Larry Wright to run for City Council
May 21, 2013
New: May 21, 1:47 p.m.
Larry Wright spent a chunk of his childhood growing up in Sammamish, though he’d moved away for a bit, he’s now back and wants to serve the community.
“When you live in a place, you have to take care of it,” Wright said.
Wright, 44, lives in the Hampton Woods neighborhood. He’s managing director of the Bellevue Arts Museum. Wright plans to challenge Kathleen Huckabay for the seat being vacated by John James. Read more
Water district fears well contamination from Issaquah
May 20, 2013
New: May 20, 2:59 p.m.
A dispute flared into the public eye May 6 as Issaquah officials and the Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District sparred over storm water pollution and Issaquah’s intentions to take over principal wells owned by the district.
Though the state Department of Ecology is unconvinced of health risks, the district, which provides water to the vast majority of Sammamish, launched a campaign to highlight its concerns. Read more
Project to widen Sahalee Way moves up a couple years
May 19, 2013
New: May 19, 3:16 p.m.
A plan to widen a portion of Sahalee Way could get started sooner than expected.
Traffic volumes on the stretch of road from the area near the east gate entrance to Sahalee and the city limits have been increasing faster than expected, said City Engineer Jeff Brauns at the May 14 City Council work session. Read more
Lake Washington District students settle in to new STEM school
May 18, 2013
New: May 18, 1:13 p.m.
For a physics teacher, even a popcorn movie can be a chance to cement a lesson.
And so it happened that students in Pete Saxby’s class, at the Lake Washington School District’s STEM school were watching the Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock movie “Speed.” Read more
City Council hears specifics on demographics, economic challenges
May 17, 2013
New: May 17, 2:19 p.m.
Sammamish leaders already knew that the city was unusually youth and family oriented. Now they have the numbers to back it up.
Chris Mefford of consulting firm Community Attributes, made the latest in a series of presentations to the City Council’s Economic Development Committee May 14 on an economic study his firm is conducting. Read more
Sammamish likely to monitor Ebright Creek
May 15, 2013
Sammamish seems poised to begin monitoring water quality in Ebright Creek.
At the May 7 City Council meeting, Councilwoman Nancy Whitten suggested the city take up monitoring duties that the Friends of Pine Lake plan to stop doing. She said the city could spend $10,000 to do the monitoring. Read more
Sammamish Police Officers will have discretion on impounding cars
May 15, 2013
Following a pair of court rulings about impounding vehicles, Sammamish is poised to make changes to its regulations surrounding the issue. The old laws required that officers would impound the vehicles of people pulled over for offenses such as driving with a suspended license or driving under the influence. Recent court rulings stated that such mandates are unconstitutional, said Sammamish Police Chief Nate Elledge.
The new laws state that the vehicles may be impounded, subject to the discretion of the officer. Elledge said the Sammamish Police impounded 62 vehicles last year. He said the department’s guidance to officers would be to release the vehicle to a co-owner if they have a valid driver’s license.
Mayor Tom Odell suggested the city might want to consider graduated fees for repeat offenders – increasing the impound fee charged by the city if people have their vehicle impounded multiple times.
The council may consider that issue separately in the future.
Public weighs in on Sammamish environmental regulations
May 15, 2013
This time, it was the people’s turn. The City Council spent the past few weeks getting briefings on the Environmentally Critical Areas Ordinance from members of the city’s planning department. On May 7, it opened the formal public hearing on the proposed changes to the law, and heard from both environmental activists and property owners.
The Environmentally Critical Areas Ordinance (the cool kids call it the ECA for short) is an umbrella term for a wide array of regulations. Taken together, they set rules for developing near wetlands, on steep slopes, in areas with soils prone to erosion, near animal migration routes and a few other topics. Read more
Sammamish Reserve Police Officers sworn in
May 15, 2013
Sammamish saw its police department expand by two May 7 when Chief Nate Elledge swore in a pair of reserve police officers. Officers Kyle Rip and David Kretschmer* are volunteers who might eventually put in up to 20 hours a month for the department.
Each has completed 300 hours of training at the police academy and will have another 250 hours of training with an officer in the field. They may eventually be able to assist officers around the city and take on duties such as transporting prisoners to jail and otherwise supplementing the department.
Kyle Rip and David Kretschmer
Police blotter May 15
May 15, 2013
Burglary
Police responded to a home on the 1500 block of East Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast when the woman who lives there reported missing items.
The woman, who said she is married under Islamic law, but not under U.S. law, has split up from her husband. She was out of town from April 8 to April 24 and says that when she returned, she found items missing from the home. Read more
