Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, October 18, 2013
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Klahanie ballot approved Boundary Review Board OKs Issaquah-only vote BY LINDA BALL
Rotary President-Elect Cary Young and Nightmare Art Director Dana Young stand with one of the latter’s horrific murals in a setpiece of the haunt.
LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
DANIEL NASH Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
THE NIGHTMARE RETURNS The Nightmare at Beaver Lake opens for its 10th year BY DANIEL NASH DNASH@BELLEVUEREPORTER.COM
“There’s a psychology to scaring people,” Dana Young says. “For example, no matter how you look or what size you are, or what abilities you have physically, you can be scary just by staring at people. “We teach them patrons are their prey. Werewolves want to eat you, zombies want to eat you, vampires want to eat you. Murderers want to kill you. So they’re always looking at them with feral hunger in their eyes.” As Young, the art director of The Nightmare at Beaver Lake, talks about their actors’ preparation for their monstrous roles, she stands in the middle of a makeshift shack several hundred yards into the Sammamish park’s woods. It’s one of nearly
30 along Beaver Lake’s walking paths, each with its own theme; this one, painted in disorienting spirals and geometric patterns, is a funhouse. None of the sets seem particularly malicious in light of day, and Young acknowledges this. But by nightfall, she says, the walking path will become a literal pantswetting nightmare. The Nightmare at Beaver Lake returns today, Friday, after holding its annual ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday evening. For a decade, the Rotary Club of Sammamish has partnered with Scare Productions, the city of Sammamish and other local organizations to scare the tar out of patrons — and the money out of their pockets. One hundred percent of the event’s proceeds go to charities in and outside of Sammamish. One volunteer also receives a scholarship to continue their
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education. The attraction expanded as traffic increased. To keep patrons coming out year to year, the coordinators scrap the lions share of previous seasons’ setpieces and start from scratch. “Ninety percent of the haunt is different every year,” Young says. “And what’s the same is different from the previous year.” Planning for each year’s Nightmare begins at Scare Productions’ workshop in February, eight months before opening. Once volunteers are allowed to begin construction in the park, donated by the city, work continues until opening night. Volunteers are typically high school or college-aged — people with “boundless energy” who can also be motivated by SEE NIGHTMARE, 3
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Residents of Klahanie and nearby neighborhoods will only be able to vote on annexation to Issaquah, following a decision by the King County Boundary Review Board on Oct. 10. Meeting in Issaquah, the board deliberated in public after reviewing mounds of testimony, letters and exhibits presented over two nights, Sept. 18 and 19. A proposal by the city of Sammamish to let residents of Klahanie and nearby neighborhoods vote on annexing either to Issaquah or Sammamish was raised in an Oct. 8 letter signed by the mayor of Sammamish and five of the city council members and sent to Issaquah Mayor Ava and all of the Issaquah City Council members. “Wouldn’t it make sense to broaden the question and let them consider Sammamish as well?” the letter asks. However, board chair Mary Lynne Evans told the audience, “We are not authorized to make this kind of change,” adding that the Growth Management Planning Council has that authority. Sammamish Mayor Tom Odell said he was not surprised that the board approved limiting the annexation vote to Issaquah. SEE BOARD, 3