Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, July 5, 2013
www.issaquahreporter.com
Pool of concern Issaquah to float $10 million parks bond on November ballot BY LINDA BALL LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
Kramer went to Europe just to look at food. Her emphasis is fresh food; from the garden, farm or sea. “If I want to make something, I just make it,” she said. The menu is made up of very creative salads, soups, sandwiches and desserts. The Boarding House signature salad is what made them famous Kramer said. She uses only black forest ham and roasts her own meats. There is no processed food, no GMOs, no MSG and she is
After a year of citizen input, the Issaquah City Council will ask voters in November to pass a $10 million parks bond. Five million will be used for improvements at the aging Julius Boehm pool, $1.55 million will be spent on artificial turf and lighting at Central Park Pad 1 in the Highlands, $200,000 will go to improved drainage at Tibbetts Valley Park fields one, two and five and the community center green, $2 million will be set aside for acquisition of open space, including creekside lands and land around the “green necklace” that will surround the city, $900,000 for additional improvements to what is now called the Confluence Parks, $100,000 each for new playground equipment at Meerwood and Gibson Parks – these two neighborhood parks contain the oldest and most outdated playground equipment in the city’s park system — and $150,000 for bond and attorney fees. There was over an hour of public testimony at Monday night’s meeting, filled with passionate pleas in particular for Boehm pool as well as doing something about Issaquah’s troubled skateboard park, which is not part of the bond. A phone survey by EMC Research, an online survey and public input meetings did not put the skateboard park on top of the public’s wish list.
SEE BOARDING HOUSE, 2
SEE PARKS BOND, 2
Jene Kramer has owned the Boarding House since 2001, still using some of the original recipes from the four ladies who started the restaurant in 1973. LINDA BALL,
Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
40 YEARS STRONG
Gilman Village’s oldest business, The Boarding House, celebrates major milestone
J
ene Kramer had wanted her own restaurant since she was a little girl.
“Instead of playing house, I’d play restaurant,” she said. “I had a knack for it.” As the oldest of seven children her mom would turn her loose in the kitchen. Kramer said she could prepare dinner for the whole family for $10. The Boarding House restaurant opened in Issaquah’s Gilman Village in 1973. It is the last original business in the village. Kramer and her business partner, Mary Ann Mizokawa, had years of experience as waitresses and kitchen help. For a while, Kramer worked for an insurance company in Bellevue as a medical adjustor for injured Boeing workers, but the
company lost its contract with Boeing, so the office closed. “I was so thrilled,” she said. “I had no business in that business.” However, with her severance, she was able to buy the Boarding House. Kramer, a lifelong resident of Bellevue, remembers going there with her mom. She even remembers the table she sat at talking to the original owners about buying her own restaurant someday. The Boarding House was a meeting place — everyone knew it, she said. “The whole cachet of this restaurant was a black box of recipes these four women had,” Kramer said. The Boarding House is open only for lunch. The menu is not fussy, rather just good fresh, wholesome food that needs no fancy adornment. Before she owned The Boarding House, Kramer and Mizokawa both spent time traveling. 000000
BY LINDA BALL LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
PPY HOUER! BEST HAE SID ON THE AST WEEKEND BRUNCH: $4 Mimosas $5 Marys.
lands
Issaquah High
42 5. 36 9. 89 00
www.AgaveRest.com