Girls basketball team loses pair of games Page 10
Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
December 12, 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 49
Biggest. Icicle. Ever.
Toy soldiers Local girls will appear in ‘The Nutcracker.’ Page 2
Half-dozen arrested Drug raid in Snoqualmie. Page 3
Down a pint Geeks who drink take over tavern.
Police blotter
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Photo courtesy Carey Rose, Puget Sound Energy
The Snoqualmie Falls were still flowing, of course, but in this photo taken from a helicopter Dec. 9, with the cliffs covered in snow and ice, it almost looks like the falls themseves are frozen.
Snoqualmie won’t buy parcel on ridge abandoned the purchase of the property. Snoqualmie will not be First, a stipulation by the spending $600,000 to help developer stated that if the city develop an affordable housing purchased the land at the heavproject on Snoqualmie Ridge. ily discounted rate, it must be The City Council planned used for affordable housing. to vote on the purchase of Since Imagine Housing, which the property known as “parcel had planned to build the projS-20” Dec. 9 to use as affordect, would have been unable to able housing purchase the “We’re not affordable by partnering land at this with the nonit would housing developers, we’re time, profit Imagine have fallen to not developers, period.” Housing. the city to fulfill However, the the commit— Matt Larson ment of affordcouncil decided Mayor able housing on to remove the vote from the land. the schedule “We’re not because support for purchasing affordable housing developers, the land had evaporated. we’re not developers, period,” In an interview after the Larson said. “It would put us meeting, Mayor Matt Larson in an untenable position to be described the deal as “a little regulating and developing that too much, too fast.” There sort of thing.” were three main reasons why The second reason the council the council changed tracks and changed their mind was another
By Sam Kenyon
Wildcat moving up Lindsay Carr signs to play college volleyball. Page 10
Blood needed Puget Sound Blood Center needs donations. Page 12 Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
North Bend man pleads guilty to vehicular homicide
The council bid farewell to council member Maria Henriksen. She has been on the council for
A 19-year-old man admits he was texting and speeding when he hit a woman with his pickup near North Bend on Jan. 1 and then fled, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Cody J. Eads pleaded guilty Dec. 5 to vehicular homicide (disregard for the safety of others) in connection with the death of a Lucinda Pieczatkowski, 57, of North Bend. Eads faces a sentence range of 15 to 20 months in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 17. Pieczatkowski was walking along Stone Quarry Road around 2 a.m. New Year’s morning when she was hit by a truck and killed. Parts found at the scene indicated the vehicle that struck her was either a Ford F-150 pickup or a Ford Bronco.
See COUNCIL, Page 3
See GUILTY, Page 3
stipulation that they pay for an expensive capital investment in the form of sewer infrastructure for the property. The third reason the council dropped the deal was that the significant changes to the original development plans did not have adequate public input, according to Larson. For these reasons, the council decided not to vote to purchase the land for affordable housing, as was the original intent. “I still highly value that need in the community, but we felt it made more sense to wait and make sure to get a quality project there,” Larson said. “It was better to be more patient.” Other business