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HELP | Father of missing boy, Sky Metalwala, talks about a changed life and homelessness [2]
Community | Pinewood Derby returns to Bellevue with fun, competition for Cub Scouts, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2013 families [8]
Sound Transit wins court case over rail route
Overlake’s Bandage Ball raises record $1.1 million Overlake Medical Center’s 2013 Bandage Ball gala event and auction on Saturday, March 16, raised a record $1.1 million to help build the new, state-ofthe-art David and Shelly Hovind Heart & Vascular Center. The new facility will bring all testing and therapeutic services together in one location. “This year’s Bandage Ball was a wildly successful event and we are thrilled a sold out crowd from all over the region helped raise a record amount for our new heart and vascular center, which will truly enhance Overlake’s level of care,” said Molly Stearns, Overlake’s vice president of fund development and executive director of the foundation and auxiliaries. “We are committed to this community and this is a concrete way to improve our services and elevate our patient’s experience.” The center will create one facility, offering the most advanced equipment and technology available. The facility will allow more realtime collaboration between physicians, facilitate consultation between physicians, patients and their families, and improve this regions’ access to care. The auction theme this year was And the Beat Goes on. KOMO 4 Morning News Anchor Brad Goode and Patti Payne, media personality and columnist with the Puget Sound Business Journal, auctioneer and emcee, respectively. The Bandage Ball is the largest fundraising event of the year to benefit Overlake.
Arts | Village Theatre debuts original musical ,’Trails,’ on Issaquah stage [18]
BY CELINA KAREIVA BELLEVUE REPORTER
Bill Pace stands in front of a display of squash. He’s still waiting on several permits before he can open his store, which he’d originally hoped to open in November. CELINA KAREIVA, Bellevue Reporter
‘Not waiting to be rescued’ Bellevue fruit stand owner trying to bring life back to Newport Hills Shopping Center
BY CELINA KAREIVA BELLEVUE REPORTER
Bill Pace sits at the back of his empty market. Against one wall are refrigerated shelves, ready to be stacked with produce; chairs and tables are pushed into another corner and a few crates are piled with squash. At the back is a walkin full of apples harvested last fall. Though modestly outfitted, this space in the Newport Hills neighborhood of South Bellevue gives many residents hope that a commercial core can be restored. “That’s my idea, to get some activity going and attract other businesses,” Pace says, as he scans the room. “[I want] to bring a little life back into this strip mall.” Though best known for his
When it opens, Bill Pace plans to sell produce, milk and eggs, frozen meals and fruit pies. CELINA KAREIVA, Bellevue Reporter
fruit stand south of downtown Bellevue, Pace is expanding to the Newport Hills neighborhood. When it opens, the back of the market will be outfitted with a coffee shop. He’ll sell produce, milk and eggs, frozen meals and fruit pies.
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In 2009 Newport Hills lost its neighborhood grocer, Red Apple. “When we lost that business it was like a balloon deflated,” says Heidi Dean, president of the Newport Hills Community Club (NHCC). Other businesses soon followed suit. A family-owned pharmacy across the way and a Hallmark store shuttered their doors. The burger place closed, then Bank of America. Shopping centers like the one in Newport at 119th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 56th Street, have struggled in recent years as they’ve been outpaced by bigger malls and chain stores. SEE NEWPORT HILLS, 6
Sound Transit will move forward with its East Link deadlines after the U.S. District Court in Seattle issued a summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by Building a Better Bellevue (BBB) and Friends of Enatai. Filed last June, the defendants included Sound Transit, the Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Highway Administration. The lawsuit hoped to keep light rail out of South Bellevue neighborhoods by putting it underground, rethinking the alignment or replacing the trains with buses. The two citizen groups argued that the federal government’s approval of the route violated environmental law and laws in place to protect historic sites and parks, by potentially endangering the Mercer Slough wetlands and downtown Bellevue’s Winters House. BBB and Friends of Enatai claimed that Sound Transit should have more seriously considered alternatives under the 1966 federal law, for instance a deep-bore tunnel they believed to be less expensive than a trench or elevated segment. Sound Transit argued otherwise. “We were confident that our East Link environmental process, including its extensive public involvement, not only identified a great alignment for providing East King County residents with light rail service but also more than met all of the legal requirements,” said Sound Transit spokesperson Geoff Patrick. “The summary judgment dismissing this case validated that confidence.” In the March 7 decision, Judge John Coughenour said that Sound Transit had, in fact, carefully assessed alternatives. Next month the city of Bellevue hopes to decide on costcutting methods. Celina Kareiva 425-453-4290; ckareiva@bellevuereporter.com
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