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| Sarah Perry |
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| Kathy Lambert |
Incumbent Kathy Lambert, Metropolitan King County Council District 3 -- very short clip.
Challenger Sarah Perry, Metropolitan King County Council District 3 -- very short clip.
Note: the "Seattle Times" reneged on their endorsement of Councilmember Lambert owing to a racist campaign flyer (as defined by the entire King County Council.)
EMAIL info@redmondhistoricalsociety.org HOURS Please contact the office to schedule an appointment 2021 Society Partners with Sotheby’s International Realty Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty brokers Cynthia Olsen and Mary Sullivan have formed a unique partnership with the Redmond Historical Society in an effort to help raise money for the Society. Sotheby’s International Realty will give 10% of commissions to support the Redmond Historical Society when you or someone you refer is looking to buy or sell property. Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty established this program as a way to give back to organizations that are committed to the welfare of our communities. For more information, contact Cynthia Olsen at cynthia.olsen@ sothebysrealty.com, 425.877.9904, Mary Sullivan at mary.sullivan@ sothebysrealty.com, 425.449.2841, or call the Society Office at 425.885.2919. Society Seeks Volunteers The Redmond Historical Society actively collects, preserves, and displays artifacts from Redmond’s past. Are you interested in volunteering with us? Currently, we need volunteers for the Redmond Saturday Market booth on October 23, and there are two volunteer Board Member opportunities: • Vice President, Collections • Marketing and Branding Chair Please see page 9 for more details. Every town has a history. Discover ours. • October 2021 President’s Notebook Heavy Lifting For Light Rail! By John Oftebro This huge crane is busy doing some “heavy lifting” for the light rail that will be opening two stations in Redmond, 2024. It will be preceded by the 2023 station openings in Overlake and Redmond Technology (Microsoft campus)! While one new station will serve Marymoor Village near Marymoor Park, the final stop is in the downtown core area, just a block away from the Justice White House. Redmond’s first railroad, the Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern depot, was just across the street from there when it opened in 1888. In 1894, the Ernest Adams family moved to Redmond as he was the District Supervisor for Northern Pacific. The family with their four children lived in the depot for a time, which was likely very exciting for the children. Northern Pacific took over the rail line in 1901 and eventually it was purchased by Burlington Northern. This new rail service in 1888 cut down the two-to-three day steamer travel time up the Squak (Sammamish) River. It provided freight service to Redmond and an efficient method of getting logging industry products to market. Over the years the logging industry faded, but steady rail use supplying grains for the T-D Feeds remained a constant use of the lines. The Redmond Depot closed in 1970 after 80 years of service to the community. You can see what it looked like by visiting our website and typing Railroad in the Keyword Search in the Digital Archives section under Research Resources. There are several interesting stories there to give you a feel for life in Redmond back in the day. Here we are today, waiting now for the new Link Extensions, ~133 years after Redmond’s first railroad. Soon we can travel easily to Bellevue, Downtown Seattle, Northgate, or Sea-Tac Airport in style!
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| Dr. Jeralee Anderson |
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| Janet Richards |
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Councilmember Steve Fields |
Katie Grainger is running for King County Public Hospital District 2, Commissioner Position 4. Grainger works as a communications consultant with Clinical Care at Providence. She was the first in her family to receive a college degree and went on to earn a master's at the University of Washington. Additionally, Grainger serves as an ambassador with the Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation.
Redmond Councilmember Vanessa Kritzer says on Facebook:
"This is probably one of the coolest things I've done all year: got to help with salmon spawning at FISH (Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery)! What a great way to see the returns on our chinook salmon by actually wading around in a pool and handling them. Grateful for the work of this mostly volunteer-powered group!" V.K.
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| Councilmember Vanessa Kritzer, hefting a Chinook |
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| One of my wishes is the Operator use the homeless hotel's whirlpool for rehabilitation and therapy. Internet |
No, the City did not seek out the Silver Cloud facility in Redmond.
City Council was made aware of the new legislation supporting this type of program through a variety of 2020 and 2021 legislative updates by the City’s lobbyist. **Mayor Birney called each of Redmond’s seven City Council members on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 to notify them of the County’s purchase and intended use of the Silver Cloud Inn in Redmond.
In spring 2021, King County informed the City that they were actively exploring locations in Redmond and in late May 2021, Redmond was made aware of the County’s intent to purchase the Silver Cloud Inn. **As this was a private real estate transaction, it was kept confidential, as requested. Redmond first became aware of this potential type of program early in the 2020 legislative session. The City has continued to follow this since the State Legislature passed House Bill 1590 in 2020, which allowed jurisdictions to enact a 0.1% sales tax to finance construction of affordable housing and behavioral health facilities and operations or services supportive of affordable housing residents. In 2020, Executive Constantine proposed, and the County Council approved, this dedicated sales tax. In 2021, the State Legislature passed House Bill 1070, which clarified acquisition of property as an eligible use of these funds.
The City passed ordinance 2911 in 2018 which prohibits camping and storage of personal property in parks, public spaces, and on publicly-owned property when overnight shelter space is available.
The City will provide the same policing and uphold the same safety protocols regarding drugs and alcohol as is provided throughout the community. HTH residents will be considered tenants under Washington State landlord/tenant law and as such will have specific rights with regards to their leased space, which are consistent with the rights all tenants have throughout the city. King County will provide a code of conduct that residents must agree upon to remain housed at the facility.
Yes. ***The City will participate in the evaluation and selection of the facility operators.
Source: Redmond.gov/hth (City's homeless hotel website)
** CM Forsythe and Fields griped in last night's Study session they were notified too late so couldn't participate in the decision-making.** I'm not so sure about that.
*** CM David Carson said his energy will be put into finding a suitable operator. Thank you David. One of my wishes is the operator use the whirlpool for rehabilitation and therapy.
CM Varisha Kahn was not at either meeting to comment.
-- Bob Yoder 9/29/2021
· Total revenues are 28.5%, or $17.1 million, above target.
· Sales tax is 80.2%, or $12.9 million, above target primarily due to the high level of development activity, which has generated $10.5 million in one-time construction sales tax through August 2021. · Utility taxes are 0.3%, or $23,000, below target.
· License & permit fees are 28.3%, or $2.3 million, above target primarily due to the high level of development activity.
· Intergovernmental revenues are 25.0%, or $2.6 million, above target primarily due to the American Rescue Act.
· Total expenditures are 16.3%, or $16.9 million, below target primarily due to position vacancies, the timing of one-time expenditures, and the budget adjustments adopted by ordinance on August 17, 2021 that impact 2022 or beyond (e.g., $5.0 million in ARPA funding won’t be spent until 2022, and most of the Police body-worn camera program funding is reserved for 2023-2025).
Other Funds
To hear Mayor Birney's video chat with the planning commissioners click this link. (advance to 1:45 minutes)
To get familiar with the Planning Commission visit here.
-- Bob Yoder, 9/23/2021
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| Bola Wrap, Internet |
· BolaWrap: The Wrap can safely & humanely restrain resisting subjects from a distance without relying on pain
compliance and while keeping all involved safe. When used to control subjects in a mental or drug-impaired
crisis, this tool enables officers to keep the community safe and get people the help they need without causing
injury. Link to BolaWrap website
Some of the recent projects completely block the sunlight at street level. I think, especially in the northwest, sunlight is an important feature to maintain. Other than that, it seems to be an improvement over what’s there, but the larger plan could change DT Redmond in a HUGE way…If done right, with important architectural design protocols it could be a good thing. If allowed to maximize the property for every square inch, it could just be huge blocks of boring apartment communities that do little to attract people to our downtown. Given the way the city has been managing new development downtown, this one hugely concerns me. There are two open positions for community members on the Design Review Board…Let’s get involved and make some changes! Thanks again Bob!
-- Comment on post:
https://redmondcity.blogspot.com/2021/09/22-acre-urban-village-is-planned.html
-- Bob Yoder, September, 2021
The Fire Chief said at last night's Business Meeting that his department is fully staffed. He said he lost some well trained employees but was confident with the replacements. 10/20/2021
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| Redmond Fire, Facebook |
NOTE: Firefighter family members visited last night's city council meeting to share their concern that up to 20 employees could lose their job if they do not seek a vaccine by October 18. Many firefighters and their families addressed the Mayor and Council emphasizing that in this pandemic none were ever infected. However, early on before the necessity of PPE was recognized four were sent home to quarantine and one quarantined at a fire station. Later the Fire Chief was let go. -- Bob Yoder, 9/212021
-- Steve Kiggins, Q-13, 9/21/2021
Family members and firefighters from the **Redmond Fire Department say they jumped through all the hoops to apply for the exemption, but now worry the city might not provide accommodations.
"For us to even contemplate to fire any of these heroes, shame on us," said firefighter mother Sknge Alsin. "We should keep every job intact."
Alsin’s daughter Kayleight is married to a firefighter. Her husband joined the department after spending 10 years as a Redmond cop.
The family joined a group of firefighters and other family members who expressed their concerns.
The City of Redmond says it has 164 full time employees at the department. Firefighters say as many as 20 have applied for a religious exemption asking the city to allow them to continue mirroring the health protocols they have been using since the beginning of the pandemic.
Last week, firefighters say they believed the city would accept their exemption, but now worry the accommodations may not be allowed.
A city spokesperson said the department is following Gov. Jay Inslee’s state mandate on the vaccine.
-- Steve Kiggins, Q-13, 9/21/2021, edited
-- Bob Yoder, cc: Mayor / Council, 9/22/2021
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| Rendering of Redmond Square (facing light rail) ckos.com |
serves as the Director of Individual Giving at Boys & Girls Clubs of King County. During the
pandemic, she’s worked to keep students connected to school and parents/caregivers in the workforce.
Prior to Boys & Girls Clubs, Melissa worked to create affordable access to behavioral healthcare for all
East King County families at Youth Eastside Services. She’s also worked to ensure education success
for youth in foster care at Treehouse, and more. She earned a Masters of Non-Profit Leadership from Seattle University.
Melissa served as a Community and Organizational Development Advisor in Moldova with the U.S. Peace Corps. During her service, she worked with community leaders to strengthen youth development programs and with international NGOs to increase the reach of human trafficking prevention programs to rural areas of the country.
On council, Melissa will be a leading voice for urgent action on climate change. She is a known environmental advocate in the city and has served as an Eastside Climate Justice Steward with the Alliance for Jobs & Clean Energy, board member at Zero Waste Washington, and volunteer member of a Sound Transit/Metro 520 Connections Sounding Board. Melissa is committed to working with other leaders so that Redmond can be a leader in climate mitigation and resilience across the region.
Melissa and her family have lived in Redmond’s Overlake neighborhood for 10 years. They love their neighborhood’s amenities such as Indian grocery stores, great transit lines, and good schools. They are very eager for the light rail stations to open, and to one day have a park in the neighborhood’s urban center.
· The community sentiment is to encourage flexibility in “missing middle” (middle class) housing types across the City. However, the community is almost evenly split on whether existing neighborhood-specific policies that restrict “missing middle” should be kept or removed.
· Questionnaire Comments on Missing Middle:
o “I do not want to see low income housing in my neighborhood. This would lower property values and impact my ability to resell the home that I've worked hard to own. Should my tax dollar go to help someone else buy a home? No.”
OR
o “Allowing density is our local way to help fight climate change and increase housing affordability. Allowing the free market to develop duplexes and triplexes is one of the best ways to do this, with minimal negative impact to quality of life. I wonder how Kirkland has promoted subdividing properties and building new modern housing
What do you think? Email: council@redmond.gov.
What wasn't discussed by the City is a free market plan to develop 22 downtown acres into an "Urban Village."
--Council memo, Redmond Neighborhood Blog report, 9/21/2021
