Every election we, as voters, have a responsibility to select the right people to guide our city. Sometimes the choice is difficult, but not this year.

Linda Newing and Allen Dauterman have earned the right to represent us through their willingness to serve and the actions they have taken to be as informed as possible. Linda led a neighborhood action to build a new a park in her neighborhood, serves as the vice chairwoman of the Community Activities Commission, is the lead on many summer events, such as Newcastle Days, and has pursued meetings with city staff to become knowledgeable about budgets, public safety issues and infrastructure management. Her experience working for the city of Renton will be a valuable asset.

Allen, as the current chairman of the Planning Commission, has led the update of the city’s Comprehensive Plan. That activity required many volunteer hours and led to Allen having a deep understanding of all aspects of city elements, including development codes, trails and parks requirements and plans, infrastructure issues, utilities and traffic concerns. His personal background as a development consultant makes him ideal to understand how we can work to maintain our neighborhood feel.

Please join me in supporting Linda Newing and Allen Dauterman for City Council. They are right for Newcastle, and I know I can work with them.

Rich Crispo, Newcastle City Councilman

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Newcastle News welcomes signed letters to the editor. They should be 350 words or less. The News may edit for length, clarity and potential libel. Letters about local topics are preferred. Email them by the 20th of the month to newcastle@isspress.com.

Aegis Gardens, Atlas bring one-of-a-kind communities

History is one of Newcastle’s greatest assets.

The Eastside suburb’s story dates back more than 150 years, when it was the second largest town in King County. During that time, coal was king, and Newcastle had plenty of it.

By Greg Farrar
Breaking ground on Aegis Gardens July 30 are (from left) Newcastle Mayor Steve Buri; Aegis Living founder and CEO Dwayne Clark; former U.S. ambassador to China, Washington state governor and King County Executive Gary Locke; and current King County Executive Dow Constantine.

That history was at the forefront of attendees’ minds July 30, when nearly 300 people gathered in Newcastle to celebrate the groundbreaking of a unique Aegis Living retirement community.

Aegis Gardens, a luxury senior living community built for Chinese-American retirees, will sit on the shores of Lake Boren, not far, incidentally, from Newcastle’s China Creek.

China Creek was so named for the Chinese mine and railroad workers who built small huts along the creek, away from the main mining camp in the late 1800s, according to Rich Crispo, a Newcastle Historical Society member and City Councilman.

“It’s fitting that this facility is in Newcastle. Right here on this very ground is where the first Chinese immigrants came to our part of the world,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said at the special groundbreaking ceremony.

Billed as the first project of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, Aegis Gardens is a 110-unit waterfront community sitting on a little more than seven acres.

The facility will offer the same high-quality assisted living and memory care that Aegis Living is known for with an added emphasis on the Chinese culture, which will be reflected in everything from the building’s construction to the staff.

Contributed by Aegis Living
A central Zen garden courtyard will be one of numerous architectural features that will convey Chinese design and cultural aesthetics at Aegis Gardens in Newcastle.

Chinese design aesthetics, the principles of Feng Shui and Northwest craftsmanship make up the elements incorporated in the facility’s architecture.

Programming will include everything from celebration of Chinese holidays to sit-down Tai Chi classes. The resort-style community will also have a central Zen garden and a tearoom.

Additionally, Aegis Gardens will feature an activity center with daycare services. An amphitheater and movie theater will play host to civic activities, cultural exhibitions, music performances and lectures on the most recent scientific advances in eastern and western medicine.

“Our goal in building this community was not just to have a retirement community, but really a cultural epicenter for the Chinese community as a whole,” said Aegis Living founder Dwayne Clark.

Based on recent U.S. Census figures, Clark said at least 75,000 Chinese-Americans live in King County, with many more residing in nearby Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Newcastle’s Aegis Gardens is the company’s second facility geared toward the Chinese culture. The first Aegis Gardens opened in Fremont, California more than a decade ago with much success.

With an occupancy rate at 100 percent, the Fremont location has shown that residents will travel miles, even several states away, to join such a specialized community, Michael Derr, Aegis Living’s vice president of development, told the Newcastle News in 2013.

Prospective residents have already put down deposits, claiming 10 percent of the Newcastle facility’s apartments.

Aegis Living doesn’t usually have groundbreaking ceremonies, but the Newcastle Aegis Gardens event drew hundreds, including Newcastle City Councilmembers and staff, at least one Bellevue City Council member, the King County Executive and former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

Locke, who most recently served as the U.S. ambassador to China, praised the project and the impact it will have on the community both young and old.

“It truly will be, I think, a focal point for the Chinese American community on the Eastside and actually serve the needs of the Chinese community throughout the Puget Sound area,” he said.

Aegis Gardens is slated to open in 2017. Learn more about the facility at www.aegisgardenswa.com.

SolTerra’s Atlas

By Christina Corrales-Toy
Members of the SolTerra team break ground on Atlas, a new LEED Platinum-designed mixed-use apartment building in Newcastle.

Developers moved the first pieces of dirt July 29 at a site that will soon house a 98-unit, six-story apartment building in Newcastle.

SolTerra, a fast-growing design, build and services firm with the mission of creating sustainable, livable and innovative buildings, broke ground on Atlas, its first apartment project in the state.

Atlas, located behind the Newcastle Library, is a mixed-use LEED Platinum-designed building. LEED certification represents the premier mark of achievement in green building.

“This is going to be the first LEED Platinum mid-rise building on the entire Eastside,” SolTerra co-founder Brian Heather said. “It’s a really cool project that we’re getting to bring to the community.”

The building will include underground parking for residents and Newcastle Library patrons. There is 2,000 square feet for ground-floor retail space.

Atlas will feature lush green living walls, eco-roofs, a large storm-water retention facility, rooftop solar, and private and public roof terraces.

The building’s design elements focus on sustainability. For example, the company says the anticipated energy use will be 30 percent less than typical new buildings built to state code.

“This new SolTerra project provides a beautiful, sustainable living space for our community,” Mayor Steve Buri said. “The LEED design also raises the bar for what we might expect from future city development projects.”

Additionally, the 9,100-square-foot eco-roof will help manage storm water; a living wall will absorb carbon emissions and cool the building; and drought-tolerant landscaping with a high-efficiency irrigation system will reduce water demand for irrigation by 71 percent.

Contributed by SolTerra
Atlas, a 98-unit, six-story apartment building, is set for construction behind the Newcastle Library.

Each SolTerra project has a special touch. In Atlas, each unit will be equipped with bookshelves, a nod to the apartment building’s neighbor.

“It’s really going to help us fulfill our vision, our mission to help connect people to nature, create better community and urban environments, and just reduce our impact on the Earth,” Heather said. “Those are the things that really drive us every day.”

The new building is particularly interesting, because to date, single-family residential-type projects have dominated the city’s development, City Manager Rob Wyman said.

“This is a first for us, and we are very, very excited,” he said.

Atlas is set to be completed the summer of 2016. Learn more at www.solterra.com.

History is one of Newcastle’s greatest assets.

The Eastside suburb’s story dates back more than 150 years, when it was the second largest town in King County. During that time, coal was king, and Newcastle had plenty of it.

By Christina Corrales-Toy
Newcastle Mayor Steve Buri, Aegis Living founder Dwayne Clark, former Gov. Gary Locke and King County Executive Dow Constantine break ground on Aegis Gardens, the region’s first senior living community built for Chinese-American retirees.

That history was at the forefront of attendees’ minds July 30, when nearly 300 people gathered in Newcastle to celebrate the groundbreaking of a unique Aegis Living retirement community.

Aegis Gardens, a luxury senior living community built for Chinese-American retirees, will sit on the shores of Lake Boren, not far, incidentally, from Newcastle’s China Creek.

China Creek was so named for the Chinese mine and railroad workers who built small huts along the creek, away from the main mining camp in the late 1800s, according to Rich Crispo, a Newcastle Historical Society member and City Councilman.

“It’s fitting that this facility is in Newcastle. Right here on this very ground is where the first Chinese immigrants came to our part of the world,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said at the special groundbreaking ceremony.

Billed as the first project of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, Aegis Gardens is a 110-unit waterfront community sitting on a little more than seven acres.

The facility will offer the same high quality assisted living and memory care that Aegis Living is known for with an added emphasis on the Chinese culture, which will be reflected in everything from the building’s construction to the staff.

Chinese design aesthetics, the principles of Feng Shui and Northwest craftsmanship make up the elements incorporated in the facility’s architecture.

Programming will include everything from celebration of Chinese holidays to sit-down Tai Chi classes. The resort-style community will also have a central Zen garden and a tearoom.

Additionally, Aegis Gardens will feature an activity center with daycare services. An amphitheater and movie theater will play host to civic activities, cultural exhibitions, music performances and lectures on the most recent scientific advances in eastern and western medicine.

“Our goal in building this community was not just to have a retirement community, but really a cultural epicenter for the Chinese community as a whole,” said Aegis Living founder Dwayne Clark.

Based on recent U.S. Census figures, Clark said at least 75,000 Chinese-Americans live in King County, with many more residing in nearby Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Newcastle’s Aegis Gardens is the company’s second facility geared toward the Chinese culture. The first Aegis Gardens opened in Fremont, California more than a decade ago with much success.

With an occupancy rate at 100 percent, the Fremont location has shown that residents will travel miles, even several states away, to join such a specialized community, Michael Derr, Aegis Living’s vice president of development, told the Newcastle News in 2013.

Prospective residents have already put down deposits, claiming 10 percent of the Newcastle facility’s apartments.

Aegis Living doesn’t usually have groundbreaking ceremonies, but the Newcastle Aegis Gardens event drew hundreds, including Newcastle City Councilmembers and staff, at least one Bellevue City Council member, the King County Executive and former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

Locke, who most recently served as the U.S. ambassador to China, praised the project and the impact it will have on the community both young and old.

“It truly will be, I think, a focal point for the Chinese American community on the Eastside and actually serve the needs of the Chinese community throughout the Puget Sound area,” he said.

Aegis Gardens is slated to open in 2017. Learn more about the facility at www.aegisgardenswa.com.

John McKnight is a well-known name in the area, and the Renton School District even named a middle school after him. His father, also John McKnight, was an important man in the Newcastle coal mining era and is buried in our cemetery.

John McKnight, the father, had served in the Civil War and came west after the conflict looking for opportunity. He was very interested in the birth of our nation and wrote and delivered a speech commemorating Independence Day in 1875.

He came to Newcastle in the mid-1870’s to find work. He left his wife Ellen and son Willie in Oregon while he found a job and a place for them all to live.

He started off working in the coal bunkers at a rate of $2 for an eight-hour day. He could have made $3 if he had his own tools, but he had left them behind. His work shift began at 7 a.m., stopped for lunch at noon, started again at 1 p.m., stopped at 6 p.m. for dinner, began again at 6:30 p.m. and went until 9 p.m.

This extended period counted as a little more than a day and a half. As a result, John McKnight earned $3.125 for the shift. The miners were paid once a month for the preceding month’s work. Paying all the miners was done in cash and could take five or six hours to complete.

It was hard work, but it enabled him to bring his wife and son to Newcastle. When he first arrived there was not any available housing. He was able to get room and board for $8 a week, but eventually he secured housing for his family and they joined him.

John McKnight was industrious and ambitious and soon left the mines to work in the company store. The pay was better and conditions were considered less hazardous. During 1884 and 1885, he sold life and accident insurance. He was the Justice of the Peace from October 1889 until February 1891.

He passed away in 1900 at age 45. He was preceded in death by his son William who died in 1893 at age 18. His wife Ellen survived him until 1911.

All three are buried in the Newcastle Cemetery. After Ellen’s death, their other children, including son John (the namesake for McKnight Middle School) moved to Renton. John McKnight, the son, became a very successful businessman.

Every headstone in the cemetery has a story.

Victor Nyman died at 14 years old. He was picking blackberries one afternoon and decided to take a nap. While asleep he was overcome by mine gases from a ventilation shaft and died.

His headstone was stolen by vandals (a common occurrence during the mid-1900s). It was found many years later in a garbage dump.

The person who found it was kind enough to investigate and determined the source was the Newcastle Cemetery. The stone was given to Milt Swanson, of the Newcastle Historical Society, who returned the stone to the gravesite.

If you are interested in learning more about the cemetery, activities of the Newcastle Historical Society or would like to share your local history with us, email Rich Crispo at crispo@comcast.net.

The Newcastle pioneer, born and raised in this community, spent all of his 95 years living 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.

Milt Swanson

Swanson died Jan. 20 after a Jan. 14 fall sent him to the 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.”

Friends remembered Swanson as a sharp, inquisitive man, with a sense of humor that made him impossible to dislike.

“He made me laugh all of the time,” said Newcastle Historical Society member Vickie Baima Olson. “He would always put a humorous twist on things.”

Swanson was the authority when it came to Newcastle history, leading him to create the Newcastle Historical Society.

For the better part of its more than 20 years of existence, the Newcastle Historical Society was a place where passionate history junkies could get their fix by attending monthly meetings where the legend that is Swanson would talk about the good old days.

It’s evolved since then, making a greater effort to preserve the city’s history, but Swanson was still a major part of that, Olson said.

“Milt, I think, died in peace,” she said. “I think he felt confident that his artifacts would have a good home and the Newcastle Historical Society would protect the history.”

At the group’s Newcastle Days booth, Swanson was often an attraction himself, a veritable encyclopedia of the city’s history, Newcastle Trails board member Giles Velte said.

“He is an irreplaceable part of our history,” Velte said.

Swanson had a love of railroads and speeders, something he shared with Newcastle Historical Society President Russ Segner.

“We both love railroad history, so we bonded over that,” Segner said. “He really was one of the final links between Newcastle as it has evolved, and the history that existed here from the 1900s, on up through the evolution of the Eastside.”

Crispo said he learned nearly everything he knows about the history of the city from Swanson. He, along with Olson, would often sit for hours listening to Swanson’s stories, while they recorded him for an oral history project.

“Milt was a 95-year-old guy that represented what all of us would like to be at 95,” Crispo said. “He was still somebody who could teach, somebody who could share his knowledge, right until the day he died. Not many people can do that.”

Councilman Bill Erxleben announced that he will not file for re-election this spring, guaranteeing that there will be one open seat during November’s election. Two other sitting council members could be challenged as well.

“I believe that two terms is enough for any council member,” Erxleben wrote in a letter to the editor.

Erxleben was first appointed to the Newcastle City Council in 2002. He was elected to the council in 2003. After a few years away from local government, he was elected to the council again in 2009.

In addition to Erxleben, Mayor Rich Crispo and Councilman John Dulcich will see their current terms expire at the end of 2013. Both Crispo and Dulcich have announced plans to file for re-election.

Crispo announced his intentions at the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce’s April 10 luncheon, citing his belief that there are still a lot of valuable things that can be done within the city.

“I am going to run again,” he said. “I really like the people in the city, I really do. I’m involved in a lot of stuff, and I meet a lot of folks and I just love it.”

Crispo was elected to the Newcastle City Council in 2009. He became the mayor in 2012 and currently occupies Position 5 on the council.

Dulcich recently announced his plans to run for re-election, saying he felt it was his “call to duty” to ensure that the city remains on the right track.

“I would like to continue this effort to not only ensure the sustainability of Newcastle but to see it thrive as the premier community on the Eastside,” he wrote in an email.

Dulcich began serving on the City Council when the city incorporated in 1994. He retired from his post in 2007. After a few years away from local government, Dulcich was elected to the council in 2009. He served as the mayor for two terms from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2010 to 2011. He currently occupies Position 7 on the council.

As of press time, two Newcastle residents have declared their intentions to file for Erxleben’s vacating seat on the council. Mark Greene and John Drescher will both file for Position 6.

Greene announced his candidacy at the end of December on his blog, but made it official with a press release in mid-April.

“The importance of keeping our unique stature as a city is a major reason of why I decided to run, though not the only,” he said in a statement. “If elected to the council this year, I will focus on infrastructure, safety and environmental issues.”

Drescher announced April 22 that he plans to seek Erxleben’s seat. He was appointed to the Newcastle Planning Commission in 2010 and currently serves as the advisory board’s chairman.

“At the urging of friends and family, and because I care deeply about helping to make Newcastle a great place to live and raise a family, I have decided to run for the Newcastle City Council this year,” he said in a statement.

Prospective candidates must file in-person at the King County Elections Office or online from May 13-17. Candidates can file by mail, though filings will not be accepted earlier than April 29 or later than May 17, irrespective of postmark.

Election Day is Nov. 5.

Learn more about filing for the upcoming election at www.kingcounty.gov/elections.

About 115 residents armed with electronic voting clickers responded to real-time poll questions at the annual town hall meeting held Oct. 29 at The Golf Club at Newcastle.

City Manager Rob Wyman presented information about the 2013 preliminary budget and future development in the city, while Newcastle Police Chief Melinda Irvine offered information on community safety, crime prevention and Newcastle police staffing levels.

With the electronic voting devices, residents had the opportunity to offer their feedback about the city’s performance.

Residents were asked how satisfied they were with the services that the city provides. The majority of respondents said they were somewhat satisfied with city services at 52 percent of the vote, 36 percent said they were very satisfied and 12 percent said they were unsatisfied.

The majority of respondents also said they were somewhat satisfied with the City Council’s performance with 65 percent of the vote, 19 percent said they were very satisfied and 16 percent said they were unsatisfied.

When it came to development, 67 percent of residents polled at the meeting said they see Newcastle as a bedroom community with basic services, while 33 percent said they have a vision of the city as a bigger downtown area with multi-story buildings.

The evening ended with a question-and-answer session, where topics discussed included annexation to Bellevue, how the City Council prioritizes the city’s capital projects and the development of the Mutual Materials site.

Councilman John Dulcich called the development of the Mutual Materials site “one of the biggest decisions facing the city,” and residents were vocal about what they wanted to see in the site’s development.

One resident pushed for heavy commercial development of the site, setting the stage for a strong commercial tax base for the city.

Another resident wanted to make sure the site strikes the proper balance between commercial and residential development. He stressed the importance of the Newcastle lifestyle, known for its neighborhoods and easy living. The resident questioned how a commercial development of that size would impact the community-oriented atmosphere in Newcastle.

But ultimately, the city won’t have a great deal of say in what happens to the site, Councilman Bill Erxleben said.

“The problem is we don’t control what goes in there, the owners do,” he said.

The topic of Bellevue annexation came up again when a resident asked if the City Council was considering it.

Mayor Rich Crispo acknowledged that there was a difference of opinion among the council members in terms of Bellevue annexation. But Crispo added that if the city got to that point, it would be up to the residents to determine what to do with the city going forward.

The city has posted the PowerPoint presentation from the meeting, along with results from the poll questions, at its website here.

An audio recording of the meeting is also available here.

John Jensen, president of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, will reward the person who walks the farthest distance to the event with a $10 Sweet Decadence gift certificate — or by buying the winner two glasses of wine that night.

Sweet Decadence is located at 12835 Newcastle Way.