[ 03 ]
Trekkies engage
Star Trek convention comes to Bellevue on Saturday
Business [ 16 ]
Reign City Fitness opens
An ensemble of fitness training experts have opened up a new gym in the city’s Bel-Red area.
Sports
[ 19 ]
Wolverines unseated
BELLEVUEREPORTER.COM
News
BELLEVUE
REPORTER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014
Energize Eastside meeting gets lit up Community group taps two route options it wants PSE to consider
Hunter: State budget has a $4.6B problem BY JOSH STILTS BELLEVUE REPORTER
BY BRANDON MACZ
Education [8 ] Waste reduction
SEE ENERGIZE, 21
SEE BUDGET, 21
Brandon Macz, Bellevue Reporter
Concerned residents from Renton to Redmond attended the final community advisory group meeting for Puget Sound Energy’s Energize Eastside project on Wednesday. A coalition of neighborhoods opposing the project wore orange.
BELLEVUE REPORTER
Eastside Catholic Crusaders cruise to their first state title after beating Bellevue
munity Club, said they would not choose an option because they believe PSE’s claims about its need to meet future energy demands on the Eastside have been inflated to satisfy outside interests in places like Canada. “All of those forecasts are bogus,” O’Donnell said. Hansen said he expects that to be the determination of a thirdparty energy consultant hired by the city of Bellevue to review PSE’s claims and determine future energy capacity, essentially ending the Energize Eastside project. The Coalition of Eastside
In preparation of the upcoming biennial budget, Ross Hunter, D-Medina, met with Bellevue residents to discuss the doom and gloom ahead. “We can’t just do what we did last year,” Hunter said. “We either whack the bejesus out of stuff … or we increase revenue or some combination of both.” During the last biennium, the state’s lawmakers passed a $33.8 billion budget, but since that time the state Supreme Court ruled Washington must address the McCleary decision, voters passed an initiative reducing class sizes, inflation rose and the state lost several multi-hundred million dollar lawsuits. According to Hunter’s projections, budgetary spending will have increased at least $7.6 billion, a more than 18 percent increase, to meet these new financial requirements, which don’t include compounding spending associated with the passage this fall of I-1351.
A community advisory group formed to assist in selecting an acceptable route for Puget Sound Energy to use for running 18 miles of 230kV transmission lines from Renton to Redmond left the energy company with two options to consider after its final meeting Wednesday night — a minority report is also forthcoming, explaining why some members chose none-of-the-above. The CAG had reduced route options it wanted PSE to consider from 18 to four in October, returning to the table Wednesday
to come up with a final recommendation. The Redwood and Ash routes were easily crossed off the list, but CAG members waffled for more than an hour between Oak and Willow route options, some preferring one over the other, some wanting to keep both open to consideration and three declining to state a preference because none of the options were acceptable to them. “This is not something that should be in anyone’s backyard,” said Steve O’Donnell, a CAG and Somerset Community Association member. O’Donnell and Norm Hansen, also part of the Bridle Trails Com-
Students crack Hour of Code Bellevue elementary schools commit , work to minimize their garbage
Arts
[11 ]
Holiday perfection
BY JOSH STILTS BELLEVUE REPORTER
Students in the Bellevue School District are getting their chance to crack the code of computer language this week as part of the national Hour of Code. With the help of Microsoft, a founding support of Code.org, a leading partner of the Hour of Code and a sponsor of Computer Science Education Week, the software company is
attempting to get 100 million youth to try their hand at computer coding. While current and former employees have been volunteering as teachers through the Technology Education And Literacy in Schools (TEALS) program, it was the students in those classes leading others through this week’s coding program. Bellevue High school students, senior Louis Hong and sophomore Josh Stilts, Bellevue Reporter
SEE CODING, 8
Bellevue High School senior Louis Hong explains basic computer coding.
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Gary Franke | 425-802-2783 | gary@achieve-alpha.com