A new year is upon us Friday, so the Reporter is taking the last four days of 2015 to look back on the past year. Here are the top stories that came out of Issaquah and Sammamish from January to March:
False bomb threats at middle school
Pine Lake Middle School became the site of two phony bomb threats in the first two weeks of school after the winter break. Both cases involved anonymous notes found on campus and King County Sheriff’s deputies responded to investigate both times, quickly clearing the campus of danger. The false threats followed on the heels of a similar incident at Pacific Cascade Middle School, which had closed school early before the winter break.
Issaquah’s government gets serious about traffic
Issaquah city officials opened 2015 by meeting with state legislators over breakfast to discuss issues affecting the city. It quickly became apparent that the leading issue would be traffic — a problem that’s become a daily annoyance in a city that’s more than tripled its population since 1999. Knowing that a transportation package was on the agenda for the 2015 legislative session, councilors continued to lobby for improvements to Issaquah’s portion of Interstate 90 over the subsequent months. State lawmakers eventually followed through with earmarks for additional I-90 lanes and a study of the Front Street interchange.
Bellevue College president explores partnership with WSU
Bellevue College’s board of trustees voted unanimously in January for school president David Rule to explore a partnership with Washington State University. WSU President Elson Floyd had approached leaders at the community college — which has plans for an East Campus in Issaquah — in November about the possibility. The schools were still in discussion on the potential deal as of this writing.
Citizens ask for all the trimmings on new skate park
The Issaquah City Council had scheduled work to begin on a new skate park in Tibbetts Valley Park in spring 2015, but members of the Issaquah Drug Free Community Coalition arrived at a council meeting in January imploring lawmakers to invest more in the project. The city government and the Coalition had been working on relocating the skate park away from the Community Center since 2013. A design firm came back with two options costing $350,000 and $500,000 — the city authorized the former option, which fit into the already budgeted amount. But Coalition members wanted more and councilors, months later, agreed to give it to delay construction for a year if the community could raise enough money to match a county grant. By the time the council sat down to work on the 2016 budget, they authorized even more city funds to meet the price tag of the “deluxe” design.
Issaquah opens first recreational marijuana shop
Six months after Washington’s first legal recreational marijuana stores arrived, Issaquah saw its own 21-and-over shop open its doors. The Issaquah Cannabis Company, on Northeast Juniper Street, was positioned as the only Eastside recreational marijuana retailer east of Bellevue, which has three such shops.
Klahanie to vote on annexation to Sammamish
The Sammamish City Council unanimously passed a bill requesting an annexation vote for the planned community and its associated neighborhoods on the April 28 special ballot.
Initiative, referendum powers to go to vote
The Sammamish City Council approved an advisory vote to be placed on the April 28 ballot, which asked Sammamish citizens if they wanted the power to create voter initiatives and referenda, thus creating and repealing laws at a grassroots level within the city.
Sammamish targets underage parties, sidewalk parking
The city of Sammamish initiated in February a new fine and increased another concerning underage parties with alcohol and street parking, respectively.
Matt Bott leaves Chamber
Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Bott submitted his resignation in January and finished out his role in early February. He moved on to manage Sound Transit’s government and community affairs for the Eastside. Bott had served as CEO since 2009, coming in one year after the national financial collapse and the onset of the Great Recession. Coming from a mixed background in business and political science, he moved the Chamber into a role of activism concerning municipal government decisions involving the business community and membership grew 20 percent during his tenure.
Issaquah grows ranks of engineers to keep pace with development
In February, the city of Issaquah created two new engineering positions in its public works department and upgraded a third position to full-time at a cost of more than $187,000. The decision was made to help the department keep pace with the city’s renewed focus on transportation infrastructure and meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements for the city’s water pollutant discharge permit. Councilmembers were hesitant to add the costs of the positions’ salaries to the city budget, eventually amending the agreement on condition of a savings review at the end of the year.
Value Village opens, filling long-vacant commercial space
In February, Value Village opened a new location on East Lake Sammamish Parkway, creating more than 60 jobs and filling the old Albertsons building, which had been vacant of permanent tenants for six years.
Food bank expands services
The Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank expanded its services in 2015 with two new food programs. Groceries 2 Go allowed for clients, unable to travel to the food bank, receive deliveries of food and sanitary products. “This is something we have resources available to do and volunteers available to do,” Coordinator Kelly Schmidt said. The Food Bank also piloted a school food program called Lunch for the Break, which serves lunch for students during long breaks from school. The program served students from seven area campuses by the end of 2015.Sammamish Learning Center to close its doorsThe Sammamish Learning Center, a preschool serving Eastside children since it opened in the mid ‘90s, announced that it would close at the end of the school year.
Tent City 4 moves — illegally — to Tiger Mountain trailhead
Roving homeless encampment Tent City 4 once again found itself at the center of controversy after a permitting dispute prompted residents to relocate, unpermitted, to a trailhead on the north side of Tiger Mountain. After trying for months to convince King County officials to let the camp relocate to the construction site of Cougar/Squak Corridor Park — receiving firm “No”s each time — managing organization SHARE/WHEEL directed residents first to attempt to occupy the site anyway. Sheriff’s deputies were called out to guard the Squak Mountain site, which led Tent City 4 to reroute north of Tiger Mountain along Interstate 90 — a site leaders believed to be owned by the state. Ironically, after days spent determining the ownership of the land, the site turned out to be county property. However, Tent City 4 residents were allowed to stay for four months before moving on to Snoqualmie.
Truck collides with Interstate 90 overpass
A Recology CleanScapes semi-truck collided with the Interstate 90 overpass on Front Street in March, injuring its driver and damaging the bridge. The truck had attempted to travel under the overpass with its hydraulic container bed deployed, punching a hole in the south side of the pass. The damage to the bridge racked up a $1.2 million repair estimate and remained unfixed at the end of 2015.
‘America’s Most Wanted’ bank robber stash found in Sammamish
In March, officials located an underground bunker in the 3500 block of East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast in Sammamish. The bunker belonged to a 46-year-old bank robber featured on “America’s Most Wanted” in 2011. Bradley Steven Robinett was sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on May 18. He had pled guilty in January to escape, being a felon in possession of a firearms and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.
Sammamish buys Mars Hill church property for $6.1 million
In March, the Sammamish City Council unanimously approved the $6.1 million purchase of the abandoned Mars Hill Church with the goal of converting the building for the purposes of higher education.
