Scampers Breaks Ground with Ground Breaking Technology

After months of preparation and discussion and design and design revision not to mention application and approval, today we broke ground on our exterior work, with installation of our rain garden.

InHarmony's Bryan LaComa looks on as the digging begins.

No, this is not where the dogs will be playing. This is where the water that runs off their play places will be filtered into the ground after being scientifically but naturally processed through the correct strata of the correct soils and sands and indigenous plants' roots, which renders this run-off clean.

Our rain garden designer and contractor is InHarmony sustainable gardens. Visit their website for more information on this wonderful technology, so perfect for the Pacific Northwest.

Their work will finish in about a week, and then our fencing will be installed, and once that's been completed and all our work has been inspected and approved, we'll be .... TA DAHHHH welcoming our first customers. We'll keep you posted.

Scampers Numbers Expanded by One - Introducing "The Dude"

We are so happy to announce that Eric Olsgaard has joined the Scampers team as of October 1st.

Stina has known Eric for some years, and Linda has gotten to know him since moving to Redmond in July. Eric's an enormous help with an enormous heart and and an enormous work ethic that the Scampers co-founders promise will never go unappreciated or unrecognized.

Eric comes to Scampers with a ton of experience in everything from logistics to construction to interior decor - and, no, he was not the decorator! He's the dude who installed, with Gregg's help, all that rolled rubber flooring. He's the dude who is this very moment installing the shelf that our music box (boom box!) will sit on - see his pic below. (BTW: Moments later he fixed the latch on our entry gate!) He's the dude who will touch up the "holidays" in our epoxy paint job, and the dude who will coordinate the various contractors who are about to descend on Scampers to finish the job. He's The Dude, a perfect complement to the team of The Redhead and The Brunette.

Here's The Dude, Eric

Eric is a super dog-friendly guy, and all the dogs know it. Maybe they can somehow tell that he sports a tat of "Big Dog". Maybe they've noticed he is almost always wearing dog motif-ed shirts. Or maybe he's sporting some special scent - courtesy of Mojo and Buddy. Mojo and Buddy are Eric's pooches, a couple of little white moppish things that clearly have a solid hold on his heart... well, except for the great big part of his heart that is devoted to his wife, Lisa, the goddess of haircutting and color. We're so grateful to Lisa that she's willing to share him with us.

Building Permit Application APPROVED ... (but)

HOORAY HOORAY AND HOORAY AGAIN! We received word from our Hero, Duncan, that our Building Permit was approved. We were in the car on the way to Home Depot to buy more hardware when Stina's cell phone rang. (It must have looked strange to anyone looking on to see two women teary and giddy as they pawed through the bins looking for lipstick red caribiner rings.)

We were almost a week late, but at least the permit had been approved as designed (Yes, the number of parking spaces was fine!) and we would finally be able to get crews going on the buildout of the rain garden and exterior fencing, and on the laundry room.

It wasn't until later that we realized we hadn't actually been given the news by a City employee. That call would come much later in the day.

When it did finally come, we jumped into my car to dash up to City Hall and pick up our building permit. That's when we got the bad news.

Yes, we could pick up our Building Permit, if we paid for the various fees attached to it. We were ready for that. We knew there would be fees. We were expecting a bill of about $1,000. We were not expecting a bill for over $7,500. That includes a Traffic Impact Assessment of over $6,500.

There it is. The next hoop for us to jump through. Only this one's in flames!

Apparently the City of Kirkland thinks we are going to attract so much new traffic to the Totem Lake neighborhood that it will cost $6,500 in new pavement, stripe painting, bulbs for stop lights ... Apparently this is the way the City pays for public works.

The figure is based on an intricate system of base fees and multipliers. The Traffic Engineer was so proud to advise that $6,500 was in fact very low. His original figure was about $60,000, but he was able to bring it down to $30,000 and then again to $6,500.

What we perceived was a series of arbitrary decisions. If the figure could be brought from $60,000 to $6,500, why not to $1,000? Why not zero, for that matter? Well, we do not expect to reach zero. We do understand the concept of traffic impacts and the associated costs, and recognize we should bear our fair share. Stina was given a cursory tour of the math, and was able to identify one particular area where the Traffic Engineer had gone wrong. He estimated that only 25% our customer base would be derived from passers-by, and that the remaining 75% would be making a special trip to come to our shop. But despite civil debate, the Traffic Engineer would stand firm. And we were not convinced of any fairness.

We know that 25% is an incorrect factor. We are on the feeder route between I-405 and the Microsoft campus and all the tech companies on Willows, and that those who commute to those jobs from Bothell, Kenmore, Mill Creek, Lynnwood and Everett drive past our front door. We also recognized that the residents to the south and east of our location use this road to travel to their jobs at Evergreen Hospital, and in Bothell, Kenmore, Mill Creek, Lynnwood and Everett.

We've already had several visitors because we erected our sign.



We chose this location for the passby traffic. 42,000 cars pass by our storefront every day.



We know that at least 40% of our market will come to us because they see us on their way to work in the mornings, now especially, since we've installed our new monument sign at the streetside.

We called on our Hero, again.

The next morning, Duncan was able to meet with the Traffic Engineer and learned the formula for the calculations. Once we had that detail, we were able to understand just how large a magnitude the tweaking of that passby factor could have on the bottom line.


Armed with our information, we suggested to the Traffic Engineer that this factor of 25% should be changed to about 40%, which reduced the assessment to less than $1,000, but he would not accept our word. He said, "Bring me data."

So off we went in search of data. We contacted the owners of 4 doggy day cares located on major roads in Seattle and asked them what their numbers were. In all cases, their estimates were over 50%, and described as "conservative estimates".  



Dana M., the owner of Fuzzy Buddy's on Aurora had tracked her sources using Quick Books and was able to run a report for us, very generously interceding on our behalf with an extremely well crafted communique to our friend, the Traffic Engineer. He's not sure when he will have time to study her data. He was not willing to accept the anecdotal data from the other owners, despite the fact that one of those was Rick Beaubelle, the owner of Seattle Canine Club and president of the Seattle Dog Daycare Association.



As incensed as we were to have to leave City Hall without our permit, yet again, we started making calls. First was to our Hero. Then, at his recommendation, we began extending our appeal to senior individuals in the Public Works department, and we hope they will soon arrive at a correct and fair assessment, which we will be willing to pay.

For any new business just preparing to open its doors, an extra expenditure - whether $1,500 or $6,500 - is an awful shock. Had the traffic impact assessment been designed as a fee to be paid at the end of Year 1, or in installments, it could have been made manageable, although it would impact the year's profits.  For many new businesses, the amount might as well be $60,000.

The correct time to advise entrepreneurs who plan on entering the Kirkland market that they should be prepared to pay a Traffic Impact Assessment fee of several - to tens of - thousands of dollars is at the beginning of the process, before they commit to their lease, before they make purchases and commitments to suppliers and service providers, and to their clients, before they leave their former jobs, move to a new city (or, as in my case, a new country). The Traffic Engineer was included in our fact finding tour at the beginning of May, and while he advised us there would be a Traffic Impact Assessment fee to be paid, we were under the impression we could expect a fee in the order of a few hundred dollars.

So, we continue our battle. We still do not have our Building Permit. We anticipate calling on our Hero again for one last charge of the doggy brigade. We believe we will be victorious. And maybe, after all of this, the City of Kirkland will reconsider its Traffic Impact Assessment fee structure. 

From Tears and Tantrums to Titanesses-to-Be

We met a wonderful hero today. He has pledged to take up our cause, to charge into the den of frustration and obstruction, and to help us to be victorious.

After yet another delay, which came in the form of a late spate of questions from the Building Department, most of which were on subjects already addressed or inappropriate to our application, we finally called on some help.

Dr Duncan Milloy was introduced to us in a welcome letter from the mayor of Kirkland as an advocate for businesses focusing on business retention. But I told him our story anyway, my voice quavering with frustration, and when he'd heard our litany of issues, he volunteered to come to our site immediately to review our concerns and provide us with advice and direction. He was here within 15 minutes.

With his reassurance that we are truly doing everything correctly, we were able to refocus and respond to the questions posed, confident that the end result will be positive and forthcoming.

Dr Milloy's approach is decidedly genteel, intelligent, respectful and thoughtful, and he has offered to be our advocate and intermediary if ever we cannot speak for ourselves. He is our hero.

Calling on the Fates, and Readers

Today is the day we learn whether - or how much of - our permit application will be approved by the City of Kirkland.

This has already been a harrowing process, leaving us feeling at times like we're playing pinball, but we're the pinballs being bounced around for someone's amusement; at other times we seem to be playing pin the tail on the donkey, and the donkey keeps kicking; or it could be musical chairs, and we're really  not sure whether, after all this dizzying and exhausting running around, there will be a place to settle.

Two weeks ago, we submitted our application to install a laundry area, a 6' high fence around the dog play area and a rain garden to filter the storm runoff to the neighboring "wetland" (populated by old tires and rusty something or other). We have reduced our outdoor dog play area to accommodate the 10' setback requirements (our neighbor is a pipe warehouse); we've upgraded our interior fencing gates to be wheelchair accessible. We think we've answered every concern the City could possibly have, but we're simple businesswomen, not contractors. We've never experienced the maze that is the Planning Dept/Dept of Public Works/and ... who else? It seemed they had a neverending supply of hoops for us to jump through. Today we find out if there are any more.

My fear is that the eight parking spaces we have will be deemed inadequate. (Although that would be unreasonable, as we will have more parking spaces here than most if not all other Doggy Daycares in King County.) But we are located on a major thoroughfare, so there is no on-street parking. We've paid for people to sit for four hours, over two days, and count the traffic at a comparable doggy daycare, and then to sit in our neighbor's parking lot for four hours, over two days and count traffic in their parking lot. And we're now paying the City's Traffic Engineer to generate an analysis of the data. And if he feels we must have more parking spaces, we're delayed again while we redesign our rain garden to accommodate whatever number he comes up with, reducing even further our dog play space. Oh, the anxiety!

Please, Fates, help them to find in our favor. We've been good girls. We've tried so hard to be nice, to be accommodating. And to all you readers out there, please wish us luck.

Interior Fencing - DONE!

Who knew some chain link fences could be so incredibly exciting?!

For Stina and me, this lovely stuff is the proof that the dream is coming true, that the vision can be made into a reality.

This fencing is powder coated with the glossiest black, and only 3 feet high, with swing gates designed for ease of access for humans, but the dogs will be well contained, visible, safe, and I hope they will enjoy the cool factor of designer black gloss powder coated steel.

Here's the entry gate. It works a lot like the airlock in a spaceship. First you get the dog inside the door, and once the door is closed, open the gate. No escapes, no unwanted or uncontrolled meetings.

The "fire hydrant" you see is purely decorative, and will soon be moved into our back or side garden, which will be installed as soon as the City of Kirkland is able to approve our permit applications. (Maybe Friday??)  

These fences will be augmented by a system of  "ex-pens" (exercise pens) that can be moved in mere moments, and as easily rearranged into oblongs, ovals, or long stretches which are supported by Triangles of Power (to maintain their verticality). Ex-pens work well to subdivide the spaces into lively dog / quiet dog, big dog / small dog spaces. You can see one which had been in use earlier, but is now set aside - Biscuit, the mop toward the right side of the runway pictured, is guarding it.

Biscuit Sits

This is one of Biscuit's favorite spots - we've put two dog beds down along the back wall of our office for Biscuit and Rosie. This is how Biscuit sits and watches while I'm working on my computer.