Mayor highlights Heritage Trees
November 16, 2010
Mayor Ava Frisinger has designated a trio of landmark trees as Heritage Trees — a distinction meant to reflect the age, size, historic significance and ecological value of the plants.
The trees include the giant sequoia at Tibbetts Valley Park, the Empress Tree at Cornick Park and the Oregon white oak at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. Read more
Mayor highlights latest crop of Heritage Trees
October 23, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Oct. 23, 2010
Mayor Ava Frisinger has designated a trio of landmark trees as Heritage Trees — a distinction meant to reflect the age, size, historic significance and ecological value of the plants.
The trees include the giant sequoia at Tibbetts Valley Park, the Empress Tree at Cornick Park and the Oregon white oak at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.
City Park Board members developed the Heritage Tree Program to promote identification and recognition of trees that reflect the character of Issaquah. Every Heritage Tree is identified and recorded in a register maintained by the city Parks & Recreation Department.
Duo bikes for domestic violence prevention
September 14, 2010
Bridget (left) and Cycle the WAVE Ride Director Sharon Anderson talk about raising money for the Eastside Domestic Violence Program. By Laura Geggel
Bridget considers herself a strong woman, so strong that she found a way to save herself and her young son from her abusive husband.
The two got help from the Eastside Domestic Violence Program, and now Bridget is giving back by cycling with the Lakemont Ladies Cycling Club during the annual Cycle the WAVE — Women Against Violence Everywhere — Issaquah bike ride. Read more
New club aims to connect bicyclists
September 7, 2010
Paul Winterstein bicycles up 12th Avenue Northwest, by Tibbetts Valley Park, on his commute home from work in Redmond. By Laura Geggel
Almost every day, Paul Winterstein commutes the 12.5 miles from his house on Squak Mountain to his workplace in Redmond.
He began biking to work in 2008, after two of his four children got their drivers’ licenses. Instead of buying another car, he decided to bicycle to work, rain or shine. Bicycling helps keep him fit and be a good role model for his children, he said.
The more he used local roads to bike to work, the more he noticed how road construction affected his safety and route.
With road changes happening frequently, Winterstein decided to start an Issaquah Bicycle Club that would unite the area’s bicyclists, helping give them a voice at Issaquah City Council meetings and a presence in the community.
The group could also organize rides, share bicycling tips and bring people together, giving bicyclists a stronger unified identity, much like hikers who belong to the Issaquah Alps Trails Club.
Kent Peterson, an Issaquah bicyclist who works as a bike technician at the Bicycle Center of Issaquah, said he enjoyed mountain biking and that he looked forward to joining the club.
“There are certain roads that are better riding on than others,” Peterson said. “It’s nice to have a place where you can share that knowledge with other people.” Read more
Baseball town
June 29, 2010
America’s favorite pastime has long been among Issaquah’s most popular activities
Long before motorists began speeding westward on Interstate 90 to Safeco Field for Seattle Mariners’ games, even before the designated hitter became a position, baseball was thriving in Issaquah.
America’s pastime has been one of the favorite pastimes of Issaquah residents since the early days of the community.
Old timers, recalling memories of their early years in the Issaquah Historical Society, often mention the fascination local residents had about baseball.
In the 1920s and 1930s, if children didn’t have a field to play ball on, it was no problem. They just picked sides and played in the streets. Of course, this was long before Humvees came roaring down Front Street.
Often, residents gathered to watch Issaquah town teams. In the early years of the 20th century, many small towns had amateur teams that played against other small town amateur teams.
Planners weigh applications for subdivisions
March 2, 2010
City planners will consider applications for new subdivisions near Talus and Tibbetts Valley Park. Read more
Special Olympics nurtures an enthusiasm for sports
February 23, 2010
With her straight, brown hair tied in a ponytail, 11-year-old Abbey Powers threw her basketball into the air, bounced it against the backboard and grinned as it fell through the hoop.
Her teammates whooped and her father shouted words of encouragement before the ball even hit the ground.
While many children play basketball, Abbey is a special case. Doctors diagnosed her with both autism and cerebral palsy, although they never gave her family a clear diagnosis that would explain all of her challenges.
“It was unbelievable,” her father Jeff Powers said. “We were told she wouldn’t walk, we were told she wouldn’t talk, we were told she would only live to 2.”
Now a sixth-grader at Pine Lake Middle School, Abbey has a full schedule. Four years ago, her family enrolled her in Special Olympics for a children’s basketball class. At first, her parents only knew of practices in Woodinville, and would drive Abbey all the way from Issaquah so she could dribble the ball as part of a basketball team.
When they learned Issaquah offered a Special Olympics program in their own backyard, they were delighted, Jeff Powers said. But they’re not nearly as excited as Abbey.
“She got up extra early this morning,” her father said as he watched her and her friends play ball at the Issaquah Community Center. “She could hardly wait for basketball.”
City severance package entices 35-year employee
September 1, 2009
Al Erickson, city parks manager, stands in front of the Issaquah Community Center as young people and their moms gather for lunch on the front steps. By Greg Farrar
A gargantuan aerial shot of Issaquah dominates a wall of Al Erickson’s city Parks & Recreation Department office. The map dates from the early part of the decade; land where part of the Issaquah Highlands would eventually rise is nothing but tawny dirt. Sprawling Central Park was little more than a planner’s sketch.
Now, as Erickson prepares to retire after nearly 35 years as a city parks employee, crews are at work in the highlands adding artificial turf to a pair of Central Park fields.
The changes at Central Park are representative of the changes the city park system — and Issaquah itself — has undergone since Erickson signed on with the city three decades ago as a recent Western Washington University grad. Erickson, 57, retired as parks manager Aug. 31.
Parks & Recreation Director Anne McGill said Erickson’s role as a person who shaped the city park system cannot be overstated.
“He had a huge influence on our whole quality of life in Issaquah,” McGill said. Read more
City praised for its lines of communication during floods
January 19, 2009
Mayor Ava Frisinger gave the city high marks for communicating with the community during the flood. The city’s use of its Web site, reader boards, radio and cable access television station provided in many cases up-to-the minute information about Issaquah Creek, she said.
Voter-OK’d trap ban led to increase in mole population
December 15, 2008
Moles, those scourges that create unsightly, volcano-like mounds, can create widespread damage at parks and school grounds. Want an example? Check out the playfield at Issaquah Valley Elementary School.
The number of moles in Issaquah hasn’t increased (or decreased) in recent years, but killing them got a lot harder, thanks to a citizen-sponsored initiative passed by Washington voters in 2000, said Al Erickson, Issaquah parks and recreation manager.
Initiative 713 banned steel-jawed, leg-hold traps, neck snares and other body-gripping traps to capture any mammal for recreation or commerce in fur. The measure passed with 54 percent of the vote.
“It kills me to see those mole hills, knowing that we can’t trap them,” Erickson said.
The most effective of those, he said, is a “scissor trap” set underground along a mole’s primary route. Prior to passage of the initiative, park staff killed 40 to 50 moles annually with the traps, he said.
Tibbetts Valley Park, Veterans Memorial Park, Rainier Boulevard and the upper cemetery are some of the areas plagued by moles, he said. Read more
