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SCIENCE | Pacific Science Center launches new environmental program at Mercer Slough for teens [11]
Education | Bellevue’s Tyee Middle School welcomes students from China as part of FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 cultural exchange program [10]
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Business | Overlake Medical Center names top performer in key quality measures [7]
Residents plead to stop light-rail changes BY KAITLIN GROVES Bellevue Reporter
More than 100 Bellevue homes, most in Bellevue’s Enatai and Surry Downs neighborhoods could be negatively impacted by a $60 million cost savings plan that the city council is currently considering. The city would take over and demolish dozens
of houses, cut into the yards of dozens of others and block neighborhood access to more. The proposal would also take the light rail out of a trench next to the road, and put it at the same level with the road, which, some argue, would make it much noisier and uglier. Sound Transit and city staff have put forward the proposal, to offset costs as-
sociated with a $300 million tunnel under downtown Bellevue that wasn’t part of the original Seattle to Bellevue light rail plan. “The tunnel provides better times and doesn’t intersect with traffic,” said Bernard Van De Kamp, the city’s associate planning director. “It wasn’t voted on, officially, but but it was known to be a possibility.”
Sound Transit and the City of Bellevue plan to split the tunnel’s cost, with Bellevue picking up $160 million, and Sound Transit covering the rest. The city found their first $100 million easily enough through dedications of land and revenue as well as cash,
Seeing Green
Deadlines near to vote in election
Living roofs, rain gardens part of school construction in Bellevue BY JOSH SUMAN Bellevue Reporter
When the Bellevue School District approached Kyle McLeod about serving as project manager to replace the burned down Interlake High School concession stand and restrooms, he knew it sounded like an exciting opportunity. But he also knew he wanted to do more than reconstruct the outdated, inefficient facility. The result was modest in scale, but with a grand vision and execution. Dual flush toilets in the restrooms, a solar-panel covered roof and even an underground geothermal water heating system make it the only LEED certified building in the Bellevue School District, but one that has served as a prototype for larger scale green construction projects over the past several years. The success of the project and the seemingly endless potential for more like it led McLeod to move from
SEE LIGHT RAIL, 9
The view from the accessible green roof at Cherry Crest shows the natural drainage system for storm water and planters where students will be able to cultivate vegetables. The open-air plaza below and surrounding wooded areas are meant to create a seamless transition from the building to its surrounding environment. JOSH SUMAN, Bellevue Reporter the information technology department to project management, where he has managed six major construction projects with more already in the works. Armed with nearly $1 billion in bonds approved by voters in 2002, 2008 and 2010, the school district has used green technology in its new construction to modernize its aesthetic, integrate sustainable energy practices into curriculum and give students a firsthand look at resource
consumption. No school in the district is more representative of the push for interactive green facilities than the new Cherry Crest Elementary, which opened just in time for the 2012-13 school year. Cherry Crest has a pair of rain gardens that turn naturally depressed areas of the landscape into a filter for rainwater that runs back into city streams and also act as a conduit into the neighboring wooded area and city trail system.
It also features several green roofs and while not the first school in the BSD
with them, it has the first SEE SCHOOLS, 8
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Two important deadlines are fast approaching for anyone wanting to register to vote in this fall’s General Election. Ballots go in the mail by Oct. 19. Saturday, Oct. 6, is the last day to postmark registrations that are mailed in. A voter registration form is available online at http:// www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/ elections/VRF_English_ web.pdf. Oct. 8 is the last day for online voter registrations or updates. People can go to https://wei.sos.wa.gov/ agency/osos/en/pages/ myvote.aspx to register to vote or update an address or registration status. For those who have never registered to vote in Washington, they can also register in person at a county elections office. Oct. 29 is the in-person deadline for new registrations. More information about the General Election is available at http://www.sos. wa.gov/elections/voters. aspx.