FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2016
YOUR LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER SERVING SNOQUALMIE AND NORTH BEND
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STAR
WILDCATS LOSE IN 13
Mount Si misses out on chance to take KingCo lead Page 10
North Bend eyes imposing truck tax
BY DYLAN CHAFFIN dchaffin@snovalleystar.com
The City of North Bend considered imposing a quarterly tax of 30 percent on commercial parking at Truck Town at the City Council meeting May 3.
An existing state law allows cities to tax a commercial parking transaction and can be used on the commercial parking business, based on gross proceeds or fixed per stall on the customer, similar to an admissions tax, accord-
ing to council documents. The taxes can only be used for transportation purposes, such as maintaining, repairing, expanding, contracting and operating the roads in North Bend. The tax will also apply to any
future commercial parking lots that may operate in the future. “It is difficult to determine precisely how much revenue the commercial parking tax would generate as the amount is dependent on how many
ART HAS NO GENERATIONAL DIVIDE
paid parking stalls are used per day and the parking rate assessed by the parking business operator,” council documents said. “Regardless of the amount genSEE TRUCK TAX, PAGE 3
Parents question math pathway policies BY DYLAN CHAFFIN dchaffin@snovalleystar.com
DYLAN CHAFFIN | dchaffin@snovalleystar.com
Jeffrey Waters of the Northwest Watercolor Society works on a painting outside of Sigillo Cellars in Snoqualmie during the Finally Friday art and wine walk April 29. View more photos from the event online at snovalleystar.com.
Snoqualmie mayor discusses affordable housing, property taxes at town hall BY DYLAN CHAFFIN dchaffin@snovalleystar.com
A crowd of about 75 people filled the Snoqualmie YMCA gym to learn more about the state of the city, affordable housing and a potential property tax levy lift that would
provide the city with more revenue during a town hall meeting on April 28. Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson started the presentation with video clips of each of the city’s departments, from Parks and Recreation to police and fire, describing
the challenges and successes of the past year, including staffing and managing other resources. But the crux of the meeting was on development — discussing where the future of Snoqualmie is headed over the next six years.
Larson confirmed a 40,000-square-foot grocery store is coming to Snoqualmie Ridge, and said if all goes well, it will be fully operational within the next 18 months. SEE MAYOR, PAGE 6
Why don’t the sixthgraders in the Snoqualmie Valley School District have as much access to upper-level math courses as the surrounding school districts, such as Issaquah, Tahoma or Lake Washington? Are students being adequately prepared for the SAT, which now includes math through Algebra 2? Those were the major questions posed to board members at the lengthy April 14 board meeting, where parents and teachers discussed a plethora of issues that have arisen SEE MATH, PAGE 5
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