Issaquah-Fall City Road cost jumps 36% over pre-annexation estimate

The construction cost of Issaquah-Fall City Road (IFC) improvements quietly has gone up by 36%.

Or has it?

The Sammamish City Newsletter says the improvements to Issaquah-Fall City Road will now cost $36m. In 2015, the figure was $23m.

The March Sammamish City Newsletter’s page 1 article updating the plans to widen Issaquah-Fall City Road is the following, opening paragraph:

“When 10,000 Klahanie-area residents came into Sammamish last year, the city knew that a big responsibility was going to follow them through the door – a $36 million item known as Issaquah-Fall City Road.”

This figure is not what the City told Klahanie residents and the taxpayers of legacy Sammamish when promoting annexation to Sammamish.

Instead, then-City Manager Ben Yazici and then-Mayor Tom Vance said IFC Road would cost $23m, a reduction from the $38.8m King County priced the road improvements, cited by Issaquah.

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Dave Reichert’s cowardice

US Rep. Dave Reichert went from being for repeal of Obamacare in committee to “undecided” before a scheduled vote in the US House of Representatives.

After the vote was pulled–when it became clear the bill would fail, as at least three dozen Republicans pledged to vote no–Reichert still won’t say how he would have voted.

Last Wednesday, I wrote that Reichert is afflicted with political timidity. This was wrong.

It’s flat-out political cowardice.

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Sammamish hires full-time emergency management director

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

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

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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