Monthly Archives: April 2016

Give Sound Transit an earful May 2 over ST3

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Sound Transit 3: Parallel rail lines, two stations from Issaquah/Bellevue and Seattle/Bellevue along the South Bellevue corridor.

Sound Transit will hold a public intake meeting Monday, May 2, at Sammamish City Hall beginning at 6:30m to receive comments on Sound Transit 3 (ST3), the $27bn tax hike for $50bn in projects over the next 25 years.

This is on top of tax increases approved for Sound Transit 2.

Sammamish citizens should attend this meeting to make it clear to Sound Transit and King County officials that ST3 is poorly conceived, ill-timed, extends over too long a period and short-changes not only Sammamish and the Eastside, but also Everett City Center and the Boeing Everett plant, where so many people from our local environs work.

Our citizens also need to urge the Sammamish City Council to opposed ST3.

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The Greenies fight back: the 2001 Sammamish City Council election

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After being routed in the 1999 City Council elections and licking their wounds for the better part of two years, the environmentalists in Sammamish—the “greenies—“ began a comeback.

All seven Council seats were up for election in 2001. This was because that as a new city, two- and four-year terms had to be established. The largest vote-getters in 2001 would get four year terms. The three lowest vote getters would get two year terms.

As it happened, only three Council members were challenged by people backed by the Greenies, and by SHOUT officials (see the post of March 28 to understand who SHOUT was): Ron Haworth, Ken Kilroy and Phil Dyer. Don Gerend, Kathy Huckabay, Jack Barry and Troy Romero were unopposed. By default, they would receive the most votes and four year terms.

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Polar bear, wild mustangs photography exhibit at Sammamish City Hall begins April 16

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There is a special photography exhibition opening April 16 at the Sammamish City Hall, focusing on threatened polar bear and wild mustangs.

  • Sammamish Comment has provided reporting and commentary throughout its existence. Today it’s some shameless promotion for the photography debut of an exhibit by Gail Twelves, my wife.
Momma Bear

Photo by Gail Twelves. This will be on display at the Sammamish City Hall April 16-July 8. Meet the photographer at a reception 6-8pm on April 22. The polar bear photos were made in the wild in Kaktovik, Alaska.

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Citizens for Sammamish goes YouTube

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Citizens for Sammamish has begun recording some of its presentations at its monthly meetings and posting on YouTube.

The first was an explanation of why the Sammamish City Council (or any other government agency in Washington) goes into Executive Sessions, portions of meetings that are closed to the public.

The second is about the new Community Center managed by the YMCA.

Sammamish, the first two years

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City_of_Sammamish

The new City’s logo was adopted from a combination of entries from school children in a contest.

After the first City Council election for the new Sammamish, the task of creating a new city was enormous.

The City Council had to select its leadership and committees for key “needs,” such as transportation. Ordinances had to be created. Contracts for essential services had to be negotiated. An interim City Manager and staff had to be hired. Eventually a Comprehensive Plan would have to be written. A temporary City Hall had to be located, no small task in a community with no business complexes. A place to hold City Council meetings had to be identified.

And these are just some of the priority issues.

One of the top issues, the reason for incorporating in the first place, was to put a halt to the runaway development.

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