Mount Si Food Bank scrambles to make up for funding cuts
November 25, 2011
File Dinora Barahona (left), of North Bend, picks out food while volunteer Denise Angrisano assists at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank.
Officials at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank are still wondering how the organization will make ends meet next year after unexpectedly losing about $19,000 in federal funding this summer.
The food bank is one of many groups in King County caught off guard by the cut of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA officials changed the formula for distributing the money, and determined that King County wasn’t poor enough to qualify, because its unemployment and poverty rates were not high enough. Last year, the county received $1.2 million of the $4 million that went to Washington.
North Bend passes conservative budget, increases money for road work
November 25, 2011
The times aren’t getting better, but they aren’t getting worse. That is the message of North Bend’s preliminary 2012 budget, which the City Council passed at its Nov. 15 meeting.
The budget’s general fund doesn’t cut any services. But it doesn’t add any either, and it delays any new capital projects without dedicated funding sources. It essentially preserves the city’s operations from this year.
Given the uncertain economic future, city officials again presented a conservative budget to the council.
“This is an easy budget to get through because, simply put, we have no money,” Councilman Jonathan Rosen joked before voting.
The budget reflects the reality many of the city’s residents experience every day.
As household incomes have decreased, so should municipal spending, he said.
“We’ll live within our means, just as North Bend citizens do every day,” he added.
| Read North Bend’s 2012 Preliminary Budget here. |
The City Council passed on raising property taxes by 1 percent. Instead, it opted to levy the same amount the city collected last year plus $15,000 to account for new construction.
Hospital District OK’s $37 million facility on Ridge
November 25, 2011
Public Hospital District No. 4 officials have signed a contract with a developer to build a new $37 million facility on Snoqualmie Ridge. Officials have also signed an agreement to buy the facility from the developer, Terry Moreland.
The district’s board of commissioners approved the signed agreements at a special meeting Nov. 21.
The new facility will be located on a nearly nine-acre site on Snoqualmie Parkway and Southeast 99th Street. Construction is slated to begin in February but grading has already begun on the site.
Moreland will provide the financing for building the hospital, which he will own once it is completed. The district signed a 30-year lease agreement, at the end of which it can buy the facility for a nominal fee.
“However, we have the option to purchase the hospital sooner if we want to and if it makes sense from a financial perspective and the cost of capital and interest rates,” the district’s attorney, Jay Rodne, told the Star in an email. “It is good that the deal structure provides for flexibility.”
In September, Rodne told the Star that the district plans to purchase the facility back in three to five years.
Moreland, based in Bakersfield, Calif., could not be reached for comment.
The developer has limited experience with building medical facilities, but his team includes two seasoned hospital-construction companies — Soderstrom Architects, of Portland, and Absher Construction, of Puyallup.
Cuts to sheriff’s office have gone unnoticed in Snoqualmie Valley
November 25, 2011
A year ago, King County law enforcement officials asked voters to approve a sales tax hike to prevent budget cuts to their agencies. Without the money, the county’s justice system would become less effective, they said.
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr said her department would reduce the attention it gives to property crimes in order to maintain 911 response times.
Voters didn’t pass the tax increase, but there has been little perceptible change in the upper Snoqualmie Valley, according to police officials.
While crime might not be increasing now, they are still concerned about the long-term effect of budget cuts during the current economic downturn.
The sheriff’s office had to lay off 12 deputies and left more than a dozen empty positions unfilled.
But the cuts have not affected the department’s response time to emergency calls in unincorporated King County, Rahr said.
“That is the last place we’d cut,” she said.
To maintain response times, the department has reduced manpower and resources for following up on lower priority, nonviolent crimes.
Donations help food bank
November 25, 2011
I would like to share with your readers about a special event that happened in the Snoqualmie Valley on Oct. 28, called Night on a Dark Trail — a seasonal event tied to Halloween for the enjoyment of Snoqualmie Valley residents with donations helping our neighbors in need at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank.
Our thanks are extended to the community for their attendance and for many wonderful event partners and volunteers. Many “invisible hands” were also there to help.
All of the people who helped were part of an event that entertained close to 500 audience members, raised more than $2,000 for the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank and started us on the way to a new annual Snoqualmie Valley event. Each one of them made it happen and they are to be congratulated for a job well done.
Mark Hennig
Mark’s Pet Pals, owner
Initiative process needs reform
November 25, 2011
The state’s initiative process has turned Washington special-interest groups into children making up a Christmas list. Initiative creators come up with one pricey item after another that they want — or fees and taxes they want to go away — with little concern for the financial impacts.
In recent years, voters have decided that the Legislature needs a supermajority to raise taxes — essentially taking that option off the table.
If the initiative process is here to stay, one vital change should be made. All ballot language must include the financial impact.
Since 2000, we, the voting people, have decided that teachers need to be paid more, class sizes need to be lower, we don’t want to pay license tab fees of more than $30, we won’t pony up an extra couple of pennies for tax on a candy bar or bottle of water, and the latest, that people who provide care for senior citizens or the disabled should receive more training.
They are, generally, worthy ideas. Who is against lower taxes, smaller class sizes, cheaper candy or more training for Grandma’s caretaker?
Nowhere in any of these initiatives does it mention the cost. With a tax hike off the Legislature’s table, mandating more money for one program means taking it from somewhere else.
The fix for this is simple. Any initiative should state explicitly what the impact is to state or local budgets. These explanations should be both in the text of the initiative and in the voter’s guide.
Material backing up the presented facts must be presented to the Secretary of State for verification before the initiative goes on the ballot. Further, a summary of the financial impact, verified by a budgeting agency, must be included in the voter’s guide summary, both pro and con.
For too long, Washington voters have used the initiative process as a way to dream up and implement nice-sounding ideas completely detached from the reality of paying for them.
If initiators truly believe in their ballot proposal, they should have to do the financial homework and present it to the voters.
Police Blotter
November 25, 2011
Snoqualmie police
No license, no drive
At 12:45 a.m. Nov. 11, police traveling south on Railroad Avenue saw a gray 2008 Mazda speeding in the same direction, about 18 miles above the speed limit. Police stopped the car in the 9200 block of Railroad Avenue and the driver told police he had a suspended license and had no insurance. Police told him he would be cited for driving with a suspended license.
Graffiti again
At 8 a.m. Nov. 11, an employee of Goodfellow Construction flagged down a police officer near the intersection of Center Street and Southeast Snoqualmie Parkway. The employee told him that someone had painted graffiti on several pieces of equipment he keeps in a lot on the southeast corner of the intersection. The graffiti looked similar to others seen around town in the past year, included things like an upright middle finger, a four-petal yellow flower and a four-petal black flower.
Geoff Doy takes wait-and-see approach to School Board election
November 25, 2011
School board candidate Geoff Doy declined to declare himself the winner of the race for incumbent Caroline Loudenback’s board seat, despite a 325-vote lead as of Nov. 17.
“Mathematically, Caroline can still win,” Doy said Nov. 17, adding that 356 votes had yet to be counted. “I can’t declare victory.”
Loudenback on the other hand, all but conceded.
“I am disappointed with the likely outcome,” she wrote in an email, “but have accepted it. The support I have received from those that know me and my work has been a gift and I am always thankful for those people in my life.”
Loudenback wrote that if she loses she would continue to volunteer in the district, particularly with students. Serving on the board was an honor, she added, and she advised Doy to honor and respect the job if he’s elected.
She thanked her supporters and said many adults in the district truly care about children and their achievements.
At the same time, she assailed what she described as a small group that likes to misrepresent the truth about the district’s achievements.
Their negativity, Loudenback wrote, has been the biggest disappointment during her time on the board. With the race ending officially Nov. 30, Loudenback wrote she won’t spend much time second-guessing herself.
Snoqualmie and police guild enter mediation
November 25, 2011
Snoqualmie and the Snoqualmie Police Guild have gone to mediation over wages and benefits in a new contract after several months of negotiations.
The two sides have reached tentative agreements on noneconomic issues.
During the talks, the city and the union have signed off on tentative agreements on noneconomic issues that will be incorporated into the final collective bargaining agreement. The two sides reached consensus on language regarding the agreement’s duration, vacations, court appearances and disciplinary letters. Under the tentative agreements, the new contract would be in force through 2013.
The city and the union are still at odds over language in a bill of rights for the city’s police officers and a different management rights clause proposed by the city, according to City Attorney Pat Anderson.
Both sides agreed to table their differences until the next contract is negotiated in 2014.
County hosts workshop for unincorporated-area residents
November 25, 2011
King County is hosting workshops throughout the region to collect citizens’ comments about creating community service area boundaries.
The workshop includes a public open house from 6:30-7 p.m. followed by a discussion from 7-8 p.m. The meeting for Issaquah-area residents is Nov. 30 at Hobart Community Church, 27524 S.E. 200th St., Maple Valley.
In a July decision, leaders changed how county government and unincorporated-area residents interact.
The updated framework calls for a single point of contact between residents in each of the community service areas and county government.
Unlike the earlier arrangement, the community service areas model is designed to encompass communities not represented by a local unincorporated area council, such as Klahanie and the Snoqualmie Valley.
The proposal raised concerns among the unincorporated area councils — the established liaisons between county government in Seattle and unincorporated-area residents.
