Skyline linebacker Shane Gorman tackles a leaping Malcolm Jones, of Oaks Christian Sept. 18 at Spartan Stadium. Photo courtesy Wes Paz, fotelica.com.
When the teams left the field for halftime, Skyline junior wide receiver Kasen Williams told his teammates not to quit. That’s not what Skyline does, he said.
The Spartans were down 21-17 at the break to one of the nation’s best teams in Oaks Christian. Lions quarterback Nick Montana, a Washington verbal commit, and his offense had struck three times through the air and their running game picked away at the Skyline defense. Read more
It was Ben Maier, 7, who first found the turkey sitting in the back of his family’s brown Ford pick-up truck the morning of Sept. 10.
“My son ran up and woke me up and told there was a bald eagle in our truck,” Heather Maier recalled. “Sure enough, there was a great big bird.”
The roving black and white turkey became a source of amusement, concern and wonder for the Maiers, who live on the south side of Southeast 4th Street.
John and Michele Miller, neighbors of the Maiers, poured birdfeed on her back porch and bunched up the remains of a fallen planter for the turkey to eat. He would wander over, plucking food from the ground and examining his own reflection in the Millers’ ground windows.
When Heather Maier checked with neighbors, nobody claimed the turkey.
“We have no clue how you’re supposed to take care of a turkey,” Heather Maier said at the time. “We just want him to find his home.”
And he did.
Brian and Diane Leavitt, who live around the corner from the Maiers, came by the morning of Sept. 20 to say the turkey was back in his coop.
Brian Leavitt said the turkey, a Naragansett, goes by the name Mr. Snood and is about 8 months old.
Leavitt said a German shepard ran onto his property Sept. 15, killing several of his chickens and breaking open the turkey coop.
“We saw feathers everywhere,” Leavitt said. “I thought it was likely that he (Mr. Snood) was dead.”
Leavitt noted that off-leash dogs are a major problem in the neighborhood — dogs have killed 17 of his chickens in the last year.
joan burlingame, a code enforcement officer with the city of Sammamish, said the turkey wasn’t likely to live long without some protection, especially with coyotes lurking.
She added that residents complain about livestock invading their property about a handful times each year. The most typical livestock complaint is about roosters crowing in the spring, she said.
In spite of the potential pitfalls, the turkey survived.
“We were so glad,” Heather Maier said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
Tickets are sold out, but if you’re headed to the Skyline-Oaks Christian football game this Friday, be on the lookout for a couple of celebrities. Celebrity sons Nick Montana, Trey Smith and Trevor Gretsky all play for Oaks Christian and there has been much speculation that their dads — Joe Montana, Will Smith and Wayne Gretsky — might attend the game. Joe Montana will be there because he’s an assistant coach, but game organizers have said Will Smith is expected to come watch his son, a wide receiver, play.
Keep in mind, although you might root against Nick Montana Friday, he’ll be a Husky in 2010.
Be sure to arrive early for the 7 p.m. kickoff, as parking and bleacher space is limited.
That sentence says everything about the star power that is expected to be in the bleachers rooting for Oaks Christian when it plays a nationally televised football game at Skyline High School on Friday.
Gretzky, actor Will Smith and Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana all have sons who play on the team. Nick Montana is the quarterback, Trevor Gretzky is the backup and Trey Smith is a receiver.
Big shot or not, Oaks Christian coach Bill Redell doesn’t seem to care when he talks about Gretzky, the NHL legend, and the other famous fathers who spend their Friday nights watching the Lions play football.
“He [Gretzky] asked me for my autograph when I played in the Canadian Football League and he was 9 years old,” Redell said. “I’m not impressed with him.”
The game between the teams from Sammamish and Westlake Village, Calif., will be televised on ESPNU and broadcast on KJR-AM, and plenty of attention will be paid to the Oaks Christian cheering section.
City Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay has suggested that Sammamish take over Klahanie Park.
Huckabay made the comment during the Sept. 1 City Council meeting, asking City Manager Ben Yazici to look into the matter further.
The park sits in unincorporated King County, south of Issaquah-Beaver Lake Road. In order for it to become available for a takeover, the King County Council would have to mothball it, as King County Executive Kurt Triplett proposed Aug. 17. Triplett said closing or transferring 39 parks would save the county $2.3 million each year.
The King County Council is scheduled to make a decision on Triplett’s proposal in November when it votes on the county budget.
Sammamish would not have first priority in taking over the park. The city of Issaquah would have to pass on it first, since it’s in Issaquah’s potential annexation area.
But all parties involved seem open to the scenario.
Kevin Brown, the parks and recreation director for King County, said the Sammamish proposal is feasible.
“I don’t see any real obstacles,” he said. “Athletic fields in particular are hard to come by in this area. I think there is a real desire to take on the park for that reason.”
Sammamish Parks Director Jessi Richardson said she has talked to Brown about Huckabay’s proposal.
“Obviously, we want to keep parks open. That’s one of our goals as a city,” she said. “I’ll be waiting for direction internally.”
Issaquah City Administrator Leon Kos said such a scenario seemed possible to him as well.
“We’re clearly interested and concerned. I think that some type of resolution to keep it open is critical,” Kos said.
He added that it might make more sense for Sammamish to take over Klahanie Park since it sits on the edge of Sammamish’s southeast city limit.
The Klahanie Home-owners Associa-tion Comm-unity might also approve of a Sammamish takeover, Manager James Tripp said.
“We would absolutely be supportive of somebody else taking it over,” he said.
Tripp said the park was meant to be run by a public agency and if Issaquah or Sammamish could operate and maintain it, they should.
Brown said the park was built in the early 1990s and the annual overhead cost for the park is $95,000.
The park is 64.11 acres with one baseball field, two soccer fields and a restroom. The fields are natural grass and are not lighted.
The idea has already gained traction with some Sammamish residents.
Frank Blau, who lives by Beaver Lake Park, told the council Sept. 8 that he would like Sammamish to take over the park.
Blau’s reasoning was that Klahanie Park would be better suited to accommodate synthetic turf fields and night lights — two features under discussion for renovations at Beaver Lake Park.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
City Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay has suggested that Sammamish take over Klahanie Park.
Huckabay made the comment during the Sept. 1 City Council meeting, asking City Manager Ben Yazici to look into the matter further.
The park sits in unincorporated King County, south of Issaquah-Beaver Lake Road. In order for it to become available for a takeover, the King County Council would have to mothball it, as King County Executive Kurt Triplett proposed Aug. 17. Triplett said closing or transferring 39 parks would save the county $2.3 million each year. Read more
Considering it faced the No. 1 team in the Washington Class 3A volleyball standings, the Eastlake Wolves put up a pretty good fight Sept. 14 against Eastside Catholic.
The atmosphere was electric in the cross-town, preseason match-up, as both schools brought sizeable student sections to cheer on the girls at the Crusader gym in Sammamish.
Eastside Catholic’s Kelsey Miller, left, and Sarah Hill try to block the ball in the first set against Eastlake Sept. 14. Photo by Christopher Huber
Michael Rutt, 56, says he would dedicate himself to making the Town Center a reality if he were part of the Sammamish City Council.
“As far as the financial picture, that’s the city’s cash cow and they need to get going with it,” he said.
When Rutt announced his candidacy in April, he said the campaign would be one of change, and so he picked Don Gerend, 68, a 10-year incumbent and the current Sammamish mayor, for an opponent.
Rutt and Gerend will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot for position 5 in the Samm-amish City Council race.
Rutt moved to the plateau in 1989 and raised a family of five with his wife Claudia. Now semi-retired, Rutt has 30 years of experience in the automotive business, including working as a service manager of the BMW dealership in Bellevue.
Rutt said one of his main reasons for running was to challenge a 10-year incumbent and to break up a political “cabal” within Sammamish.
“In my opinion, Sammamish is too small a community to have these big shots that act like political bosses,” Rutt said. “It’s crap and it’s got to stop.”
Rutt is anything but a political insider in Sammamish. He has never run for political office before. King County voting records show he has never voted in a Sammamish City Council election, nor did he vote on whether to make Sammamish a city in 1998.
His opponent, Gerend, is a former rocket scientist from Boeing, with teaching experience as a professor of astronomy and physics at Seattle University, who now works in real estate asset and property management.
King County voting records show that Gerend has voted in every general election since 1999. King County records do not go farther back for Gerend, due to a limitation in the database.
The records do show that he has participated in every primary and special election in the last 10 years, save one.
The Town Center (and how it impacts the local economy) is Rutt’s top priority.
Rutt envisions the city implementing “smart growth” principles with the Town Center — encouraging mixed-use zoning, with higher density east of 228th Avenue than is permitted in the current Town Center master plan.
Rutt owns property in that area.
Both Rutt and Gerend share a vision of Sammamish as a more walkable community with better public transit.
Money matters
Both candidates agree that the city faces a serious budget problem in the next decade. Under the city’s current funding model, the city projects its expenses will outstrip its revenue by 2015, if not sooner.
But Rutt puts greater stock in the Town Center as a financial solution for the city’s future budget woes.
He said the Town Center will provide much-needed sales tax revenue.
“I’m not a believer in raising taxes or putting a surcharge on utilities. I’m not for cutting services either. I’m a big advocate of the Town Center and the retail portion of it,” Rutt said.
Gerend has a more varied solution for the projected funding problem.
One option would be to lower the level of service at the city, he said.
“If we come to the crossover point, and we didn’t see any ability to reduce services, we could introduce a utility tax. Or we could go back to the citizens and ask for a levy lid increase,” he said. “It’s basically up to the community what level of service they want and what they’re willing to pay for.”
Some of the issues that Rutt highlighted when he announced his candidacy in April have been addressed by the City Council since then.
Rutt proposed buying the old Sammamish Public Library building for a repurposed teen recreation center. But at its Sept. 1 meeting, the council authorized City Manager Ben Yazici to do just that.
Rutt called for better public involvement on controversial issues, but since then, the council has made efforts to engage the public repeatedly on proposed changes to the city’s shoreline building regulations — receiving praise from property owners in the process.
As the mayor, Gerend took the lead on organizing council office hours at 5 p.m. every Wednesday, where residents could hold an informal dialogue with one or two council members.
Gerend said he also plans to ask staff for a cost estimate on televising more public meetings, including advisory board meetings.
Rutt applauded the current council’s direction in 2009 for better public involvement on proposed shoreline building regulations.
“That’s how they need to deal with citizens in the future,” Rutt said.
He added that he wanted the city to better publicize the council office hours so people knew the option was available to them.
Similar on the parkway
One of Rutt’s hot button issues was the East Lake Sammamish Parkway project, something he has openly opposed at council meetings. But Gerend is one of two members of the council who voted against the parkway’s overall design.
In January 2008, the council voted 5-2 to approve a concept design for 2.5 miles of construction along the parkway that would add a middle left-turn lane, a sidewalk on the east side of the street, and commuter bike lanes in both directions. (Gerend and City Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay were the two dissenters.)
The city engineer’s estimated the entire project would cost $44.5 million. The project was broken into three phases.
Between votes in December 2008 and September 2009, the council has voted unanimously to approve funding for the first phase, which included redesigning the intersection of Inglewood Hill Road and East Lake Sammamish Parkway.
The council has not allocated funding for the second or third phases of the parkway project.
“I definitely think it should be revisited,” Rutt said. “I would have to wait to see what 1A and 1B look like. In all reality, eventually it’s probably going to need to be done, but it’s a question of how.”
Gerend’s thoughts on a reanalysis of the parkway are similar. He has called repeatedly for the city to conduct a new traffic study that might show increased traffic capacity (to match anticipated growth) isn’t needed anymore on the parkway.
He said he envisioned construction at a few key intersections and nothing more.
“I don’t see us doing the project. I hope that we can plan for a future that doesn’t require that,” Gerend said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
Michael Rutt, 56, says he would dedicate himself to making the Town Center a reality if he were part of the Sammamish City Council.
“As far as the financial picture, that’s the city’s cash cow and they need to get going with it,” he said.
When Rutt announced his candidacy in April, he said the campaign would be one of change, and so he picked Don Gerend, 68, a 10-year incumbent and the current Sammamish mayor, for an opponent. Read more
Shoreline property owners won’t be required to have a native plant buffer
By J.B. Wogan
In what one City Councilwoman called a disappointment, the Sammamish City Council voted 3-2 not to require any vegetation enhancement area on Pine and Beaver lakes shores Sept. 8.
“I’m disappointed in the result. But again, it was a majority decision,” Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said in an interview after the decision.
The vegetation enhancement area would have been a 15-foot space between the water and a home where residents would preserve existing trees and native plants. The area would be unusual in that people could not landscape it or build anything other than a water-related structure (like a dock).
The decision is part of a larger process in which the City Council is updating its shoreline development regulations as part of a state Department of Ecology mandate.
Lake Sammamish, Pine and Beaver lakes and their associated wetlands would all be impacted by the final set of regulations.
At stake are the sometimes competing interests of individual’s property rights and what’s best for the lakes.
Whitten and City Councilman Mark Cross voted in favor of keeping the vegetation enhancement requirement in the city’s lakeshore regulations. Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Jack Barry, and City Councilwoman Michele Petitti voted against the requirement.
The other two members of the council, Lee Fellinge and Kathy Huckabay, had gone home before the vote. Whitten and Gerend each own property on Pine Lake.
In a Sept. 1 letter to the council, Pine Lake resident Mary Jo Kahler laid out an argument for removing the requirement from the set of proposed lakeshore regulations.
She cited the Pine Lake Water Quality Study, which said Pine Lake was in better condition than Lake Sammamish. She also pointed out that the city of Redmond submitted its shoreline development regulations without any kind of a protected vegetated buffer.
Kahler wrote that the state Department of Ecology had approved Redmond’s plan and it seemed logical to assume Sammamish would receive the same treatment.
Dave Radabaugh, a shoreline planner with the state Department of Ecology, said it was possible that Pine and Beaver lakes would not need a vegetation buffer.
The net ecological functions of a lake were the priority, not the mechanisms used to protect those functions.
“It well could be a different solution. It doesn’t need to be identical to Lake Sammamish,” Radabaugh said.
But Radabaugh also sent a letter to the city of Sammamish in April 2009 that suggested lakes need vegetated buffers.
Radabaugh wrote that “We are concerned that buffers reduced below 25 feet will not provide adequate protection of the ecological functions of the shoreline.”
Radabaugh’s letter elaborates that several studies suggest that a wider buffer corresponds with less phosphorus offloading into the lake.
Mayor Don Gerend said he viewed the vegetation enhancement area as advisable, but not something deserving of a city requirement.
“We’re focusing on the wrong issue there. We should be focusing on eliminating phosphorus fertilizer,” Gerend said. “I pointed out that there aren’t threatened species in the lake. It’s basically a lake for the enjoyment of people. I don’t see the point of removing people’s front yards.”
Gerend added that he thought the city should invest in an education program that changes the behavior of residents, removing phosphorus fertilizer from the lakeshores.
On the other end of the spectrum, a statewide citizens group called Futurewise submitted a Sept. 1 letter to the council that called a 15-foot vegetation enhancement area inadequate for protecting the functions of lakes and streams.
Not only should there be a required vegetation enhancement area, the letter said, but the area should be at least 30 feet wide.
Whitten said that the scientific literature she has read points to a need for some kind of protected vegetated area.
“There’s an awful lot of science out there that supports vegetated buffers as a means for removing phosphorus offloading into the lakes,” Whitten said. “You can’t say one size fits all, but it’s clear that it’s beneficial.”
Whitten added that she believed the issue will rise again if water quality deteriorates in the lakes.
“The lakes are too small. They’re too much of a resource,” Whitten said. “I think it will come along at some point in the future.”
The council was scheduled to finish voting on shoreline building regulations at the Sept. 15 meeting. City staff would then update the overall Shoreline Master Plan and submit it for review to the state Department of Ecology this fall.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
In what one City Councilwoman called a disappointment, the Sammamish City Council voted 3-2 not to require any vegetation enhancement area on Pine and Beaver lakes shores Sept. 8.
“I’m disappointed in the result. But again, it was a majority decision,” Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said in an interview after the decision. Read more
Eastside Catholic is hosting its second annual Bamba Dash 5K run/walk Sept. 27. The event is open to the community and check-in begins at 11 a.m. The schools’s campus will serve as the start and finish line.
The race begins at noon. Registration is $25 and includes prizes and a barbecue for participants, friends and families. Proceeds will benefit Eastside Catholic’s sister schools in Bamba, Kenya.
Register online at www.eastsidecatholic.org. Contact causecom@msn.com for more information.
Eastside Catholic is hosting its second annual Bamba Dash 5K run/walk Sept. 27. The event is open to the community and check-in begins at 11 a.m. The schools’s campus will serve as the start and finish line.
The race begins at noon. Registration is $25 and includes prizes and a barbecue for participants, friends and families. Proceeds will benefit Eastside Catholic’s sister schools in Bamba, Kenya.
