Transit agencies extend free ORCA card offer
January 26, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 26, 2010
ORCA transit smart cards will be available for free through Feb. 28.
Starting March 1, a standard adult or youth ORCA card will cost $5. The free-card promotion had been scheduled to end Jan. 31.
ORCA — for One Regional Card for All — is a collaboration between Metro Transit and transit systems in King, Kitsap, Snohomish and Pierce counties. The plastic card contains a microprocessor; cards come equipped with a so-called e-purse function to allow riders to preload fares onto the card. Customers can also purchase a pass product, like a monthly PugetPass, and then load it onto the smart card.
City Council members will discuss affordable-housing dollars tonight
January 25, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 25, 2010
City Council members will consider $150,000 in loans and a grant for A Regional Coalition for Housing, a group of Eastside cities and King County formed to increase low- and moderate-income housing.
The organization requested the money from Issaquah — $100,000 in long-term loans for a Kirkland affordable-housing project — and a $50,000 grant toward housing for people with disabilities.
Members of the Council Services & Safety Committee — called the Services & Operations Committee last year — will discuss the legislation today. The committee meets 5 p.m. in the Eagle Room at City Hall, 130 E. Sunset Way.
City Council members already approved $150,000 for ARCH low-income housing projects. The measure will steer the money to ARCH projects.
Metro Transit will loosen bike rules Feb. 6
January 24, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 24, 2010
King County Metro Transit riders taking a bike along to downtown Seattle will face fewer hassles next month.
Metro will allow bicyclists to load and unload bicycles at any regular bus stop in the downtown Ride Free Area at any time of the day. The yearlong demonstration project starts Feb. 6.
During the past several years, Metro has eased bike-loading limits. The restrictions during peak hours in the busy downtown core are the last in place.
Tent City 4 homeless camp, ‘a crossroads of humanity,’ returns to Issaquah
January 23, 2010
Peter Martin, a resident of Tent City 4 since New Year’s Eve, and a member of the mobile homeless city’s five-member executive committee, carries a bundle of tarp fence framing lumber as pallets and plywood are assembled on moving day, Jan. 23 at Community Church of Issaquah. — Photo by Greg Farrar
NEW — 1:25 p.m. Jan. 23, 2010
Tent City 4 returned Saturday, hauled piece-by-piece to Community Church of Issaquah, assembled by volunteers and readied for residents to settle into nylon tents by nightfall.
The homeless encampment returned to the Squak Mountain church where congregants last welcomed Tent City 4 in late 2007. The camp will remain at Community Church until late April.
Donald Brown, a Tent City 4 resident dressed in a plastic poncho and a hat with earflaps to protect against the chill, moved into the encampment last year. He described the camp as “a crossroads of humanity” where people with assorted backgrounds and experiences coexist.
Talks began in December regarding finding a new Newcastle city manager
January 22, 2010
UPDATED — 5:12 p.m. Jan. 22, 2010
Talks regarding firing Newcastle City Manager John Starbard and appointing former Community Development Director Rob Wyman as interim city manager began privately in December.
While Newcastle councilmen-elect John Dulcich, Bill Erxleben and Rich Crispo said they had been in favor of making changes to the city’s management, Erxleben specifically sought out Wyman in December as a candidate for interim city manager.
Erxleben discussed the matter with Dulcich and Crispo, and such talks were legal because the councilmen-elect had not been sworn into office.
Individuals who have been elected to serve on the City Council, but have not yet been sworn into office are not legally held to restrictions as to whom they can speak with about city business, as determined by the State of Washington Court of Appeals case Wood v. Battle Ground School District.
At an additional City Council meeting Jan. 12, the council voted 6-1 to terminate Starbard’s contract without cause, effective immediately. In another 6-1 vote that night, the council appointed Wyman to take over as interim city manager.
Three students, not 70, are suspended from Liberty High School over suspected marijuana
January 22, 2010
NEW — 2:17 Jan. 22, 2010
Three Liberty High School students were expelled for possession of what police and district officials say they suspect is marijuana on Jan. 13, 20 and 21.
School employees found a 15-year-old student in possession of a small amount of marijuana on campus Jan. 13.
School officials proceeded to ask questions about other students who might have marijuana on campus as well, said Sara Niegowski, district communications director.
In the course of their investigation, two other students were found to be in possession of the drug, she said.
An 18-year-old and a 17-year-old were found with small amounts of the substance on school property Jan. 20 and 21, respectively.
Issaquah School District opted not to include levy information in voters’ guide
January 22, 2010
NEW — 12:40 p.m. Jan. 22, 2010
The voters’ pamphlet mailed by King County Elections baffled Issaquah School District voters when the guide arrived in mailboxes earlier in the week. The mailer contained no information about the three district levies on the Feb. 9 ballot.
The lack of information, however, was not a mistake. District officials opted not to include information in the guide to save money.
But the pamphlets confused voters because the elections office included information about other school districts’ ballot measures. Klahanie voters, for instance, received pamphlets with information about the Vashon Island School District levy.
City works to protect salmon habitat in Sycamore neighborhood
January 22, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 22, 2010
The city will prevent development along a sliver of Issaquah Creek in the Sycamore neighborhood as part of a plan to restore salmon habitat.
City Council members discussed the deal in a closed-door executive session Monday, and then, during a public vote, authorized Mayor Ava Frisinger to buy a conservation easement along the creek.
Money from a state grant will be used to pay for the $32,000 easement on a narrow, 0.21-acre strip. The terms of the agreement will allow the city some limited, passive recreation use for the land, such as walking trails.
Lack of school levy information in voters’ guide surprises Issaquah voters
January 21, 2010
NEW — 7:40 p.m. Jan. 21, 2010
The voters’ pamphlet mailed by King County Elections baffled Issaquah School District voters when the guide arrived in mailboxes earlier in the week: The guide contained no information about the three district levies on the Feb. 9 ballot.
The district stretches from Sammamish to Newcastle, and includes Klahanie, Preston and other parts of unincorporated King County.
Four Lakes voters, for instance, received a pamphlet with information about the Enumclaw and Tahoma school districts’ levies, but nothing about the local levy. Four Lakes is part of the Issaquah district.
Meanwhile, voters in Klahanie received pamphlets with information about the county library levy and the Vashon Island School District levy. The seven-page guide mailed to residents in the ZIP code contains no information about the Issaquah district levies.
Guides mailed to Issaquah district voters also included information about the King County System Library levy lid lift — another measure on the February ballot.
A King County Elections spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
New technology task force includes tech veterans
January 21, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 21, 2010
The day after Mayor Ava Frisinger announced the formation of the Issaquah Technology Task Force in the State of the City address, the mayor unveiled the group’s members and mission.
Frisinger delivered the annual address Monday. The mayor said the task force plans to improve quality of life and business competitiveness by discussing a community-wide fiber network.
The panel — 11 technology professionals and government officials — will examine communications and technology infrastructure, what existing technologies and services offered in the near future will be available, and what Issaquah will need in the future.
