The preschools that inhabit North Mercer campus have had one step out of the proverbial door for more than a year now.
Ever since the administrators of Children’s Institute for Learning Differences (CHILD), Country Village, Pixie Hill and Little Acorn day care received a lease termination warning in January 2009 from the Mercer Island School District — which was later negotiated into postponement — they have been counting their days at North Mercer.
“I’m not feeling that we were not warned. All the tenants have been on a shortened lease for the last year or so,” said Children’s Institute Director Trina Westerlund, referring to a notice of lease termination that MISD superintendent Gary Plano sent to North Mercer residents in January 2009.

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The city of Mercer Island is on board with Bellevue in supporting either a King County or sub-regional animal control program once King County stops offering services on July 1. Last month, the City Council voiced support for a joint, sub-regional animal control services program with Bellevue. However, the Eastside city has since opted for the joint cities-county model, and Mercer Island plans to follow suit.

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The City Council’s recent proposal to develop a Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities (PBF) Plan ordinance restricting group cycling around the Island was mowed down under a peloton of complaints last Monday night.

Dozens of cyclists showed up at the April 19 City Council meeting to speak out against the draft ordinance, which would have required cyclists “in a group of two or more” moving at a rate of speed “less than the normal flow of traffic” to ride “single file” and “as far to the right of the road as possible” when riding on Mercer Island; in particular along East and West Mercer Way. The ordinance also would have required cyclists “among a slow moving group” in a location “where passing is unsafe” and there is “at least one motor vehicle formed in aline of five or more vehicles behind the bicycle leading the group” to turn off the roadway “wherever sufficient area for a safe turn-out exists.”

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The King County Boys & Girls Club is facing a projected $300,000 budget shortfall before its fiscal year ends in June. Yet CEO Daniel Johnson is optimistic that the club will raise enough funds to close this gap within the next two months.

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Nic Peterson, David Jennings and Neil Chasan all have one thing in common: they’re not afraid to take the entrepreneurial leap. All three tech-savvy Islanders have launched new, electronic-based ventures. Chasan has developed an iPhone app for back pain, while partners Jennings and Peterson founded the online company eVenues, which helps people find fast and affordable meeting spaces in the region.
The office for www.eVenues.com, which went live last summer, is located in the Mercer Island business district. According to co-founder Jennings, eVenues “is just like Expedia, but it’s for any space — board rooms, training rooms, smaller event space or even desk space.”

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Several of flights out of SeaTac International Airport to London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt have been canceled due to the continuing eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

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Cyclists may notice new biking stencils painted onto the pavement at the intersections of S.E. 40th Street and 86th Ave. S.E. and Island Crest Way and S.E. 40th. The city introduced the stencils last month in response to cyclists’ complaints that the intersections’ light sensors were not detecting their presence at the light, according to Assistant City Engineer Anne Tonella-Howe.

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