Locally owned
December 10, 2014
Review sammamish
2014
Supplement to The Issaquah Press and Sammamish Review
Parents Guide, inside
Woman mixed Ambien, wine before fatal crash By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times staff reporter
A 68-year-old Sammamish woman was charged Dec. 5, accused of mixing wine and sleeping pills when she crashed her Jeep through her lakefront home in May, killing her husband and son-in-law and seriously injuring her daughter.
Carol Fedigan, who also is accused of endangering her young grandson who was seated on her lap at the time of the crash, was briefly booked into the King County Jail in May but was conditionally released, jail records show. “We had to wait for the toxicology report to come back,” Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said explaining why it took nearly seven months to file charges. Fedigan is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of vehicular assault and one count of reckless endangerment, according to court records. In addition, the vehicular homicide and assault charges
each carry a special enhancement that the offenses were committed when a child passenger under age 16 was an occupant of the vehicle — which if proven, would automatically add a year to her sentence. Prosecutors will ask a judge to set bail at $250,000 at Fedigan’s Dec. 18 arraignment, when she will presumably be booked back
into jail, Donohoe said. Fedigan could face a prison term of about 10 to 13 years if convicted as charged, he said. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amy Freedheim wrote in charging documents that detectives learned Fedigan had “a significant alcohol problem” and her family See CRASH, Page 2
City moves forward with Snake Hill Road overhaul
Deck the halls
Project to stabilize road expected to cost $9 million By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com
By Greg Farrar
A large crowd turned out Dec. 5 to see a spectacularly decorated Christmas tree and menorah inside Sammamish City Hall during A Very Merry Sammamish, the city’s annual holiday celebration. See more photos from the event at www.sammamishreview.com.
Tree ordinance won’t be finalized until 2015 By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com
Trees and their retention are a hot topic in Sammamish right now. Members of the City Council and the Planning Commission are weighing in on the best ways to strike a balance between tree retention and development. Still, don’t expect a final answer from the city anytime soon. The issue currently sits with the Planning Commission. With a state-mandated review of Sammamish’s
comprehensive plan taking up much of their time, Planning Commission Chairman Ryan Kohlmann said he doesn’t expect the commission to make a tree retention recommendation to the council before March or April. During its regular meeting Dec. 4, the commission was slated to review the transportation element of the comprehensive plan update. The tree ordinance was further down the agenda. “This is the last piece of the comprehensive plan,” Kohlmann said of the trans-
portation issue. The commission now likely will make some revisions to the comp plan and hold public hearings on the topic early next year. It will send those recommendations on to City Council sometime in March or early April. Essentially, new tree rules will be blended into the comprehensive plan. The commission won’t make specific recommendations until it develops regulations next year. It is those recommendations that likely will spell out how many trees can be
cut down or must be saved in the course of developments. That work wouldn’t happen until after completion of the comprehensive plan review. In a unanimous vote Oct. 14, the council passed an interim ordinance regarding tree-retention standards. That ordinance will remain in effect for six months. “Basically, we stopped the train while we do the analysis,” Councilman Don Gerend said. Gerend and others said See TREES, Page 2
Speaking recently about the budget, City Manager Ben Yazici said that in the past Sammamish has set aside $1 million a year to keep the road from deteriorating. This year, he said, the administration acted to gain funding to fix the road permanently. But at the council’s Dec. 2 meeting, Councilman Ramiro Valderrama-Aramayo said the portion of the road targeted is only about a half-mile. With that in mind, he questioned the $9 million price tag. “It’s expensive,” Yazici admitted. Later in the council meeting, Valderrama-
Even as the Sammamish City Council approved a $448,000 contract for the final design, some local legislators feel city officials just aren’t going far enough in their plan to fix 212th Way. In approving its latest city budget, the council agreed to spend $9 million on the roadway, which has been widely described as unstable at best. The road is most commonly known as Snake Hill Road because of the winding, steep pathway it follows. Work on the road will address several issues, said Assistant City Manager and Director of Public Works Laura Philpot. Those include a stabilization of the road, pavement restoration, rightPOSTAL of-way impacts and CUSTOMER wetland mitigation.
See ROAD, Page 2 Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71
50¢