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BUSINESS | Group Health gets OK to redevelop former hospital site in the Overlake area [9]

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Government | Grant Degginger steps away from the Bellevue City Council and sits down with the Reporter to discuss his service [14]

Arts | Bake’s Place moving popular jazzclub from Issaquah to downtown Bellevue [10]

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Glenn Price, of Price Farrington law � rm, looks through the window of what used to be his o� ce before a Dec. 26 � re burned the Forum West building, located at 12501 Bel Red Road. CHAD COLEMAN, Bellevue Reporter

BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

When clients stepped into Glenn Price’s law o� ce, they got to know him immediately.

Awards and degrees plastered across the wall showed his and his partner Charles Farrington’s prestige.

But, unlike many law o� ces, Price Farrington adorned its with decorations collected through decades of explo-ration. An imposing wooden Cigar Store Indian served almost as a protector of the � rm, and a 7-foot space needle towered over the room.

PICKING UP THE PIECES

Businesses scrambleafter disastrous fire

[ more FIRE page 17 ]Crews responded to the � re on Dec. 26, but the � re was too dangerous to � ght from inside. COURTESY PHOTO, Bellevue Fire Department

BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

Bellevue and Tacoma don’t have a lot in common, but they will likely share a U.S. Congressional representative, according to the State Redistricting Commission’s new district boundaries.

� e commission reached an agreement late Sunday night that rearranged the state’s 49 legislative districts and 10 congressional districts to evenly distribute population. � e agreement came only hours before an 11:59 p.m. deadline in which the task would have been handed o� to the State Supreme Court.

Under the plans, Bellevue, Mercer Island and Newcastle will be grouped with southeast Seattle along with northeast Tacoma and the cities of Renton, Seatac, Tukwila and Federal Way to form the 9th District, represented by Democrat Rep. Adam Smith.

Smith, who was � rst elected in 1997, said in a statement he is glad that the district still features his hometown of SeaTac, and he is excited to represent this diverse area.

“Regardless of how the congressional lines have changed, I will continue to work hard, promote policies that encourage job creation and economic growth and make sure the people of the 9th Congressional District are heard and well-represented in Congress.”

� e state’s new districts will go into e� ect 30 days a� er the Legislature convenes Monday, Jan. 9, if no changes are needed. By law, if the Legislature wants to change the plan approved by the Redistricting Commission, any new district boundary lines can a� ect no more than 2 percent of a district’s population and must be approved by two-thirds of the members of the House and Senate. � e governor may not veto the commission’s redistricting plan. � ere is no � nal vote of approval on the redistricting plan from the Legislature.

� e district would be the � rst in the state of Washington

Bellevue joinssouth Seattle in new congressional district

The redrawn 9th Congressional District will stretch from Bellevue to north Tacoma.

[ more DISTRICT page 5 ]

By Nat Levy

[email protected]

Owning a small business is no small commitment. It takes time, money and effort. Protecting a small business from a disaster can be even tougher.

At large firms, specific staff members or departments are dedicated to making sure a fire such as the one that destroyed the Forum West building on Bel Red Road Dec. 26, won’t cripple the business. They have protocol, and often hire outside firms for extra help, said Bob Posey of the Business Continuity Center of Seattle.

Small businesses aren’t so lucky. Many of the firms at the Forum West building have only a few employees. They don’t have the time or the resources to set up an outside firm, or develop an extensive plan. Posey has a few recommendations for ensuring that a business can still function in the face of natural disaster.

• Back up your data. The most precious possession of many of those businesses, most of which are healthcare or legal firms, is client data. The loss of this would be detrimental to future operation. Posey recommends looking at Cloud computing and keeping separate discs of data at the home of one of the employees.

“There’s nothing we can do if people haven’t taken the steps to have their stuff backed up.”

• Make your office replicable. Data is important to have, but if it can’t be read it’s useless, Posey said. Posey recommends a concept called bare-metal backup, a system in which everything from a work computer, the data, programs and operating systems can be restored on another machine as long as it has a similar server.

• Practice makes perfect. Even the best plan can go awry when the pressure is on. Posey recommends run-ning simulations so employees understand how to react when something goes wrong, and how to begin the process of recovery.

“A lot of technology is not very involved, it’s just a bunch of left and right turns, but the permutations off those turns are mind-boggling,” he said. “You can’t just try it for the first time in an emergency situation.”

Now all that remains is charred wood, twisted metal, and a few filing cabinets.

Price Farrington’s office was one of 15 businesses hurt by one of the biggest fires in Bellevue’s recent history on Dec. 26. The fire destroyed the Forum West building, leaving the businesses with an uncertain future, while staring at a bad economy. It also demolished an area that, for nearly two decades, Price treated as a second home.

“You immediately begin thinking not only about the disruption of the business, but also about the last 16 years of accumulating personal memorabilia,” Price said Tuesday, as he combed through the roofless wreckage of his former office. “Mine was a different kind of office.”

Claims adjustors told him to only look for things that would affect the business’ ability to function. However, Price wanted to make sure belongings, such as his valued Meerschaum pipes, survived.

The blaze was first noticed at 5:31 a.m., Dec. 26, by a passing resident. Fire crews responded immediately, but all they could see was smoke. When crews found the flames they began to fight them, but after 10 or 15 minutes, part of the floor collapsed, said Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Troy Donlin.

Firefighters inside the building retreated to a “defensive” position, outside. But it was too late; the fire had engulfed the building.

The official cause of the blaze remains undetermined, Donlin said, but he guessed it began somewhere in the overhead area and spread quickly.

“There are no fire stops in the overhead of that building, and no monitored alarm system and no sprinklers, so it’s anyone’s guess how long that fire was burning,” Donlin said.

The building, built in 1979, sits off the corner of Bel-Red Road and 124th Avenue Northeast. The parking lot is riddled with crusted wood and melted plastic. Windows are blown out and half of the building’s roof is simply gone.

Donlin placed the damage on the building at ap-proximately $1.5 million, a number he was told by some is “ridiculously low.”

Francesca Scott, property manager of the building for Sherron Associates, said no decision has been made as to the future of the building; the focus is on keeping the 15 businesses in the building informed, and helping them through the insurance process.

“You can’t help it when you have built such a big relation-ship with them; I don’t know if there is even a word that can describe this,” Scott said.

More than a week later, business owners are salvaging what they can out of their offices.

Dr. Steve Bucklew spent his Tuesday afternoon trying to

save a few pieces of office furniture from his practice, Laser Nail, LLC, which treats skin conditions with laser therapies. The laser and much of his technical equipment suffered heavy water and ash damage.

Bucklew, like Price, lost many of his personal effects in the fire, but the first floor location of his office lessened the damage. Unlike Price, who only heard about the fire later, Bucklew saw firsthand the death of his favorite “hiding spot.”

Bucklew said the loss won’t break his back, as the laser center is one of his several business endeavors, but the impact is clear.

“It’s a loss of livelihood,” he said. “I don’t know how soon we’ll get going again.”

For others, the destruction of the business could cut off their only money-maker.

Teresa Chen is an acupuncturist who shares part of an office in the building with Dr. Bucklew. As she worked to remove soggy office furniture from the building she plotted her next move. Chen needs to find new office space for her practice as soon as possible. The loss of a few thousand dol-lars as a result of temporarily closing could be devastating.

“Of course there’s the loss of business, and I can’t get back to work,” she said. “Without this job, we have no income.”

The fire left many of the tenants scrambling to find temporary office space. Chen and Bucklew are on the hunt for a new location, while Price has been able to secure a spot just down the road, thanks to some friends. Despite the hardship, many of the companies were able to protect the records that will keep their businesses running once they find new space.

“There’s going to be some disruption and some tempo-rary quarters, but we’re open for business,” Price said. “We don’t want to leave our clients hanging.”

Nat Levy can be reached at 425-453-4290.

www.bellevuereporter.com January 6, 2012 [17]

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a worker sorts through the burnt remains of the Forum West building, located at 12501 Bel Red Road, more than a week after a Dec. 26 fire that destroyed the building and displaced businesses. chaD coleman, Bellevue Reporter

[ Fire from page 1 ]

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ARTS | Healing power of art featured at Bellevue Arts Museum [21]

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Parks | City plans $11 million expansion of Bellevue Botanical Gardens [ 3 ]

Bellevue man charged in wife’s murder by hatchetBY NAT LEVY

Bellevue Reporter

Prosecutors � led � rst-degree murder charges Tuesday against a 71-year-old man who confessed to killing his wife with a hatchet last week.

James W. Schumacher turned himself in to Bellevue police at City Hall March 23, two days a� er the incident took place.

Schumacher will be arraigned April 10 at 8:30 a.m. at the King County Courthouse. Prosecutors asked that his $1 million bail

be doubled.A� er his confession, police drove to the

Lake Hills home located at the 100 block of 159th Avenue Southeast where a deceased

71-year-old female, Schumacher’s wife, Jean, was found.

Schumacher said he killed his wife the morning of March 21 in her room. Ac-cording to court documents, Schumacher and his wife got into an argument the night before, and she threatened to divorce him. She retreated to her bedroom and locked the door.

Schumacher told detectives he stayed up all night, pacing in his separate bedroom, stewing over the argument. In the morning, he went to the garage and took a hatchet.

He broke into her bedroom, according to court documents, and then hit her in the head six times while she slept. He told detectives he then placed the body under her bed, where it remained for the next two days.

Schumacher said his original intention was to scare his wife, but when he entered the room he attacked her. He hid his bloody clothes in the closet, and contem-plated leaving town or committing suicide.

Sobbering statistics ondomestic violence – Page 18

Editorial: Time to say ‘no’ – Page 4

INSIDE

SEE MURDER, 7

520 bridge to have glowing lights, benches

‘Sentinels’ at each end of the SR 520 bridge will be awash in a green light at night, topped by an amber beacon. COURTESY PHOTO, Washington State Department of Transportation SEE BRIDGE, 7SEE SPACE, 6

BY CRAIG GROSHART

Bellevue Reporter Editor

� e state Department of Trans-portation is giving the green light to the new 520 bridge – literally.

Four “sentinels,” large pillars on each side of the bridge at the east and west ends, will be aglow at night with a green light topped by an amber beacon. � e column-line sentinels will mark where the bridge transitions from land to water.

It’s just one of several new features planned for the bridge, the longest in the world.

In addition to six lanes for ve-hicles, the bridge also will include a 14-foot-wide path for walkers and cyclists. Because the bridge is so long, � ve viewing points will be built along the length and include benches where people can take a break.

Also planned are noise barriers

BY GABRIELLE NOMURA

Bellevue Reporter

Most people only dream of going into outer space.But 25-year-old Lauren Furgason, a Bellevue native, may actually

get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be an astronaut for a day.Ferguson, a 2004 Bellevue High School graduate who majored in

graphic design at Uni-versity of Washington, is one of � ve � nalists in the Space Needle’s national Space Race contest, commemorat-ing the Needle’s 50th anniversary.

“I don’t want to get up there and make a technological discov-ery; I want to be that inspirational person who shows that anyone can do it,” Furgason said.

People around the county voted for her based on the YouTube video she and the other contestants made. In the short � lm, each person explains why he or she deserves the Space Race’s grand-prize: the opportunity to be

Bellevue native vying for trip to outer space

Lauren Furgason poses on the Space Needle, a reference she used in a YouTube video to get people to vote for her. COURTESY PHOTO

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Schumacher said the couple had been married 46 years, and he was tired of the verbal abuse he said he was subjected to.

Schumacher assaulted

his wife in the past, and was arrested once for it. Schumacher’s wife peti-tioned for a restraining order in November 2010. She and her two children wrote to the court that he was abusive toward her. She told the court she feared for her life.

“Early on in the marriage,

he told me that if I ever tried to leave him, he would kill me and has threatened me numerous times over these past four decades,” she wrote. “I have a deep fear of him poisoning my food with his medications or rat poison, or choking me as he once tried when he was drunk some years ago. I’ve had nightmares of him coming a� er me, and I’m running like in slow

motion with weights on my feet and can’t run fast enough to escape him.”

� e court granted the restraining order, but Jean Schumacher asked that it be terminated in July 2011 because the separation was taking too much of a physi-cal, � nancial and emotional toll.

Schumacher worked at Boeing and U.S. Steel for 17 years.

that will extend out from the land portion of the bridge to the water portion.

One new aspect of the bridge will be noticed by both drivers and workers

who maintain the bridge – the roadway will be elevated on the pontoons. Drivers no longer will be hit by spray during high wind-storms, and maintenance crews will have access to the pontoons without having to shut down the bridge.

� e bridge won’t have a

draw span. Instead ships will have clearance at the west end of the bridge.

Large marine equipment began arriving at the bridge � ursday, including a large crane on a barge. Later this summer, the � rst batch of 77 huge � oating pontoons will be towed into Lake

Washington and assembled north of the existing 1963 bridge. It will take contrac-tors four days to tow the pontoons from Aberdeen to the lake.

� e target date for com-pleting the bridge in the end of 2014.

Benches, with windbreaks, are planned along the pedestrian area of the new 520 bridge. COURTESY PHOTO, WSDOT

BRIDGECONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

MURDERCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Preparing for disasters such as earthquakes pays. With the help of the city’s O� ce of Emergency Management, students in a high school algebra class are using math to � gure out how much.

Students in Elsa Yanez De Salaido’s Algebra 2 class at Bellevue Big Picture School, an alternative school in the Bellevue School District, designed two large buildings, one to pre-1970s standards and one to later standards that ensure structures can withstand an earthquake. With data from the O� ce of Emergency Management, the students projected how a major earthquake would a� ect the buildings and calculated how much it would cost to repair them.

� e month-long project covers risk assessment, build-ing mitigation, incident damage analysis and recovery cost analysis. � e students presented their � ndings Monday.

“If we can show the practical applications of math and other subjects in an environment like emergency management, this will bring a realistic understanding to their learning process,” said Vernon Owens, emergency preparedness coordinator.

Making sure residents and businesses in Bellevue have a realistic understanding of the threat natural disas-ters pose, and of how to prepare for that threat, are key parts of the O� ce Emergency Management’s mission. A division of the Bellevue Fire Department, Emergency Management o� ers preparedness training to neighbor-hoods and businesses upon request, scheduled based on date and time availability.

Students do math about earthquakes

COMMUNITY | Group Health plans residences, businesses on former site of its hospital in Overlake area [3]

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Sports | Robinswood Tennis Center team wins senior men’s national championship for � rst time in its history [9]

Entertainment | Eastside native, now Broadway star, has lead in ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ [13]

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BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

For Adam Brown and Jason Reid, the pain of losing the Seattle Supersonics remains fresh.

As documentarians of the movement to keep the team in town when Clay Bennett moved the franchise to Oklahoma City, they had a front row seat for the political hand wringing, litigation and fan heartbreak that accompanied the team’s departure in 2008.

“� ere was so much toxic energy around the way the team le� and people were burned out and apathetic,” said Brown, producer of the award-winning documentary “Sonicsgate.”

To many, the best way to move on was to forget. Local newspapers backed o� NBA cover-age, and the league is rarely men-tioned on sports radio

without a sco� that “nobody cares.” But little by little, the feeling has begun to fade.

With teams facing extensive � nancial hardship, and a fundamental restructuring of the NBA model, hoop hope is beginning to return. But any

discussions about bringing back the Sonics – the franchise moved to Oklahoma, but the green and gold stayed behind - � rst begins with an arena. Pundits have thrown out numerous possibilities for a new venue, and a consistent question has arisen. Would the Seattle Supersonics be better o� calling a new arena in Bellevue home?

Rumors have swirled around Chicago busi-nessman Don Levin’s desire to put an arena on the Eastside, and State Rep. Mike Hope (R-Lake Stevens) may introduce legislation to raise a portion of the money needed through an income tax on visiting players, but no concrete plan has emerged.

A new venue in Bellevue could catapult it closer to the goal of becoming a “world-class city.” With extensive planned transportation improve-

ments and several potential locations, Bellevue may overcome the two biggest deterrents to a ma-jor venue - tra� c and space. But developers and economists question whether an arena is even a good move for Bellevue. � e only sure thing in this discussion is that Bellevue and state taxpayers won’t be footing the bill.

World-class cityBellevue is the capital of the Eastside, and a

stone’s throw from downtown Seattle.Bellevue’s proximity to Seattle and the rest of

the Eastside, coupled with its sterling workforce and planned transportation projects, make the city a natural contender for a large venue such as an NBA arena.

Sonics fans at a charity game in July 2011 express their ongoing pain over losing the team. JOSH TRUJILLO, Seattle P-I

It’s not a slam dunk, but could Bellevue be home to an NBA team?

First of two parts

[ more ARENA page 6 ] [ more LIGHT RAIL page 8 ]

BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

� e Sound Transit board endorsed an agreement Oct. 27 with the city of Bel-levue to to fund a down-town tunnel for East Link light rail

� e board authorized Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl to execute a Memo-randum of Understanding (MOU) with Bellevue fol-lowing upcoming action by the Bellevue City Council. Bellevue Mayor Don Da-vidson presented the board with a letter re-stating the city’s commitment to take action on the MOU on or before Nov. 14.

� e memorandum establishes a collabora-tive partnership for Sound Transit and Bellevue to work together during the � nal design and construc-tion processes for East Link to manage the project’s costs and impacts and to share the additional cost of building the tunnel.

� e tunnel is estimated to cost an additional $276 mil-lion beyond the cost of an at-grade alignment through downtown a� er factoring in cost savings from locating East Link’s South Bellevue alignment along 112th Av-enue Southeast. � e memo-randum establishes a � rm funding commitment by

Sount Transit OKs deal with Bellevue for light rail lineCouncil expected to sign pact by Nov. 14

High hopes for

hoops

[6] November 4, 2011 www.bellevuereporter.com

Former Planning Director Matt Terry was a key figure in discussions to bring an arena to Bellevue to keep the team from moving. Chad Coleman, File Photo

much of the talk about an nBa arena in Bellevue centers around two places: auto Row and the Spring district. each spot has its own features that could make it a good destination. The Spring district could be an ideal location because it has easy access to Interstate 405 and State Route 520. With light-rail planned to come right through the area, the Spring district could be the easiest access point for travelers coming from out of town to see an event. located near northeast 12th Street and 124 avenue northeast, the Spring district strays a bit from down-town, the city’s fastest growing neighborhood, and one of its largest employment centers. Those already downtown could have a hard time getting to an event. additionally, this area is set to be developed by Wright Runstead into a 36-acre mixed use area.auto Row is made up of mostly empty lots, and a number of car dealerships on 116th avenue. This area is just across the freeway from downtown, and a planned extension of northeast Fourth Street could help ease some of the traffic congestion. This area is also slated to be developed by the property KG Investments, which did not return calls requesting comment for the story. This location is near downtown, but a sizeable walk from central transit dropoff points at the Bellevue Transit Center downtown.

[ ARENA from page 1 ]

Experts mixed on economic effects of arena in Bellevue

Los Angeles’ Staples Center with surrounding restaurants, hotels and attractions, was a model for what Bellevue wanted out of an arena when staff discussed the possibility in 2006. CouRTeSy PhoTo

Possible arena locations

“Bellevue could make a great location for an NBA team,” Brown said. “If you’re going to build new a state-of-the-art arena, it goes along with all the things Bellevue has been doing for the last few years and their mas-sive growth.”

Bellevue features empty spaces near downtown and plans for East Link light-rail tracks that could eventually move people from as far north as Lynnwood to as far south as Federal Way into the city.

The two most likely spots for a new arena are the somewhat vacated Auto Row on 116th Avenue on the south side of Interstate 405 or the abandoned Safeway distribution site on Bel-Red Road, known as the Spring District. Both of these sites,

however, are up for extensive redevel-opment by their respective owners - KG Invest-ments and Wright

Runstead - and could become unavailable. However, if an arena were to come in the

next few years, the traffic and transporta-tion improvements may not be complete.

Greg Johnson, president of Wright Runstead, said he has not been approached about a potential arena development, and it isn’t a factor in the current planning of the 36-acre, mixed-use Spring District development.

“At this point [an arena’s] not even an option for us, and we’re not in the mode of developing one for ourselves,” he said.

Bob Wallace, President of Wallace prop-erties, said it would be easier to get people to and from games with an arena close to downtown and the freeways.

Attendance likely wouldn’t be a problem.

Bellevue’s population of approximately 123,000 could prove a bit worrisome, but according to the state’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, 97,000 of the 130,908 estimated workers in Bellevue commute from outside the city limits, adding another segment of population who already have ties to the city. Bellevue is a part of the nation’s 15th largest metropolitan area, which is the sec-ond largest region without an NHL or NBA team, according to census figures.

Eastsiders were Sonics fansEastsiders were already big buyers for

the Sonics, representing 26 percent of season-ticket holders and 19 percent of all attendees, according to records.

If traffic improvements make Bellevue a viable arena location, proponents say the new venue could have transformational effects on the city known for its ascension to the top of the employment world in Washington.

And while many have gossiped about Bellevue as an NBA arena destination, former Bellevue Planning Director Matt Terry was in the middle of a city effort to put together a stadium proposal in 2006.

As one of the key figures of Bellevue’s expansion to a growing city, Terry saw an opportunity with a new arena.

“It would create an entertainment des-tination unlike anything that exists in Bel-levue,” he said. “We imagined a younger, more hip kind of district.”

This site would resemble the Staples Center in Los Angeles, which is flanked with first-class restaurants, hotels, a 10,000-seat theater and even an arts mu-seum.

Proponents of a Bellevue arena see it as a new way to bring people to town, have them shop at local stores, and eat at nearby restaurants.

It would give Bellevue another signa-

ture element in addition to its downtown, which in the eyes of some has eclipsed Seattle’s.

“It’s a powerful thing when you unleash this kind of development activity,” Terry said. “It tends to drive up land values, and it encourages the kind of land development that couldn’t occur before.”

Would arena spur development?The creation of a pro sports arena is

seen as a recognition of a major economic success and development, not an impetus for it.

Economists question whether an arena would bring new development to the area. Victor Matheson, professor of sports economics at Holy Cross University, said economists have failed to find a way to measure economic benefits of stadiums. Unless the owner is a local mainstay, there is often little motivation to make the venue interface with the city to help other nearby businesses, he said.

In this case an owner, or group of own-ers, would have to build an arena, and buy a team – or two – no small financial feat. Owners would do better if they were able to keep patrons inside to buy their beer and food rather than going to the restaurant across the street.

“Arenas serve as a walled fortress with parking all around it, and they tend to restrict economic development,” Matheson said. “Your goal is to have people buy as many overpriced food items as possible rather than let the economic development leak outside those walls.”

Even if patrons stay within the fortress, portions of their sales tax dollars will go back into the community.

Nonetheless, the planners and develop-ers fear that a poorly conceived arena will lead to more congestion with cars jetting in and out of town without a second look at Bellevue’s restaurants and stores.

Matheson said Los Angeles’ old Forum

suffered from this problem before the Staples Center was built. When the Lakers began playing their games in downtown Los Angeles, sales tax revenue in the sub-urb of Inglewood, where the old arena was located, actually increased because patrons weren’t hindered by game traffic.

The arena would also take up valuable space in a community restricted by mu-nicipal and water borders on all sides. Terry, Bellevue’s former planning director, spoke of the tradeoffs such an arena would require, like the inability to locate a major university campus, health facility or new development in a prime location near downtown.

The question to the community then becomes whether an owner can build an arena, attract teams to the area, and give people a reason to stick around. To make this a feasible possibility, another pro team may need to be a part of the action.

The potential of a professional hockey team, in addition to an NBA team, and the possibility of hosting large conferences for local companies such as Microsoft, may be the arena’s greatest selling point. Hockey features 42 home games each year, and the possibility of conferences and headline acts could make the space palatable for a

potential buyer. “If you’re only

going to use it for 40 days a year, it’s much harder to make it profitable and private people are less likely to want to make that investment,” Matheson said.

But Wallace, who sat on the board of Kingdome and SafeCo Field, has a different view of an

arena. He sees it as not just a dollar-driver, but more of a statement, an amenity that grabs attention and makes Bellevue standout from the rest of the Eastside. Matheson too qualified the primary benefit as a quality of life issue rather than an economic one.

“Although the professional sports in-dustry in the United States is roughly the same size as the cardboard box industry, cardboard boxes don’t warrant multiple channels on television, have a dedicated section in most newspapers, and are not the focus of frequent discussions around the office water cooler,” Matheson said.

Next week: Is there the political will – and the money – to make an arena become a reality?

By Nat Levy

[email protected]

The race to replace departing City Council Member Grant Degginger is nearly deadlocked, and incumbents in other races are leading after the latest batch of tallied votes were released Wednesday.

In one of the closest races in the state, retired attorney, and current member of the Parks and Community Services Board John Stokes holds a slim 146-vote lead over land use attorney Aaron Laing. Incumbents

Claudia Balducci and John Chelminiak both garnered

approximately two-thirds of the vote in their races.

Stokes, Chelminiak and

Where is Sky Metalwala?

By BiLL ChriStiaNSoN aNd Nat Levy

Reporter Newspapers

Though police maintain that the mother of missing 2-year-old Sky Metalwala has cooperated with the investigation, holes are beginning to appear in her story.

Police said Wednesday they were able to determine that Julia Biryukova’s silver Acura Integra - which she said ran out of gas Sunday morning - had enough fuel to drive for a considerable amount of time. Combined with her unwillingness to take a lie-detector test, Biryu-kova has become a source of police frustration.

“The story doesn’t add up, the whereabouts of Sky are unknown, and mom’s story is falling apart day to day; and her lack of cooperation so far in providing more information proactively and submitting to a polygraph doesn’t help,” said Bellevue police Maj. Mike Johnson.

Johnson maintained that she has answered investigators’ questions through her attorney, and she has not been named a suspect.

The focus of the investigation continues to be getting in-formation from those closest to Sky and Biryukova, who lives in Redmond, so they can piece together the days and weeks that lead up to the boy being reported as missing Sunday.

“The people that were close to Sky and Julia are the people that know what happened to Sky,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday morning. “If everyone cooperates, we should have answers we need.”

The boy’s father, Solomon Metalwala was scheduled to take a second polygraph test Wednesday after the first one proved to be too emotionally trying.

Solomon and Biryukova were going through a divorce and

Sky Metalwala

Bellevue City Council members John Chelminiak and Claudia Balducci check elections returns Tuesday night. The pair held on to their seats by a 2-1 margin over their challengers. CHAD COLEMAN, Bellevue Reporter

Last of two parts

By Nat Levy

[email protected]

When the Seattle Supersonics left town, a trail of broken-hearted fans laid in the wake. State Rep. Ross Hunter was among the most passionate of them. He proudly called himself a fan for decades, but like other Washington lawmakers he refused to be ransomed by the National Basketball Association.

“The current NBA model is they ex-tort cities to get them to pay for arenas,” said Hunter, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. “With the fiscal reality that cities, counties, and states are in right now, it’s hard to imagine any state would put money into funding an

NBA arena rather than paying for public education, as an example.”

Though three years removed for losing the team, the bitter memories

throughout Seattle and the rest of the state remain. Fans blame politicians who fought to keep the team, and the league that has developed a model to coerce residents into spending billions on arenas, even as governments are forced to cut down to the bare bones due to economic recession. Legislators have worked on plan after plan to bring a team back, but thus far, nothing has come to fruition. Local and state legisla-tors have maintained that they will not spend tax dollars on a new arena, and it will be up to a knight in shining armor – one or a number of heads of the area’s largest companies, or an outside ob-server – to bring professional basketball back to the Puget Sound region.

In the past, arena money came out of

arena needs a ‘white knight’

[ more areNa page 15] [ more MiSSiNg Boy page 6]

Bellevue council incumbents keep seats

Police suspect foul play in case of missing 2-year-old

[ more eLeCtioN page 18 ]

HealtH | Children’s Hospital gets $65 million gift, $15 million of which will go to Bellevue facility [ 11]

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Business | Bellevue woman modernizes the world of antiques with Haystack Antiques in Downtown Bellevue [3]

Community | Bellevue boy gets his special wish – meeting Marshawn Lynch and the Seahawks [ 16 ]

pockets. New arenas for both the Mariners and Seahawks received tax dollars in the 1990s. The $430 million CenturyLink Field came to be following a special election in 1997 after Mi-crosoft cofounder Paul Allen stepped in to buy the team if a new arena could be built. Allen pledged responsibility for any cost overages, and the vote passed with more than 51 percent.

The Kingdome’s other team, the Mariners, were on their way to Tampa Bay in the mid 90s, but the magical 1995 season galvanized the Leg-islature. Even after the public rejected a funding measure, to vote in favor of a half percent sales tax increase and 2 percent car rental tax to build SafeCo Field, which opened in 1999.

But when the NBA stepped in and began to grumble about Key Arena being out of date, the public blowback was immediate.

Seattle City Council members showed a level of distaste toward the team, with then Council President Nick Licata going as far as to say the Sonics provided zero economic or cultural value to the city. He fought against a bill to bring in $200 million in state subsidies to keep the team financially viable.

Developers say these issues are why politi-cians and arenas don’t mix.

Bob Wallace, president of Wallace Properties and a board member for both the Kingdome and SafeCo, saw first hand how political bodies can interfere in sports activity. He said King County deferred much of the maintenance for the arenas because they had other budget priorities to fill. Taxes collected from the old stadiums are often talked about as means to fund other projects, not always related to the arenas.

“Whenever you’ve got a political body involved, they want to get their mitts on it and control it,” he said.

The Legislature too took a stand against the

league after the citizens of Seattle in 2006 voted in favor of Initiative 91, which prohibited Seattle from supporting teams with city tax dollars un-less such investments yield a profit on par with a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond, currently about 4.75 percent.

Behind Speaker of the House 43rd District Rep. Frank Chopp, the Legislature pledged not to pay for a new arena, a sentiment that stands to this day.

“I don’t think there’s a role for government in financing an arena,” Hunter said.

Seattle has maintained this stance as well, with Mayor Mike McGinn continuing to lobby for a Sonics return, with a clear mandate that public funding is not an option.

Bellevue too is open to bringing an arena to town, but again, only if it comes without expense to the public. At a recent City Coun-cil candidate forum, six sitting members and candidates were united in their views that a building could be great for Bellevue, as long as Bellevue doesn’t have to pay for it.

“If a plan came forward, and it meant not spending tax dollars, I would certainly work hard to try and find a way to make it happen, I think it’d be exciting,” said Bellevue Council Member Claudia Balducci.

Battling the budgetThe State Legislature has dealt with a $12

billion shortfall between 2009 and 2011, with another $2 billion hole to fill this year. It is look-ing at chopping millions from schools, social services and other organizations. Using tax dollars to fund an arena would create a political fiasco.

“There are cities that have laid off police offi-cers, firemen and teachers, and you are going to raise taxes to pay NBA players? That’s not going to be acceptable in this political climate,” said Victor Matheson, professor of sports economics at Holy Cross University.

But a group of legislators is working on find-ing a solution that doesn’t take money from the taxpayer.

The coalition, known as the Sonics Taskforce, is led by Reps. Dave Frockt (D-Seattle) and Mike Hope (R-Lake Stevens), and is dedicated to finding money for an arena without spending public tax dollars. Hope will likely propose a measure known as the “jock tax,” an income tax system that charges visiting professional athletes for money made in the state. This could raise approximately $175 million, according to the proponents.

That won’t be enough.According to research compiled by

Matheson, the average NBA arena since the year 2000 cost $302 million, with an aver-age of 51 percent public investment. And the trend over the past decade has seen greater public investment in arenas. Since 1999 only a single NBA-only arena has been funded by 100 percent private dollars, the Air Canada Center in Toronto. But this was a special case, with the owners buying up a partially built arena and established team. Rarely, if ever, is the case that an owner will build an arena, without the promise of the team, and then buy a team and bring it to the area.

The hope is that the jock tax package would present the motivation to an investor to come in and fill the void.

Matheson has shown in his research a variety of ways in which public money could be used to augment private investment. According to his research, the use of a number of methods, including hotel and gambling taxes, ticket charges, sin taxes on goods such as cigarettes and alcohol, and personal seat licenses - a system in which fans purchase the rights to later buy season tickets at a designated seat - often makes up a cocktail of funding sources to put together a public contribution.

Attaching a professional hockey team to the

proposal seems to spur more private investment as well. According to Matheson’s research, of the 10 new arenas since 1990 that house both hockey and basketball teams, the average public contribution was 14 percent.

Stepping upThat leaves any remainder up to a wealthy

individual or individuals. And while there’s no shortage of wealth on the Eastside, one name often comes up: Steve Ballmer.

The CEO of Microsoft, Ballmer has been a big part of Sonics discussions in the past. He helped organize a consortium of individuals to fund a Key Arena renovation, but that still couldn’t get it done.

Ballmer could not be reached for this story, but the Microsoft magnate did touch on the issue of an arena on the Eastside at a Seattle Rotary Club meeting over the summer. He characterized the problem not as a money problem, but a real estate problem of an arena to house the team. He also indicated he was not likely to be the man to build an arena to make way for the team.

“If somebody could solve the real estate prob-lem, someone could solve the NBA problem,” he said, and he added it’s up to the real estate industry to solve it. “If you find an answer to that problem, I’ll buy the first season ticket.”

Wallace watched the process that sent the Sonics to Oklahoma City. All of these interests, he said, have been around throughout the process and could have come in and saved the team.

“I believe we have the market, we have the capacity, all we need is the motivation, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that.”That means it may take a white knight – one or a number of heads of the area’s largest companies or an outside owner – to bring professional basketball back to the arena. The question, though, is: does such a person or group exist?

www.bellevuereporter.com November 11, 2011 [15]

[ ArenA from page 1 ]

Sonics didn’t have same public support as Mariners and Seahawks for new arenas

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ELECTION | Community group � ned for campaign � nance violations [ 11 ]

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Arts | Cirque Du Soleil, but with horses, galloping to the Eastside [ 22 ]

Sports | Bellevue man gets homecoming as MNF returns to Seattle [ 18 ]

Bob McLean dresses as Santa Claus every year to deliver the mail. But this year he has been barred from doing so. NAT LEVY, Bellevue Reporter

SANTA CLAUSYear without a

BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

John Stokes has become the seventh and � nal 2012 Bel-levue City Council Member.

King County Elections announced a 54-vote margin between Stokes and his opponent, land-use attorney Aaron Laing, following a two-day recount done by hand at the Elections o� ce.

“I am very pleased to have held a lead throughout the ballot count and throughout the recount, actually gaining three votes in the process, and being � nally declared the winner,” Stokes said in a statement.

� e vote closes what has been one of the closest races in the state, and Bellevue’s most contested election in recent memory. Many predicted the race to be a tossup, but few could have guessed that the margin of votes between the two candidates would never exceed 200 votes. Stokes opened with a 127-vote lead on election night, Nov. 6. His lead was razor thin, and the race appeared to be up for grabs. For several weeks, new results released each day drew the race closer, down to a margin of 51.

State law stipulates that the margin between the two candidates to necessitate a hand recount is less than 150

Stokes wins council election recount

BY MATT PHELPS

[email protected]

A Redmond man was charged with vehicular homicide and reckless driving on Monday for striking and killing a Kirkland bicyclist.

Nathan Jeremie Godwin, 26, struck Bradley Nakatani, 36, with his SUV while the Kirkland man was riding a bicycle in the early morning of Dec. 8 at the intersection of 132nd Avenue Northeast and Northeast 124th Street in Kirkland near the Redmond city limits.

About 100 friends and family gathered at the intersec-tion to pay respects to Nakatani on Friday a� ernoon. He

Newport HS grad killed in crash

[ more STOKES page 6 ]

BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

While dreams of Santa pop-ping down the chimney on Christmas Eve to

deliver presents were extinguished for most during childhood, a select few Bellevue residents have seen St. Nick trade in his sleigh for a mail truck.

Until now.For more than a decade now, let-

ter carrier Bob McLean has driven around Bellevue each holiday season, delivering a little Christmas

cheer while wearing a full Santa getup for two or three days. But this year, a local grinch complained to the U.S. Postal Service, and McLean has been banned from bringing his alter ego to work this year.

“� e government is shutting me down because it’s a non-postal regu-lation uniform,” said McLean, who has been with the postal service since 1971.

McLean began donning the red and white when a stranger at the mall told him he looked like Santa Claus. Always the crowd pleaser, McLean took to the comparison, went out and bought a suit, and then another.

When he � rst started delivering mail in full Santa garb, McLean

immediately noticed the attention. He said he’s caused tra� c jams on his route on Old Main as pass-ing drivers attempted to catch a glimpse. Merchants along his route have watched for years as McLean has been the center of attention to tourists and residents alike.

“� ey stop him on the corner and want group pictures with him,” said Brenda Archuletta, manager of Amore Chocolates. “Little kids – they just stare because they wonder.”

� ey wonder because he � ts the character. Every bit Kris Kringle, McLean sports a white beard and a tu� of long white hair. Looking the part is no easy e� ort, either. He dyes his blond hair, and keeps a careful

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USPS won’t let mail carrier dress like St. Nick.

eye on the calendar when he trims the beard.

The only part of the Santa look he lacks is the portly figure, after losing 95 pounds.

McLean has brought his alter ego to Bellevue’s most popular Christmas attraction, Snowflake Lane, where he took his family a few years ago. He said they were pushed aside as 50 people lined up to take pictures.

He’s also been a big hit at the Aegis Living of Bellevue senior center. He visits regularly as both Santa and mailman. The residents know him well, and are always excited when Santa knows their name, he said.

But only a few days after Thanksgiving this year, he was pulled off his route by a supervisor saying some-one had complained about the uniform. He didn’t know who he had upset, or why the complaint was filed.

“This was the first time; I don’t know what hap-pened,” he said. “I don’t step on anyone’s toes. Be-ing Santa isn’t religious to me; it’s secular. It’s about giving.”

USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson said the com-plaint came from a fellow carrier. Decked out in the full on Santa suit, McLean was not recognizable as a USPS employee.

McLean is still shocked over the outcome. He sees carriers wearing Christ-mas gear all the time. Ei-ther way, McLean said, he will bring the Christmas cheer, and he plans to don the Santa suit at work one last time: Christmas Eve.

Nat Levy can be reached at (425) 453-4290

www.bellevuereporter.com December 16, 2011 [3]

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Bob McLean gets into the Christmas spirit as Santa as he completes his route along 102nd Avenue Southeast in Bellevue Dec. 23, 2009. CHAD COLEMAN, Bellevue Reporter File Photo

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B E L L E V U E

BY NAT LEVY

[email protected]

Wesley Zhao and Ajay Mehta represent the new wave of the technologi-cal evolution, the “scrappy startup.”

� is movement focuses on small websites and mo-bile applications that can be created in a short time. It’s coming from small places, dorm rooms, basements. Or in this case, a makeshi� of-� ce at Mehta’s parents’ home in north Bellevue, where the team launched a site that allows users to exchange gi� cards.

� e room, previously uninhabited, is lined with windows. � e eyes � rst dart

to the workspace. What appears to be a large desk is simply two sheets of plywood held o� the ground by two sawhorses. � is rudimentary, yet stable structure, holds thousands of dollars worth of equipment. � is minimal-ist approach manifests itself within the groups’ projects as well.

“We know we’re not bril-liantly trained engineers,” said Mehta, a student at New York University. “We would rather make some-

thing that’s very speci� c and does one thing really well and provides a utility for people.”

Zhao recently � nished his freshman year of college at the University of Penn-sylvania, in the Wharton School of business. He noticed what his classmates had done with startups. One of them sold a product to eBay for $100 million, while another was able to go into business with Google.

When Mehta and Zhao met up for winter break last year, they decided it was time to learn coding to match up with their lo� y ideas and business acumen. � ey started small.

“A lot of the old venture

capital � rms focus on home runs,” Zhao said. “We’re focusing on singles and doubles.”

Now on deck for the group is a product they feel will make a signi� cant impact in an intriguing, yet socially awkward arena: gi� -giving.

Mehta and Zhao along with their fellow team mem-bers, Jesse Beyroutey and Dan Shipper, are launching today the service AvantCard (getavantcard.com), which allows customers to give exchangeable gi� cards. Unused gi� cards represent a large amount of wasted spending power, they said.

� e giver of the card registers it with the site, which gives the recipient the ability to exchange. � at person can send AvantCard their unwanted gi� card, and choose a di� erent store to replace the card. � e team’s ultimate plan is to partner with retailers and issue more � exible ‘open’ gi� cards.

“We feel that we can mash up, mix up and change the way gi� cards are currently issued, and make them more relevant to the recipient, more personal and � exible,” Bey-routey said.

Mehta’s and Zhao’s exponential rise in the

startup business provides a path to those who want to make their way in. � eir journey is less than a year old, so their technical knowledge is not the calling card. It’s their passion, zeal and willingness to go into tunnel-vision levels of focus to build a product.

As their skills have pro-gressed, so has their goal. � e team works from a master spreadsheet with more than 200 ideas at any one time. As they have gained more contacts and mentors, they have been told that they need to put more stock into an idea, rather than � nish one one day, and then move onto another.

“When I � rst met Wesley, he was always talking about these hobby projects he would do wherein he and the rest of the team would build a cool app or product overnight and release them,” said Kartik Hosanagar, a professor at UPenn who taught Zhao in an introductory technol-ogy class. “� ese apps were used by a few hundred people and forgotten. Now these guys are focused more on having impact.”

� e team spent much of the summer in New York and the Silicon Valley mak-ing contacts. � ey lived in California for some time where they made numerous connections, but decided to stay in Bellevue to save money. Mehta is on his way to a year of studying abroad in England. Zhao will likely take a year o� to work on the business. Now is the time to take that sort of a risk, said Hosanagar.

“In my personal opinion, given their age, the risks are low and the upside is very high,” he said. “I think even if the startups go nowhere, their entrepreneurial attitude will be favorably perceived by prospective employers.”

The rise of a ‘scrappy startup’Interlake grads preparing to launch gift-card website

Please Match Me A site similar to the Facemash site seen in the Social Network. It allows

individuals to randomly pair up a boy and a girl from their University. http://pleasematch.me/

Where My Friends Be A combination of Google Maps and Facebook that allows users to see

where their network of contacts live. http://www.wheremyfriends.be/

TasteplugA music to-do list. This text messaging service allows users to text the

name of a song to a phone number that will add it to a list of songs the user would like to purchase. http://tasteplug.com/

Grim Tweeper A service that allows users to browse through the people they follow

on Twitter and vet them one by one to clean up their list. http://www.grimtweeper.com/

Readstream A site that aggregates links from a person’s Twitter account and posts

excerpts for the reader. http://readstreamapp.com

The team’s past projects

Wesley Zhao (left), Ajay Mehta and Jesse Beyroutey work on their next project at Mehta’s parents’ home in Bellevue. CHAD COLEMAN, Bellevue Reporter

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