Police break up burglary ring
April 21, 2011
New: April 21, 11:17 a.m.
Police have arrested three Everett residents and are searching for a fourth they suspect were responsible for a series of burglaries across the Eastside, including three in Sammamish.
In the most recent of the group’s alleged burglaries, a retired couple who live on the 2400 block of 233rd Avenue Northeast had their home broken into the morning of April 6. Read more
City Council briefed on gas pipeline under Sammamish
April 20, 2011
On Sept. 9, 2010, San Bruno, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco and home to about 40,000 residents, was rocked by an explosion and ball of flames that destroyed 38 homes and killed eight people. An underground natural gas line burst and the gas somehow ignited, blowing a 40-foot deep crater in the earth.
Though run and maintained by a different company, a similar natural gas pipe runs north and south through Sammamish, roughly parallel and to the east of 228th Avenue, through several residential neighborhoods and within a block or two of Smith Elementary and Inglewood Junior High. Read more
Residents get a look at potential community center costs
April 20, 2011
If democracy served as a building block of Western civilization, surely it could put together a community and aquatic center, right?
More than 40 Sammamish residents put the theory to the test April 11 at the second of five public meetings in the city’s feasibility study for the facility. Citizens were grouped around tables, given a pile of papers representing different amenities and tasked with constructing three types of facilities – a bare-bones building that meets the basic needs of the community, a slightly more deluxe package and a state-of-the-art facility with all the bells and whistles.
What followed was a give-and-take between those that wanted a competitive pool for the high schools of local swim teams, a less-expensive recreational pool geared towards swim lessons and young families and those opposed to a pool all together.
“What about the safety of kids who want to learn to swim,” asked Holly Alleva, the mother of a member of Eastlake High School’s swim team. “You have water everywhere around here.”
Alleva said she lives in unicorporated King County outside the city but would gladly pay user fees at the facility if it were built.
A proposed Sammamish pool is also apparently attracting the attention of private health club providers who currently have pools on the plateau. Cy Oskoui, the founder of Columbia Athletic Club, sat with Alleva and three Sammamish residents. With a club and a pool already in Sammamish, Oskoui admitted that he had a financial incentive in seeing the city not build a facility, but said he felt it was bad public policy to make all a city’s residents pay for a pool only some would use.
“Everybody is going to pay for it and 95 percent of people aren’t going to use it,” he said.
Many tables experienced a bit of sticker shock at the cost of even their most basic facility, with most theoretical community centers costing between $30 and $40 million after land acquisition, parking and design costs were taken into account. One table put together a facility with a multi-purpose gym, aerobics dance studio, an elevated walking/running track, a small leisure pool, a large “children’s day camp” area, an arts and crafts room, 80-person classroom, a café and juice bar and party room. The estimated price tag on the facility was more than $35 million.
Oskoui joked that if the pool was what the community wanted, the city could buy his facility for less than half that price.
“It’s got a 6-lane pool – (Sammamish) can have it for $15 million,” Oskoui said. “You can convert the tennis courts to whatever you want.”
And the thought exercise took into account only the costs of building the facility – representatives from Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture, who are running the feasibility study for the city, walked citizens through the operating cost question as well. A PowerPoint presentation generalized the costs and revenue potential of different amenities, though organizers noted that the city could tweak some programs to trim their costs or increase their revenue. A competitive pool is generally a high expense/low revenue item, though those costs can be partially made up by tying in rooms that can be rented for pool parties – a low expense/high revenue amenity, for example.
Ken Ballard, who is doing the market analysis for the feasibility study, said it will be up to the city to decide whether to maximize revenue and go for a facility that cuts even financially or build some of the more costly amenities the community may want and accept that they’ll have to subsidize it out of the city’s general fund every year.
Ballard said Sammamish’s huge concentration of children – about a third of the population is under 18 – would indicate that there is a market for an aquatic center. There are a handful of private pool facilities in the area, though many have high fee structures that turn off families, he said. He estimates that between Sammamish and the residents in King County, Issaquah and Redmond, there are 60,000 people that might use the facility. He said they’ve designed aquatic centers for cities as small as 20,000.
“There are no public pools in Sammamish,” Ballard said. “For a community of your size and population that is a little unusual.”
Craig Bouck, who is leading the feasibility study team, assured the public at the beginning of the meeting that regardless of the outcome of the study, it was up to the city whether or not the center would be built. About 25 percent of the company’s feasibility studies end with the actual building of a facility.
“There is no assumption that this will actually be built,” he said. “There are no foregone conclusions about what you’re going to do … with this study.”
The next public meeting for the community center feasibility study is scheduled for May 9 at City Hall.
Magazine salesmen trigger complaints
April 20, 2011
It’s a rite of spring in Sammamish – blooming flowers, ever-so-slowly rising temperatures and door-to-door salespeople looking to make a buck or two.
In early April, a particular group of those salespeople drew “no less than a dozen” complaints to Sammamish Police for their aggressive sales tactics. One of the members of the group even ended up in handcuffs after getting into a dispute with a Sammamish homeowner and police officers. Read more
Make a difference this Earth Day
April 20, 2011
Only a few decades ago, being labeled “green” was often meant to be derogatory. Today we hold high respect for those who live their life “green” — contributing to a healthier world.
Earth Day — celebrated April 30 at Beaver Lake Park in Sammamish — is a reminder that supporting a healthy environment depends on individuals. One person can seem pretty insignificant when it comes to things like species extinction and climate change, but individuals hold real power when it comes to the environment. Read more
Sammamish Forum April 20
April 20, 2011
Objection to any house of worship
The reason neighbors are objecting to the Sammamish Muslims who have converted their home into a place of worship has nothing to do with the fact that they are Muslim (see “Muslims Welcome in Sammamish”). No, the reason people object to them operating a mosque is because the area is residential, not commercial.
People congregate in houses of worship all over town; not in residential areas. If the Muslims want to have a mosque with a 40-stall parking lot, then they should rent a school or commercial/warehouse space that already has plenty of parking and hold their prayer services and community potlucks there. Nobody will complain.
The church I attend rented out high school cafeterias for 20 years. The fact that these Muslims have relied on Mary, Queen of Peace to host their Ramadan events tells me two things: One, there is no religious discrimination on the plateau. Two, a church building is a better place to hold such events.
I would be willing to bet that, had this been a Christian church, the city wouldn’t even have considered the request. In the name of “tolerance”, however, they are catering to people who have every right and resource to find property that would better suit their needs than a private home.
It’s amazing that the city is considering allowing this use of residential property to continue, let alone allowing a parking lot to accommodate such non-residential activity.
Fayed says, “…we have to have a place to worship and this is where we picked.” Well, you shouldn’t have “picked” a residence. I’m not hysterical about Muslims. I don’t worry that a mosque in Sammamish is the first step toward implementing Sharia law. This isn’t about religious freedom or racism.
The author of the Editorial asked us to write in to let the record reflect the true values of my hometown. Well, I’m writing in. I’ve lived here for 20 years (not near SE 20th Street, I might add) and I think the residents of SE 20th Street deserve to keep their quiet, residential area just that — quiet and residential.
Dana Hutson
Sammamish
Community center, not a pool
While attending a program at the Mercer Island Community Center, it occurred to me that perhaps a community center like the one on Mercer Island would be more useful to more people in Sammamish than another swimming pool.
We already have a pool at the Y. Pools are expensive to build and very expensive to maintain. Because of high insurance costs, pools can’t even have open diving boards. And lets face it, use is limited. A community center such as the one on Mercer Island with a full gym and rooms for programs for all ages would be much more useful. When I was there on Tuesday night, the parking lot was full. All ages were coming and going for programs.
Lets include a real community center in the feasibility study not just another pool.
Joyce Kormanyos
Sammamish
Build nothing
Every day, newscasts report budget cuts at federal, state, county and city governments, and groups who decry the cuts to “vital government services:” police, fire, infrastructure, education and healthcare.
For years, the city of Sammamish has faced an impending “crossover point”, where property taxes won’t cover rising costs of basic (vital) city services.
As other governments face the budget realities, the Sammamish City Council and manager are sending Sammamish taxpayer dollars to a firm based in Colorado to study building a new city-owned and operated recreational facility, while at the same time saying no decisions have been made.
Is a new community center that provides meeting areas for citizens a “vital service of city government?” No:
- The old library building, bought for millions by taxpayers, can provide meeting rooms and other facilities for use by citizens.
- The auditoriums and gymnasiums at our giant taxpayer funded high and middle schools can be made available.
- Local restaurants/pubs will be thrilled to provide a banquet area for citizen use (at a user fee of a few refreshments).
The Parks Director dreams of “families splashing together” in a city owned pool, with “user fees” required. We already have nearby “user fee” family splashing at the Columbia Athletic Club, Sammamish Club and 24 Hour Fitness. Summer splashing is also available at nearby Lake Sammamish State Park.
The Parks Director says the consultant’s July report will include “construction” and “operating cost estimates,” but costs always run over estimates! Remember the current budget crisis facing governments who simply promised and took on too much.
Saying “No” to new projects will never be as exciting or rewarding in the short term as envisioning, constructing and operating shining new city recreational monuments. But saying “No,” and maintaining a balanced fiscally responsible city budget that delivers the true “vital city services” during the coming decades is the highest duty of our city government.
Jeffrey Weems
Sammamish
Police Blotter April 20
April 20, 2011
Bad solicitors
Police warned two men who were dropping off business flyers in mailboxes in the Trossachs neighborhood April 8. A resident called police, suspecting that the men were trying to break into locked mailboxes. Read more
Sammamish City Council discusses stormwater
April 20, 2011
Sammamish staff are pushing for the City Council to follow the lead of neighboring cities like Issaquah and Kirkland and allow developers of individual lots to meet stormwater regulations that are more than a decade old.
At least two council members were skeptical when lobbied at a City Council study session by City Manager Ben Yazici and Senior Stormwater Program Engineer Eric LaFrance. LaFrance said adopting the stricter 2009 King County stormwater manual would subject smaller “mom and pop” developments to excessive requirements that have little measurable impact on the environment such as surface water engineering reports that cost $3,000 to $6,000. Read more
Learn the joys of compost
April 20, 2011
Ever wonder why your neighbor never puts grass clippings in the yard waste bin, or always tosses scraps of food, coffee grounds and fruit peels into a pile in their yard?
Whether they’re doing it correctly or not, they’re composting. Read more
Sammamish says phosphorus fertilizer a no-no
April 20, 2011
Summer is around the corner and many Sammamish homeowners are eager to make sure they’ve got a green lawn for outdoor barbecues.
But they’ll have something else to think about while perusing the fertilizer aisle – a newly instituted ban on phosphorus fertilizer in the city.
When the city incorporated in 1999, it decided to copy King County’s surface water regulations. Last year, the county updated the regulations, and they now forbid a homeowner from using phosphorus fertilizer unless:
- A new lawn or sod is being installed for the first time.
- A homeowner has a certified tests that show the soil beneath their lawn lacks sufficient levels of phosphorus.
- It’s a farm or golf course.
Sammamish Senior Stormwater Engineer Eric LaFrance said phosphorus run-off from lawns can have negative effects on local waterways, particularly smaller lakes like Pine and Beaver lakes.
The mineral feeds algae that can multiply and block out the sun from the lake bottom, killing the sorts of plant life that supports fish and other wildlife. These sorts of algae blooms are particularly common in spring and fall.
Brian Hutchinson, manager of the lawn and garden department at the Sammamish Ace Hardware, said his store carries several types of non-phosphorus fertilizer. To check whether a fertilizer contains the mineral, check the middle number in the three-digit code on the bag. A non-phosphorus fertilizer should have a zero.
LaFrance offers these tips for keeping your lawn green while protecting local streams and lakes:
- Follow the instructions on the bag. Over-fertilizing can increase the chance of run-off during storms getting into lakes.
- Even if using compost, don’t overdo it. Composted organic material also contains some phosphorus and shouldn’t be kept near an area that drains directly into a stream or lake.
“If applied incorrectly, (compost) can release quite a bit of phosphorus,” LaFrance said. “Watch out for areas with a lot of excess run-off.”
- Be careful never to spill fertilizer on impervious surfaces like pavement. If it doesn’t dissolve into the ground, it will likely wash off into storm drains and then into the lakes.
- Since city regulations now all but require it, use phosphorus-free fertilizer. LaFrance said much of Sammamish’s soils naturally have higher than average phosphorus levels anyway. If you’re still having trouble growing a healthy lawn, considering contacting a private soil analysis lab. If you’re shown as deficient, city code allows the responsible use of phosphorus fertilizers.
LaFrance said the city doesn’t often fine citizens for breaking the code on phosphorus fertilizer, instead opting to educate them on the dangers.
