Tonight is the next to last meeting for four Sammamish City Council members, who chose to retire rather than seek reelection.

Don Gerend is the dean of the Council. He has been on the body since the first Council was elected in 1999.

Kathy Huckabay was also elected with the first City Council and except for a four year period in which she chose to leave the Council for a break, she’s also been on it continuously.

Tom Odell is completing his eighth year on the Council (two terms).

Bob Keller is completing his first, and only one, four-year term. Keller served on the City’s Planning Advisory Board, which wrote the City’s first Comprehensive Plan, and the Planning Commission, which wrote the Town Center Plan.

Each put in thousands of hours of meeting and study time per year to do what they thought was right for Sammamish. Regardless of whether citizens agreed with their decisions, they deserve thanks for stepping up to public service. Too few people do so, either through their own time and family constraints or just through apathy.

Serving on the Council, or in Keller’s case, on the PAB and Planning Commission, is mostly a thankless task.

Gerend and Huckabay served in the days following incorporation, a challenging period in the creation of the City. It was a time when overwhelming anger at King County, its rule and its neglect of what became Sammamish, fueled the incorporation.

This was a particularly trying time and their participation in those early City Councils helped guide the City through those days.

Sammamish was lucky to have these four dedicated public servants.

There is an hour-long reception from 5:30-6:30 tonight (Dec. 12) at City Hall honoring their service.