VALLEY RECORD SNOQUALMIE
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2010 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS
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City Hall of hope
Police seek tips in grinchy thefts
Building on the block will serve needy until sale
Keep an eye out for vandalism, suspicious behavior, chief says
BY SETH TRUSCOTT
By Valley Record Staff
Mt Si Sports + Fitness ready to help the ‘not yet fit’ Page 5
Lady Wildcats deliver in Eastside home hoops battle Page 8
SEE CLOTHING, 3 Carol Ladwig/Staff
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Deliveries still come to the old Snoqualmie City Hall. Last week, working from a small black counter where the old customer service desk used to be, Jan Van Liew unpacked the latest—a bag stuffed with warm coats, socks and gloves. The items, donations to Snoqualmie Valley Alliance Church’s Gift of Apparel clothing bank, mean a warmer winter for needy families. For the last month, Van Liew, director of Gift of Apparel, has watched the building make a transformation. The vault is now storage for sleeping bags, racks of clothing replaced cubicles, and the bathroom is a changing room. SVA church’s Urban Mission, which helps Seattle’s homeless with food and clothing, is based in the former kitchen.
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Vol. 97, No. 31
The key to the city of Snoqualmie hangs behind GloriaMcNeely, a 70-year resident and active participant in civic affairs. “All I’ve done is lived here all these years, and loved the place I lived,” she says.
Seth Truscott/Staff Photo
Gift of Apparel Director Jan Van Liew sorts items at the clothing bank’s new Snoqualmie location. The charity, an arm of SVA Church, provides clothes to the needy at the old City Hall.
Life of achievement City honors Gloria McNeely with key to Snoqualmie BY CAROL LADWIG Staff Reporter
When the city of Snoqualmie celebrated Gloria McNeely Day last February on the occasion of her 90th birthday, the nearly 70-year resi-
Packages stolen from doorsteps and torn-down outdoor lights and ornaments are clear signs that the Grinch is visiting the Valley this season. Police in North Bend and Snoqualmie received reports of holiday thefts and vandalism this month. “This is a good time to remind people to have any packages delivered to where someone is home,” North Bend Police Chief Mark Toner said. Toner also encouraged neighbors to keep an eye out for each other. “That’s a really helpful tool for us, everyone being on guard,” he said. So far, there hasn’t been a pattern to the package thefts, which occurred Monday, Dec. 6, and Thursday, Dec. 16, nor have there been any leads. “We need a lead that’s more than just a missing package.... Someone coming forward and saying ‘I saw a blue Chevy following the mail truck yesterday,’ would be a lead,” Toner said. Without that type of eyewitness information, police are limited to looking for stolen items being re-sold, or trying to catch the thief red-handed.
Agreeing to disagree
dent assumed that was the pinnacle of her recognition as a community leader and volunteer. That’s why she was “totally blindsided, and still in a state of disbelief ” when Mayor Matt Larson presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award and key to the city. “Why would the
The city of Snoqualmie and the Snoqualmie Valley School District are agreeing to disagree over collection of a new construction impact fee in 2011. King County and the cities of North Bend and Sammamish have greenlighted collection of the district’s new $8,139 fee, which is $5,400 higher
SEE KEY, 2
SEE FEE, 2
Snoqualmie holds off on instituting school impact fee hike BY SETH TRUSCOTT Editor
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2 • December 29, 2010 • Snoqualmie Valley Record
city do anything else? Why would they do this at all?” she wondered. The answer is clear after even a brief conversation with McNeely, or a glance at her accomplishments, which include years of dedicated service on the first library board, two arts organizations, the Snoqualmie Chamber of Commerce, a business women’s organization, various non-profits, and the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum Board. “Gloria has given so much to the city of Snoqualmie,” said city Communications Coordinator Joan Pliego, who organized the Dec. 10 award luncheon. “We give out the key rarely, and always to a very significant person.” McNeely was delighted and grateful to receive the beautiful plaque and the honor, but said, “All I’ve done is lived
here all these years, and loved the place I lived.” About 20 of her family members and friends attended the luncheon, to surprise her when she received the award. Despite the number of people who knew about it, the surprise was complete, and emotional. “I almost lost it when my children and their families came forward,” she recalled. The city “got me there by telling me they were recognizing some of the city commissions, including the arts commission....they wanted me to sit with my back to the main room, but I wouldn’t have stayed there long, because I usually wander around and see who’s there.” It’s that energy and interest that the city wanted to honor, and also what kept McNeely going in 1987, after her husband, Denton, died of cancer. He’d truly been the love of her life. “I met Denton McNeely
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For Gloria The plaque that McNeely received states: Lifetime Achievement Award In honor and grateful recognition of exceptional leadership, generosity in years of civic contribution, integrity in all actions, and earnest friendship to the community, a key to the City of Snoqualmie is presented to Gloria McNeely. when I was 16, and I never looked back,” she said. Despite her mother’s best efforts to keep the boys away, she joked, Gloria and Denton married in 1938, a year after she graduated from Franklin High School in Seattle. They moved to Snoqualmie in 1940, to the same house where she lives today. After Denton’s death, “I was absolutely at a loss. I started getting out and volunteering for stuff, because staying at home was not an option,” McNeely explained. “That’s what motivated me. How do you fill this gaping hole? Well, it turns out, you don’t.” Instead, McNeely focused on her family and passion for history and the arts. She joined the museum board in 1987 because she enjoyed history and wanted to preserve the city’s heritage for her children. One of the
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reasons it’s so pleasurable for her: “We have a great board,” she said. Later, she got involved with Snoqualmie Valley Arts Live, and served on the Snoqualmie Arts Commission since it was established in 2000. As chairperson of Arts Live, she helped schedule five or six major concerts each year in the city. Her list of accomplishments continues: active member of the Snoqualmie Chamber of Commerce and later the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce; past finance committee chairperson and current Chancel Choir member at the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church, which named her Mother of the Year in 1993; member of the original Voices of the Valley Singers; and member of the former Mount Si Business and Professional Women’s Association. In her career, she’s also been deeply involved in the community, working for about 12 years at the Snoqualmie Valley Record, and then for the King County Flood Control District. She helped plan the city’s centennial celebration, and meticulously documented the area’s history. At no point did she ever expect or seek her muchdeserved accolades, and even as she graciously accepts them, she tries to share the credit with others. Also, she says, “My family loves it.”
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than the amount collected this year. But Snoqualmie is balking on approval of the new amount, which is collected during construction to offset the impact of new development on school capacity. This year’s fee is predicated on the district’s capital improvement plan, which calls for a new middle school and elementary school in the next six years. Snoqualmie Mayor Larson directed staff to wait until February to forward a resolution approving the fee, contingent on passage of the district’s $56 million bond. He wants to delay collection until the bond is approved by voters. With a down housing market, the loss of the federal home purchase credit and expensive developer mitigations coming due on the Ridge, such as Quadrant’s contribution to the new Snoqualme YMCA, Larson is sympathetic to builders. His city is also depending on Real Estate Excise Tax to meet its budget. “We have to consider the impacts on the city,” the mayor said. He sees the delay as a compromise. The impact fee “has become a blunt, unpredictable instrument,” Larson said. “I would contend that it could freeze the local market.” But Ryan Stokes, the Snoqualmie district’s director of business services, said the calculation is proper and accurate. “It’s in our best interest to collect those funds,” he said. Impact fee collection is unpredictable. In healthy financial times, impact fees can be used for enhancements. They’re also used as bridge funds for the gap until
bond construction is finished. If the February bond were to fail, the funds would become even more crucial, according to Stokes. The district doesn’t want to create economic hardship for the city, Stokes said. “But given the state budget cuts and continuous reduction of our ability to have resources, we’ll take everything we can get,” he said. “The impact fees are an important part of that.” On Dec. 13, Stokes approached the Snoqualmie council for a response, telling members that he was available to discuss the fee and urging its approval at the full amount. Minutes later, Dave Dorothy, a vice president for Snoqualmie Ridge builder Quadrant, stepped to the podium to ask for a mitigation or delay of the fees. He said the increase will cripple the local building industry. “The tripling of impact fees, that we just can’t support,” Dorothy said. “The industry is in dire straits. Every sale is a struggle. This increase can’t come at a worse time.” For now, the decision awaits a February vote. At this month’s meeting, several councilmembers agreed with Larson’s decision to delay the fee. “I would like to wait and see,” councilman Jeff MacNichols said. The district’s impact fee has averaged about $3,100 annually over the last four years. In 2009, a failed bond meant there were no new construction projects in the pipeline, so property tax offsets meant that developers paid no impact fees. Developers in neighboring Riverview School District will pay a proposed $5,629 fee. Tahoma School District’s 2011 fee is $7,791; Issaquah school district builders would pay $3,808.
Snoqualmie climbers to appear on TV show
A team of four area women, the “SnoValley4,” recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Their story, remarkable not only because of the rugged seven-day journey, but also because each of the women was age 60 or older, will be featured on KING-5’s “New Day Northwest” on Monday Jan. 3. The team of Kathy Burman, Chris Pedee, Pat Person and Carol Dorney, reached the 19,298 peak, at 4 p.m., Oct. 9. It was the fulfillment of a six-year dream for Burman, who planned the trip after hearing about a friend’s climb up the same mountain.
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