Category Archives: City Politics

Sammamish hires full-time emergency management director

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Sammamish has hired its first emergency preparedness director.

Andrew Stevens, the emergency manager of Downey (CA), starts work April 17. He holds

Andrew Stevens, Sammamish’s first full-time emergency management director.

the same position in Downey (CA).

“I’m very pleased that we were able to attract and hire Andrew Stevens to the position of Emergency Manager,” Sammamish City Manager Lyman Howard wrote in an email to The Sammamish Comment..
The folks on the interview panel were impressed and delighted as well.  I’ve also heard positive comments from the regional Emergency Management community, that we made a good choice.  Andrew starts April 17th.”

The appointment comes nearly two years after The Comment revealed Sammamish was going skip a multi-state, multi-jurisdictional, Canadian-US earthquake disaster drill called Cascadia Rising. Sammamish scrambled to join after the revelation.

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Second candidate announces for Sammamish City Council

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A second candidate announced a run for Sammamish City Council and already has run

Minal Ghassemieh, candidate for Sammamish City Council. Photo via Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter.

head-long into controversy.

The Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter has this story about the candidacy of Minal Kode Ghassemieh.

Ghassemieh, who was born in Washington State, is the sister of another local resident who made the news after a road rage incident which she claimed had racial overtones.

The connection caused Jason Krantz of KIRO Radio to question whether the allegations by Ghassemieh’s sister are nothing more than a publicity stunt to bolster the City Council candidacy.

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Metropolitan Market opens

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March 22: Metropolitan Market, the anchor for the Sammamish Town Center’s commercial district at SE 4th and 228th Ave. SE, opened today to a 33 lb chocolate chip cookie for the long line of consumers that wrapped around to the fronting sidewalk.

The Sammamish Town Center commercial center at SE4th and 228th Ave. SE.

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Little progress between City, County over ELST, but hope continues

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Little tangible progress appeared to be the result of a staff-to-staff meeting two weeks ago between King County Parks and Sammamish over the interminable controversy of development of the final segment of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

But City Manager Lyman Howard is hopeful some progress can be made.

“I think so,” he said in an interview with Sammamish Comment this week. County officials said they want to work with the City and property owners—statements that have been made before, only to be met with unsatisfactory results.

Howard, ever hopeful and acknowledging past disappointments, nonetheless isn’t throwing in the towel.

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Lake Trail issues remain misunderstood; let’s clear them up

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Commentary

Reading comments on this blog about the latest East Lake Sammamish Trail events, prompted by a mass email campaign generated by the Cascade Bicycle Club, displays a real lack of understanding about the issues involved.

The emails created by the Club don’t surprise me: all they care about is bicycling and Sammamish Mapnothing else. Some of their members don’t even follow the Rules of the Road while biking on streets, let alone respect the unique issues involved in developing the ELST. Their self-centered myopia is long-standing.

The Club strikes me as particularly hypocritical because most of the time, the bicyclists prefer the streets and roads to the trails.

But the comments from some of those who live in Sammamish and who otherwise are concerned about local development surprise me. Many use the ELST and should see first hand some of the issues involved.

Let’s look at these unique issues.

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