Everett Council of Neighborhoods

Council of Neighborhoods Meeting Minutes June 23, 2014 Meeting was called to order at 4:07pm. Agenda and minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Attendance: Nikki Oku, Roger Hoot, Michael Trujillo, Steve Bugge, Ben Blacker, Tom Norcott, Colleen Kain, Elly Smith, GeorgaDee MacLeod, JT Dray, Art Olson, Jim Prissel, Andrea Tucker, Dennis Dudder, Teresa Schultz Staff: Matt Coomes, Pat McClain, Wendy McClure, Deborah Wright Citizen Comments: none Mayor Stephanson: Congratulated Andrea Tucker for sticking with city on Bayside Park development and on the celebration. He complimented Andrea and Bayside for their work. Regarding City Council action on the budget, he thanked in particular Council members Anderson, Bader, Murphy and Moore for their support for ordinances on utility taxes which will help city avoid serious program cuts. This is phase one of the work the city has to do to balance budget for 2015. Council has approved pursuing a consultant to look at fire department in great depth. Many cities across the country are looking at restructuring fire departments due to the changing nature of what fire departments have to do. More and more, they are in the medical business. Fire trucks are half million to million dollars each. City will be looking at ways to improve service. Also city is looking at in depth studies for police next and transit. The Community Streets Initiative meetings will start in mid-July with facilitator, and a focus on homeless, mental illness, addiction, positive community spaces. Mayor is considering a list of people from cross section of all areas of interest to serve on the committee. On advice of the facilitator, the group is not including elected officials. This will be a community effort led by community members without influence by city officials. City will publish dates of meetings so people can observe and make comments. City will set up website for comments, looking forward to recommendations from committee. Record-setting Sorticulture event this year with 16,000 attendees - double the number on buses from prior year. Lots of activities with 4th of July, Cinema Under the Stars, Jetty Island starts soon. Inquiry about task force and how to express interest – referred to Anne Pogson. George asked about sewer outfall monitoring in our city, and mentioned Tacoma monitoring. Mayor’s response: City does monitor. George is interested in monitoring for new pollutants that are being dumped. Michael asked about vote on utilities and whether there was support. Vote was 4-3 in favor. Two public meetings indicated people are willing to pay more to keep services. Impact is an average of $7 per home as result of utility tax. We can control our energy use, and type of cable package we use, so impact can be lessened. Taxes will start in January of next year. Increased taxes and new taxes will raise revenues of about $4.2 million for 2015. Another savings will come from elimination of about 15 positions. Comment on evaluating contracting out services for parks or other services. Mayor said union contracts determine what can be distributed out. Union employees are protected. There are opportunities for new work to consider more cost effective ways to do work, this is being looked at all the time. Work that is seasonal or circumstantial is more possible for contracting out. City Council Liaison Scott Bader: Most interesting thing coming up this week is city’s push-back on growth goals from Puget Sound Regional Council. Mailer from Sound Transit included projections for growth which are unrealistic targets for Everett. Allan Giffen, Planning director, will make presentation at City Council on these numbers. Shooting for PSRC targets would prompt un-acceptable infill housing. PSRC goal of 61,000 new residents by 2030 is not workable. Councilmember Bader attended the opening of Goodwill’s new employment training center in old Circuit City business. Also he noted that Olive Garden shutting down, moving across the street for re-opening in Everett Mall. Walmart will be opening in Sept. Councilmembers are interested in attending NNO events. JT Dray reported on attending a Planning Commission meeting recently and hearing discussion on new population requirements. Planning Commission member mentioned South Lake Union which has changed a lot recently. Amazon employees will need a place to live that is affordable, which South Lake Union is not. Maybe city could make proposal for people to get on Sound Transit, live in Everett downtown. Council member Bader commented that even if Everett annexes more area, the growth target goes up even more in those areas. Steve Bugge suggested that affordable housing growth is aligning with Hwy 99 corridor, and Highway 9 widening needs to be completed to encourage more housing there. George indicated that growth will go where improved design and planning go. Evergreen Way corridor, brilliant design will make a better city. City Reports: Matt Coomes from Everett Transit updated the group on Summer Sunday Route 6 to travel between Everett station and waterfront farmers market and waterfront music. Also there are lots of July 4th events coming up, Yankee Doodle Dash, Parade, AquaSox game and annual fireworks. Everett transit is fare free that day. Festivities are accessible via bus and park and ride options to get to fireworks. Matt can be reached at 425 257- 7780. Deborah Wright updated members on the latest activities at Everett Animal Shelter – Contest underway to adopt 1,600 pets as goal for increasing adoptions. Shelter could win up to $100,000, which could fund spay and neuter. Over 350 volunteers spend thousands of hours at shelter making the services possible, otherwise could not operate. Facebook shows adoptable pets online. During the adoption challenge, animals come from high kill shelters to be adopted. ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation) focuses on medical/vet clinic needs. Golden Paws event this weekend to fundraise for shelter. 4th of July Open House Outreach Booth - volunteers are still needed. Robin Gossett, JT Dray, Nikki Oku and Tim will help out. If we can get a few more, the booth will be a go, if not, it will be cancelled. Communication Hubs update – Roger Hoot described the Formidable Footprint exercises which are done on line with a series of problems to deal with on various types of disasters. Log in on internet, discuss problems, what would we do, note lack of info, look up info helpful to find shortfalls in neighborhood. Consider how best to communicate within and across neighborhoods. Annual Field Day Ham Radio day is this Saturday at Harborview Park. For online exercises on July 26th people will be able to log in earlier in day log on around 9am, play until done. Community Reports: Andrea has asked and Wendy arranged for Dave DeHaan Everett Emergency Management to attend in Sept. to discuss train safety including oil and coal trains. Boating Classes are coming up offered by police dept. Requirement that those 55 yrs old and under must take classes on boater safety. Local classes are offered by police dept. - free class, offered twice a year. Andrea described “This Place Matters” which is a program of Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. It is a potential way to bring pride back to neighborhoods. She asked whether there is interest in a guest speaker attending the council meeting. Positive response so she will arrange for a speaker. Monte Cristo Update - Members discussed goal of developing sponsorships for Monte Cristo event to raise money to help cover costs for larger anniversary event. Committee members are asking local businesses to consider sponsoring event. Andrea read aloud draft sponsorship levels and described sponsor benefits of reaching “target market”. Individuals can sponsor also. Neighborhood Reports: Bayside - had police report, 13 people attended. The group will meet in July. Wendy McClure was guest speaker in June to help Bayside develop vision and goals. July meeting will continue goal setting work. NNO event at Clark Park will be held. Boulevard Bluffs – At June 26 meeting, will have Paine Field rep Bill Dolan as speaker. Neighborhood has seen an increase in mail theft on Mukilteo Blvd. Perpetrator is prying locked boxes to break into locked boxes mostly in evening. Found mail in other areas. People aren’t picking up mail each day. Have your checks delivered to bank. Cascade View/Twin Creeks – met June 16, 10 in attendance, had police report. Dave DeHaan was speaker, about neighborhood risks. Dave showed Mary’s slideshow on Hwy 530 mudslide and response. Dave Ramstad spoke about Sawdust Trail, and Karen Erickson from Everett Mall Farmers Market spoke. Sgt. Trevor Townsend, new south precinct admin sergeant, is attending meetings. Ice cream social planned for Evergreen Branch library for NNO. Teaming with Westmont and Holly neighborhoods will participate with them. Having magician, balloon artist, door prizes. Delta – Met on June 17th, 17 attended, Smile Mobile presentation from Everett Boys and Girls Club. Officer Jeff Nevin will be guest speaker at July meeting. Starting planning for neighborhood clean-up event. Evergreen – June 2 with 8 attending. Had police report. No show guest speaker. Clean up event on Saturday at Madison-Morgan Park, 15+ in attendance. Boeing workers also attended and helped with clean up. Pile of debris to be hauled off. Glacier View no report Harborview Seahurst Glenhaven – no meeting in June. Had a clean-up of Pump house site on Seahurst at Mukilteo Blvd. – “garden party” weeded and cleaned up area. Geocache is located there. Good turn-out for that event. Northshore beach restoration project taking place soon, which will to add sand to several creeks to enhance salmon spawning. Tom invited people to visit sandy beaches of the parks in his neighborhood. Had a Madrona Ave block watch party, called St. Leon’s party, mostly a social get together, held halfway between last Christmas and next Christmas. Planning outdoor movies, four or five movies for block watch group. Madrona Ave has had a lot of criminal activity but neighbors are collaborating, have caught people through neighbor to neighbor communication. Planning NNO picnic at Howarth Park, 6pm. All are welcome. Lowell – no regular meeting but Alex Alexander called a special meeting and spoke about Lowell history. Planning NNO event, 6-8pm at Lowell Park. Northwest – 27 in attendance. Terri Amburgy described her crime fighting strategy to NW neighborhood. Next meeting in September. No NNO event. Pinehurst – June 17 meeting, 7 people, no report, no speaker. No meeting in July or August, June 26 radio check at 6:30pm on Ch. 13. Planning for their August 5th 6-8pm NNO event, with DJ, Smoke house from fire dept. to teach children about fire safety. Port Gardner – Had 18 people, police report. Dean spoke about oil trains and coal trains – big issue. Sno-Isle Co-op did presentation and brought snacks and Peak Health and Fitness discussed exercises to improve strength and health. NNO events will be held in two Park sites. Riverside – no one present Silver Lake – no report South Forest Park – 12 in attendance, Port of Everett gave a presentation of plans for Port improvements, walking trails, etc. Opened up trails down near Port. Ice cream social planned for NNO. No meeting in August, but there will be a meeting in July. Valley View – no meeting, working on getting cross walk flag boxes re-installed. Issue is that flag containers for cross walk over bridge have not been restored. George also commented on Map Your Neighborhood as great tool for both crime prevention and preparedness. View Ridge- Madison – met on June 4, 10 people, crime mapping was discussed. Solicitors need id. Harbor tours will be starting. Everett Recovery Café being planned for fall implementation. Due to Labor Day and school schedules, there will be a meeting in late August, for Sept. meeting. Two events - NNO at Memorial Church and also at South Everett Community Center. Announcements: Natalie from Snohomish Tribune GoogleMap Maker is opened up to allow neighborhood meetings on map. Top 5 Items to report: Community Street Initiative – facilitator in place, group to be developed soon. City Council asking for push back on PSRC request for 60,000 pop increase by 2035. Goodwill opened training programs at Circuit City on Everett Mall Way Waterfront bus service on route 6 from downtown to go to farmers market and waterfront music. Transit is free on 4th of July. At Everett Animal Shelter, Fairy Dog-mother, contest to adopt 1,600 animals to win 100,000. Meeting adjourned at 5:57pm. Next meeting on July 28 Minutes prepared by Wendy McClure