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december 10, 2015
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Council passes revised budget, but nonprofit donation remains a possible sticking point
Clutch performers
By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com As they finished their one-year update of the city’s biennial budget, various City Council members said the major increase in funding to support affordable housing was the single biggest item in the revised spending plan. At the urging of Deputy City Manager Lyman Howard, the council upped its donation to A Regional Coalition for Housing — better known as ARCH —
SLIDESHOW See more photos from Eastside Catholic football’s championship-game victory at www.sammamishreview.com.
By Scott Stoddard/sstoddard@isspress.com
The Eastside Catholic High School football team poses with their Class 3A state championship trophy after a 48-42 overtime victory over Bellevue on Dec. 4 at the Tacoma Dome. The Crusaders overcame a 42-14 deficit in the third quarter by scoring the game’s final 34 points. They finished the season 13-0 and successfully defended their 2014 title.
Barricade in working order, city says, but Redmond ambulance unable to raise it By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com A Sammamish city official said there was nothing wrong with the Opticom gate that crosses Northeast 42nd Street and made the news last week when a Redmond ambulance on an emergency run was unable to open the gate Dec. 1. “When we went to repair it, we found it in working order,” said John Cunningham, Sammamish public works director. He said the city was still trying to find out exactly what
happened to prevent the game from opening. Emergency crews are supposed to be able to raise the gate with a remote device from inside their vehicles. If that doesn’t work, crews have a key that allows them to open the gate manually. The Redmond crew apparently had the wrong key, Cunningham said, though that error has been corrected. He added the city also is adding a battery back up to the gate, allowing it to operate even if there is a power outage in the area. Sammamish resident Alex Pfaffe said his back was caus-
Heartbreak for Skyline, Page 14
ing him extreme pain when he woke the morning of Dec. 1. “I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t move,” he said. Pfaffe called 911 and was on his way to the hospital in an ambulance when suddenly he realized the emergency crew had turned around and was backtracking. They ended up using Sahalee Way and what should have been a five- or 10-minute trip to the hospital took 15 to 20 minutes. Pfaffe said that luckily, while he was in a lot of pain, his situation wasn’t life threatening. See BARRICADE, Page 2
from $10,000 to $100,000. Howard is chair of the ARCH board of directors. At a budget hearing before the council on Nov. 10, he argued the city’s planned $10,000 contribution was not in keeping with the donations of surrounding cities. “The ultimate feeling was we needed to catch up with some of our neighbors,” said Mayor Tom Vance following the Dec. 1 vote passing the budget. See BUDGET, Page 2
Issaquah Press group names new editor Stoddard then held positions at several papers with circulations that ranked in the Scott Stoddard is the new top 100 of U.S. newspapers, editor of The Issaquah Press including The Spokesmannewspaper group. He started Review in Spokane, the Seattle Nov. 30. Post-Intelligencer and the He replaces former managSan Antonio Express-News in ing editor Kathleen R. Texas. Merrill, who left The He has strong ties to Press in October. the Pacific Northwest, Stoddard comes from spending 19 years The News Tribune in at daily newspapers Tacoma, where he was in Washington and a news designer since Oregon over the course 2012. In his 27-year of his career. career, Stoddard has “Scott’s long history worked for papers large of editing and design Scott and small, doing every- Stoddard made him the perfect thing from page design candidate to be the new and copy editing to reporting editor of The Issaquah Press and photography. group,” said Charles Horton, “I’ve learned a lot, and I want to apply the best of what I’ve See EDITOR, Page 3 learned to this paper,” he said. The industry veteran’s Prsrt Std first job took him to Alaska U.S. Postage immediately after graduatPAID ing from Linfield College in Kent, WA McMinnville, Oregon. He Permit No. 71 made a December drive from Portland to Kenai, Alaska, to POSTAL become the sports editor of a 50¢ CUSTOMER small newspaper there.
By Christina Corrales-Toy newcastle@isspress.com