OPINION

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4 l November 12, 2014 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

STAFFJoe Heslet.......General managerKathleen R. Merrill ....Managing

editorNeil Pierson..................ReporterGreg Farrar... ........PhotographerDeanna Jess.............Advertising

Letters to the EditorEditorial

Reviewsammamish

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Poll of the weekHave you nominated someone for this year’s SAMMI Awards?A) Yes. A lot of people deserve one.B) No. I couldn’t think of anyone.C) What are the SAMMI Awards?Vote at www.sammamishreview.com.

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Tell our leaders to stop the ecocide

If you love trees and particularly loved the tree-lined East Lake Sammamish Trail, be pre-pared for a shock when the north section trail reopens.

I took an unauthor-ized peek recently and the swath of destruction wrought by King County is truly devastating. Essentially, 100 percent of the trees along the trail are gone. The remaining trees are much further back, in neighboring yards, not trail-side. The tree-lined arbor effect is gone forever.

Why did this happen? For 100 years, BNSF ran trains down this corridor and maintained the cor-ridor to a certain width. Trees grew up or were planted just outside this width and grew over decades to form a majes-tic canopy. For the past 15 years, Sammamish residents have enjoyed this natural trail.

However, King County in its infinite wisdom decided the trail must be 18-20 feet wide, wider than almost any existing trail in the county, and almost as wide as a city street. They also decided to use heavy equipment that needs 25-30 feet of “clearing and grubbing” space. This is far wider than the rail corridor, and thus the trees must go.

King County’s plans for the southern section of the trail call for preserving as few as 73 of 194 trees identified as “significant.” Hundreds more beautiful trees that you and I would consider “significant” do not meet the county’s cri-teria for significance (i.e. a diameter of 8-12 inches or more). These are also slated for removal but have not even been properly

identified.As we saw recently

with the passing of a Sammamish emergency ordinance on tree preserva-tion, a private developer would never be allowed this level of wanton destruction. But King County reviews its own permit application, and our city just rubber-stamps it.

There is another way. Write to your City Council members — demand that they exercise their duty of oversight, and that they require King County to pre-serve the trees. They have the authority.

Be the Lorax in our com-munity. Speak for the trees. Only as active citizens can you stop this destruction.

Arul MenezesSammamish

People need to treat everyone with respect

I would like to tell the story of an incident that happened recently, in the hope that it will help to educate the public about autism and highlight the importance of good man-ners.

My son is autistic and employed as a parcel clerk at Fred Meyer in Issaquah. He had just gotten to work on a Friday, was walking around a corner to clock in and almost ran into a woman coming in the opposite direction. The woman said in a catty voice, “Well, excuse you!” and then went into the restroom. While my son was waiting to swipe his badge, the woman came out of the restroom and started berating him for almost running into her.

Dealing with people is extremely hard for indi-viduals with autism, and

when they encounter rudeness it amplifies the difficulty exponentially. He obsessed over it his whole shift, which made it hard for him to focus on his duties. He hardly slept that night. He was afraid to go back to work the next morning, and I had to con-vince him he would be OK. He had a better day that next day.

Many individuals who do jobs like carry your groceries and return carts into the store, especially during the day when chil-dren are in school, have developmental disabilities like autism. It isn’t always immediately apparent that they have social chal-lenges.

In the six years my son has had his job, he has dramatically improved his social skills. When people are rude to him, however, it causes him to regress and lose confidence in himself.

Please show more respect for these workers. It’s OK to politely remind them to watch where they’re going; it’s not OK to treat them with such disre-spect. Mind your manners.

Lisa ChristisonSammamish

City needs to stand up to the county about trail

City Hall has taken a back seat to stepping up to the plate against the decimation of trees on the East Lake Sammamish Trail. What was supposed to have been an 18-foot wide paved trail with 3-foot buffers on either side, is in fact much wider in some places and it has been at the trees’ expense, not to mention the privacy of homeowners living on the

trail.The staff and council

have been widely compla-cent in using a heavy hand against the county on the first phase of the trail, and residents as well as staff and council members need to stand up to King County.

This is our city, and staffers and council mem-bers need to rein in the permits to King County if they are going to make the trail wider than specified or unnecessarily elimi-nate trees that could be spared. The second phase has not been permitted yet, and while the public com-ment period has expired on the matter, I’d encour-age residents to speak at council meetings about the topic.

The county doesn’t want to move the trail toward East Lake Sammamish Parkway (and spare trees) since it claims the drain-age ditches, which the county created itself, when it initially made the trail, are actually wetlands. It’s preposterous to think this mentality is justifying cut-ting down so many trees along the trail.

On a personal note, the 18-foot wide trail is too wide. As an avid runner and user of that very trail, I’m saddened that it’s being paved at all. It takes away of the ambiance I experi-enced running on it under a canopy of trees.

In its current state of a road nearly the width of my own neighborhood street, I might as well be in Seattle running in an asphalt jungle. We’re really losing something special by paving over this beauti-ful trail and ripping out the trees because we are too weak to stand against the county.

Christie MalchowSammamish

City officials are good fiscal managers

City officials are doing a nice job of handling their finances.

Sammamish’s assessed property values are projected to rise to $11.2 billion in 2015, up from $9.3 billion this year. The increase includes $241 million from new con-struction, according to figures from Joe Guinasso, the city’s finance director.

And even though property values are rising signifi-cantly, Sammamish will actually lower its tax rate from $2.41 to $2.05 per $1,000 of assessed value.

It’s the fifth year in a row that the city has not imposed the 1 percent property tax it could have, accord-ing to City Manager Ben Yazici.

And going forward, there will not be a property tax increase in the next two years, he said.

The city has bonding capacity of almost $500 million. Yet, it has no general obligation bond debt. The next biannual budget has an ending fund balance of more than $19 million, after it pays for almost $49 million for capital improvements for the next two years.

And that has been accomplished without imposing any utility tax, any business and operating tax, and not increasing the property tax.

The city was also given a clean bill of health this sum-mer by the Washington State Auditor’s Office.

The audit, which covered all of 2013, found city officials complied with state laws, as well as its own policies and procedures, in safeguarding finances and public resources.

The auditor’s office noted it does not review every transaction in the city, but focuses on areas with the highest risk of fraud, loss, abuse or noncompliance.

During 2013, auditors looked at several parts of the city government, including cash receipts for building per-mits and parks and recreation; procurements of public works projects and professional services; personal ser-vice contracts; and donations.

In September 2013, the city received high marks from the same state office for the 2012 calendar year. In that report, the office praised the city for its financial manage-ment. It noted a history of good fiscal management and the city’s large projected budget surplus at the end of the then-current two-year budget cycle.

“Adherence to good financial management practices and policies has served the city well and set the stage for a community that will thrive for many years to come,” the report said.

We agree and applaud city officials for a job well done.

By Neil Piersonnpierson@sammamishreview.com

When Callie Wesson arrived at Skyline High School prior to the 2011 sea-son, her goal was to build the volleyball program into a perennial power.

There are plenty of signs to indicate Wesson has accomplished that goal. The Spartans clinched their fourth straight trip to the Class 4A state tournament, beating rival Eastlake 3-1 in the championship match of the KingCo Conference tournament Nov. 6 at Skyline.

“This feeling definitely does not get old,” Wesson said. “I mean, it’s one of those things where we’re starting to build a legacy here, and sort of build a standard where the expec-tation is going to state.

“And that means you need to work hard, because it’s not going to be easy, and all of these girls have stepped up to the chal-lenge, starting their fresh-man year. It’s paying off for

this group of seniors. It’s amazing.”

Skyline (17-1) heads into the state tournament in Lacey on a 13-match win-ning streak. The Spartans open the event at 3:15 p.m. Nov. 14 at Saint Martin’s University against Olympia.

Eastlake, meanwhile, saw its season end Nov. 8 with a heartbreaking loss to Newport. The Wolves had a 2-0 lead, but lost the final three sets, ending their sea-son with a 12-6 record.

Skyline outside hitter Chloe Epker, one of the team’s nine seniors and the conference’s co-MVP, had a dominating performance to help overcome a scrappy Eastlake squad. She finished with 27 kills and 16 digs.

Epker said it felt great to continue the run of state-tournament appearances under Wesson.

“It’s a huge victory and accomplishment,” she said. “We have a really strong program, and we also have a lot of really strong incom-ing freshmen, so I think our program will continue to be really strong for probably

the next four years.”Top-seeded Skyline won

the first set 25-17, using two Audrey Wate aces to build

a 9-2 lead. Eastlake closed to within four points, but Epker had three kills to pol-ish off the win.

“Our game plan was just to stay really steady with our energy the entire time,” Epker said. “Eastlake has a

lot of energy … so we just wanted to remain constant on our side of the court, and control our energy and what we can do.”

Epker killed off four straight points — 10 in all — in the second set as Skyline held off a late rally to win 25-22 and take a 2-0 lead.

But the third-seeded Wolves refused to go qui-etly. Junior outside hitter Jordan Dahl led the come-back effort, collecting six of her team-high 19 kills in the third set as Eastlake won, 25-21.

“I think we came out a little scared in the first two sets,” Dahl said. “But we wanted to win, and we’re going to do everything in our power to do that. So we weren’t going to let those two sets slow us down.”

An already intense match ratcheted up another notch in the fourth set. The teams exchanged leads six times and contested sev-eral lengthy points. Dahl slammed down two kills that trimmed the Spartans’

SPORTS 11 l November 12, 2014 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Greg Farrar

Skyline High School senior outsider hitter Chloe Epker, right, wins a point in the second set against Katie McCreadie and Liz Larson, of Mount Si, on Nov. 5 in the semifinals of the KingCo 4A volleyball tournament.

Skyline volleyball locks up fourth straight state berth

See VOLLEYBALL, Page 12

By Neil Piersonnpierson@sammamishreview.com

The Eastlake Wolves will make their second consecu-tive trip to the Class 4A state football playoffs after a convincing, 37-17 victory over the Emerald Ridge Jaguars Nov. 7 at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.

Eastlake (7-3) earned a rematch with KingCo Conference rival Bothell in the first round of state. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell. The Cougars defeated Eastlake, 41-19, in a Week 1 contest.

Against Emerald Ridge, the Wolves set the tone with a strong first half that ended with a 20-3 lead. Senior quar-terback Blue Thomas threw a pair of touchdown passes to Mark Whitley before the break.

The Jaguars scored to narrow their deficit to 20-10 in the third quarter, but the Wolves immediately responded with a touchdown drive of their own.

Thomas, who struggled in a Week 9 loss to Skyline, was masterful in the playoff opener. He completed 29 of 34 throws for 356 yards and four scores.

Bothell (10-0) might be shorthanded this week, as star running back Sam McPherson reportedly sustained a seri-ous knee injury in the Cougars’ playoff win over Bethel. McPherson was the KingCo MVP, scoring 24 TDs and racking up more than 1,700 all-purpose yards.

Bothell or Eastlake will face the Bellarmine Prep-Camas winner in the state quarterfinals, Nov. 21 or 22.

Eastlake football returns to state with 37-17 win By Neil Pierson

npierson@sammamishreview.com

Leading by three touchdowns mid-way through the third quarter, the Skyline Spartans appeared to be well on their way to victory and an eighth straight trip to the Class 4A state foot-ball playoffs.

The Skyview Storm had other ideas.Skyview scored the final 24 points,

including a game-winning field goal in double overtime, and stunned Skyline, 34-31, in a preliminary-round playoff game Nov. 7 at Spartan Stadium.

The Storm nearly won the game twice on a pair of field goal attempts, but kicker Braden Hadfield missed a 42-yard try on the final play of regula-tion and a 33-yard try in the first OT period.

Hadfield made a 26-yard kick to open the second OT, opening the door for the Spartans to win with a touch-down. Skyline nearly did it on a short pass to Derek Loville, but the Storm stopped him at the 1-yard line.

“We called double slants, and it was wide open,” Skyline coach Mat Taylor said. “That would’ve been the game.”

On fourth down, Taylor said there was “no hesitation” in going for the touchdown. He noted the ball was on the right hash mark, making for sharp-angle kick for Jack Crane.

Instead, the Spartans gave the ball to running back Rashaad Boddie, but the Storm swarmed him to end the

Skyline’s season ends with stunning double-overtime loss

By Greg Farrar

The ball arrives in the hands of Derek Loville, Skyline High School senior wide receiver, who scored with 1:09 left in the first half on a 26-yard trick play. Quarterback Blake Gregory sent a lateral pass to wide receiver Bradley Kim, who threw it to Loville at the goal line.

See FOOTBALL, Page 12