City set to subsidize community center
October 14, 2008
The city of Snoqualmie is prepared to subsidize the YMCA up to $2 million over the course of 20 years if voters approve a $10 million bond to construct a community center on Snoqualmie Ridge.
The council voted unanimously Monday to approve a tentative “memorandum of understanding” that promises $100,000 to the YMCA annually for the first three years of the agreement, with the proceeds coming to the city from Snoqualmie Casino revenues, with the YMCA eligible to receive a like amount for the life of the contract, as long as gambling funds continue to the city. Read more
Sound Transit’s Proposition 1 will have little impact on Valley
October 14, 2008
Laura Hernandez, 25, waited for her local bus at the Issaquah Highlands Park-and-Ride Sept. 25. Every day she takes Sound Transit’s 554 express bus to and from Bellevue Community College, then hitches a ride on the King County Metro Transit’s 269 bus back to 228th Avenue. Then she walks to her home in the Summer Ridge neighborhood. Read more
North Bend would not have to change much for I-985
October 14, 2008
The city of North Bend anticipates little, if any, financial impacts to result if Initiative 985 is approved on Nov. 4 ballots.
The initiative would open all carpool lanes during non-peak hours to all traffic. During peak hours, the use of carpool lanes would be limited to vehicles carrying two or more persons, or motorcycles carrying one or more people. Read more
Forum allows candidates to showcase differences
October 13, 2008
There were few sparks, but noted differences on the Mt. Si High School stage Oct. 9 as all six Legislative District 5 contestants united for a candidate forum.
Incumbents Sen. Cheryl Pflug and Reps. Glenn Anderson and Jay Rodne and challengers Phyllis Huster, Jon Viebrock and David Spring fielded questions from both panelists and audience members before an audience of about 50. Read more
Council to vote on YMCA contract
October 10, 2008
The Snoqualmie Finance and Administration Committee Wednesday agreed to forward to the full City Council a tentative agreement with the YMCA to provide operational and maintenance services for the proposed Community Center on Snoqualmie Ridge. Read more
Second meeting for community center has different tone
October 9, 2008
The differences in two “Root Beer Float Socials” hosted by the Snoqualmie City Council were both subtle, yet telling.
The meetings, split into a “state of the city” presentation followed by an information session geared at addressing a proposed Community Center to be built on Snoqualmie Ridge, differed primarily in location and audience size. Read more
Candidate forum tonight at Mount Si
October 9, 2008
A candidate forum, featuring all six District 5 Legislature contenders, will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 9 at Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie.
Snoqualmie to discuss YMCA contract for management of community center
October 8, 2008
NEW
The Snoqualmie City Council’s Finance and Administration Committee will discuss a Community Center management contract with the YMCA tonight at 6 p.m. Read more
Community still split over center?
October 8, 2008
For Barb Pexa, the road from her birthplace on the island of Guam to her current home in downtown Snoqualmie has been an amazing journey, one that includes swimming for Guam in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. Read more
County puts an end to hospital deal
October 8, 2008
The effort to relocate Snoqualmie Valley Hospital to a 72-acre site at state Route 18 and I-90 in Snoqualmie is dead.
In a 5-3 vote — in which Council member Kathy Lambert, who represents the parcel in question, was absent — the King County Council declined to expand Snoqualmie’s Urban Growth Area to include the parcels necessary to allow the hospital to move forward with its relocation plans.
Council members Reagan Dunn, Jane Hague and Pete von Reichbauer voted in favor of the expansion, while Council members Bob Ferguson, Larry Phillips, Dow Constantine, Julia Patterson and Larry Gossett were opposed.
Hospital officials had previously stated they feared such a vote was possible, and have already shifted their focus to alternate sites, including the Snoqualmie Business Park on Snoqualmie Ridge, in part because of mounting expenses involved with the I-90 location.
The council vote, part of that body’s quadrennial update of the Comprehensive Plan, leaves the parcels at their current rural residential zoning of one home per five acres.
It also effectively eliminates any plans for other potential uses, such as a possible move by Bellevue Community College to place a satellite campus on the site, for at least four more years.
King County Hospital District No. 4, which operates the hospital, as well as Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson, who had asked for UGA expansion to be approved regardless of the hospital’s plans, had aggressively sought the UGA expansion.
Concerns regarding environmental impacts had prompted County Executive Ron Sims to impose a 4:1 Transfer of Development Rights, or TDR, requirement on any such UGA expansion, meaning the hospital would have been required to purchase and dedicate four acres of preservation land for every acre it wanted to develop.
A preliminary deal that would have allowed the district to purchase $1 million in credits from the county’s TDR bank – an agreement hospital officials previously said virtually guaranteed the UGA would be expanded – apparently dissolved once the district concluded it could not afford to move forward at the desired location.
The district had already planned to spend up to $24 million to purchase the necessary land, and had intended to resell portions to BCC and other prospective partners, such as a hotel and a residential care facility.
A recent cost analysis reportedly unveiled unexpected costs to the district due to the need to enter into a late-comer’s agreement with the city of Snoqualmie, which would have required the district and other potential partners to pay a fair-share cost of already installed infrastructure to the 72-acre site.
The district has already sold its existing hospital and 50-acres of land to the Snoqualmie tribe for $30 million in an agreement that gives the tribe up to two years to pay off the balance. The tribe intends on using the former hospital, which is located near the tribe’s reservation and casino property, as a regional Native American healing center.
Hospital officials have previously stated their commitment to building a new facility in Snoqualmie, and identified the business park location as their new desired location.
Mayor Larson, in a previous interview, said such relocation would be allowed under the park’s development plans, but was not as desirable as the I-90 site.
Hospital legal counsel Jay Rodne declined to comment Tuesday morning on the council decision, referring all questions to hospital director Rodger McCollum, who was unavailable for comment. Mayor Larson was also unavailable Tuesday for comment.
Reach reporter Ed Farrell at efarrell@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434. Comment on this story at www.snovalleystar.com.
