Griffey Builds A Mega-House; Who Knows If He'll Live There?

?Hey, Johnston: I heard Ken Griffey Jr. is building a mega-house somewhere on the Eastside. Where is it? And does this mean he's staying in Seattle?

!Answer: We gave this question to our business reporter Scott ("Beam Me Up") Williams who is a Ken Griffey Jr. groupie. He said Ken is building a rather large home in a development called Canter Grove on Black Nugget Road, north of Issaquah. It's going to be completed by Christmas as a present to Ken's new wife, Melissa.

While this is a big house, it isn't the biggest one in the development, according to the developer, John Buchan Homes. But it probably looks pretty big to a family living in their car at some state park. Nor does building a big house in the woods mean Ken Griffey Jr. is settling down on the Plateau to play out his career with a team in the league cellar. It's always possible another team would make Ken an offer he couldn't refuse, and buying his mega-house would be chump change.

?Hey, Johnston: There's something that really bugs me and that's when they finished the new I-90 bridge, instead of putting lights on the bridge illuminating the bridge, they left it a dark pit. If you're coming across Mercer Island and entering the bridge at night you're in all the illuminated tunnels, totally lit up like a Christmas tree and you get on the bridge and - BANG! - it's dark and rainy and you're in a dark pit. !Answer: Do you remember the Energy Crisis of the 1970s? Low snowpack in the Cascades? Brownouts? The state Department of Transportation designed the I-90 bridge with the idea of saving energy. The policy says if a highway is straight and wide with big shoulders, it doesn't need "illuminating" (that is, lights). I-90 meets those standards. The new bridge being built meets them too, so no lights on that one either. Besides, the lights bug people living along the lake.

?Hey, Johnston: I have a question about the lights on the fountains on 520. There used to be lights on there and I don't know whether they're turned off or burned out or what. It would be nice if they were back on again. !Answer: After an investment of great personal expense and time, we checked this out and found the fountain lights are back on again. Not only that, water is shooting up, which hasn't always been the case. These fountains on the Seattle side of the Evergreen Point Bridge are an on-again, off-again project by Eastside resident Max Gurvich and numerous volunteers. Gurvich had the sculptures built, the pumps fixed and dedicated the fountains to Nellie Cornish (she founded the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle). The fountains were turned back on in 1989 and have been squirting, off and on, ever since. Milfoil clogs the pumps, so every so often they stop working.

How to Just Ask Johnston: This column appears Thursdays on the cover of the Eastside Life section. Leave your questions about any aspect of Eastside life on Steve Johnston's voice mail at 464-8475. Or write: Just Ask Johnston c/o The Seattle Times, Suite 100, 10777 Main St., Bellevue WA 98004.