The City of Gig Harbor is “on top” of a looming $1.8 million budget shortfall for the 2010 budget, a city official said last week.

There are no more old and faded U.S. flags in Gig Harbor. Since putting out a call for donations last week, the City of Gig Harbor received donations to the tune of 66 new U.S. flags — with more on the way.

Summer Reading is one of the “mostest funest” events at the library, and it has just begun. This year is really great, because the theme is “Be Creative.” It features activities from and about all the arts: drawing, painting and cartooning, music, acting, dancing and writing, which leads to reading.

Fire officials will be keeping a close eye on weather conditions this Fourth of July weekend. The recent dry spell has left fertile conditions for fires.

MultiCare Health System has made patients’ access to records easier than ever. With MyChart, the health system’s newest online innovation, patients can book appointments, request medication refills and view their medical information and results.

CenturyTel is in the process of merging with another national communications service.

The Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution presented George F. Russell, Jr. with its Award for Public Service at a June 3 dinner event in Seattle.

Voluntary furloughs are the latest measure the City of Gig Harbor is taking to help fend off declining revenues, a city official said last week.

Gig Harbor’s Henderson Bay High School is a lot of things: alternative, accomplished and, now, accredited.

I’d never heard of the “Watch D.O.G.S.” before. Thanks to Kristi Rivera, assistant principal at Purdy Elementary School, I learned. Rivera, who invited me to visit the school a few days ago, told me “D.O.G.S.” stands for “Dads of Great Students.” The kids who benefit from the unique program wear T-shirts proclaiming, “My hero is a Watch D.O.G.”

City officials and members of the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak team put down their agendas and paddles to help clean up the beach near Jerisich Dock last Thursday during low tide.

Four students and a teacher from Bates Technical College in Tacoma got their feet wet on a special project in Gig Harbor last week.

A crowd of friends, family and admirers gathered in the garden area of the Home Port Restaurant and Lounge in Home on Sunday to honor John Glennon Sr. for his years of devoted service to the Key Peninsula community.

It’s time to walk the walk in Gig Harbor. Thanks to innovative people like Dr. Pat Hogan and many other volunteers associated with Healthy Communities of Pierce County, you can now walk, run or bike in town and use mile markers embedded in the sidewalks as your guide.

The First Saturday Art Walk in Gig Harbor is scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. this weekend.

June 20 — Firefighters were called to the scene of an ant hill fire. They arrived to find a small 1-foot by 1-foot burned area. The reporting party told firefighters he had seen smoke in the area and called 9-1-1, then went to investigate and found the ant hill on fire. He extinguished the fire with his garden hose. After making sure the fire was out, the firefighters returned to service.

June 19 — A woman called deputies to report a burglary to her vacant home for sale. Several antiques and family keepsakes reportedly were taken from the residence. The unknown suspect may have entered through a doorway.

This year’s Summer Sounds at Skansie concert series will kick off with a visitor from the Seattle area next week.

A Gig Harbor hearing examiner denied an application last week to amend the city’s Height Restriction Area map.

A highlight of the Gig Harbor Garden Tour on Saturday will be a drawing for Adirondack chairs specially decorated by nine local artists, some of them professional.

PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to see more photos of the chairs.

The Cheney Family Branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound is expected to open in September, but this summer, the club will give local children a preview of what’s to come.

Improvements are coming to the Cushman Trail gap — and it won’t come out of the City of Gig Harbor’s budget, a project engineer said Monday.

Facing tough economic times, the City of Gig Harbor is asking its residents to help replace about 50 U.S. flags throughout the city.

The jar that sits on the front desk of the Key Center library is full of names hoping to win a prize in a weekly drawing. Each name represents a child who has made his or her way into the library to be part of the Pierce County Library System’s “Be Creative” summer reading program.

The Peninsula School District will do something it hasn’t done in a decade — allow out-of-district transfers.

The seven large cardboard boxes that sit in the back of Gig Harbor’s Goodwill warehouse aren’t as full as they were last year.

Harbor Place and Cottesmore of Care Life Center will team up to present its first health care and wellness festival on Saturday, dubbed a “Celebration of Generations.”

More than 175 Key Peninsula Middle School students were honored Friday during the school’s “Moving On” ceremony at the Peninsula High School gym.

Saturday’s beach walk at Purdy Beach was the swan song after many years of teaching for marine education and outreach specialist Alan Rammer. The educator announced his plans to retire.

PHOTO GALLERY: View more photos from the day's event.