Expressing their appreciation for area voters’ support of recent tax initiatives, the North Bend City Council decided against a property tax increase Nov. 18. The unanimous vote approved a $1.47 million property tax levy, which includes about $62,000 in new construction and $42,000 of levies for past-year refunds.
Maybe you never watched “Twin Peaks” or maybe you have every episode and the movie on Blu-Ray, plus the books, the soundtracks, the city guide, and a costume or two carefully stashed away. Either way, if you live in the Valley, you have probably heard of the 1990-91 TV series, ostensibly set in the Upper Valley, and are familiar with its cult following.
After their final training drill, and even between exercises, the class of Snoqualmie Valley CERT trainees were relaxed and chatty. From the official start to the official stop of each task, though, they each underwent a terse transformation.
Lorrie Jones of Snoqualmie surprised herself by taking point in a drill to “rescue” a dummy trapped under a tractor tire. “OK, let’s go,” she told her team, men and women from Snoqualmie, North Bend or Fall City, but they didn’t need much direction.
It’s been nearly eight months since the Snoqualmie Police Department began covering North Bend. In that time, North Bend officers have made more than 730 traffic stops, arrested 225 subjects on various charges, and issued 16 DUI citations. They’ve received zero official complaints, too.
“In our business, we’re not used to that,” Snoqualmie Police Chief Steve McCulley told the North Bend City Council Nov. 4.
“I found my name!” says 10-year-old Lawrence Saenz, pointing to a brick in the Snoqualmie Valley Veterans Memorial. His sister, Elsa, 9, comes to look, but their younger brothers are still climbing on the rocks that ring the area, just to the side of Renton-Pickering American Legion Post in Snoqualmie.
Voting to use a December-expiring $350,000 federal grant rather than to lose it, North Bend’s City Council authorized a design contract on the proposed downtown plaza project on North Bend Way, Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Results from the Tuesday, Nov. 4, general election showed North Bend residents in favor of extra police and local parks, while in Carnation, a package for more police protection was failing by a narrow margin.
A sales tax increase in North Bend was voted in, by an overwhelming majority of 1,188 yes votes, 64 percent, to 670 no votes, 36 percent. The 0.1 percent addition raises the city’s sales tax to 8.9 percent and is projected to raise city revenues by about $200,000.
Over the objections of several housing developers, and one dissenting vote, North Bend’s City Council finalized changes to its low-density residential zoning on Tuesday, Oct. 21.
The changes, adopted July 1 as an interim, or emergency ordinance, increased the minimums for lot size and lot width, and bumped up the average lot size required in the city’s R4 zone. Although the city made the initial changes on short notice, the city’s planning commission, assigned to review the zone requirements following the council’s action July 1, spent several months discussing the issue. Both the City Council and the Planning Commission have also held public hearings on the changes, Aug. 19 and Sept. 11, respectively.
Former North Bend residents Jeffrey and April Henderson were each sentenced to nine months of electronic home detention last week, for their roles in the abuse and neglect of a severely handicapped 19-year-old girl.
The two initially entered pleas of not guilty at their April 24 arraignment on charges of second degree criminal mistreatment and Medicaid fraud. In late September, both changed their pleas to guilty of criminal mistreatment. Residents of Florida since the summer of 2013, the Hendersons have been in custody in North Bend via electronic home detention since April, when they returned to the state for their court appearances.
People who lost power over the weekend are likely restocking their emergency supplies this week, or taking stock of their emergency plans. For the rest of us who didn’t plan ahead, there’s good news: You can always start planning now; and there are local experts who can train you in emergency planning, for a refundable $25 fee.
Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training is a multi-day course on disaster preparedness, first aid, fire suppression, and other skills that you’ll be glad to have in an emergency.
Telling the Woods triplets of North Bend apart these days is far easier than it was, say 17 and a half years ago. You could probably do it just by listening to them talk.
“I’m the oldest,” says Ursula, adding after the briefest hesitation, “and the smartest, too.”
“She says that all the time,” says Frank (his family calls him by his middle name, Lowell), imitating her, “You should listen to me, I’m the oldest.”
A split vote on funding part of a business plan for Meadowbrook Farm Oct. 21 followed an expansive discussion among North Bend’s City Council on the city’s investment in, and obligation to, the historic property.
The 460-acre farm sprawled along S.R. 202 between Snoqualmie and North Bend, is jointly owned, and funded at an annual amount of $20,000, by the two cities, along with a volunteer group, the Meadowbrook Farm Association.
Two statewide gun measures will be decided in the Nov. 4 election, Initiative 591 and 594. Supporters of the conflicting initiatives claim they are about gun rights and public safety, respectively, but neither issue is as simple as it sounds.
Initiative 591, supported by Protect Our Gun Rights (wagunrights.org), prohibits government agencies, including police, from confiscating citizens’ handguns and long guns, without due process, and does not allow the state to implement a background check policy of its own, but to adhere to the federal standard only. The federal standard calls for background checks on all gun sales made at federally licensed retailers.
