REPORTER
Mercer Island www.mi-reporter.com
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18,20, 2015 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2013| |75¢ 75¢
Shaping a vision for Town Center
Too much rain
43rd Rotary Run is Sunday March 22 Thousands of runners, walkers and their fans will hit Mercer Island for the 43rd Annual Mercer Island Half, aka Rotary Run, on Sunday. A pre-race expo, sponsored by Farmers Insurance, runs between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center. Races begin at 7:30 a.m. sharp on Sunday. For street closures, go to www.mercergov.org. For details about start times and more, visit www.mercerislandhalf.com.
Citizens, city begin a marathon of sessions on future Town Center By Katie Metzger
kmetzger@mi-reporter.com
Mailing Day for MI Directory is Friday Volunteers are needed to help prepare the 2015 Mercer Island phone books for mailing. Work will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday, March 20, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. Proceeds from the Directory benefit Seattle Children’s Hospital.
life Have the ! you want
Lawmakers hear that ‘It’s Time’ to take action on schools By Katie Metzger
kmetzger@mi-reporter.com
After a turnout of less than two dozen people at last year’s Town Hall, the 41st district’s Sen. Steve Litzow, Rep. Judy Clibborn and Rep. Tana Senn faced a packed house at Saturday’s meeting at Somerset Elementary in Bellevue. Many people signed up to ask questions – about transportation, vaccinations, taxes on carbon and capital gains and gender pay equality – but most in the crowd wanted to hear about one topic: education.
Weekend rain breaks records
Registered Investment Advisors
TOWN | PAGE 5
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REPORTER
Island teens are invited to the library between 2 and 5 p.m. March 25 to find out what crazy activities are planned for this week. Play around with circuits, mess with mixing oil and water, create art with tissue paper or make gifts out of duct tape. Visit kcls.org for more.
Citizens crowd 41st District town hall
reduce class sizes passed 50.96 percent to 49.04 percent. But the legislators pointed out what they see as a problem with that ballot initiative: it didn’t come with a funding source. “If people vote on things and they’re not told how much it’s Members of the Washington going to cost, I have to take that Education Association (WEA) with a grain of salt,” Clibborn said. wore red and held up signs that “We are under so much pressure to fund (education), and read “It’s Time:” to then to have another respect educators, billion dollars put on for fair evaluation, top of McCleary, at a for smaller class time when we can’t sizes and to fully Last Sunday, March get to that level, is fund education. 15, was the rainiest day very disheartening. Senn and in the past six years. It’s undoable in my Clibborn, both See PAGE 2 for story. mind to raise enough Democrats from taxes to do both.” Mercer Island, Litzow, a Republican from stated that new revenue sources are needed to accomplish every- Mercer Island, said I-1351 could thing that’s been asked for by be sent back to the voters. It was an unpopular statement voters and the Washington State Supreme Court. The legislature to a room of WEA union memis under a court mandate to fully bers and education advocates, fund basic K-12 education to sat- many of whom also oppose a isfy the McCleary decision, and in November, Initiative 1351 to 41ST | PAGE 2
Mercer Island
‘Lighten Up and Learn’ at the library
Katie Metzger / Staff Photo
A 200-foot landslide along Dawn Drive happened early Monday morning. A contractor had already been planning to work on the road when heavy rain over the weekend contributed to the slide. Story on Page 5.
STARTING AT $39/YEAR
EarthCorps is looking for volunteers to help preserve and restore Pioneer Park. A work party will meet at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 21 at the northwest corner of the intersection of Island Crest Way and S.E. 68th Street. For more, visit www.earthcorps.org/volunteer.php.
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Volunteer at Pioneer Park
After selecting nine “liaison group” members and 42 stakeholders, the city continued its Town Center engagement strategy with a series of meetings open to and specifically geared toward the general public. The city decided to revise its Town Center code last year, and hired Seth Harry and Associates to lead the urban planning work and local firm 3 Square Blocks to be the community engagement consultants and primary authors of the new design guidelines. Since then, community interest in the project has increased, along with concerns about new
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