Hazelwood PTSA hosts annual pancake breakfast Page 12
Liberty’s first female wrestler defies the odds Page 14
January 4, 2013 VOL. 15, NO. 1
Welcome aboard
New administrator is excited to begin. Page 2
Notes on Newcastle
Page 4
Police blotter
Page 6
City staff prepared for a busy 2013 schedule By Christina Corrales-Toy Newcastle city staff members spent the month of December gearing up for what is expected to be a busy new year. With the passage of its 2013 budget, the City Council tasked staff members with a multitude of projects that should have them working at full capacity throughout the year.
“The City Council has made an aggressive pitch towards lots of projects in 2013, and that’s what we’re here to do,” Public Works Director Mark Rigos said. “So, I’m excited about all of the work that’s going to happen.” The Public Works Department in particular faces an actionpacked 2013, filled with several transportation and stormwater projects.
Staff will stay busy working to maintain city streets in the new year, with the city spending the most it ever has on pavement management, Rigos said. In addition to the $683,000 to be spent on pavement overlay to ensure streets are maintained at a certain level, the staff will also manage a significant, and necessary, rehabilitation project on phase one of Coal Creek
Parkway. “In 2011, the city of Newcastle had our largest pavement-rehab effort ever,” Rigos said. “It was approximately $1 million. Well, this one is going to be 50 percent more — it’s going to be about $1.5 million.” Rigos’ staff will also manage the construction of two sidewalk See 2013, Page 5
Public Works is prepared for next big snowstorm By Christina Corrales-Toy
“When I budgeted 2012, I budgeted revenue really conservatively, and I didn’t anticipate a recovery this year, and we did see a start of one,” she said. Stable expenditures in 2012 also contributed to the hefty surplus, Olson said, though she does not expect that to remain the case, as the cost of police and fire contracts are among the expenses likely to increase in the future. A lot of forecasting is figuring out what is trending, and as a finance director, it is Olson’s job to make an educated guess
Newcastle was greeted with a dusting of snow Dec. 18, but except for a two-hour delay for Issaquah School District students, the white stuff didn’t cause much havoc. The relatively quiet debut of winter’s first snowflakes came as a welcome sight for Newcastle Public Works Director Mark Rigos, as memories of last winter’s sprawling snowstorm lingered in the back of his mind. “We’re hoping to have the El Niño winter, which means warm and wet, which was predicted by a meteorologist,” he said. “So, if that happens, great, I’m happy about that. Hopefully, we’re done with snow.” Last winter’s snow and ice storm kept city crews working around the clock, and several Public Works employees were forced to sleep at City Hall. Additionally, one of the city’s three snowplows malfunctioned during the storm, putting it out of commission for several hours. This winter, however, the city has an interlocal agreement with the Coal Creek Utility District for additional snowplow support, just in case a big storm hits again, Rigos said. The city is indeed prepared for the next big storm, whether it comes or not, already having stocked up on and salt and de-icer. In the event of a snowstorm, it’s Infrastructure Maintenance
See SURPLUS, Page 5
See SNOW, Page 7
Pictures with royalty
Miss Washington pays visit to military base. Page 11
Classes unchanged
Board votes to keep school’s schedule as is. Page 12
You should know Many of Newcastle’s homeowners associations have websites where residents can learn more about the particular neighborhoods they live in. The city has a series of links to the different sites on its website at www.ci.newcastle. wa.us/home_owners_ association.htm.
Contact us: newcastle@isspress.com 392-6434, ext. 239
50 ¢
By Greg Farrar
Ready for checkout An overflow crowd of eager Newcastle residents on the ‘gathering porch’ awaits the welcoming speeches and opening of the doors of the Newcastle Library Dec. 8 at the corner of 129th Avenue Southeast and Newcastle Way. For more photos of the event, see page 8 or go online at www.newcastle-news.com.
General fund ends 2012 with surplus By Christina Corrales-Toy The city is expected to end 2012 with a sizable surplus in its general fund, after a year in which sales tax and development revenue came in higher than originally forecasted. “Simplistically, a surplus is excess revenue over expenditures and so any revenue that came in over what we expended for the year is called a surplus,” Finance Director Chris Olson said. Olson anticipates the city will have about $200,000 in surplus for the year, barring any major snowstorms, or unforeseen events, before mid-
January. A lot of the surplus can be attributed to increased development revenue, Olson said, but higher-than-expected collections from sales tax revenue also played a part. “When I budgeted sales tax, for the last three years, it’s been pretty flat, and this year it’s definitely up, and also the state-shared sales tax is up,” she said. “So, that’s extra money that came in.” Initially, Olson actually forecasted a shortfall, but in recent months the numbers have gone in the opposite direction, thanks to what she believes is a slow economic recovery.