Issaquah man, 82, gets a chance to relive his passion for Clydesdales
Issaquah girls bolt out of the starting gate with 5-0 record 4Sports,
4Community,
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THE ISSAQUAHPRESS
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Locally owned since 1900 • 75 Cents
Plan proposes shift from suburban to urban in business district By Warren Kagarise wkagarise@isspress.com
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The central business district is on the cusp of change, as city leaders plan for redevelopment on about 1,000 acres stretched along Interstate 90. Nowadays, suburban sprawl dominates the landscape — traffic-clogged streets unfurl next to strip malls. Residents live elsewhere and climb into cars to reach the area’s amenities. Underfoot, 75 percent of land in the area is encased under parking lots. Imagine, instead, buildings up to 125 feet tall, storefronts and residences arranged along treelined sidewalks, and perhaps decades in the future, a station on the regional rail network. The roadmap to the more urban future is the Central Issaquah Plan, a far-reaching
City Council regular meeting 4Agenda: Central Issaquah Plan 47:30 p.m. Dec. 17 4Council Chambers, City Hall South 4135 E. Sunset Way guide to development for the area stretched along the interstate from the Bellevue city line to Northeast Gilman Boulevard. If implemented, guidelines in the plan could reshape the community on a scale larger even than development in the Issaquah Highlands and Talus urban villages throughout the 1990s and 2000s. See PLAN, Page A6 BY GREG FARRAR
Shirleann and Jim Nold, former longtime South Cove residents now living in Renton, return to Issaquah to have their photo taken with Santa Claus at The Grange Supply Dec. 8 at the annual event for kids of all ages and their pets. They still believe in Santa Claus because ‘it’s the same as having faith in the person who made us,’ Jim Nold said.
City Council restores dollars for nonprofit Police to add patrol officer organizations By Warren Kagarise wkagarise@isspress.com Representatives from a spectrum of organizations — nonprofit human services groups offering affordable housing, safe havens for domestic violence victims, assistance to struggling students and more — successfully lobbied City Council members Dec. 3 to stave off a $48,750 drop in funding for such programs. The council agreed to allocate $280,750 in the $42 million general fund budget for human services grants, but only after a council committee pushed to increase the amount and local nonprofit organizations pleaded for the council not to eliminate $48,750 in funding.
Grants go to organizations such as Eastside Baby Corner, Friends of Youth and the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank to offer services to residents from Issaquah and the Issaquah School District. In a 4-3 decision, council members agreed to increase the amount budgeted for human services by $48,750 from the $233,250 the council recommended in earlier budget deliberations. The additional dollars for human services grants comes from the municipal rainy day fund. Councilwoman Eileen Barber initiated the process to restore the human services funding. See GRANTS, Page A3
By Warren Kagarise wkagarise@isspress.com
Expect to see more police patrolling city streets next summer, after the City Council agreed to include dollars in the 2013 municipal budget for the Issaquah Police Department to hire another officer. The council agreed in the $42 million general fund budget to hire another police officer and a part-time records staffer for the police department. The agency expects to fill both positions after July 1. The general fund encompasses the dollars used to fund police and fire services, community development and planning, parks and recreation, and municipal government. The police department is the largest expense in the general fund
Board is set to CELEBRATING HANUKKAH vote on Liberty schedule Dec. 12 Students, staff and parents of Liberty High School could know soon whether their daily schedule will change. The Issaquah School Board is expected to vote on the issue at its 7 p.m. Dec. 12 regular meeting. Since 1995, the school has used an eight-period block schedule where students take four 90-minute classes each day. However, in order to establish a common, districtwide high school schedule, and to give Liberty students more time to study core subjects, district officials are considering changing Liberty’s timetable. During the Nov. 28 school board meeting, Superintendent Steve Rasmussen recommended switching the school to a sixperiod schedule, which is what See SCHEDULE, Page A5
BY GREG FARRAR
Students in the Hebrew School of the Chabad of the Central Cascades perform their part as the Maccabees in a play that told the story of Hanukkah during the annual celebration of the Festival of Lights held Dec. 8 at Blakely Hall in Issaquah Highlands. The party featured a menorah made of 450 cans of food brought by families in attendance. The donation is being split between the Jewish Family Services Food Bank and the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank.
INSIDE THE PRESS A&E ............... Classifieds ...... Community .... Let’s Go!.........
B8 B7 B1 B2
Obituaries ...... B3 Opinion .......... A4 Police & Fire .. B7 Sports ..........B4-5
— encompassing more than $8 million — followed by parks and recreation. But, due to the lean economy, police department officials’ annual requests for another patrol officer bumped into the difficult economy in past years. “We’ve been working on this since I’ve been here, but with the understanding that the whole nation just went through a financial situation, and Issaquah wasn’t safe from that,” Police Chief Paul Ayers said after the council passed the 2013 city budget. “We had to set it on the back burner until we were finally able to get into a position where there was some funding to support that.” The agency employs 32 officers, including 20 patrol officers. The department last added a patrol officer after Issaquah
annexed the Greenwood Point and South Cove neighborhoods in 2006. The planned addition is “going to help us continue to provide a high quality of service with the population growth that we’ve been experiencing over the last few years,” Ayers said. Issaquah is home to more than 31,000 residents, and as the population increased in recent years, police department officials attempted to maintain a decent ratio of officers to residents. Though no ideal measure exists, many agencies rely on the ratio of 1 officer per 1,000 residents, although in a low-crime community such as Issaquah, police respond to fewer major See BUDGET, Page A3
Merry Christmas Issaquah strengthens community ties By Warren Kagarise wkagarise@isspress.com Since the economy entered a nosedive in 2008, and throughout the fragile recovery since, volunteers at Issaquah Community Services keep hearing a familiar story. The breadwinner for a household, laid off during the recession, needs help to make ends meet. The volunteers listen and, in many cases, offer assistance to pay the rent or to keep the electricity on. Milicent Savage, Issaquah Community Services president, remembers the stories from two men recently at the organization’s office. The men, both fathers and husbands, needed assistance to
QUOTABLE “Sure, there are a lot of miserable people in the world, but there are a lot of nice ones, and I’ve met so many of them. I’m getting spoiled — I’ve been so fortunate.”
— Duncan Mulholland Issaquah resident who drives a six-horse hitch of Clydesdale draft horses (See story on Page B1.)
2012 GOAL: $75,000 TO DATE: $23,347 HOW TO HELP Help by making a tax-deductible donation to Issaquah Community Services. The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Send donations to Merry Christmas Issaquah, c/o The Issaquah Press, P.O. Box 1328, Issaquah, WA 98027. The names of donors — but not amounts — are published in The Press unless anonymity is requested.
See FUND, Page A2
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