Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
www.issaquahreporter.com
Friday, December 20, 2013
Meeting of the minds Fire service partners reach an agreement BY LINDA BALL
Left: Dan O’Neill with a child in Sudan-1984.
LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
Changes requested to the Eastside Fire and Rescue interlocal agreement by the city of Sammamish turned out to be no more than clarifications. The EFR board meeting Dec. 12 looked nothing like the one Nov. 14 when there was tension in the room and a bit of finger pointing. Instead, this meeting produced a celebratory mood complete with sparkling cider and cookies. The new ILA, once it is reviewed by attorneys for all of the partners and the fire service, will go into effect in January 2015 and will be good for seven years. An ad-hoc committee was formed to review the changes. Issaquah City Council member Paul Winterstein, who was on the committee, said the requested changes were easy to understand, adding that deputy chief Wes Collins did a lot of work to bring perspective to the issue. The only member of EFR who voted "nay" was Ron Pedee from District 38 who thought the process was premature. "It was a question of whether or not it was timely to send it to the attorneys," Pedee said. "To do a meaningful job it would take four to six weeks." District 38 is in battalion five, the same as North Bend. It covers areas of unincorporated King County surrounding the
COURTESY PHOTO.
Right: A photo from one of Mercy Corps gift cards.
COURTESY PHOTO.
HOPE IS THE KEY
Dan O’Neill guides Mercy Corps, bringing help around the globe KMONTGOMERY@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
Dan O’Neill, a Sammamish resident and founder of Mercy Corps, has been involved in humanitarian efforts for more than 30 years. After living in Israel during the Yom Kippur War and then witnessing the Cambodia killing fields in the late 1970s, O’Neill realized he wanted to focus his life on the human consequences of war. “It seemed to me that we should do something, as Americans,” he said. During this time, O’Neill called First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who invited him to work on the White House Cambodia Crisis Committee. “She was very touched and emotionally invested in what was happening there,” he said.
Dan O’Neill present day. COURTESY PHOTO.
O’Neill and Carter put together a team and started a one-year task force to combat the issues facing Cambodia. At age 31, O’Neill was
selected to be the committee’s executive director. “I thought it would last about a year,” he said. One year turned into a lifetime as the project transcended into the 1979 founding of Mercy Corps. As one of the top humanitarian groups in the world, Mercy Corps prides itself on empowerment and long-term sustainability opposed to simply providing supplies. “Early on, we moved into a philosophy of local leadership,” he said. “We weren’t Americans telling people on the ground how to live.” O’Neill said that Mercy Corps’ staff consists mostly of indigenous people who know the country, the people and the culture. “There was a sense that we were empowering them to take control over their own lives,” he said.
“It seemed to to me that we should do something, as Americans.” – Dan O’Neill And while Mercy Corps is considered to be a mid-sized non-governmental organization with an operating budget of $350 million a year, O’Neill said they are very cost-efficient. “We take people’s donations very seriously,” he said. SEE MERCY CORPS, 5
HOLIDAY TAMALES ARE HERE!
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Enjoy Dinner
SEE AGREEMENT, 3
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BY KELLY MONTGOMERY
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Purchase Your Discounted REGAL CINEMAS® Theater Tickets at Agave!
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