Last June the Bothell City Council approved negotiations to purchase the Wayne Golf Course from Forterra, a land conservancy. On November 14 the Council was scheduled to vote on the final purchase agreement for the front 9. The back 9 purchase vote will be held on December 12.
The City Council chamber was packed. Before the festivities began, the Council went into closed session for labor negotiations. After about 20 minutes, they returned for the open forum section of the agenda. Surprisingly, most of the speakers were not there for the golf course issue; rather, they spoke against putting a safe drug injection site in Bothell. Many of the speakers on this topic didn’t live in Bothell, which made us wonder whether this was a planned distraction for the Golf Course vote. As it happens, the former mayor (and retiring Council member) is spearheading the drive against the injection site. All of the injection site foes left after the open forum, which increased my suspicion about the timing of this “spontaneous” outpouring of opposition.
After a break and a couple of votes on other issues, the Council finally got around to the motion to buy the front 9. Again we had distraction. A retiring Council member added an amendment that could have been a poison pill, but the Council voted it down. Another retiring Council member prefaced his vote against the purchase by expressing concern for the merchants who have lost business due to last year’s fire and the closure of Main Street while it’s being rebuilt. He thought the city should bail out those merchants, even though such payments are illegal under Washington law. Finally the votes were cast: 5-2 in favor of the purchase. The former mayor and the retiring member who wanted to bail out Main Street merchants were the no votes. Once the tally was announced, the audience erupted in cheers. Let’s hope the back 9 purchase goes a bit more smoothly.
Council members and supporters of the Wayne Golf Course purchase after the vote. Photo courtesy of Julian. The golf course abuts the Sammamish River, which is why the salmon cutouts were used to advocate for the purchase.
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