Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, January 31, 2014
www.issaquahreporter.com
Just when you thought it was over
Randy Bass was born and raised in Issaquah, and divides his time between Issaquah and his ranch in Ellensburg. He will lose a little less than an acre and a half of his property on East Lake Sammamish Parkway for improvements planned by the city. Picture right is Bass’ business on East Lake Sammamish Parkway includes truck rentals and mini-storage units.
Eastside Fire Fighters considering legal action against Sammamish officials BY KELLY MONTGOMERY KMONTGOMERY@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
LINDA BALL, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter.
TRAFFIC WOES
Parkway project threatens one man’s livelihood BY LINDA BALL LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
No one will argue that traffic in Issaquah is becoming unbearable, particularly around the Southeast 56th Street/East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast, Pickering Place, Costco chaos. The city’s engineers have been designing the North Issaquah Transportation Network improvements, also known as LID 25 for some time. The project, which has yet to get off the ground, includes widening East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast, installing a roundabout at Southeast 62nd Street and 221st Place Southeast, and punching through a new road across Issaquah Creek to alleviate some of the pressure. That would provide yet another access to Costco and other Pickering Place businesses. But there is a human side to this story: the taking of people’s land. Randy Bass, 66, was born and raised in Issaquah, and now splits his time between Issaquah and Ellensburg where he owns a ranch and raises cattle. His family lived on the Plateau before moving to Black Nugget Ranch. The family built the last mile of Black Nugget Road.
Bass speaks at the Issaquah City Council meeting. LINDA BALL, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter “My dad had 200 acres he bought in the ‘50s, which we had to sell in the ‘90s to pay estate taxes,” Bass said. He bought his property on East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast in 1974. There he owns “Truck Country,” established in 1998, which includes mini-storage units, boat and RV storage, rental of moving trucks and moving supplies. He bought the property – with a house on it – from the Tibbetts family. He donated 62nd Street to the city several years ago, he said. At the Jan. 21 Issaquah City Council
meeting, Sheldon Lynne, the city’s director of engineering, spoke to the council about part of the overall project that could be considered a stand-alone project with outside funding. The project includes adding curb, gutter, sidewalks, a bike lane and a new southbound through-lane on East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast from Southeast 56th St. to just north of Issaquah Fall-City Road. Lynne estimates the project will cost $7.5 million. The city already has secured a grant from the Puget Sound Regional Council for $975,000. The agency is the conduit for federal money. Lynne informed the City Council of the need to move quickly to accept a $3.4 million award from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board. Having the TIB grant in place will strengthen the city’s case if it wants to pursue another PSRC grant for $2 million, which it must apply for in March. The city has to have all of its funding for the project in place by November 2014 or the transportation grant would be pulled. Depending on the $2 million from PSRC, the city will either be expected to pay $3.1 million or $1.1 million toward the proSEE PARKWAY, 6
Eastside Fire Fighters are building a case against former Sammamish Mayor Tom Odell and members of the Sammamish Technical Advisory Board (TAB) for what it says are potential violations of the state’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). The advisory board was chaired by Kathy Huckabay, who is now Sammamish’s deputy mayor. “We have copies of emails that indicate former Mayor Tom Odell, chair Kathy Huckabay and other members of the TAB violated OPMA,” said SaNni M-K Lemonidis, the attorney for Eastside Fire Fighters. Jon Wiseman, president of Eastside Fire Fighters, said that back when discussions of EFR started, there was a lot of information that wasn’t disclosed to the public. They had their attorney look into the situation, and Wiseman said he found multiple emails between TAB members that he says violated the OPMA. Wiseman said that while they brought this information up a couple months ago, they decided to take a stance now due to a concern for the public. “It really comes down to the public has a right to know who SEE LEGAL ACTION, 8