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SPORTS | Redmond, Bear Creek and Overlake boys and girls basketball updates [10] CRIME ALERT | Redmond Police Blotter [3] COMMUNITY | Medical Teams International’s Pinneo travels to Lebanon and Greece, meets Syrian refugees. [8]
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Woman finds $6,000 in cash, turns it into Redmond police Owner gets his money back SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
At around 7:15 p.m. Monday evening, Emily Pearce pulled into the QFC parking lot at 15800 Redmond Way in downtown Redmond with one goal in mind. This was the third gro-
cery store she had visited and she was on a mission to find mint chips for her daughter’s upcoming holiday party. But as she and her 4-year-old son stepped out of the car, she found something else: a Bank of America envelope that had been ripped open. Pearce could see there was money in it and said she was a little wary of the envelope at first. Initially, she toed it with her foot, before eventually picking
it up. When she looked inside, she found several $100 bills. “I realized it was a lot of money,” she said. Pearce, a Snohomish resident who works in Bellevue, called the police to report what she had found and while she waited for them to arrive, she began counting how much money was in the envelope. She stopped at $1,000. “How do you drop this amount of money?” she
asked. Once police arrived, Pearce’s son was excited to tell them what had happened and where they found the envelope. She said the officers seemed happily surprised by her reporting what she had found. “Our officers love to respond to these types of calls,” said Becky Range, public information officer for the Redmond Police Department (RPD). “She
SecondStory Rep set for the holidays
could have easily taken this cash, but instead, did the right thing and immediately turned it in.” For Pearce, there was no question in her mind that she would turn in the envelope. “Keeping it did not cross my mind,” she said. After completing the necessary paperwork, the officers thanked her and Pearce continued on her way and with her shopping. The cash was submitted
Marijuana discussion continues in Redmond; public can take survey SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
Redmond’s SecondStory Repertory presents “A Christmas Carol” and “Christmas Carol Jr.” this month at 7525 166th Ave. N.E., Suite F250. “A Christmas Carol” (pictured) runs through Wednesday and “Christmas Carol Jr.” runs through Sunday. For dates, times and ticket information, visit www.secondstoryrep.org. Left to right, Lauren Pearsall, Matthew Gilbert, Andrew Hunter, Britt Boyd, Rachel Brinn, Samantha Holsworth, Curtis Jacobson and Chelsea Moe (obscured: Hayley Ewerz and Sydney Kaser). Courtesy of Michael Brunk/nwlens.com
Microsoft, Hopelink pair up for Giving Tree campaign SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
On Thursday, teams of employees and volunteers from Hopelink visited Microsoft Corp. in Redmond to collect gifts donated by the tech company’s employees. The Redmond-based human services nonprofit has partnered with Microsoft for more than 12 years to provide gifts for children through a Giving Tree campaign and Darrell Bulmer, senior communication man-
ager at Hopelink, said this year, they have received more than 5,000 gifts. The gifts correspond with tags on giving trees that list items Microsoft employees can buy and place under the trees, unwrapped until pickup day. Bulmer said the gifts are for children ranging from newborns to 18 years old and include books, electronics, games, clothes, toys, stocking stuffers and more. “The cool thing about this is the partnerships that stem from this,” he
said. Those additional partnerships include firefighters and paramedics from the Redmond Fire Department and volunteers from the moving company, Two Men and a Truck, as they help with transporting the gifts. Bulmer said once the gifts are collected from Microsoft, they are then taken to five Hopelink food banks in Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Shoreline and Sno-Valley. The food [ more GIVING page 11 ]
into evidence. Range said at about 7:45 p.m., a caller contacted RPD to report that he had lost some cash in the specific area of where Pearce had found the envelope. After verifying the envelope, its exact contents and location, the man was identified as the owner of the cash. The man was then contacted and the money in full — nearly $6,000 in cash [ more MONEY page 3]
Ever since recreational marijuana became legal in Washington in 2012, city staff has been looking into what this means and would look like for Redmond. For about three years, most of the discussion has been focused on the production and processing side of the business. Redmond was allotted two marijuana retail businesses but as previously reported, there was nowhere they could be located per the city’s zoning for retail businesses. This may change as earlier this year, state legislation was passed that gave cities the option to reduce previous buffer zones between retail businesses and certain other uses down from 1,000 to 100 feet — or anything in between. Jason Rogers, a senior planner in long-range planning for the City of Redmond, said the types of uses the buffer zones apply to include game arcades, libraries, recreation and community centers, daycare or childcare centers, transit centers and parks. The two
exceptions to this are uses that are schools and playgrounds, meaning there still must be a 1,000-foot buffer between themselves and a marijuana retail business. In addition to this legislation change, the city also received an application for a zoning code amendment regarding retail businesses. With all of this in mind, Rogers said the city is seeking public input to see what the community’s thoughts are on the topic. This input began with a workshop at City Hall on Dec. 10. Attendees included a real estate broker, the individual who submitted the zoning code amendment application, a representative from Higher Life Marijuana Boutique in Kirkland and a few residents. The city has also put up an online survey on its website that people can take to provide feedback. The survey takes about two minutes to take and will be available through the end of January 2016. People can take the survey at redmond. gov/marijuana. “We want to hear from people,” Rogers said. [ more POT page 11 ]