Everett Council of Neighborhoods

Council of Neighborhoods Meeting Minutes Mar 24, 2014 Meeting was called to order at 4:15pm. Agenda and minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Attendance: Andrea Tucker, Roger Hoot, Michael Trujillo, Greg Campbell, Steve Bugge, Ben Blacker, Sandy Macham, Tom Norcott, Colleen Kain, Elly Smith, GeorgaDee MacLeod, JT Dray, Art Olson, Jim Prissel, Victor Harris, David Weiser, Jo Brodersen, Laurel Hasley, Dennis Dudder, George Lockeman. Excused: Liz Hawkins, Holly Gibson, Teresa Schultz Staff: Deborah Wright, Wendy McClure Guests: Councilmember Scott Bader, Jaci Barbano, Stacey XXX, Natalie Lecher Citizen Comments: Jaci Barbano, intern with the Trojan baseball team at Everett Community College, spoke about the team and invited the Council reps to be active attenders and support the team at games. She is working to increase the fan base for the team. Natalie Lecher, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), described the academic classes offered for people over 50 through Osher in Everett. These are short academic classes, via OLLI membership of $35/yr. She distributed a flyer out to participants. Classes are offered here and in Redmond & Mercer Island. Everett courses are offered at Carl Gibson Senior Center, and the Schack Art Center. All are sponsored by an academic dept. and taught by people with a degree in subject. If you are interested, find info on the OLLI website to sign up or call for more information. One year membership gives access to take classes, each class has a fee. Mayor Stephanson: Mayor was unable to attend the meeting today. City Council Liaison Scott Bader: Councilmember Bader reported that the City Council approved plans by developer Polygon for the riverfront development. He encouraged people to be involved in commenting on the project and also to tune into the upcoming budget discussions. He is eager to hear recommendations from staff who have been working on budget deficit reduction strategies. He also wants to hear from neighborhoods when he visits groups in April and May about budget. He also announced that State legislators June Robinson and Lillian Ortiz-Self are renting office space in the Wall Street Building. Question about Saltchuk project status – Councilmember Bader responded that the council is eagerly awaiting news on this project. Question about shortfall in city budget - Councilmember Bader explained various sources of revenue are in decline, and annual costs are going up. This creates a structural deficit. Inquiry about funding for transit costs being discussed by Community Transit. Council member Bader commented that Everett Transit is not funded in same way as CT. Key difference is funding from tax base within Everett, vs. benefit taxing areas. We have not had to make as many cutbacks that other transit agencies have had to make. Question -What commercial development are we (city) doing? Polygon is supposed to do commercial development - what is the status of that? Why isn’t Everett getting the commercial development? Councilmember Bader responded that Polygon is solid on commercial development, but doing that portion of development second, not first. The commercial parties for that site are waiting to see the residential portion be developed. City is out trying to get commercial interests here. South County has reputation as higher income area so more attractive for some businesses to locate there. Tulalips site had advantage of Canadian shoppers. Everett Mall is not the Alderwood Mall. Lanie McMullin is working on business recruitment effort. Everett has more challenges than other parts of county. City Reports: None Community Reports: Providence Regional Medical Center Update – Cheri Russum and Darren Redick, hospital staff Darren Redick presented a power point update. Providence has added 116 beds, and is now licensed for 501 beds in Everett. All healthcare organizations need a state license for number of hospital beds. Providence is the third largest hospital in state, and has become very busy and grown quite a bit. Busiest hospital in state based on number of discharges. ER is very busy. Average about 95,000 visits a year. Births – over 4,600. Cardiac program is second largest in state. Providence is second largest private employer in the county. Providence is part of larger health system around region. Over 5 states, 35 hospital system, with 65,000 employees. Focus is on poor and vulnerable. $53.6 million provided in benefit to community in programs and uncompensated care. Darren reported the hospital is interested in building strong community partnerships to improve health, such as with EvCC and UW Bothell to develop health care training for employees. Providence moved their clinic onto EvCC campus last June and have a nurse training partnership. They also support Dawson Place for child victims of sexual assault. They also work with other health leaders to provide a program, called Gear Up and Go with counseling and coaching 5th graders to get active. They are using a program which encourages students to track their physical activity level and children can download their info at schools. Healthy lifestyles is the goal and 5th and 6th grades are good age to intervene on healthy behaviors. Another change for Providence is the addition of Fairfax on the Pacific campus, offering mental health services in 7th floor of Pavilion. Mental health services are badly needed here. Also new is an inpatient hospice center at Colby campus. 16 beds to be added on A-wing. Inpatient units are set up to provide care at end of life that is not necessarily appropriate, so Providence has modified unit for more comfortable setting. In review with Washington State. A new Autism Center will work with disabled children and their families. Screening for potential autism will be offered, with goal to provide treatment locally at Pavilion so kids can stay here for treatment. To be in full swing by end of year. Inquiry about Providence Foundation – Darren responded that the foundation is separate from hospital. They are busy with fundraising. What drives the funding for expansion of Providence? Darren responded some is through partnerships, some is through foundation sources. Inquiry about mentally ill on the streets – what is Providence’s sense of responsibility for mental health in community? Darren replied that many in ER have mental health issues. Mental health 72-hr holds occur in hospital, pending placement at places like Fairfax or other beds. 15-18 patients being held in hospital because there is not space elsewhere. Have seen a big impact to Providence. ACA includes mental health care. Important to provide more beds for mentally ill to receive treatment.  Inquiry about whether Everett PD has been in contact with Providence. Yes, they work together a lot on mental health and other issues. Inquiry about family planning, abortion services at the hospital, etc. Darren responded that Providence does not provide sterilization or abortions on their campus; other providers do so elsewhere. Is there family planning or supported end of life care? Darren responded that terminating a life does not fit within our beliefs. Inquiry about occupancy rate for Colby campus – before tower opened in 2011, it was not uncommon to have no beds available. Gained capacity when tower opened. Very busy again now, around holidays became extremely full. Last three months very busy with some very sick people. Issue is to reduce costs of health care, focused on how to lower expense structure. Staffing levels slightly higher than before tower opened. Made a bit of money last year. Need to make 3-4% per year to invest into programs. Not where we need to be to be sustainable. Successful midwifery program is another example of new program to provide group consultations with multiple couples at one time. Model has reduced preterm births. Midwives are working with OB docs. Group appointments for education of patients with issues like heart or diabetes issues. Program builds community and better support. Long term success for the hospital will be with getting patients to use clinics for their care, and reduce use hospital, especially ER visits. Tower opened with 240 beds in tower, two floors are not occupied, five floors in a wing still being used. Inquiry about beginning of life and end of life services – women’s reproductive services, or end of life services. Darren responded that comfort care and nutrition are provided at end of life. Not involved in speeding up the process or ending a life. End of life care in non-institutional care setting is what they are trying to build at new facility. Teamwork: Monte Cristo 2014 - Oct 9th – MC Committee will meet after this meeting, volunteers are needed from each neighborhood. Nomination forms need to be distributed at local businesses. Michael reiterated need for volunteers at the event itself. This is a Council of Neighborhoods event, so please step up and help out. You can recruit neighborhood volunteers. Brooklyn will help coordinate volunteers at the event and leading up to event. Outreach to School Age families – Wendy acknowledged Jo Brodersen and Laurel Hasley from Riverside, who made good connections with North Middle School principal, and plan to volunteer there with students. Reference to Oso landslide – need to remind people to prepare and participate in Communication Hubs. Victor urged community volunteers to drill and understand process. Wendy reported that so far, Mary Schoenfeldt reports there are no current specific needs to respond to Oso and generous support is coming in. She will provide updates. Roger participated in an internet based drill Thursday afternoon, of a flood scenario. Learned about gaps in his own readiness or for neighborhood, and he plans to make changes. Need to start holding mini exercises within our neighborhoods. Roger is going to participate in another online another exercise drill. He invited people to participate on March 29, Disaster will be a Solar Flare – another drill will be on earthquake incident in July. Helps identify needs your neighborhood may have to be better prepared. Comprehensive Plan Update – several people participated in the Planning Dept workshop on the comp plan. Council reps decided they will continue to work on this topic within their neighborhoods rather than as a committee. Several residents attended the Planning Dept workshop last week. Social Practical – The council reps discussed the next training, originally set for March 31. It was agreed to postpone the session until the April 29 date to gather more participants. Wendy will see if presenter and meeting space can be arranged. Neighborhood Reports: Bayside – 12 people in attendance, had police report, Lisa LeFeber from Port of Everett addressed the meeting. Lots of new signage at the Port and exhibits have been installed at Port. Andrea recommends visiting them. Bayside Easter Egg Hunt will be on April 19th at Clark Park at 12 noon. Boulevard Bluffs – 10 attendees at meeting, a better attendance than most months. Ryan Sass, city engineer, spoke about the neighborhood’s bridges, which might have brought new people out. Older bridges serve this neighborhood, making it vulnerable to isolation after a serious quake. No police report. CascadeView &Twin Creeks – 11 in attendance, police report provided. Guest speaker was Zsofia Pasztor, about growing food in the city. She has been active in developing school gardens and is working on an Aqua-ponics method for food growing. Jaci Barbano from EvCC baseball also spoke at the meeting. Delta – 20 people there, EPD bike officer attended. There was an impromptu presentation from Boys & Girls Club staff. Scheduled guest speaker was new domestic violence shelter staff. Evergreen – A work party was held and 13 people helped pull invasive holly and ivy. No meeting was held but the group will meet in April. Glacier View – met, no guest speaker, no police officer, 6 people attended. Roger Hoot attended and discussed emergency preparedness programs. Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven – Tom reported that they decided not to meet but to encourage people to attend Comp Plan meeting downtown on the same night as their regular meeting, and about 6 from HSG attended. HSG will invite Planning Staff to their next HSG meeting. Easter Egg parade and scramble on April 19th at 11am. On May 17th they will hold their annual garage sale. Burglaries are up, but some thieves were captured thanks to security cameras in the neighborhood. Lowell – Had Nick Abdelnour from Polygon who spoke at meeting, brought diagram of the site with changes made to development plan. There are more alley entry houses included and some parking restricted areas. The park will be centralized. Flooding info presented by Alex Alexander. He raised fear of a logjam due to narrowly spaced support posts on river bridges that could catch debris. Northwest – 50 attendees. Police report. Had an Everett nostalgia night with slide presentation by Jasck O’Donnell about downtown Everett core shopping district stores like Woolworth and dime stores. Memories of old Everett were shared. Good presentation. Pinehurst- Allan Giffen, director with Everett Planning Dept spoke about the comp plan. They will hold a March 15 trail clean up. Emergency Cache items discussed. Port Gardner – 25 people, Sgt. Bosman spoke. Discussed elections. Also Barry Martin from Parks spoke about programs and services of Parks dept. and gave a good presentation. Valley View - no report Riverside – 21 people in attendance. Report from police provided. Speaker was Gene Fosheim, president of Everett museum of history. His goal is to create museum but no building is available. He also described his volunteer work with Trails and Rails program on Amtrak’s Empire Builder train. Very interesting. Also the Riverside Little Free Library needs books at Garfield Park. The kids really like books and don’t have any at home. Also there is another one at end of Everett Avenue. View Ridge – 11 in attendance, beat officer spoke. Officer Eddie Golden spoke about block watch and crime prevention. Burglaries and other recent incidents occurring in area. Announcements: Deborah Wright, City of Everett, described upcoming city council meeting on Wed, March 26 which includes a special update on budget and there will be another budget presentation by staff at the council meeting on April 2. She encouraged people to tune in on Ch 21, or come to the meeting to listen or review it online. Council sessions are videotaped and archived so community can view the meetings. Top 5 Items to report: Budget presentation at city council, on Ch 21 at 12:30 March 26th Budget Recommendations to be reviewed – April 2 at 6:30 Darren Reddick – Providence described hospital services being expanded Natalie Lecher from Osher Lifelong Learning Institute about OLLI classes Jaci Barbano, EvCC baseball team intern encouraged people to attend games Monte Cristo nominations needed as well as volunteers March 29 – drill on Sat. – contact Roger Hoot for info on drill April 29th – The March Social Practical is rescheduled, will be at Evergreen Middle School on 4/29/14, topic is developing vision and goal setting for neighborhoods. Meeting adjourned at 6:22pm. Next meeting on April 28, 2014 Minutes prepared by Wendy McClure