By Highlands Community Council
Posted at the Renton Reporter. For the entire story, click here.
Annexing Fairwood to the City of Renton passed a major test Tuesday night with the unanimous approval of the annexation by state Boundary Review Board for King County
The approval came after a presentation by the City of Renton and testimony from other governments and the public. The crowd didn’t quite fill the chairs set up at the Fairwood Community United Methodist Church for the hearing.
By Claudia Donnelly
Guest post from Claudi Donnelly
Stay tuned for Claudia’s Corner Coming Soon
Happy New Year Everyone!
In the next few weeks — around January 18, ballots will be mailed to everyone for the upcoming election. There are a number of issues that will effect this area.
The Issaquah School District will have a 3 issues requiring voter approval — a Maintenance and Operations Levy, a proposal to buy new buses and a Technology Levy.
The King County Library System will have a levy issue asking for more money from taxpayers. In addition, those of you who reside in the City of Renton, you will be asked if you want to annex to the KCLS or do you want to keep the current city library system.
In addition, two local areas will be asked if they want to annex to Renton — the Sunset East Annexation area and the Honey Creek Annexation area.
Another issue that I told you about before — guardian abuse. If any of you have had a bad experience with a guardian and a vulnerable adult, the legislature wants to hear from you. Someone I know is collecting stories to pass onto legislators in order to help pass legislation protecting our seniors. Let me know if you have any
questions.
Also in the same venue. Two ladies I know, plus myself, will be meeting with a University of Washington Provost on February 23 to discuss the University’s hiring practices regarding corrupt guardians teaching at the UW. If you have any comments/questions, let me know.
Keep you eyes open for receiving your ballots in the mail. They are to be postmarked by February 9.
Have a good day.
See ya.
Claudia
By Highlands Community Council
SKYWAY, Wash. - A man was found dead from a single gunshot wound in Skyway on Christmas night, and the shooter remains at large, deputies said.The man’s body was found inside a vehicle in the parking lot behind the Hill View Apartments, in the 12800 block of 60th Lane South.
Read more at KOMONews.com.
By Highlands Community Council
This article does a great job of describing how a city can annex a neighborhood in. This example could be used for Fairwood or East Renton.
By KING5.com Staff
KING5
KIRKLAND, Wash. - Even though residents of the Finn Hill, North Juanita and Kingsgate neighborhoods did not muster enough votes to be annexed to the city of Kirkland, the city council has voted to annex them anyway.
By a 6-1 vote Tuesday, the council decided to annex the areas. It will increase the city’s population from about 48,000 to 81,000.
Story continues at MSNBC.com.
By Highlands Community Council
The City of Renton has granted an extension for public comment.
The address being discussed is Southeast of 162nd Ave SE and SE 137th Pl.
View Larger Map
A document packet is available here. Thanks to Claudia Donnelly for puting it together.
By Highlands Community Council
An alert reader brought it to our attention that the City of Renton and King County have already decided to start changing addresses of residents outside the Renton City Limits.
Prior to October 30, 2009, John Buxton collected and submitted enough signatures to put the proposed Sunset East Annexation attempt on the ballot as a referendum. The Renton City Council then passed a resolution acknowledging the referendum attempt and put it on the ballot for February, 2010.
On November 4, 2009 a resident living on SE Renton Issaquah Road called for a emergency services and the medic unit kept driving past the house. This was because the City of Renton and King County in their infinite wisdom have decided to change the street addresses BEFORE the annexation has even been voted on.
Since when does the City or the County get to decide if the Sunset East Annexation passes or not? I thought that was up to the residents of Sunset East? City of Renton officials keep telling us that that annexation decisions are up to the community (as in Fairwood’s case).
This is a public safety issue. Anyone in a Potentional Annexation area needs to confirm that their street address is still King County and not Renton. Your life may depend on it.
By Highlands Community Council
A hearty “No thanks” from a Fairwood resident
Once again The Times offers an opinion in ignorance, this time about the Renton and Fairwood issue ["Renton and Fairwood: It's time to get hitched," Opinion, editorial, Nov. 11].
Regardless of the fact that studies performed by finance experts have suggested Fairwood is feasible, The Times offers Renton as some proverbial paradise. As Renton knows all too well, and as the studies showed, Fairwood is a tax exporter and thus we have more than ample funds to provide and improve our basic services.
Read the rest of the letter to the editor at the Seattle Times Editorial page.
