Join Salmon Days Festival as volunteer at Wednesday sign-up
September 6, 2011
NEW — 4 p.m. Sept. 6, 2011
Salmon Days Festival organizers need folks to — pardon the pun — swim on down to Pickering Barn on Wednesday to sign up as festival volunteers.
The festival sign-up party is 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the barn, 1730 10th Ave. N.W. Participants receive a free Ohfishal designer Salmon Days Volunteer T-shirt and enjoy dinner, courtesy of Timber Ridge at Talus.
Organizers need festival volunteers to spend for a few hours selling retail items, assist arts vendors by booth sitting for a short time and complete many other tasks. The available tasks include:
- Booth Ohfishals — Assist in chalking streets for booth locations and directing vendors.
- Booth Sitter — Give festival artists a break by watching their booths.
- Field of Fun — Pitch in during Field of Fun activities!
- Food Depot — Assist in compostable product distribution.
- Goodwill — Deliver shopping bags and information to the vendors.
- Grande Parade — Greet and direct participants, escort and pace participants, and disperse the parade.
- Hospitality — Put together and deliver welcome packages to Spawnsors.
- Information Booths — Give directions and answer questions.
- Parking — Assist in parking, signage placement and removal.
- Refuse Rangers — Collect trash as a Refuse Ranger.
- Retail —Sell Salmon Days merchandise to festivalgoers.
- Rotary Run — Assist in registration, starting line, water, route, or finish line.
- Shuttle — Assist at shuttle booths at Salmon Days.
- Survey Takers — Find out where attendees migrate from and more.
- Tech Team — Assist in festival set-up and break down, hang banners and complete other physical tasks.
- Volunteer Chair — Assist in volunteer check-in at headquarters.
Salmon Days Festival volunteer sign-up event is Sept. 7
August 30, 2011
Issaquah Salmon Days Festival organizers are having their annual volunteer sign-up party from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at Pickering Barn, 1730 10th Ave. N.W.
During the event, those willing to help with Issaquah’s yearly Salmon Days festival can sign up to take on any one or more of several tasks, including helping with a Salmon Days booth, being a “refuse ranger” or manning a shuttle bus.
This year’s Salmon Days is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 1 and 2.
Potential volunteers should note that the volunteer party has been moved from its traditional date, said Pauline Middlehurst, sponsorship and promotions manager for the festival.
“This year, the sign-up party is a week early and on a different day, so we are really trying to let folks know in a timely manner,” Middlehurst said.
Following the pattern of previous years, the volunteer party would have been held the second Tuesday of September. The date was changed because Pickering Barn already was booked, Middlehurst said.
Besides the information booth and cleanup, folks are needed to man the festival bike corral, sell festival T-shirts and souvenirs, or assist with the Grande Parade on Oct. 1. All in all, organizers need help in about 15 different areas. Families or groups are invited to volunteer together.
Issaquah businesses, government honored, ranked as top recyclers
July 12, 2011
Reusing office supplies at City Hall, recycling at local schools and businesses’ efforts to cut waste landed Issaquah officials and entrepreneurs on King County’s Best Workplaces for Recycling and Waste Reduction list July 1.
The county Solid Waste Division recognized 89 organizations in the annual awards. In Issaquah, the honorees include established “green” organizations and a newcomer, Outsource Marketing.
Each organization boasts exceptional recycling programs and a commitment to reducing waste. Issaquah municipal government and the Issaquah School District made the list. So did Pogacha, Rowley Properties and Timber Ridge at Talus.
Issaquah businesses, government honored for recycling
July 5, 2011
NEW — 8 a.m. July 5, 2011
Reusing office supplies at City Hall, recycling at local schools and business’ efforts to cut waste landed Issaquah officials and entrepreneurs on King County’s Best Workplaces for Recycling and Waste Reduction list July 1.
The county Solid Waste Division recognized 89 organizations in the annual awards. In Issaquah, the honorees include established “green” organizations and a newcomer, Outsource Marketing.
Each organization boasts exceptional recycling programs a commitment to reducing waste. Issaquah municipal government and the Issaquah School District made the list. So did Pogacha, Rowley Properties and Timber Ridge at Talus.
Lawmakers to discuss legislative session in Issaquah
June 14, 2011
Meet more than a dozen Eastside state lawmakers June 21 as business groups hold a legislative wrap-up in Issaquah.
The event is open to all Issaquah businesses. Join lawmakers at Timber Ridge at Talus, 100 Timber Ridge Way N.W., at 3:30 p.m. RSVP early at the East King County Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition website, www.eastkingchambers.org. The cost to attend is $20 and includes light appetizers.
The wrap-up will feature a chance to meet informally with Eastside legislators, followed by a moderated panel discussion on issues such as the state budget, education, job creation, economic vitality, transportation, state competitiveness, regulations and more.
The coalition included the Issaquah chamber and nine other Eastside chambers to advocate for local businesses and job growth.
“Issaquah’s businesspeople are looking forward to meeting with Eastside state leaders to discuss our shared goals of job creation on the Eastside, regional/state competitiveness, education excellence and more on June 21,” Issaquah Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Bott said in a news release.
AAA offers driving school at Timber Ridge
March 28, 2011
NEW — 5 p.m. March 28, 2011
Motorists can register for the AAA Driver Improvement Program for a refresher course on defensive driving skills.
The class, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 2 at Timber Ridge at Talus, 100 Timber Ridge Way, N.W. offers practical guidance for traffic accident prevention, as well enhancing driver safety and confidence.
Drivers age 55 or older who successfully complete the class will qualify for automobile insurance premium discounts.
The class, operated by American Driving Services, costs $16 per person. Register by calling 206-243-3564 or going to the AAA website.
U.S. News honors Briarwood Health Center at Timber Ridge
March 8, 2011
Briarwood Health Center at Timber Ridge received five stars overall, the highest possible score in the in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the nation’s best nursing homes.
The rankings are based on health inspections, nurse staffing and measures of medical care quality. Briarwood received five stars for health inspections and nurse staffing and four stars for medical care quality.
U.S. News profiles and ranks more than 15,000 facilities nationwide and ranks them by state, using data from the federal government. The rankings are updated quarterly.
“Our team at Briarwood is extremely proud to be named to U.S. News & World Report’s list of Best Nursing Homes for the third year in a row,” Briarwood Administrator Grant Linacre said. “Every day we strive to ensure our culture of caring and hospitality not only meet, but exceed our residents’ expectations.”
Route 200 bus remains free as extension stalls
February 15, 2011
City delays planned service to Issaquah Highlands, Talus
The long-established plan to expand free bus service to the Issaquah Highlands is on hold, after a financial backer pulled out of the public-private partnership behind Route 200 service.
In the meantime, the city and King County Metro Transit delayed a plan to charge for Route 200 bus service until the route expands in the future.
Route 200 had been scheduled to extend to the highlands and Talus in September 2011. The city and Metro Transit had planned to start collecting fares on Route 200 in the months ahead.
Instead, the line could be extended to the highlands and Talus in February 2013. Under the current arrangement, Route 200 buses circulate through downtown Issaquah and the business district.
“The tradeoff is you don’t get the expanded service,” Councilman Joshua Schaer said. “You’re not paying, but on the other hands, you’re not getting the routes that we said we’d give.”
Council Transportation Committee members discussed Route 200 service Feb. 11. The committee sent the measure to the full council for discussion on March 7.
Timber Ridge volunteers quiz students for reading challenge
February 15, 2011
A group of Issaquah Valley Elementary School girls — Alicja Vickers (from left), Kristin Caras, Zoe Hennings and Samantha Moore — answer quiz questions from Timber Ridge volunteers Joan and Bill Bergeson in preparation for the Global Reading Challenge. By Bob Ploss
For the past six weeks, about 70 students have spent their Friday afternoon recess in the library to review the nitty-gritty details of books.
For the second annual year, Issaquah Valley Elementary School students are prepping for the King County Library System’s Global Reading Challenge — a contest encouraging fourth- and fifth-graders to read 10 books and answer detailed questions about them.
For example, do students know where Brendan Buckley’s father works in “Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It,” by Sundee Frazier? Do they remember who the passengers were on the mystery plane in “Found,” by Margaret Peterson?
The answers are given in true-false or multiple-choice form, and only a careful reader would know the answers — a detective’s office and 36 babies, respectively.
“I know most of the questions,” fourth-grade student Sean Sterling said. “It gets my brain going.”
Senior volunteers from Issaquah’s Timber Ridge community think of questions and meet with Issaquah Valley students in the library. Each volunteer reads one book and sets up shop at a table. Students can choose which book they need to review, grab a seat next to a volunteer and munch on cookies as they answer quiz questions.
The partnership between Timber Ridge and Issaquah Valley coalesced three years ago when Timber Ridge resident Ann Browning began volunteering with the Issaquah Schools Foundation program VOICE — Volunteers Of Issaquah Changing Education.
2011 city budget brings end to free bus rides
December 7, 2010
City highlights transportation upgrades in spending plan
The free ride could end for Route 200 bus riders next year.
City Council members plan to recommend for regular King County Metro Transit fares to be collected on the route.
Every dollar of property tax money is used by numerous local, regional and state agencies to fund services. Issaquah uses the dollars to fund police and fire services, parks and recreation, roads and municipal government. By Dona Mokin
Leaders intend for Route 200 fares to be used to help expand transit routes throughout the city and perhaps to Squak Mountain.
The recommendation and more than a dozen others outline a series of goals and initiatives in the 2011 municipal budget. Transportation — including the Metro Transit proposal and dollars for road upgrades — forms the basis of the plan.
The council is scheduled to adopt the spending plan Dec. 20.
The recession forced city leaders to slash spending and lay off employees late last year. The budget for the year ahead is not as austere as the most recent spending plan.
“The buzzword now is talking about resetting budgets, and I would say that this is a reset budget,” Mayor Ava Frisinger said. “It continues the resetting that was started in 2010.”
The council called for funds to be transferred from long-term road projects to pay for $530,000 in short-term street upgrades — dollars to fill potholes and apply fresh asphalt on trouble spots.
The fund for such street projects had been diminished to about $150,000 as leaders assembled the 2011 budget.
