Skyline-Issaquah State Girls Soccer Action
November 25, 2009
Sammamish property tax hike unlikely
November 25, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
The Sammamish City Council is leaning against raising the property tax in 2010.
During the Nov. 17 council meeting, the council asked for a 2010 budget that forgoes a 1 percent increase, the maximum amount allowed by law.
The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Dec. 1. It approved a preliminary 2010 budget in December 2008, but the contraction of the real estate market, combined with increasing police costs and some new Public Works needs all called for adjustments.
The city would give up $200,000 if it does not increase taxes.
One resident, George Toskey, told the council that they should consider the perspective of residents.
“Given the depressed economy, most residents probably expect a tax break rather than a tax increase,” he said. Toskey then acknowledged the difficulty of keeping up with several cost increases while the city’s revenue sources are depleted.
“I’m not sure how I would vote on this issue,” Toskey said.
Another resident, Cindee Jobe, gave impassioned testimony against raising taxes.
“I have lived on the lake for 35 years. I have watched my property rights be taken away and my property taxes go up,” she said. “To me it’s unimaginable that you would raise them again.”
Deputy Mayor Jack Barry said he was giving serious thought to whether the city was doing everything it could to avoid raising taxes.
He referenced the council elections and an October debate between the council candidates.
“All the candidates in the debate, with the exception of Mr. Gerend, said that they would not raise taxes,” Barry said.
Of the seven candidates who made that campaign promise, only Barry currently sits on the council.
City Councilman Lee Fellinge said he recognized how limited the city’s revenue-gathering options were, but was also cognizant of how the recession was affecting residents.
He said the unique economic hardships facing individual residents called for not increasing property tax collections in 2010.
“It makes it a little harder,” Fellinge said. “This is the year that we do that. I think the symbolism is important.”
City Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said she, too, wanted to forgo collecting more from property taxes in 2010.
“I realize that we need to be very, very careful,” Whitten said. “I just don’t think it’s the time. I think we need to be compassionate.”
While city revenues appear to be taking a hit — from a 20 percent decrease in what it collects in sales taxes to lower collected impact fees — several expenses would go up in 2010.
The Public Works Department is asking the council to double the amount it spends on repairing city roads (from $1 million to $2 million). City Manager Ben Yazici said repairing small problems in the road network now would help the city avoid more extensive and expensive repairs in the future.
He added that two consecutive winters of extreme cold had left cracks and pot holes that the city needs to address.
The Police Department is asking for a new detective, which would cost an additional $118,000 a year.
Police protection is increasing for another reason as well. Police officers and sergeants are also due to receive a 5 percent salary increase in 2010.
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.
The Sammamish City Council is leaning against raising the property tax in 2010.
During the Nov. 17 council meeting, the council asked for a 2010 budget that forgoes a 1 percent increase, the maximum amount allowed by law.
The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Dec. 1. It approved a preliminary 2010 budget in December 2008, but the contraction of the real estate market, combined with increasing police costs and some new Public Works needs all called for adjustments. Read more
Residents bash beach proposal
November 25, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
The latest proposal for a waterfront park along Lake Sammamish took a beating at the City Council’s Nov. 16 meeting, but not from the council.
The Parks Commission and several residents asked that the council not approve the proposed plan because of its beach element.
Parks Director Jessi Richardson showed the council a revised draft that included a 440-foot swim beach — expanded from an earlier proposal — that involved some clear cutting of natural vegetation. Richardson said building the park would cost about $6 million.
The park site, known as Sammamish Landing, is at the northern tip of the city, wedged between the East Lake Sammamish Parkway and Lake Sammamish.
In September, Richardson presented a park design showing the 3,000-foot-long strip of Lake Sammamish with a 36-car parking lot on the other side of East Lake Sammamish Parkway, with six small beaches, monuments, a bike trail, restrooms and a picnic pavilion.
The previous design had about 240-feet of beachfront combined.
Richardson had the city consultant The Berger Partnership design a passive-use park, without a central swimming area because of the heavy environmental oversight imposed on the site.
Various public agencies would regulate the park site, including the state Department of Ecology, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the city’s own shoreline development regulations.
Nonetheless, the council told Richardson to revise the park plan to include a more robust beach.
In response, the Parks Commission, which advises the council on parks and recreation matters, delivered a Nov. 16 recommendation against the expanded beach option.
Parks Commission Chairman Hank Klein told the council he thought the costs outweighed the benefits.
In his address to the council, Klein said the removal of plants and trees was too great an environmental impact to the park area. He pointed out that an expanded beach would probably attract more visitors than the parking lot could accommodate.
Both added parking and offsetting the environmental impacts of a bigger beach would tack on about $3 million in costs.
“We do, in fact, favor development of this park, but we are concerned about the overall expense. We question whether this is the best use of our funds,” Klein said. Instead, the commission asked the council to return to a previous park plan that called for less dramatic changes to the shoreline.
Klein added that the expanded beach was a big enough change that any decision the council makes should happen after further public input.
The required public input for the plan has been exhausted, with the city holding three public meetings, plus discussing the plan at previous council meetings and commission meetings.
Four residents testified that they didn’t want the expanded beach. Kathy Richardson, who lives along Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast, said the council should approve a “no regrets proposition.”
She uploaded several photos on the council projector and showed the difference in dense vegetation at the Sammamish Landing site compared to Bellevue’s Vasa Park. The two parks would be comparable if the council approved a 440-foot swim beach.
Reid Brockway, who lives on East Lake Sammamish Shore Lane Northeast, pointed out that the park site was designated by the city as having high ecological value. The site is classified by the city as urban conservancy.
“To be blunt, this proposal seems rather hypocritical,” Brockway said, referring to a recent series of decisions on shoreline building regulations where the council imposed restrictions on lakefront owners in the name of no-net loss of ecological function.
Brockway said he was concerned that the expanded beach plan didn’t list out the significant mitigation that he thought would be necessary to offset cutting down trees and clearing plants.
George Toskey, who lives on 238th Place Northeast, said the city should have a big beach area, but Sammamish Landing isn’t the right location.
He said there were empty lots that didn’t have the kind of rich ecological value that Sammamish Landing did.
“Go purchase that property, put in what people would expect for a swimming beach,” he said.
The council’s reaction ran the full gamut.
City Councilman Lee Fellinge’s initial questions went in the opposite direction of concerns expressed by Klein, Kathy Richardson, Brockway and Toskey. He asked if there wasn’t a way to make the beach even bigger.
“How can we take advantage of what I think is a one-time opportunity?” Fellinge asked. Later, he added that he thought the city had two options: approve a modest plan that would only have pocket beaches or approve an extensive waterfront park with a bigger beach area worth the multi-million dollar price estimate.
City Councilwoman Michele Petitti complimented the parks director on the latest proposal.
“I really like where we’ve come. I think you’ve gone back and incorporated the things that we asked,” Petitti said.
“I think we could accomplish what we want with a smaller beach area,” City Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said, adding that she, like Klein, wanted to hear more from the public before making a final decision.
City Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay called the plan “OK,” but added that she had envisioned a park that was more natural.
Richardson said she’s awaiting further direction from the city manager and council, but doesn’t expect the park plan to come up again until 2010.
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.
The latest proposal for a waterfront park along Lake Sammamish took a beating at the City Council’s Nov. 16 meeting, but not from the council.
The Parks Commission and several residents asked that the council not approve the proposed plan because of its beach element.
Parks Director Jessi Richardson showed the council a revised draft that included a 440-foot swim beach — expanded from an earlier proposal — that involved some clear cutting of natural vegetation. Richardson said building the park would cost about $6 million. Read more
Council won’t cut employee salaries
November 25, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
The Sammamish City Council decided not to cut employee salaries next year, even though the employees asked for it.
City employees voted in August to take a four-tenths of a percent pay cut that would have translated into $30,000 in cost savings to the city for 2010.
The cut was based on the rate of inflation from June of 2008 to June 2009 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area.
The same mathematical formula gave employees an average salary increase of 2.94 percent from 2002 through 2009.
During the council’s Nov. 17 meeting, Finance Director Lyman Howard and City Manager Ben Yazici recommended that the council approve the pay cut.
“It’s not a huge amount. It could be considered symbolic,” Howard said.
Several members of the council voiced concern about not honoring the gesture and taking advantage of the saved money.
In a moment of levity, Deputy Mayor Jack Barry addressed a member of the audience, his former opponent in the November City Council elections, Tom Odell. Odell will take Barry’s seat on the council in 2010.
“Frankly, Mr. Odell, I wish we could hold off on voting on this until next year,” Barry said, smiling.
Barry said he would vote to not impose the salary cut, and he hoped city employees wouldn’t be offended that he was rejecting their offer.
Jodie Bass, chairwoman of the city’s employee committee, said employees were happy not to have the pay cut. She described her co-workers’ reaction as “pleasantly surprised.”
“People are thankful that the council did that,” she said.
In explaining his rationale for not imposing the salary cut, City Councilman Mark Cross referenced staffing levels, which have remained at about 70 employees for the last three years, and employee turnover rate, which was 13 percent in 2008.
“If this council really wanted to reduce our turnover rate and reduce our costs, we would delay some major project or a basin study,” Cross said. “I am not going to take it out on our own staff.”
Councilwoman Nancy Whitten was also emphatic that the city not impose the pay cut. She said the gesture was especially important when police officers and firefighters are due to receive pay increases next year.
“I think it’s really critical that our employees know how much they’re valued, that we respect them,” Whitten said.
In the end, all seven voted to keep salaries at 2009 levels and not impose the four-tenths of a percent cut.
The council is scheduled to vote on the full 2010 budget Dec. 1. (See related story Page 1).
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.
The Sammamish City Council decided not to cut employee salaries next year, even though the employees asked for it.
City employees voted in August to take a four-tenths of a percent pay cut that would have translated into $30,000 in cost savings to the city for 2010.
The cut was based on the rate of inflation from June of 2008 to June 2009 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area. Read more
City, EFR discuss simmering problems
November 25, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
A three-hour meeting Nov. 16 left questions about the future of Sammamish’s fire protection unresolved.
City and Eastside Fire & Rescue officials discussed a variety of Sammamish fire protection concerns. Chief among them was a worry that Sammamish won’t be able to afford EFR in the future.
City Manager Ben Yazici said fire protection is 28 percent of the city’s operating budget. The annual cost to Sammamish is rising at an average rate of 5 percent per year.
Sammamish is paying about $5.3 million for fire protection in 2009 and — due to some financial acrobatics by EFR to prevent cost increases next year — will pay the same amount in 2010.
Sammamish City Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said that fire costs could eat up funding from other city functions.
“It’s not sustainable for us to count on a 5 percent increase. We’d have to shut down everything over time,” she said.
EFR Fire Chief Lee Soptich acknowledged that the cost increases appear to be a problem for Sammamish (and Issaquah, too). Nonetheless, he saw a silver lining in the Nov. 16 meeting: the discussion was the first of its kind in Sammamish.
“This was the first time we’ve had this kind of audience with the council. We’ve talked about doing it before, but it’s never happened,” Soptich said. “The meeting was fruitful in that aspect. I think it’s long overdue, but I am sure glad it happened.”
EFR gives quarterly reports on fire protection to the City Council, but the Nov. 16 was a broader review of EFR’s history, mission and funding model. An extensive list of stakeholders involved in Sammamish’s fire protection attended the meeting, including city staff, the council, EFR staff, representatives of partner agencies in EFR, and all of the candidates who won seats in the 2009 council elections.
Deputy Fire Chief Wes Collins was EFR’s representative, with the council asking a range of questions about why the funding formula for EFR is based on property values, why costs keep going up and how EFR comes to policy decisions.
Collins said the funding formula was by no means perfect, but no funding model was. The one EFR uses is a “readiness” model where the value of property within a jurisdiction — rather than the amount of services used — determines how much a given partner will pay.
Collins said the driving force behind the annual cost increases was the cost of labor. Salaries account for about 60 percent of EFR’s overall expenses. The benefits, such as increases in medical and dental insurance, would account for another 20.5 percent.
Ron Pedee, chairman of the EFR board and a fire commissioner for King County Fire District 38, addressed the policy question. He said EFR staff gets blamed all too often for policy direction that originated from EFR’s Board of Directors.
The eight-person board has two Sammamish representatives, three representatives from neighboring cities, and three representatives from neighboring King County fire districts.
As an example, Pedee brought up the effort to add new partners to EFR. He said the board asked Soptich and his staff to explore new partnership options. Pedee added that this particular direction had received undue criticism.
“It is inconceivable that our partnership of five is the absolute quintessential, pinnacle of cost-effectiveness of what can be achieved,” Pedee said, referring to the number of current EFR partners. “That’s a stretch for me. It’s not perfect.”
Sammamish City Councilmen Lee Fellinge and Jack Barry, who sit on EFR’s board, have opposed the partner-adding process. In past meetings, Fellinge has said he suspects it wouldn’t be in Sammamish’s best interests to expand the agency.
Whether this is true remains to be seen. EFR staff performed basic calculations showing that adding partners appears to divide a lump sum into smaller payments (meaning Sammamish’s cost of fire protection would actually go down).
But Fellinge has pointed out that Fall City’s fire department — the most fleshed out example of a partnership request so far — can’t afford to join EFR. The fire department would have to get more than one tax increase approved by its voters and would have to dip into its reserve fund.
Fall City Fire Chief Chris Connor said his department isn’t pursuing the partnership any longer because of the cost and Sammamish’s opposition.
In general, Fellinge’s opposition to various expansion options boils down to two fears: Sammamish residents will have to pay higher taxes or Sammamish will have to subsidize fire protection outside of city limits.
Pedee also tried to explain the notion of a regional fire authority, a new option that some within EFR, such as Issaquah, are exploring. In that scenario, one or more of EFR’s partners could form a legal entity with its own taxing authority.
Yazici said he fears Sammamish taxpayers would have to pay almost double what they currently pay for same fire protection service. Pedee agreed that a regional fire authority did not appear to make sense for Sammamish taxpayers.
Pedee said it was more likely that a regional fire authority would not include Sammamish, but could involve a contract with Sammamish.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
A three-hour meeting Nov. 16 left questions about the future of Sammamish’s fire protection unresolved.
City and Eastside Fire & Rescue officials discussed a variety of Sammamish fire protection concerns. Chief among them was a worry that Sammamish won’t be able to afford EFR in the future.
City Manager Ben Yazici said fire protection is 28 percent of the city’s operating budget. The annual cost to Sammamish is rising at an average rate of 5 percent per year.
Sammamish is paying about $5.3 million for fire protection in 2009 and — due to some financial acrobatics by EFR to prevent cost increases next year — will pay the same amount in 2010.
Sammamish City Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said that fire costs could eat up funding from other city functions.
“It’s not sustainable for us to count on a 5 percent increase. We’d have to shut down everything over time,” she said.
EFR Fire Chief Lee Soptich acknowledged that the cost increases appear to be a problem for Sammamish (and Issaquah, too). Nonetheless, he saw a silver lining in the Nov. 16 meeting: the discussion was the first of its kind in Sammamish.
“This was the first time we’ve had this kind of audience with the council. We’ve talked about doing it before, but it’s never happened,” Soptich said. “The meeting was fruitful in that aspect. I think it’s long overdue, but I am sure glad it happened.”
EFR gives quarterly reports on fire protection to the City Council, but the Nov. 16 was a broader review of EFR’s history, mission and funding model. An extensive list of stakeholders involved in Sammamish’s fire protection attended the meeting, including city staff, the council, EFR staff, representatives of partner agencies in EFR, and all of the candidates who won seats in the 2009 council elections.
Deputy Fire Chief Wes Collins was EFR’s representative, with the council asking a range of questions about why the funding formula for EFR is based on property values, why costs keep going up and how EFR comes to policy decisions.
Collins said the funding formula was by no means perfect, but no funding model was. The one EFR uses is a “readiness” model where the value of property within a jurisdiction — rather than the amount of services used — determines how much a given partner will pay.
Collins said the driving force behind the annual cost increases was the cost of labor. Salaries account for about 60 percent of EFR’s overall expenses. The benefits, such as increases in medical and dental insurance, would account for another 20.5 percent.
Ron Pedee, chairman of the EFR board and a fire commissioner for King County Fire District 38, addressed the policy question. He said EFR staff gets blamed all too often for policy direction that originated from EFR’s Board of Directors.
The eight-person board has two Sammamish representatives, three representatives from neighboring cities, and three representatives from neighboring King County fire districts.
As an example, Pedee brought up the effort to add new partners to EFR. He said the board asked Soptich and his staff to explore new partnership options. Pedee added that this particular direction had received undue criticism.
“It is inconceivable that our partnership of five is the absolute quintessential, pinnacle of cost-effectiveness of what can be achieved,” Pedee said, referring to the number of current EFR partners. “That’s a stretch for me. It’s not perfect.”
Sammamish City Councilmen Lee Fellinge and Jack Barry, who sit on EFR’s board, have opposed the partner-adding process. In past meetings, Fellinge has said he suspects it wouldn’t be in Sammamish’s best interests to expand the agency.
Whether this is true remains to be seen. EFR staff performed basic calculations showing that adding partners appears to divide a lump sum into smaller payments (meaning Sammamish’s cost of fire protection would actually go down).
But Fellinge has pointed out that Fall City’s fire department — the most fleshed out example of a partnership request so far — can’t afford to join EFR. The fire department would have to get more than one tax increase approved by its voters and would have to dip into its reserve fund.
Fall City Fire Chief Chris Connor said his department isn’t pursuing the partnership any longer because of the cost and Sammamish’s opposition.
In general, Fellinge’s opposition to various expansion options boils down to two fears: Sammamish residents will have to pay higher taxes or Sammamish will have to subsidize fire protection outside of city limits.
Pedee also tried to explain the notion of a regional fire authority, a new option that some within EFR, such as Issaquah, are exploring. In that scenario, one or more of EFR’s partners could form a legal entity with its own taxing authority.
Yazici said he fears Sammamish taxpayers would have to pay almost double what they currently pay for same fire protection service. Pedee agreed that a regional fire authority did not appear to make sense for Sammamish taxpayers.
Pedee said it was more likely that a regional fire authority would not include Sammamish, but could involve a contract with Sammamish.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
Court rules state’s unequal school funding formula is OK
November 25, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
The state Supreme Court unanimously decided Nov. 12 that inequities resulting from state funding formulas don’t violate the state’s constitution.
Because the decision in the case, Federal Way School District No. 210 v. State, deals specifically with the state constitution, there is no other appeal option.
“The court’s decision is extremely disappointing after we have worked intensively for six years in the Legislature to build a bipartisan coalition to support reasonable alternative school-funding formulas,” said State Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, in a press release. “Our goal has always been, and will continue to be, ensuring a uniform education funding structure for programs, services and staffing.”
The decision the Federal Way School District No. 210 v. State overturned Judge Michael J. Heavey’s decision in King County Superior Court filed in 2007, which determined the state’s school funding formula violated the state’s constitution and that the disparate funding violates constitutional equal protection rights of Federal Way’s teachers, students and taxpayers.
The case was originally filed in 2006.
At that time, Federal Way was the seventh largest school district in the state, yet ranked 263rd of 296 districts in dollars-per-student funding from the state, according to the district’s Web site.
District officials maintained that if the district had been funded at the same rate as the most well-funded district in the 2006-07 school year, the district would have received approximately $11.5 million more in state funding than it did.
“Basically, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of every district in the state to receive equitable rate compensation for its employees, and that includes Issaquah,” said Sara Niegowski, the Issaquah School District’s director of communications. “Not that we lost anything, but we aren’t going to gain anything either, because there was no court decision and now there is no pressure on the Legislature to make these employee salaries equal.”
Had the decision been in Federal Way’s favor, it would have forced the Legislature to change its methodology and pay school districts equally for their employees, Niegowski said.
Right now, the system is arbitrary in determining who gets more for their employees.
At the top of the system is Everett, but for no apparent reason other than being grandfathered in long ago, Niegowski said.
To compete, all other districts are forced to take local levy money to pay comparable salaries.
Again, “it’s our levy money, that is supposed to be used to supplement and enhance basic education, being used to pay for basic education,” Niegowski said.
The decision leaves little room for second-guessing as all nine justices signed the opinion.
Specifically, the justices said that disparate funding doesn’t constitute a violation of the state’s “ample provision for the education of all children” protections as required under the fourth article in section 1.
“The Legislature has acted well within its constitutional authority and its duty to make ample provision for the education of children, and to provide for a general and uniform system of education under article IX,” Johnson wrote.
Anderson contends that the court’s ruling stalls the momentum to reform basic education funding models within the state in the past few years and still didn’t address the big question: Are school funding formulas rational, so they ensure every school district receives adequate funding to pay for uniform services, programs and staff?
“Allowing the state to be arbitrary is the worst thing the court could have allowed through its ruling,” Anderson said in the release.
As evidence, he cited remediation rates of high school students in math and science in the state’s colleges.
“One would think,” he said, that “would be a signal that irrational funding of the education system has harmed students.”
However, the justices said that the district couldn’t adequately prove that the lack in funding they received compared to other better-funded districts actually showed a lack in students’ achievement as a result. As evidence, Johnson stated the Federal Way students continually score above average on their Washington Assessment of Student Learning scores and continue to improve over time.
In their decision, the justices also said that taxpayer rights to additional taxation had not been violated as citizens in Federal Way had additional recourse. Those wishing to contribute more to the school system could donate their money outside the taxpayer system to the schools without taxing all residents in the district.
Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.
The state Supreme Court unanimously decided Nov. 12 that inequities resulting from state funding formulas don’t violate the state’s constitution.
Because the decision in the case, Federal Way School District No. 210 v. State, deals specifically with the state constitution, there is no other appeal option.
“The court’s decision is extremely disappointing after we have worked intensively for six years in the Legislature to build a bipartisan coalition to support reasonable alternative school-funding formulas,” said State Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, in a press release. “Our goal has always been, and will continue to be, ensuring a uniform education funding structure for programs, services and staffing.” Read more
Carousel goes round and round for 20 years
November 25, 2009
By Christopher Huber
Five minutes before Linda Gibson opened the doors to Party Carousel the evening of Nov. 19, friends and longtime customers had lined up all the way to Starbucks, two storefronts down. The Gibson family wasn’t just throwing a special holiday sale, but a full-blown celebration for their 20 years in business in Sammamish.
People flooded into the store, located in the Pine Lake Village shopping center. The place was abuzz with eager shoppers perusing shelves of gifts, decorations and other festive items. Children munched on and passed out chocolates and cookies as adults sampled goodies and drinks from the refreshments table.
The Gibsons opened Party Carousel here Nov. 4, 1989. If the number of people who came to the bithday party is any indication, they have cultivated a loyal customer base over the years.
“Their creative energy has really fed the community,” said supplier En-May Mangels as she stocked spools of ribbon. “They know everyone by name.”
Gibson, from Fall City, now maintains two stores, in Sammamish and Redmond Town Center, with her daughters Joelle and Alyssa Gibson.
Joelle Gibson said she remembers growing up helping her mom prepare holiday decorations on Thanksgiving Day. They tied bows, and crafted many other festive decorations to deck out the store the day after Thanksgiving, as was tradition, she said.
“This is a wonderful little gift shop-type store. We need this store,” said Sammamish resident and loyal customer Sandy Cartmell. “It’s so diversified. People obviously know they do something for the community.”
As the economy has ebbed and flowed in the past 20 years, Linda Gibson said the reason she kept Party Carousel afloat was changing with the needs and building genuine relationships with patrons.
It lasted all these years, “because we listened to our customers,” she said. “We really do care about our customers.”
An example she gave was of a woman who came by before store hours. She was in a hurry to buy something for a party. Instead of coming back to browse herself, she slipped her credit card under the door with a note asking Linda to pick something out for her to pick up later.
“We take care of our customers and they take care of us,” Gibson said as she took a break from socializing.
Currently Linda Gibson employs six people and they tend to like working there, said employee Cathy Gregory.
“The employees that come here, they stay,” she said.
Linda Gibson said Joelle and Alyssa will eventually take over the business, but until then, the family will continue to build relationships on the plateau.
“It’s kind of like an extended family,” said Linda’s husband, John Gibson.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
Five minutes before Linda Gibson opened the doors to Party Carousel the evening of Nov. 19, friends and longtime customers had lined up all the way to Starbucks, two storefronts down. The Gibson family wasn’t just throwing a special holiday sale, but a full-blown celebration for their 20 years in business in Sammamish.
People flooded into the store, located in the Pine Lake Village shopping center. The place was abuzz with eager shoppers perusing shelves of gifts, decorations and other festive items. Children munched on and passed out chocolates and cookies as adults sampled goodies and drinks from the refreshments table.
Five-year employee Kerstin Aarestad, left, talks with Sandy Cartmell, of Sammamish, near the refreshment table during the Party Carousel 20th anniversary party Nov. 19. Photo by Christopher Huber
Eastlake graduate brings computers to El Salvador
November 25, 2009
By Christopher Huber
When Brian Belcher left Eastlake High School in 2005 for Santa Clara College, he knew he wanted to make money. He set out to major in business and finance and planned to start a life for himself in the safety and security of a high-paying job in the United States.
That was his goal, then.
But during his time at Santa Clara, his whole approach to climbing the corporate ladder and making a lot of money changed, he said.
As a finance and economics student, Belcher took advantage of business immersion trips to Mexico and El Salvador, as well as studies in Spain.
“I was provided these opportunities to really be globally minded,” Belcher said.
Through those experiences, he realized the amount of good he could do with his skills in the developing world, he said. He even turned down job offers from Wells Fargo and Deloitte.
He asked himself, ‘who needs it most?’
That’s why upon graduating college last June, Belcher, 22, headed back to Central America to help impoverished families make a living and get connected to the world through micro-credit and computer distribution programs. He calls the company Computodos.
“At 22, I have a pretty strong background in business,” Belcher said.
After meting many families in rural villages in El Salvador and Guatemala, he noticed a great lack of communication with the outside world, thus stifling business opportunities locally.
“There’s not really an industry down here,” Belcher said from his office in San Salvador, El Salvador. “Central America … they need some help right now. I found it to be a pretty good time to do something like this.”
To attain the goal of equipping low-income families with high-quality, inexpensive computers, Belcher teamed up with 2008 Santa Clara graduate Sam Baker, as well as San Salvador-based electronics distributor DPG and Seattle-based computer re-furbisher Interconnections in early fall.
“What’s cool about what they’re doing is they’re doing it at a social enterprise model. It’s not free, but they make it available at low cost,” said Charles Brennick, founder and director of Interconnections, Computodos’s primary supplier. “It’s a way to get computers to people in these different sectors of society through this sort of social enterprise model.”
Just two months into the endeavor, Belcher said he and Baker are essentially volunteers, working to create a network of distributors and suppliers to fill the huge demand.
They make just enough money from selling refurbished computers for $150 each to pay rent and bills in San Salvador. He plans to approach Dell and Hewlett-Packard to form partnerships as Computodos grows, he said.
“All this is kind of coming together.” Belcher said. “Two months in business and we’re breaking out the cigars.”
Belcher and Baker sold their first 100 computers in one week in mid-November and already have orders for 100 more, he said.
“Those guys have done a lot,” Brennick said. “I think they’ll make it happen.”
Richard Belcher, Brian’s father and an English teacher at Eastlake, said the family supports the pair working abroad. They miss Brian a lot, but once they saw his passion for using his skills to improve lives in developing countries, they knew it was what he should be doing for now, he said.
“We said to him his plans were very honorable, but ‘couldn’t you do that in the United States?’” Richard Belcher said. After all, San Salvador is a dangerous city, riddled with gangs and crime. “He has this calling. It’s very sincere.”
Brian Belcher said he sticks with the no-plan plan when it comes to returning to the States. His goal for Computodos is to create jobs for San Salvador residents and he will come home when the time is right.
“We want to be able to open up and deal with our own re-furbishing center,” he said.
And when the time comes to get a job and set up a life here in America, Richard Belcher thinks his son will be ready.
“Someday there’s going to be a corporation that looks at my son and says, ‘he gets it,’” Richard Belcher said. “He’s experiencing what it’s all about out there, outside the borders of this country.”
Visit Brian Belcher’s blog at http://thesocialcapitalista.blogspot.com.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
When Brian Belcher left Eastlake High School in 2005 for Santa Clara College, he knew he wanted to make money. He set out to major in business and finance and planned to start a life for himself in the safety and security of a high-paying job in the United States.
That was his goal, then.
Brian Belcher sits with some friends in Guatemala, where he helped families through a micro-credit program. Contributed
Cindi Penn
November 25, 2009
Cindi Penn
Cindi Penn, of Sammamish, died Nov. 6 at the age of 47 after fighting cancer for nearly four years.
Born in Whittier, Calif., on April 9, 1962, Cindi graduated from Whittier College (third generation) with a bachelor’s degree in 1984 and began teaching in 1986.
She continued teaching (at Samantha Smith Elementary) up until three weeks before she died.
Cindi met her husband of 20 years, Steve, while at college, relocated to the Eastside from California in 1989, where they have raised their two children, Maggie, 16, and Emmeline, 8. Cindi was a friend to many, loved helping others and working with children, but mostly, cherished spending time with her family and being a mom to her two wonderful children.
Her presence on the plateau will be missed.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests remembrances be made in Cindi’s name to PMP Research Foundation – www.pmpcure.org
A memorial service will be held on Dec. 5 at Sammamish Presbyterian Church, details at www.flintofts.com.
Cindi Penn, of Sammamish, died Nov. 6 at the age of 47 after fighting cancer for nearly four years.
Born in Whittier, Calif., on April 9, 1962, Cindi graduated from Whittier College (third generation) with a bachelor’s degree in 1984 and began teaching in 1986.
She continued teaching (at Samantha Smith Elementary) up until three weeks before she died. Read more
Gabriel See builds robot for MIT engineering competition
November 25, 2009
By Christopher Huber
Sammamish resident Gabriel See, 11, is at it again. Now that he’s exhausted all the Advanced-Placement math and science course offerings at Eastlake High School, he’s turned to working with the University of Washington’s bioengineering department.
Although See still takes seventh-grade arts classes at Renaissance School of Arts and Reasoning, he spent much of his summer building, programming and modifying an automated robot that transfers DNA samples, according to the See family.
The project was meant to include a small team of undergraduate students, but Gabriel ended up doing the whole thing himself — with the guidance of seven advisors — said UW post-doctoral fellow and project advisor Sean Sleight. One student joined the team to market the project near the end, he said. Some teams consist of up to 20 people, Sleight said.
“Gabriel is so advanced with math he basically just took over the project and did everything,” Sleight said. “It really was like a one-man team.”
See presented his project via video demonstration — he had the flu — at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Championship Jamboree at MIT Nov. 1. He earned a silver medal in the software category for his modifications to the LEGO-brand robot’s programming.
“The most challenging aspect was to actually position the robot to move to a specific location,” Sleight said. “The other big challenge was the software. He was able to sort of improvise there.”
He said the $700 robot project is something the bioengineering department hopes to potentially sell to a lab that can’t afford more expensive robots.
“His math and robotics skills are at the same level of sophistication as somebody at the undergraduate or graduate level,” Sleight said. “There’s even some mathematics problems that are even beyond me.”
The iGEM competition began in 2003 as a month-long course during MIT’s Independent Activities Period, according to the organization’s Web site. Students designed biological systems to perform certain tasks, such as make a cell blink.
In 2004 the single course grew into a summer competition that involved five teams from around the United States. It grew to 13 teams — some from other countries — in 2005 and eventually 84 international teams participated in 2008.
Projects have entailed creating bacteria that smells like wintergreen to an arsenic biosensor. This year, more than 1,700 participants on 112 teams took part, according to the Web site.
To see Gabriel’s video demonstration visit http://2009.igem.org/Team:Washington-Software/Project.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamsihreview.com.
Sammamish resident Gabriel See, 11, is at it again. Now that he’s exhausted all the Advanced-Placement math and science course offerings at Eastlake High School, he’s turned to working with the University of Washington’s bioengineering department.
Although See still takes seventh-grade arts classes at Renaissance School of Arts and Reasoning, he spent much of his summer building, programming and modifying an automated robot that transfers DNA samples, according to the See family. Read more
