KIRKLAND .com
REPORTER
NEWSLINE: 425.822.9166
TAX EVASION | Longtime Kirkland arts patron sentenced to 13 months for tax evasion [4]
Breaking ground | Officials break ground on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012 South Kirkland Park & Ride garage [17]
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
125,000-square-foot Toyota dealership coming to Kirkland
Residents, city seek solution to bouncy balls litter
BY RAECHEL DAWSON rdawson@kirklandreporter.com
The O’Brien Auto Group will soon demolish the old Graham Steel Corporation building and start construction on a new 125,000-square-foot dealership and service facility for Toyota of Kirkland. The auto group made the announcement during the City of Kirkland’s Totem Lake Symposium at Studio East on Friday morning. The company currently uses the Graham Steel property - located at the intersection of 132nd Avenue Northeast and Northeast 124th Street - to store a combination of
BY RAECHEL DAWSON rdawson@kirklandreporter.com
M
ore than one year ago, Kingsgate resident David Lamb began picking up trash along 124th Avenue N.E. while he walked his dog. He’d collect beer bottles, plastic the usual - until he started noticed brightly colored, unusual, bouncy balls. They would turn up in undesirable places, such as near a storm drain and in his curious dog Chance’s mouth. At first Lamb threw them away, but this past September he started collecting them and asking people in the community if they knew the source of the litter. After speaking with his neighbor, he discovered the Little Caesars Pizza, near the SnoKing Hockey ice rink, has a pinball machine that people could play and win the bouncy balls. His neighbor’s children own some. “These have an entertainment value of about one bounce,” said Lamb, who has found about 60 balls. Lamb speculates children would get ahold of a ball, sometimes winning free cheesy bread if it had a picture on it, and bounce it, which would bounce into the adjacent parking lot. “The kids are smart not to run into the street (to retrieve them),” he says. As a result, citizens such as Lamb have found them around his community. But Lamb wanted
Campaign tour | Cantwell/DelBene visits local businesses [8]
used and new cars. O’Brien Auto Group has also secured a Volkswagen dealership for Kirkland that will be located in the existing Toyota building after remodeling. The existing building is located at 12612 N.E. 124th St. in Kirkland. City officials are enthusiastic about the new building and the additional car dealership in the Totem Lake Business District. “It will bring in more sales tax and more customers,” said Councilman Toby Nixon. Councilwoman Amy Walen said the auto dealers [ more TOYOTA page 2 ]
The Graham Steel Corporation is located at the intersection of 132nd Avenue Northeast and Northeast 124th Street. A new Toyota Dealership building will take its place in the future. RAECHEL DAWSON, Kirkland Reporter Above, David Lamb has collected around 60 bouncy balls that he has found around his Kingsgate neighborhood. He discovered that an employee at a nearby car wash has also collected hundreds of the balls. CARRIE RODRIGUEZ, Kirkland Reporter
Left, Lamb holds up one of the bouncy balls he collected. He discovered the balls come from a pinball machine at the Little Caesars Pizza and he is concerned the balls are littering the neighborhood. answers. “It’s a silly thing but it’s a big thing and it’s solvable,” he said. On one of his walks, Lamb spoke with David Wood who works at Kingsgate Carwash, which is located across from
Little Caesars. Wood told Lamb he had been collecting them too. And he had 263. “Kids bang the balls (onto the pavement) and they make it into the ivy,” said Wood, who has been collecting them for about
one year. Kingsgate Carwash is at a downward slope, so often balls roll toward the area. As Lamb continued to investigate, he contacted the Evergreen Veterinary [ more LITTER page 6 ]
Citizen survey guides city’s proposed budget BY RAECHEL DAWSON rdawson@kirklandreporter.com
City staff met with the Kirkland Council Oct. 25 to propose the upcoming biennial budget, which is estimated to reach approximately $540.4 million if the council approves. “This is not a perfect budget but it’s from a perfect team with a perfect effort,” said City Manager Kurt Triplett at the study session. “(There’s) a theme of being conservative and fiscally
sound, not taking a lot of risk.” The proposed budget calls for a 13.5 percent increase of funds, which spans over four years since the enactment of the 2011-2012 budget. Director of Finance and Administration Tracey Dunlap said the increase is the result of many factors, but fully funding government services in the new annexed neighborhoods (Juanita, Finn Hill and Kingsgate) of 31,000 people and the construc[ more BUDGET page 3 ]