Last Tuesday , the Sammamish City Council pulled a fast one on me — in a good way — when City Manager Lyman Howard acknowledged at the end of the council’s regular meeting that my tenure with the Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter would be ending on April 21.

It was a cordial gesture which I’ve come to know as the norm in my time covering the city of Sammamish.

Nine months on the beat may not seem like a terribly long time, but it certainly flew by. Sammamish is an active community that generates quite a bit of news.

In my tenure with the Reporter, I’ve covered the opening of the Sammamish Town Center and Central Washington University officially coming to the plateau.

The news, of course, hasn’t always been rosy. The end of January saw the tragic Beaver Lake Park hit-and-run. King County officials will be in town on April 25 to talk details about the contentious issue of the East Lake Sammamish Trail’s segment 2B design. The city is preparing to begin discussions with residents on April 27 about its future financial health, which may involve a tax increase.

But through it all, I’ve seen why Sammamish is regularly heralded as one of the best cities in the country for residents to live in. I’ve found the people to be friendly and open to discussion.

I’d like to thank those with the city of Sammamish and those in the community for working with me. Thank you to Lyman Howard, Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Bob Keller and City Council members Tom Hornish, Kathy Huckabay, Christie Malchow, Tom Odell and Ramiro Valderrama for being so approachable and granting your time for interviews. I was pleasantly embarrassed to make the council meeting minutes last Tuesday.

I’d also like to thank Tim Larson, Sammamish Police Chief Michelle Bennett, Sgt. Cindi West and Sgt. Peter Horvath for working with me. You all provide wonderful services to the community and it was a privilege working with all of you.

I’d like to thank residents Mary Wictor and Paul Stickney for being wonderful company at City Council meetings. Special thanks goes out to my inside source(s) who wish(es) not to be named. Thank you for all your help.

A special shout out goes to my hard-working colleagues Nicole Jennings, Shaun Scott and on the Bellevue Reporter front, Ryan Murray. By the nature of our job, it may be easy to forget sometimes that we do this work together. But we’ve done this work together. Thank you for being my teammates. And thanks to my editor, Carrie Rodriguez, for simply being a superhero.

Finally, to the Sammamish community, I’d like to say thank you for allowing me to be a reporter in your city. The plateau is certainly a tough place to leave.

I do have one final request: Please continue to support local community journalism. Newspapers like ours love serving the community and depend on readers like you. While the times may change, the need for local journalism will always remain.