REDMOND
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REPORTER
FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2014
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Proposed mosque raises traffic concerns among residents The possibility of increased traffic and noise are among the reasons a group of Redmond residents are concerned about a mosque being proposed for an empty plot of land near Microsoft. If approved, Anjumane-Burhani Mosque would be located at 15252 N.E. 51st St. It would be two stories with a basement for a total of 22,467 square feet, according to plans from Rolluda Architects, the architecture firm designing the building. The size of the building, which would sit on about 1.12 acres of land, is one of the things that has residents in the neighborhood most concerned. “It’s not about the religion,” said Frank Niederle. “It’s about 20,000 square feet. That’s something else. It doesn’t make sense.”
MORE TRAFFIC AND CONGESTION
Niederle and his wife Maria Niederle have lived in their home, which is less than a half mile away from the proposed mosque location, for more than 30 years. They said their neighborhood is full of children who often walk to school and play outside and the Niederles are concerned that an influx of drivers coming and going at the mosque would make it unsafe for them. Jamie Hilbert — who
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Birds of a feather watch together Redmond residents congregate for Blue Heron viewing event
lives along 156th Avenue Northeast, just a few blocks from the site — is also concerned about traffic safety for children if a new community building is built. “We don’t want a kid to get hit,” she said. Hilbert said they already have a lot of traffic from Microsoft, adding that sometimes it can take her up to five minutes to pull out of her driveway if she hits rush hour. The proposed mosque would increase the problem significantly, she said.
OVERFLOW PARKING
Maria Niederle said their neighborhood is not built to accommodate more cars. The entrance to their neighborhood already gets overflow parking from Microsoft, she said, and the mosque would just bring more as the site would not have enough parking to accommodate a building of that size. According to the architects’ plans, there would be 42 parking stalls. “(It) is not enough for something like that,” Frank Niederle said. Maria Niederle added that it should not be their neighborhood’s responsibility to provide parking for the proposed mosque. Radmila Tatevosyan, who also lives in the neighborhood, said they live in a residential area and she would like to leave it that way. “Our neighborhood is good because it’s quiet,” she said. [ more MOSQUE page 2 ]
Georgine Yorgey and Toby Berger, left, watch Blue Herons with Douglas Berger and Leah Berger during a viewing event beside the Sammamish River at Marymoor Park in Redmond on Saturday. Eastside Audubon members are there the first Saturday of each month through July to help park visitors get up close views of the birds. During the first viewing date, people stopping by could see 21 nests. By the next viewing date, there may be hatchlings. The next viewing is from 9-11 a.m. on May 3. It is free and open to the public. Courtesy of Mick Thompson
Black box on missing flight 370 made in Redmond SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
It has been more than a month since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared during its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and searchers are still looking for the plane, which had been carrying 239 people. Search boats picked up signals off the west coast of Australia last weekend that officials hope came from
! WARNING
locator beacons attached to black boxes in the plane, according to a CNN.com report on Wednesday. Those black boxes, which contain a flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR), were engineered and manufactured at Honeywell’s Redmond location and would provide authorities with information on the plane’s final hours. Steven Brecken, director
of global media and analyst relations for Honeywell’s aerospace unit, said Honeywell in Redmond engineered and manufactured FDRs and CVRs for planes from 1989 to 2008. “We are one of the manufacturers of these systems,” he said, adding that now, the devices are still engineered at the Redmond location but they are manufactured elsewhere. The FDR holds up to 25
hours of data from a plane’s various systems. Brecken said the FDR can monitor things such as a plane’s speed, altitude, engine status and more — it all depends on the aircraft and what the airline wants monitored. “It tells you what’s going on with the airplane at that point in time,” he said about the FDR. The CVR on a plane [ more BOX page 3 ]
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SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
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