Monthly Archives: March 2014

Is ‘You can’t trust Issaquah, Part 5’ around the corner?

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Is Issaquah about to equivocate on prior indications that it would release the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area if it lost the vote February 11?

It did lose the vote-albeit by a mere 32–but outside the margin for a recount. Despite Mayor Fred Butler pledging during his successful campaign for election in November saying he’d release the PAA and not gerrymander it, Butler’s been silent so far.

Councilman Paul Winterstein appears to be equivocating, however. According to The Issaquah Reporter, Winterstein told the county that “Winterstein testified that Issaquah hasn’t had time to analyze the election results and sort things out”

What’s there to sort out? Issaquah lost. Period.

Butler’s silence is disturbing. He needs to step up and honor his campaign pledge. One of the issues in the annexation vote was the inability to trust anything Issaquah says it will do. Butler, as the first new mayor in some 16 years, immediately stepped up to resolve the water wars. It’s already past due to step up and take moves to honor his word on annexation.

As for Winterstein and the Issaquah City Council: enough, already. You lost, and that’s that. Stop holding the PAA hostage. You could have annexed the area in 2005 if you weren’t greedy about the debt issue. Give it up now.

Klahanie annexation vote analysis, by precinct

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I’ve obtained the certified election results of the Klahanie annexation vote to Issaquah, and plotted them out by precinct. Click the map to enlarge.

Sammamish Comment Chart. c. Sammamish Comment. Certified Election Results, Klahanie Annexation Vote, Feb. 11, 2014

Sammamish Comment Chart. c. Sammamish Comment. Certified Election Results, Klahanie Annexation Vote, Feb. 11, 2014

You’ll note that I’ve marked “SE 48th St. Extended,” which bisects the Brookshire precinct at the very southern tip. There has been discussion that this portion of the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area could be retained by Issaquah while the rest goes to Sammamish. This hardly makes sense to me, given that this is just the extreme southern tip of the PAA.

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Before spending tens of millions on Klahanie, Sammamish has its own needs

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The Sammamish City Council, acting to tamp down the potential annexation of the Klahanie area to Issaquah, promised a Christmas Tree spending package to entice a “no” vote. As I wrote previously, this was one of many reasons Issaquah lost the election.

Today there was a school bus accident in Sammamish–fortunately with only one very minor injury–on an arterial that has been hazardous from the day we incorporated, a faulty design inherited from King County days.

The accident was on SE 24th approaching 200th Ave SE from the west.

Source: Komo TV

Source: Q13 TV News

I’ve noted to the City Council and some of its members on many occasions that there are no shoulders and the ditches create a hazard. There are no walking paths nor bike lanes. Many times I’ve driven up the hill there have been bicyclists in the traffic lane chugging their way up. Because there are no bike lanes or shoulders, cars that want to pass them are faced with entering the oncoming lane. There are plenty of blind curves.

24th is a designated arterial, but the City has done nothing to improve the roadway since incorporation. A few years ago, a walking path was created from 212th to 204th, a positive step, but nothing more has been done since then.

Before the City Council goes off on a spending spree for its Christmas Tree list for Klahanie, it needs to take care of some hazardous road conditions (and fill the potholes that one city councilman says don’t exist but which really do) in our City.