YOUR LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER SERVING SNOQUALMIE AND NORTH BEND
SNO★VALLEY
STAR
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2016
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Mount Si wrestlers bring in former state champion as coach Page 14
Mill Pond plans receive OK to move forward Site owner moving to next phase with environmental impact study BY STUART MILLER smiller@snovalleystar.com
The Mill Pond site development is one step closer to reality after the Snoqualmie City Council voted Nov. 28 to approve the developer’s Annexation Implementation Plan. Thomas Sroufe, a representative for developer and site owner Snoqualmie Mill Pond
Ventures LLC, said the company will submit a Planned Commercial/Industrial Plan in January for building on the site. If the PCIP is approved, the development can begin on the site, Snoqualmie Senior Planner Ben Swanson said, but construction could not begin until applicable permits are approved. Sroufe said that because the development is a big, controversial project, Mill Pond Ventures will move directly into a full Environmental Impact Statement for the site plans. The EIS will ensure that
SEE MILL POND, PAGE 5
Duo reaches new heights in ballroom dancing success BY STUART MILLER smiller@snovalleystar.com
STUART MILLER | smiller@snovalleystar.com
Families get their photo taken in front of the tall pine tree at Snoqualmie’s Railroad Park after it is lit up for the fourth annual Holiday Tree Lighting festival Nov. 26.
Annual lighting ceremony brightens holiday spirits BY STUART MILLER
smiller@snovalleystar.com
More than 1,000 revelers of all ages enjoyed a variety of holiday hoopla at Snoqualmie’s annual Holiday Tree Lighting in and around old Snoqualmie’s Railroad Park on Nov. 26.
The night of festivities proceeded under the glow of thousands of colored lights attached to nearly every surface of the park. A wind ensemble played holiday tunes while horses pulled a carriage filled with carolers nearby. City-run booths provided free cocoa, cider and cookies
for anyone willing to wait in line. Adults milled around and chatted together while many kids ran free around the gleaming plaza, as if in a state of winter wonder. “My 21-month-old boy tried to touch every light bulb,” said SEE LIGHTS, PAGE 9
Simeon Stoynov and Kora Stoynova, now in their early 30s, have been dancing together for 17 years. They’ve danced all over the world, from inside the Kremlin to a Hyatt hotel in Ohio to the Leipzig Glass Hall in Germany. They competed against each other when they were younger, eventually became dance partners, and then husband and wife. Five years ago, they opened up the Aria Ballroom dance studio in Redmond, where their team of instructors teaches competitive dancing, casual and social dancing, and helps choreograph wedding dances. In October, the Snoqualmie couple danced their way to a seventh-place finish at the 2016 World Professional Ten-Dance
Ballroom Championship. After taking second place in a U.S. dance championship, the couple was chosen as a representative for the United States to compete in the 2016 world championships in Key Biscayne, Fla. Competitors in the tendance category are judged on 10 different dances, a mix of standard ballroom and Latin dances. “Each individual dance is its own competition,” Stoynova said. SEE DANCERS, PAGE 2
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