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Liberty strives for ‘tough’ and ‘together’ — Page 8
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The IssaquahPress
Issaquah’s only locally owned newspaper
Traffic plan may cost $300 million
Package would include 500 percent increase in impact fees By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com Looking to accommodate expected residential and retail growth without creating gridlock on city streets, Issaquah’s administration has come up with a $300 million transportation plan that could accommodate up to an additional 8,000 car trips on local streets per day. But to help pay for all the needed road improvements, administration officials have proposed a 500 percent hike in the traffic impact fees developers pay. For a single-family unit, developers currently pay $1,700, said David Hoffman, North King County manager for the Master Builders Association. If the proposed increases were adopted, that figure jumps to $8,600. The impact fees would not
cover the entire cost of the plan, which includes $250 million for roadwork and an additional $50 million for bike paths and pedestrian accommodations, city consultant Randy Young said in an interview. Young said the city would need to fund the remainder at a cost of approximately $165 million for roadwork and roughly $26 million for bike and pedestrian pathways. The transportation plan was unveiled at a Dec. 2 open house put on by the city and seemingly attended mostly by developers and contractors. Young, a partner in the Redmond firm of Henderson, Young and Co. that developed the overall plan, led the discussion at the open house. He said the plan was drawn up in keeping with state concurrency laws requiring cities mitigate traffic problems as they crop up as a result of new development. Whether or not the hikes would have a major impact on the pace of local development See TRAFFIC, Page 2
www.issaquahpress.com
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
NEVER TOO BUSY TO READ
By Lynn Juniel
Ron Thiele, Issaquah School District superintendent, and his wife Jill read to more than 30 students Dec. 3 at Pajama Storytime at the Issaquah Barnes & Noble. Children enjoyed hot chocolate and sugar cookies while listening to classics old and new. Among the books Thiele read included his favorite, ‘Carrot Seed.’
Local driver faces vehicular homicide EFR crews move to new May Valley facility charges after mixing wine and Ambien Eastside Fire & Rescue firefighters took up residence last week in the new May Valley fire station. The new station means the end of the Coalfield Station, on state Route 900 east of Renton, which opened about 25 years ago. The new Station 78 (the same number as the one being vacated) came in approximately $200,000 under budget and about a month later than expected. Delays were attributed to connecting to services and obtaining county permits. “We are really pleased with the new station and proud of the EFR project managers, Chief of Maintenance Kelly Refvem and Deputy Chief Wes Collins, who watched over the work and brought the resource online for less than expected,” Fire Chief Lee Soptich said in a news release. “The two spent 20-plus hours a week on the site and were able to get
ahead of several potential problems, which save citizens a lot of money.” The new station was built after a shift in demographics from annexations in Fire District 10’s area to the city of Renton. “Over time, we went from having a well-placed station with balanced response times for most, to a station on the edge of a service area, with most customers receiving longer response times” Soptich said. The new station houses a fire engine, aid car and a brush fire truck. The three-person, 24/7 crew with volunteer back up will have a primary service area of the May Valley, Coalfield, Issaquah-Hobart, Maple Hills, Lake Kathleen and Tiger Mountain areas. A voter-approved Fire District 10 bond funded the project. A public open house is planned for January.
By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times staff reporter
A 68-year-old Sammamish woman was charged Dec. 5, accused of mixing wine and sleeping pills when she crashed her Jeep through her lakefront home in May, killing her husband and son-in-law and seriously injuring her daughter. Carol Fedigan, who also is accused of endangering her young grandson who was seated on her lap at the time of the crash, was briefly booked into the King County Jail in May but was conditionally released, jail records show. “We had to wait for the toxicology report to come back,” Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said explaining why it took nearly seven months to file charges. Fedigan is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of vehicular assault and one count of reckless endangerment, according to court records. In addition, the vehicular homicide and assault charges each carry a special enhancement that the offenses
were committed when a child passenger under age 16 was an occupant of the vehicle — which if proven, would automatically add a year to her sentence. Prosecutors will ask a judge to set bail at $250,000 at Fedigan’s Dec. 18 arraignment, when she will presumably be booked back into jail, Donohoe said. Fedigan could face a prison term of about 10 to 13 years if convicted as charged, he said. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amy Freedheim wrote in charging documents that detectives learned Fedigan had “a significant alcohol problem” and her family had staged an unsuccessful intervention in an attempt to get Fedigan to seek treatment a few months before the May 16 crash. Detectives also found notes left by her husband, 70-yearold David Walker, indicating that Fedigan was abusing her prescription for the sleep aid Ambien, Freedheim wrote. Fedigan’s blood was drawn four hours after the crash, and her blood alcohol content was measured at 0.091 percent, Freedheim wrote in charging documents, noting it would have
been “much higher” at the time of the 7:57 p.m. collision. The amount of Ambien in her system “is inconsistent with a therapeutic dose taken at bedtime the evening before,” according to Freedheim. Fedigan was having dinner with her husband, son-in-law Sean Berry, 41, and daughter Megan Berry, 34, at their home on Lake Sammamish when she decided to move her Jeep into her driveway from where it was parked on a grass strip across the lane from the house, charging papers say. The other adults remained seated in the dining room. She took her nearly 3-year-old grandson with her, seating him on her lap behind the wheel of her brand new Jeep, according to the charges. Neither was wearing a seat belt. Data recovered from Fedigan’s Jeep showed “the defendant was fully accelerating the car and only touched the brake momentarily near the end of the event,” say the charges, noting that Fedigan apparently mistook the See CRASH, Page 2
TOTEM POLE WASHES UP IN CREEK
By Greg Farrar
A painting company worker tapes a window before painting the frame last month at the new Eastside Fire & Rescue Station 78, in the 20800 block of Southeast May Valley Road, south of Squak Mountain in King County Fire Protection District 10.
RIGHTSIZING 101: TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR SUCCESSFUL DOWNSIZING
Issaquah officials are fairly certain they have found the owner of this elaborate totem pole fished out of Issaquah Creek in late November. As of early this week, though, the city still had been unable to completely verify they had found the owner of the pole, said Matt Mechler, Issaquah’s open space steward. Mechler said the 12-foot pole appeared to have decayed at its base and simply tumbled into the creek. An unidentified resident first reported spotting the pole. The city inquired about the pole’s possible owner on social media and elsewhere. Responses sent officials in the direction of the possible owner, Mechler said. Contributed
Retirement Living Seminar Tuesday, December 16 at 10:30 am University House Issaquah 22975 SE Black Nugget Rd, Issaquah, WA 98029 RSVP at (425) 200-0331.
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