July 20, 2011 Locally owned Founded 1992 50 cents
Council has ideas for community center
EFR will review charter
By Caleb Heeringa
By Caleb Heeringa
After several months of meetings, Sammamish leaders now have a detailed outline of how a community and aquatic center could look on the Kellman property behind the Sammamish Library. But at a $64.1 million price tag for construction and an estimated $267,000 in annual operating subsidy, many continue to worry that the building is more than the city can afford and more than a recession-weary public will approve in a vote. “While (the community) has champagne tastes, we may be at more of a beer budget mentality at the moment,” Deputy Mayor Tom Odell said. By the end of the July 12 joint council and parks commission meeting, the last public meeting as part of the city’s feasibility study, attendees had heard a whole assortment of suggestions for how to cut costs. Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said she favored moving the facility outside of Town Center to evade the city’s own building regulations; Odell and Councilman John James suggested scrapping the bells and whistles and simply building an outdoor pool; Councilman John Curley proposed simply allowing a private business to set up shop on city land. If the city were to put any potential facility to a public vote, as nearly every sitting and prospective City Council member has called for, leaders face a bit of a conundrum. As Sammamish resident Rodger Benson pointed
Eastside Fire & Rescue is going to try and work it out. The agency’s Board of Directors decided July 14 to form a sub-committee that will probe possible changes to its governance structure – including the veto power that individual partners now hold over adding additional partners to the agency. EFR is an amalgamation of King County fire districts 10 and 38 and the cities of North Bend, Issaquah and Sammamish. The study of EFR’s structure follows the completion of a different study that examined the “It doesn’t possibility of a work as regional fire authority – well as it essentially an could.” independent taxing district – Ron Pedee, that would EFR board have moved chairman – the fire ser-
See CENTER, Page 3
Photo by Christopher Huber
Sammamish resident Gayle Twelves points out some key features of her pond and nativeplant landscaping.
Residents use landscaping to help water quality in lakes The second in a series that will examine what people in the city are doing to become more ecologically friendly. By Caleb Heeringa
Aside from a few patches of well-manicured lawn, the plants and shrubs that inhabit Gail Twelves’ back yard are not unlike those that you would see when wandering through the woods that covered the Sammamish Plateau centuries ago. With cedar trees towering overhead, Oregon Grape and other native shrubs intermingle with the occasional stand of sword ferns below. For Twelves, who lives in the Loree Estates neighborhood
with her husband Scott Hamilton, the native flora has numerous environmental benefits. It doesn’t require herbicides or pesticides that can be harmful to the surrounding ecosystem. And since it evolved in Pacific Northwest it acts as a veritable sponge compared to non-native plants when it comes to the several feet of rainfall the area gets every year. That means less storm water running off into the environmentally sensitive lakes and streams in the city. “Sammamish has a lot at stake, with three major lakes and more than 11 miles of shoreline,” Twelves said. “That’s three lakes that really depend on us doing this right.” Twelves is one of many
Sammamish homeowners who are keeping the environment in mind when landscaping and gardening. And while some measures are big-ticket items – installing green or living roofs or rain gardens that gather and filter run-off before it goes into neighboring streams, for example – some fixes are cheap,
vices bill from cities’ general funds to residents’ property tax bills. EFR members have been pondering the future of fire service in the area once the agreement that underpins the agency expires in 2014. Mark Mullet, an Issaquah city councilman and one of the city’s two representatives on the board, said the study showed that Issaquah residents would have paid $1.17 per $1,000 of assessed value for fire service under an RFA; they pay the equivalent of 83 cents per $1,000 through the city’s general fund right now.
See WATER, Page 8
She’s gold
Recognize the nose?
community page 12
community page 10
Calendar...........14 Classifieds........18 Community.......10 Editorial.............4 Police................6 Sports..............16
See EFR, Page 2