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January 28, 2015Reviewsammamish

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SLIDESHOW

See more photos from the Build it Sammamish Lego event at

www.sammamishreview.com.

11

EC falls to Garfield in boys hoops, Page 6

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By Tom [email protected]

Including a general recom-mendation on tree preserva-tion, the Sammamish Planning Commission is nearly at the end of the long process of studying the city’s comprehensive plan.

Commissioners and other city officials held an open house and a public hearing on their plan-ning efforts last week. About 30 people showed up for the Jan. 20 open house in City Hall, a num-ber that seemed fine with Emily Arteche, a senior city planner, who dubbed the event a great success.

At a Jan. 22 public hear-ing held before the Planning Commission meeting, only one person signed up to speak.

The City Council has the last

word on changes to the com-prehensive plan. However, the planning commission gets first crack at the document and their recommendations should be in front of the council next month, according to Jeffrey Thomas, the city’s director of community development. Other officials confirmed that general timeline.

With regard to tree preserva-tion, the planning commission won’t make any specific recom-mendations, said Commission Chair Ryan Kohlmann following the abbreviated public hearing. Instead of explicit rules, the commission intends to spell out a general policy, something that encompasses “the character of the community,” Kohlmann said.

By Tom Corrigan [email protected]

From his home on 214th Avenue Southeast, Robert Morrison claims he has seen about 200 homes go up on the Sammamish plateau in the last five years or so.

And while he doesn’t say he wants to stop progress, Morrison does say there are problems being created by all those still-new homes, not to mention the addi-tional residences on their way.

According to Morrison and the other 25 or so members of a group calling themselves Plateau Residents for Responsible Development, the problems are bad enough that they have banded together and filed a law-suit against the city and Bellevue developers Murray Franklyn, LLC, mostly over what residents argue is poor and allegedly even illegal

placement of proposed drainage pipes for the two developments.

EKS Law of Seattle filed suit on behalf of the resident group Dec. 24, 2014, in King County Superior Court, naming the city of Sammamish, Murray Franklyn and Barrington Homes, LLC, as defendants. The latter group is a subsidiary of Murray Franklyn, and is building the Sammamish homes.

Citing the impending legal dispute, city officials, including City Manager Ben Yazici, declined comment.

According to Morrison and the lawsuit, Barrington plans two developments of 20 and 45 homes across the street from each other, roughly near the intersec-tion of 214th Avenue Northeast and Main Street. The subdivisions have the names of Morningside

By Neil [email protected]

There are a lot of statistics for Issaquah School District educa-tors to ponder as they work to improve reading and writing skills in their classrooms.

National research shows chil-dren are increasingly less inter-ested in reading – particularly after age 13 – and that aversions to deep, sustained reading ses-sions are impacting their ability to succeed in college.

Penny Kittle has been study-ing literacy trends for many years. A high-school English teacher in North Conway, New Hampshire, she also mentors other teachers and travels the country as a literacy coach.

While much of Kittle’s knowledge is accessible online, Issaquah officials chose to bring it to their doorstep last week by

having her visit several class-rooms, and by speaking to par-ents Jan. 21 at Pacific Cascade Middle School.

Donations to the Issaquah Schools Foundation paid for Kittle’s visit. Her 90-minute talk focused on the reasons why children are picking up books less often, and strategies for par-ents to encourage reading and writing at home.

Linda Henderson, a language arts and social studies special-ist for Issaquah’s secondary schools, said district officials have found a key trend in test-ing data: Girls are generally bet-ter writers than boys. Educators are working to eliminate the achievement gap.

Kittle said teenagers are finding ways to succeed with-out a lot of in-depth read-ing. Websites like SparkNotes provide summaries of many

well-known books. Instead of poring through “To Kill A Mockingbird” or “Lord of the Flies,” students can pass exams with less effort.

“We know the kids do that, and they perform pretty well because we have a lot of bright kids in Issaquah,” Henderson said. “They do really well, but they’re still not building those muscles, so when they get to college, it’s going to be a bit of a shock.”

Kittle said she researched col-

Drainage issues fuel residents’ lawsuit against city

Comp plan review moves from planning commission to council

See PLANNING, Page 2

See LAWSUIT, Page 2

Issaquah schools use visiting mentor to improve reading, writing skills

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Santoshi Kakani, 8, may be on her way to an engineering career as she builds a tall tower of Lego blocks Jan. 24 at Sam-mamish City Hall during the annual Build it Sam-mamish event for kids, who created from a variety of Lego kits with master builder Dan Parker. The event was sponsored by the Sammamish Arts Com-mission, 4Culture and the city of Sammamish.

By Greg Farrar

Lego lovers unite at builders’ event

Readers: Do not give information to solicitors

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Should somebody con-tact you by these means we urge you to not give out any personal informa-tion or payments as this is fraudulent.

Renewal or new subscription pay-ments should only be mailed to PO Box 1328

Issaquah 98027, or paid on our website at www.SammamishReview.com or called in to us at 392-6434, ext. 245.

Blood donors needed to prevent critical shortage

The Puget Sound Blood Center has extended its urgent appeal for people to donate blood after a significant decline in the blood supply following the holiday season.

While donations nor-mally dip during holiday periods, the PSBC is fac-ing critical shortages for some blood types.

There is an acute shortage of platelets and O-negative red cells — the blood type that can be given to patients with any other blood type. Although supplies

of these components are especially low, PSBC welcomes donors of all blood types to maintain a strong supply for patients in need.

The blood center sup-ports nearly 90 hospitals in the Northwest, and the demand for blood components is continu-ous: patients in hospitals are still undergoing sur-geries, ERs are treating traumatic injuries, people are receiving treatments for cancer, and surgeons are performing organ transplants — all depend-ing on the blood supply to be there.

Donors are welcome at any one of PSBC 12 donor centers, or can check for community blood drives underway close to where they live or work. Information about locations and times can be found at psbc.org.

Appointments are encour-aged, but walk-ins are welcome. Appointments can be made online at schedule.psbc.org or by phone by calling 1-800-398-7888 toll free.

Water and Sewer District picks 2015 leadership

At its regular meeting Jan. 5, the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District commission elect-ed their new leadership for the coming year.

Board member Lloyd Warren was chosen as president of the board, while the 2014 president Karen Moran moves to vice president. Mary Shustov will repeat as secretary, while Tom Harman and Mahbubal Islam will both serve as commissioners.

Estates and Barrington Estates, respectively.

“All the flat, easy areas in Sammamish have been developed,” Morrison said.

Morrison said developers are building at the top of a hill with about a 45-degree angle. Since no homes are possible directly near what Morrison considers a cliff face, he said developers have or will place a reten-tion pond at the top of the hill. For his part, Morrison claims there have been landslides, albeit mild ones, in the area in recent years and he has worries about the placement of the reten-tion pond.

While Morrison talked about concerns regarding the retention pond, the resident group’s lawsuit concentrates on two drain-age proposals that would accommodate the two new developments.

The lawsuit first takes issue with an easement granted in 1996 for water drainage, but which the suit contends will be greatly overburdened by the pro-posed new development.

A second complaint

contends Barrington has no legal right to use nearby property for an above-ground drainage pipe to serve Morningside Estates. Morrison alleged Barrington would be trespassing on pri-vate property, including his own. Among other relief, the suit asks for injunc-tions preventing Barrington from using either proposed drainage pathway.

According to the law-suit, the city already has granted Barrington determinations of nonsig-nificance for both develop-ments. In other words, city inspectors are allowing the developments to proceed, essentially stating those developments will not have a significant impact on the local environment.

When describing Sammamish’s permit-ting process and the city’s inspectors, Morrison uses words such as “sloppy” and “understaffed.”

“Unfortunately, the best way for us to get a fair hearing is in court,” he said.

Murray Franklyn offi-cials did not respond to a request for comment when telephoned at their Bellevue office.

A pretrial hearing for the resident suit was set for Jan. 22.

2 l January 28, 2015 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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Sammamish needs volunteers to write pro and con statements for the voters pamphlet, regarding the Klahanie Annexation Ballot Measure. The

pro and con commitees responsible for the statements will be appointed by the City Council. If interested, contact

City Clerk Melonie Anderson at [email protected], or 425-295-0500. The application deadline is the 28th.

Please be aware that all email communication with Council Members or City Staff is a public record and is subject to

disclosure upon request.

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LawsuitFrom Page 1

No matter what the planning commission – and ultimately the City Council – come up with, Kohlmann said the hope is new regulations can be in place prior to the expi-ration of an interim tree ordinance the council passed in October.

Per state law, interim measures expire after six months. The city likely would need to renew the

interim ordinance if no permanent rules are in place within that time frame, Kohlmann said.

The nature of the tree policy to be developed by the planning commis-sion actually is in keep-ing with the nature of the comprehensive plan, which was described as a generalized or “big picture document,” by Robin Proebsting, an associate planner for the city.

Proebsting made her comments during the open house. She added many resident visitors

were looking for details on specific projects, details that were outside of the scope of the com-prehensive plan.

During the open house, some visitors seemed further surprised by the fact economic development appeared to have been left out of the planning efforts. That was a deliberate move, City Manager Ben Yazici said.

Yazici said the City Council decided to put economic development into a separate track, developing long- and

short-term plans.“There’s some action

that maybe we want to take sooner than later,” Yazici said.

Those measures might include some zoning changes and steps toward promoting affordable housing. Yazici also talk-ed about allowing prop-erty owners to transfer development rights from unbuildable or environ-mentally sensitive areas. One idea might be to put those rights to use in the long-discussed Town Center retail and mixed-use plan.

PlanningFrom Page 1

leges around the country for the amount of read-ing students are expected to do as freshmen. The average was 200 pages per week, an amount that was three to five times higher at Ivy League institutions.

A student’s ability to handle that workload can hinge on the habits they develop as young children, she indicated. Reading and writing curriculum plans often offer a lot of freedom for kindergarteners and first-graders.

“As they get older, we start choosing what they’re reading and writ-ing right at the age when they don’t want us mak-

ing decisions for them,” Kittle said.

At the Pacific Cascade presentation, about 100 audience members helped offer tips for parents to use at home.

The ideas included find-ing books for parents and children to share during “read aloud” times, and having specific reading times that don’t conflict with activities like a favor-ite TV show.

Likewise, at-home writ-ing strategies don’t need to be complex, Kittle noted.

Start a notebook in which children and par-ents can exchange ideas about family history, or shared interests like music or sports.

Have the child create a storyboard by drawing pictures, then write a short synopsis of the story’s main points.

Write a letter to a favor-ite magazine or a celebrity.

Encourage kids to use expressive words to explain their feelings, rather than describing something as “nice” or “good.”

Practice the use of “circle endings,” where events in the beginning of the story relate to those at the end.

Kristin Edlund, a sec-ondary language arts and social studies specialist for the Issaquah district, said that “we don’t necessarily have our kids write every

night the way we have them read every night. Writing is really just as important of a literacy skill as reading is for their success.”

Linda Mori, the moth-er of a third-grader at Challenger Elementary School, attended Kittle’s presentation and liked the idea of using storyboards to encourage writing at home. It could be a way to help her son focus on a story’s highlights.

“I could totally see how he would do all the lead-up to the thing he really

wanted to talk about, and then he gets there and he’d be too tired to elabo-rate on it,” Mori said.

Karen Kline, a librarian at Sunny Hills Elementary School, attended the event to help her 600-plus stu-dents and her son, a sixth-grader at Pacific Cascade.

To her, becoming more literate means blocking

out a lot of the distrac-tions of the digital age.

“We’re all struggling with technology and how it’s eating away at our time, and perhaps, in very frivolous ways,” Kline said. “… It’s crazy how much information we’re bom-barded with, and whether it’s quality information, accurate information.”

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MentorFrom Page 1

New recycling program begins for fluorescent lights

Washington residents can now recycle fluo-rescent lights and other mercury-containing lights for free at 130 sites throughout the state, with more being added in the months ahead.

LightRecycle Washington collection sites will take traditional fluorescent tubes (includ-ing straight, curved and

circular), the twisty com-pact fluorescent lights and high-intensity-discharge lights, commonly used in outdoor lighting fixtures. The program does not accept lighting fixtures or ballasts.

Individuals and busi-nesses can drop off lights for recycling, although there is a limit of 10 lights per day.

Local drop-off locations include:

q Recology CleanScapes — 317 N.W. Gilman Blvd., Suite 22

q Bartell Drugs — 5700 E. Lake Sammamish Parkway S.E.

Get a full list of par-ticipating drop-off sites at www.lightrecyclewa.org.

City planner wins award

Sammamish Associate Planner Robin Proebsting received the Barbara Grace Award at the 2014 American Planning Association Conference (Washington state chapter)

in Spokane.“Robin is very deserv-

ing,” City Manager Ben Yazici said in the city news-letter. “She has a terrific work ethic, excellent pro-fessional skills and a great way with people.”

Proebsting has been with the city since March 2013.

The annual award recog-nizes a mid-level planner who has shown excep-tional dedication to public service and professional accomplishment.

Proebsting earned a mas-

ter’s degree in urban and environmental planning degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Washington. Before working in Sammamish, she worked as an assistant planner with the city of Corvallis, Oregon.

Silva Sebring named volunteer of the year

The city of Sammamish has named Silva Sebring as the “Volunteer of the Year.”

Sebring, volunteer man-ager of the city’s commu-nity garden, was honored at the annual “Volunteer Appreciation Dinner” at City Hall in December.

Among the others hon-ored were volunteers who reached significant mile-stones.

Pauline Cantor, Anne Schaefer and Steve Wright were recognized for contrib-uting more than 250 hours of volunteer work.

Margaret Rosenow was honored for reaching the 100-hour milestone.

OPINION

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Issaquah Press Inc.All departments can be reached at 392-6434

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4 l January 28, 2015 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

STAFFJoe Heslet..................... General managerKathleen R. Merrill ....... Managing editorNeil Pierson................. .............. ReporterGreg Farrar... ..................... PhotographerDeanna Jess ...........................AdvertisingRebecca Morrissey ..................News clerk

CorrectionsSammamish Review is committed to accuracy. Email us at [email protected]. Tell us whether you are talking about content in the newspaper or online, and give us the date of the paper or the posting.

Reviewsammamish

Editorial Letters to the Editor

Question of the Week

4444

Task force needs a more youthful voice

Not all anniversaries are worthy of celebration but some should be remembered for the impact on our world, our social conscious and our neighborhood.

One coming up is Feb. 12 — the day the body of a newborn baby girl was found near North Bend. First responders and detectives named her Baby Kimball.

A caring community held a funeral service in March 2014, memorializing her with as much dignity and love as possible.

News organizations wrote stories. Newspapers, including this one, published editorials.

We all cited the Washington law that allows parents to surrender a newborn within 72 hours with no ques-tions asked and no repercussions.

We even had a political solution — the King County Council appointed a task force of folks from public health and criminal justice agencies and human service groups to come up with recommendations about how to prevent another tragedy like this.

That, of course, is the reason the more than 10-year-old safe baby law already exists.

The task force came up with several recommenda-tions including training programs and brochures and educating the public. One recommendation got close to the problem – to incorporate information about baby safe havens into sexual education curriculum.

While all of this sounds wonderful, the problem isn’t coming up with ideas like these. The problem is getting the information to the appropriate audience: our teenagers and young adults.

While there’s no evidence indicating Baby Kimball’s mother and father were teenagers, that’s usually the age bracket that sees no other options besides aban-donment.

Our task forces, politicians, leaders and, yes, even we editorial writers can pontificate all we want, come up with great ideas but until we get the youth involved, we are missing an important segment of the popula-tion.

It is your youth who can help us develop more effec-tive communication tools to reach their peers.

We all need to invite the youth to the table more often.

With the 2015 state legislative session under-way, what do you think the most important issue is? Education funding? Transportation projects? Email your answers to [email protected]. The respons-es will be published in future issues.

Serious problems need smarter solutions

It is disappointing to see the Sammamish City Council and police chief advocating “policing for profit” as a primary option to address under-age drinking and parking violation issues.

Judging from a pro-posed 350 percent-plus increase in parking fines, you’d think this must be a rampant problem, yet there was hardly any mention of it over the years in council delibera-tions or the Sammamish Review up until this month.

Similarly, charging $250 to $1,000 to parents or “hosts” for youthful indiscretion of underage drinking even without permission, knowledge or awareness of a home owner, seems heavy-handed and economically abusive, especially for citi-zens who might not be as rich as council members and the police chief.

We send our 18-year-olds to fight and die in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and yet tell them that they are not old enough to drink until age 21 even as they are inundated with beer and liquor com-mercials, advertisements and enticements in every sphere of their lives.

Instead of resorting to abusive fines, let’s chan-nel our city’s true hero and champion of our younger citizens, late Officer Stan Chapin, to develop solutions that inform, educate and persuade our underage (and adult) drinkers, their friends, family and par-ents of the perils of drink-

ing and driving. Let’s invest in pro-

viding our youth with other fun options that do not involve drink-ing. How about the City Council and police chief helping to create Youth Ambassador Corps to work with our youngsters to come up with other innovative and non-punitive means to address this serious issue? How about utilizing social and mobile media to spot and address the drink-ing problem in real time instead of levying hefty fines after the fact?

With the right mindset we can probably come up with dozen ideas that will reduce and/or address the underage drinking more effectively than sock-ing a parent with a hefty fine. But unfortunately ,it seems like our City Council and the police chief are succumbing to heavy-handed, autocratic, punitive measures as a first line of offense to address this serious issue. We can and should do better.

Navin AjmeraSammamish

Edible gardens in schools could give great learning experiences

In my 12 years grow-ing up in the Lake Washington School District, I never attended a school that had its own garden program.

This is not uncommon: Of the nine high schools, nine middle schools and 13 elementary schools I contacted in the dis-trict, only about a third of them have gardens, which students have the

opportunity to participate in directly.

As a student who really struggled in school through all of those 12 years, I am certain that participating directly in a gardening experience would have been transfor-mative.

I believe I could have cultivated a valuable understanding of my relationship to the eco-logical world around me, creating an awareness earlier on of the need for sustainable practices, and I believe this learning would have contributed to me becoming a stron-ger, more integrated and passionate student as a whole.

I believe this is true for all students, and especially for those that struggle most in school. Even those that don’t encounter as much strug-gle would benefit from a more holistic, interactive education.

Further, immense value comes from working in a garden that grows food. This creates immediate connections to our per-ception of food, and so has great implications for students learning about food choices and nutri-tion. Diet is also related to attention and students’ success in school.

I urge local parents, administrators, teachers and community members to give students an educa-tional gardening experi-ence, and especially to grow edible plants. There is more than one way to do this, but there is one place I know of to turn to for support: The Whole Kids Foundation, a non-profit founded by Whole Foods Market, provides grants to schools to build gardens. In other words,

the funds are available ; someone just has to ask for them!

School gardens can be incorporated into general, or many elective, science curriculums; home eco-nomics; or even health classes. There are many different ways to tie gar-dening into learning. It is valuable to do this as soon as possible. There may be a student, even your child, right now who struggles in school and would benefit from working and caring for a school garden.

Rachel DreyfussRedmond

Join the conversation

Something on your mind about your city? Tell us about it.

Send an email about how you feel to [email protected].

Sammamish Review welcomes comments to the editor about any subject, although priority will be given to those that address local issues. We may edit them for length, clarity or inappropriate content.

Yo u r t h o u g h t s should be no more than 350 words, but can be just a paragraph or two. Include your phone number (only for verification purpos-es, so it won’t be pub-lished).

Deadline to get in the coming paper is noon Friday. Email is preferred, but you can also mail your com-ments to Sammamish Review, P.O. Box 1328, Issaquah, WA 98027.

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FAMILY DENTISTRYOn the Plateau

Police blotterNot hunting season

Police said they are investigating whether or not a resident in the 1500 block of 238th Avenue Southeast hired a bowman to destroy several deer on the resident’s property. The suspect could face unspecified charges, possi-bly including animal cru-elty. Police reported the incident on Jan. 8.

Retail theftThree unknown males

made off with an unde-termined number of cigarette packages from the QFC grocery stores on 228th Avenue Southeast. Reports said one of the males used a rock to bust the lock on the store’s cigarette display. All three then left the store on foot. The incident took place about 11 p.m. Jan. 15.

Attempted burglaryPolice said an

unknown person attempted to break into a home in the 2300 block of Northeast 24th Place about 3 p.m. Jan. 16. The suspect broke out a win-dow near the front door, then attempted to reach around and open the door. Reports said the sus-pect was unable to gain access. Reports were not clear as to whether or not any residents were in the home at the time.

Sammamish Review publishes names of those charged with felony crimes. Information comes directly from local police reports.

By Neil [email protected]

Teenagers might have some negative stereotypes about volunteer work, but the leaders of a Sammamish organization are trying to dispel the notion that unpaid labor is dreary and challenging.

Mission accomplished, if the scene at Charity Circle’s Jan. 14 meeting was an accurate reflec-tion of the group’s ideals. Inside the Sammamish City Council chambers, more than 25 teenagers were gleefully creating posters for International Smile Power, which provides free dental care, supplies and education on a regular basis to Echo Glen Children’s Center, a juvenile detention facility that is part of the Issaquah School District but located in Snoqualmie.

Pop music thumped on a stereo, and many of the boys and girls wore smiles and energetically moved around the room as they worked.

“They definitely love how we make the meet-ings,” said Erika Kumar, a Skyline High School sophomore and the group’s co-president. “Usually, community service is either hard labor or just boring clerical work, but we make our activities fun, so we’ve gotten a lot of positive feed-back about that.”

Prahba Dublish, a 2014 Skyline graduate, founded the group two years ago,

and it has met monthly ever since. Last week’s meeting had increased attendance because of some recent publicity efforts on Facebook, and Charity Circle has become popular enough that Kumar and co-president Sabrina Loos want to offer weekly or bi-monthly meetings next year.

Dublish, who’s now pursuing a business degree at Babson College near Boston, was home on vaca-tion and attended the Jan. 14 meeting, and expressed her surprise and gratitude for how Charity Circle has flourished since her depar-ture.

The group started with only 10 people in 2012, and Dublish wasn’t sure wheth-er it would be successful. But more people became involved, and the group is now waiting to attain fed-

eral nonprofit status, which it applied for last summer.

“And once we get that, we will be able to work with more local organizations,” said Loos, a Skyline sopho-more.

Dublish said her initial goal was to form a nonprof-it group that would con-tinue on for many years, a path this year’s leaders seem determined to follow. Dublish also looked to rede-fine the meanings of volun-teerism to fellow teens.

“It’s really just about making sure that every activity was really fun, and making sure that they wanted to come back,” she said. “When they came back, they brought their friends, so that’s just kind of how we grew, and it’s just really great to see today that it’s still running when I’m gone.”

The majority of Charity

Circle’s volunteers attend Skyline, but the group wel-comes all middle-school and high-school students in the area.

Dublish said the group

does a wide variety of activities — it used to pro-vide birthday party goodie bags for foster children, and wrote letters to soldiers sta-tioned overseas.

This year, it has branched out to work with the Assistance League of the Eastside on a book drive; with Kids Without Borders on supply bags for Vietnamese children; and with Hopelink to provide encouragement to women with breast cancer.

“The organizations that we’ve partnered with, they always give us some response about what the people who we directly help have said, and it’s always very positive,” Kumar said. “They say they appreciate what we do, and it’s really impressive that young people are helping community.”

Charity Circle has students smiling about wide range of volunteer work

By Neil Pierson

Members of Charity Circle, a volunteer organization comprised of high-school and middle-school students from Sammamish, gather together during a Jan. 14 meeting at Sammamish City Hall.

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Sports 6 l January 28, 2015 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Neil [email protected]

The Eastside Catholic Crusaders aren’t used to anyone pushing them around on their home court, but the Garfield Bulldogs showed why they’re one of the top-ranked programs in the country when they visited Sammamish Jan. 23.

Garfield got standout performances from sopho-more guards Jaylen Nowell and Jashaun Agosto, and held off every challenge Eastside Catholic could muster in a 68-54 victory in Class 3A Metro League boys basketball action.

It was the first loss at home for Eastside Catholic in more than two years, dating to a 65-50 defeat to Rainier Beach on Jan. 4, 2013.

“That was a badge of honor for last year’s seniors – they didn’t lose at home,” Crusaders coach Bill Liley said.

Liley said he was “dis-appointed” in his team’s execution, particularly at the offensive end. Mandrell Worthy had 23 points, hit-ting four 3-pointers, but

Matisse Thybulle was held in check, managing only 10 points, about half of his season average.

“We didn’t execute offensively the way that we normally execute, and defensively, we had some breakdowns,” the coach said. “I’d rather it be now than a month from now.”

The Bulldogs (17-0) started the game on fire, building an 11-0 lead on 3-pointers from Agosto and Nowell. The lead didn’t last long.

Eastside Catholic (13-3) quickly shot itself back into contention. Max Hudgins, Morgan Clark and Worthy combined to hit seven treys in the first half, and the Crusaders took a brief lead early in the second quarter.

Garfield answered every Eastside Catholic run the rest of the way. Nowell, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, proved to be a matchup problem and seemingly made every big shot his team needed.

“He’s a cool kid; he’s not a kid who’s a real excit-able kid,” Garfield coach Ed Haskins said of Nowell. “You’re not going to see a bunch of emotion from him, ever. As a coach, I’m

probably more emotional than he is. He’s just, ‘OK, this is what I do,’ and he’s been doing that for some years.”

In the third period, a Nowell 3-pointer stopped a brief Eastside Catholic spurt, restoring the lead to eight. In the final seconds of the quarter, the Bulldogs stripped the ball and Terrell Brown converted the fast-break layup, pushing the lead to nine.

Worthy’s 3-point play with less than six minutes left brought the Crusaders within seven at 56-49, but it was all Bulldogs from there, as they closed the game on a 12-5 run.

Second-chance points fueled Garfield’s offense, something that concerned Liley.

“Twelve offensive rebounds we gave up on the interior – you can’t beat too many teams if you give up that many,” he said.

Agosto defended Worthy in the second half and held him to eight points. Haskins said Agosto has been a defensive stalwart for a team that can still improve, despite moving

Garfield Bulldogs stifle Eastside Catholic in matchup of basketball heavyweights

By Greg Farrar

Eastside Catholic High School senior guard Mandrell Worthy follows through on a made 3-point basket as Garfield’s Terrell Brown defends early in the second quarter Jan. 23. The Crusaders had a brief lead in the first half, but eventually fell to the Bulldogs, 68-54.

By Neil [email protected]

As a seventh-grader, Ashley Blanton had the opportunity to win a game at the free-throw line and didn’t get the job done.

She got a shot at redemp-tion Jan. 23, and this time, she didn’t let the opportunity slip away.

The Eastside Catholic senior guard hit two free throws with 8.3 seconds left, helping the Lady Crusaders rally past the visiting Garfield Bulldogs, 38-36, in a Class 3A Metro League girls basketball game.

Blanton said composure was the key to hitting the game-winning shots.

“Honestly, I had nothing in my head,” she said. “It was just concentration – same routine, how I always shoot. I mean, I’ve got to make them.”

Blanton made two important plays late in the game to help Eastside Catholic (9-7 overall, 1-3 Metro Mountain Division) pull out the win. The Crusaders led nearly the entire game, but fell behind midway through the fourth quarter when Garfield’s Deianira Stoudamire hit a 3-pointer.

Trailing 36-33, the Crusaders quickly pushed the ball up the court and found a wide-open Blanton on the right wing. She drilled the 3-point attempt, tying the score with 1 minute, 10 seconds left.

The teams exchanged missed shots, and the Bulldogs had a chance to win as Nirae Petty drove to the basket. Crusaders guard Jillian Jin played tough defense and forced a miss, and the ball squirmed to Blanton, who was fouled as she collected the rebound.

Eastside Catholic led by as

many as 12 points in the first half, and clung to a 30-26 lead entering the fourth quarter, so it was difficult for the players to imagine losing the game.

“We were a little frustrated, but we kind of knew in the back of our heads that we were going to get the win,” Blanton said.

Crusaders coach Armando Guzman recalled a game earlier this season in which the team gave up a late lead and lost to Cleveland, so it was nice to see the opposite result.

“Every now and then we get growing pains, and you’ve just got to live with them,” Guzman said. “The coaches and I always preach to the girls, ‘Learn from your mistakes,’ because you’re going to make a lot of them. Just learn, and when you learn, you grow.”

Garfield (9-7 overall, 3-1

Ashley Blanton’s late heroics vault EC girls to win

By Greg Farrar

Eastside Catholic High School senior guard Ashley Blanton makes the sec-ond of two free throws for the Crusad-ers’ margin of victory in a 38-36 win over Garfield Jan. 23.

See BOYS, Page 7

See GIRLS, Page 7

Eastlake boys split two road contests

Visiting Eastlake held a halftime lead, but couldn’t hold on as Issaquah rallied for a 59-49 victory in Class 4A KingCo Conference boys basketball action Jan. 23.

Issaquah’s Trevon Ary-Turner led all scorers with 24 points, while Jason Crandall and Ty Gibson chipped in 13 and 10 points, respectively, for the Eagles.

Senior guard Jordan Lester led the Wolves with 12 points, and Omar Chokr added 10.

Lester had a huge game Jan. 20, scoring 22 points as Eastlake went on the road for a 57-45 win over the Bothell Cougars.

The score was tied at half-time, 25-25, but the Wolves broke free in the second half with strong defense, holding the Cougars to 20 points.

Skyline wrestlers fall to Mount Si

The Skyline High School wrestling team got victo-ries from five individuals, but wound up on the short end of a 38-25 final against visiting Mount Si Jan. 23 4A KingCo dual meet.

At 126 pounds, Skyline’s Nathan Swanson earned a 7-4 decision over Duncan Harrison. Garin Swanson (132) followed with anoth-er win for the Spartans, an 11-3 major decision over Connor Holt.

Skyline’s Jacob Gehrett (138) pinned Kyle Haynie in 1 minute, 56 seconds, and Matthew Oss (182) pinned Corey Seaman in 4:32. Kona Bertolino (106) won by forfeit.

Skyline girls topple Newport, 59-40

A four-point halftime deficit didn’t deter the Skyline girls basketball team from beating last-place Newport Jan. 21.

The Spartans outscored the Knights 35-12 in the second half and cruised to a 59-40 victory at Newport High School in Bellevue in 4A KingCo girls basketball play.

Kailey Kassuba and Jade Loville each scored 18 points for Skyline, which travels to plateau rival Eastlake in its next game at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28.

SAMMAMISH REVIEW January 28, 2015 l 7

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COMING UP Breakfast Program

February 5, 2015

King County Police Explorers Program Learn how local youth serve their community while exploring what

a career in Law Enforcement is really like. Explorers provide traffic control for the Rotary’s

Nightmare at Beaver Lake.

Encourage families; strengthen community,

building a better world!

JOIN US for breakfast every Thursday morning, 7:15—8:30 a.m.

Bellewood Apartments, Sammamish www.SammamishRotary.org

COMING UP Breakfast Program

February 5, 2015

King County Police Explorers Program Learn how local youth serve their community while exploring what

a career in Law Enforcement is really like. Explorers provide traffic control for the Rotary’s

Nightmare at Beaver Lake.

Encourage families; strengthen community,

building a better world!

JOIN US for breakfast every Thursday morning, 7:15—8:30 a.m.

Bellewood Apartments, Sammamish www.SammamishRotary.org 3076 Iss-Pine Lake Rd E

Sammamish(425) 391-5911

50% Off Dinner!

Buy one dinner entree plus 2 beverages at regular

price & receive the 2nd dinner entree for 50% off!

Valid at both locations.With coupon • Not valid with any other offer

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price & receive the 2nd lunch entree for 50% off!

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Expires 4/30/15

Thank you to our loyal customers

By Tom [email protected]

With topics ranging from man-aging panic attacks to managing eating disorders, a new blog site for Issaquah- and Sammamish-area students already is covering a lot of ground.

“‘Mindfulness’” should have been the 2014 Word of the Year, because I’m seeing it everywhere. There’s even a new magazine called ‘Mindful,’ available on news-stands…”

In that blog entry for Mission Mental, Barbara de Michele, director of the Issaquah Schools Foundation Healthy Youth Initiative, goes on to say mindful-ness is closely aligned, but not quite the same as meditation. Still, she talks about it helping reduce anxiety, aiding in physical healing and helping recovery from addic-tion.

Started about two months ago by the Healthy Youth Initiative, the Mission Mental blog doesn’t have a huge number of entries so far. But de Michele said the entries that have been posted each have received more than 200 hits in a fairly short amount of time.

“I had my first panic attack in seventh grade, while taking a sci-ence test. One minute, I was scrib-bling an answer to an essay ques-tion. The next minute, my heart was pounding, my skin was clam-

my, and I felt dizzy and numb.”The author, identified only as

“Kim K.,” is a professional writer with a background in mental health communications. She is described as having recovered from depression and an eating disorder as a teen.

In that blog entry, Kim K. goes on to talk about how to control, or at least ease, feelings of anxi-ety. She also has a long blog entry about the many myths regarding eating disorders.

“As with communities all over the country, Issaquah and Sammamish are in the midst of a healthcare crisis. In the last month or so, we have witnessed several fatal overdoses involving young adults, and even as a healthcare provider, I cannot begin to estimate how many overdoses have gone without response.”

A member of the chemical dependency faculty at Bellevue College, blogger Jerry Blackburn said the idea of Mission Mental is to provide accurate information about mental health and various related issues.

There has been much in the media recently about increases in heroin use all around Seattle and the Eastside. Blackburn agrees the hard drug is making a comeback. Why? Prescription drugs, par-ticularly opiates, had become very popular among abusers, but they are becoming harder to obtain, he

said. Also, Blackburn said, as you take more of a drug, you naturally become more immune to its effects. Heroin is a powerful, cheap, rela-tively easy to obtain alternative to prescription opiates, he said.

As he talks, Blackburn empha-sizes addicts aren’t necessarily criminals.

“You’re dealing with people who are ill,” he said, adding that is something he hopes will come across in his blog. His approach decidedly emphasizes treatment over jail time.

As the blog moves forward, de Michele wants to get more writ-ers, especially teens, involved. Comments are, of course, welcome and encouraged.

“It’s a way for us to have extend-ed conversations,” she said.

As for student participation, de Michelle credited Liberty High School senior Jenna Purkis with designing and helping launch the Web page, which began as a blog run by a suicide prevention group.

So far, Mission Mental has three or four writers, plus a few who haven’t posted as yet. Still, de Michele seems more than confident the blog can fill a need.

“We’d been brainstorming on ideas,” she said, adding all involved agreed the blog should be able to help some people get the help they need.

Check out Mission Mental at www.missionmental.org.

New blog hopes to reach teens who struggle to cope with mental health, drug issues

Find this week’s Calendar of Events online at www.sammamishreview.com.

up to No. 14 in the latest MaxPreps national rankings with the win.

“We still feel like we’re not that good,” Haskins said. “Honestly, I mean that. We feel like we have a long way to go.”

The Crusaders faced a couple difficult road games this week. They visited Seattle Prep Jan. 27 after press time, and go to Franklin for an 8 p.m. start Jan. 30.

Liley believes the team’s brutal regular-season schedule will only help them during the playoffs.

“ A lot of teams in this state don’t get a chance to play against what we play against, and have these mis-takes come out now to give us a chance to fix them,” he said. “We will fix them. The kids see them. They know we have the answers to fix it.”

BoysFrom Page 6

GirlsFrom Page 6

Metro Valley Division) was without its top player, sopho-more guard Juanita Agosto, who averages 20.3 points per game. Her absence altered the Crusaders’ approach.

“Without her, you’re kind of relieved in a way, because she’s such a great player,” Guzman said, “but at the same time you’re just like, ‘Someone’s going to step up for Garfield,’ and you’re not sure who it’s going to be.”

Freshman Emani Turner scored a game-high 17 points for the Bulldogs, but was her team’s only double-digit scorer.

Likewise, the Crusaders struggled to score – sopho-more forward Kylie George had 11 points, while Blanton and junior guard Katie Spires each scored nine.

The ability to pull out some clutch defensive stops proved to be the difference for Eastside Catholic.

“We struggled a little bit, and then we kind of picked it up and realized we’ve got to be a defensive unit,” Blanton said.

8 l January 28, 2015 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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New Value Village Store Opening in IssaquahNational secondhand store Value Village opens the doors to a new location on Thursday, February 19.

National secondhand store Value Village opens the doors to a new location in Issaquah on Thursday, February 19, bringing unexpected treasures and incredible deals to the community. This will be the 26th Value Village store in Washington.

Through its unique business model of purchasing, reselling and recycling donated items, Value Village provides sustainable funding to nonprofit organizations, offers communities a smart way to shop, and saves more than 650 million pounds of goods from landfills each year – making Value Village one of the largest recyclers of used goods in the world.

“We’re thrilled to bring our good deeds and great deals to local residents,” said Cheryl Brincefield, Value Village store manager. “We take great pride in working with our nonprofit partners and in looking after the environment, while at the same time providing our customers with the best selection and shopping experience of any secondhand store. Everyone likes to find a great deal, and people really love to support their local communities. We make it easy to do both.”

The new store opens in conjunction with a rising thrift shopping trend, which is one of the fastest growing retail segments. Lifestyle, economy and social trends have contributed to the growth, including the popularity of do-it-yourself projects, a renewed interest in vintage clothing, and importantly, environment and budget-conscious consumers. Value Village stores have been rapidly growing in popularity among all types of shoppers – ranging from families on a budget to six-figure professionals.

Carrying everything from clothing and accessories, to housewares, electronics and more, Value Village is no ordinary secondhand store and has more than 100,000 high quality items on its sales floor at any given time. Customers will find a fresh stream of value-priced goods including authentic vintage finds and name brand fashions, with 10,000 new items stocked to the floor daily.

Despite this large volume of merchandise, shoppers won’t spend hours shuffling through stacks of items. Value Village is clean, bright and well-organized with racks of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing sorted by category and size, and shelves of housewares, books and even electronics neatly labeled for an enjoyable shopping experience. Average prices include $3.99 - $7.99 for most men’s shirts; women’s dresses from $7.99 - $14.99; shoes and handbags for $7.99 on average; and books from $0.69.

And where does Value Village get this impressive inventory? Each store partners with local nonprofits, paying the organizations for used merchandise collected at Community Donation Centers located on-site at Value Village stores or donated directly to the nonprofits. The new Issaquah store’s Community Donation Center, which is now open, provides an easy, convenient way for residents to donate gently used clothing and household items.

In the Issaquah community, Value Village has teamed up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound and Issaquah Schools Foundation. The partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters supports the organization’s mission to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one mentorships.

From February 17-21, donations made at Value Village will also support Issaquah Schools Foundation’s Basic Student Needs Program. The Basic Student Needs Program assists students in need with clothing, dental care, breakfast food, school supplies, and other basic needs that prevent students from learning.

Located at 5530 East Lake Sammamish SE, grand opening festivities begin Thursday, February 19, starting at 8:45 a.m. with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The new location will be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.