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THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016
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Eastlake gets creative victory See Page 9
Council defends city building, permitting processes By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@sammamishreview.com The Sammamish building and permitting department did not have a lot of friends in the audience of the April 5 meeting of the City Council. Residents described long struggles with the city over zoning issues and what they
called repeated delays with gaining permits. One resident went so far as to say there seems to be one set of rules for developers and another for residents. “This is a (complaint) we’ve heard repeatedly before,” said Councilman Tom Odell, adding maybe there are some holes in policy or regulations
that need plugging. “This has been going on with the city for quite a while,” said Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama-Aramayo. “We train our staff to be good at customer service,” insisted Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay following the meeting. There are rules, she said, that staff is expected to follow
and explain to the public, if needed. Huckabay later added it’s always better to get the whole story before jumping to any conclusions. One resident had blasted the city for problems he had building a sports court on his property. After some research, City Manager Lyman Howard
alleged the resident tried to build the court in an area constrained by two streams and their associated buffer zones, all without a city building permit. “Staff applied the code in a fair (although flexible) manner and got him to the end See PERMITS, Page 2
Parks commission floats fee increases for many city facilities By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@sammamishreview.com Park rental fees will go up pretty much as unveiled in February under a plan presented April 5 to the City Council. When first discussed a few months ago, the plan draw the attention of several sports teams and leagues that use city and school fields. “The youth sports groups are concerned about the cost
of fields,” said Stuart Carson, a member of the board of directors for the Skyline Spartans Lacrosse Club. Field expenses generally consume the biggest percentage of operating costs for any youth sports organization, and Carson said the fees ultimately are passed on to players and their parents. At the same time, Carson argued youth sports are more See FEES, Page 8
City urged to purchase more park, open spaces By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@sammamishreview.com The city Parks Commission is recommending land acquisition “should increase by two or three-fold,” including waterfront property on Lake Sammamish, space for additional parks, more natural open spaces and sports fields. The commission also recommended future purchases be more spread out, geographically. Parks and Recreation Director Jessi Bon passed on
what she called the commission’s new vision statement during a joint meeting of the City Council and the Parks Commission held April 5. Bon said later the idea is for the city to grab vacant land now before it is scooped up for development or, because of surrounding development, becomes prohibitively expensive. The commission won some instant supporters among the City Council, perhaps espeSee LAND, Page 3
By Greg Farrar / gfarrar@sammamishreview.com
Darin Donaldson (left) and Billy Price describe the mission of their business as Price holds a baseball cap featuring the Billy Footwear logo.
A SHOE FOR EVERYONE
Sammamish inventors pitch revolutionary footwear on TV show By Christina Corrales-Toy ccorrales-toy@ sammamishreview.com You slip your shoes on one foot at a time. The concept is natural, easy and hardly requires a second thought. But what if it wasn’t so simple? What if a physical
limitation prevented you from literally putting on your shoes? That was the case for 1996 Issaquah High School grad Billy Price, who became paralyzed from the chest down after falling out of a third-story window at his University of Washington fraternity in October 1996.
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The accident took away the ability to move much of his body, making daily tasks, such as putting on clothes, difficult. Through the years, he learned tricks to independently get dressed, but finding shoes that functionally See SHOES, Page 8
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