To the Editor
October 23, 2012
City finances
Frugal spending before tax hikes, please
Here she goes again, another tax hike without reining in reckless spending.
They have already spent nearly a half-million dollars to fund a study to takeover and assume the Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District. They are also throwing more money into updating the Klahanie Annexation Study.
To the Editor
October 16, 2012
Decision 2012
Give parents a choice by supporting Initiative 1240
Charter schools are free, public schools. They are a part of the existing public schools system, and in 41 other states provide an option that is the answer for many children who have been unsuccessful in a traditional school setting.
Charter schools are subject to the same academic standards and requirements for teachers as traditional public schools. Charter schools are open to all students and are not bound by requirements of going to one’s “neighborhood” school.
To the Editor
October 9, 2012
Math lesson
Margin of error or just plain error?
I am tired of these broadcast pundits saying a +/-3 percent poll of 48 percent for one guy and 42 percent for the other guy is within the “margin of error,” like they are dead even.
That is true if the 48 percent is 3 percent too high and the 42 percent is 3 percent too low, making it a 45 percent tie. But it is also true that if the 48 percent is 3 percent too low and the 42 percent is 3 percent too high, making it 51 percent vs. 39 percent, it makes a big 12 percent difference.
Ken Sessler
Issaquah
To the Editor
October 2, 2012
Charter schools
Why the coordinated effort to disparage a successful education alternative?
In your Sept. 28, 2012, issue, in the story “Local charter school is unlikely,” you quote state school board member Connie Fletcher as saying: “A lot of those districts that are persistently struggling are in rural communities with high English-learner populations. You are not going to get a charter there.”
In your editorial in the same issue, you state that the high quality of Issaquah schools renders charter schools unnecessary.
To the Editor
September 25, 2012
Salmon Days run
Run and festival need to be paired again
I just wanted to share how disappointed I am that the Salmon Days run and the Salmon Days Festival are no longer on the same weekend.
My family has lived in Issaquah for almost 20 years (my husband’s family for 50 years) and we look forward to the run on Sunday and heading to the festival afterward every year (now three generations that run). It’s a point of pride for us.
I have family members and friends who come back “home” each year to the festival and to run the race. I have had to write several emails this year explaining to them that they must choose between the race and the festival.
To the Editor
September 18, 2012
Leftover campaign funds
Focus on the real issues
Considering the issues of extraordinary consequence facing our state in the upcoming elections, the use of leftover political campaign funds from previous elections is insignificant.
First, these are leftover political campaign funds, not public funds, and second, the use of these funds has been reported to the Public Disclosure Commission as required by law.
To the Editor
September 11, 2012
Plastic bag ban
Start saving bags now to plan ahead
Folks, sometime in the future you will pay 5 cents for a paper bag and there will not be any grocery plastic bags. So if you have been using the paper/plastic bags for things around your household, then here is a plan. Just do not use your own bags at the grocery store, just get the free paper bags one week and plastic bags the alternate week, for groceries.
Then, just warehouse them until next spring, went the Issaquah City Council bag ban and paper bag charge comes into effect. We place a paper bag inside a plastic bag and put foodstuffs and paper items stained with foodstuffs into the bags. Then, place a full paper bag into the yard waste container and recycle the plastic bags in the recycle bin.
To the Editor
September 4, 2012
Gilman Boulevard fruit
Don’t let the apples go to waste
I have noticed that those apple trees along Gilman Boulevard have dropped their apples all over the ground, to waste. How come our City Council has not decreed that the city catch those grocery plastic bags that are blowing around on their way to the Pacific Ocean and fill them with the good apples and deliver them to the food dispersion facility place, near the community center?
Ken Sessler
Issaquah
To the Editor
August 28, 2012
Plastic bags
Why was the ban enacted?
Ten thousand square miles of floating volcanic pumice is found in the Pacific Ocean, the New Zealand Navy announced Aug. 10. When will the Issaquah City Council pass a law to prevent this from happening again?
To the Editor
August 21, 2012
Firearms business
Gun sales don’t belong in neighborhood
We are writing with concerns regarding the request for a permit for a home-based business called Bigg Dogg Firearms, 280 Fourth Place S.E., Issaquah, (permit number is PLN12-00042) to sell handguns, rifles and ammunition via the Internet with delivery to approved buyers from the home.
The house is in a neighborhood full of families and children. According to MapQuest, this house is 0.3 miles from Clark Elementary and Tiger Mountain Community High schools, a one-minute drive.
The federal government places no limit on the number of firearms or quantity of ammunition a person sells. Thus, a statement of estimates or intent in a permit application does not offer any guarantee.
