North Bend circle

Dear Mayor Hearing, city council members, staff and city officials: Every day that I drive through our new traffic circle at North Bend Way and Cedar Falls, I swear to myself, “I am going to write these folks a letter!” Well, here it is.

This was criticized for its cost, but in my humble opinion, that criticism is so short-sighted. This intelligent bit of engineering will save money, but more than that, it will save lives, by slowing people down and keeping other impatient people from trying to rush through a formerly busy stop sign. It will save costs for a signal which was an alternative — even the brightest lights won’t stop red light runners and accidents, but a 20 mph curve will! No need for electricity or traffic cops during an outage — in short, I think it is brilliant!

As it was being built, even as the roads were being paved and we had to wait, I shouted to your crew: “I just love what you’re doing with the place!” Seriously, I was proud! Now I have taken every turn and tried out all directions of it and I love it. I lived 20 years in the city of Long Beach, Calif., where one of the larger traffic circles exists, the safety record and the savings there are well documented.

I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the completion of this asset to keep things flowing in North Bend. Great job!

Michelle Moshay

North Bend

Message to hospital commissioners

I sense that there is a significant amount of uncertainty in your forging ahead into uncertain and unknown territory in building this [new] hospital. As some of you have said, this is an experiment.

You are quite alone. More than two out of three taxpayers in this Valley do not want or are willing to pay for another hospital. You five commissioners and your director and legal counsel are an island. You reject suggestions from outside your circle. Who do you represent?

Twenty five years has been an experiment in financial failure, the hospital and now the clinics. Millions of dollars have been lost. How can a new hospital a mile away be any different? Depending on the magnitude of the proposed hospital, how could you make payments to your bondholders, two to five times what you now cannot pay? What intelligent investor would buy a bond with the track record of this hospital? I bet you people would not personally buy these bonds.

Your biggest booster, besides yourselves, is the city of Snoqualmie. They are eager for extensive development of the hospital site. They want tax revenues. They have considered boutiques, Jiffy Lubes, restaurants, hotels, etc. Are you convinced that the hospital is important to them, or are their interests in annexing this property for business development?

Why aren’t you getting enthusiastic support from North Bend, Carnation, Fall City and Preston? This is the majority of the Valley, and they do not send their representatives to these meetings or work with you. Am I wrong?

How do you think you can compete with a 175-bed Swedish Hospital that will be 10 minutes away, that has a long and excellent track record, outstanding reputation and extensive services that you will not provide? Why don’t you throw in your services and work with Swedish — we will all win.

Be careful — don’t let your egos override your judgment.

Will Cleaver

Fall City

Bingo blast

The second annual Valley Bingo, held at the Festival at Mount Si, was a huge success, thanks to the generous donations from our local McDonalds, Mount Si Shell, Dairy Freeze, QFC, North Bend Theatre, Emerald City Smoothie, George’s Bakery, Blimpie, Starbucks, NAPA and Sheila Barnett. Everyone was a winner! Over 150 bingo participants walked away with a prize , an item or a gift certificate from local businesses. John L. Scott of North Bend has sponsored the event for the past two years with the enthusiastic leadership of Julie Fromm, along with Tessa Wyrsch, Noelle Blazevich, Debra Berta, Sheila Barnett and Monica Antone. A huge thank you to all!

Monica Antone

North Bend