December 7, 2011 Locally owned Founded 1992 50 cents
Ace Hardware to close
Reaching for Christmas
By Caleb Heeringa
Photo by Christopher Huber
Caitlin Miller, 3, gets close to a giant ornament on the Christmas tree during the city’s holiday lighting event Nov. 30 at City Hall. For more photos, see Page 10.
Non-candidate still gets 43 percent of vote King County Elections to review voter’s guide procedures and deadines By Caleb Heeringa
Call her the ghost candidate. Despite little-to-no campaigning before she withdrew from the race in midSeptember, Cynthia Hudson had a strong showing against incumbent Jackie Pendergrass
in the Lake Washington School Board race. Hudson, a PTSA member, garnered the support of 16,220 voters – just fewer than 43 percent of those that submitted ballots. That makes Hudson more popular than the No on
Initiative 1183 campaign, which spent more than $11.7 million dollars to try and persuade voters not to privatize liquor sales in the state. 1183 passed easily, with only 41 percent of voters against the measure. Hudson, who did not return calls seeking comment, filed in June to run against Pendergrass with the promise to create a more predictable school schedule for parents, with less early
releases and half days. She withdrew in September because changes over the summer left her unable to fulfill the time commitments of the position, she said at the time. But Hudson’s name remained on the ballot and her statement stayed in the voter’s pamphlet because state law dictates that a candidate must withdraw by the
One of Sammamish’s longestrunning businesses may soon be out of a home after a dispute over the lease with the company’s landlord. Ace Hardware, which has inhabited the corner of Sammamish Highlands shopping center for nearly 20 years, will be moving out of the space by next September after owner Tim Koch could not agree to a new lease with Regency Centers, the nation-wide commercial real estate company that owns and runs both shopping centers in town. Koch said Regency had been asking for much higher rent on the next lease. He said he’d been in negotiations with the company for months but in late-October received word that Regency had signed a letter of intent with a “large national chain” to take over the space. “It’s a typical case of a large corporate business squishing the little guy,” said Koch, who has owned the store since 2000. Ace Hardware has 37 locations around the Puget Sound area and 4,400 across the country, though Koch points out that the Sammamish Ace has always had close ties to the community. Koch lives in Samammish, as do most of his 23 employees. Koch sees the store as an “oldfashioned hardware store.” A candy machine in the back of the store still dispenses M&Ms for a nickel. Koch is now looking at other potential locations that would allow the store to stay in Sammamish but is low on
See VOTE, Page 7
Where’s our sister?
Skyline wins it again
schools page 12
sports page 14
Calendar...........16 Classifieds........19 Community.......10 Editorial.............4 Police................8 Schools............12 Sports..............14
See ACE, Page 2