DownTown Issaquah Association hires executive director
December 20, 2011
Days after the DownTown Issaquah Association’s executive director abruptly resigned, the merchants group selected a board member and Issaquah resident as a replacement.
Karen Donovan
Karen Donovan is the nonprofit organization’s next leader, DownTown Issaquah Association leaders announced Dec. 16. Donovan leads Space Media, a full-service advertising agency specializing in music and events. The agency’s clients include the Puyallup Fair, plus several local government agencies in the Northwest.
“For the past year, I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the DIA board and the downtown community,” she said in a statement. “My board experience and professional experience will transition nicely with the executive director position.”
In addition to professional and DownTown Issaquah Association commitments, Donovan is involved in local arts and education organizations, including Arts Corps and the Issaquah Schools Foundation.
Donovan succeeds former Executive Director Annique Bennett, a onetime cultural events coordinator for the organization. Bennett resigned Dec. 6 after less than a year at the DownTown Issaquah Association.
The merchants group has experienced several changes in leadership since February.
State’s recycling rate increases to highest level yet
December 20, 2011
Washington’s recycling rate increased to the highest level ever on record last year, reaching 49 percent.
The information comes from a report released Dec. 14 from the state Department of Ecology. Officials said Washington residents recycled more and tossed less in the trash.
The total amount of municipal waste recycled by state residents increased by more than 540,000 tons last year — up 14 percent from 2009. The total amount of waste disposed from households and businesses decreased through the recession.
The trend continued in 2010 as disposal dropped by about 65,000 tons, or 1 percent.
The statewide recycling goal — established in a 1989 state law — is 50 percent. The national average for recycling last year reached 34 percent.
Senator: Put state government’s ‘sacred cows on a diet’
December 20, 2011
State Sen. Cheryl Pflug — a lawmaker representing Issaquah in Olympia — said state government needs to “put some sacred cows on a diet” to rein in spending as legislators return to the Capitol next month to tackle a budget shortfall.
Legislators adjourned from a 17-day special session Dec. 14 after adopting a $480 million package to trim spending. (The average cost of a day the Legislature is in session is more than $10,000 per day.)
Sen. Cheryl Pflug
Lawmakers needed to reduce spending by $2 billion in order to close a $1.4 billion budget gap. Gov. Chris Gregoire asked lawmakers to cut $2 billion and called the Legislature into a special session. The hole opened in the state budget due to lower-than-predicted revenues.
The governor called for a shorter school year, reductions to social-services programs and other measures to cut costs. Gregoire also asked lawmakers to send a temporary sales tax increase to voters to offset reductions.
Pflug said the governor must do more before lawmakers consider a tax increase.
Latest political proposal splits Issaquah into suburban, rural districts
December 20, 2011
Washington State Redistricting Commission members Tim Ceis and Slade Gorton proposed a 41st Legislative District stretching from Mercer Island to Sammamish. Contributed
The latest proposal to redraw Washington’s political map shifts more Issaquah neighborhoods into a suburban legislative district.
In a plan unveiled Dec. 16, Washington State Redistricting Commission members Tim Ceis and Slade Gorton proposed a 41st Legislative District stretching from Mercer Island to Sammamish. The proposal encompasses North Issaquah, Newcastle and most Bellevue neighborhoods.
The proposed map puts the remaining Issaquah neighborhoods in the 5th Legislative District — a more rural area stretched from Issaquah to Snoqualmie Pass.
Under a legislative map adopted a decade ago, Issaquah is split between the 41st and 5th districts at 12th Avenue Northwest.
South Cove and other neighborhoods along Lake Sammamish fall inside the 48th Legislative District. The proposal from Ceis and Gorton moves the 48th District north to encompass Bellevue and Redmond.
Jan Colbrese steps down from Issaquah School Board after more than a decade
December 20, 2011
Issaquah School District Superintendent Steve Rasmussen was one of the many well-wishers who feted former school board member Jan Colbrese as she attended her last meeting Dec. 14. By Tom Corrigan
Joining the school board was simply a natural progression of earlier involvement with the Issaquah School District for Jan Colbrese.
After 12 years in office, she attended her last meeting of the district school board Dec. 14, at least as a member of the board.
After the meeting, Colbrese said her time on the board really was a combination of her two passions: education and public service.
“It’s everyone’s job to give back to their community,” she said.
Colbrese announced prior to the November election that she would not run for re-election. She was replaced by Bellevue resident Anne Moore, who took her oath of office Dec. 14 along with board members Brian Deagle and Suzanne Weaver.
Moore ran unopposed for Colbrese’s vacated seat. Deagle and Weaver both beat out challengers to win re-election.
Moore is no stranger to the district having served with the PTSA and on various district committees for what she said has been 14 years. Among other activities, Moore has served on bond and levy committees, including the committee that made initial recommendations for a bond question that will be in front of voters next year. Like Colbrese, she has said joining the board feels like a natural progression of her past involvement with the schools.
Neither Colbrese nor Moore made any formal comments during the Dec. 14 meeting. Later, in listing a few of her accomplishments, Colbrese talked about working through district financial problems in some tough economic times. During her tenure on the board, Colbrese said she often found herself frustrated by not having the money to do some things she and other board members felt needed to be done, adding she was especially annoyed by recent “clawbacks” adopted by the state Legislature.
“Clawbacks” are promised dollars taken away in one form or another in the middle of the school year.
Holidays mean reduced Metro Transit, Sound Transit service
December 20, 2011
King County Metro Transit bus riders should prepare for reduced service during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
The transit agency operates on a reduced weekday schedule on several holidays through January — including a full week of reduced service at the end of December.
Holiday gifts can benefit King County Parks
December 20, 2011
King County Parks leaders encouraged people to consider holiday gifts to support the county parks system.
Shoppers can browse King County Parks’ online store to create custom holiday cards, purchase parks-themed stamps or donate to the King County Parks Legacy Fund.
Sales benefit King County Parks’ 26,000 acres of public land, including Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park and Duthie Hill Park near Issaquah, plus hundreds of miles of regional and backcountry trails systems.
The online retailer Zazzle donates up to 27 percent of net sales from purchased items back to King County Parks.
The agency has also joined www.41pounds.org, a nonprofit organization formed to reduce waste and pollution by helping people to limit the amount of junk mail they receive, to raise dollars for parks and programs.
The organization has pledged to donate to King County Parks for every subscriber referred through the King County Parks page, www.kingcounty.gov/recreation/parks.aspx.
Rogue the reindeer is ready to take the reins
December 20, 2011
Rogue, Cougar Mountain Zoo’s 5-month-old reindeer, looks through a window checking out visitors to Santa’s house during the Reindeer Festival this month. By Greg Farrar
He may be only 5 months old, but he already weighs 84 pounds and is about three and half feet tall at his shoulders.
Especially as this is the holiday time of year, he has made numerous personal appearances at Christmas tree lightings and similar events, said Robyn Barfoot, general curator of the Cougar Mountain Zoological Park.
The toddler in question, however, probably is not going to be caught sitting on Santa’s lap.
Instead, Rogue the reindeer already is harness trained and ready to help pull Santa’s sleigh, Barfoot said.
“Santa likes to refer to him as ‘Blitzen,’” Barfoot added.
Rogue even already has his own Christmas song. The private Cougar Mountain Academy is near the zoo. Teachers and children there have come up with a version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” using Rogue’s name, Barfoot said.
Regulators file complaint against PSE for disconnect fee
December 20, 2011
State regulators issued a complaint against Puget Sound Energy and said the utility improperly charged a residential-visit disconnect fee to electricity and natural gas customers.
In the complaint issued Dec. 14, state Utilities and Transportation Commission staffers said PSE committed 1,639 violations of state consumer protection rules. Staffers also asked the commission to require the utility to refund customers charged the $13 fee in error.
Officials said a PSE representative could only charge the fee if he or she went to the residence to disconnect service. Under state rules, PSE may not charge a disconnect-visit fee if the utility visits a customer’s home for a purpose other than to disconnect service, such as leaving a 24-hour termination notice or collecting a payment.
The three-member commission is due to schedule a hearing for the complaint. Then, the company has 20 days to respond. The commission could assess PSE as much as $1,000 for each violation. If punished, PSE is not allowed to pass any penalty costs to customers through rates.
Bellevue-based PSE serves more than 1 million electric customers and almost 750,000 natural gas customers in Western Washington, including Issaquah.
Still rethinking public space after 25 years
December 20, 2011
Pomegranate Center designs with openness, inclusion
Pomegranate Center Managing Director Katya Matanovic (left) and founder and Executive Director Milenko Matanovic stand before pictures of past Pomegranate projects on display in their Issaquah headquarters. By Tom Corrigan
While he now describes his work as community building, Milenko Matanovic says he began that work after realizing he was a frustrated artist.
Founder and executive director of the Issaquah-based Pomegranate Center, Matanovic, 64, contends that art lives too much in concert halls, museums and other similar spots.
“They’re all kind of like temples, right?” he said. “My own sense is that art should be infused into our daily lives.”
Marking its 25th anniversary this year, Matanovic’s nonprofit Pomegranate Center has attempted to move art out of the “temples” and into the every day. Doing that is where the idea of community building comes in, Matanovic said.
“Pomegranate isn’t the easiest thing in the world to explain,” admitted Katya Matanovic, one of Milenko’s daughters and Pomegranate’s managing director.
For the most part, with plenty of help required from the community involved, Pomegranate’s efforts are focused on creating parks or commons-like areas and including plenty of artistic touches. Milenko Matanovic seems to have borrowed the idea of the commons from Europe where he said many, if not most, traditional communities have a central, public space.
Locally, the Pomegranate Center is responsible for several projects including, for example, the planning and construction of Ashland Park in the Issaquah Highlands. While he could conceivably be talking about many Pomegranate Center projects, Matanovic said he saw the highlands’ park as “a place where festivals or a fair can happen.”
