This week in North Bend is the last for a group of derelict buildings and blackberry bushes on the city’s Main Avenue. Crews with Weber Construction of Snoqualmie were expected to begin clearing the sites at 111 and 115 Main Avenue North on Monday, in a $48,000 project to improve public safety and downtown parking.
As North Bend is growing, city officials are reconsidering how they want that growth to look, and more space is becoming a priority.
In a special meeting July 1, the council established interim, or emergency standards for development in low-density residential zones, including an average lot size of 8,000 square feet (up from 6,500) with a minimum lot size of 7,500 square feet (up from 5,000).
An early evening fire damaged a home in the 6600 block of Fairway Avenue Southeast, Snoqualmie, on Friday, July 4. No one was injured in the fire, which seemed to have started on the roof of the home.
At 5:19 p.m., the Snoqualmie Fire Department was dispatched to the Snoqualmie Ridge fire. They arrived on scene at 5:27 p.m., and were assisted by Eastside Fire & Rescue units from North Bend and Fall City, and Bellevue paramedics.
Natural gas was a factor in an April 25 explosion that destroyed three buildings on North Bend Way, but it was an accident, according to a report coming from the King County Fire Investigation Unit.
“We are comfortable it was an accidental event,” said Craig Muller, who completed his report last week. A release of natural gas in the Pizza Place building, undergoing renovation for a new business that was reportedly days away from opening, contributed to the blast. “It appeared that a couple of valves had been inadvertently left open,” Muller said.
A 70-year-old man was killed early Tuesday morning when his small plane crashed at the Snoqualmie Falls Golf Course at 8:15 a.m. He was alone in the 1958 Cessna 182, which took off from the nearby Fall City Airport in a heavy fog just minutes earlier, and was the only victim of the crash.
The dense fog that may have contributed to the accident dissipated within an hour, revealing a violent crash that tore the wings from the plane, flipped it upside down and, according to the golf course supervisor who saw the crash, threw the pilot nearly 50 feet from the fuselage.
Visiting the site in the early afternoon, Larry LaFevre, president of Fall City Airport Association where the victim rented space, was saddened and confused.
People stopped their work in a Valley coffee shop when Dr. Anthony Smith came to the counter. They gathered around to say hello, a barista called over the manager who hadn’t met him yet, and customers came up to shake his hand and greet him.
In response, Smith asked about their families, made more introductions and was warm and gracious to all, and maybe just a little embarrassed by the attention. Riverview School District’s Superintendent, it seemed, was a Valley rock star.
The party bus drew some curious onlookers as the Chief Kanim Middle School parking lot filled on the last day of school June 18, but it was the yellow school buses that got all the attention when the parking lot emptied out again.
Blasting their horns as staff members waved, the buses filed out of the lot, sending more than 700 students off for the summer. A few minutes later, the black party bus had a more subdued departure, but only because you couldn’t see through the tinted windows.
Months after Washington’s Liquor Control Board laid down the law for marijuana production, processing and sales, North Bend has done the same, in a unanimous vote June 17.
At its regular Tuesday evening meeting, the North Bend City Council approved recommended changes to the city zoning and land use code, to allow marijuana businesses in the city’s Employment Park 1 and Interchange Commercial zones.
Snoqualmie Valley School Board members didn’t get the clear direction they hoped for from a formal telephone survey conducted May 28 through June 2, but they now have a lot more information.
Results of the survey were presented at the board’s June 12 meeting, and showed that survey respondents liked many components of a possible $224 million comprehensive bond, but they liked the cost of it much less. Overall, 67 percent of the 400 people surveyed said they supported the bond proposal.
Giant neighborhood campout, or rockin’ outdoor music festival, either description of “Timber!”, returning to Carnation next month, works, but it doesn’t quite cover the level of comfort that is the goal of its organizers.
“We just want to put on great parties that we, ourselves, have fun at,” said Kevin Sur of Artist Home, which created and hosts Timber.
If senior speeches are anything to go by, then the 344 graduates of Mount Si High School’s Class of 2014, have a pretty good sense of who they are. They recognize the irony of sitting down in the morning to a breakfast their mothers made for them, on the day they “officially” enter adulthood, and they see the world of possibilities ahead of them, thanks to those who came before them.
Police and fire services in North Bend will both get a boost next year if city voters approve a proposed sales tax increase in November.
The sales tax of 0.1 percent could raise an estimated $180,000, if approved by a 60 percent majority of voters. Much of that revenue would go toward hiring an eighth dedicated police officer for Snoqualmie, North Bend City Administrator Londi Lindell told the North Bend City Council at its May 20 meeting. Other funds would go toward fire services, she said, pointing out that the city’s existing contract with Eastside Fire & Rescue will increase in cost by about $80,000 next year.
On a sunny March day in Snoqualmie, Doug and Kristin Walsh had no problem daydreaming about going on a long bike ride. That daydream may have gotten a little fuzzy now that they’re actually on that ride, fighting Montana winds on a blustery day in April, or cycling through snowdrifts in Minnesota in May, but the couple never seems to struggle with a loss of focus for long.
On the surface, their goal is to ride their bicycles basically around the world, to discover amazing cultures, sample exotic foods, and see places they’ve only read about, in a trip they estimate will take about three years. There’s more, though; this trip, started March 23, represents living life in the right order, something the career driven 30-somethings have long aspired to.
