Mercer Island Reporter, May 28, 2014

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REPORTER

Mercer Island

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20,2014 2013 | 75¢ WEDNESDAY, MAY 28,

Serving the Mercer Island Community Serving community Since since 1947 1947

Cleaning closets for schools

In the garden

Sixty family garage sale June 7 to benefit band trip A huge garage sale to benefit the Mercer Island High School Band’s trip to Australia in 2015 is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Saturday, June 7, at Islander Middle School. Over sixty families have banded together to donate furniture, appliance, cookware, sporting goods, clothing, books, toys and more. For more, go to misbb.wordpress.com or see Page 4.

Islander had a lightbulb moment as she sorted toys to give away By Celina Kareiva

ckareiva@mi-reporter.com

KCLS Board of Trustees meeting tonight The King County Library Sytem Board of Trustees will meet beginning at 5 p.m., today, May 28 at 960 Newport Way N.W. in Issaquah. On the agenda is a discussion on the “Final Mercer Island Remodel Plan. “ The meeting is open to the public. For more information, go to www.kcls.org.

Letterboxing to begin June 7 Plan ahead. Letterboxing begins at 10 a.m., Satruday June 7 at Pioneer Park. There are many activities to check out through Mercer Island Parks and Recreation for this summer. Sign up at myparksandrecreation.com or call 275-7609.

Island Books ‘Open Book Club’ The Open Book Club at Island Books meets at 7:30 tomorrow, Thursday, May 29 at Island Books at 3014 78th Ave. S.E. All are welcome. This month’s book is “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Mary L. Grady / Staff Photo

A little girl watches the people walk by from the garden patio outside Mo’s Pizza.

Big ideas for a Town Center of the future City invites business owners, residents to share visions for downtown By Celina Kareiva

ckareiva@mi-reporter.com

Diane Larson of Mercer Island Florist says business has seen an uptick in the last year. Larson attributes that mostly to her loyal customer base: “We had the best year, we’ve ever had. Business is excellent and I’m very grateful to the community for that.”

Mercer Island Florist is one of two tenants a little enclave across from the Islandia Shopping Center, which in the last few weeks has seen vacancy signs by Wallace Properties. It’s all part of a changing Town Center and visioning efforts the city last Wednesday, May 21, discussed with local business owners residents and councilmembers at a lunch meeting. Among those changes is the closure of Club Emerald in October. Co-owners Bryan Welch and Ginny Pietila, who have been

Natalie Angelillo was cleaning out her daughter’s room, when she came across an old dollhouse. She knew the once cherished toy would only collect dust in her basement, but didn’t know how to go about selling it. “It was literally a light bulb moment,” said Angelillo an Island mom and founder of the online marketplace, SwopBoard. “I thought, some mom would love to have this and that mom is a parent at my daughter’s school. But I have no way of letting her know.” She let the idea percolate for a while, until one day her son came

SWOP | PAGE 2

a part of the community since 1993, have plans to split up the gym business. “I think businesses come and go for a multitude of reasons—it could be personal, it could be the volume of business. But it’s greater than just what it seems,” says Larson. “[You always hear] businesses are leaving Mercer Island or everyone is coming. But there are many reasons Islanders come and go. We sit down in our little spot by the bookstore and do the best we can.” Planning for a revival of the Town Center has been a goal of the City Council and staff for the year ahead. The city outlined the issue at a planning session at the beginning of the year.

Read the full paper online Mercer IslandREPORTER www.mi-reporter.com

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TOWN | PAGE 2

Becky Nadesan

Scott MacRae

Nick Bisceglia

Broker 206-972-1113 beckynadesan@cbbain.com

Broker 206-499-5766 scott@smacrae.com

Broker 253-223-9077 nickbisceglia@cbbain.com

Your Island Real Estate Team Mercer Island


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