Issaquah’s only locally owned newspaper
THE ISSAQUAH PRESS
117th Year, No. 50
Thursday, December 15, 2016
issaquahpress.com
Five agencies losing city funding in 2017
Last-ditch effort to help Athletes For Kids, Life Enrichment Options voted down Scott Stoddard / sstoddard@isspress.com
The bell that once hung in the belfry of the Issaquah Methodist Episcopal Church now resides in an enclosed bell tower at the Pilgrim Firs Camp and Conference Center outside of Port Orchard. An inscription on the bell reads, “Issaquah M.E. Church / Nov. 28, 1895.”
A HISTORIC RING TO IT A 121-year-old bell from Issaquah’s past is still in use at Port Orchard camp
By Scott Stoddard sstoddard@isspress.com
Y
ou won’t find one of Issaquah’s most enduring relics within the city limits. In fact, this dust-covered, 121-year-old artifact isn’t even in King County anymore. A stout bronze bell that first rang out in 1895 across a scrappy mining town that had just renamed itself Issaquah now resides at a lakeside camp near Port Orchard, roughly 30 miles due west of us as the crow flies. Now enclosed in a tower that has protected it from the elements for the last six decades, the bell is in remarkable condition and rests
HEAR THE BELL Go online to issaquahpress.com to watch a video of a Pilgrim Firs Camp and Conference Center employee ringing the 1895 Issaquah church bell.
out of the public eye. It is still used to call those at the Pilgrim Firs Camp and Conference Center to meals, just as it has since the camp first opened in 1956. How the bell traversed its way from Issaquah to Port Orchard remains an unanswered question. Issaquah’s Methodist Episcopal Church, a 30-foot-by-50-foot building erected in 1890 on land that today is between the Issaquah Community Center and Julius Boehm Pool, was the bell’s first home. Five years after the church building was completed, a bell was See BELL, Page 12
By Lizz Giordano lgiordano@isspress.com The City Council approved $371,500 in funding for a variety of human services grants to agencies for 2017 during its Dec. 5 meeting. Despite a $50,000 increase in grant funds from the previous year, some longtime recipient agencies lost funding from the city. In 2016, the Human Services Commission received 74 grant application requesting a total of $695,000 in funds. Using a new framework that established target areas to evaluate applications, the group whittled the list to 53. Target areas included food stability and housing; support services for families and residents; services for survivors of domestic violence and abuse; health care; and education. Commissioner Elizabeth Maupin told councilmembers the commission’s goals were to limit redundancies in funding and provide larger grant amounts. See FUNDING, Page 2
A tepid OK for Inneswood: ‘We are going to approve it, but it doesn’t say Issaquah’ By Lizz Giordano lgiordano@isspress.com The Development Commission approved a site development permit for a 93-unit apartment complex at Newport Way Northwest and Northwest Juniper Street during the commission’s Dec. 7 meeting. Inneswood Apartments will consist of two buildings, one large six-story building containing 74 apartments and 12 townhomes, with two levels of parking on the bottom floors. A smaller four-story building will contain six apartments and one townhouse with a single story of parking on the ground floor. See PERMIT, Page 6
Scott Stoddard / sstoddard@isspress.com
Issaquah History Museums
THE BELL’S HOME, 1895-1950: ISSAQUAH
The Issaquah Methodist Episcopal was built in 1895 on a lot near where the Community Center stands today. The church was razed in August 1950 after it was purchased by the school district.
THE BELL’S HOME, 1956-TODAY: PORT ORCHARD
The enclosed design of the narrow tower at the Pilgrim Firs Camp and Conference Center’s Madson Lodge has protected the bell from the elements for the last 60 years.
Temporary restraining order granted to halt liquidation of property at senior center By Lizz Giordano lgiordano@isspress.com A temporary restraining order filed by David Kappler, a member of the Issaquah Valley Senior Center, against the center’s current service provider was granted Dec. 9, according to King County Superior Court documents.
The order prohibits Issaquah Valley Seniors from selling or gifting any of the center’s property unless it is authorized by a “Plan of Distribution” that has been approved by members. The order also states a “van and other property already sold or gifted has been lost to the members of the Issaquah Valley
Senior Center and will unfortunately require replacement, a cost which could have been avoided had a ‘Plan of Distribution’ been approved by the members beforehand,” as required by state law. See CENTER, Page 12
MERRY CHRISTMAS ISSAQUAH
Time’s running out to help neighbors in need By Christina Corrales-Toy ccorrales-toy@isspress.com The Merry Christmas Issaquah fund is well short of its $100,000 goal as mid-December approaches. The $35,860 collected to date would likely only cover two months of Issaquah Community Services operations. Over September and October 2016 alone, the nonprofit handed out $39,022 in emergency financial aid, according to board member Lori Birrell. Through October 2016, ICS distributed $122,571 to community members in need this year, with 69 See NEED, Page 2
David Kappler
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