Sammamish Safety Fair
Eastside Fire & Rescue, the City of Sammamish, and the Sammamish Citizen Corps are co-hosting a fun-filled day of safety information and education to the community we serve. The Sammamish Safety and Preparedness Fair will be held on Saturday, Sept. 20, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The Fair will be located at Eastlake High School – 400 228th Avenue N.E. in the city of Sammamish.
Meet your local police, fire and emergency personnel, talk to the many local business merchants who will participate in the safety fair, and visit with Sparky the Fire Dog. Other activities include fire engine tours, child safety handouts, emergency preparedness supplies, exhibits, guest speakers, demonstrations and refreshments. Emergency preparedness kits will be available for purchase. For more information visit www.sammamishcitizencorps.org.
Metro Transit adds routes
Ridership on Metro Transit is up about 7 percent from this time last year, and officials are adding two new bus routes as well as expanding service on 20 routes throughout King County.
The changes, which include more service and other alterations in the Issaquah, Fall City and Preston areas, begin tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 20.
“We’ve listened to riders, cities, and businesses and are pleased to have these improvements hit the road as ridership continues to climb and more service is needed,” said King County Executive Ron Sims. “So many more people are taking the bus here in King County that Metro is among the fastest growing large transit agencies in the nation.”
Officials expect ridership to continue to increase this fall. Most of the new services and changes are being paid for through the voter-approved Transit Now initiative.
Changes include:
• Route 209 will have new commute-time trips to provide hourly service on weekdays between Issaquah and North Bend via Preston and Fall City.
• Although it doesn’t stop in Issaquah, the new Route 211 will be important to commuters who travel to the hospitals and medical offices on Seattle’s First Hill. It replaces Route 942 with service between Eastgate and First Hill with stops at the South Bellevue and Mercer Island park-and-ride lots. There are some routing changes, and the schedule for the Route 211 is adjusted to enable transfers to commuter trains at King Street Station.
• Route 214 will now focus solely on commute-time service between downtown Issaquah and downtown Seattle, and will no longer travel east of Issaquah.
• New Route 215 will provide service between North Bend, Snoqualmie, Snoqualmie Ridge and downtown Seattle during peak-commute times with stops at the Issaquah Transit Center and Eastgate Park-and-Ride for connections to other locations.
• The Route 216 connecting Bear Creek, Sammamish and North Issaquah to Seattle will now stop at both the Eastgate freeway stop and the Mercer Island Park-and-Ride on its trips
• Seven trips will be added to Route 269 —which runs on weekdays between Issaquah and Overlake — thanks to a Transit Now partnership between Metro, Microsoft, and the cities of Issaquah, Sammamish and Redmond.
Bus riders can find all the September changes detailed in the Special Rider Alert, which is online at www.kingcounty.gov/metro. New orange timetables will soon be available on buses and in Metro information racks. The information is also in the online Trip Planner at www.kingcounty.gov/tripplanner. Enter a travel date for Sept. 20 or later to find the changed service.
