When the McMenamin brothers rolled into town last summer to unveil their plans to transform the historic W.A. Anderson Building into one of their distinguished hotels and entertainment complexes, the crowd cheered.

It was a big moment for Bothell City Manager Bob Stowe and his colleagues.

“That was great, and I think it showcased a lot of what the downtown plan and the visioning process was about,” he said. “Many people who may have been uncertain about what the downtown plan was going to deliver, and once they understood that there are businesses like McMenamins (coming), they really had the opportunity to say, ‘I’m all in now… I’m supportive of the downtown plan.'”

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Former Kenmore Mayor Jack Crawford’s slogan and diamond-shaped signs read, “Courtesy is Contagious in Kenmore.”

The word “progress” could be added to that phrase, as well. In just more than a year, the city of about 20,400 residents has added a new City Hall, library, fire department and relocated its post office.

“The cornerstones are there, and then the rest of Kenmore I think is growing,” said Northshore Fire Department Chief Tom Weathers.

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Cars smashed, lanes blocked, a light pole hanging over a freeway onramp.

That was the scene early this morning when a semi-truck driver, allegedly drunk and asleep at the wheel, crashed into a light pole and concrete barrier while driving westbound on State Route 522 onto the southbound Interstate-405 ramp in Bothell at about 12:30 a.m., according to Washington State Patrol trooper Julie Startup.

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They’ve moved across the street, their new station is more than double the size of the old one and a group of Northshore firefighters are honored to be involved with recently unveiled Station 51 in Kenmore.

“Very few firefighters get the opportunity to say that they were the first company to occupy a new station, and we were very excited to have such a privilege,” said Lt. Mitch Sauer, who along with Battalion Chief Mike Morris and firefighters Todd McInturff, Russ Holmes, Brian Ford, Anders Hansson and Lyle Haugsven form the D Shift, the first shift to work in the new station, located at 7220 N.E. 181st St.

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Pastor Jeremy Johnson of Eastlake Church in Bothell poured his heart out when describing one of his churchgoers who died in a massive traffic accident over the weekend.

“She was a champion,” he said in a video message on the church’s Web site.

Rachel Beckwith, 9, of Issaquah died of head trauma and spinal-cord trauma Saturday at Harborview Medical Center after she, her mother, Samantha Paul, and younger sister, Sienna, were involved in a 13-car pile up on Interstate 90 last Wednesday. (Samantha suffered a head injury and is expected to make a full recovery, Johnson said, and Sienna wasn’t injured.)

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Kirkland Postmaster Kathy Dela Cruz said the mail-delivery process is moving smoothly as of July 1, a month after about 2,700 households with Bothell addresses were annexed into Kirkland. Overall, more than 12,700 homes sat in the annexation area of Finn Hill, North Juanita and Kingsgate in unincorporated King County.

She noted that three mail carriers cover the old Bothell addresses, with two covering their same routes and one staking out a new one.

“We’re adjusting to a little bit more travel time to deliver the mail,” Dela Cruz said of the new route.

Marie Stake, Kirkland communications program manager, said there’s a bit of adjusting for everyone, especially new residents.

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Bob Rorabaugh gets emotional when he speaks about this Sunday’s Wacky Wheelays. He calls it “an event of the heart.”

The former Northshore Baptist Church staff pastor noted that starting with a 12:45 p.m. lunch and registration and then heading into games from 2:15-3:45 p.m., the Bothell High track and soccer stadium should be filled with hundreds of people with and without disabilities in wheelchairs, wagons, bikes, pedal toys, trikes, scooters, furniture dollies and more. Any wheeled contraption is a go, he added about the all-inclusive community field day.

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A few minutes after the doors opened to the new Kenmore Library, one girl excitedly said to another: “Let’s run around and get lost in here.”

It’s taken about 6 ½ years from inception to completion — and some snags along the way — but the library finally opened its doors July 9.

“We are so psyched, the community has waited a long time for this,” Robin Wharton, operations supervisor, said recently during a breakfast break from the first staff meeting in the new, 10,000-square-foot building.

The grand-opening ceremony took place at 9:30 a.m. and the building officially opened at 10 a.m. at 6531 N.E. 181st St. The former 1,800-square-foot, triple-wide-trailer library (18138 73rd Ave. N.E.) closed up shop July 7-8 as the final move to the new library began.

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As Adolf Maas glides from room to room of his 7,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Center for Bird & Exotic Animal Medicine, he’s got a skip in his step. When he proudly speaks of the center’s digital X-ray and electronic-monitor equipment — and, of course, the animals they treat — he does so in a smooth voice that’s attached with a smile.

The center’s new location near the wetlands off Northeast 195th Street in Bothell is a bonus for the Kenmore native.

“I couldn’t come up with a better location. I like the fact that we’re on the wetlands and the stream and the amount of wildlife we have on the property, because I think that really reflects well on what we do. We do bird medicine and we’ve got pairs of nesting Canada geese in the wetlands behind the property,” said the 43-year-old doctor of veterinary medicine, who moved from his much smaller hospital (1,050 square feet) on Main Street to the new spot fourth months ago.

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It’s taken about 6 1/2 years from inception to completion — and some snags along the way — but the Kenmore Library will finally open its doors July 9.

“We are so psyched, the community has waited a long time for this,” Robin Wharton, operations supervisor, said Friday morning during a breakfast break from the first staff meeting in the new, 10,000-square-foot building.

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Just one is worth it.

That’s what a Bothell trio lists as its motto and hopes to achieve with its involvement with the Washington Newborn Safety Act. Retired nurses Joan Dedman and Virginia Pfalzer co-founded the act, which was signed a state law in 2002, and Donald Bagnall is the board chairman for the nonprofit Safe Place for Newborns of Washington.

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It’s a family thing, a community gathering when Pete Anthony is involved.

So, when members of the Bothell Parks and Recreation Department approached Anthony about being the grand marshal of this year’s Fourth of July Grand Parade, the owner of Uncle Peteza’s Pizzeria said he was in, but only if his wife, Sidonia, and two grandchildren could ride in the main car with him.

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When there are no rules, writers can really open themselves up and craft a memorable poem or story, says Jackie Oh.

It took her about an hour to crank out “Alphabetic Structure: Attempt at Originality,” a poem that took first place and earned her a $25 check in the recent Friends of the Bothell Library teen-writing contest for youths in grades 7-12.

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