Suncadia Resort, near Cle Elum, is moving to place in the state's water rights trust program an amount of water that will meet the needs of several hundred homes.

Applicants and Suncadia will need to negotiate a price for use of the water for homes.

State Department of Ecology officials required the huge resort to purchase water to offset development outside its boundaries.

9. Teacher sex scandal

An East Valley High School physical education teacher was arraigned Oct. 16 in Yakima County Superior Court on one count of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor and two counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

Michele Taylor, 31, pleaded not guilty. She's also appealing termination from her job.

Taylor has worked for the school district since 2004. She has been on administrative leave since June 9.

She's accused of having sex with a 16-year-old male student in the back of her truck outside the Yakima Kmart store.

She's also charged with two counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. Authorities allege she exchanged more than 400 text messages with the 16-year-old as well as a male 15-year-old student between March and June.

If convicted, Taylor would automatically be terminated from her job. Plus, the school district would be entitled to recover her salary and any other compensation paid to her while she was on administrative leave.

However, if the hearing officer in Taylor's termination appeal rules in her favor, she gets to keep her job and compensation. She would also be awarded attorney's fees.

Her criminal trial is set for March 1.

10. E-mail flap

The Yakima City Council wrestled with some weighty issues in 2009 -- gang violence, a proposed paramedic program and a projected $4 million budget deficit.

Then there was the not-so-weighty -- bikini baristas, the aborted Summitview lane diet and, yet to be resolved, the siting of an abstract sculpture in the heart of the North Front Street Historic District.

Through it all coursed a flap over a budget-writing policy and e-mails that underscored a conservative shift on the council.

It all began April 14 when Councilman Rick Ensey proposed a new budget-writing policy favored by county officials and known as Priorities of Government.

The surprise move came during an obscure study session, and the majority's decision to adopt the new policy so enraged Councilman Neil McClure that he resigned on the spot.

Faced with legal action alleging an open-meetings violation, the council quickly rescinded the policy and wrote a check for $2,500 to settle the lawsuit out of court.

By then the council was reeling from the disclosure of politically embarrassing e-mails that revealed how Ensey and Councilwoman Kathy Coffey worked behind the scenes with Yakima Valley Business Times publisher Bruce Smith to engineer passage of the new policy.

Although the council ultimately voted unanimously to re-adopt the policy, Ensey found himself the target of a Democrat-inspired recall campaign.

A judge threw out the recall effort before it went anywhere, but the council's decision to foot Ensey's $16,400 legal bill did little to smooth over growing partisan rancor on the supposedly nonpartisan council.