ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, January 20, 2012
www.issaquahreporter.com
Sammamish holds off on marijuana gardens BY LINDA BALL ISSAQUAH/SAMMAMISH REPORTER
The Sammamish City Council has taken a wait and see attitude toward marijuana collective gardens until it has a better idea of where the state Legislature is going with regard to cannabis laws. At Tuesday night’s sparsely attended meeting, the council voted 6-0 to extend the moratorium on collective gardens until July. “The sands are still shifting,� said Kamuron Gurol, community development director for the city. Gurol said it’s reasonable to extend for the six months to allow the Legislature to decide what direction it will take with regard to cannabis laws. The moratorium was set to expire Jan. 18. The moratorium requires no administrative costs. Gurol compared the moratorium to prohibition and said that many of Washington’s smaller cities are taking a wait-and-see approach. Shoreline and Issaquah have already said yes to collective gardens. Mayor Tom Odell thought it prudent “to kick this can down the road� until further information is available from Olympia. In other news, the council approved moving forward with design plans for a roundabout at the intersection of 233rd Avenue and NE Eighth Street for an additional access to Eastlake High School. With the school expanding to include ninth graders in the fall, traffic is expected to increase. Jeff Brauns, city engineer, said the intersection would be safer with a roundabout as opposed to a signal. He said studies have shown that there are only eight conflict points with a roundabout, compared to 32 with a standard signal intersection. Also, roundabouts slow drivers down, where signaled intersec-
Mark Barfield plows Front Street with a dump truck modified for the weather. While most of Issaquah stayed home Wednesday, maintenance workers were clearing the streets 24 hours a day. CELESTE GRACEY, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
SNOW GOING With sand, de-icer and 12-hour shiffs, Issaquah’s Public Works Operations battles the winter weather While most of Issaquah slept Tuesday night, Mark Barfield, a 19-year veteran of the city’s maintenance department said goodnight to his eight children, slipped into boots and headed out into the coming snow storm. His dump truck rattled and shook while the attached plow pushed a thin layer of snow over a curb like a gentle wave breaking onto the sand. In fact, much of the
brown snow mixture was sand. He alone had dumped several tons of stuff on the Issaquah/Fall City Road that night. It didn’t matter how much he plowed or how much de-icer he laid behind, a constant flurry covered his work with a clean white layer of snow. “Even when you have the best operation in the world, when nature calls, you can only do so much,� he says, before pulling into local gravel quarry to load up on sand. “You’ll always be playing catch up.� It was the second 12-hour shift he had FAMOUS 20-POINT FULL-SERVICE
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worked on only about four hours of sleep, but with 30 other people working the same schedule, he could only be grateful that there was enough work to keep him distracted from his fatigue, he said. “Some of these guys have been going since Saturday.� After a storm of wearisome forecasts, only a few inches of snow was stacked on the Sammamish Plateau and in Issaquah’s valley floor. Most people heeded the warning and stayed home, but for those with little choice but to venture out, Public
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