Snoqualmie Valley Record, November 12, 2014

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Valley Record SNOQUALMIE

101RS YEA

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014 n DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM n 75 CENTS

Once is enough

Hospital to take its own path

North Bend moves on scaled-back plaza project, plans to minimize disruption

District 4, Overlake back out of affiliation talks BY SETH TRUSCOTT

BY CAROL LADWIG

Editor

NEWS

SPORTS

Staff Reporter

Wildcats end season on a high note with Royal blowout Page 12

Sno children thrilled to host soldiers on Veteran’s Day Page 9

INDEX Opinion 4 5 Letters 8 Calendar 9 Puzzles On The Scanner 14 Classifieds 16-19

Vol. 101, No. 25

Voting to use a Decemberexpiring $350,000 federal grant rather than to lose it, North Bend’s City Council authorized a design contract on the proposed downtown plaza project on North Bend Way, Tuesday, Nov. 4. The decision, supporting a downsized version of the proposed project, was neither easy for the council, nor unanimous. Councilman Ryan Kolodejchuk cited his concerns about the cost to the city and traffic congestion, and voted against the contract after a discussion of their options. These included giving up the 2011 grant (which had to be committed to a project by the end of December) in hopes of gaining a larger award in the future, spending it on a reduced version of the original proposal, or keeping both the grant and the original proposal, but doing the full project in phases. “You can’t really shut down (the) street for two summers,” Kolodejchuk said. Mayor Ken Hearing agreed. “I would prefer not to—no, I’d be dead set against doing this twice,” Hearing told the council before their vote. Two street closures during peak tourism times would be hard on both the businesses and the city’s sales tax revenue, he added. Most council members spoke in favor of the reduced-scope project, centered on the North Bend Way and Main Street intersection, with new, wider sidewalks, and other pedestrian improvements.

Seth Truscott/Staff Photos

Above, a member of the Coalition of Small Police Agencies SWAT team stands at the door of a downtown Snoqualmie apartment Friday, Nov. 7, after police captured a suspect in two North Bend robberies. Below, officers block the apartment’s alley entrance, during a standoff that lasted most of Friday morning.

Armed robbery suspect captured by SWAT team Surrounded, Snoqualmie man gives up when police ram door By Valley Record Staff

Snoqualmie Police and an allied SWAT team captured the suspect in two armed robberies in North Bend, following a seven-hour siege of a

downtown Snoqualmie apartment. The latest robbery occurred about 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 6. Police said a masked man entered the Carter’s store in the North Bend Premium Outlets mall, and threatened the store clerk, who was alone. SEE SWAT, 3

King County Hospital District 4 and Overlake Hospital have backed off from a deal to sell Snoqualmie Valley Hospital and its clinics to the Bellevue company. Negotiations were made public this summer and discussed in private sessions this fall, as well as at a public hearing on Oct. 2. The deadline for a decision on affiliation had been pushed to March, but last Thursday, the district announced that the hospital will stay indepenDARIEL NORRIS dent. King County C o m m Hospital District issioner Joan 4 Commissioner Young read a statement about the decision at the district’s Thursday, Nov. 6, board meeting. After months of evaluation and discussion, “leaders of both organizations mutually decided to remain independent but closely aligned, and to continue collaborative efforts to serve the health care needs of the Snoqualmie Valley and surrounding communities,” the statement read. Now, the district will focus on opening its new hospital, on its own, next March. CEO Rodger McCollum told the Record that the pullback was a mutual decision. SEE HOSPITAL, 6

SEE PLAZA, 2

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