With the exception of the last name, you’ve likely never heard of these people. But make no mistake, the Newcastle City Council knows who they are, at least they should.

They are examples of just a few Newcastle residents who have come to at least one council meeting in the past year to voice their opinions.

They are, essentially, examples of democracy in action, a far too rare scene witnessed in the perpetually empty Newcastle council chambers.

Stronk and Johnson are vocal Olympus residents speaking out against Puget Sound Energy’s power-upgrade project; Jacobson is a Newport Woods resident who voiced a community’s concerns about a new apartment complex; and Putter, a former Newcastle mayor, is the constant presence at recent meetings challenging the council’s Coal Creek Utility District purchase-sale agreement.

More importantly, though, they are all residents getting involved in the place they call home and, hopefully, working to affect decisions.

Whether they are successful or not remains to be seen, but at least they are taking a stand for what they believe in, something we’d like to see more of from residents at meetings.

Remember, your government leaders — city, county, state and federal — work for you.

If you want to have a stake in this city, take a stand. Attend meetings and public hearings to weigh in on decisions.

Newcastle pioneer Milt Swanson passes away

Family, neighbors and community leaders gathered Jan. 25 to honor the life of Milt Swanson, a titan of Newcastle history and a man with an unceasing, warming smile.

The Newcastle pioneer, born and raised in this community, spent all of his 95 years in the same area, 90 of which were in the same company house that still stands at the edge of town near the Cougar Mountain trailhead.

Swanson died Jan. 20 after a Jan. 14 fall sent him to a hospital, where he lapsed into a coma.

He knew more about the city’s vast coal-mining history than anyone, because he actually lived it. He worked in the mines, as his father and grandfather did before him, and it was vital to him to tell his story, making sure the history of Newcastle never died.

“It was important to him to allow as many people who were interested to understand the beginnings of the city they live in,” Newcastle City Councilman Rich Crispo said. “He loved this community.”

Council elects new mayor, deputy mayor

The Newcastle City Council ushered in 2014 with elections for the mayor and deputy mayor positions at its Jan. 7 meeting.

Steve Buri was elected mayor, while newcomer John Drescher is the new deputy mayor. Both will serve two-year terms.

Buri was elected to the City Council in 2007 and re-elected in 2011. He served as deputy mayor from 2008-2011.

Drescher was the new face on the council, having defeated opponent Mark Greene to fill the seat vacated by retiring Councilman Bill Erxleben in the November election.

Prior to that, he served on the Newcastle Planning Commission for four years, and as the board’s chairman for the past year and a half.

Neighbors voice concerns about Energize Eastside

A Puget Sound Energy project to bring higher capacity electric transmission lines to a growing Eastside caused controversy across affected cities, including Newcastle, in 2014.

Olympus residents in particular voiced their concerns about Energize Eastside at City Council meetings and public forums.

PSE’s Community Advisory Group recently presented its recommended routes, and both include a line that goes through Newcastle.

This story appears far from over though, as affected cities, led by Bellevue, come together to hire an independent consultant to research the project, and work through the Environmental Impact Statement process.

Old Hazelwood comes down to make way for middle school

The Renton School District demolished the old Hazelwood Elementary School in 2014 to make way for a new middle school.

The district’s fourth middle school comes at an important time, given that Renton’s middle schools are among the largest in the state.

The new school is slated to open in fall 2016.

Newcastle Days celebrates 20 years

The city of Newcastle celebrated its 20 years as an incorporated city with a special Newcastle Days celebration.

New to this year’s annual festival was a parade featuring youth groups and individuals dressed as coal miners in a nod to the city’s history.

“Really, when you think about it, 20 years isn’t old for even a tree, but there’s been a huge amount of change here in Newcastle in the last 20 years,” said Community Activities Commission Chairwoman Diane Lewis, one of the festival’s organizers.

Newport Woods community concerned about proposed development

A proposed multifamily, mixed-use development along Newcastle Way, just beside City Hall, has Newport Woods neighbors wondering how much longer the city will remain the quaint Newcastle they fell in love with.

The application calls for a 76-unit, 64-foot mixed-use building set on just under an acre of land in what is now a wooded area next to Newcastle City Hall. A trail along the Olympic pipeline is about the only thing that would separate it from homes on the edge of the Newport Woods community.

If approved as is, the six-story building would be the tallest in the city.

Renton History Museum features Newcastle exhibit

The Renton History Museum partnered with the Newcastle Historical Society to create an exhibit dedicated to Newcastle’s past.

“Newcastle: Little Giant of the Eastside,” feature pictures, maps and objects from Newcastle’s coal-mining past. The exhibit has information about the cemetery, as well as the Baima House, a still-standing Pacific Coast Coal Co. house, considered among the oldest buildings in King County.

The exhibit will be on display at the Renton History Museum through February 2015.

The Community Advisory Group working on Puget Sound Energy’s Energize Eastside transmission line upgrade project has made its final route recommendations and both include Segment M, which goes through Newcastle.

The panel — comprised of neighborhood, business and civic leaders — selected routes Oak and Willow at its final meeting Dec. 10. The advisory group’s final recommendation is based on its work over the past year, including discussion of community feedback collected throughout 2014.

Of the 20 advisory group members and residential alternates present at the meeting, 17 supported the final recommendation. Of those 17, eight expressed preference for the Oak route and five expressed preference for the Willow route, while four supported either route.

Three advisory group members had a dissenting opinion and supported none of the routes. One was Olympus resident Sue Stronk.

“I was one of the three that refused to vote on any final route, as any vote would harm our residents since segment M is in both remaining routes,” she wrote in a letter to fellow residents.

These are the final recommended routes that now move on to PSE for an even more thorough review:

• Oak (Segments A-C-E-G2-I-K2-M-N)
• Willow (Segments A-C-E-J-M-N)

PSE will ultimately make an announcement about routing after reviewing the Community Advisory Group’s recommendation, larger public feedback and opportunities and constraints surrounding the project. That decision is expected in early 2015.

The Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy said in a news release that the “outcome of this process does not represent the wishes of the community.”

Credit: Puget Sound Energy
The Puget Sound Energy Community Advisory Group recommended Oak and Willow routes for the Energize Eastside project. Both include Segment M, which runs through Newcastle.

CENSE said it believes PSE prematurely eliminated better energy alternatives and never gave the Community Advisory Group a chance to consider them.

Some members of the advisory group worked together to submit a dissenting report, challenging PSE’s stance that Energize Eastside is the most cost-effective way to meet the needs of future energy demands.

Newcastle Community Development Director Tim McHarg was among those who signed their names to the five-page document presented to PSE at the end of December.

“The city of Newcastle supports PSE in its efforts to deliver reliable and cost effective solutions to the Eastside’s energy needs for existing and future residents and businesses,” McHarg said in a news release. “However, the CAG process did not offer sufficient depth or breadth of data, analysis or alternatives to determine the best solutions to these needs.

“If pursued, the resulting recommendation would have significant and irreparable impacts on homes and businesses along the routes and to our entire community, since both routes run through the middle of Newcastle.”

McHarg went on to say that based on the information collected to date, city staff are unconvinced that the proposed instillation of high-voltage power lines is the only available option.

“We encourage affected cities and the public to participate in the Environmental Impact Statement process for Energize Eastside to ensure a clear understanding of the nature of the problem and the impacts of feasible alternative solutions,” he said.

The process appears far from over, as affected cities, led by Bellevue, come together to hire an independent consultant to research the project, and work through the Environmental Impact Statement process.

Also during the coming months, PSE will work directly with property owners and tenants to begin detailed fieldwork to inform the route alignment, project design, the environmental review process and permit applications; ask for community input on project design, which may include pole location, height, finish and other design considerations; and work with the city of Bellevue and other affected jurisdictions and agencies on the project’s Environmental Impact Statement process.

“Olympus already has experienced a homebuyer, after placing a down payment, back out of the sale after learning of this project coming to their back yard,” Stronk said. “Our residents will suffer monetarily by this project.”

But this time, it was a pair of resident groups who had the opportunity to voice their concerns about the plan to bring new, higher capacity electric transmission lines to the Eastside in response to the region’s growing power demands.

The Olympus Homeowners Association and the Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy countered PSE’s proposal and questioned the project’s true requirement at the July 1 and 15 City Council meetings.

Olympus

Keith Hargis, president of the Olympus Homeowners Association, detailed his community’s concerns, while more than 50 neighbors sat in the audience of the council chambers July 1.

Hargis highlighted health, safety, easement, pipeline and aesthetic concerns with the proposed installation of 230 kilovolt transmission lines along Route M, which goes through Newcastle, and more specifically, the Olympus neighborhood.

Along the same corridor sits a gas pipeline that supplies jet fuel to SeaTac Airport, and neighbors are worried that construction along it could lead to a disastrous accident, Hargis said.

He mentioned the 1999 Bellingham pipeline explosion that caused about $45 million in property damages and killed three people.

“I think for us that are living along that corridor, we’re very concerned with anything that could happen that’s even close to this kind of magnitude of an event,” he said.

Installation of the taller transmission poles would not only affect Olympus residents that live directly on the corridor, Hargis added, but it would also block views for neighbors, and would cause a visual blight for other parts of the city, including the views from The Golf Club at Newcastle.

CENSE

The all-volunteer group of residents from affected cities, Coalition for Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy, raised questions about the PSE project’s necessity at the July 15 City Council meeting.

“Our belief is that what they’re proposing shouldn’t be in anybody’s neighborhoods,” said CENSE co-founder Steve O’Donnell.

O’Donnell and CENSE co-founder Don Marsh, raised doubts about the true magnitude of the need, based on PSE’s power demand forecasts.

Marsh pointed specifically to PSE’s “Eastside Customer Demand Forecast” graph, which shows that by 2017 or 2018, demand for power will exceed capacity. The graphic, which is shown at PSE’s public meetings and can be found on its project website, is fiction, he argued.

O’Donnell and Marsh challenged PSE’s projections that electricity demand is growing at an annual rate of 2 percent. Marsh said that demand has actually been flat or declining, both on the Eastside and nationally, for at least the past six years, even with population growth.

He added that a Bellevue study anticipates a rate of growth that is less than half of PSE’s projections.

O’Donnell said he acknowledged the need for PSE to provide reliable power, but argued, “there are better ways to do it than industrially blight our neighborhoods.”

To that end, Marsh offered several alternatives to PSE’s proposed solution, including time-of-day pricing, which would encourage residents to conserve by using electricity at off-peak hours for a discount.

He also mentioned that grid batteries are being used for projects in major cities across the nation, and noted that Tesla’s Elon Musk and Segway inventor Dean Kamen are both working on residential batteries that will lessen the need for transmission lines.

The group ultimately asked the Newcastle City Council to work with other cities and hire an independent expert to evaluate the project. Both CENSE and the Olympus Homeowners Association also encouraged council members to keep citizens up to date about any Energize Eastside developments.

“If there’s one conclusion I’ve drawn from the process, it’s that we need your help, because this process is stacked to the outcome that PSE wants,” Newcastle resident Sean McNamara pleaded to council members July 1. “So, please do what you’re all in those seats to do and protect Newcastle as a phenomenal place to live.”

Newcastle Mayor Steve Buri said the City Council has been thoughtful in its consideration of the project. He also said Energize Eastside is a “front-burner issue” for the city.

“It’s easy to be loud,” Buri added, but the Newcastle City Council is choosing to be strategic and methodical in its approach to the situation.

The city is in regular communications with the other affected municipalities, Buri said. City Manager Rob Wyman also noted that there is a lot more going on at the staff level behind the scenes, as cities decide how to approach the issue.

After having lived in Newcastle for the past 10 years next to the Puget Sound Energy power lines and the Olympic gas pipelines, my wife and I first gave little thought to PSE’s proposed “Energize Eastside” project that contemplates Olympus as part of one of two pre-selected routes an upgrade in PSE’s equipment might take. After all, these “H” poles date back to the 1960s and need to be replaced or removed at some point, we figured.

But then we learned things. The proposed new poles would be twice the height of the current ones, as high as 12-story buildings, and the increase in voltage from 115,000 volts to 230,000 volts would quadruple the power flowing through the lines and add to dangerous EMFs (electromagnetic fields). In addition, the new poles would require much bigger cement foundations that would require heavy equipment and massive vibrations to settle them into the soil, all within narrow 100-foot easements and over and near gas pipelines that are 50-plus years old.

In 1999, this was the same Olympic gas pipeline that was ruptured in Bellingham by a mere backhoe. This rupture allowed jet fuel under pressure to escape, causing an explosion and fires that killed three youths and resulted in massive property damage.

Is there really no alternative to PSE’s risking our lives? Is that sane? Can PSE guarantee our safety?

“We have done this before,” they say. “We have a good relationship with the Olympic Pipeline Co., and we are a gas company, too.” In other words, “Trust us,” PSE says.

But what PSE will never tell you in their multimillion-dollar PR blitz is that in 2008 PSE was fined a record $1.25 million by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for having falsified gas pipeline safety inspection records over a span of four years! And we are to trust them to care about our safety?

PSE is a private for-profit utility owned by Australians and Canadians who don’t have to live daily with the consequences of running 18 miles of industrial blight through our Eastside cities. We do.

This is not a case of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). This project should be built in nobody’s back yard. To learn more and add your voice to oppose PSE’s ill-considered project, go to www.sane-eastside-energy.org, www.CENSE.org and www.lakecorridor.org.

Larry Johnson is an Olympus resident.

Puget Sound Energy plans to more than double the power lines in height and in voltage will not only increase the potential ills effects on our health in Olympus, but will destroy the natural beauty of our area.

Our skyline will be blocked by these ugly structures, and the property values will impact not only the homes by the power lines, but for the entire area. Keep in mind that property values are not isolated, but reflect the demand for housing and the prices that future homeowners will be willing to pay.

PSE’s unattractive power lines will deter many from buying homes in our area, so it behooves us all to get involved and fight their intrusion in our lives.

Carmen Cieslar

Olympus, Newcastle

Power-line project is just all-wrong for Olympus

In the 27 years I have lived in Olympus, I’ve known seven people with cancer — and five lived along the 115kV power lines we have currently — my own electromagnetic fields study. We have paid property taxes since 1929 on their easements without compensation. HUD and some will not loan or provide mortgages to homes with high-voltage power poles nearby that could fall over and hit them. Ninety-five-foot to 125-foot poles will hit a home in Olympus if they fall.

Crazy that they design to wind and ice conditions and not as concerned with earthquake damage — especially along a gas pipeline and along a major earthquake fault line. Of course, PSE says it will be around for years — does it matter to any of us when dead if PSE is around? They will spread the cost of any catastrophic compensation they have to pay to all their ratepayers — because they can.

People have no voice. PSE is like running into a brick wall. If you aren’t a bird, fish or tree — you don’t count. PSE holds all the cards — they can do what they want and will — and we have to all pay the price for their profit. They never compensate — unless they condemn your property — which they keep reminding us!

They are almighty, can do no wrong, they are a large business and get a free pass. People can’t oppose them; the cities won’t stand up to them or the state. They are a privately owned Australian company profiting from us.

If they don’t condemn my house for this project — I should just feel blessed to stay in my home that I have spent 27 years making it me. They could never pay enough for my upgrades — roofing, siding, deck, kitchen, bathroom remodeling, carpeting, yard, natural habitat and beautiful view of Mount Rainier, and all the wonderful neighbors I have had over the years. It makes safety, health, views, quality of life seem insignificant just to be able to continue to live here. So, is this where PSE wants us to get in the process? The wearing down of human beings.

Sue Stronk

Newcastle

*This story has been updated to reflect the following change: The initial version, and the one seen in the May 2 print edition, stated that Larry Johnson and the Olympus Homeowners Association would get a chance to give their own presentation about Energize Eastside at the May 6 Newcastle City Council. That has now been rescheduled for a later date to be determined*

Upgrades to infrastructure needed

When Newcastle neighbors Larry Johnson and Dave Edmonds peer into the backyards of their Olympus homes, transmission lines and power poles greet them.

It’s not the best view, but residents have learned to live with the 60-foot beams that carry 115 kilovolt power lines. The infrastructure has been there since long before the city was incorporated 20 years ago.

Those poles could get a lot taller, with lines that carry even more power, if Puget Sound Energy upgrades that corridor as part of its Energize Eastside project.

Courtesy Puget Sound Energy
At left, a growing Eastside, especially the area west of Lake Sammamish, is putting a strain on the region’s electric system, as seen in this future growth map. Above, PSE’s solution to the region’s growing power demand is to build about 18 miles of 230 kilovolt transmission lines from Redmond to Renton.

“What we have now is not great,” Edmonds said. “We’ve got power line poles 30 feet from people’s homes. We want something better than what we have, not worse.”

Energize Eastside

The project will bring higher capacity electric transmission lines to the Eastside, Andy Wappler, PSE’s vice president of corporate affairs, explained in an April 1 presentation to the Newcastle City Council.

The exact route the lines will take is yet undecided. Proposed path Route M goes through Newcastle.

The region’s growth is straining the transmission system, Wappler said; by 2017 or 2018, demand for power will exceed capacity, making power outages more likely.

“It’s really like any kind of machine — if you’re running it past its capacity, if you’re running it hard day after day, it begins to have problems,” he said.

Newcastle is expected to grow by about 2,500 people within the next few decades, essentially doubling its population at incorporation, Wappler said.

Conservation is not enough of a remedy; significant infrastructure upgrades to a system that hasn’t been enhanced since the 1960s are also necessary, he said.

PSE’s solution is building about 18 miles of 230 kilovolt transmission lines from Redmond to Renton. That corridor west of Lake Sammamish is where the demands of the electric system are heaviest, according to PSE.

There are 16 route segments that can be configured in 19 ways.

Any that connect the north to the south “gets the job done,” Wappler said, adding that PSE doesn’t have a preferred route, just a preferred outcome — that the company keeps delivering reliable power.

Route M through Newcastle is from Southeast 95th Way to Newcastle Way, west of the Eden’s Grove subdivision and east of the Olympus and Hazelwood communities.

Route concerns

In the most well-attended Newcastle City Council meeting in the past two years, about 50 neighbors packed City Hall to voice their concerns about the project April 1.

They asked questions and many expressed misgivings about high-voltage power lines through their community.

A petition to the council, by a local coalition of neighbors dubbed Citizens for Sane Eastside Energy, outlined their main concerns, among them health issues, property values, safety and view obstruction.

There was debate at the meeting between residents and PSE representatives about the true nature of health concerns related to the electromagnetic fields connected to high-voltage lines.

Wappler said nearly 3,000 studies show no conclusive link between electromagnetic fields and health issues.

But Johnson pointed to a 2002 California Department of Health Services study that notes electromagnetic fields could cause cancer.

“Are we going to be the guinea pigs to find out if this is true or not?” Johnson asked.

Neighbors are also concerned about the affect the lines will have on property values and aesthetics.

“I really take offense when people say, ‘Oh it’s just because you don’t want it in your backyard,’” Johnson said in an April 13 interview. “I think that’s a legitimate thing. No one wants it in their backyard.”

A consideration unique to Newcastle residents is the gas pipeline along the corridor.

Edmonds, who represents the Olympus neighborhood on PSE’s Community Advisory Group about the project, said the Olympic Pipe Line Co., based on his correspondence with the company, also has concerns about Route M, regarding building along lines that supply jet fuel to SeaTac Airport.

Wappler said PSE has worked with Olympic, and understands the concerns, given that PSE had the same worries as construction along the Alaskan Way viaduct occurs along its own pipeline.

Alternatives

One of the community’s requested alternatives is underground power lines.

Underground lines limit the visual impact, but are far more costly than overhead lines, Wappler said.

PSE estimates the construction and engineering for underground lines is about $20 million to $28 million per mile, compared to $3 million to $4 million per mile for overhead lines.

Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission regulations require the local jurisdiction or customer group requesting underground transmission lines to pay the difference between overhead and underground costs.

“At a minimum of $22 million a mile, that’s just not possible,” Edmonds said.

Citizens for Sane Eastside Energy is looking into challenging the regulation.

Residents also wonder why PSE can’t just use an existing Seattle City Light corridor from Redmond to Renton. Rebuilt, it could accommodate the Eastside’s growing power needs. But PSE doesn’t own the corridor, and Seattle City Light has told the company it is not available for its use.

However, neighbors are skeptical, Johnson said, because PSE cannot provide written documentation from Seattle City Light. The Seattle company has declined to do so when asked, Wappler said at an April 21 public forum.

Rallying neighbors

Not all of the estimated 50 Olympus homes affected are united in opposing the project, Edmonds said.

It’s a stark contrast to those along Route L, a segment along Lake Washington, who have been very vocal in their opposition.

“If people in M don’t oppose it, whereas people in L are throwing every piece of garbage they have, we are going to get it by default, because they’ll say, ‘Well, Olympus doesn’t care,’” Johnson said.

The Olympus Homeowners Association board recently expressed its worry, saying the “Olympus neighborhood is very concerned over the potential expansion of PSE capacity through Newcastle without better understanding the alternatives.”

Edmonds thinks PSE will choose Route M. Johnson said he isn’t ready to surrender.

“When I talk to people from L and Somerset, and I hear what they say, they’re almost totally convinced that it’s going to happen through their neighborhoods,” Johnson said.

What’s next?

PSE is using this year to gather public comment about the project, while its Community Advisory Group, made up of citizens and civic groups, collects information to recommend a route.

PSE doesn’t anticipate filing for any permits until early 2015.

“We want to work with the community and get as much input as we can, but ultimately, in terms of choosing the route, we have the responsibility to deliver the energy, so we will ultimately have to choose where that route goes,” Wappler said at the council meeting.

After Wappler gave his presentation April 1, Johnson asked the council if he could give one of his own about citizen concerns over the project.

*Johnson and the Olympus Homeowners Association will get that opportunity at a yet-to-be-determined Newcastle City Council meeting. The group was set to present at the May 6 meeting, but the homeowners group requested to delay the presentation in order to continue their due diligence in collecting information about the Energize Eastside project, Newcastle Public Works Director Mark Rigos said in an email.

“My chief goal for May 6 is to pry loose any notion among City Council members and our neighbors that they simply can take PSE’s word for things,” Johnson said prior to the date change.

I’m used to being the only one at Newcastle City Council meetings.

I sit there, alone, as the council conducts its business in front of an audience of one.

Christina Corrales-Toy

It can get lonely, I’ll admit, watching council members deliberate as I sit surrounded by a sea of empty chairs.

Imagine what a thrill it was for me, then, when City Hall was packed for the April 1 City Council meeting. There must have been about 50 residents there, mostly from the Olympus neighborhood, to hear what Puget Sound Energy representatives had to say about its Energize Eastside project.

It was the most well-attended council meeting I have ever been to in my nearly two years with the paper. It was so packed that reinforcements were brought in, in the form of extra chairs I had never seen before.

There was also a buzz and anticipation in the room I had never encountered. It was refreshing to see neighbors interact before the meeting and exciting, for me, to have someone to strike up a conversation with as I sat in the audience.

I understand that hot-button topics, such as the one that night, naturally attract more of a crowd, but it’s a shame that a constituent-packed council chamber doesn’t occur more often.

I’ll be the first one to admit that council meetings aren’t the most exciting affairs, especially at 7 on a weeknight. They’re not all bad, though. The council deals with important business, and along the way, you get to learn a thing or two about the people you elected.

For example, did you know that Councilman Gordon Bisset and his wife Diane recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary? You would if you went to a meeting.

So, come out to a meeting and see council members Lisa Jensen, Carol Simpson, John Drescher, Steve Buri, John Dulcich, Rich Crispo and Bisset in action. They meet at 7 p.m. the first and third Tuesday of every month at City Hall.

While you’re there, say hi to this lonely reporter, too!